Room is really on a roll — if you don’t think this film is headed for the Oscar race you have another think coming. It already won in Toronto and now it’s won the audience award at the Hamptons Film Fest. Meanwhile, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight and Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next just took the audience awards at the Middleburg film fest. And Brooklyn picked up the Audience Award at the Vancouver Film Festival.
Telluride has really opened up the festival circuit to films contending in the Oscar race. It’s always interesting to see which ones are rising in prominence. There is the Napa Valley Film Fest, coming up in November. There is the Santa Barbara Film Fest, which takes place in January. The Hamptons, like Napa and Santa Barbara, are often where Oscar voters either live or vacation. It’s a good way to start word of mouth among a certain set of folks who are not all that different from average Oscar voters. It’s also a good way to drum up exposure overall, which helps box office.
