I don’t like to report this kind of news and never have – how Academy audiences react to particular screenings of films is the stuff some people base their predictions on. Me, it hasn’t ever paid off in the ways I would have expected it to. It can often be a red herring, I find, a way to throw people off the reality of the situation.¬† The reason being that the Oscar race is fluid, not fixed, so early news reports of this or that reaction can sometimes mean it backfires on the campaign itself, thus changing the outcome significantly. This was the case with Dreamgirls, certainly, when certain people predicted it to win based on Academy screenings. Although it’s true that some films have gone on to win when the reports came back positively but that was before the chatter took over.
Thus, one might hear something like “Avatar played well at the Academy, it’s going to win!” And one might think, “huh? Avatar for Best Picture? Are you kidding me? Up in the Air was way better,” or “The Hurt Locker DESERVES to win!” So, that’s why I don’t ever really take it that seriously as it in itself has the power to sway votes. At any rate, you might find it interesting that people who were at the Academy say it went over well, from Steve Pond at The Wrap:
And the reaction, I hear, was a triumph for Cameron’s film. First of all, it drew a capacity crowd to the 1,012-seat theater, something that has rarely happened in a season of surprisingly light attendance for the Goldwyn’s weekend screenings.
In fact, one member reports arriving half an hour early and still having to park six blocks away, the two official lots having filled up by then.
The crowd reportedly responded with enormous enthusiasm. Comments I’ve heard from those in attendance include “huge response,” “great applause at the end,” “no walk outs, not even bathroom trips,” and one simple conclusion: “It’ll win.”
Sure, I heard a few quibbles about the “juvenile story,” and I’ve been told of one viewer who walked out sniffing that “It’s Complicated” was a better film.
But for the most part, it was apparently the kind of screening that immediately puts ‚ÄúAvatar‚Äù in the first rank of Best Picture contenders … as if it wasn‚Äôt there already.