Paris Barclay’s documentary “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It” has become the first film uploaded to the Academy Screening Room for the 99th Academy Awards.
The upload marks the unofficial start of the awards season on the members-only platform, where approximately 11,000 Oscar voters can stream eligible movies. This is the earliest the Academy has made a screener available, ahead of the typical August start for the initial slate. Distributed by Abramorama, the film holds a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It premiered at SXSW in 2024 and opened in select theaters on Feb. 20, beginning with a run at New York City’s Film Forum. Directed by Barclay, who co-wrote the film with Cheo Hodari Coker, the documentary features interviews with Billy Porter, Ringo Starr, Merry Clayton and Eric Clapton. It includes an original score by Robert Glasper and chronicles the life of the keyboardist who performed with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and others before his death in 2006.
