Deadline Hollywood - Oscar Nominees 02/08/19 by Deadline Hollywood

PRESENTS

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 OSCAR NOMINEES

Glenn C L OSE Yalitza APARIC IO Marina DE TAVIRA Richard E. GRANT Melissa M c CARTHY Spike LEE Adam DRIVER Willem DAFOE Olivia COLMAN Yorgos LANTHIMOS Viggo MORTENSEN Mahershala ALI Rami MALEK Amy ADAMS Regina KING

DEADLINE.COM/AWARDSLINE

The

GAMECHANGER

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How Alfonso Cuarรณn rewrote every rule to bring Roma to screens big and small

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1 0 A C A D E M Y AWA R D® N O M I N A T I O N S

“‘ROMA’ IS A MONUMENT TO THE POWER OF FILM TO INSPIRE EMPATHY ACROSS THE WALLS OF GEOGRAPHY, CLASS AND CULTURE.” American Film Institute

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FIRST TAKE Glenn Close rewrites feminist tropes in The Wife What was left out of this year’s doc crop? 3 Questions: Foreign Language

COVER STORY Alfonso Cuarón on the changing landscape, the misplaced anger of awards season and why Roma is resonating

THE LONG ROAD TO OSCAR The path to screen for the other Best Picture nominees

THE DIALOGUE: NOMINEES’ GALLERY Yalitza Aparicio Marina de Tavira Richard E. Grant Melissa McCarthy Spike Lee Adam Driver Willem Dafoe Olivia Colman Yorgos Lanthimos Viggo Mortensen Mahershala Ali Rami Malek Amy Adams Regina King

FLASH MOB Deadline’s Sundance Studio and New Hollywood panels in Park City, UT

ON THE COVER Alfonso Cuarón photographed for Deadline by Michael Buckner ON THIS PAGE Rami Malek photographed by Josh Telles

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T his yea râ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top d o c s

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BIGGER than WIFE In The Wife, Glenn Close turned the original feminine trope into a work of art so topical it affected people worldwide

JEFF RIEDEL

By A NTONIA BLYTH

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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COMMOTION Glenn Close with Jonathan Pryce in The Wife.

ACK IN THE ’80S, GLENN CLOSE BECAME THE ORIGINAL ‘BUNNY BOILER’.

As Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, she may have cooked up a child’s pet, but for Close, that character was a lot more complex than the crazy woman scorned that audiences often perceived. However, a generation of gleeful misogynists seized so hard upon that rabbit-based terminology that it made it into the Collins dictionary as, “A person, especially a woman, who is considered to be emotionally unstable and likely to be dangerously vengeful.” “Fatal Attraction was a movie that touched a very, very raw nerve

From the 1982 start of her film

everywhere, Close has picked up a

career, playing the inimitable and

Globe, a Critics’ Choice and a SAG

unconventional Jenny Fields in The

award for the role.

World According to Garp, to her

The tear-soaked appreciation of

most recent incarnation as unrec-

the crowd during that first win at the

ognized author Joan Castleman in

Globes is testament to the reso-

Björn Runge’s The Wife, Close has

nance of Close’s portrayal, and to

fought to bring nuance and com-

the meaning behind it—an emotional

plexity to onscreen women, smash-

response that kicked up a few

ing through accepted female tropes

notches as she gave her acceptance

of ingenue, spouse or mother.

speech. It was the speech that really

1988’s Dangerous Liaisons saw

finished people off. As she urged

Close playing the powerful and

us neither to allow ourselves to be

complex, scheming but brilliant

made smaller, nor give up on our

Marquise de Merteuil. But while Close

secret dreams, the entire Globes

counts this among her favorite roles

audience, and indeed people watch-

to date, it’s in spite of the fact that

ing the world over, seemed to nod in

become a tragic figure, rather than

once again, the Marquise was often

approval and recognition.

perceived as an evil figure.”

perceived in a reductive way. As

“I’m floored by how wide my

between the sexes,” Close says now.

In the fashion typical of female

Close says, “She was a woman who

Golden Globe acceptance speech

But in the era of #MeToo and Time’s

roles back then, Alex was often seen

is considered evil when she was just

went,” Close says, “because for me

Up, it could certainly stand a female-

as a one-note character; nothing

surviving, using the same survival

it was truly a spontaneous moment,

centric remake, and who better to

more than a ‘crazy’ woman. “It’s so

tactics that men used in that society.”

and I’ll never be able to recapture

spearhead that than Close herself?

easy to make people who probably

“We’ve gone back to Paramount

have one mental disorder diagnosis

man has effectively won the Nobel

one of the reasons why people

to find out, because they own the

the antagonist, to make them the

Prize for Literature, but it’s her

were moved by it; it really came

title,” she says. “I think they’ve had

bad people,” Close says. “And it just

husband’s name that’s stamped

spontaneously from my heart,

some things in the works, but I do

feeds into the stigma. But I do think

on the award, since she has spent

thinking about my mom. I’ve been

think it would be interesting to take

it would be interesting. It would

her life ghostwriting his oeuvre.

amazed. People have come up to

the exact story basically, and do it

be very upsetting to do it from her

Now, in what feels like a righteous

me in airports and on the street and

from her point of view. I think she’d

point of view.”

denouement for subjugated women

thanked me for that speech.”

In The Wife, Close’s Joan Castle-

that. So, I think, probably that’s

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ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS

5BEST PICTURE ®

BEST BEST SUPPORTING BEST ORIGINAL BEST FILM ACTOR ACTOR SCREENPLAY EDITING “’GREEN BOOK’ FIRES ON ALL CYLINDERS; IT RECOGNIZES SEISMIC CHANGE IN THE INCREMENTAL TURNING OF A HUMAN HEART.” – Ann Hornaday,

WINNER

PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA THE DARRYL F. ZANUCK AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCER OF THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

BEST PICTURE

WINNER

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS ®

BEST PICTURE BEST SCREENPLAY (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)

®HFPA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR MAHERSHALA ALI

FOR YOUR

CONSIDERATION

WINNER

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS ®

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR MAHERSHALA ALI

WINNER T H E M OS T

FESTIVAL AND AUDIENCE AWARDS OF ANY FILM THIS YEAR

WINNER BEST FILM BEST ACTOR

VIGGO MORTENSEN

WINNER

MERICAN FILM INSTITUTE

BEST FILMS

ONE OF THE YEAR’S TEN BEST

WRITTEN BY NICK VALLELONGA & BRIAN CURRIE & PETER FARRELLY DIRECTED BY PETER FARRELLY Untitled-20 1

universalpicturesawards.com

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Her speech touched on how her

Having begun her career in the

mother wasn’t recognized for her

theater at 27, she dipped into televi-

own creative brilliance, but while her

sion, which she would of course return

mother’s life might be thematically

to later with, among other things, a

in line with what happened to Joan,

double Emmy-winning role in Dam-

Close didn’t actually base the charac-

ages. Close was 35 when she starred

ter on her, she says. “I don’t work that

in Garp, then came further critically-

way. I try to create an imaginative life

acclaimed work with The Big Chill and

for the character and not base it on,

The Natural. In 1985, she experienced

‘My mother did this, so I’m going to

poor treatment from a producer on

do that,’ but watching my mother in

the set of Jagged Edge, who allegedly

this was not at all the basis for

when she stands on a podium as a

my life, that’s just become part of my

criticized her appearance in com-

how she chose The Wife when she

winner, she stands for those whose

behavioral DNA. I mean, that’s what

parison to that of Jane Fonda who’d

first signed on five years ago, there

dreams didn’t come to fruition; those

we saw. So, yes, the scenes where

formerly been cast in the role. But that

were scenes in that script she felt

who find themselves largely unrecog-

she’s holding his coat, or when she’s

situation seems only to have shown

so compelled by, she simply had

nized and unrewarded.

helping him with meds. Well, my dad

Close’s true mettle.

to do them, she says. She singles

was a doctor, so a lot of times [it

“I think it might’ve also been the

“Both my grandmothers,” she

out a favorite as the scene where

says. “One had a beautiful singing

was] the other way around, but she

same producer who one time was

Jonathan Pryce as Joan’s husband

voice and could have had a career as

was there doing that.”

standing right in my eye line,” she

is accepting the Nobel Prize that

a singer. My maternal grandmother

As she’s weighed awards in her

says. “At one point in that movie, I

should have been hers. There’s a

would have been, I think, a phenom-

hand these past few weeks, her grand-

was in an office set with a phone

long, long moment when the cam-

enal actress. Neither of them were

mother’s ring has been on her finger as

on the desk. And during a setup, I

era stays mostly on Close’s face,

allowed to do that. It was because

a symbol of all those who didn’t get the

picked up the phone, and then said

which remains almost expression-

it was unthinkable. My mom was a

chance to stand up and be counted.

to this producer, ‘Oh, it’s for you.’ And

less, yet seems to radiate the white

wonderful writer; she was a wonder-

Her grandmother wanted to be an

he automatically went and took the

heat of suppressed rage. The scene

ful artist. My older sister Tina is an

actress, but was never allowed to try.

phone as though it was a real phone,

was, for her, “quite extraordinary,”

untrained, self-taught, incredible

as if there was actually a message on

she says. “That whole sequence to

artist. My brother is a magician with

tiple Tony-winning theater actress she

it. So, I got him back in a subtle way.

me was very enticing and challeng-

metal—he has a machine shop and

would become, Close wore another

I think I’m very fierce in work when

ing. There are so many good scenes

he probably could have been an

of her grandmother’s rings to an early

I’m fighting for a character. I’ve never

in this film that I have.”

industrial engineer. None of us were

meeting with Andrew Lloyd Webber.

hesitated to stand up for the charac-

With seven Oscar nods behind

mentored. My younger sister Jessie is

“I remember sitting on my bed in

ter however I can. Life is different, but

her, Close is now officially the most-

a writer. So, I do feel, if you talk about

the hotel before I was taken over to

in work, I have that ferocity.”

nominated person in Academy his-

personal fulfillment and a sense of

And long before she was the mul-

Andrew’s house and thinking, well, my

That ferocious defense of her

tory who’s never actually won. But, it’s

feeling that you have had the chance

life will either go in one direction, or in

art has led her to pick smaller films

not the awards or personal accolades

to contribute in a positive way to

another direction, but I have her ring.

at times, based simply on a single

that she’s here for exactly; it’s to truly

society, yes, I think I’m carrying the

It’s a very powerful talisman.”

scene that she wanted to play. While

fulfill her artistry in her work. If and

unmet dreams of many people.” ★

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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CELEBRATING TOMORROW’S TOP SCRIBES THE WRITERS’ PROGRAM CONGRATULATES THE WINNERS OF THE 2018 UCLA EXTENSION FEATURE FILM AND TELEVISION WRITING COMPETITIONS:

Yisong Chen

Jeremy Ball

Sophie de Rakoﬀ

Elise Wanger Zell

FEATURE FILM WRITING 1st Place: Yisong Chen & Jeremy Ball—Fortune Springs (Suspense Thriller) 2nd Place: Sophie de Rakoﬀ—Heart of Glass (Coming-of-Age Drama) 3rd Place: Elise Wanger Zell—Zoe+Ari (Family Dramedy)

TELEVISION PILOT WRITING 1st Place: Lisa Kors—Princes’ Hospital (One-Hour) 2nd Place: Alia Little—Inconspicuous (One-Hour) 3rd Place: Jelena Woehr—The Crafty Women’s Wednesday Morning Murder Club (One-Hour) Lisa Kors

Alia Little

Jelena Woehr

TELEVISION SPEC WRITING 1st Place: Riccardo Angelini—Ash vs Evil Dead: “Live After Death” (Half-Hour) 2nd Place: Lynda Brendish—The Handmaid’s Tale: “Bounty” (One-Hour) 3rd Place: Jonathan Redding—Designated Survivor: “Trauma” (One-Hour) Thanks to our Writers’ Program instructors and mentors: Chrysanthy Balis, Cindy Davis, Cynthia Hsiung, Zac Hug, Phil Kellard, and Steve Mazur. Special thanks to our industry judges: (Feature Film) Jennifer Au, Untitled Entertainment; David Baggelaar, Good Fear Film + MGMT; Chris Sablan, Avenue 220; (Television) Chelsea Benson, Echo Lake Entertainment; Rick Berg, Code Entertainment; and Lauren Dineley, Writ Large.

