The first official entries for the upcoming film awards season will be announced.
Variety has exclusively learned that Paris Berkeley’s documentary Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It is the first film to be uploaded to the Academy screening room. The members-only platform allows Oscar voters to stream movies for consideration at the 99th Academy Awards.
This upload will serve as the unofficial starting gun for a race that will unfold over the next eight-plus months. A wave of new titles is expected to arrive in the coming weeks, with films expected to be added every Friday until the end of the season across all categories, including Best Picture, Specialty Races, Documentary Feature, Animated Feature, International Feature and Short Film categories.
This is the earliest date the Academy has offered first screeners to approximately 11,000 members. The first slate of movies is typically uploaded in August. The first wave of movies gives industry voters a head start when it comes to watching movies for upcoming Academy Awards consideration.
The film, distributed by Abramorama, currently has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film premiered at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2024, before opening in select theaters on February 20th, starting with a screening at New York City’s Film Forum. After its SXSW debut, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman reviewed the film in Variety, writing, “As the documentary reveals, Billy Preston was an elusive figure: active, yet hidden and enigmatic.”
He added: “Just when you think you’re watching a bright pop doc, the dark side of Billy Preston’s life pops in. And it’s always dark.”
The film, which survived legal issues on the eve of its SXSW premiere, depicts the life of the legendary keyboardist and Grammy Award winner who has played with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Little Richard.
The documentary, directed by Berkeley, who co-wrote it with Cheo Hodari Coker, includes interviews with Billy Porter, Ringo Starr, Mary Clayton and Preston’s longtime friend Eric Clapton, as well as original music by Robert Glasper. Producers include Stephanie Allan, Coker, Jeanne Herfan Festa and Nigel Sinclair.
Preston had a successful solo career, scoring number one hits with “Outa-Space,” “Will It Go Round in Circles,” “Nothing From Nothing,” and “You Are So Beautiful.” His breakthrough single “That’s the Way God Planned It” was recorded for the Beatles’ Apple Records in 1969 and produced by his friend George Harrison. Preston passed away in 2006 and will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
The documentary is Berkeley’s first feature film and is the work of one of television’s most acclaimed and accomplished directors. Over a career spanning nearly 200 episodes in television, he has helmed series such as “NYPD Blue,” “ER,” “The West Wing,” “Lost,” “The Good Wife,” “CSI,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “House” and “Glee.”
Berkley has won two Emmy Awards for directing NYPD Blue and has earned eight Emmy nominations for producing and directing, including three for Glee, one for The West Wing, and one for Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. He is one of the few directors in Emmy history to be nominated for Best Director in all three television formats: Drama, Comedy, and Limited Series.
The upcoming Oscar season will feature a number of highly anticipated titles from auteur filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan (The Odyssey), Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part 3), and Martin McDonagh (Wild Horse Nine). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it will award honorary Oscars to veteran actress Glenn Close, legendary director Ridley Scott and Disney’s first black animator Floyd Norman, as well as award the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, longtime champions of independent film.
The penultimate Academy Awards ceremony for the Disney platform will be hosted by Conan O’Brien and will be broadcast live on ABC and Hulu from the Dolby Theater at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 14th at 7pm ET/4pm PT.
