Tag: Academy Awards

  • Oscar nominees share their joy over being on the coveted ‘list’

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Now that the much-awaited nominations for the 23 categories of the Academy Awards a.k.a. the Oscars have been announced, reactions are coming in from those who have made the cut.

    Kirsten Dunst, who earned a Best Support Actress nomination for her work in ‘The Power of the Dog’, told Variety: “It feels so good to be honoured by the community you’ve worked in for so long.”

    Nicole Kidman, who has landed a Best Actress nomination for playing yesteryear’s comedy queen Lucille Ball in ‘Being The Ricardos’, responded to her fifth nomination by saying the excitement to find her name on the coveted list has grown over the years for her.

    “It’s a thousand times more [exciting],” she said. “I don’t know if that’s age or having a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old who understand a little bit what it is. My husband, who is so much a part of all this, and having a family to celebrate with, it’s extraordinary. I find as I get older, everything gets more intense.”

    Kidman’s fellow contender in the Best Actress category, ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ actress Jessica Chastain is still processing the news.

    “I’m still in shock,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s any difference between being nominated for a film I produced. It’s been 10 years. The last time I was nominated was for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, and that’s actually the time I got the rights to this story. So, it really feels so full circle.”

    Chastian added: “I was thinking about Tammy Faye for such a long time. I did not think it was going to happen this morning, and I didn’t even know (the nominations were) this morning. I called Penelope (Cruz) and FaceTimed with her and I called Olivia Colman.”

    ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ actor Andrew Garfield, who received a nomination in the Best Actor category, told ‘Variety’: “It’s incredibly exciting. I take none of it for granted. It’s such a strange thing to be able to do what I love in my life. I know how lucky I am. This is really emotional.

    “It’s deeply moving to be honoured and recognised in this way. It’s very surreal. I keep thinking about myself as a 16-year-old acting student, just wondering if I had what it took or if I was barking up the wrong tree.”

    ‘Belfast’ director Kenneth Branagh, who received nominations across Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, said in his response: “It is hard to take in, but it just reminds me of a unique privilege that I have had in my career to be able to operate as a storyteller, which is how I regard myself.”

    He added: “It’s a real team effort, and this team effort has been recognised. I certainly would not be in receipt of these nominations without the work of everybody else.”

    ‘CODA’ writer and director Sian Heder, who has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for her film, is particularly excited to meet ‘The Power of The Dog’ director Jane Campion. Sian told ‘Variety’: “She’s been my filmmaking hero for so long. To have my film in a category with her film is amazing. She’s been such a pioneer for women directors.”

    Penelope Cruz, who received a nomination for her work in ‘Parallel Mothers’, said: “I’ve been crying for an hour nonstop. I am really speechless. I didn’t expect it. It is such a strong year with so many incredible performances, so I really didn’t expect anything.”

    Reacting to his Best Actor nomination for ‘The Power of the Dog’, Benedict Cumberbatch told ‘Variety’: “I have a silly grin on my face. It’s been an experience that’s a gift that keeps on giving. Twelve is my new favourite number.”

    ‘The Power of the Dog’ director Jane Campion spoke about receiving 12 nominations across categories.

    “It was astounding,” she said. “In my eyes, the Academy nominations are still the gold standard for excellence in cinema. It’s meaningful for people all over the world, and it’s a great way to create a great conversation about cinema.”

    The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held in person on March 27 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, will honour the world’s best talent in cinema as revealed in feature and documentary films released between March 1 and December 31, 2021.

  • Steven Spielberg ‘West Side Story’ debuts weakly with USD 10.5 million

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Despite critical acclaim and two years worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday — a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.

    A dazzling widescreen adaptation and Spielberg’s first musical, “West Side Story” was one of the year’s most eagerly awaited titles. With a script by Tony Kushner and Rita Moreno returning to her breakthrough film 60 years later, the $100-million “West Side Story” epitomizes a grand-scale prestige film that Hollywood infrequently produces anymore. It hit theaters on a wave of glowing reviews and expectations that it could play a starring role in March’s Academy Awards.

    But “West Side Story” faced a challenging marketplace for both adult-driven releases and musicals. Audiences have steadily returned to multiplexes in the second year of the pandemic, but older moviegoers, who made up the bulk of ticket-buyers for Spielberg’s latest, have been among the slowest to return.

    Musicals, too, have struggled to catch on in theaters. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” launched with $11 million in June but the Warner Bros. release simultaneously streamed on HBO Max. The critically panned “Dear Evan Hansen,” from Universal, debuted with $7.4 million in September.

