Before the nominations and campaigning comes a big moment: a movie’s first screening. At the annual Oscar nominees luncheon earlier this week, Academy Award nominees from Emma Stone to Mel Gibson talked to Variety about their films’ first screenings.<br /><br />“It was at the Venice Film Festival and it was a trip,” said Stone of “La La Land’s” big debut. “It was a trip. There were subtitles and I was sweating a lot. Very nervous.”<br /><br />“When I saw it with a big audience in Italy, and it got a standing ovation, it was quite gratifying,” Gibson remembered of “Hacksaw Ridge’s” first screening. “I think they liked it, or they appeared to, unless they were all faking, which I suppose is a possibly.”
