Filmed in April 2012, the production company, Focus Features, selected the release date so that the film is eligible to qualify for awards consideration.
Despite an Oscar nomination for Watts, the fact of long-listing for a Best Actor Academy Award was confirmed in the article in the Hollywood Reporter: "And though McGregor stars as his father in the film, Holland has been submitted as the lead actor for awards consideration.
These boundaries are responsible for the submission of television broadcast materials presented for awards considerations.
We finished the film and sold it at Toronto 2004 in the hopes of getting the movie out for awards consideration and then to go from there in January.
When the credits began to roll - after a warning appeared on screen saying "Loaned for awards considerations only" - the audience agreed on the verdict: the movie would help foreigners understand what happened here, although in a somewhat sanitized way.
Entrants within these borders submit television broadcast materials for awards considerations.
Positive mentions can result in awards consideration.
Although this film, a particularly sunny example of the protean Allen wizardry, will be seen in December only for the one-week run that qualifies it for 1996 awards consideration (its full run begins early next year), it's a holiday movie in every way.
In addition to these national awards, IBBY Canada submits Canadian authors and artists for international awards consideration.
Jack Valenti, the motion picture lobbyist who incited a revolt in Hollywood when the major studios barred DVD's or videotapes from being distributed for awards consideration in an effort to thwart piracy, announced Thursday that movies would be sent out to Academy Award voters.