    But this was Spielberg. If anyone could reignite moviegoing, the thinking went, it was him. Surely, one of the movies’ dazzling craftsmen, a director synonymous with box office, could spark a fuller revival in theaters. “West Side Story,” too, is among the most beloved musicals. The 1961 film, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, made $43.7 million (or about $400 million adjusted for inflation) and won 10 Oscars, including best picture.

    “West Side Story” can still be expected to play well through the lucrative holiday corridor, during which younger-skewing films like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (expected to next weekend become the first pandemic release to open with $100 million or more domestically) and “Sing 2” will likely be the top draws. Film executives are hoping the spreading omicron variant of COVID-19 doesn’t set the box office back just as Hollywood is nearing its most profitable period.

    But the muted reception for “West Side Story” will concern the industry. Hopes had long been pinned on Spielberg, with his song-and-dance spectacular, to bring back some of the movies’ mojo. Instead, little right now outside of Marvel releases is finding big audiences. Many moviegoers simply haven’t returned yet.

    “To draw moviegoers to adult dramas in huge numbers right now seems like a pretty heavy lift,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “That will wane over time, but it is concerning for filmmakers and studios.”

    “But I don’t think this is the final act for ‘West Side Story,’” added Dergarabedian. “A lot of people counted out ‘The Greatest Showman.’”

    That 2017 release launched with a modest $8.8 million opening weekend before enjoying a rare, lengthy run that made it, with $435 million worldwide, one of the highest grossing live-action musicals ever. During the pandemic, though, movies have faded quickly at the multiplex, and often been steered more quickly to streaming or home release.

    Starring newcomer Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort as Maria and Tony, “West Side Story” took in $4.4 million in 37 overseas territories. Because the film includes a transgender character, it was banned in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.

    David A. Gross, who runs the movie consultancy Franchise Entertainment, called the opening “soft.”

    “If ‘West Side Story’ is going to be profitable, it will need to connect internationally as well domestically,” Gross said in an email. “So far, the first European openings have been good, but this is going to be a challenge with moviegoing conditions as difficult as they are.”

    Spielberg’s film was a long time coming. Its release was delayed a year by the pandemic. It was developed at 20th Century Fox, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Co. shortly before production began. Days before its Lincoln Center premiere, the musical’s revered lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, died at the age of 91.

    Second place for the weekend went to Disney’s animated “Encanto,” which held strongly in its third week, dropping only 27% from the previous weekend. It grossed $9.6 from Friday to Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to $71.3 million domestically and $80.5 million internationally.

    The weekend’s only other new wide release — STX Films’ college football drama “National Champions” — went largely unnoticed, pulling in $300,000 in 1,197 theaters.

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. “West Side Story,” $10.5 million.

    2. “Encanto,” $9.4 million.

    3. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” $7.1 million.

    4. “House of Gucci,” $4.1 million.

    5. “Eternals,” $3.1 million.

    6. “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” $1.7 million.

    7. “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” $1.3 million.

    8. “Christmas With the Chosen,” $1.3 million.

    9. “Dune,” $857,000.

    10. “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” $850,000.

  • Iranian director Asghar Farhadi threatens not to represent country at Oscars

    By AFP

    TEHRAN: Iranian double Oscar-winning film director Asghar Farhadi has launched a scathing attack on Tehran authorities and threatened not to represent Iran at the next edition of the prestigious awards ceremony.

    “How can I be associated… with a government whose extremist media have not stopped these past years from destroying me, marginalising me, stigmatising me?” he asked on his Instagram page.

    Farhadi, who divides his time between Iran and abroad, shot his last movie, “A Hero”, a drama about a prisoner, in the Iranian city of Shiraz.

    “I have explicitly expressed my point of view on the suffering (the state) has imposed for years on the nation,” he said, referring to the repression of demonstrations in January 2017 and November 2019, and the “cruel discrimination” against women and the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “If Iran’s submission of my film at the Oscars led people to think that I’m under your flag, I state explicitly that it is no problem for me to scrap this decision,” he wrote, ruling out any ambiguity on his stand.

    “I have never felt the least affinity with your attitude and retrograde thinking, (even though) I’ve never spoken until now of the persecution you’ve made me suffer,” said Farhadi, addressing authorities.

    “You’ve confiscated my passport at the airport several times and organised interrogation sessions,” he said in the comments posted last week.

