Margot Robbie Eyes Oscars With ‘I, Tonya’ Awards Season Release Date

The Grolsch People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival gives awards season films a big boost. This year the surprise winner was Martin McDonagh‘s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” which certainly elevates its profile in the months to come. But another favored pic, that many expected to take the prize, isn’t going to be forgotten.

Craig Gillespie‘s “I, Tonya“— which was the runner-up for the People’s Choice Award — has now been set for limited release on December 8th in New York and Los Angeles by Neon. The film is a terrifically entertaining look at the story of Tonya Harding, that gives more dimension to the figure skater who became a national pariah after she was linked with the assault on her teammate and Olympic rival, Nancy Kerrigan.

Margot Robbie‘s lead role performance was the talk of Toronto, and there’s also been plenty of buzz for Allison Janney‘s turn as Harding’s abusive, stone-hearted mother, LaVona Golden.

This will be upstart distributor Neon’s first awards season foray, and it will be coming at an interesting time, with co-founder Tim League still facing fallout for his quiet re-hiring of film writer Devin Faraci at Alamo Drafthouse, following the former film writer’s sexual assault allegations. With “I, Tonya” also dealing with themes of assault and abuse, it will be curious to see if those events play into how the film is perceived by voters.

At any rate, throw another movie and two more actresses into an wide open field. Hopefully, a trailer for “I, Tonya” will be landing soon.