The first trailer for ‘Joy’ Starts the Oscar Race Off with a Bang

The long anticipated first trailer for David O. Russell’s Joy is here and it’s surprising in that it looks to have depth and scope beyond its story and concept. When it was first revealed his follow-up to his triple punch of Oscar winning and nominated hits The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle was going to be the story of the woman who invented the Miracle Mop it gave people pause. It felt a bit small, like maybe he was shying away from the baitiness of these previous Oscar films but upon seeing the trailer (and the first production stills) we’re looking at something that is yes, intimate, but also quite epic. It’s an American dream story, they type of true life stories that don’t happen too much anymore and there were shades of Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson throughout.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Joy, inspired by real-life mogul Joy Mangano — inventor and founder of Ingenious Designs with Oscar winner Robert De Niro as her father (who gets a lot of screentime in this 2-minute trailer) and 3-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper. Curious to see how much time Cooper actually gets in the film as it was reported he only worked on the set for a few days. Supporting actresses Isabella Rossellini, Dascha Polanco and Oscar nominee Diane Ladd unfortunately don’t feature into this first trailer, outside of Ladd’s silhouetted opening pep talk to a young Joy so hopefully we’ll see them in the next trailer.

First production stills:

Joy is due this Christmas from Annapurna Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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