Though it was always a bit of a question mark to begin with, Oliver Stone will definitely not be part of this year’s awards season now. The filmmaker’s new movie, Snowden, has been pulled from its Christmas release date and pushed to sometime in 2016. Per THR, the film just simply isn’t finished yet, and so Open Road Pictures has opted to delay the drama.

But it’s possible the move could have something to do with another Open Road picture that’s getting considerable Oscar buzz. Spotlight, writer/director Tom McCarthy’s drama about the Boston Globe reporters who uncovered the Catholic Church’s systemic cover-up of sexual assault by priests, debuted at Telluride recently to highly positive reviews and just went over extremely well at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s possible the studio is simply opting to put all of its awards focus on Spotlight instead of working on two Oscar campaigns at the same time, which—having seen Spotlight—is probably smart; it has the goods to go all the way.


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Image via Open Road Films

Snowden stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the titular NSA leaker, charting Snowden’s path from government contractor to U.S. enemy. While Stone hasn’t made a great film in a very long time, Gordon-Levitt is solid casting and he’s joined in the film by Shailene Woodley, so I’m a bit bummed we won’t be seeing the movie this Christmas. It’ll come out eventually, however, and the Christmas Day release date was already packed with five other films, including the Jennifer Lawrence-fronted Joy, the Will Smith NFL film Concussion, and Leondaro DiCaprio’s The Revenant.

But while Snowden won't be making the awards circuit, Gordon-Levitt could still be in play for The Walk. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the high-flying IMAX 3D drama will make its debut at the New York Film Festival, where we'll find out if it/Gordon-Levitt is in the mix for awards season recognition. As far as Snowden is concerned, however, the film doesn't yet have a specific new release date.