Wow, the awards season starts earlier and earlier every year! Low-key, that’s the way it should be though, especially since it’s far more likely that the biggest Oscar contenders will be released earlier in the year. You know, when people have time to actually see them. Last Oscar season, One Battle After Another and Sinners were the two big contenders – Sinners came out in the spring of 2025, and OBAA came out in the early fall. I guess what I’m saying is that just because The Odyssey was released in the summer, don’t dismiss it out of hand for a major Oscar push. Interestingly, there are already conversations about which actors will get studio backing for individual campaigns. From the looks of things, Matt Damon is a sure thing for a big lead-actor awards campaign, and he might even be a huge contender for the awards themselves. But what about Anne Hathaway’s Penelope? Hathaway has gotten rave reviews, and I’m sure she’ll be nominated. But in what category?
Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey” opened to a massive box office haul and an avalanche of critical praise, vaulting it to the front of the Oscar race months before the fall festivals begin. But the question already dominating awards conversations isn’t whether the film will contend (we already know it will). It’s where Universal will elect to campaign Oscar winner Anne Hathaway, who plays Penelope, wife of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and mother of Telemachus (Tom Holland), fending off suitors in her husband’s absence.
Lead or supporting? It’s the season’s first real strategic inquiry among awards enthusiasts, and the Academy’s own record book argues both ways — including one cautionary precedent from Nolan’s last epic to which Hathaway’s team will have to pay very special attention.
Universal is expected to mount an aggressive awards campaign, hoping to deliver Nolan a second best picture and best director victory just three years after “Oppenheimer.” In Variety’s Oscar analysis, our current projection shows a path that tops out at 17 nominations. Sixteen would tie the record set just last season by Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which surpassed the long-standing mark of 14 shared by “All About Eve” (1950), “Titanic” (1997) and “La La Land” (2016).
However, don’t expect an answer anytime soon. Nolan has long avoided awards strategy conversations until well after a film opens, meaning category discussions with the studio and talent are unlikely to begin in earnest until later this fall — at least not formally.
For Hathaway, “The Odyssey” anchors a busy year that has already included the blockbuster “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and the well-received (but financially disappointing) “Mother Mary.” Still to come are the end-of-summer thriller “The End of Oak Street” and the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Verity.”
Vote splitting across multiple films is unlikely to be Hathaway’s biggest concern. The more pressing question is which category offers the clearest path to a nomination — and perhaps a second Oscar after “Les Misérables” (2012) in supporting actress. In addition, there’s also the matter of whether her placement will help or hurt another viable contending co-star: Samantha Morton, whose Circe has drawn some of the film’s loudest raves.
The good news for Hathaway is that whatever is ultimately chosen, there isn’t a category fraud debate to be had. Every year we have a few contenders that can go either way, depending on how voters feel. Think back to examples like Maria Bello in “A History of Violence” (2005) or Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006). There’s a compelling argument for either category, based on audience reaction and on the voters themselves.
I was curious so I looked it up – the internet says that Hathaway had 69 minutes of screentime in The Odyssey, out of a 173 minute film. So, she’s anchoring more than a third of the film? And giving what looks like a lead-actress performance? Meanwhile, Samantha Morton only has 10 minutes of screentime. Purely on the numbers, they should put money into Morton’s supporting-actress campaign and put Anne up for all of the lead-actress awards. I also think there’s been a more recent move to listen to the actresses and what they want – when Michelle Williams saw The Fabelmans, she believed that she gave a lead performance and asked to be submitted for nominations in that way, and the studio backed her (incidentally about The Fabelmans – Judd Hirsch only had 8 minutes of screentime and he got a supporting nom).
It’s not always about positioning an actor for the actual award as well, it’s about prestige overall. Hathaway has only been nominated in the Best Actress Oscar category one other time… seventeen years ago. That’s important too, the argument of “this is one of the best actresses of her generation and she only has ONE nomination in the lead category???”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
