Get Out Is Getting a Head Start on Awards Season

While the rest of Hollywood is recovering from the all-consuming chaos of awards season, Get Out is just getting started. The zeitgeist-y social thriller earned six MTV Movie and TV Awards nominations on Thursday, in such categories as movie of the year, best actor for lead Daniel Kaluuya, and best fight against the system (or “the artist formerly known as best fight”). Sure, the MTV Awards don’t have the same level of gravitas as the Oscars—but the show should prove to be a punchy dry run for the cast members, who will have to be on their best behavior come awards season next winter.

Jordan Peele's directorial debut has been lavished with praise since its release in February. What started off as a micro-budget box office hopeful quickly morphed into a blockbuster phenomenon, raking in $168 million worldwide. Its plot, though surreal and soaked in horror, is also quite timely, an examination of race relations from the perspective of a young black man in an inter-racial relationship. In the film, Kaluuya plays a photographer named Chris, who travels to upstate New York to meet his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents. Once there, he discovers a dark and violent tradition that threatens his life.

The film—pure horror aspects notwithstanding—has resonated deeply with viewers, particularly because of the way it underpins the high drama by displaying the daily micro and macro aggressions black people face in America. It quickly earned critical acclaim and currently has a 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (It once had a perfect rating, which was ruined by just one critic).

There are already rumblings of an Oscar campaign for the film. Jason Blum, the founder and C.E.O. of Blumhouse Productions, the horror-core company that distributed Get Out, is one of the producers on the film and has some Academy experience under his belt. He was a producer for Damien Chazelle's jazzy debut, Whiplash, and earned an Oscar nomination when that film was up for best picture.