With two weeks to go until the start of Oscar nomination voting, Academy members who don’t want to leave the house can finally watch 2021’s biggest blockbuster. “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the only unquestionable box-office phenomenon of this past pandemic year, was made available in the members-only Academy Screening Room on Friday morning, allowing voters to take a look at the film that hopes to follow “Black Panther” from the pages of Marvel Comics to the lineup of Best Picture nominees.
Films are not required to be in the screening room to be considered for Oscars. Unlike the members-only online screening rooms in the international, animation, documentary and short-film categories, placement in the main screening room is not free and voters have other ways to see films that are vying for Best Picture nominations.
But even as theatergoing became an increasingly risky proposition to many members with the spread of the Omicron variant, “Spider-Man” had been conspicuously missing from the platform while all of its major competitors had appeared there. The film’s absence caused some voters and Oscar watchers to wonder if Sony was really committed to a Best Picture campaign, even as the Jon Watts superhero adventure became the year’s highest-grossing film and the eighth-biggest movie ever.
The film recently failed to qualify for the British Academy Film Awards when it wasn’t made available to BAFTA voters on that organization’s online screening platform, BAFTA View.
But the company paid the Academy the $12,500 fee, and in recent days AMPAS has been preparing the film for its screening room, where it was posted just before 9 a.m. PST on Friday. There, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” became the 157th film hoping to attract the notice of Oscar voters. (See full list below.)
That means that virtually all of the top contenders for film awards are now available to Academy members before nomination voting begins on Jan. 27.
At this point, the highest-profile film not available is probably Julia Ducournau’s twisted Palme d’Or winner “Titane,” which wowed critics after its Cannes Film Festival debut but failed to make the shortlist in the Oscars Best International Feature Film category. (It was available to voters in that category’s screening room.)
And while Denzel Washington is a likely Best Actor nominee for his performance in Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which is in the screening room, the 2021 film he directed, “A Journal for Jordan,” is not on the platform. Neither, at this point, is Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s acclaimed “Memoria,” another international entry that didn’t make the shortlist; Gotham Awards’ Best Feature nominees “Test Pattern” and “Shiva Baby”; or Film Independent Spirit Awards nominees “A Chiara,” “Petit Maman” or Todd Stephens’ “Swan Song” (though the other 2021 film with that title, an Apple release directed by Benjamin Cleary and starring Mahershala Ali, is in the room).
But even though their makers would no doubt prefer to have Academy members watch the films on a big screen rather than in their homes, big films like “Dune,” “West Side Story,” “Nightmare Alley” and “No Time to Die” are available for voters, along with dozens of animated, international and documentary films.
Here’s the list of the films that were available in the Academy Screening Room as of Friday morning. This is not the same as the list of films that are eligible in the Best Picture category; the Academy will release that list prior to the start of nomination voting, which begins on Jan. 27. That list should be significantly larger than this one, because films that meet the eligibility requirements are not required to pay for a spot in the screening room in order to qualify for the Oscars.
ADDAMS FAMILY 2
AMERICAN NIGHT
AMERICAN UNDERDOG
ANNETTE
ARMY OF THE DEAD
ASCENSION
ATTICA
BECOMING COUSTEAU
BEING THE RICARDOS
BELFAST
BELLE
BENEDETTA
BERGMAN ISLAND
BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD’S A LITTLE BLURRY
BLACK WIDOW
BLUE BAYOU
BOOGIE
BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS
BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD
BRING YOUR OWN BRIGADE
BRUISED
CANDYMAN
THE CARD COUNTER
C’MON C’MON
CODA
COMING 2 AMERICA
COMPARTMENT NO. 6
CRUELLA
CRY MACHO
CUSP
CYRANO
DEAR EVAN HANSEN
DON’T LOOK UP
DREAM HORSE
DRIVE MY CAR
THE DUKE
DUNE
EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS
THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN
ENCANTO
ENCOUNTER
ETERNALS
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
FINAL ACCOUNT
FINCH
THE FIRST WAVE
FLAG DAY
FLEE
FOUR GOOD DAYS
FRANCESCO
FREE GUY
THE FRENCH DISPATCH
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE
THE GOOD BOSS
THE GREEN KNIGHT
THE GUILTY
THE HAND OF GOD
THE HARDER THEY FALL
HARPER
HERE TODAY
A HERO
HOUSE OF GUCCI
THE HUMANS
I’M YOUR MAN
IN THE HEIGHTS
IN THE SAME BREATH
INTRODUCING, SELMA BLAIR
JAI BHIM
JOCKEY
JOSEE, THE TIGER AND THE FISH
JULIA
THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN
KING RICHARD
THE KING’S MAN
LAMB
LANSKY
THE LAST DUEL
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO
LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE
LICORICE PIZZA
LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES
LIMBO
THE LOST DAUGHTER
THE LOST LEONARDO
LUCA
THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK
MASS
MAYDAY
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS
MINIMATA
THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES
MOFFIE
MOTHERING SUNDAY
MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
NINE DAYS
NO SUDDEN MOVE
NO TIME TO DIE
THE NOVICE
OLD
OLD HENRY
OPERATION MINCEMEAT
PARALLEL MOTHERS
PASSING
PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE
PIG
POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN
THE POWER OF THE DOG
PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN
PROCESSION
PROFILE
A QUIET PLACE PART II
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON
THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN
RED ROCKET
THE RESCUE
RESPECT
ROADRUNNER: ANTHONY BOURDAIN
RON’S GONE WRONG
SABAYA
SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF TEN RINGS
SING 2
SON OF MONARCHS
THE SOUVENIR PART 2
THE SPARKS BROTHERS
SPENCER
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
SPIRIT UNTAMED
THE STARLING
STILLWATER
THE SUICIDE CLUB
SUMMER OF SOUL
SWAN SONG
TANGO SHALOM
THE TENDER BAR
THIS IS THE NIGHT
TICK, TICK…BOOM!
TOGETHER
TOGETHER, TOGETHER
THE TOMORROW WAR
TORN
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
TRIUMPH
12 MIGHTY ORPHANS
THE UNFORGIVABLE
VAL
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE
VIOLET
VIVO
WEST SIDE STORY
WHO WE ARE
WOLF
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
WORTH
ZOLA