The Academy is now “undertaking a review” of Andrea Riseborough’s To Leslie nomination

the film academy Arts And Sciences issued a statement this afternoon, revealing that it was “conducting a review of the campaign procedures surrounding this year’s nominees, to ensure that the guidelines were not violated and to inform us if changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication.” And although said statement was made very carefully not include the words “Riseborough”, “leslie,” either “Andrea” (“to” managed to sneak in), it’s not hard to figure out what this really is all about.

Which means that some people close to the Academy they are clearly not happy that Andrea Riseborough managed to score a Best Actress nomination this week for his movie to lesliea movie that many people seem to have seen (outside of some of Andrea Riseborough’s famous and very vocal supporters.) Despite this, tThe film was subject to what has been described as an “aggressive” push on social media which brought together a number of A-list stars (including Edward Norton, Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda and others) promoting Riseborough’s work in the Michael Morris film.

Obviously, it’s not against Academy rules to campaign for an Oscar: the “For Your Consideration” push is an accepted part of the Hollywood life cycle right now, built into the ad budgets of any movie that comes out. studies seem to think you have half the chance of nabbing a statue. but there is is it so rules on how you can do it:and although no one cited any exact violation yet, it’s also clear that Academy members are upset enough by Riseborough’s nomination for a rarely seen film that they’re willing to seek it out. (Among other things, Variety has already dug up an email from Morris’s wife, actress Mary McCormack, saying several big names in Hollywood who “If you are willing to post [about the film] every day from now until January 17 [the last day of Oscar nomination voting]That would be amazing!”)

There is an open question here, so if there is something fundamentally wrong with this kind of popular organization of the Oscars. Most of the stars who praise Riseborough’s performance seem to be genuinely doing so; the problem is that they only did it after aggressively campaigning to see the movie in the first place, and then they were encouraged to be as eloquent about your appreciation as possible afterwards. It is worth noting that youThe academy has got nominations for this kind of thing in the past, although it is extremely rare. (Musician Bruce Broughton was stripped of a song nomination in 2014 after it was discovered that he had contacted other members of the Academy’s music branch about his work.)

It is not yet known when the Academy is expected to publish the results of its review. Here is his full statement for today:

The goal of the Academy is to ensure that the awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner, and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive awards process,” the statement read. “We are conducting a review of the campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure no guidelines were violated and to let us know if any changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new age of social media and digital communication. We are confident in the integrity of our nomination and voting procedures, and we support genuine grassroots campaigns for outstanding performances.

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[via Variety]