Overview
- The Debut world-premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday and received strongly positive reviews and sustained applause from audiences.
- Critics singled out Julianne Moore’s transformative lead performance and immediately framed her as a likely Oscar nominee.
- Paul Giamatti’s role as the combustible community-theater director drew widespread praise and is being discussed as a probable supporting-actor contender.
- A24 has scheduled a December release for the film, which reviewers reported carries an R rating and a running time of about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
- Writer-director Jesse Eisenberg also wrote the film’s original songs and assembled a cast with Broadway names such as Bernadette Peters, and A24’s history turning unconventional films into awards winners shapes industry expectations for the campaign.