Every awards season has a film that dares you to look away. This year it’s carried by a nine-year-old girl.
Sumerian Pictures will submit Beth de Araújo’s Sundance Film Festival winner “Josephine” across multiple categories for the upcoming awards season, Variety has learned exclusively. The push runs from best picture through the acting and crafts races, and it’s the first campaign the young distributor has ever mounted.
Co-stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan will both campaign in their respective supporting actor and supporting actress categories. They both produced the drama alongside David Kaplan, Josh Peters, de Araújo and Marina Stabile. Tatum and Chan are delivering some of the strongest acting works of their long careers.
As Damien, Josephine’s father, he channels a subdued, aching kind of masculinity — one unable to articulate emotion but desperate to protect. His portrayal recalls his quietly devastating work in Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” (2014).
Courtesy Photo
At Sundance, “Josephine” was often the first title blurted out during the annual ritual of asking people what they’ve seen and liked. An award-winning screenwriter told Variety that Tatum has an opportunity to carve himself a niche position that someone like Ryan Gosling used to occupy: the sexy knockaround guy who learns something about life and himself, as evidenced by his work in “Josephine” and, last year, “Roofman.”
Opposite him, Chan delivers the finest performance of her career. As Josephine’s mother, Claire, Chan is luminous with quiet sorrow, conveying maternal guilt and helplessness with precision.
The full list of categories is below.
Best Picture: David Kaplan, Josh Peters, Beth de Araújo, Marina Stabile, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan
Director: Beth de Araújo
Actress: Mason Reeves
Supporting Actor: Channing Tatum
Supporting Actress: Gemma Chan
Casting: Nina Henninger
Original Screenplay: Beth de Araújo
Production Design: Tom Castronovo, set decorator Alex Brandenburg
Cinematography: Greta Zozula
Film Editing: Anisha Acharya, Nico Leunen, Kyle Reiter
Makeup and hairstyling: Josie Rodriguez, Elizabeth Fox, Jennifer Tremont, Keke Vasquez-Tamali’i
Sound: Brian Copenhagen, William Tabanou
Original Score: Miles Ross
