Andrea Riseborough’s To Leslie returns to cinemas

To Leslie, the indie drama that earned Andrea Riseborough a shocking Oscar nomination for Lead Actress on Tuesday, returns to cinemas.

The Michael Morris-directed downbeat drama will return to North American theaters this weekend, landing in about six theaters with a few more possibly being added before Friday, said a spokesman for microdistributor Momentum Pictures, a division of Entertainment One. Specific locations have not yet been announced.

This precedes another limited run in select UK cinemas over the weekend of February 3rd. The number of cinemas has not yet been determined.

Unfortunately, none of them will be in the homes of the film’s famous cheerleaders, Charlize Theron or Gwyneth Paltrow.

Riseborough stars as a single mother from West Texas who decides to “have a better life” after winning a $190,000 lottery prize, but instead squanders her winnings. A drug addict, she eventually returns to her hometown to rebuild her life. The film was written by Ryan Binaco and also stars Allison Janney, James Landry Hébert, Stephen Root, Owen Teague and Marc Maron.

The film originally flew under the radar after premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March and grossing just $27,000 in its brief theatrical run. (It ran for five days at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica in October.) The Momentum Pictures film has since been available to rent or buy on most video-on-demand platforms, including Prime Video, Vudu and Apple TV .

Outraged by distributor Momentum Pictures’ handling of the film, Maron quipped on his WTF podcast: “The damn distributor dropped the ball to facilitate something that would give the film a lot more exposure. And now this 100% Rotten Tomatoes movie that everyone should see [has] was hooked by the folks responsible for publishing it.

There was little traditional campaigning for the film – apparently there was no money for it – but the film’s director, who is married to ‘In Plain Sight’ actress Mary McCormack, reportedly drew on her Hollywood connections to get one to launch a star-studded, world-renowned film. Word of mouth that was hard to resist on social media. It worked and catapulted the film and its star onto the nomination list for the 95th Academy Awards on Tuesday morning.

Riseborough, who also starred in last year’s Amsterdam and before that in Mandy, Birdman, WE and Nocturnal Animals, was honored in the Leading Actress category alongside Cate Blanchett (Tár) and Ana de Armas ‘ nominated (‘Blonde’), Michelle Williams (‘The Fabelmans’) and Michelle Yeoh (‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’).

To Leslie, which earned its only Oscar nomination for Riseborough’s performance, isn’t the only nominated film to capitalize on the Oscar hype and return to theaters. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, which received eight Academy Award nominations, and Bill Nighy’s Living, which received two nominations, will also be re-released in limited theatrical releases.

Best Picture nominees like Focus Features’ ‘Tár’ and MGM’s ‘Women Talking’ are rolling in theaters but will also be extended to hundreds of domestic theaters, a spokesman confirmed Thursday.

Times contributor Glenn Whipp contributed to this report.