She Said, the story that brought down Harvey Weinstein and ignited the #MeToo movement

Universal Pictures just dropped the trailer for the upcoming drama She Said starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. Do we have ourselves another Spotlight in this year’s Oscar race?

From the Academy Award winning producers of 12 Years a Slave, Moonlight, Minari, Selma and The Big Short the film is based on the New York Times bestseller, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement written by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the two New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. 

The film dramatises the investigation conducted and work done by the two journalists while exposing Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations and the overarching culture of abuse and cover-ups that permeates all sectors of the film industry.

Quote: "This is bigger than Weinstein...This is about the System protecting Abusers."

I hope everyone watches this so the public can start to understand what we are dealing with on a daily basis in Family and Criminal Courts with Abusers, Rapists, and Paedophiles...#SheSaid pic.twitter.com/X0jUhEhYXD

— Dangerous Playgrounds (@DangerousPlaygs) July 16, 2022

In October 2017, The New York Times bombshell piece revealed decades worth sexual misconduct allegations against the American film producer, accusing him of sexually harassing more than a dozen women employed or seeking employment in his production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company. 

Over 80 women had made allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct against Weinstein by the end of the month spearheading the #MeToo movement into existence shortly after. The allegations sparked a campaign against powerful men accused of sexual misconduct across the world in what came to be known as the ‘Weinstein Effect’.

Weinstein was eventually sentenced to 23 years in prison on multiple counts of sexual assault and third-degree rape. Kantor and Twohey encapsulated their experiences while working on the story into a book released later in 2019. 

Emmy winning director Maria Schrader of Netflix miniseries Unorthodox acclaim, helmed the film with a screenplay adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, credited for her work on the Oscar-winning Ida, and Prime Video’s Small Axe. Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher and Tom Pelphrey are some of the other names attached to the ensemble cast.  

✨carey mulligan is ready for her oscar✨#Shesaid pic.twitter.com/tAjcEqbzfk

— hourly carey mulligan (@hourlymulligan) July 14, 2022

While the cast and crew associated with the film have a history of awards under their belt, the early Oscar buzz for She Said comes as no surprise considering how Academy voters have had a thing for journalists uncovering scandals: All The President’s Men, Spotlight and The Post being cases in point. To think the film could very well follow suit and go the whole way in this year's race for Best Picture, wouldn’t be too outrageous a claim to make. 

She Said is set to hit theatres globally on November 18, 2022.