Jesse Eisenberg's third directorial feature, "The Debut", premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, and The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal that Eisenberg wrote all seven original songs featured in the A24 film himself. One track, "This City May Have Chewed Me Up (But It Hasn't Spit Me Out)", performed by star Julianne Moore, will be A24's lead contender in the best original song Oscar race, though the studio may also submit additional tracks from the film for consideration.

The film, which stars Moore as a housewife cast in a community theatre production, features nearly an hour of Eisenberg's original music, and also boasts a score by Emile Mosseri, a former best original score Oscar nominee for "Minari". This year's original song race also includes contenders written or co-written by Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, David Byrne, the Backstreet Boys, SZA and Diane Warren. "The Debut" will screen next at the Toronto, New York and Zurich film festivals, where Moore will receive a lifetime achievement award, ahead of a limited US release on 11 December and a wide release over Christmas.