    Farhadi’s 2011 film “The Separation” won both an Oscar and Golden Globe as best foreign-language movie. In 2017, he won a second foreign-language Oscar with his work “The Salesman”.

    Iranian newspapers have aired mixed reactions to his open letter.

    “Awards at festivals and foreign investments have apparently changed Farhadi (by encouraging him) to give a gloomy and dirty image of Iran,” wrote the ultraconservative daily Kayhan.

    Pro-reform newspaper Shargh defended the film-maker.

    “Farhadi’s image corresponds neither to those who praise him nor to his critics in Iran, and he has always expressed clearly his positions on socio-political questions,” Shargh said.

    The director’s latest film, “A Hero”, is scheduled for release in US movie theatres in January, followed the same month by streaming on Amazon Prime.

  • The term ‘ageing gracefully’ is ‘totally sexist’, says Academy Award-winner Julianne Moore

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Academy Award-winning actor Julianne Moore has criticised the term “ageing gracefully” as it applies to women, saying it is “totally sexist”.

    “There’s so much judgment inherent in the term ‘ageing gracefully’. Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don’t have an option of course. No one has an option about ageing, so it’s not a positive or a negative thing, it just is,” the actor told As If magazine.

    The “Still Alice” star said, “(ageing is) part of the human condition, so why are we always talking about it as if it is something that we have control over?” Moore said she takes to heart a quote from Helen Mirren with regards to her philosophy on ageing: “Ageing is a requirement of life: You either grow old or die young.”

    The actor said, “We are given a narrative as children that we keep growing through school, maybe go to college then, after school is finished, the idea of growth is done. But we have all this life left to live. How do we continue to challenge ourselves, to interest ourselves, learn new things, be more helpful to other people, be the person that your friends and family need or want? How do we continue to evolve? How do we navigate life to have even deeper experiences?” 

    The 60-year-old actor is set to reunite with her “Far From Heaven” director Todd Haynes for the film “May December”, which also features Natalie Portman.

  • Chadwick Boseman’s family says late actor was not snubbed at Oscars 2021

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: Addressing the backlash coming from late actor Chadwick Boseman’s fans about him being snubbed at the 93rd Academy Awards, the star’s brother confirmed that the family is not upset with the decision as veteran actor Anthony Hopkins deserved the win.

    Chadwick’s family has a message for those saying that the late actor was snubbed from the Oscars ceremony, which was held on Sunday night.

    The ‘Black Panther’ star’s brother, Derrick Boseman, told TMZ, that he doesn’t view Chadwick not winning an Oscar for Best Actor as a snub because “every nominated actor was excellent and deserving of the award.”

    He said that the family is not upset or agitated with why Chadwick’s name was not called at the end of the Oscars ceremony.

    The family also wished Hopkins and his family all the best. Derrick added, “I”m sure Anthony would if Chad won.”

    TMZ first reported that a throng of celebrities felt Chadwick got snubbed following his stellar performance in the 2020 film ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, his last role before he died.

    Model Winnie Harlow reacted to the news on her social media calling it “insane” that the late actor didn’t get the accolade.

    Derrick also admitted that Chadwick was not a man who put too much value on the Oscars. “Yes, an Oscar would have been an achievement, but was never an obsession,” he added.

    On a related note, Hopkins who did not attend the ceremony in person made a short video from his home to weigh in on his surprise Oscar win. He also paid a heartfelt tribute to Chadwick.

    “I want to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who was taken from us far too early. I really did not expect this, so I feel very privileged and honoured,” he said in his video.

    Hopkins took home his second Academy Award after he won the first one for best actor in 1992 for his performance in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.

    He bagged the award during the Sunday ceremony his phenomenal performance in ‘The Father’. In the movie, he played an aging man struggling with dementia as his daughter (Oscar winner Olivia Colman) moves in to take care of him.

    The best actor was the final award of the ceremonial night. Joaquin Phoenix, last year’s best actor winner for ‘Joker,’ presented the category and accepted the award on Hopkins’ behalf. With his win, the star made history as the oldest actor, male or female, to earn an Oscar.

    ‘The Father’ went into the Academy Awards ceremony with six nominations, including best picture, film editing, production design and a best-supporting actress nod for Colman.

  • 93rd Academy Awards: Anthony Hopkins pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman

    By Express News Service
    The 93rd Academy Awards was held late Sunday evening in the US, and Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar in the Best Actor category for his performance in The Father.

