When Tom Ford goes to the Oscars, it’s usually because his clothes are being worn on the big night by the likes of Daniel Craig and Julianne Moore. But he may make it to the Kodak Theater as a nominee in March, with his stylish, moody period piece “A Single Man” picking up raves in advance of its Friday opening.

The celebrated fashion designer (who designed for Gucci before launching his own label) makes an auspicious screenwriting and directing debut with the film, based on a book by Christopher Isherwood.

“A Single Man” delineates a day in the life of a schoolteacher (Colin Firth) who’s despondent after the recent death of his partner of 16 years. After stellar showings at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, the film was acquired for distribution by the Weinstein Company.

There’s been a lot of talk about the latest trailer for “A Single Man,” which removes all of the most overtly gay elements from your original trailer. Were you comfortable with that?

I wasn’t comfortable with it at all. I think our society is a bit twisted. The first trailer is the one that I cut before we had a distributor, and I wish I could have left it intact. But we had to do a trailer that was more broadly accessible to a wider audience. Kissing between two men is considered adult content, and there are only certain places that you can run trailers that show it. It’s very strange, because you can turn on HBO and see full-frontal male nudity -- but for some reason, things are more restrictive in cinema ...

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