At Fox Searchlight’s holiday party in New York last week, the Bagger bumped into a couple of stars from two of the studio’s splashiest 2016 productions: one of the films soared to great heights, while the other crashed to an unimagined low.

The first actor was Natalie Portman, who is raking in rave reviews for her performance in the title role in “Jackie” and is expecting her second child in a few months. The Bagger asked how she was faring on the awards circuit. “While pregnant and sober?” Ms. Portman dryly replied.

The other actor was Colman Domingo, who played Hark in the slave revolt film “The Birth of a Nation,” which, for the first half of this year, before controversy engulfed it, was considered one of the brightest prospects for the awards season. He said now that the uproar had subsided, he wanted to share his frustrations and disappointments about how everything played out.

“You walk into these rooms, and it’s almost like a bittersweet look people give you in their eyes,” Mr. Domingo said. “I look at the work of my peers on the film, and I wish it was being celebrated. The cinematography, the music. Aja Naomi King’s is one of the best performances of this year. But we’re under the veil of the whole controversy, and people almost don’t want to touch it.”