Amanda Seyfried has been ruled ineligible for acting nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Actor Awards for You Can See Everything, the documentary in which she returns to playing Elizabeth Holmes.
The Critics Choice Awards have approved the 40-year-old for Best Supporting Actress consideration, according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s November 12 report. Her eligibility for the Academy Awards remains undecided.
SAG-AFTRA encouraged distributor A24 to appeal the Actor Awards decision, but sources told the publication that the studio plans to concentrate on the Oscars. They said a formal appeal would not be forthcoming.
“Now that they’re going to let me loose and show up, I’m down!” Seyfried said of campaigning. Her participation had been kept secret during the film’s early publicity, allowing her to stay away from the promotional circuit.
Different Rules for Documentary Performances
The Golden Globes exclude documentaries from their motion-picture categories, with an exception for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. Their rules also classify docudramas containing more than 25% documentary footage or audio as documentaries.
BAFTA‘s performance categories are open to fiction films. Its guidance tells films entered in the documentary category to stay out of the acting categories, a restriction covering both leading and supporting performances.
The Actor Awards, previously known as the SAG Awards, require motion-picture entries to be scripted features. Their production criteria expressly exclude documentaries, even though such films can contain scenes performed by professional actors.
How Seyfried Joined the Documentary
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the film begins with Holmes inviting a crew into her life 34 days before she reports to prison. A24 describes a project that developed over three years. The finished film runs two hours and 55 minutes and opened in American theaters on October 16.
Fielder told Rolling Stone that he contacted Seyfried two years after the initial filming, obtaining her number through Emma Stone. A 30-minute Zoom led to an agreement to watch and discuss about 90 minutes of footage on camera. Seyfried initially understood that the filmmakers wanted her perspective on Holmes. Her agent and lawyer became involved afterward to arrange a formal agreement.
Reenactments developed later, allowing the directors to reconstruct encounters they had not filmed. Fielder said Seyfried received no scripts in advance and had no approval over the footage. Alongside those performances, she appears as herself in unscripted conversations, becoming a participant in the investigation unfolding around her.
The Dropout Earned Her Acting Honors
Seyfried first portrayed Holmes in Hulu’s The Dropout, the 2022 series tracing Theranos’s rise and collapse. The role earned her the Television Academy‘s Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, followed by Golden Globe and Critics Choice wins in 2023.
At the August 2022 Hollywood Critics Association Television Awards, she accepted Best Actress in a Streaming Limited or Anthology Series or Movie through a video message.
Preparing for her first portrayal had involved studying 10 hours of Holmes’s deposition tapes. When she watched Fielder’s footage, Seyfried said the character’s mannerisms began coming back through “muscle memory,” drawing on the intensive preparation she had already done.
The Academy Will Decide Oscar Eligibility
The Academy‘s rules permit documentary features to compete in other categories when they satisfy the relevant requirements and deadlines. Its Actors Branch Executive Committee has responsibility for resolving questions about acting eligibility.
The Hollywood Reporter said representatives of that committee had given A24 informal assurances that there was no apparent reason Seyfried should be excluded. Formal eligibility determinations are expected in early December.
The final general-entry submission deadline, covering acting awards, was November 12. Nominations for the 99th Oscars are scheduled for January 21, 2027, with the ceremony set for March 14.