    The news came as a surprise for many, as late actor Chadwick Boseman was expected to win the award for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

    Though Hopkins was not available during the event, the actor posted a video message later to acknowledge the award and thank the Academy.

    “Here I am in my homeland in Wales, and at 83 years of age, I did not expect to get this award. I really didn’t. I am really grateful to the Academy and thank you. I feel very privileged and honoured,” he said in the video.

  • Best picture for Nomadland, Best VFX for Tenet: Here’s the complete list of winners at 93rd Oscars

    By Associated Press
    Final winners at the 93rd Academy Awards:

    Best picture: ‘Nomadland’

    Best director: Chloé Zhao for ‘Nomadland’

    Best actor: Anthony Hopkins for ‘The Father’

    Best actress: Frances McDormand for ‘Nomadland’

    Original screenplay: Emerald Fennell for ‘Promising Young Woman’ 

    Adapted screenplay: Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for ‘The Father’

    International film: Another Round (Denmark)

    Best supporting actor: Daniel Kaluuya for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’

    Best supporting actress: Yuh-Jung Youn for ‘Minari’

    Best Sound Design: ‘Sound of Metal’

    Best Makeup and hairstyling: ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

    Best Costume design: Ann Roth for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

    Best Live action short film: ‘Two Distant Strangers’

    Best Animated short film: ‘If Anything Happens I Love You’

    Best Animated feature: ‘Soul’

    Best Documentary short subject: ‘Colette’

    Best Documentary feature: ‘My Octopus Teacher’

    Best Visual effects: ‘Tenet’

    Best Production design: ‘Mank’

    Best Cinematography: ‘Mank’

    Best Editing: ‘Sound of Metal’

    Best Original score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste for ‘Soul’

    Best Original song: “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas)

  • Oscars 2021: In a surprise, Anthony Hopkins wins best actor for ‘The Father’

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Veteran Hollywood star Anthony Hopkins won the best actor award at the 93rd Academy Awards for his role in “The Father”. It was a surprise win for the actor as many expected the Academy to honour late star Chadwick Boseman for his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”.

    In the last few weeks actor Riz Ahmed had also emerged as a challenger for his performance in “Sound of Metal”. Boseman died in 2020 after a secret four-year battle with colon cancer. Other nominees in the category were Gary Oldman and Steven Yeun.

    It is the second Academy award for the 83-year-old actor after his widely loved turn as serial killer Hannibal Lector in 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs”. Hopkins had earned nominations in the past for his roles in “The Remains of the Day” and “Nixon” and as a best supporting actor for “The Two Popes” and “Amistad”.

    Directed and co-written by Florian Zeller, “The Father”, is adapted from his own critically acclaimed play ‘Le Pere’ (‘The Father’), which takes a raw and unflinching look at dementia, examining how the lines between reality and delusion blur as the disease takes over.

    It revolves around an ageing man, Anthony (Hopkins) who battles his own diminishing mind. When his caring daughter (Olivia Colman) is forced to choose between the ailing parent and moving to Paris with her new found love, the duo’s bond is put to the ultimate test.

    The film also features actors Mark Gatiss and Imogen Poots. The veteran star has already won British Academy Film Awards for “The Father”. Hopkins will next be seen in indie feature film “Where Are You”, alongside his “Westworld” co-star Angela Sarafyan as well as actors Camille Rowe, Madeline Brewer, Mickey Sumner and Ray Nicholson.

    Valentina De Amicis and Riccardo Spinotti will co-direct the film from a screenplay they wrote with Matt Handy.

  • 93rd Oscars: ‘Nomadland’ bags Best Picture, Anthony Hopkins wins Best Actor for ‘The Father’

    By Associated Press
    Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland”, a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao also became just the second woman to win best director, and the first woman of color.

    The “Nomadland” victory, while widely expected, nevertheless capped the extraordinary rise of Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third, and which – with a budget less than USD 5 million and featuring a cast populated by non-professional actors – ranks as one of the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood’s top honor.

    Zhao’s next film, Marvel’s “Eternals”, has a budget approximately 40 times that of “Nomadland”. Only Kathryn Bigelow, 11 years ago for “The Hurt Locker”, had previously won best director. But “Nomadland”, as a plain-spoken meditation on solitude, grief and grit, stuck a chord in a pandemic-ravaged year. It made for an unlikely Oscar champ: A film about people who gravitate to the margins took center stage.

    “I have always found goodness in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in the world. This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold on to the goodness in themselves and to hold on the goodness in other no matter how difficult it is to do that,” said Zhao when accepting best director.

