Inde Navarrette Sets Best Actress Oscar Campaign for ‘Obsession’

Will the Oscars love Inde Navarrette, like “a love only the branch of a willow tree could conjure?”

Variety can exclusively confirm that Navarrette will campaign in the best actress category this coming awards season for her breakout turn in Curry Barker’s box office smash “Obsession,” headlining a wide-ranging effort from Focus Features that will seek recognition across nearly every category the film is eligible to enter.

It is a seismic full-court press studios reserve for a title they believe can go the distance. Alongside Navarrette, the distributor plans to campaign Barker as a rare triple threat in best director, original screenplay and film editing, the same three categories Sean Baker swept for his best picture winner “Anora” (which he also took alongside one more as producer). It is a combination of above-the-line and below-the-line recognition that positions him as one of the season’s marquee multi-hyphenate stories.

Navarrette’s place in the best actress gives the campaign its center of gravity to get through the next several months. Studios build best picture runs around a face and a narrative, and Focus is betting that a breakout turn is the engine that pulls the rest of the slate into the race. The studio will also be steering the anticipated drama “Elsinore” starring Andrew Scott, the remake of “Sense and Sensibility” with Daisy Edgar-Jones and another entry from a horror master, Robert Eggers’ “Werwulf.”

The low-budget horror-romance has grossed more than $505.6 million worldwide against a slim $750,000 production budget.

One consequential decision facing “Obsession” still remains unsettled: its Golden Globes campaign. Focus and the filmmakers have yet to decide (or confirm) whether “Obsession” will seek consideration in the drama or the musical or comedy race. That playbook is not new, as seen in 2017 with Jordan Peele’s horror hit “Get Out” competing as a comedy at the Globes. The movie went on to land four Academy Award nominations, including best picture, best director for Peele and best actor for Daniel Kaluuya, and it won best original screenplay.

For now, the call remains open. But if the musical or comedy route holds, expect “Obsession” to lean into the “Get Out” comparison rather than run from it.

Below is the complete list of categories Focus Features intends to submit this season.