Oscars: Hugh Jackman’s ‘Logan’ becomes first DVD screener sent to Academy voters

Just as Toronto, the third leg of the fall festival trifecta, is about to wrap up, we have another tell-tale sign that the six-month-long Oscar season has begun in earnest. Academy campaigners often compete to be the first to send their For Your Consideration screener out, and this year the winner is: Logan.

20th Century Fox, which never has been first in this particular screener derby, already is showing how aggressive they can be as the nascent season ramps up. The DVD screener landed in Academy voters’ mailboxes today. The March release directed and co-written (with Scott Frank and Michael Green) by James Mangold and starring Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart marked the end of an X-Men era, at least for Wolverine and Professor X in this acclaimed drama that acted not only as an elegy to those characters but to the Old West, with echoes of classics like Shane in its own way. It is unlike anything that has come before in the series, which is why there isn’t even an X in the title.