Riccardo Angelini

Lynda Brendish

Jonathan Redding 12585-19

The Writers’ Program is one of the most prestigious continuing education writing programs in the nation. Alumni include Gavin Hood, Stuart Beattie, Melissa Rosenberg, Doug Ellin, Kevin Williamson, Tucker Cawley, Earl W. Wallace, and Diane Thomas. To receive information about the winners, or to learn more about the Writers’ Program, call (310) 825-9415, email writers@uclaextension.edu, or visit writers.uclaextension.edu.

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CHARTED TERRITORY

Gold Derby’s Oscar Odds At press time, here is how Gold Derby’s experts ranked the Oscar chances in the Best Picture race. Get up-to-date rankings and make your own predictions at GoldDerby.com

BEST PICTURE

How They Rocked You

Sound editor John Warhurst and mixer Paul Massey faced the ultimate aural challenge with rock biopic Bohemian Rhapsody IN TERMS OF SOUND, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY WAS ALWAYS a complex prospect, but the recreation of Queen’s famous Live Aid performance was perhaps the toughest sequence of the film. To make the noise of a 10,000-strong audience clapping sound authentic, Warhurst recalls band member Brian May stepping in to help at a gig. “Brian, he actually got the whole audience to clap along, doing single hand claps, which we managed to also get recordings of and into the film. They all went into the scene.” John Warhurst Then there was the crowd singalong sound. “Fox decided to run this marketing campaign in post production, which was called putmeinbohemian.com,” Warhurst says. Fans sent in recordings of themselves singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which were added in to create the sound of “huge layers of crowds”. In terms of the Live Aid music, sound mixer Paul Massey says they stuck to the archived recordings. “Everything in Live Aid was from the original performance,” he says, “and so it’s very true-to-life. What we’ve tried to create there musically is Paul Massey exactly what happened in 1985.” Malek worked hard to make it authentic, Warhurst says. “On set, Rami would always really go for it. We said to him, ‘The main reason we want you to go for it, is because when we come to put Freddie’s voice on, which is really high energy, you can’t be miming it. Put a voice that’s got the energy of Freddie Mercury onto that face.’” —Antonia Blyth

TO GREAT EFFECT In Ready Player One, Roger Guyett brought his VFX skills to a huge cast of iconic characters READY PLAYER ONE’S VIRTUAL REALITY UNIVERSE OASIS is jam-packed with familiar characters from film favorites, and VFX supervisor Roger Guyett had his work cut out in recreating all of them. “Animating King Kong, or Harryhausen’s skeletal army,

ODDS

Roma

Green Book

BlacKkKlansman

7/1

The Favourite

7/1

A Star is Born

8/1

Black Panther

8/1

Vice

9/1

Bohemian Rhapsody

10/1

BEST DIRECTOR

39/10 13/2

ODDS

Alfonso Cuarón Roma

16/5

Spike Lee BlacKkKlansman

39/10

Yorgos Lanthimos The Favourite

9/2

Adam McKay Vice

9/2

Pawel Pawlikowski Cold War

9/2

and all these kinds of characters—I mean, every one of these things are so beloved by so many people,” Guyett says. “So, there was so much enthusiasm and love for including all these characters, but there were so many. It’s mind-boggling.” He also found a way to give the actors and director Steven Spielberg a true sense of OASIS. “We allowed the actors to get a feel for the sets they were in by wearing VR goggles,” he says, “and walking around the set, and understanding what that space would be like. And in the same way, for Steven to put on those goggles and walk freely around and understand the space that he was directing those actors in.” —Antonia Blyth

INTO THE MATRIX Tye Sheridan in Ready Player One.

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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1 IN 5 PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY HAS A DISABILITY YET LESS THAN 5% OF ACTORS ON SCREEN ARE DISABLED Join the Movement for Equality and Authentic Representation in the Entertainment Industry

VISIT: WWW.RUDERMANFOUNDATION.ORG

The Ruderman Family Foundation is Advancing Disability Inclusion in Entertainment, and is Now Partnering with Yale School of Drama to Ensure Equality for All Actors.

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Doc-Off Diversity is rewarded and long shots hold out hope in the Best Documentary category BY MATTHEW CAREY

ON OSCAR NOMINATION MORNING, DIRECTOR RAMELL ROSS TUNED IN TO SEE IF HIS DOCUMENTARY HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING WOULD MAKE THE CUT. A YEAR EARLIER IT WOULD HAVE SEEMED LIKE THE LONGEST OF LONG SHOTS, A FILM WITHOUT MAJOR DISTRIBUTION THAT DEFIED EASY DESCRIPTION, DEALING WITH AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE IN THE RURAL SOUTH.

Yet when nominations co-host

FREE SOLO

Identical Strangers and then Free

Tracee Ellis Ross (no relation) an-

Solo, which is still playing theatri-

nounced the documentary feature

cally after opening in September.

category, there it was: Hale Coun-

Of those three films only Free

ty had beaten the odds.

Solo wound up with a nomination.

“I was at home with my partner.

Free Solo, about climber Alex

We woke up 10 minutes before the

Honnold’s death-defying ascent

announcement, not to stress too

of Yosemite’s El Capitan, not only

much,” Ross recalls. “And then when

benefitted from stellar returns—over

it happened we both looked at each

$13.5 million to date—but from ro-

other and continued watching. We

bust promotional efforts from direc-

let time pass just to make sure they

tors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and

didn’t back up and go, ‘We actually

Jimmy Chin. The filmmaking couple

made a mistake.’”

worked hard to keep their film top

What Hale County’s nomination

of mind with voters, appearing at

tells us is that Oscar Documentary

multiple pre-nomination panel dis-

Branch voters gave due consideration

cussions including one mounted by

to all the shortlisted contenders—

the Asian Coalition of AMPAS.

even ‘smaller’ films without promi-

Paradoxically, being unable to

nent backing—and did not simply

campaign may have ultimately

crown the year’s biggest box office

benefitted Talal Derki, the Syrian-

hits. Indeed, the giant shock from the

born director of Of Fathers and Sons.

announcements was the absence

Derki, who is based in Berlin, received

of Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My

significant media attention after

Neighbor?, which earned an incred-

he was denied a visa by the State

ible $22.8 million in theatrical release.

Department to come to the U.S. in

Neighbor may have peaked

support of his film. The Trump ad-

too soon, registering its greatest

ministration eventually granted the

impact last summer, only to cede

director permission to visit, but that

some of the buzz to doc block-

decision came on January 14, the

busters that followed—first Three

final day of Oscar nomination voting.

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cret athletics doping program, was constantly in the news last year because its Oscar campaign coincided with the Winter Olympics in South Korea, where the Russian team was officially banned for the very practices uncovered in Icarus. MINDING THE GAP

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING

In like fashion, worries about Justice Ginsburg’s health have kept the jurist, and RBG, fresh in the minds of voters. In November of last year she fractured ribs in a fall and the following month doctors discovered cancerous nodules on her lung. The filmmakers have become unofficial spokespeople for Ginsburg as she recovers from cancer surgery. “I can tell you from observing her over the almost two years that we were filming, she is a woman of extraordinary stamina,”

SOLO

RBG

OF FATHERS AND SONS

West told Deadline in late December. “She is one tough cookie.” This year’s Oscar documentary

story of childhood trauma that he

But in the Documentary Feature

nominations are noteworthy for

sents the sole international-focused

and two friends endured as they

category not a single white male

other reasons, among them the

documentary to earn an Oscar

grew up in the rustbelt town of

director claimed a nomination, a

absence of a Netflix-produced

nomination this year. Derki posed as

Rockford, Illinois.

point not lost on Tabitha Jackson,

film. Netflix went all the way last

who heads the Sundance Insti-

year with Icarus, but the streamer’s

tute’s documentary film program.

big contender this time, Sandi Tan’s Shirkers, came up short.

Of Fathers and Sons repre-

a jihadist sympathizer to gain access

In earlier iterations of the film

to a militant Islamist family in North-

Liu focused just on his skateboard-

ern Syria, creating a compelling por-

ing buddies Zack Mulligan and Keire

“It’s notable,” Jackson says.

trait of family patriarch Abu Osama

Johnson, and didn’t include himself.

“The question one then asks is

Meanwhile, rival streaming service

and his eight sons. The fate of the

He later decided to incorporate his

this a blip or is there a reason why

Hulu scooped up a nomination

boys remains uncertain—some were

own experience of abuse at the

this has happened this year? And

with Minding the Gap.

dispatched to jihadist training camps

hands of his late stepfather, and shot

I think one answer might be, with

The nominations also un-

as Derki filmed—but the director

a powerful scene with his mother

the Academy intentionally open-

derscore the importance of the

recently learned of Osama’s demise.

in which they discuss the family’s

ing up the people who are voting

Sundance factor. Four of the

dysfunctional dynamics.

members to be more representa-

five nominated documentaries

“The main character got killed

tive of the population at large,

premiered at the film festival last

bomb that was sent to them by

myself in the film, just on a story-

and certainly of the filmmaking

January (only Free Solo premiered

another group. It exploded in his

telling level—like, why would I be in

population, it means that you’re

elsewhere—at the Telluride Film

face. So he was doing his job,” he

the film?” Liu says about his earlier

going to get a different kind of film

Festival), further evidence of

notes ruefully. “The film is showing

ambivalence. What changed his

recognized, anointed and project-

Sundance’s role as the preeminent

how his life is dangerous, how he

mind, he notes, was learning that his

ed forward.”

launching pad for awards-contend-

really wanted to be martyred, so he

friend Zack had been abusive to his

got his request.”

girlfriend Nina.

when he was dismantling a car

“I didn’t really see a need to put

Two women—Betsy West and Julie Cohen—directed RGB, the hit

ing nonfiction movies. “In addition to four of the

Documentaries like Of Fathers

“And from that I really had to

documentary that also claimed an

nominated films premiering at the

and Sons and Hale County, where

rethink what the film was; what

Oscar nomination this year. The

festival, three of the films were sup-

the filmmaker had strong emotion-

gives me the right to go there,” Liu

film about Supreme Court Justice

ported by the [Sundance Institute’s]

al ties to the material, appeared to

explains. “I think interviewing my

Ruth Bader Ginsburg made just

documentary film program,” Jackson

resonate most with voters. Such

mom was an attempt to do that and

over $14 million in 2018.

notes. “That is also gratifying.”

was the case with Minding the Gap,

it ended up working.”

which earned an Oscar nomina-

The Academy has been criti-

RBG’s fortunes with the Acad-

Odds are many of the documen-

emy have been boosted by what

taries that will vie for Oscars next

tion for 30-year-old director Bing

cized in some years for failing to

might be called the Icarus ef-

year just made their debut in the

Liu. His film tells a deeply personal

recognize a diverse array of talent.

fect. That film, about Russia’s se-

snows of Sundance 2019. ★

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Three Questions: Foreign Language The five nominated directors answer Deadline’s biggest queries BY NANCY TARTAGLIONE

1 14

What more could we be doing to give

an interest, and an openness to other

see every day on these shows.

foreign language cinema a bigger

cultures that would last a lifetime. And

Pawlikowski: In Europe it’s not an is-

platform in the United States?

the students would love it.

sue. We are all foreign. As regards the

Cuarón: We definitely need a switch of

Kore-eda: I feel this is the most difficult

European Film Awards, there’s no one

paradigm. Audiences are definitely hungry

issue. I hope to absorb the experience I

dominant language among the nomi-

for these films, but they just don’t get the

have gained this time in order to connect

nated films. The cinemagoing culture in

promotion. They don’t have the spaces.

it to my next film project.

the US is different. You have a billion-

They’re relegated to these small little

Labaki: What draws audiences to foreign

dollar film industry and a broad mass of

theaters. You have Cold War competing

language films in movie theaters is not so

cinemagoers who don’t seem too terribly

with Mega Avengers 5, you know? And by

much the advertising, but primarily the

interested in foreign parts, unless there

the way, I enjoy tentpole movies. I want to

publicity and press; interviews and stories

is an American angle, and sadly I don’t

do tentpole movies. But I want all movies

on television, radio, in print, and espe-

see this changing any time soon. As

to co-exist.

cially heightened activity on social media.

regards the Academy, it seems to be on

Henckel von Donnersmarck: I think it

Foreign films need as much attention as

the right path. The fact that two foreign

would have to start at the school level.

possible. A national television show ap-

language films have gatecrashed the

Perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst idea

pearance of a director or star of a foreign

main categories shows that it’s becoming

to have schools take one day off every

language movie can move the needle on

more aware of foreign cinema. This may

month to go and see a foreign film in the

the box office more than any Hollywood

have something to do with the fact that

theater, with all the teachers and all the

studio film, because it is unique and dif-

the Academy has opened up to more

students. I think that could build a habit,

ferent from the normal interviews people

members from abroad.

