Not every movie is perfect for every film festival, but SHE SAID is natural to world premiere at the 60th New York festivities.
Universal/Annapurna/Plan B’s best picture Oscar contender drama opens wide on 11/18, so its media exposure at NYFF (9/30-10/16) should help it at the boxoffice as well as awards consideration.
It’s the ideal film to play in NY — the story of disgraced NY movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, no stranger to Oscar voters, whose arrest for sex crimes against women followed investigative reporting by NY Times reporters Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey. They’re played by Zoe Kazan & Carey Mulligan in the film based on their subsequent bestselling book.
She’s a strong Oscar contender, not only because Academy members like movies about moviemaking — like THE ARTIST, ARGO & MANK — but because it’s the kind of female-driven film that now resonates with the Academy’s expanded, diverse & far-flung members.
It’s a good time to be a female director born abroad — Germany, in the case of SHE’s Maria Schrader, who’s also an actress & screenwriter. She’s paid her directing dues over the years, including 2018’s I’m YOUR MAN, which she co-wrote. Also here with the right project at the right time is SHE screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, a native of England, who wrote the Polish drama IDA, which won the foreign language Oscar in 2015.
