Hugh Jackman is Gary Hart in ‘The Front Runner’

A political scandal that changed the way we see and report American politics forever.

Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman stars as the charismatic politician Gary Hart for Academy Award-nominated director Jason Reitman in the The Front Runner.

The film follows the rise and fall of Senator Hart, who captured the imagination of young voters and was considered the overwhelming front runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination when his campaign was sidelined by the story of an extramarital relationship with Donna Rice. As tabloid journalism and political journalism merged for the first time, Senator Hart was forced to drop out of the race – events that left a profound and lasting impact on American politics and the world stage.

The film also stars Academy Award nominee Vera Farmiga as his wife, Lee Hart; Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons as his campaign manager Bill Dixon; Steve Zissis as real-life Miami Herald reporter Tom Fiedler; Mamoudou Athie and Molly Ephram as is A.J. Parker and Irene Kelly, composite characters for the film; and Sara Paxton, who plays Donna Rice, the actress and model at the center of the scandal.

The Front Runner is written by Matt Bai & Jay Carson & Jason Reitman, based on the book “All the Truth is Out” by Matt Bai, and produced by Jason Reitman and Helen Estabrook of Right of Way Films and Aaron L. Gilbert of BRON Studios.

The film will world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend and then head to Toronto next week. 

Sony Pictures will give the film a limited release on November 16th and then go wide on November 21st. 

Here is the first trailer and poster. 

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Philadelphia Film Critics Circle (PFCC) Winners: ‘Anora’ Named Best Film Among its Six Awards - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Utah Film Critics Association (UFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024