Sixteen years ago, Andrew Garfield played the Facebook co-founder who was pushed out of the company he helped create in “The Social Network” and came up short in the supporting actor race. Now, he’s playing the CEO pushed out of OpenAI — and who talked his way back in five days later. Different man, different company. Same category, hoping for a different outcome.

As “Artificial” world premieres at the New York Film Festival, Variety has learned exclusively that the film’s awards campaign will include Garfield competing in the supporting actor category for Luca Guadagnino’s OpenAI drama, while Yura Borisov, who plays OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, will campaign in lead actor. Oscar winner Mark Rylance, as AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, will join Garfield in the supporting race, while Monica Barbaro, as former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, will vie for supporting actress.

The campaign will extend across all the major categories, including best picture, director and acting, while Simon Rich’s screenplay will compete in original screenplay and every craft department will receive a full campaign.

For Guadagnino, “Artificial” marks his fifth appearance at NYFF, following “Call Me by Your Name,” “Bones and All,” “Queer” and “After the Hunt,” which opened the festival last year. After Lincoln Center audiences get the first official look at the film, it heads to the BFI London Film Festival.

Garfield is a two-time best actor nominee for the war drama “Hacksaw Ridge” (2016) and the musical biopic “Tick, Tick … Boom!” (2021). While he has been the face of the marketing and plays the most famous name in the story, it’s not unprecedented for a film’s top-billed star to pursue a supporting nomination — as Meryl Streep did for “Into the Woods” and Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones did for “Chicago.”

The film traces decades in the lives of Ilya and Sam Altman (Garfield), two men from completely different worlds who bond over a shared desire to change the world for the better amid the sunny glow of Obama-era tech optimism. They eventually find themselves at odds as the enormous — and increasingly dangerous — capabilities of their technology reveal themselves across the Trump and Biden years, before Altman is ousted. In other words, the audience rides with the man who pulled the trigger, not the one who took the bullet.

The best actor field is already crowded, with several contenders emerging from NYFF, including Pedro Pascal’s cellist in “Behemoth!”

Borisov is two years removed from his first Oscar nomination, for his breakthrough performance as the reluctant henchman Igor in Sean Baker’s best picture winner “Anora.”

The ensemble has Oscar pedigree throughout. Rylance won supporting actor for his turn in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies,” while Barbaro is two years removed from her first nom for playing Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” The rest of the cast includes Cooper Hoffman as Greg Brockman, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, Jason Schwartzman, Chris O’Dowd, Billie Lourd and Zosia Mamet.

Behind the camera, Guadagnino has assembled many of his regular collaborators. Marco Costa, an ACE Eddie Award nominee for “Challengers,” returns for his duties while Jessica Ronane, a two-time Artios nominee who has cast Guadagnino’s films since “Queer,” handled casting. Production designer Stefano Baisi, whose credits include “Queer” and “After the Hunt,” builds the world alongside ADG nominee Roberta Federico. J.W. Anderson, the Costume Designers Guild nominee who dressed “Challengers” and “Queer,” returns as well.

One of the new faces behind the lens is cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed, a Camerimage winner whose credits include Spike Lee’s “Clockers,” Hype Williams’ “Belly” and Beyoncé’s “Lemonade.” Damon Albarn, the Blur frontman and Grammy winner with Gorillaz, composed the original score and wrote the original songs heard in the film. Submission details for which original songs will vie for attention are forthcoming.

Guadagnino is hoping to make his triumphant return to an Oscar ceremony. “Call Me by Your Name” earned four nominations at the 90th Oscars and won adapted screenplay for James Ivory. Among the producers are Jeffrey Clifford, Jennifer Fox, Guadagnino, David Heyman and Rich. Fox is an Oscar nominee for best picture for “Michael Clayton,” while Guadagnino was nominated for “Call Me by Your Name.” Heyman is a four-time best picture nominee for “Gravity,” “Marriage Story,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Barbie.”

Now, Guadagnino, Garfield and company will see if “Artificial” can prompt their Oscar comebacks.