Room

There are few positions in Hollywood more coveted than that of a director who has just earned his first Academy Award nomination. Even if the party in question does not win the gold statuette, as Room director Lenny Abrahamson failed to do so in the ceremony at the end of last month, it still provides an invaluable boost to his public profile and has essentially opened up a world of showbiz possibility to him. A director (or actor, writer, what-have-you) essentially has free reign to choose whatever he might like to do next, enjoying the benefits of being one of Hollywood’s hottest properties at the moment as studio heads jockey to get some of that Oscar-nomination magic.

In showbiz circles, you might hear savvy types bring up what’s colloquially referred to as the “Oscar bump,” which, incredibly, is not a euphemism at all related to cocaine. When a performer or film takes home an Academy Award, that provides a welcome increase in their public profile — actors hot off their Oscar win pretty much have their pick of the most plum roles available at the time, and a victory in one of the key categories can draw attention to a film and possibly beef up its box-office numbers, in the event that it’s still floating around theaters. Put simply, winning an Oscar is good business.

Brie Larson won Best Actress at the 2016 Oscars for her performance as Ma in Room, beating out fellow nominees Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Jennifer Lawrence and Saoirse Ronan.

Brie Larson won Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her role in ‘Room’ at the 2016 Golden Globes.

Jacob Tremblay, currently earning rave reviews for his performance alongside Brie Larson in Room, is currently filming Book of Henry, the next movie from Jurassic World director Colin Trevorror, who just so happens to be directing Star Wars: Episode 9. This is not lost on Tremblay who, by his own admission, is a huge Star Wars fan and has said that if he wasn’t an actor, he’d want to be a Jedi (aww).

Each week, ScreenCrush will analyze the Oscar potentials. This past weekend saw the opening of three big studio films in wide release, with a handful of limited releases shining even brighter. It’s the little guys and festival favorites that are already garnering the most Oscar buzz: Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation and A24’s Room. But can Netflix and the up-and-coming indie distribution company make it all the way to the Academy Awards?

This is the most exciting time of the year for anyone who loves film, as critics and journalists no longer have to play the guessing game of what may or may not make it to the Oscars. The awards season frontrunners are already pretty clear, with the exception of a few titles yet to screen for press, including The Revenant, The Hateful Eight, Joy, By the Sea and Concussion. Here’s what your 2016 Oscar categories will most likely look like.

If you feeling like throw up for a couple hours, take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Elisabeth Fritzl case. Fritzl was imprisoned in 1984 by her father Josef; she didn’t escape until 2008. In the intervening years, Josef repeatedly raped his daughter, and she gave birth to seven of his children; four of them remained incarcerated with Elisabeth, while the other three were adopted by Josef and his wife (he claimed he found them abandoned). Finally, after 24 years of the worst torture imaginable, Elisabeth managed to break free.

All right, so Room has nothing to do with The Room. (Unfortunately.) It is not a remake of the camp classic, with the fabulous young actress Brie Larson in the Tommy Wiseau role (although I would pay all of the monies to see that on the big screen). Instead, it’s a new film from Lenny Abrahamson, the director of the recent indie hit Frank, about a woman (Larson) and her son (Jacob Tremblay) who’ve been imprisoned in a tiny underground cell for years, which they’ve dubbed “Room.”