Send in the celebrities! Guillermo del Toro, Jane Fonda, and more hop on the Oscars campaign trail … for other people’s movies

The glut of movies released in time to be in the running for award season means one thing: Every small theater in every studio, guild, hotel, and club around Los Angeles and New York (and sometimes London) is likely to be booked solid with screenings for potential voters (or members of the press). But with so many screenings every week, how does any strategist get their clients’ films to stand out?

Send in the celebrities!

In an increasingly common move, A-listers are turning out to host, moderate, and otherwise sponsor key award season screenings. Whether it’s Christopher Nolan stepping up to help out Ridley Scott with Gladiator II, Jane Fonda backing Kate Winslet with Lee, or Guillermo del Toro backing … well, it seems like everyone else, celebs who have no stake in a film’s current award success are routinely turning up on invitations to these events.

Additionally, some are finding other ways to support their favorites, or their friends. For example, Jamie Lee Curtis has peppered her Instagram and other social feeds with shout-outs to fellow cast members of The Last Showgirl like Pamela Anderson and Babygirl’s Nicole Kidman.

Why? A variety of reasons, press experts reveal to Gold Derby. Everything from supporting colleagues, people they’ve worked with in the past, or establishing a rapport with someone they’d like to work with in the future. And certain names can help productions stand out on guild ballots — just having del Toro connected to animation or horror can boost visibility.

“People are screening more aggressively,” one publicist tells Gold Derby. “There are more groups, more voting bodies, more competition for attention for two hours of people’s attention to watch a movie. You can’t just do an Academy screening an all-Guild [screening] and call that a campaign.”

Celebrities, therefore, can contribute a brand name to a lesser-known or potentially overlooked project or performer — and they don’t cost an arm and a leg of marketing budget.

That said, there is such a thing as too much praise — in 2022, Andrea Riseborough was acclaimed for her role in To Leslie, which earned her an Academy Award nomination. It also earned a lot of boosting on social media and in screenings from various celebrities including Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, and Jennifer Aniston, some of whom had private screenings in their homes. But backlash came quickly after social media posters began suggesting that some of the praise Riseborough received used similar language. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced in late January 2023 that it would investigate the To Leslie campaign — although it ultimately let the nomination stand.

So who are we seeing praised, and by which busy A-listers, this season? Here are six of the most-booked and most vocal ones we could find:

Guillermo del Toro
An Oscar-winning filmmaker, del Toro is also a first-class cheerleader who loves film. That means this season he’s been sharing his prestige with multiple films: In December, he moderated a Q&A with Better Man director Michael Gracey at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles; in November he moderated a Q&A with Nosferatu director Robert Eggers, following the first L.A. screening of the film at the Directors Guild; in January he hosted a Q&A with Memoir of a Snail director Adam Elliot at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica.
What’s the connection? Del Toro hasn’t worked with Eggers, Elliot, or Gracey on any projects, but he’s a champion of animated cinema and has three Oscars — including one for Best Animated Feature for Pinocchio (2023) — a category in which Memoir of a Snail may appear in later this year. In addition, Better Man makes good use of mixing a motion-capture chimpanzee with live actors. He’s also a horror aficionado, which makes sense with a vampire film like Eggers’.

Jane Fonda
You wouldn’t think an 87-year-old would be doing much running around, plumping for others’ films, but Fonda has been out in front with multiple screenings. In January, she hosted a conversation and reception with Sing Sing stars Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin, plus director-writer-producer Greg Kwedar at the London West Hollywood. She also moderated a conversation with Lee‘s Kate Winslet in January at the Ray Kurtzman Theater at CAA in Los Angeles.
What’s the connection? Fonda did appear with Domingo in The Butler (2013) and Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (2023), but has no credits with Maclin, Kwedar, or Winslet. Still, her longstanding devotion to social justice, political issues, and strong female representation makes her a natural for both films.

Sam Rockwell
In September, Rockwell got an early start by moderating a Q&A with The Order star Jude Law at the Bryant Park Hotel in New York. Then in November, he joined up with Angela Bassett to host a screening and reception for Hard Truths at The Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Los Angeles, followed by a Q&A with Best Actress hopeful Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
What’s the connection? Unclear, mostly — though Bassett and Jean-Baptiste appeared on separate episodes of Netflix’s Master of None.

Meryl Streep
Having a three-time Oscar winner support your film is no small thing, and Streep hosted a screening and Q&A with Emilia Pérez star Selena Gomez in November at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood.
What’s the connection? The actresses got to know one another during Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and both contributed narration to the documentary Girl Rising (2013).

Benedict Cumberbatch
In October, Cumberbatch hosted a screening for Conclave with director Edward Berger and stars Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini, and Stanley Tucci at BAFTA London.
What’s the connection? Berger directed multiple episodes of Cumberbatch’s limited series Patrick Melrose; both Fiennes and Cumberbatch starred in Wes Anderson‘s Netflix adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s short story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More”; and Cumberbatch and Tucci both appeared in 2013’s The Fifth Estate.

Christopher Nolan
In December, Nolan moderated a Q&A with Ridley Scott regarding Gladiator II at the Directors Guild of America Theater in West Hollywood.
What’s the connection? Other than that both directors are visionary and highly stylistic, the specific reason to pair them remains unknown.

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