The Iron Claw And The Oscars: What Happened?

One of the most popular and beloved films of 2023 was The Iron Claw, a film that reached both audiences and critics with powerful themes and career defining performances. However, for some reason, the film evaded the Oscars in every single category. It’s not always the case that popular movies or good movies end up in the Oscar race, but this feels particularly egregious… so what happened?

If any actor from The Iron Claw was most expected to be nominated for this film it would definitely be Zac Efron. He had a very typical narrative for an Oscar nominee, physically changing himself by putting on a solid amount of muscle and weight, which is normally something Academy Voters love, and his origins are not typical of serious actors as a graduate of High School Musical (voters love that type of journey). 

Efron ran into problems for the Best Actor race in that it was already solidified with six potential nominees by the time The Iron Claw was released, a race that was packed top to bottom, making it difficult for Efron to be able to manage even the attention for a spot. Meanwhile, his ability to graduate from such musical high schools did not help as much as expected; sometimes the Oscars can still be too snooty even when someone makes such a career change. 

The largest problem for this movie was the rumor that test audiences did not give it a strong reaction, which feels surprising and unlikely considering how much audiences responded to it upon release. However, because of this alleged reaction, it’s likely that its studio, A24, prioritized the campaigns of other films. Past Lives received both Best Picture and Screenplay nominations while The Zone of Interest was rewarded, successful campaigns in themselves.

Perhaps from the possibly poor reaction from screeners or for other reasons, the release date was the reason that this film absolutely ended any Oscar hopes. Back in the day, a Christmas release would mean that the film was a major Academy Awards player. However, with Oppenheimer being released in July, Everything Everywhere All at Once released in April, and CODA premiering at Sundance Film Festival in January, the Christmas release date is no longer the best path forward. The Iron Claw would have definitely benefited from a much longer campaign to let audiences, and especially Academy voters, accept the film into the culture much like Past Lives that was given the introduction at Sundance and time to build momentum for voting in January from its April release. 

In looking at the Awards autopsy of several different movies, The Iron Claw could have failed for multiple reasons, but sometimes even with the studio doing everything right in the campaign of the film, it simply just does not venture into the cultural zeitgeist deep enough for an Academy voter to notice. Efron’s latest seems to simply be one of the victims of such a fault.

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