When doing research after the Academy Awards aired in February I wanted to find out what to look for, for next years award season in September to January.
Sundance is one of the first film festivals of the year, which takes place in Park City, Utah every January since its inception in 1978. This film festival is considered to be one of the most exclusive in the country. The Birth of a Nation premiered at Sundance, January 25th and received a standing ovation from the audience. Fox Searchlight Pictures bought the distribution rights to the film for a record 17.5M.
The film opened nationwide on October 7th, but it doesn't receive positive reviews from movie goers because a lot of people didn't go see it. The film only grossed 7M in its opening, and this was considered to be a failure, some film experts had predicted that the film would gross 10M. By the filming not having a successful opening box office, this is good be a sign that the film won't get any nominations.