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What have you learned from your Oscar journeys? What advice would you give your This row: Nadine Labaki and Alfonso Cuarón. Bottom row: Hirokazu Kore-eda, Pawel Pawlikowski, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

fellow filmmakers? Cuarón: It’s not in your hands. It’s so great that these films are not only being celebrated, but offered the microphone that awards season provides. So my advice? Just relax and enjoy the ride. And don’t be lured in for the wrong reasons. Hollywood is amazing, and I’m very grateful to

Hollywood, but it also brings out the wrong reasons for doing things in you, and such fantastic, specific voices can sometimes be lured by something that they shouldn’t be doing. Henckel von Donnersmarck: From are Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann

happens when your producer is also

what I’ve heard, filmmakers in our

who have been my friends since

a great, crazy artist. The result is a

category are a little concerned,

film school, when they produced a

very strong, collaborative relation-

under the new rules, if Academy

short film for my brother and I saw

ship that gave me wings during the

members will even see the all the

how incredibly good they were at

whole process.

nominated movies before voting.

making things happen. They had

Pawlikowski: I’ve worked with

But I’ve been a member for over

never produced a theatrical feature

Tanya [Seghatchian] and Ewa

10 years now; I’ve known Academy

before The Lives of Others, but have

[Puszczyńska] before. They both

members to play by the rules. I

since built Wiedemann & Berg into

know my eccentric working meth-

don’t think people will cast a vote

an important German production

ods, and give me a lot of elbow room

on Foreign Language Film without

company. The fourth producer is

to really handmake the film, which is

having seen all five nominees.

The Foreign Language Oscar

Christiane, my wife. She is a copy-

the way I like to work.

Kore-eda: It might be the showbusi-

category rewards a director who

right lawyer by training, and actually

ness aspect of films.

is considered the author of their

taught Max and Quirin copyright law

Labaki: I’ve learned the importance

work, whereas the main Best Pic-

in film school. Without her, nothing

of sharing my experience, talking

ture category gives recognition

would be possible.

about it in Q&As and with the press.

to the producer. What’s your rela-

Kore-eda: During the past five years

It is very important for this film be-

tionship with your producers?

I have built a continuing relationship

cause of the message that it carries.

Cuarón: My producers were abso-

with my producers, allowing me to

It is important to have a platform and

lutely fundamental to me on Roma.

increase the pace of my filmmaking.

an arena to echo its cause as far and

And it’s not just about carrying the

Labaki: The main producer of

ship through production, but also

Capernaum is my husband, Khaled

the whole life that you’re going to

Mouzanar. He has been a true col-

give your film later on, in terms of not

laborator. He created this familial,

only the marketing and distribution,

organic homemade approach to the

but also the message you’re sending

whole production, allowed me to

with your film.

work with the least concessions pos-

Henckel von Donnersmarck: I had

sible—taking my time in everything,

four producers, and my relationship

improvising a lot, changing schedules

is very different with each one of

non-stop, allowing reality and life to

them. The first-billed is my partner

intrude a lot in the process. All of the

in Pergamon Films, Jan Mojto, who

different aspects of the production

also financed my film The Lives of

were executed by him, from financ-

Others, and many other highly-visible

ing, to producing, to post-producing

German films. He is that rarest of

and even distributing. He had to put

breeds: an intellectual and a great

our home on mortgage without tell-

businessman all in one. Then there

ing me to start the film; this is what

[The Academy] seems to be on the right path. The fact that two foreign language films have gatecrashed the main categories shows that it’s becoming more aware of foreign cinema.” PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI

big as possible, and actually realizing that you are in the capital of cinema where whatever you say reaches the whole world. This is an extraordinary and blessed opportunity. Pawlikowski: Your film is what it is. Do your best to explain it to audiences. But don’t let yourself be driven crazy by all the fuss; don’t take any of it personally. So much of it is about PR strategies, about the mood of the moment, the politics and the insane amounts of money spent on promotion. The Oscars are a great ride and a great platform to show your film, but as for its real value, time will always be the best judge. ★

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COMING

WITH 10 NOMINATIONS, ROMA RETURNS ALFONSO CUARÓN TO the Academy Awards after his last film, 2013’s Gravity, made him the first Mexican Best Director winner. His fellow countrymen Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro have since multiplied the success. But the landscape of cinema has shifted even in this past half-decade. Joe Utichi meets the auteur who knew that making an impact with a small, personal story of his childhood meant embracing fresh paradigms.

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G HOME

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WHAT IS CINEMA? IT’S A QUESTION ALFONSO CUARÓN has been compelled to answer for as long as he has been making films. Is it a grand theatrical presentation, carefully calibrated and shielded from a home entertainment audience for the longest time possible, or is it much more democratic than that; accessible and open? Is it shot on celluloid and projected such that the tangible sense of each and every frame creates a kind of magic, or can that magic still thrive even when it’s shot and projected digitally, or watched on a screen the size of a phone? Is it epic or is it intimate? Loud or quiet? Bold or subtle? 18

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The theatrical experience has become so gentrified. There’s this whole opening ESTOY MUERTO Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) plays dead with Pepe (Marco Graf).

Cuarón knows that there are no right or

weekend madness.”

raised him and his siblings in Mexico City in

juxtaposed scale and intimacy. So he turned to

wrong answers to any of these questions. Cin-

the 1970s somehow became the vanguard of a

Netflix, then still nascent in its drive to become

ema is something intangible; ethereal. Greater

fight for the industry’s definition of cinema.

a dominant force in both film and television,

Roma was a story Cuarón knew he had to

who immediately understood the challenge

than any one definition or manner of exhibition. Five years ago, in an email to me while he was in

tell. Riding on his previous success, with a long

they were faced with. In the months that have

the middle of his Gravity campaign, Cuarón put

career of hits big and small—encompassing films

followed, the slings and arrows from those

it like this: “Cinema is a mystery that we won’t

as diametrically different as Y Tu Mamá También

determined that they’ve had the answers to

solve in a lifetime. That’s its beauty.”

and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban—he

questions about cinema all along have rarely

was able, with Participant Media, to mount a

relented. And yet Cuarón’s film continues to en-

new film, which might seem like the small,

sizeable budget with which to rebuild the Mexico

dure, captivating audiences around the world,

simple follow-up to the whizz-bang of Gravity,

of his youth and restage some of the deepest

fostering powerful dialogue about the struggles

was nevertheless as monumental a produc-

scars in his country’s recent history.

of domestic workers, and earning a sweep of 10

It goes a long way to explaining how his

tion challenge as his last had been. And how a delicate story about the maid who had helped

But, as he explains now, there was no language for how to release a movie of Roma’s

Academy Award nominations—four of which name Cuarón himself. Roma is cinema. D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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During last year’s awards season, your long-

a surprise factor every time. In that moment, every-

time friend and collaborator Guillermo del Toro

thing is normal. People like some films, they don’t

was faced with accusations of plagiarism for

like other films, and that is absolutely fine. But from

10 Personal Musings About Roma

The Shape of Water, in a lawsuit filed on the day

there it starts turning into a completely different

Guillermo del Toro @RealGDT

second-round Oscar ballots went out, after the

thing. I’m glad you’re mentioning this because these

film had started picking up precursor awards.

stories come out completely out of context, and

This year, we’ve seen awful stories emerge

if these stories are going to come out, you’re left

about many of the movies on this long awards

wondering: why particularly in this moment?

In a series of tweets last month, Guillermo del Toro, last year’s winner of Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water, shared his thoughts on Cuarón’s film

road. What have you made of the negative campaigning that has been going on? It’s just so ridiculous, man. It’s a concerning

Right. The stories about Peter Farrelly this year related to a story published in 1998.

thing, because I think it’s getting more intense all

My opinion on that is, you can question taste, sure.

the time. The awards season should be a celebra-

You can debate whether it was in good taste or

1) The opening shot suggests that earth

tion. I was up in Santa Barbara last weekend on

bad taste, or whether you find it amusing or not

(the shit-infested ground) and heaven

a panel with Pawel Pawlikowski, Spike Lee, Adam

amusing. But don’t turn it into something else. It’s

(the plane) are irreconcilably far even

McKay, and Yorgos Lanthimos, and we’re celebrat-

sad, because it should be about the celebration

if they are joined—momentarily—and

ing, having a nice time, and loving each other’s

at this point. It’s discouraging; it’s really discourag-

revealed, by water (the reflection). All

films. We were happy for one another. I think all

ing. It used to be that an award was something

truths in Roma are revealed by water.

filmmakers—and I’m talking actors, producers,

that was such a great honor for a filmmaker. The

directors and writers—are so supportive of other

problem is that now the agenda is more important

filmmakers, and celebrate other filmmakers. But

for the companies involved. They have more at

then there are some in this industry of awards

stake than anybody else, and that is not cool. It’s

2) These planes of existence, like

season—which has its own life and has become its

not great.

the separation within classes in the

own entity—that operate in a different way than

household cannot be broached. The

how filmmakers operate. It turns this season into

It has been interesting to see how much of the

moments the family comes “closer”

something very competitive.

conversation around Roma is a conversation

are fleeting... “She saved our lives,” is

around Netflix; this new model of distribution

promptly followed by “Can you make

say, “What do you think are your chances?” You

has been the fuel for those dramatic stories

me a banana shake?”

know what? The problem is that I don’t think there

aimed your way. I don’t think the film is get-

are filmmakers—certainly not very many filmmak-

ting lost in that conversation, but has the

ers—that think like that. We’re just happy for the

business overtaken the art?

ride. We’re relieved in many ways, that our films are

There was that fear at the beginning. It happened a

3) In my view, Cleo’s “silence” is used as

performing. There’s always the fear that your film

while ago. When all of this started happening with

a tool for her dramatic arc—that leads to

is not going to perform one way or the other. So

the paradigms shifting, each side had to cement

her most intimate pain being revealed,

we’re in the mood to celebrate; it’s great that we

their narrative, and they propagated that narra-

by water—again—after the ocean

are able to be on this ride.

tive. There’s going to be a dominant narrative, and

rescue: “I didn’t want her to be born.”

that’s the one that everybody was following. Then,

Cleo surpasses and holds her emotions

thing a bit more vicious; or even very much so. The

when another narrative starts to come up, there’s

in silence until they finally pour out.

sad thing is it has become almost like a projection

a conflict there. Many times I’ve said, “Well, that

of how political campaigns are nowadays. Rather

should be in the Wall Street Journal in the business

than politicians showing a vision, it’s about throwing

section, not in the film section.” The business has

dirt to the opponent. So rather than strengthening

completely overshadowed the whole thing.

You see it with the media, when they come and

This industry has turned everything into some-

the values—and I’m not talking moral values, but the

The theatrical experience has become so

4) One key moment, precisely crafted, is Cuarón’s choice to have Cleo’s water

artistic merits of a film and the influence it may be

gentrified. There’s this whole opening weekend

break just as the violence explodes

having—it’s about trying to push the others down. I

madness, and I think that it’s a problem that, while

and her boyfriend breaks into the store

find that very sad. And I hope there’s a way—though

the business model has been sound, it hasn’t nec-

holding both a gun and a “Love Is...”

I’m not sure there is—that it can be regulated by the

essarily been something that’s healthy for cinema.

t-shirt. The baby will be stillborn.

Academy. I don’t know how.

Because then they make the argument, “Oh yes, but the more audiences that come to the cinema,

It’s always done in secret. And I wonder how

the more healthy your industry.” That’s true, but

much we journalists are complicit.

what, then, is the cinema you’re offering?

