Get Out Is Getting a Head Start on Awards Season
By Yohana Desta. Photos: Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
While the rest of Hollywood is recovering from the all-consuming chaos of awards season, Get Out is just getting started. The zeitgeist-y social thriller earned six MTV Movie and TV Awards nominations on Thursday, in such categories as movie of the year, best actor for lead Daniel Kaluuya, and best fight against the system (or “the artist formerly known as best fight”). Sure, the MTV Awards don’t have the same level of gravitas as the Oscars—but the show should prove to be a punchy dry run for the cast members, who will have to be on their best behavior come awards season next winter.
Jordan Peele's directorial debut has been lavished with praise since its release in February. What started off as a micro-budget box office hopeful quickly morphed into a blockbuster phenomenon, raking in $168 million worldwide. Its plot, though surreal and soaked in horror, is also quite timely, an examination of race relations from the perspective of a young black man in an inter-racial relationship. In the film, Kaluuya plays a photographer named Chris, who travels to upstate New York to meet his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents. Once there, he discovers a dark and violent tradition that threatens his life.
The film—pure horror aspects notwithstanding—has resonated deeply with viewers, particularly because of the way it underpins the high drama by displaying the daily micro and macro aggressions black people face in America. It quickly earned critical acclaim and currently has a 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (It once had a perfect rating, which was ruined by just one critic).
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There are already rumblings of an Oscar campaign for the film. Jason Blum, the founder and C.E.O. of Blumhouse Productions, the horror-core company that distributed Get Out, is one of the producers on the film and has some Academy experience under his belt. He was a producer for Damien Chazelle's jazzy debut, Whiplash, and earned an Oscar nomination when that film was up for best picture.
Though the Oscars don’t typically favor genre films, Get Out could be one of the rarities to make the cut, joining the ranks of predecessors like The Silence of the Lambs and Rosemary’s Baby. Peele, who wrote and directed the film, could also slide into the best director or best screenplay category, the latter of which is usually more flexible in rewarding offbeat fare (like this year’s nod for the beautifully deranged The Lobster).
Of course, the dust has only just settled from the last Oscars. Brian Cullinan is still figuring out if he’s allowed back on Twitter. Emma Stone is still determining whether her statuette should go in her living room or the home office. The next ceremony is months and months away! Get Out currently has its eyes on earning more box office dollars and winning a gilded bucket of popcorn from MTV. That’ll do . . . for now.
This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.
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