Why A24 should treat 'The Invite' as a major Oscar contender
Why A24 should treat Olivia Wilde's "The Invite" as a major Oscar contender is straightforward: the Sundance breakout pairs a crackling Rashida Jones–Will McCormack script with career-best work from Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penélope Cruz, plus artisan craft built for a 2027 awards run—not a disposable summer comedy. Variety awards editor Clayton Davis argues A24 must choose between a summer fling strategy and the inside-out campaign that turned "Everything Everywhere All at Once" into an Oscar juggernaut.
Key Takeaways
- "The Invite" earned a Sundance standing ovation and sold to A24 for a reported $12 million after a multiday bidding war.
- Wilde's third feature is her most assured directing work, with Jones and McCormack's screenplay singled out as awards-caliber writing.
- Rogen, Norton, and Cruz anchor a foursome with zero weak links, with Cruz and Norton drawing Oscar-buzz comparisons.
- Editing, cinematography, score, and production design all strengthen a case beyond acting and screenplay categories.
- A24's challenge is launching an early awards push rather than treating the film as a throwaway summer release.
What happened at Sundance—and why does it matter now?
When "The Invite" premiered at Sundance in January, the Eccles Theater crowd delivered an enthusiastic standing ovation—no small feat in Park City's thin, cold air. A multiday bidding war followed, and A24 won domestic rights for a reported $12 million, beating rivals including Focus Features.
Now in theaters, the film faces the question Davis poses head-on: summer fling or awards player? For more on streaming and theatrical shifts this season, see our Streaming & TV Alerts coverage.
Why is the film being compared to a modern 'Virginia Woolf'?
An English-language remake of Cesc Gay's 2020 Spanish film "The People Upstairs," "The Invite" follows Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde), a fraying San Francisco couple who invite magnetic upstairs neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz) to dinner—and watch the evening detonate.
Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman compared it to a modern "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in his review. Davis notes the comparison is earned: Wilde's film "stays funny while it draws blood," a tonal balance he says Oscar voters can respond to in the modern era.
Which performances and crafts could drive nominations?
Wilde stages the one-night, one-apartment story like a chamber piece that refuses to stay stage-bound, delivering what Davis calls her best acting work since 2015's "Meadowland." Rogen, meanwhile, delivers his strongest film performance since "Steve Jobs," with Davis wondering whether a cultural breakout could fuel the 44-year-old's first Oscar nomination.
Four-time nominee Norton gives his most vivid turn since "Birdman," while Oscar winner Cruz operates at a level not seen since "Parallel Mothers." Behind the camera, editing by Yorgos Mavropsaridis and Anthony Boys, Adam Newport-Berra's cinematography, Devonté Hynes' score, and Jade Healy's production design all factor into Davis's awards case—details laid out in Variety's full analysis.
Can A24 run the same playbook that won 'Everything Everywhere'?
Davis stresses that awards runs for films like "The Invite" are built from the inside out, not discovered. A24, he writes, should know better than anyone how to do it—having turned a sci-fi action-comedy with outrageous props into one of the most awarded Best Picture winners of the modern era.
"Like a good party planner," Davis concludes, "A24 has to get the invites out early and let people fall in love with the unmissable party of the summer—and the year." For a distributor that paid $12 million at Sundance, treating "The Invite" as anything less would waste the RSVP Oscar voters are already sending.