[The secrecy] is exactly the problem. Everybody

It’s a cause and effect, because then you have

5) In every sense, Roma is a fresco, a mural, not a portrait. Not only the way

always says, “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.” And

studios wanting to conform to that, rather than do

it is lensed but the way it “scrolls” with

there’s so much repetition of the same stories in

something more diverse. What I find interesting

long lateral dollies. The audio visual

this awards season that, for journalists, they need

now, and I think it has to do with uncertainty about

information (context, social unrest,

more stories to create the drama. Unfortunately the

paradigms—the whole thing about platforms versus

factions & politics, morals of the time)

drama is sometimes at the expense of fine films,

theatrical and all that stuff—is that you have people

exists within the frame to be read.

fine people, and fine filmmakers.

in both camps trying to fly the flag of defending cin-

It has also got something to do with the length

ema. The discussion has nothing to do with cinema;

of the season. It’s six months long, in which the first

those are economic models. They shouldn’t even

part, everybody is discovering the films and there’s

touch cinema with their discussions.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

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Michael Buckner

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So how do you combat that?

language movie made for a big budget with a

I believe those two sides need to come into a bal-

huge ambition; a streaming release that you

ance that I think, ultimately, will be beneficial for

knew had to have a life in theaters too. Were

both. But what these new options are providing

you aware from the start that it would be

is more diversity of content. Diversity in storytell-

defining a new paradigm?

ing, diversity in characters, diversity in countries,

I didn’t even know about Netflix. I have to say,

diversity in languages, but also diversity in the way

when I started doing this process, Netflix was not

in which you see films.

even on the radar. I’m going to go further: I didn’t

What should happen, I hope, is that a bal-

really understand the whole thing. It was a plat-

ance between the new paradigms and the old

form I used once in a while, but it was not so rel-

paradigms falls into a healthy place in which the

evant in my life. When I started making the movie,

pressure on the film is not so much about opening

I didn’t question. I had to do the film. I didn’t think

weekend. For those films that do release theatri-

about distribution or anything. I told Carlos, my

cally, rather than having a business model in which

brother, “I don’t know if anybody is going to care

you have to open in a lot of theaters and sell a lot

about or like this movie. I have to do it, because it’s

of tickets the first weekend, you can again open

something I need to do.”

up in smaller pockets of cinemas, but you last for

Later on, when you start putting it together

longer and more consistently. That would prob-

through the process of post-production, you have

ably have to coexist with some shape or form of

to start taking the life of your film seriously. It was

windowing and platforms that are more manage-

a bit discouraging to see the landscape; the con-

able for everyone.

ventional landscape. The thing I have to say here is:

Roma, as an example, there was some discus-

there are some unsung heroes of distribution and

sion about releasing in theaters at the same time

exhibition. They’ve been holding down the fort, and

as on Netflix. We opened three weeks before [in

heroically. But they work under a lot of pressure.

theaters], granted, but then it opened up on Net-

How can we transgress that? How can we turn it

flix and that didn’t affect the theatrical business.

into something else?

Now, we’re in our third month of continuing to play

Once we saw, more or less, what the film was

Roma in theaters. We didn’t open in hundreds of

that we’d made, we had a meeting with David

theaters, but in smaller pockets. And what starts

Linde at Participant, and this is the amazing thing

happening is, in places you would not expect, it

about David, because he said, “This is not a black-

became like it was when I was a kid, with word of

and-white Mexican film in Spanish and Mixteco,

mouth. You start adding other cities, then smaller

this is an experience.” And cinema is about that.

cities, or even towns, and people start requesting

Cinema is about an experience.

the film to play in their communities.

There were a lot of conversations with people who really wanted the film, but there was always a

How much of a struggle has it been for your

filtering of black-and-white, Mixteco, Spanish, Mexi-

producers to figure all that out?

can. And I remember the conversation with Netflix

There didn’t exist a model for what we were doing.

in which they got it immediately, and they were

With Participant Media—who have been amaz-

kind of fearless about all of that stuff. And then the

ing partners—we had to invent that model and

concern for me was the theatrical, obviously.

make it happen. Starting the film off in a handful of theaters and announcing on social media, “You

Are you happy with the way it has worked out?

want the film? You have the film.” More and more

It has been amazing. I really believe it’s also this

theaters started to sign up. That was a strategy of

whole thing—going back to Gravity, I had a con-

the producers and my producing partners at Par-

versation with Chivo [Emmanuel Lubezki] about

ticipant. Participant are not just financiers, they’re

this—that now a lot of audiences are getting used

involved in every part of the strategy.

to certain things. Our viewing habits are changing.

We shared the same values, and the sense,

It’s another reality that we have to face. I can see

from the standpoint of social action, that it was

my kids, and the amazing amount of time in which

important that a part of the proceeds from the

they spend on streaming platforms, one way or the

film went to specific organizations, and that we’d

other. It’s a different thing than how I grew up.

offer a whole web of support to those organiza-

The challenge is now, how we can adapt

tions, that they could use the film as a platform

ourselves to their eyes, but present something

for their movements. Like the National Domestic

that you believe is amazing and great cinema?

Workers Alliance here, or Caceh, which is a domes-

It’s not so much about, “Let’s impose this kind of

tic worker’s organization in Mexico, so that the film

cinema on audiences.” It’s also the conversation

is at their service, if they want to use it.

with them about how they want to watch. This conversation about paradigms was, I think,

The film is a mix of new and old, big and

part of the need of Alejandro and Chivo to experi-

small. It’s a black-and-white movie shot on

ment with virtual reality. “Let’s try to challenge the

pristine ALEXA 65 digital cameras; a foreign

form to see if there are ways to do that.”

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON Sofía (Marina de Tavira) struggles with the departure of her husband Antonio on a business trip.

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10 Personal Musings About Roma Guillermo del Toro @RealGDT

In a series of tweets last month, Guillermo del Toro, last year’s winner of Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water, shared his thoughts on Cuarón’s film

6) It seems to me that the fact that Cuarón and Eugenio Caballero BUILT several blocks (!) of Mexico City in a giant backlot (sidewalk, lampposts, stores, asphalted streets, etc.) is not well-known. This is a titanic achievement.

7) The class strata are represented in the film not only in the family but within the family and the landowning relatives and even between Fermin and Cleo—when he insults her in the practice field.

8) Roma cyphers much of its filmic storytelling through image and sound. When viewed in a theater, it has one of the most dynamic surround mixes. Subtle but precise.

9) Everything is cyclical. That’s why Pepe remembers past lives in which he has belonged to different classes, different professions. Things come and go—life, solidarity, love. In our loneliness we can only embrace oh, so briefly by the sea.

10) The final image rhymes perfectly with the opening. Once again, earth and heaven. Only Cleo can transit between both. Like she demonstrates in the Zovek scene, only she has grace. We open the film looking down, we close looking up—but the sky, the plane, is always far away.

Reprinted with permission from Guillermo del Toro

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Some of the issues and themes dealt with in Roma are not specific to Mexico, just as they’re not specific to the US.” There was this conversation I used to have

That virtual reality experience by Alejandro

with Guillermo about making a 3D film that was

and Chivo, CARNE y ARENA, felt like the first

a more intimate film. We have the preconcep-

step by VR to establish its new language.

tion that certain tools are used for certain kind of

What do you think of VR?

films. Those tools belong to cinema, not to a spe-

I think VR is a different language than cinema,

cific kind of films. The way that we use [Dolby]

personally. It’s fantastic as a piece of art, and it

Atmos in Roma is unlike the conventional use of

was great for them to experiment and see. But it’s

Atmos, for explosions and helicopters passing by.

a new medium. I think that at this point, at least,

It’s about taking the tools you have on the table

filmmakers when they are using VR, it’s a little bit

and trying to transgress from those paradigms.

like early filmmakers taking the language of theater.

If cinema is to survive and have a healthy life, it

But remember what happened with cinema? It

needs to reinvent its paradigms.

started like that and then there were these amaz-

Imagine if we were still doing films like in the

language that’s completely separate and that has

there would come a moment in which there’s no

nothing to do with theater. Actually in my opinion,

new experience anymore. Film cannot be sepa-

the best kind of cinema is something that is so far

rate from human consciousness—how human

away from theater, it’s closer to music.

consciousness is moving on in terms of the rela-

ing artists that started creating a language; a

’40s and the ’50s. They were fantastic films, but

I may be completely wrong, but I think my

tionship with technology, the relationships with

generation of filmmakers are so embedded in

all the gadgets we now have. Rather than follow,

cinema. Probably they are taking VR and impos-

it’s so important to try to create the trends.

ing the models of that different paradigm. And

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With BlacKkKlansman, it was brilliant how he wrapped everything up at the end. Other filmmakers might have taken that ending of the story and made it a celebratory act. Like after that, everybody lives happily ever after and there’s no more KKK. That’s not what he’s doing. He’s saying, “Look, this is cool, no? It was a funny story, it was an interesting story. But see, this is still going on. And even a thousand times worse, because it’s out in the open now.” The interesting thing I was thinking is that maybe we’re in a time of an extreme rhythm and rate of topics and events. One thing changes into the other so quickly. Maybe to talk about today, and to make a good comment about today, sometimes we need to step out of time a little bit, to be able to go to the core of the themes without being distracted by the current issues. But at the same time, the issues remain present. Yes, but they are part of something that is more substantial than just the anecdotes. Maybe ‘issues’ is not right word; it’s the battery of events in the news. Roma has its part to play in that. As the “build the wall” rhetoric intensifies, you are telling a deeply human story about Mexico. Alejandro, as you say, made a VR film about border crossings. Guillermo’s The Shape of Water was about otherness, and repressed classes. The three of you have had all this success in awards season as the world has turned. The political vitriol is so powerful and so painful, I can’t imagine FAMILY TIME Teresa (Verónica García), Sofi (Daniela Demesa), Pepe (Marco Graf), Sofía (Marina de Tavira), Toño (Diego Cortina Autrey) and Paco (Carlos Peralta Jacobson) gather together to watch TV.

it doesn’t circulate somewhere inside when you’re thinking about the stories that you want to tell to the world. Well, I don’t think consciously like that, but everything is informed by my understanding of my reality; by today’s reality. And that is not just about this very obvious thing that is Trump and the wall, but when I think about it I’m very happy, because Roma has opened up a discussion here and in Mexico

I think it’s going to be up to young artists to take

ing masterpiece; an amazing work of art that is one

the medium and create the language on its own.

of those hybrids between two things. It’s virtual

And by the way, my questioning about VR employed as cinema is that it cancels out the purpose

about domestic workers. Additionally, in Mexico, they have had a discussion

reality, and reality doesn’t have any imposed narra-

about racism. You have to see some of the comments

tive. Cinema, though, has an imposed narrative.

there, with some people making all these offensive

of VR, and I can tell you why. The biggest thing that

statements about the caravan of migrants. I mean, a

I recognize in VR is a sense of time and space; the

Alejandro used this new technology to tell a

sector of the population is repeating pretty much the

awareness of time and space. When you impose

story that has played out for as long as there

same words of Trump. “These people coming from

a narrative, you lose the sense of time and space,

have been borders between countries. And

Central America are the worst, they are coming to

because you’re engaged in a narrative. Same as in

Roma uses new technology to tell a story set in

rape our women; they are rapists and drug dealers.”

our daily life where you’re sitting quietly, not think-

the past. For all these new advances, the fun-

That’s the same rhetoric as Trump, but segments of

ing much, you know? We have a sense of time and

damentals of storytelling remain the same. We

society in Mexico are saying it about Central America.

space. And in the moment that we start thinking,

look to the past to talk about today.

we get lost and time passes.

