#Will the Best Picture Race Have Two Animation Contenders?

#Will the Best Picture Race Have Two Animation Contenders?

In 2002, the Academy Awards first honored animated features with their own Oscar category — the inaugural winner was DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek. Before then, the stance on rewarding animated features was that there were too few to warrant a separate category; honorary Oscars were given to groundbreaking films like the animated/live-action hybrid Who Framed Roger…

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#How Rosamund Pike Prepared for ‘Saltburn’: 2007 Vogues, New Cocktails and a Vacation

#How Rosamund Pike Prepared for ‘Saltburn’: 2007 Vogues, New Cocktails and a Vacation

In Oscar-winning writer-director Emerald Fennell’s twisted thriller Saltburn, Rosamund Pike is the deft comedic counterbalance.  Her character, Elspeth Catton, a wealthy former model and mother to Jacob Elordi’s character, Felix, breaks up the drama with head-turning quips often delivered while lounging around the family’s estate. One such example: “I was a lesbian for a while, you…

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#“Our Target Is a History of the Future”: ‘THR Presents’ Q&A With the Director of ‘The Wandering Earth 2’

#“Our Target Is a History of the Future”: ‘THR Presents’ Q&A With the Director of ‘The Wandering Earth 2’

In 2019, Chinese filmmaker Frant Guo gave his country its very first science fiction blockbuster, The Wandering Earth, a high-concept adventure film set in 2058 with planet Earth threatened by the imminent explosion of the sun. This year, Guo extended his vision with a prequel, The Wandering Earth 2, told years before the story of…

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#Academy Unveils Shortlists in 10 Oscar Categories

#Academy Unveils Shortlists in 10 Oscar Categories

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced shortlists in 10 categories for the 96th Academy Awards. The shortlists were unveiled in the following categories: documentary feature film, documentary short film, international feature film, makeup and hairstyling, Music (original score), music (original song), animated short film, live-action short film, sound and visual…

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#Mental Health and Female Empowerment: Two Oscar-Qualified Shorts Pushing the Boundaries of African Cinema

#Mental Health and Female Empowerment: Two Oscar-Qualified Shorts Pushing the Boundaries of African Cinema

In Her Perfect Life, Onajite Johnson-Ibrahim (played by Pearl Thusi) appears to have it all. She’s a 39-year-old entrepreneur with the perfect Instagram profile — a fantastic career, a loving husband (played by Ahmed Ibrahim), and two bright and beautiful children — but Onajite is secretly suffering from depression. She’s contemplating suicide. Iyawo Mi (My…

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#Producers of ‘American Fiction,’ ‘Maestro,’ ‘Origin’ and More Oscar Contenders Talk the Toughest Tasks Behind the Scenes of Their Films

#Producers of ‘American Fiction,’ ‘Maestro,’ ‘Origin’ and More Oscar Contenders Talk the Toughest Tasks Behind the Scenes of Their Films

Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright in Orion/Amazon MGM Studios’ American Fiction. Claire Folger/MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Producer Jermaine Johnson worked primarily as a literary manager for clients like first-time movie writer-director Cord Jefferson (whom he’s represented for close to a decade) before the pair collaborated on Jefferson’s darkly comic adaptation of the novel Erasure by Percival…

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