OBSESSION is not getting an awards campaign as some cute victory lap.
It has a legitimate shot at Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Curry Barker, with Indi Navarrette firmly in the Best Actress conversation.
Will it win? That is where things get difficult.
Christopher Nolan has THE ODYSSEY, and after OPPENHEIMER, he enters this race as the heavyweight.
Then there is Denis Villeneuve with DUNE: PART THREE. The Academy passed him over for Best Director on the first two films, so the final chapter could easily become his “we should have done this already” moment.
But Curry Barker will be everywhere this awards season, and he earned that seat.
He made a $750,000 horror film that became a cultural event without sanding down the characters, chasing familiar IP or spending its way into relevance.
Hollywood loves celebrating outsiders once they become impossible to ignore.
Will the Academy actually reward OBSESSION, or just congratulate itself for nominating it?