Do you know something? Last week, as I said, I was

some of the themes and issues dealt with in Roma

with this group of filmmakers, and all of the films on

are not specific to Mexico, just as they are not

CARNE y ARENA, and as the whole thing opens,

that panel were period films, all of them with a strong

specific to the US. The relationship between social

you are in the desert. Just in that opening, I could

sense of sociopolitical and historical context. All of

class and ethnicity; all of that stuff is just everywhere.

have been there hours; I was just hypnotized by

them period, and all of them talk about today. Spike is

When I was doing this film I was not trying to do a

that. Then you start seeing the migrants coming

using his film to talk about what happened in Charlot-

political film, I was trying to do film a little bit more

forward, and it was amazing, but I was not aware of

tesville. Adam is using the Cheney era to talk about

about existence. So I hope that people, if anything,

time and space. I was following the actions and the

Trump. And Yorgos is talking about contemporary

relate to the sense of existence and absurdity of

characters. I consider what Alejandro did an amaz-

politics and gender and power.

existence in Roma. ★

I tell you that because I remember watching

What I’m saying with this is that, unfortunately,

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BLACK PANTHER FIFTY YEARS AGO, the phrase

concept, eventually securing sup-

‘Black Panther’ carried more

port from Columbia in 1994.

political baggage than it does

Directors John Singleton

today, immediately summoning

and Mario Van Peebles showed

up images of a militant African-

interest, but the project stalled,

American revolutionary, named

only to be resurrected by Marvel

after by the controversial civil

Studios in 2005, when then-CEO

rights party founded by Huey

Avid Arad announced it as one of

Newton and Bobby Seale in Oak-

ten new films on the company’s

land, California, in 1966. Created

slate. This time development

by Stan Lee in a bid to deliver

moved forward at a faster pace: a

the world’s first non-stereotype

script was commissioned in 2011,

black superhero, the comic book

and by 2013, elements of the story

of the same name materialized

began to appear in the Marvel

around the same time. Unusually,

Cinematic Universe, with the

The Black Panther wasn’t an alter

character, played by Chadwick

ego—it was the formal title for

Boseman, debuting in 2016’s Cap-

T’Challa, King of Wakanda—but

tain America: Civil War. Ava DuVer-

BLACKKKLANSMAN

Lee described the overlapping

nay was briefly attached, then

WHEN JORDAN PEELE pitched

find his own version of the char-

of names as “a strange coinci-

F. Gary Gray, and finally Creed

Spike Lee on the story that would

acter in prep. “It was my thinking

dence”, adding that “maybe if I

director Ryan Coogler agreed to

become BlacKkKlansman, and

that he would meet Ron and want

had it to do over again, I’d have

take the helm. Marvel President

lead to the iconic filmmaker’s

to walk like him, talk like him,” Lee

given him another name”. The

Kevin Feige acknowledges that

first Oscar nomination for direct-

says. “It wasn’t like Malcolm X. No

sensitive politics of the next

it was a slow but sure process,

ing, Lee was sure he was making

one knew who Ron Stallworth was,

two decades might explain why

and defends the timescale. “The

it up. “It was one of the greatest

and that gives you freedom.”

the character lay dormant as a

only way we ever wanted to do

pitches ever,” Lee recalls. “Black

movie property until 1992, when

this project was the right way,”

man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan.

film’s forthright allusions to cur-

Wesley Snipes began work on the

he says, “and that meant finding

That’s high concept. I said, ‘I’ve

rent politics. “These are danger-

a filmmaker who had something

seen this a million times, it’s the

ous times. The film had to end the

personal to say, who had a vision

Dave Chappelle skit.’ He went,

way it did,” he says, with footage

and could take this character into

‘Nah, nah, this is real.’”

of the Charlottesville rally and a

"THE ONLY WAY WE EVER WANTED TO DO THIS PROJECT WAS THE RIGHT WAY.” —KEVIN FEIGE

another arena, and showcase the

EACH OF THIS YEAR’S BEST PICTURE NOMINEES HA S SURVIVED A JOURNEY TO CROS S THE FINISH LINE , BEFORE EVER EARNING THE ACADEMY ’S C ONSIDERATION. HERE’S HOW THEY CAME TOGE THER.

And real it is, even though Lee’s

power of representation on a can-

film bends the truth here and

vas of this size.” —Damon Wise

there to offer an engine to a story

Lee casts aside criticism of the

tribute to Heather Hayer, who was murdered there. And it took the commitment of

that seizes on the rhetorical paral-

all of his collaborators, including

lels with the violence in Charlot-

nominee Adam Driver and the

tesville last year, takes a sideways

iconic Harry Belafonte—a key

glance at the legacy of DW Griffith

player in the Civil Rights Move-

and Gone with the Wind, and revels

ment—to fully realize it. “This film,

in its 1970s setting to play on the

the teamwork was amazing. We

tropes of Blaxploitation movies.

were like the Golden State War-

Ron Stallworth, a black police

riors, or the New York Knicks. We

officer in Colorado Springs, really

didn’t have to sit around saying,

did infiltrate the local chapter of

‘Oh this is such an important film

the Ku Klux Klan. And really did

and we have to…’ It wasn’t even

interact with one-time Grand

discussed. Everybody knew what

Wizard David Duke.

we had to do.” —Joe Utichi

Lee turned to an old collaborator to play Stallworth. John David Washington was six years old when he was given a line in Lee’s Malcolm X. Reunited for BlacKkKlansman, Lee kept Washington away from the real Stallworth until the table read, determined that he

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THE FAVOURITE IT TOOK TWO DECADES FOR

seemed like an odd fit for a story

Deborah Davis’s script for The

based in true history. And yet,

Favourite to make it to screen.

working on the script with Aus-

A searing three-hander based

tralian writer Tony McNamara,

on the true history of the British

Lanthimos found a lens on the

Queen Anne and the two women

story through his own fascination

who fought for her affections,

with the more awkward aspects

Sarah Churchill and Abigail

of human interaction.

Masham, it was a tough sell even

“I was intrigued in trying to

for a market in Britain that spe-

create these three very compli-

cializes in costume drama. A film

cated and complex characters

in which three women rule the

for women, and work with three

roost over their male counter-

great actresses,” Lanthimos

parts, fall in love—and graphic

says. “It was in my mind thinking

lust—with one another and

you never see that: three female

scheme their way to dominance?

strong leads.”

Whatever to make of that?

For Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, the three

"I WAS INTRIGUED IN TRYING TO CREATE THESE THREE COMPLEX CHARACTERS.” —YORGOS LANTHIMOS

actresses cast in these roles, all of whom picked up Oscar nominations, it was just as enticing a prospect. Lanthimos started them off with an unconventional rehearsal period, challenging them to play trust exercises, tie

But Davis knew she had

themselves up in knots and say

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

something groundbreaking, and Magiday and Ed Guiney weren’t

Stone notes. “By the end, I think

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY IS the

the piano keys after the final day

prepared to let the project go

one of the most effective aspects

miracle Oscar nominee this year.

of our Live Aid shoot,” Malek says.

without a fight. In an inspired

of it was that we all felt very,

move, they showed the script to

very close to each other. We all

Yorgos Lanthimos, whose twisted

touched each other, embarrassed

and unique earlier features,

ourselves in front of one another,

including Dogtooth, The Lobster

and became more reliant on one

and The Killing of a Sacred Deer

another.” —Joe Utichi

Typically when a production is

Editor John Ottman gets

mired with on-set problems,

proper credit here with his first

its doom is inevitable, but in

Oscar nomination, working with

the year-plus wake of director

the producers to hammer an

Bryan Singer’s firing, Bohemian

impressive first cut, before Dex-

Rhapsody has had immense luck,

ter Fletcher stepped in for Singer

with the producers determined to

to finish a handful of scenes.

buck sour Singer headlines, after

While a director always gets

he clashed with Oscar nominated

credit for a final cut, Bohemian

star Rami Malek. Graham King

Rhapsody is an example this sea-

shepherded Bohemian Rhapsody

son that there’s no ‘I’ in team.

for eight years, and nothing was going to stop it now. Sacha Baron Cohen expressed

“It’s strange and not strange,”

The press has repeatedly their thoughts on Singer in the wake of the film’s success, espe-

but dismissed it when King opted

cially on Golden Globes night when

against a warts-and-all biopic.

it won for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Actor.

sense that Emmy-winning Mr.

King waved off the question, but

Robot star Rami Malek could do

Malek answered, “There was

the trick, and indeed he did, with

only one thing we needed to do:

a dedication that went to mas-

celebrate Freddie Mercury. He is a

ochistic measures.

marvel. Nothing was going to com-

“I told Graham King if he gave

one another’s lines.

asked the production team for

interest in the project early on,

Then King’s partner had a

producers Ceci Dempsey, Lee

promise us. We’re giving him the

me this role, I’d bleed for it, and he

love, celebration and adulation he

showed me a picture of blood on

deserves.” —Anthony D'Alessandro

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A STAR IS BORN IT’S HARD TO OVERSTATE THE difficulty of shooting on stage in the middle of a music festival. Yet the cast and crew of A Star is Born pulled off exactly that, with only a four-minute window for director and star Bradley Cooper to perform. Serendipitously, it worked out thanks to the star of the film’s 1976 version. Kris Kristofferson happened to be playing Glastonbury on the planned shoot day, and offered a window of time in his own set. “Bradley jumps on stage,” producer Lynette Howell Taylor recalls, “and says, ‘Hi, I'm Bradley Cooper. I'm here to perform a song from A Star Is Born, but you won't be able to hear it. Please just look like you're excited.’” With his vocal feed cut, only the front few rows could hear some of what Cooper sang. “We didn't want the music to leak out.” “There were many minutes along the way where we were running and gunning,” adds producer Bill Gerber, “But that one in particular wasn't just a logistical threat, it was also incredible for Bradley to go from playing in controlled situations to all of a sudden literally singing live in front of 80,000 people.”

GREEN BOOK NICK VALLELONGA HAD BEEN carrying the

outlined the project to Peter Farrelly, and the

story for Green Book in his head ever since he

idea stuck. “Home run!” exclaimed Farrelly.

was five years old, and yet it was not until his

Together, all three began shaping the produc-

50s that he was able to see his dream become

tion, which passed through Focus Features and

a reality. The plot came directly from a period

Participant Media before landing at Universal,

of his father’s life, when, in the early ’60s, Tony

with Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as

“Lip” Vallelonga was hired by an African-Amer-

the leads. The result was Farrelly’s first non-

ican classical pianist named Don Shirley to be

comedy outside of the long-running partner-

his driver and bodyguard during a potentially

ship with his brother Bobby. “People had asked

early days, when, before timing got in the

dangerous concert tour of the racially segre-

me over the years, ‘Do you think you’ll ever do

way, Clint Eastwood had been set to direct,

gated southern states. “Even as a child, it struck

a drama?’” Farrelly says. “And my answer was,

me as something you'd see in a movie,” says

‘Sure, when it happens,’ because I never really

with Beyoncé in the Lady Gaga role. Casting

Vallelonga. There was only one problem: even though both subjects gave him their blessing, they also made Vallelonga give his word that the film would not be made in their lifetimes. After Tony and Don passed in 2013, within just three months of the other, Vallelonga began to map out

planned. I probably should

"I DIDN'T PLAN THIS, BUT FINALLY THIS DROPPED INTO MY LAP—I HEARD THE STORY AND I THOUGHT, I GOTTA MAKE THIS.” —PETER FARRELLY

this extraordinary road trip. To help shape the script, Vallelonga turned

"THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER AND IT WAS UNDENIABLY BRILLIANT. I THOUGHT, WELL, THERE'S OUR GONE WITH THE WIND MOMENT.” —BILL GERBER

have, by the way, because I look at Rob Reiner’s career, and he was so smart. He did Spinal Tap, and then he did The Sure Thing, and then he goes off to do Stand by Me and A Few

Gerber had been on the project since its

Gaga was initially a stretch for Warner Bros., Gerber says. “Even though Bradley and I were really blown away by the chemistry, the studio still wasn't 100% sure. But to their credit, they said, ‘Do a test, spend what you have to spend, and let's see.’” During that test, Gerber saw the magic

Good Men. He showed he could

happen. “Bradley picked her up, and they

do everything. But we were

walked out the doors of her house onto her

just doing what came into our

lawn, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. They

universe next, and we never

looked at each other and it was undeniably

really planned it. I didn’t plan this, but finally

to writer/actor Brian Currie. Then, two years

this dropped into my lap—I heard the story, and

later, during a chance encounter, Currie

I thought, I gotta make this.” —Damon Wise

brilliant. I thought, well, there's our Gone with the Wind moment.” And the rest, of course, is history. —Antonia Blyth

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VICE ADAM MCKAY PROBABLY wouldn’t have

you don’t really hear his name mentioned that

made Vice, his irreverent biopic of former Vice

much anymore, and you don’t hear [George]

President Dick Cheney, if he hadn’t fallen ill

W. Bush’s name really mentioned, but, holy

for a couple of weeks at the end of 2015. The

cow, those were a rough eight years.”

director had recently finished up The Big Short,

McKay started reading the book and found

an arch look at the financial crisis of 2008,

he couldn’t put it down. “I was amazed by

and followed it immediately with a worldwide

what a large, epic American tale Cheney’s

publicity tour, then a punishing awards season

life story is—how far back it reaches, how

schedule. The net result was that McKay got

many monumental moments in history he

sick, and while he was shivering with a particu-

was around for. He had this Zelig-like pres-

larly evil flu, he looked up at his bookshelves.

