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, might he pip Adrien Brody to the put up 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 occasions he didn’t win awards on Saturday Night time 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 as a way to safe votes. May he nonetheless be rewarded with a greatest actor Oscar on 2 March?

Till that second, he was no less than successful the award for “some 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 Night time 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 faculty soccer predictions. (Some have 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 during which 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 era’s James Dean, our Marlon Brando,’ to older individuals 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 celeb associate 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 chatting with Gen Z, and I might say, if something, possibly he’ll be an ideal 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 option to attain that TikTok era that is going to care a few 100-year-old organisation.” 

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

“He is attempting to redefine the way it seems to be for somebody like him, and I can recognize that,” he says. “And as somebody who likes to name themselves an Oscar historian, I am used to the standard. You go in, you kiss infants, shake lots of people’s arms, and also you speak about your work. Taking your shirt off on the purple carpet is totally different. And it might be jarring for lots of people at first, and it might not work this time, but it surely doesn’t suggest that it will not work ever. If you’re the primary to do one thing, it at all times seems to be 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 put up on leisure web site Lainey Gossip praises Chalamet, describing his “present Oscar campaign-non-campaign” as “probably the greatest, 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 outdated individuals.”  

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

“I do know the classiest factor could 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 individuals 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 referred to as Bob Dylan “a real American hero” within the speech, and, per 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 needs 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 model of wooing is quickly shifting, Clayton Davis says. “In addition they added 4,000 new members within the final decade. And a whole lot of them are younger, they’re various, they’re from totally different backgrounds,” he explains. “The Oscars have modified. The outdated guard, you are by no means going to get them on board, though once 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 most likely had by no means heard of this man earlier than. So, I feel you have to admire at minimal that he’s bridging the generational divide.”

Chalamet will 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 habit drama Lovely Boy, and Golden Globe-nominated final yr 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 yr. “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’s tougher to discern. Is it a ‘too little, too late’ mentality? I bear in mind final yr 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 successful in the long run.”

“I feel that it is a barrier of entry for some individuals by way of voting for him,” Davis says. “Some individuals really feel like, ‘We’ve time, Timmy’s right here. Timmy’s very established.’ If something, at minimal this era’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 bought his greatest actor Oscar, on his fourth try, however Davis is ready to foretell that subsequent yr Chalamet can have one other probability on the Oscar in a movie he is starring in and producing: Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie.   

“Timmy will probably be right here most likely subsequent yr… Marty Supreme seems like it should be an incredible film, despite the fact that we all know nothing about it. He’ll most likely do back-to-back nominations at minimal. And in a yr when he performed within the sequel to a sci-fi franchise and performed Bob Dylan, that is a reasonably 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.”