    With a howl, “Nomadland” star Frances McDormand implored people to seek out her film and others on the big screen. Released by the Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, “Nomadland” premiered at a drive in and debuted in theaters, but found its largest audience on Hulu.

    “Please watch our movie on the largest screen possible and one day very, very soon, take everyone you know into a theater, shoulder to shoulder in that dark space, and watch every film that’s represented here tonight,” McDormand said.

    Soon after, McDormand won best actress, too. The win puts McDormand (previously a winner for “Fargo” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) in rare company as a three-time acting winner. Only Katherine Hepburn (a four-time winner) has won best actress more times.

    In the night’s biggest surprise, best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for the dementia drama “The Father”. The award had been widely expected to go to Chadwick Boseman for his final performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. Hopkins was not in attendance.

    The most ambitious award show held during the pandemic, the Oscars rolled out a red carpet and restored some glamour to the nearly century-old movie institution, but with a much transformed – and in some ways downsized – telecast.

    It was a year when, to paraphrase Norma Desmond, the pictures got smaller were overwhelmingly seen in the home, not in the big screen, during a pandemic year that forced theaters close and prompted radical change in Hollywood.

    It was also perhaps the diverse Academy Awards ever, with more women and more actors of color nominated than ever before – and Sunday brought a litany of records and firsts across many categories, spanning everything from hairstyling to composing to acting.

    It was, some observers said, a sea change for an awards harshly criticized as “OscarsSoWhite” in recent years, leading the film academy to greatly expand membership.

    The ceremony – fashioned as a movie of its own and styled as a laidback party – kicked off with opening credits and a slinky Regina King entrance, as the camera followed the actress and “One Night in Miami” director in one take as she strode with an Oscar in hand into Los Angeles’ Union Station and onto the stage.

    Inside the transit hub (trains kept running), nominees sat at cozy, lamp-lit tables around an intimate amphitheater. Some moments – like Glenn Close getting down to “Da Butt” – were more relaxed, but the ceremony couldn’t just shake off the past 14 months. “It has been quite a year and we are still smack dab in the middle of it,” King said.

    Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah”. The win for the 32-year-old British actor who was previously nominated for “Get Out”, was widely expected. Kaluuya won for his fiery performance as the Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, whom Kaluuya thanked for showing him “how to love myself”.

    “You’ve got to celebrate life, man. We’re breathing. We’re walking. It’s incredible. My mum met my dad, they had sex. It’s amazing. I’m here. I’m so happy to be alive,” said Kaluuya while cameras caught his mother’s confused reaction.

    With the awards capping a year of national reckoning on race and coming days after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted for killing George Floyd, police brutality was on the minds of many attendees. King said that if the verdict had been different, she might have traded her heels for marching boots.

    Travon Free, co-director of the live-action short winner “Two Perfect Strangers”, wore a suit jacket lined with the names of those killed by police. His film dramatizes police brutality as an inescapable time loop like a tragic “Groundhog’s Day” for Black Americans.

    “Today, the police will kill three people. And tomorrow, the police will kill three people. And the day after that, the police will kill three people because on average, the police in America everyday kill three people, which amounts to about a thousand people a year. Those people happen to disproportionately be Black people,” said Free.

    Best supporting actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn for the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s tender Korean-American family drama “Minari”.

    The 72-year-old Youn, a well-known actress in her native South Korea, is the first Asian actress to win an Oscar since 1957 and the second in history. She accepted the award from Brad Pitt, an executive producer on “Minari”. “Mr. Brad Pitt, finally. Nice to meet you,” said Youn.

    Hairstylists Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” became the first Black women to win in makeup and hairstyling. Ann Roth, at 89 one of the oldest Oscar winners ever, also won for the film’s costume design.

    The night’s first award went to Emerald Fennell, the writer-director of the provocative revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman”, for best screenplay. Fennell, winning for her feature debut, is the first woman win solo in the category since Diablo Cody (“Juno”) in 2007.

    The broadcast instantly looked different. It’s being shot in 24 frames-per-second and in more widescreen format. In a more intimate show without an audience beyond nominees, winners were given wider latitude in their speeches.

    The telecast, produced by a team led by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, moved out of the awards’ usual home, the Dolby Theatre, for Union Station. With Zoom ruled out for nominees, the telecast included satellite feeds from around the world. Performances of the song nominees were pre-taped and aired during the preshow.

    “Husavik (My Hometown)” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” was preformed from the Iceland town’s harbor. Others were sung from atop of the academy’s new USD 500 million film museum.

