Boy Erased trailer: Nicole Kidman gay conversion therapy movie already tipped for Oscars

The drama is based on the memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, and stars Hedges as the son of a Baptist pastor, sent away to have his homosexuality “cured”.

Russell Crowe plays the pastor, while Nicole Kidman takes on the role of his mother. Singer Troye Sivan also has a supporting role.

Boy Erased is already generating Oscars buzz: it is joint-fifth favourite to win Best Picture, according to SportsBet.

Kidman – who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in 2002’s The Hours – could be looking at her fifth nomination here.

Hedges, 21, could surely also be a contender for a nod – after previously being nominated for Manchester By The Sea in 2017.

Kidman said of her character whilst speaking to Entertainment Weekly: “The way in which she and her husband feel about putting him into conversion therapy, I wanted that to come from a place of a mother thinking it’s the right thing to do.

“Nothing that she did was vindictive, which is probably why they have such a strong relationship now.”

Joel Edgerton is the director of the film – and he also appears in front of the camera as the leader of the conversion therapy program.

“The film satisfies the dramatic and salacious stuff that interested me, but it also had an emotional resonance to it that I felt didn’t just make it a dark and nihilistic story,” he told the same publication.

“My approach and treatment of this story was that there were no villains, that everyone thought they were doing the right thing.”

Other movies already generating excitement ahead of next year’s Academy Awards include Beautiful Boy, which stars Hedges’ former Lady Bird co-star Timothee Chalamet.

Mary Queen of Scots – fronted by another Lady Bird star, its leading lady Saoirse Ronan – has also been getting the hype machine revved up.

First Man, starring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy, is directed by La La Land film-maker Damien Chazelle and is another one to watch.

Boy Erased is out on November 2 in the USA.