James Franco standing on the Golden Globes stage, physically blocking Tommy Wiseau from the microphone, is an image burned into the collective memory of anyone who follows the Oscars race. It was awkward. It was hilarious. Honestly, it was the perfect metaphor for the entire journey of the film. When we talk about The Disaster Artist awards run, we aren't just talking about a movie winning a few trophies; we're talking about a bizarre collision between Hollywood’s high-society gatekeepers and the cult of the "best worst movie ever made."
You remember The Room. That 2003 masterpiece of unintentional comedy where Wiseau plays a man named Johnny whose life falls apart for reasons no one quite understands. Then, years later, Franco decides to direct and star in a biopic based on Greg Sestero’s memoir about the making of that film. It seemed like a joke at first. People thought it would be a parody. Instead, it became one of the most talked-about contenders of the 2017-2018 season.
Why the Industry Fell for a Movie About a Failure
Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood. It's a cliché because it's true. But The Disaster Artist didn't just celebrate success; it celebrated the sheer, delusional grit required to make anything at all. That resonated.
The film premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) to a standing ovation. Critics from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter immediately started buzzing. Usually, biopics about eccentric figures are heavy and dramatic, but this was something different. It was a comedy that treated its subject with a weird amount of dignity.
By the time the National Board of Review named it one of the top ten films of the year, the momentum was unstoppable. Seth Rogen, who produced and acted in it, later mentioned in interviews how strange it felt to be at these black-tie events for a project that started with them watching a guy throw a water bottle at a camera in 2003.
The Golden Globes Peak and the Immediate Fallout
The peak of The Disaster Artist awards cycle happened at the 75th Golden Globe Awards. James Franco won Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
It was a huge moment.
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He actually brought Tommy Wiseau up on stage. Wiseau, wearing his signature sunglasses and multiple belts, immediately reached for the mic. Franco nudged him away with his elbow—a move that launched a thousand memes. It felt like the ultimate "making it" moment for Wiseau, who had spent millions of his own mysterious dollars decades prior just to get people to look at him.
But the celebration was short-lived. Literally within hours of the win, allegations of sexual misconduct against Franco began to surface on social media, later detailed in an expansive report by The Los Angeles Times.
This shifted the narrative instantly.
The "feel-good" underdog story evaporated. While the film had been tracking for multiple major Oscar nominations, the air in the room changed. It’s a stark reminder of how quickly the awards season "narrative"—that invisible force that drives voters—can be dismantled.
The Academy Awards: A Sole Nomination
When the 90th Academy Award nominations were announced, the impact of the controversy was visible. Despite the Golden Globe win and SAG nominations, Franco was snubbed for Best Actor.
The film ended up with exactly one nomination: Best Adapted Screenplay.
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Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, the writers behind 500 Days of Summer, were the ones who cracked the code of Sestero's book. They focused on the friendship between Greg and Tommy rather than just mocking the bad acting. They lost the Oscar to James Ivory for Call Me by Your Name, but the nomination itself was a massive validation. It proved that the industry respected the craft behind the chaos.
Major Awards and Nominations Overview
- Golden Globes: Won Best Actor (Comedy/Musical). Nominated for Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical).
- Critics' Choice Awards: James Franco won Best Actor in a Comedy. The film received several other nods, including Best Adapted Screenplay.
- Screen Actors Guild (SAG): Franco was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
- Gotham Awards: Franco won Best Actor here early in the season, which originally set the pace for his frontrunner status.
- Writers Guild of America (WGA): A nomination for Adapted Screenplay, cementing the script as the film's strongest asset.
Beyond the Trophies: The Cultural Impact
If you look at the raw numbers, the The Disaster Artist awards tally might look "fine" but not legendary. However, the true "award" was the legitimization of cult cinema.
Before this, the idea of a movie about a "bad" movie getting serious Oscar heat was unheard of. Ed Wood (1994) is the only real comparison, but even that felt more like a niche Tim Burton project. The Disaster Artist was a mainstream hit that grossed over $30 million on a relatively small budget.
It changed how we look at "bad" art. It suggested that passion, even when completely untalented, has a value that the industry should recognize.
The Reality of the "Campaign"
Awards seasons are expensive. A24, the studio behind the film, is known for scrappy, brilliant marketing. They put up a billboard on Sunset Boulevard that looked exactly like Tommy Wiseau’s original infamous billboard for The Room, including the actual phone number you could call to hear a recorded message from "Tommy" (actually Franco in character).
This kind of meta-marketing is what keeps a movie in the conversation. Voters are people too; they like being in on the joke. The campaign was working perfectly until the external headlines took over.
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Some critics, like those at IndieWire, argued that the film perhaps simplified Wiseau's more problematic behaviors during the actual production of The Room. This is a common critique of biopics—they "sand down the edges" to make the protagonist more likable for an awards run. In hindsight, the film is a fascinating time capsule of 2017 Hollywood trying to figure out where its boundaries were.
What You Can Learn From This Wild Run
The story of this film's awards journey is basically a masterclass in how much "vibe" matters in Hollywood. You can have a great film, but if the timing is off or the personal brand of the lead actor takes a hit, the trophies stop coming.
If you’re a film buff or someone interested in the mechanics of the industry, there are a few things to take away from the The Disaster Artist awards saga:
- Script is King: Even when a lead actor is sidelined, a high-quality script can still carry a film to the Oscars. Neustadter and Weber’s work is the reason the film is still cited in screenwriting classes today.
- The Power of Meta-Marketing: A24 proved that leaning into the "weirdness" of a project is better than trying to make it look like a standard drama.
- The Narrative Shift: Awards are 50% about the movie and 50% about the story around the movie. When the story changed from "Underdog makes good" to "Controversial figure wins," the voters pivoted.
The legacy of these awards isn't the physical statues. It’s the fact that for one brief, shining moment, the man who made a movie where he throws a football in a tuxedo from three feet away was the toast of the town.
To really understand the nuance of this era, go back and watch Greg Sestero’s interviews from that period. He was the one who lived through the original disaster, and seeing him on the red carpet at the Oscars was perhaps the most "full circle" moment of the entire experience. It reminds us that in Hollywood, if you wait long enough, even your failures can become your greatest credentials.
Actionable Next Steps
- Read "The Disaster Artist" book: If you've only seen the movie, you're missing about 60% of the insanity. The book provides a much darker, more nuanced look at the power dynamics that the awards-friendly movie glossed over.
- Watch the "Room Full of Spoons" documentary: For a non-Hollywoodized look at the cult following, this documentary (which faced its own legal battles with Wiseau) offers a gritty counter-perspective to the Franco version.
- Analyze the 2018 Adapted Screenplay Nominees: Compare the script of The Disaster Artist with Molly's Game and Logan. It's a great exercise in seeing how different writers handle "true story" adaptations in very different tones.