Sumerian Pictures will submit Beth de Araújo’s Sundance Film Festival winner “Josephine” across multiple categories for the upcoming awards season, Variety has learned exclusively. The push runs from best picture through the acting and crafts races, and it’s the first campaign the young distributor has ever mounted. Reeves will be submitted in lead actress, which drops a child into one of the season’s most competitive races for her debut film.
Oscar history shows us that lead nominations for child actors are rare. Only two performers under 18 have ever been nominated for best actress: Wallis, who still holds the record as the youngest at age 9 and Keisha Castle-Hughes for “Whale Rider” (2003) at age 13. In contrast, the supporting actress category has been far more welcoming to young performers.
But if there’s ever been a case for bucking that trend, Reeves makes it. Co-stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan will both campaign in their respective supporting actor and supporting actress categories. They both produced the drama alongside David Kaplan, Josh Peters, de Araújo and Marina Stabile.
Tatum and Chan are delivering some of the strongest acting works of their long careers. As Damien, Josephine’s father, he channels a subdued, aching kind of masculinity — one unable to articulate emotion but desperate to protect. His portrayal recalls his quietly devastating work in Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” (2014).
At Sundance, “Josephine” was often the first title blurted out during the annual ritual of asking people what they’ve seen and liked. An award-winning screenwriter told Variety that Tatum has an opportunity to carve himself a niche position that someone like Ryan Gosling used to occupy: the sexy knockaround guy who learns something about life and himself, as evidenced by his work in “Josephine” and, last year, “Roofman.” Opposite him, Chan delivers the finest performance of her career. As Josephine’s mother, Claire, Chan is luminous with quiet sorrow, conveying maternal guilt and helplessness with precision.
Written and directed by de Araújo, the film follows an eight-year-old, played by newcomer Reeves, who accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park and starts acting out, hunting for any way back to feeling safe while every adult around her proves useless at consoling her. Dramatic Competition at Sundance in January and left with both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award, a double no film had managed since “Minari” in 2020 and “CODA” the year after it. Variety called the film a “standout” of the festival, writing: “‘Josephine’ dares to confront the life-shattering intersection of sex and violence in our culture, facing the toughest of ‘adult situations’ with clear eyes.” De Araújo, who is of Chinese and Brazilian descent, enters the directing and original screenplay races.
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