Will indie darling ‘Past Lives’ survive the Oscars gauntlet despite early release? ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ just did

The drama “Past Lives,” about the reunion of two childhood friends separated by immigration, premiered way back in January at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release on June 2. That’s a lot earlier than most awards contenders, which are usually scheduled for the fall so that they’re fresher in mind for voters. Can “Past Lives” survive the onslaught of festivals and premieres to be remembered at Oscar time? Well, the reigning Best Picture champion, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” did just that in the last Oscars derby.

“Everything Everywhere” was released even earlier in its eligibility year: March 2022. But it outlasted a year’s worth of contenders to win seven trophies from the motion picture academy. Like “Past Lives,” it was an independent film distributed by A24, which has a proven track record of nurturing lower-budget awards fare (the company was also responsible for “Moonlight’s” Oscar coup). Granted, “Everything Everywhere” was a bigger box office hit than “Past Lives” (Hollywood loves an underdog success story), but “Past Lives” was a bigger hit with critics, scoring 94 on MetaCritic and 97% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes. That could help “Past Lives” when critics groups start announcing their award winners later this season.

Based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users, “Past Lives” still ranks among the top five likeliest Oscar contenders for Best Picture despite the recent flood of films that have screened already at film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto. Debut filmmaker Celine Song is currently on the bubble for Best Director, ranked sixth. Star Greta Lee remains in nomination position for Best Actress. And John Magaro is right outside the top five for Best Supporting Actor. But the film’s best chance for recognition appears to be Best Original Screenplay, where it’s the front-runner to win. (Other top Oscar contenders like “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things” will be competing as adapted scripts.) There’s still a long way to go this season, but so far so good for this season’s little movie that could.

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