ence in the ’70s through the ’80s. And then

“People give you books through the years,”

of course, I was amazed by how brilliant he

McKay told the ACLU, “and you just shove

was at manipulating the system.” The final

them up there and don’t really think about

impetus to tell Cheney’s story came in 2016.

them. And there was one about Dick Cheney,

“Somewhere along that line,” recalled McKay,

and it kind of struck me, like, ‘Wow, the book of

“Donald Trump got elected, and all of a sudden

history is about to close on that guy.’ I mean,

we started hearing people say, ‘Hey, I kinda

"I WAS AMAZED BY WHAT A LARGE, EPIC AMERICAN TALE CHENEY'S LIFE STORY IS.” —ADAM MCKAY

miss George W. Bush. He wasn’t that bad, him and Cheney.’ And I really felt like I had to make the movie. I was like, ‘This is crazy that people are saying this.’ And that was it. We were off to the races.” —Damon Wise

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D THE DIALOGUE OSCA R NO M I N E ES

Yalitza

APARICIO

Best Actress Roma

What made you go to the casting call for Roma? Well actually I didn’t hear about it at all. It wasn’t me, it was my sister. My sister sings, and in Mexico we have these things called Casa de la Cultura, which are specific places where they actually foster culture. They support people who want to do something in culture. The director of the Casa de la Cultura in my hometown invited my sister because he knew she sang, and my sister asked me to go with her. Once we were there she said, “OK, I’m not going to be able to do it because I’m pregnant, and you know that I’m not feeling very well anyway. So I want you to go in there; I want you to do the casting, I want you to answer everything they ask, and I want you to act if they ask you to act.” I didn’t want to do it, but I did. You also hadn’t heard of Alfonso before. Did you watch his other films? He asked me if I had seen any of his films, and I said no. He asked me if I knew about his work, or who he was, and I said no, and that I had only seen pictures of him. So he said, “OK, cool. I don’t want you to see anything now until we finish shooting. Then you can go ahead and see whatever films you want of mine. But I want your mind fresh right now. I don’t want anything to contaminate your mind.” –Joe Utichi

DEADLINE.COM

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL BUCKNER

2/4/19 4:45 PM

Marina

DE TAVIRA

Best Supporting Actress Roma

How hard was it to not have a script to work from? The way that Alfonso worked with us, it was really challenging not having the screenplay and shooting this chronologically, but it turned out to be an incredible blessing. For me, coming from a theater background, at first this made me really nervous, like, how am I going to build a character, not knowing where it’s going to go? But it was incredible, because it really helped us as actors and as characters to immerse in real-life experience, and we were really living the situation the characters were facing. You’ve worked in Mexico for years, and given Alfonso’s reputation there, how excited were you to work with him? He gave us a really beautiful gift as actors, because we were doing the film in absolute continuity. We were learning as characters day by day what was going to happen and what the characters were going through. I’ve always thought of acting as being in present tense, and that has never been as true as it was in this process. —Joe Utichi

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL BUCKNER

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Richard

E. GRANT

Best Supporting Actor Can You Ever Forgive Me? Could you have anticipated the way this film has been received? Not at all. Melissa [McCarthy] and I, both our characters are incredibly lonely. They’re failures in life, they’re near destitute, and you’d think two people who are at that level of society are not people that, in movie traditional terms, you’d root for. But somehow, the story of their friendship has resonated with people. I suppose the bottom line is, everybody has friendships. From the moment that it screened in Telluride, people came up to Melissa and I in the movie theater they were showing it in, on the streets and on the ski lifts and things, and said, “This movie made us feel something. We identified with it.” And you can’t buy or bottle that. It’s just something that people felt. Reflecting back on your experience with it, what’s your takeaway? What has remained is the friendship with Marielle Heller and Melissa McCarthy. That is what keeps the whole experience alive. —Matt Grobar

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P H O PT H OO G TR O AG PH R ABPYH GBAYBCRHI E RL I SGCOHLADPBM EA RN G

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Melissa

MCCARTHY

Best Actress Can You Ever Forgive Me?

You play Lee Israel as an ornery, hard-to-like woman with a total lack of vanity. But you make it hard to not feel sympathic. Well, I just loved her. From probably 20-some pages into the script, when I didn’t even exactly have a tangible reason for why I liked her so much, I saw myself rooting for her. I realize she hasn’t really done anything that I should be rooting for, but I loved the thought of someone who just doesn’t need to be validated. It didn’t make things easier for her at all, being caustic and tricky, but I thought especially in today’s world where everybody needs so much validation from other people on social media, I just loved the thought of Lee being like, “I don’t need you to like me; I don’t even really want you to like me.” How did you find the handle to play her? I started by reading everything I could, but while Lee was a great biography writer who could live through other people, she didn’t put herself into her book. She didn’t want people to know about her, so I was learning what a good writer she was, but I wasn’t learning about her. I got very lucky with two of our producers, David Yarnell and Anne Carey. Anne knew Lee very well for 10 years, and David knew her for 40 years. He’s the big reason she finally wrote her autobiography. Listening to their stories about Lee was incredibly helpful to me. And there was a wonderful character written into that script. —Mike Fleming Jr.

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Spike

LEE

Best Picture Best Director Best Adapted Screenplay BlacKkKlansman How much did the movie become about what had happened at Charlottesville in your mind as you made it? When our brother Jordan Peele called us, Charlottesville had not happened. Charlottesville happened August 11th, and we started shooting in the middle of September. Kevin Willmott, my co-writer, and I, we felt that we could make a hit film—a contemporary film—that takes place as a period piece in the past, but that we wouldn’t have to dig long and deep to find things that connect what happened in the story with what’s happening today. There’s a playful tone to the film. Some moments are hilarious. What was that word? Hilarious? I would add ‘absurd’. I think people like the film because they’re laughing. But Kevin and I, we weren’t sitting around writing jokes. The humor comes from the absurdity of the premise. It’s so organic. The jokes are 100% organic. From the six-word pitch onward. And BlacKkKlansman isn’t the first film in the history of cinema that injects humor into serious subjects. I mean, my favorite example, by one of my favorite filmmakers, is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. It’s a film about the end of humankind. But then you get Peter Sellers playing both these roles, and, “There’s no fighting in the war room.” So it’s been done before. But it’s a hard thing to do, because of balance. You have to get the right balance. —Joe Utichi

DEADLINE.COM

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Adam

DRIVER

Best Supporting Actor BlacKkKlansman What is it about Spike Lee’s work that made this film feel like a must for you? I just find his movies completely unpredictable. I feel like he’s an amazing collage artist at times; they’re always unexpected and pretty vibrant. Apart from that, I really liked this idea of playing someone who has this work ideology that he’s set for himself, where he has trained himself to be unemotional about his profession, to self-preserve. He doesn’t want to get involved. Work is work, and you put it aside. Which I relate to, kind of, as an actor, where you’re there for three or four months, and you’re set to do this job, and you’re trying to shut everything out, because you need to focus on this thing. Inevitably, life makes its way into what it is you’re doing, and you think that that disrupts you. But often, I find it actually makes you better and more enriched. How did you approach playing Flip—a somewhat fictionalized version of a real person within a true story? It’s fun. I’ve played people who were real, where they’re around, and in this case, I played someone who was a version of a real person. They weren’t around, and didn’t want to have anything to do with the movie part of it, but both are good. I think you just learn to cherry-pick details of that person that open up your imagination, to then put things away that are making you feel limited, or like you’re doing an interpretation of someone. —Matt Grobar

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Willem

DAFOE

Best Actor At Eternity’s Gate

The film examines Van Gogh’s ideas about art. Did they align with your own? I don’t know how they align. I just came to be turned on by many of the things he said, and what I imagined his point of view was. The movie is not about explaining him away, or telling people who he is, because we don’t know that. What we do know is, we look at his paintings, we paint, we go to the places he was, we read his letters, and we write—sometimes historically-based things, and sometimes invented things. We inhabit those things, and hopefully come up with our imagination of what he was thinking, and what his life was like. But it’s not the historical Van Gogh. How did you learn to paint, on a technical level? It was about getting to know your materials, finding the right place, looking at something, finding out how to hold a brush, how to mix your paints, what kind of pressure, and what kind of attack you have. It’s about making marks, each one a thing in itself, that start to express something that’s not bound by representation, but really gets to the wonder, and gets into the swirl of the rise and fall of things. This is your key. This fucking brush is your key. You’re putting your finger in the wall socket, you know? —Matt Grobar

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Olivia

COLMAN

Best Actress Best Director Best Picture The Favourite

Yorgos

LANTHIMOS

Olivia, you previously worked together on The Lobster. How did that experience influence this one? Sorry Yorgos, but Yorgos isn’t the biggest smiler in the world. But I knew from The Lobster he is actually the biggest-hearted, kindest, gentlest man you could meet. So it did mean that going into playing Queen Anne and putting on the weight felt great. He’s lovely, it’s a brilliant script, I already know I love working with him. I suppose it just made me run into it really excited about the whole process. I was a bit nervous hoping I would do it well, but I think you should feel that when you really like the script and the job. It helped me totally throw myself in because I knew that it was going to be fun. Yorgos, have you developed a shorthand with Olivia? I don’t know that I’ve changed anything in how I go about it. Yes, you get to know each other, you feel very confident and you just go and do it. I guess there’s a trust, but you don’t really have to think about it much or discuss it, you just feel more and more comfortable. I already don’t communicate a lot orally so you just feel like you can be more at ease even while you don’t have to say a lot. So of course it helps knowing the person better and better. —Nancy Tartaglione

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Viggo

MORTENSEN

Best Actor Best Supporting Actor Green Book

Mahershala

ALI

Mahershala, what was it that compelled you about Green Book, and the character of Dr. Don Shirley? This script stood out in a way where it just wouldn’t leave me. It just felt right, and in part it felt right because the story was so terrific, [Shirley and Tony Lip’s] dynamic was so clear on the page, and I loved that character. I’ve never seen him before; I hadn’t seen him on the page, and it was something that made me nervous, from the standpoint of, did I think that I could pull it off? Viggo, Green Book has weathered its fair share of controversies this season. How do you feel about that? It’s a great year for the movies, but it’s a bad year for campaign tactics; this thing of trying to pick apart the competition. What I like is that Universal, Participant [Media], our team, we have not engaged in any of that. It’s just like, “Hey, here’s our movie. We are an open book.” It’s impossible to make a perfect movie, but you try to make the best movie you can, and if you don’t get a fair treatment in the moment, if a movie’s good enough, it will stand the test of time. When the dust settles a year from now, in five, 10, and 20, it’s going to hold up. No matter what the hell people quibble about right now, that’s the truth. —Matt Grobar

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Rami

MALEK

Best Actor Bohemian Rhapsody How did you transform into Freddie Mercury? I just stopped everything. I knew I had a season of Mr. Robot and I was in talks to do a few other things. I put everything on the backburner. The film was not officially greenlit; we didn’t have a studio backing us yet. Graham [King] had faith in me. He told me that the studios were going to need to see something. So I put myself on tape doing interviews as Freddie Mercury. That’s when it all started in some immediate connection. I couldn’t tell you what it was; there was a state of confidence I conjured, having to emotionalize him in a short period of time. I went off what I heard [in Mercury] and I sent it off. I was told it would not be shared, only among a few people. I would be naïve to believe that. I’m pretty sure every studio saw the tape. What wisdom did Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor impart to you in preparing for your role? We would go to dinner. They were absolutely essential to me. Surviving this, even coming close to this, that I was even capable of making this dream a reality. They are beyond classy; they are so sophisticated and elegant and smart, two really brilliant human beings who allowed me to tell the story of their dearest closest friend for the first time. I needed a movement teacher. I needed to be spontaneous. I never wanted anything to feel overly rehearsed or planned. As Freddie would say, “If it’s planned, it’s boring.” —Anthony D’Alessandro

