‘All of Us Strangers’ could be Andrew Haigh’s Oscar breakthrough

Daniel Montgomery
·4 min read
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“All of Us Strangers” screened for press and industry at the 61st New York Film Festival on September 21 and can be seen by general festival goers starting on October 1. This is the latest stop on the festival circuit for the film, which had its world premiere on August 31 at Telluride, where it received stellar reviews. It will next make stops at the BFI London Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival before Searchlight Pictures opens the film on December 22. Will it go from NYFF selection to an awards breakthrough for screenwriter-director Andrew Haigh?

Haigh broke through in 2011 with his feature film “Weekend,” which told the story of two men who form an intense bond over the course of a couple of days. Since then Haigh has been known for his sensitive handling of intimate relationship stories, including the HBO series “Looking,” which ran for two seasons and a movie, and 2015’s “45 Years,” which was the filmmaker’s first brush with Oscar. That film explored the decades-long marriage of a couple approaching their 45th anniversary and earned a Best Actress nom for Charlotte Rampling. Haigh himself earned a BAFTA bid for Best British Film, but alas, nothing from the American motion picture academy.

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SEE‘All of Us Strangers’ trailer: Andrew Scott always has Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy on his mind [Watch]

Haigh’s last film was “Lean on Pete,” about a teenage boy who befriends an old racehorse. He was a Best Director nominee at the British Independent Film Awards, and the film was one of the National Board of Review’s top 10 independent films, but again Haigh was unable to get on the academy’s radar. Can “All of Us Strangers” change that? The film is about a screenwriter, Adam (Andrew Scott), who encounters his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy) 30 years after they died in a car accident. It’s a small-scale drama with only four major speaking parts (the fourth is Adam’s new lover Harry played by Paul Mescal).

Can a modest film like “Strangers” stand out in an awards season that includes spectacles like “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Barbie”? Well, size isn’t everything. The last three Best Picture winners were indie movies: “Nomadland” (2020), “CODA” (2021) and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022). And other films about intimate family relationships have been nominated for Best Picture in recent years, like “Lady Bird” (2017), “The Father” (2020) and “Minari” (2020).

SEEIs Andrew Scott (‘All of Us Strangers’) an indie dark horse in this year’s Oscar race for Best Actor?

Emotional passion matters, and “Strangers” is nothing if not a tearjerker. And its sky-high critical rating might be good news when it comes time for critics’ awards at the end of the year. In our Oscar predictions as of this writing, the film’s best bet at a nom is Best Adapted Screenplay, where Haigh ranks sixth based on the predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. Since there are two writing categories at the Oscars, they often find room for films that might be underdogs in other top races. Consider “The Big Sick” (2017), “First Reformed” (2018) and “The White Tiger” (2020), which were all nominated for their scripts but nothing else.

It’s too early to write off “Strangers” in other races, though. For instance, we currently rank Andrew Scott among the top 10 contenders for Best Actor. The academy often pairs acting and writing nominations: “Bridesmaids” (2011), “Flight” (2012), “The Lost Daughter” (2021) and “Living” (2022) are among the films that have been recognized in the two fields. This early in the season, the sky’s the limit.

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