Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” has not only bewitched audiences around the country with a career-best $40 million opening weekend, it’s already made its mark with his peers in The Academy. As we noted after its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino has yet another best picture and overall Oscar player with his latest nostalgic fairy tale. Last night the Sony Pictures release had its official AMPAS screening in Los Angeles and the overbooked event had a line out the door as members were turned away from the packed 1,000 seat Samuel Goldwyn Theater. So much for everyone being out of town on holiday.
READ MORE: Robert Richardson discusses bringing Tarantino’s “Hollywood” to life
Truthfully, the fact that members didn’t get into an AMPAS screening is a rare occurrence beyond maybe a few awards screenings during the heart of the season. For a summer screening? Describing it as extraordinary might be an understatement. And it wasn’t as though Tarantino and stars Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie were scheduled for the Q&A afterward. The post-screening discussion was made up of production designer Barbara Ling, costume designer Arianne Phillip, editor Fred Raskin and sound mixer Mark Ulano. Oh, yes. The below-the-line campaign has already started at this one.
“Once” might not have taken any prizes on la Croisette to assist in its awards campaign as Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” did last year, but it didn’t need to. The film currently has an impressive 85 on Metacritic (Tarantino’s highest grade since “Pulp Fiction”) and even earned a rave from one of his harshest longtime critics, Kenenth Turran of the Los Angeles Times. The industry was buzzing about “Once” this weekend with sold-out screenings at the Arclight where it was projected in both 35MM and 70MM and judging from the reports of sustained applause all over town we’re pretty sure Hollywood can’t help loving a movie about itself, especially this one.
Typically, there is room for one major Oscar player every summer and despite the success of A24’s “The Farewell,” also a Best Picture contender, “Once Upon” is absolutely it. The question now is how Sony Pictures and its awards team stagger their momentum as the avalanche of other contenders make their way to the race with the fall festival onslaught a month from now. Considering Tarantino’s stature unless something unexpected happens (see pretty much every Oscar season the past five years) we’re pretty sure it’s here for the long haul.
“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is now playing nationwide.
