Fresh off its world premiere at Telluride and a plum spot opening the 2024 New York Film Festival, RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an Orion Pictures release, has announced the categories in which it intends to campaign for this coming awards season.
Most notably, the adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, about two young Black men bonded by the horrific experience of being stuck in a 1960s reform school in Florida, will split the titular roles between two categories.
Ethan Herisse, who plays young Elwood, the character which viewers initially experience the film through, will compete in the Best Actor category. Brandon Wilson as Turner, the first friend Elwood makes at the school, whose eyes the audience eventually sees the film through as well, will campaign in the Best Supporting Actor category alongside co-stars like Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, and Craig Tate, who all have smaller, but still pivotal roles in the film.
Star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who has received rave reviews for the film, will once again campaign for Best Supporting Actress, having been nominated for an Oscar two years ago for her performance in the film “King Richard.”
Part of what has made “Nickel Boys” the subject of much conversation is filmmaker Ross’ decision to tell the story through the first person point-of-view of both Elwood and Turner, a bold choice that has made him a Best Director contender, while also minting him and co-writer Joslyn Barnes as Best Adapted Screenplay contenders and Director of Photography Jomo Fray as a Best Cinematography contender.
Barnes, who was nominated for an Oscar alongside Ross before for his directorial debut “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” also has a producer credit on “Nickel Boys,” alongside Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B Entertainment, and David Levine of Anonymous Content. Should the film receive a Best Picture nomination, those would be the four names listed.
Elsewhere, “Nickel Boys” will campaign Nicholas Monsour for Best Film Editing, Brittany Loar for Best Costume Design, production designer Nora Mendis and set decorator Monique Champagne for Best Production Design, makeup department head Ignacia Soto-Aguilar and hair department head Shan Williams for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, production sound mixer Mark LeBlanc and co-supervising sound editors/re-recording mixers Tony Volante and Daniel Timmons for Best Sound, and composers Alex Somers and Scott Alario for Best Original Score.
Following a similar route the studio took for Oscar winner “American Fiction,” Amazon MGM Studios plans to open “Nickel Boys” on December 13 in New York City and December 20 in Los Angeles.