    Pixar notched its 11th best animated feature Oscar with “Soul”, the studio’s first feature with a Black protagonist. Peter Docter’s film, about a about middle-school music teacher (Jamie Foxx), was one of the few big-budget movies in the running at the Academy Awards.

    (It also won best score, making Jon Batiste the second Black composer win the award, which he shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.) Another was Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which last September attempted to resuscitate moviegoing during the pandemic, took best visual effects.

    David Fincher’s “Mank”, a lavishly crafted drama of 1940s Hollywood made for Netflix, came in the lead nominee with 10 nods and went home with award for cinematography and for production design.

    Best adapted screenplay went to the dementia drama “The Father”. “My Octopus Teacher”, a film that found a passionate following on Netflix, won best documentary. Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round” won best international film, an award he dedicated to his daughter, Ida, who in 2019 was killed in a car crash at age 19.

    The red carpet was back Sunday, minus the throngs of onlookers and with socially distanced interviews. Only a handful of media outlets were allowed on site, behind a velvet rope and some distance from the nominees.

    Casual wear, the academy warned nominees early on, was a no-no. Stars, limited to a plus-one, went without their usual battalions of publicists.

    But even good show may not be enough to save the Oscars from an expected ratings slide. Award show ratings have cratered during the pandemic, and this year’s nominees – many of them smaller, lower-budget dramas – won’t come close to the drawing power of past Oscar heavyweights like “Titanic” or “Black Panther”. 

    Last year’s Oscars, when Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” became the first non-English language film to win best picture, was watched by 23.6 million, an all-time low. Sunday’s pandemic-delayed Oscars bring to a close the longest awards season ever – one that turned the season’s industrial complex of cocktail parties and screenings virtual.

    Eligibility was extended into February of this year, and for the first time, a theatrical run wasn’t a requirement of nominees. Some films – like “Sound of Metal” – premiered all the way back in September 2019.

    The biggest ticket-seller of the best picture nominees is “Promising Young Woman,” with $6.4 million in box office.

  • Yuh-Jung Youn wins Best Supporting Actress award for ‘Minari’ in 93rd Oscars

    By Associated Press
    WASHINGTON: South Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung,’ the feisty grandmother in “Minari”, captured more than her grandson’s heart.

    Youn, a prominent film and TV actor in her home country of South Korea, won the best supporting actress award at Sunday’s Oscars. She’s the second Asian actress to win in the category, more than four decades after Japanese-born Miyoshi Umeki earned the trophy for 1957’s “Sayonara”.

    In her acceptance speech, Youn was as charmingly candid as her character in “Minari”. “You are all forgiven” for what she called the frequent mangling of her name, she said, smiling. She acknowledged what she called her “Minari” family and the formidable peers in the category.

    “I don’t believe in competition. How can I win over Glenn Close,” she said of her fellow nominee. She credited a “little bit of luck” for her Oscar, “and maybe American hospitality for the Korean actor”. She also thanked her two sons, “who make me go out and work. ….This is the result, because Mommy works so hard,” Youn said, holding her Oscar aloft.

    Youn teased presenter Brad Pitt, who announced her award and whose company was involved in the production of “Minari”, for not visiting the set in Oklahoma. “Nice to meet you,” she said, later taking his arm as she walked offstage. Pitt gave her the envelope containing her name.

    The first Korean woman to be nominated for an Oscar, Youn’s victory comes one year after academy voters snubbed the South Korean cast of best picture winner “Parasite”.

    Youn plays Soon-ja, a card-playing grandmom with a knack for swearing, who’s moved from Korea to join her daughter and stepson in his seemingly quixotic quest to trade dispiriting work in California for farming in Arkansas. Soon-ja and her initially wary grandson form an unlikely but loving bond.

    Youn, making a rare US screen appearance in “Minari”, captured a string of honors for the semi-autobiographical film based on the childhood of Korean American director Lee Isaac Chung.

    The Screen Actors Guild and the British film and TV academy were among those honoring her performance in “Minari”, which earned Oscar nominations including best picture, director and lead actor for Steven Yuen (“The Walking Dead”).

    Youn became an instant film star in South Korea with her 1971 debut “Fire Woman”. At the peak of her career, she married popular singer Cho Young-nam and moved with him to the United States, where he performed at Billy Graham’s church.

    Her American detour put her career on hold for nearly a decade, until she returned to South Korea, her marriage ended and she resumed acting.