You Can See Everything’s toughest race may be in the documentary category itself. The documentary branch, which selects the nominees, has gained a reputation for snubbing popular documentaries, including the Mr. Rogers film Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018) and the Jon Batiste doc American Symphony (2023).
Celebrity-centered docs have had an especially hard time gaining recognition, including Will Ferrell’s Will & Harper, I Am: Celine Dion, Elton John: Never Too Late, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, and Mariska Hargitay’s My Mom Jayne.
Will this branch view You Can See Everything as too popular or too celebrity-centered, with Fielder, who is known for starring in his TV series The Rehearsal and Nathan for You, as not only one of the filmmakers but also a participant in the film? The shortlists, which come out on December 15, will be the film’s first test in the doc category.
You Can See Everything could also make history if it’s nominated in more than three categories. It’s still rare for a documentary to get nominated outside of the doc category, but editing, cinematography, and directing feel like possible nods for the film. Only two docs have even been nominated in three categories before: At the 1971 Oscars, Woodstock won best documentary and was also nominated for editing and sound, and 2021’s Flee was nominated for best documentary feature, animated feature, and international feature.
And what about the possibility of Amanda Seyfried, who makes a surprise appearance in the film, landing a nomination for supporting actress? You Can See Everything blurs the lines between doc and narrative storytelling when Seyfried steps back into her The Dropout role, playing Holmes in Fielder’s reenactments of scenes that he was unable to film for the documentary. A source tells Vanity Fair that A24 is still deciding if she’ll be submitted for supporting actress, but some awards prognosticator sites already have her popping up as a potential nominee.