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Amy

ADAMS

Best Supporting Actress Vice The Cheney family are so private and they’re lionized by some and despised by others, so how did you get into the character of Lynne Cheney? I think finding the humanity inside of these characters was important to both Christian [Bale] and I, and we had to set aside our political beliefs to gain access into the truth of who these people were. For myself, Lynne and I do have a lot of similarities. She has a lot of similarities with my mother and my grandmother. Her ancestors came over on the Mormon train; I was raised Mormon. There is this sort of pioneering spirit that my immediate relatives have that her family has. They all had this hope of an American dream and finding Zion, which is the Mormon Mecca. So for me finding my way into Lynne, it actually felt like I knew her. So I just set aside any judgement and dove into the humanity of this incredibly intelligent young woman with razor-sharp focus. This is now your third time working with Christian Bale. He’s just so brilliant, and such a gift to work with as a scene partner. So committed, so well researched, so bold and so daring. He just takes you with him and that’s a real gift for any actor to be in a scene with. —Dominic Patten

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Regina

KING

Best Supporting Actress If Beale Street Could Talk Sharon Rivers creates such a protective, loving environment in this story. Did you fall in love with the character? Well, here’s the thing, especially in the black community, we have overcome so much. Usually, the thing that drives us is our relationship with God and love. Sharon represented my mother and my grandmother, and it was the same for Barry [Jenkins]. We had several conversations about our mothers and our grandmothers. Barry and myself infused those women into Sharon. Playing someone that is such a joyful spirit, it was me being so grateful to have the opportunity to represent the women who are responsible for me being who I am. It definitely came from the place of getting to have the opportunity to, on film, represent the spirit of a woman that I know so well. At what point had you read Baldwin’s book? I read the script and I was supposed to meet with Barry. I said, “No, I want to read the book before I meet with him.” His reps were like, “No, it’s not necessary.” But I felt it was. Just because I felt like I’d be doing myself a disservice by sitting down with Barry Jenkins without having read the book. When I read the book, I was so impressed with his adaptation. When I did finally meet with Barry, as I was talking to him, I had a hard time keeping up with what was that in the book, and what was it in the script, because he honored the book so well. —Joe Utichi

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BEST PICTURE IN WHAT HAS BEEN AN EVER CHANGING SCENARIO since the race for the 91st Annual Academy Awards began in earnest at the beginning of September with the Fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto, the hunt for Oscar has been as confounding and difficult to call as ever. The so-called precursor awards have been all over the map. Critics groups drifted towards Roma; the Golden Globes loved Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody; BAFTA showered nominations on hometown favorite The Favourite; everyone seemed to root for Spike Lee’s best in decades BlacKkKlansman; SAG gave their top prize to box office behemoth Black Panther; an early frontrunner was A Star is Born, a late comer was Vice. The Academy nominated all eight of these films for their top prize, but the outcome remains murky and will probably stay that way right up until the opening of that final envelope on the Dolby Theatre stage February 24th. Nonetheless, here are my predictions. 42

BEST ACTOR This is unquestionably one of the tightest, and perhaps hardest to call lead actor races in many years, but if we are to believe the tea leaves we have been getting from precursor awards, the contest seems to have narrowed between two contenders who have been trading off wins: Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Vice, and Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody—both for roles in which they play iconic true-life figures, and both deliver in spades. Bale took the comedy Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice, while Malek won the drama Golden Globe and SAG award—the latter perhaps giving him the most momentum. Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate and Viggo Mortensen as Tony Lip in Green Book also play real-life figures and could upset. Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine in A Star is Born is the only fictional character represented this year, but he has yet to win anywhere else so he’s looking more like a longshot in the category. The Winner: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

BEST ACTRESS There was a lot of buzz for A Star is Born’s Lady Gaga earlier in the season, but that seems to have faded with the emergence of Glenn Close in The Wife—a much lower profile film that has proven to be the little indie movie that could. It may well deliver veteran Close her first Oscar on her seventh nomination, a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed as she travels the promotional circuit. She tied with Lady Gaga at the Critics’ Choice Awards, but won outright at the Globes and SAG—two key moments that allowed her to give speeches that won her well-deserved standing ovations and helped put her in a commanding position in this race. Olivia Colman, the loopy Queen Anne from The Favourite, has her admirers and took the Comedy Golden Globe, and Melissa McCarthy won raves for going dramatic in Can You Ever Forgive Me?. The category is rounded out by non-pro first-timer Yalitza Aparicio in Roma. The Winner: Glenn Close, The Wife

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Black Panther DIRECTOR Ryan Coogler PRODUCER Kevin Feige STUDIO Marvel OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Original Music Score Best Original Song Best Production Design Best Costume Design Best Sound Mixing Best Sound Editing

Released all the way back in February—not exactly prime time for Oscar contenders—this landmark comic book movie—not exactly prime subject matter for typical contenders—defied all the odds of timing and genre to become the first superhero and Marvel film ever to be nominated for Best Picture. It also became the first to take the SAG award for Best Cast, thereby boosting its improbable ascension to the front ranks of the Oscar race. Though it has seven nominations overall, it is AWOL in acting, writing, directing, editing, and cinematography; all areas thought to be key in gaining a Best Picture win. But whatever happens, this game-changing African-American blockbuster has already altered Academy history just by being here.

BlacKkKlansman DIRECTOR Spike Lee PRODUCERS Jason Blum Spike Lee Raymond Mansfield Sean McKittrick Jordan Peele Shaun Redick STUDIO Focus Features OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Director Best Supporting Actor Best Original Music Score Best Adapted Screenplay Best Editing

Like Black Panther, this Spike Lee joint brings much-needed diversity and gravitas to the game this year, and unlike the latter, this is no comic book, but instead the incredible reallife story of Ron Stallworth, an African-American Colorado police detective who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and lived to write a book about it. Representing Spike Lee’s first ever film to make the Best Picture cut, it opened on the first anniversary of the Charlottesville tragedy, and deftly manages to combine strong social commentary, sharp satire, and especially gut-wrenching drama to leave a strong mark on audiences and on the Academy.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR A strong field that has been dominated by recent winner Mahershala Ali for his riveting performance as Dr. Don Shirley in Green Book. Ali won the Oscar in 2016 for Moonlight, and it could be a short trip back just two years later for a second Oscar this time around. He has swept the key precursor awards with wins at Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice and SAG, and appears to be the one to beat in a group that also includes Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Adam Driver in BlacKkKlansman, and last year’s winner Sam Rockwell, back for his dead-on impression of George W. Bush in Vice. But if there is anyone poised to upset Ali, it might be veteran Sam Elliott for his terrific turn in A Star is Born, bringing him his first nomination in a 50-year screen career that started in 1969 with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Winner: Mahershala Ali, Green Book

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Regina King, a recent three-time Emmy winner, received her first Oscar nomination here for If Beale Street Could Talk—a role for which she dominated the critics’ circuit and won the Golden Globe. However, she wasn’t even nominated by her peers for SAG or BAFTA, throwing a wrench into the race. And SAG winner Emily Blunt wasn’t nominated for the Oscar for A Quiet Place, so go figure. With Roma’s Marina de Tavira landing a surprise nomination here after being ignored elsewhere, and The Favourite’s Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone possibly continuing to cancel each other out, that leaves six-time nominee Amy Adams as the most likely to duke it out with King. But Adams was overlooked at the Globes, Critics’ Choice, and SAG in this category. If she loses, and Close wins Best Actress, Adams will then take on the dubious distinction of being the most losing living actress at the Oscars. This one is a real head scratcher and I am torn and going for a longer shot. The Winner: Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

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Bohemian Rhapsody DIRECTOR Bryan Singer PRODUCERS Graham King Jim Beach STUDIO 20th Century Fox OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Actor Best Editing Best Sound Mixing Best Sound Editing

There’s a reason that Bohemian Rhapsody has become a worldwide phenomenon with over $800 million and counting at the box office, and it goes beyond Rami Malek’s remarkable portrayal of Freddie Mercury. As a tribute to and exploration of the lasting legacy of Queen and their unforgettable music, it speaks right to the heart of our times now; not about what tears us apart, but what can so urgently bring us together. This is a movie that has become much more than just a musical biopic. It is indeed a cause for celebration, and that might be the key reason it survived a disastrous shoot when director Bryan Singer was fired, as well as continuing controversy regarding his past actions. A 10-year labor of love for producer Graham King, it picked up Best Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes and continues to be heard.

The Favourite DIRECTOR Yorgos Lanthimos PRODUCERS Yorgos Lanthimos Ed Guiney Lee Magiday STUDIOS Fox Searchlight Pictures Film4 Waypoint OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Director Best Cinematography Best Actress Best Supporting Actress x2 Best Original Screenplay Best Production Design Best Costume Design Best Editing

Until now director Yorgos Lanthimos’s acclaimed past films have had a strong following among his fans but are an acquired taste for others. This stylish tale of two women competing for the trust and affection of Queen Anne in 18th Century England boasts brilliant acting across the board, and has drawn Lanthimos’s biggest crowd yet for a sort of All About Eve costume dramedy that pushes all the buttons of the genre, but remains true to the director’s uniquely eccentric and engaging trademark. With 10 nominations overall, it is the only one of the Best Picture contenders to have been named in all key categories that usually make a Best Picture winner.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY An interesting group of screenplays, but if you go by common wisdom, the scripts with the best chance to prevail are those also nominated in the Best Picture category, in this case just two: BlacKkKlansman and A Star is Born. In both cases this could be the likely place to honor either of the multiple Oscar nominees this year—Spike Lee for the former, or Bradley Cooper for the latter. Perennial Oscar favorites Joel and Ethan Coen grabbed their seventh mutual writing nomination for the Netflix movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which also won in Venice, but Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s wonderfully literate and acerbic Can You Ever Forgive Me? is the best of a very good bunch in my opinion, and past winner Barry Jenkins can’t be counted out for the audacious act of adapting James Baldwin’s book If Beale Street Could Talk on spec and then gaining the trust of his estate to make a very fine movie. The Winner: Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz; Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Of the two writing categories, this one has the tightest race with four Best Picture frontrunners competing: The Favourite, Green Book, Vice and Roma. Let’s knock out Roma because Alfonso Cuarón is more likely to win in Directing, Cinematography, and Foreign Film. The Favourite is the witty, literate type of script that might stand a chance here, but it lost to Green Book at the Globes, and wasn’t eligible for WGA, so it’s a little shaky to predict. As in the case of The Big Short, Adam McKay’s highly-intelligent and funny Vice is the natural choice, but Globe winner Green Book is so well-liked it would make sense to vote it in here too. The fifth nominee, First Reformed is that film’s only nomination, but I suspect it is here as a way to honor icon Paul Schrader, who incredibly has never before been nominated despite films like Taxi Driver and Last Temptation of Christ. Another tough one. The Winner: Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Green Book BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM This is as solid a list of foreign language nominees as I have seen in a long time. I have to say the Academy committees got it exactly right, beginning with three exceptional films that debuted in Cannes in May: Poland’s Cold War, Lebanon’s Capernaum, and Japan’s Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters. In fact, all three were prize winners in Cannes and represent the best of world cinema. Another entry, Germany’s Never Look Away is truly epic at three hours and 15 minutes, but no less worthy, as I witnessed in Toronto in September. Finally there is Venice winner, Mexico’s Roma, which counts this as one of its massive haul of 10 nominations. It is the obvious frontrunner to win here. In every case where a Foreign Language contender was also nominated for Best Picture, it went on to win here and lose there. The Winner: Roma BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM This category is usually Disney’s to lose, as they are so dominant in wins ever since it was created. This year the Mouse House has two entries: Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 and Disney Animation Studio’s Ralph Breaks the Internet. Wes Anderson and co. are back with another wonderfully quirky and charming entry after first being nominated in this category for The Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009. Now he has Isle of Dogs, but it is an uphill climb against the bigger studio efforts. That same problem stands for the beauti-

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ful independent GKids entry this year, Mirai. Finally, after being dissed with no nominations for previous efforts like Lego Movie and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Phil Lord and Chris Miller took on Marvel and Sony and came up a winner with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It has dominated the precursor awards, so we’ll follow the trajectory. The Winner: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Green Book DIRECTOR Peter Farrelly PRODUCERS Jim Burke Brian Hayes Currie Peter Farrelly Nick Vallelonga Charles B. Wessler

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY This category pretty much matches the choices of ASC with The Favourite, A Star is Born, Roma, and Cold War all earning nominations. The only deviation was with the inclusion of the German film, Never Look Away, which earned a sixth career nod for veteran and Academy favorite, Caleb Deschanel—a real tip of the hat from his peers. He’s the sentimental favorite, but he has to battle the two black-and-white foreign films, including the rare feat of seeing a nomination go to a director: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma. With three Foreign Language Film nominees also named here, it is an unprecedented situation for the category and indication of the globalization of this branch. The Winner: Roma

