Sam Rockwell Talks Oscar Nom: "Dreams Are Nice"

Moon has been the little movie that did, thanks to director Duncan Jones's tireless traveling, interviews, audience Q&As, fan interaction, and, of course, because it's a kick-ass sci-fi movie. Jones has even gone so far as to create an online petition to get Sam Rockwell nominated for a Best Actor Oscar – heck, it even has its own Twitter hashtag. You can also follow Jones on Twitter for more Moon news, and keep track of his campaign for a Rockwell nom on his blog.

Earlier tonight at a screening for Gentlemen Broncos, there was an audience Q&A session with actors Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Halley Feiffer, and Mike White, and writer/director Jared Hess. (Jemaine Clement, I'm sad to say, was not there.) As for Duncan Jones's campaign, Rockwell said, "Well, you know, dreams are nice. It's very flattering. Very, very flattering. Very nice. I mean it's obviously the director so he has an agenda [audience laughs] but it's nice to see that. We worked really hard on that film." (The audience, by the way, clapped hard at the mention of Jones's campaign.)

Moderator Josh Horowitz of MTV Movies Blog noted, "Ironic too, that it's an online petition and you don't really get on the Internet too much, from what I understand ... Are you tempted to? You know, every vote counts. You might want to get on there."

So far Moon has 10 awards under its belt from the festival circuit, including four awards at Sitges (Best Actor, Film, Production Design, and Screenplay), and Best New British Feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Now it's been nominated for a whopping seven awards for the British Independent Film Awards in six categories, including Best Independent British Film, Best Director, Best Debut Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor. In Contention's Guy Lodge writes, "the BIFA Awards are gaining in profile every year, painting a far more revealing picture of the state of the UK film industry than the Oscar-toadying BAFTAs," and goes on to add, "They're also naming more contenders who go on to feature heavily in awards season." While I'm absolutely no expert on the different awards races and what they portend, I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that BIFAs can be a good indicator of what will be big at the BAFTAs, and thus at the Oscars.

While it's unclear whether or not Rockwell will buy a computer so he can vote for himself in an online petition, I'm curious if it's possible for a movie, director, or actor to get nominated simply through grassroots support, with little to none from the studio as far as For Your Consideration ads and screeners for Academy voters. So far the online petition only has 1,328 signatures. And if there is a way to create a homegrown Oscar nomination campaign, isn't there a better way to do it than an online petition? This is most certainly not a knock on Jones – his efforts to get Moon in the indie spotlight worked, and I think much of its media exposure had to do with his own online networking. But is a petition going to actually reach Academy voters?