Will Timothée Chalamet’s wild awards marketing campaign win him an Oscar?

After the A Full Unknown star’s shock SAG win, viral acceptance speech and attention-grabbing marketing campaign, may he pip Adrien Brody to the publish to win the coveted greatest actor prize?

He turned as much as his premiere on an e-bike; crashed his personal lookalikes contest; laughed in any respect the instances he didn’t win awards on Saturday Evening Reside; and on Valentine’s Day he arrived in Berlin’s sub-zero temperatures bare-shouldered, in a powder pink vest. Over the course of some weeks and months, Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet has upended the thought of how awards honourees behave to be able to safe votes. Might he nonetheless be rewarded with a greatest actor Oscar on 2 March?

Till that second, he was no less than profitable the award for “one of the gonzo greatest actor campaigns in Oscar historical past”, as Selection describes it. Aside from the e-bike incident in London and poking enjoyable at his “loser” awards face on Saturday Evening Reside, he chatted with Kendrick Lamar forward of Lamar’s efficiency on the Superbowl half-time present, and impressed on sports activities channel ESPN by making correct school soccer predictions. (Some had been moved to label him “Lisan al-Gaib” for this, in reference to the seer-like determine from Dune: Half Two, which together with A Full Unknown, makes two greatest image nominees wherein Chalamet stars.)

“What I discover most attention-grabbing is everybody’s response to it,” Selection’s Chief Awards Editor, Clayton Davis, tells the BBC about Chalamet’s marketing campaign. “It varies from, ‘Oh my god, the man is an artist and he is our technology’s James Dean, our Marlon Brando,’ to older folks feeling like he is the epitome of Gen Z or TikTok.”

Davis believes that Chalamet’s actions (to not point out the child pink and acid inexperienced outfits, plus his superstar companion Kylie Jenner’s discreet help) imply that he’s talking on to his peer group – and that may solely profit the Academy Awards. “He is actually talking to Gen Z, and I might say, if something, possibly he’ll be a terrific and wanted lifeline to get Gen Z into the Oscars once more, by consuming content material otherwise,” he says. “And the Oscars have been looking for a method to attain that TikTok technology that is going to care a few 100-year-old organisation.” 

What he has additionally completed, Davis argues, is made an awards season marketing campaign genuine for somebody of his age.

“He is making an attempt to redefine the way it appears for somebody like him, and I can respect that,” he says. “And as somebody who likes to name themselves an Oscar historian, I am used to the normal. You go in, you kiss infants, shake lots of people’s palms, and also you speak about your work. Taking your shirt off on the pink carpet is completely different. And it might be jarring for lots of people at first, and it might not work this time, however it does not imply that it will not work ever. Whenever you’re the primary to do one thing, it all the time appears unusual till it turns into the norm. We’re in a transitional interval in Hollywood throughout the board. Why would not that additionally hit the Oscar marketing campaign path?”

The actor’s promotional appearances have impressed some Oscar watchers. A publish on leisure web site Lainey Gossip praises Chalamet, describing his “present Oscar campaign-non-campaign” as “among the best, if not the very best, of all time… if he will get it, he is doing to do it not by prescription, not by sucking as much as the previous folks.”  

Nevertheless, in his SAG acceptance speech (which additionally went viral) Chalamet aligned himself with a number of the most revered actors in cinema historical past, naming Marlon Brando and Daniel Day-Lewis as these he appeared as much as.

“I do know the classiest factor can be to downplay the hassle that went into this position and the way a lot this implies to me, however the reality is that this was 5 years of my life,” Chalamet stated. “I am actually in pursuit of greatness,” he added. “I do know folks do not normally discuss like that, however I wish to be one of many greats. I am impressed by the greats. I am impressed by the greats right here tonight… I wish to be up there.” He additionally known as Bob Dylan “a real American hero” within the speech, and, every week earlier on the Berlin Movie Competition, referred to him as “the person, the parable, the legend”.

“I like how Timothée Chalamet is not sugarcoating how badly he desires to win the Oscar throughout his SAG speech,” wrote Buzzfeed’s Spencer Althouse on X.

However the notion that the Oscar demographic is older and thus wants a sure fashion of wooing is quickly shifting, Clayton Davis says. “In addition they added 4,000 new members within the final decade. And numerous them are younger, they’re numerous, they’re from completely different backgrounds,” he explains. “The Oscars have modified. The previous guard, you are by no means going to get them on board, though while you respect somebody like Bob Dylan and recognise his contribution, that speaks to older Academy voters, they usually can in flip respect him [Chalamet] as an artist.

“They already embraced the film; in that it is nominated for eight Oscars. He launched Bob Dylan to Gen Z, who in all probability had by no means heard of this man earlier than. So, I believe you have to admire at minimal that he’s bridging the generational divide.”

Chalamet would be the youngest ever greatest actor winner in SAG’s three-decade historical past, however the SAG prize was additionally Chalamet’s first ever main award. He was first Oscar-nominated in 2018 on the age of twenty-two for Luca Guadagnino’s love story Name Me by Your Identify, Bafta-nominated in 2019 for Felix Van Groeningen’s dependancy drama Stunning Boy, and Golden Globe-nominated final 12 months for Paul King’s Wonka.

However though his filmography speaks of style and flexibility, there are some explanation why an Oscar win for him continues to be unlikely this 12 months. “Voting for the Oscars closed already,” Davis factors out. “I used to be most assured that he would win the SAG partly as a result of they are usually extra populist of their selections. What it means for the Oscar race now could be tougher to discern. Is it a ‘too little, too late’ mentality? I bear in mind final 12 months when Lily Gladstone received the SAG greatest actress the day earlier than Oscar voting closed, and after I would concluded that Emma Stone was going to win the Oscar. All of us switched our predictions to Lily, and Emma Stone nonetheless ended up profitable ultimately.”

“I believe that it is a barrier of entry for some folks when it comes to voting for him,” Davis says. “Some folks really feel like, ‘We’ve time, Timmy’s right here. Timmy’s very established.’ If something, at minimal this technology’s Leonardo DiCaprio, proper?” he says. “There may be this sense of, ‘We do not have to do it now.'”

This might not be comforting to Chalamet, as DiCaprio was aged 41 when he lastly acquired his greatest actor Oscar, on his fourth try, however Davis is ready to foretell that subsequent 12 months Chalamet may have one other likelihood on the Oscar in a movie he is starring in and producing: Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie.   

“Timmy might be right here in all probability subsequent 12 months… Marty Supreme seems like it should be a tremendous film, though we all know nothing about it. He’ll in all probability do back-to-back nominations at minimal. And in a 12 months when he performed within the sequel to a sci-fi franchise and performed Bob Dylan, that is a fairly killer resume for 2024,” he says. “And now in 2025, he’ll be sporting a moustache in a Safdie brother film. I am excited to see what he’ll proceed to ship.”