Amy Adams’ Nightbitch is a black comedy horror film that some people are unfairly, and incorrectly, painting as Oscar bait. Amy Adams has had a strange last few years in the Hollywood industry. After having an unimpeachable career from Junebug in 2005 to Arrival in 2016, Amy Adams’ run of incredible roles seemingly came to an end. That isn’t to say she disappeared from Hollywood. She’s still one of the most important and talented actresses working, it’s just that her preternatural ability to select award-winning projects has seemed to have dulled of late.

Of course, that ignores her Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated role in the TV series Sharp Objects, but movie-wise, it’s been a bit of a drab era for Adams. Her talent is so undeniable though, that any Amy Adams project is going to garner attention. So, when the cast of Nightbitch was announced, people once again wondered if this would be the project that would finally get her an Oscar. It turns out, the movie and Adams had little interest in awards recognition, and it shows, but that hasn’t stopped viewers from complaining it’s Oscar bait, missing the point entirely.

Some People Thought Nightbitch Was An Awards Vehicle For Amy Adams

Nightbitch Premiered At TIFF

The fact that Amy Adams was in a movie was enough for some to consider Nightbitch an Oscar bait movie, which is actually an unintended compliment in a way. Adams is such an incredible talent that if she takes a leading role in a dramatic or more mature movie, well, then, of course, she must be doing so to get an Oscar. But there’s more to the Nightbitch Oscar talk than just having Amy Adams in the lead role. Nightbitch first premiered on September 7, 2024, at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival.

TIFF is a prestigious film festival where many award-winning movies have historically premiered and the TIFF People’s Choice Award has long been a good indicator of how a movie will do at the Academy Awards and other major ceremonies. Movies that premiere at TIFF generally have award ceremony aspirations. In 2024, Nightbitch premiered alongside films that have been nominated for Academy Awards, like Emilia Pérez, Anora, and The Substance. The fact that the movie was there indicated to some that Adams was angling for an award.

There’s also Adams’ awards history to consider. She has been nominated for eight Academy Awards in her long career, five times for Best Supporting Actress and one time for Best Actress, and yet, she has never won. She’s earned a Golden Globe and a SAG award, but she’s been completely shut out of the Oscars, despite being one of the most nominated actors or actresses ever. Some of the Oscar bait talk surrounding Nightbitch is anxiety fueled by Hollywood and viewers wanting her to finally win one of her nominations.

Nightbitch Is A Commercial Horror Movie And That’s Great

Nightbitch Knows What It Wants To Be

Just because a movie premieres at TIFF does not mean it has Oscar aspirations. There’s nothing about Nightbitch that indicates it wants to do anything more than entertain and tell a story. It’s the conversation around it that’s piled these expectations on it. Nightbitch is a solid, commercial black comedy body horror movie, and just because it has more to say than something like Final Destination does not mean it should suddenly be in the awards conversations. It’s not binary with horror movies. They don’t have to be either schlock or prestige horror. There’s a middle ground.

Nightbitch finds that middle ground with its horror, and it still manages to infuse the story with a very relatable commentary on motherhood and the struggles of raising a young child from the woman’s perspective. Yes, there is fur sprouting from different parts of Adams’ body, but there are also themes and ideas about how the 24/7 stress of raising a newborn can drive someone nearly feral. Nightbitch never takes itself too seriously, however, and the film always knows how ridiculous the premise is. Those saying Nightbitch is Oscar bait have clearly missed that winking aspect.

Amy Adams Expected Nightbitch To Be Polarizing

Adams Just Hopes The Film Will Please The People Who Understand It

Amy Adams herself never indicated she considered Nightbitch an Oscar contender. Instead, it seems she thought the role was wonderfully bizarre, and she appreciated the themes that weave through the story alongside the eccentricities. When people commented that she looked awful in her role as the unnamed stay-at-home Mother in Nightbitch, Adams would respond (via Variety),

“I was like, ‘You do realize that’s what I look like in my life, right?'”

Adams has always bristled against people trying to paint her as a classic starlet and, when it comes to a film like Nightbitch, she finds herself connected to a down-to-earth character like that more than any other, refusing to call herself “cool“,

“I’m dorky, and I’m OK with it”

It is a bit dorky to run around on all fours in a movie, but Adams doesn’t care, that’s who she is. She’s not doing it because she thinks it will nab her an Oscar. When the film premiered at TIFF, Adams was ready for the reception it received,

“It could be polarizing. I’m kind of like, ‘If you know, you know!’ It deals with friendship, community, relationships, motherhood, parenthood. It hits on a lot of different ancestral wounds. So if it hits you, that’ll make me really happy.”

That’s not the quote from someone looking for an Oscar. That’s a quote from someone proud of their film who simply hopes that at least some people will get it. She has no illusions that everyone will connect with Nightbitch and that’s entirely OK with her. It’s a personal story and one that maybe only mothers can really get a handle on. Amy Adams is having fun with this movie. She’s not positing it as some major feminist or maternal text. It’s a well-made horror film, with some well-crafted ideas that people should see, and that’s enough.

The Academy Awards Has Never Been So Open To Genre Films

The Substance And Other Unusual Movies Are Being Recognized More And More

While Nightbitch may not be Oscar bait, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been nominated for an Academy Award. In recent years, the Academy Awards has been increasingly open to celebrating genre movies, particularly horror, a genre which it traditionally held its nose up at. The Substance is one of the most grotesque movies of the last few years and there is now a real chance that it could win Best Picture and that Demi Moore could win Best Actress at the 97th Academy Awards.

Even Anora, the fast-paced, Sєx-fueled thriller, feels like it never would have made the Best Picture category until a few years ago. Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nightmare Alley, Parasite, and Joker are all genre movies that have either been nominated for or won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in the 2020s, and they’re all movies that wouldn’t have had a chance in the category even a decade ago. Times are changing and while Amy Adams’ Nightbitch doesn’t need the recognition, it being referred to as Oscar bait indicates a shift in how people understand the Academy Awards.