A24 acquired The Invite in a competitive Sundance bidding war for $12 million and opened it in limited theatrical release June 26, 2026 — placing Olivia Wilde's third feature squarely in the 2027 Oscar conversation. Gold Derby and AwardsWatch are now tracking the film as an early Best Original Screenplay contender, with A24 reportedly pushing for more. Three and a half years after Don't Worry Darling turned her directorial identity into a tabloid story, the question isn't whether Wilde has rebuilt. It's how anyone rebuilds that publicly, and whether her chart shows the answer.
Here's why this matters beyond the awards-cycle headline: the comeback Wilde is in the middle of has an astrological architecture that anyone with a similar version of a 2022-shaped year, a public loss, a chapter that detonated in front of an audience, can read as a blueprint. Saturn, the planet that builds and breaks structures across roughly 29-year arcs, is currently in a near-exact trine to her natal Uranus, the easy-flow 120° angle that lets unconventional vision finally meet institutional recognition. That's the chart fact. The human version is simpler. The vision was always there. The world wasn't ready until now.
What that pattern looks like in practice is in her natal placements, calculated from her real birth data, not generic sun-sign vibes. Her Sun sits at 20° Pisces, conjunct Mercury at 22° Pisces, with a Scorpio Mars at 24° trining both. This isn't the chart of a director who happens to be writing. It's the chart of a director who is the writer, the storyteller whose narrative voice and creative drive feed each other in a single closed loop. The Invite, by every credible early read, is exactly that kind of film.
What Happened at Sundance, and Why It Matters Now
The Invite premiered at Sundance on January 24, 2026, at the Eccles Theater, to a standing ovation Wilde later called the best night of her life. A24 won the resulting bidding war for $12 million and opened the film in limited theatrical release on June 26, 2026, ahead of a July nationwide expansion. Wilde reportedly refused a Netflix offer, citing the communal theatrical experience as essential. The film holds 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 on Metacritic. Gold Derby and AwardsWatch are tracking it as a credible 2027 Best Original Screenplay contender, with growing attention on the supporting cast: Penélope Cruz, Seth Rogen, and Edward Norton.