Angelina Jolie hosted an Oscar-voter event for ‘Origin’ & Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Last year, a group of female Oscar voters got together and did a low-budget word-of-mouth Oscar campaign for Andrea Riseborough and To Leslie. It worked, and Andrea scored a Best Actress Oscar nomination out of nowhere. The backlash was immediate, because those Oscar voters broke a lot of “Oscar campaign” rules, especially when it came to social media and phone-calls. Well, a more sophisticated version of that “To Leslie” campaign is happening again, only this time it’s seemingly more high profile and it’s about a film directed by and starring Black artists. Ava DuVernay co-wrote and directed Origin, based on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who was Oscar-nominated for King Richard several years ago. Here’s the trailer, in case you missed it:

As I said, there’s an ongoing effort to pull a “To Leslie” – we’re currently in the space where Oscar voters are voting on nominations, and suddenly a rash of Oscar-voters (almost entirely white women) are raving about Origin, hosting screenings for Origin and doing Oscar-voter events for DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor. Just a few days ago, Angelina Jolie even hosted a party for Origin!

Angelina Jolie is getting into this year’s Oscar race. As AMPAS voting enters its final days, the Academy Award winner today threw her support behind Ava DuVernay’s Origin in what looks to be doubling down by any other name.

First of all, Jolie held an invite-only get together at her home Sunday to around two dozen guests With DuVernay and Origin star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in attendance, Jolie spoke passionately about the film, sources say.

Multiple Emmy and Tony winner Debbie Allen and Frances Fisher (Actors branch) were there too. Old Guard 2 director Victoria Mahoney and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women helmer Angela Robinson (Directors branch) and Lost in Translation costume designer Nancy Steiner (Costume Designers branch) were also present, I’ve learned.

Sunday’s soiree is to be followed by a screening of Origin in West Hollywood tomorrow afternoon with Jolie moderating an on-stage panel with director/writer DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor.

[From Deadline]

Angelina NEVER does anything like this, hosting a party at her home for an Oscar campaign. She might attend an Oscar-voter screening here or there and show some public support behind a friend, but this is new to her. She allowed photos too – Ava and Aunjanue were both in attendance. Apparently, there’s been a lot of conversation in recent weeks about how Neon hasn’t put money behind hyping Origin, and Aunjanue has been very vocal about how wrong that is. From what I can see, Angelina’s event was within the Oscar rules, but there is some questionable coordination with some actresses on social media. AMPAS changed and clarified some rules about Oscar campaigning so I don’t know how closely they’ll look at it – it probably depends on whether or not Ava and Aunjanue actually get any noms.

ORIGIN’s Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor with Angelina Jolie. ♥️ pic.twitter.com/O6naGiaIvF

— NEON (@neonrated) January 15, 2024

???? #AngelinaJolie hosted a get together party with Ava DuVernay and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and passionately discussed about DuVernay’s Origin. Some of the people who attended the gathering were Frances Fisher, Martin Sensmeier, Victoria Mahoney, Angela Robinson and Nancy Steiner. pic.twitter.com/E5d9LFMiR0

— D.K. (@angeltresjolie_) January 16, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Neon.