Eyes (and ears) are once again on Taylor Swift with the release of her album “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.” But what’s more pertinent to IndieWire’s interests: the upcoming music video for the track “Patient Zero.”
The video is set to premiere on Sunday, September 27, during the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards — where Swift receives the inaugural Artist Director Honors. The already-teased musical short, directed by the Grammy winner herself, stars Oscar nominee Colin Farrell and BAFTA Award nominee Dakota Johnson. Also notable: Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki shot it.
So where do the Oscars actually come into play? And will Swift make a run of it again? Her “All Too Well: The Short Film” led to an Oscar campaign for Best Live Action Short that included her speaking to “The Banshees of Inisherin” filmmaker Martin McDonagh for Variety’s “Directors on Directors” lineup. She also sold her feature directorial debut to Searchlight Pictures in 2022, though news has been quiet on that front. So all eyes are on a potential campaign, and with precedent: A short film that also functioned as a music video worked for Riz Ahmed, after all, with his “The Long Goodbye” winning the Live Action Short Oscar in 2021.
But “All Too Well: The Short Film” ultimately didn’t land on the shortlist for Best Live Action Short the following year. It did eventually lead to Swift being invited into the Academy a year later, though. Since then, Swift has released several high-profile music videos, including “Fortnight,” starring five-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke and his co-star from the Oscar-winning film “Dead Poets Society,” Josh Charles. Or “Opalite,” starring “Past Lives” actress Greta Lee, “Ex Machina” actor Domhnall Gleeson, and recent Best Actor Oscar winner Cillian Murphy’s voice. Four-time Best Cinematography Oscar nominee Rodrigo Prieto (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) shot most of those videos.
For “Patient Zero,” or any of the aforementioned music videos, the biggest tell that Swift was after a Best Live Action Short Oscar again would’ve been some form of theatrical distribution for at least a week in major markets. That is how “All Too Well: The Short Film” qualified.
Right now, there is no expectation that “Patient Zero” will hit theaters. The last one of her music videos to premiere in movie theaters was “The Fate of Ophelia,” from the initial release of “The Life of a Showgirl,” but that would not have qualified for the Oscars for the separate reason of being a short film created from materials substantially taken from or cut down from completed, publicly exhibited feature films. It counted as only one sequence within the film she released via AMC to promote the album.
Swift’s focus still seems to be on her “Toy Story 5” track “I Knew It, I Knew You” as her ticket to the Oscars. Though Best Original Song can seem impenetrable, as the Music Branch that determines the shortlist and nominees for the category has its own insular politics, Swift has inched her way closer to a nomination with every song she’s written for a film. The last one was “Carolina” from “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which made the Best Original Song shortlist for the 2023 Oscars.
“I Knew It, I Knew You” is off to an even better start: “Toy Story 5” is the most successful animated film of the year, and the song topped the Billboard Hot 100, staying in the Top 10 for 15 weeks and counting.
In this case, her ubiquity is the asset. “Golden,” the most recent Best Original Song winner, was another song no other artist could catch up to. But it is still smart of Swift to ingratiate herself with the filmmaking community through her music videos; if she ever finally gets a nomination, most of them will have a chance to vote for her this time.
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