With the film festival season drawing to a close, award season is heating up. Now is the time for aspiring Oscar hopefuls to make themselves heard. And props to one of our favorite performers of the year for raising his paw for notice.
Indy is sniffing his way into the Academy Awards conversation with a public letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The lead of the dog-centered horror/thriller Good Boy, Indy has been earning praise for his sensational performance since its world premiere at SXSW last spring. In my review as Mashable’s Entertainment editor, I cheered the incredible charisma of this canine, writing, “Indy is just a star from his first frame.”
More critical acclaim followed as Good Boy hit festivals ahead of its theatrical debut. Even fans of the trailer were so taken by this canine star that social media was flooded with people asking, “Does the dog die in Good Boy?” So, with such a surge of love from critics and fans, why not the Academy?
In the letter, which you can read in full below, Indy notes he’s not eligible to run as Best Actor because it is an all-human category. “This news feels as if someone has yanked my leash short,” Indy writes, “as apparently I am not a good enough boy for you.”
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Of course, Indy’s performance isn’t only his. Good Boy filmmakers Ben Leonberg and Kari Fischer, a married couple who are the happy humans of Indy, crafted the performance over three years, using thoughtful camera angles and clever methods to get the performance they needed without ever actually having to spook their star.
With How It Hits, contributor Matthew Fornwald explored the difficulty of creating a terrific dog performance by working with his own pet. And when Indy, Ben, and Kari came by Mashable’s studios for a visit to our Say More couch, we got to see a bit of their collaboration in action.
All this to say, Mashable is Team Indy, all the way to the Oscars.
Here’s Indy’s letter to the Academy:
Indy from Good Boy’s letter to the Academy.
Credit: IFC/Shudder
For more of Indy, check out Good Boy, now in theaters.