STUDIO Universal Pictures OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Actor Best Supporting Actor Best Original Screenplay Best Film Editing

PETE’S

WINNER PICK

Already a winner for Best Picture at the Golden Globes, Producers Guild, and National Board of Review, this story of the emerging friendship between a brilliant African-American concert artist and the nightclub bouncer he hires to drive him on a tour through the Deep South of the early ’60s, is a movie that could benefit from the preferential ballot used to determine the overall most-liked of the Best Picture nominees. Everyone seems to love it, and it survived a barrage of negative press, most of which can be attributed to the kind of dirty campaigning that seems to crop up each year. A winning change of pace for director Peter Farrelly, it turns the spotlight on race relations and provides the simple answer: we are all humans. Despite Farrelly’s omission from the directors lineup, this film nominated for five Oscars could overcome that and be the little engine that could.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE In a stellar year for documentaries, both creatively and at the box office, the Academy’s often unpredictable documentary branch managed to blow it, at least in regard to what is not included, namely the wonderful Mr. Rogers docu, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and the fascinating Three Identical Strangers, to name just two glaring omissions. Of those in the race, the harrowing mountain climbing flick Free Solo, and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg docu RBG are the highest profile and most likely winners, against lesser-known Hale County This Morning, This Evening; critical favorite Minding the Gap; and Of Fathers, and Sons. The Winner: Free Solo

Roma DIRECTOR Alfonso Cuarón PRODUCERS Nicolás Celis Alfonso Cuarón Gabriela Rodruiguez STUDIO Netflix OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Director Best Foreign Language Film Best Cinematography Best Actress Best Supporting Actress Best Original Screenplay Best Production Design Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing

BEST COSTUME DESIGN Multiple Oscar winner and branch icon Sandy Powell is back with two of the nominations here for both The Favourite and Mary Poppins Returns. She is probably the one to beat, most likely for the former, since costume epics are usually irresistible to Oscar voters. Of course that period collection also includes Mary, Queen of Scots, nominated here as well. The Wild West is represented by Netflix’s Coen bros. western anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and the world of superheroes gets a nod with Black Panther. It probably comes down to The Favourite and Black Panther: a toss-up. The Winner: The Favourite

Unquestionably the critical darling of the season, Roma kicked things off with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and has won a slew of honors since for its director Alfonso Cuarón, who made this story of growing up in 1971 Mexico City a very personal memory play with a focus on a family helper who changed his life. Shot in simmering black-andwhite, this subtitled stunner is also Mexico’s official entry for Foreign Language film. No foreign language movie has ever won Best Picture, but if Roma can overcome that stigma, as well as those who have a problem with the fact it is streaming on Netflix, then we could be looking at an historic moment.

BEST FILM EDITING Whether true or not, the legend in Oscar circles is that Film Editing nominations are a must if you want to compete in Best Picture. Roma missed the cut, but it may not be a fatal blow to that film as much as it could be to A Star Is Born and Black Panther, also not mentioned here. The race is a toss-up between five other Best Picture nominees: BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, and Vice. The latter and BlacKkKlansman made use of a lot of tricky devices that scream ‘editing’. Bohemian may have earned its nom here due to the fact that editor John Ottman had to finish the film on his own after director Bryan Singer was fired 85% into the shoot. And for that reason, I am going with Ottman and the unique job he was handed. The Winner: Bohemian Rhapsody

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A Star is Born DIRECTOR Bradley Cooper PRODUCERS Bradley Cooper Bill Gerber Lynette Howell Taylor Jon Peters Todd Phillips STUDIO Warner Bros. OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Actor Best Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Adapted Screenplay Best Cinematography Best Original Song Best Sound Mixing For the fourth remake of perhaps the most famous of all Hollywood tales about itself, Bradley Cooper made a critical and popular blockbuster that turns the star-crossed story of two showbusiness figures, as one ascends and the other descends, into something impossibly fresh and new; no easy feat. The film, which ran the table in terms of various guild nominations, has also been named in eight Oscar categories including its lead performances by Cooper and Lady Gaga. But Cooper was snubbed in Directing, which adds a little wrench to the one-time presumed frontrunner’s chances of prevailing here. Other than for Song, it has lacked expected precursor wins, and no film that failed to get both directing and editing nominations has ever won. But with lots of fans in support, never say never in this topsy-turvy year.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Border is the third Swedish language movie to make the cut in this category in recent years—a real feat for the Swedes, who this time compete with Mary, Queen of Scots (for all those welts on Margot Robbie?), and the brilliant transformation of Christian Bale into Dick Cheney. Often this award will go to the team who worked with an acting nominee, and in this case that was definitely Vice. The Winner: Vice BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE I would have said the frontrunner here was unquestionably Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice winner Justin Hurwitz for First Man, but guess what? He didn’t get nominated. So wrong. On the plus side, never-before-nominated Terence Blanchard did get a nod for frequent collaborator Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Nicholas Britell’s If Beale Street Could Talk is lushly romantic. Two-time winner Alexandre Desplat is back with the complex and clever score for Isle of Dogs, and there are a pair from Disney studios with Marvel’s Black Panther bringing a first-time nomination for Ludwig Göransson, and seven-time nominee Marc Shaiman for his Mary Poppins Returns. Another toss-up, but maybe because it is a musical… The Winner: Mary Poppins Returns BEST ORIGINAL SONG Fortunately, the rumors turn out not to be true, the Academy came to its senses and is allowing performances of all the nominated songs. Originally, word had it only Kendrick Lamar with “All the Stars” from Black Panther, and Lady Gaga with “Shallow” from A Star is Born would be allowed to perform, leaving out

Vice DIRECTOR Adam McKay

BEST DIRECTOR

PRODUCERS Megan Ellison Dede Gardner Jeremy Kleiner Brad Pitt Kevin J. Messick Will Ferrell STUDIO Annapurna Pictures OSCAR NOMINATIONS Best Director Best Actor Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Original Screenplay Best Film Editing Best Makeup and Hairstyling

This scathing satirical look at former Vice President Dick Cheney and his ambitious wife Lynne is a brilliant masterwork from The Big Short Oscar-winning writer/ director Adam McKay, who managed to make a movie that tells us exactly how we got where we are. Christian Bale, Amy Adams and an outstanding cast make it all come to life, even though the political nature of the material has been polarizing in some circles, as you might expect. But still, this film came roaring in at the last minute to ultimately grab eight nominations and a unique place in the race this year.

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other nominees, “I’ll Fight” from RBG, “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns, and “When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. But isn’t this one a foregone conclusion? The Winner: “Shallow”, A Star is Born BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN A crackerjack list of contenders here with no obvious winner. It could go in any number of directions. There is the world of Wakanda in Black Panther. There is Queen Anne’s court in The Favourite. What about the moon in First Man, or a revisit to Cherry Tree Lane in Mary Poppins Returns? Finally, how do we resist the exact recreation of Alfonso Cuarón’s childhood home in Roma? This is a rich field and it really is a tough choice. I will play a hunch and go with Wakanda. The Winner: Black Panther BEST SOUND EDITING I’m not sure why there have to be two sound categories. Why not just combine Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, since in recent years both categories have had the same nominees? This year there is one slight deviation between the two. Among the Sound Editing nominees only is the extraordinary work done with silence, of all things, in the haunting A Quiet Place, joining Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, First Man, and Roma. If it were just up to the sound editors voting I would say A Quiet Place, but everyone in the Academy votes on the finals, and they tend not to appreciate that kind of precise subtlety. The Winner: Bohemian Rhapsody

BEST SOUND MIXING Musicals do especially well in this category, so it could be a race between Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born. The latter however was the only film in this category not also included in sound editing, so maybe that puts it at a disadvantage. Who knows? The other nominees are Black Panther, First Man, and Roma. But of course, when in doubt, you can just repeat yourself and go with the maestros who made Queen sound so spectacular. The Winner: Bohemian Rhapsody BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Somehow Black Panther was left out of this category, but Disney studios still dominate with Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Of those, Christopher Robin and its CGI animals was the most intricate, inventive, and pleasant surprise for inclusion. First Man also soared, but may be too quiet. The dazzling Ready Player One is really best in show here, but it came out in March, and hasn’t gotten much of a push at all this season. It is spectacular nevertheless, but this will probably go to the box office champ. It often does. The Winner: First Man BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM You can’t go wrong with Pixar, and they have a lovely entry called Bao about a lonely Chinese-Canadian mother dealing with empty nest syndrome. She makes a dumpling that comes to life, allowing her to once again feel useful as a mother. This is a good crop overall, with the poignant Late Afternoon—a sensitive close-up look at the terrifying onset of Alzheimers, which is likely to score points with aging

Oscar voters. Animal Behaviour, One Small Step, and Weekends round it out. All fine entries. The Winner: Bao BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM The nominees have titles that are all just one word, which I suppose is appropriate for a category called Live Action Short Film. Pick among Fauve—the tale of two boys in a power play, set in a quarry mine—Marguerite, Mother, and Skin. The fifth entry is Detainment, and it is highly controversial—about the incredibly shocking and brutal murder of twoyear-old boy James Bulger in England back in 1993. A petition calling for its removal from the Oscars garnered over 220,000 signatures, and the young victim’s family loudly denounced the movie. I doubt the Academy will want to reward it. The Winner: Fauve BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT As usual, there are some very fine films with heavy subject matter on display here. End Game is endlessly depressing, as it deals with plans for end-of-life for several dying patients. It is at the maximum for eligibility here at a longish 40 minutes. A Night at the Garden, detailing a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in the ’30s is made up entirely of vintage footage and runs just seven minutes. In between are Black Sheep, Lifeboat, and the wonderfully inspiring Period. End of Sentence, which deals with the lack of female sanitary protection in small villages in India, and the Pad Project created by a class at Oakwood School in Los Angeles, designed to give women the ability to make their own products. The film was made by an all-woman team. The Winner: Period. End of Sentence

Spike Lee

Pawel Pawlikowski

Yorgos Lanthimos

Alfonso Cuarón

Adam McKay

Although he won an honorary Oscar for his body of work in 2015, incredibly, Spike Lee has never even been nominated before in the Directing category, not even for 1989’s Do the Right Thing which did earn him a writing nomination. Finally it took this incredible true tale to do the trick for a movie that also won him big plaudits at the Cannes Film Festival, where it took the Grand Jury Prize. Lee uses all the experience and talent of his long career to finally get to this moment, and it was well worth the ride, perhaps making him also the sentimental favorite here.

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Directing prize this year, and a former Oscar winner for Foreign Language film with Ida, this great Polish director also lands his first ever nod in what many thought was a surprise choice. I didn’t. With the Academy, and especially directors branch becoming far more global in its membership, this superbly-directed movie in black-and-white would seem to be a no-brainer. Though it doesn’t have a Best Picture nomination, so that is a major drawback for his chances to win here.

A Greek director making a decidedly British film is further proof of the new international bent of the directors branch, so it should come as no surprise that his fellow helmers nominated him here, or that his movie landed a co-leading 10 nominations overall. This makes Lanthimos the sleeper candidate, especially since this nomination follows the 12 nominations the film received at BAFTA two weeks earlier. If it stages a late-breaking winning streak, then he could be formidable even without a corresponding nod from the often-predictive DGA.

Like Pawlikowski, Cuarón has made a very personal blackand-white foreign language film that really seems to be resonating. Already the winner of innumerable critics awards, the Golden Globe and more, Cuarón is the only past winner in this category having already won here in 2013 for Gravity. This is a much smaller film and represents one of five chances Cuarón has this year to add to his Oscar collection. He remains the heavy favorite to take one of them for directing Roma.

Carrying on the tradition of such great cinematic satirists as Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges, McKay follows up his Oscar-winning script for The Big Short with another caustic dive into politics and the state of our world with this wildly inventive biopic (of sorts) about Dick Cheney. This is his second directing nomination and it just proves the film wasn’t at all polarizing to his fellow directors who likely appreciated some of the bold leaps in style and storytelling to get to the heart—so to speak—of the Cheney legacy and what it means for the world we live in today.

BlacKkKlansman

Cold War

The Favourite

Roma

PETE’S

WINNER PICK

Vice

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Hannah Pearl Utt, Judith Light & Jen Tullock

David Crosby

Hilary Swank

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Jeff Goldblum & Mckenna Grace

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Julianne Moore

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Awkwafina

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