THE NOMINEES FEBRUARY 18, 2023 | SPECIAL ISSUE
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NEWSLETTERS
ORION PICTURES/MGM PICTURES/UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING
DISNEY+ ORIGINAL FILMS
THE NOMINEES PRESENTATIONS
Women Talking
Sarah Polley (Writer/Director)
Dede Gardner (Producer)
Le Pupille
Alice Rohrwacher (Writer/Director)
Alfonso Cuarón (Producer)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Fire of Love
Sara Dosa (Director/Producer)
Shane Boris (Producer)
Erin Casper (Editor)
Jocelyne Chaput (Editor)
SIDESHOW AND JANUS FILMS
NETFLIX
EO
Jerzy Skolimowski (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Ewa Piaskowska (Co-Writer/Producer)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
All Quiet on the Western Front
Guillermo del Toro (Writer/Director/Producer) Mark Gustafson (Director)
Edward Berger (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Heike Merker (Hair & Makeup Designer)
Albrecht Schuch (Actor)
James Friend (Cinematographer)
Volker Bertelmann (Composer)
WARNER BROS. PICTURES
AMAZON STUDIOS
Elvis Argentina, 1985
Mandy Walker (Cinematographer)
Ricardo Darín (Actor/Producer)
Santiago Mitre (Writer/Director/Producer)
Axel Kuschevatzky (Producer)
Victoria Alonso (Producer)
APPLE ORIGINAL FILMS
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Causeway
Peter Baynton (Director)
Charlie Mackesy (Writer/Director)
Cara Speller (Producer)
Brian Tyree Henry (Actor)
SUPER NEON
The Quiet Girl
Triangle of Sadness
Colm Bairéad (Writer/Director)
Ruben Östlund (Writer/Director)
SCHEDULE, FILMS & SPEAKERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
IN THE STRETCH
Academy Award contenders make their Oscar pitches at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event
BY DAMON WISEWELCOME TO DEADLINE’S CONTENDERS FILM: THE NOMINEES.
Now that the Oscars are finally back in full effect after three years of reduced service, our virtual event is—ironically enough—more vital than ever. This unique experience gives you a behind-the-scenes look at some of the year’s biggest crowd pleasers as well as its most artistic critical hits. For this virtual event—part of our rapidlyexpanding juggernaut Contenders series—we invite you to enjoy Q&A panels with the on-screen stars, creatives and craftspeople behind 12 of the films that will be going for gold at the Dolby Theater this year.
What started out as a quick and
easy solution to Covid restrictions has turned out to be a blessing in disguise: streaming our events has not only opened them up to a whole new global audience, but it also offers convenient access to filmmakers dealing with busy production schedules, or, as is the case with several of our panels this time, based in locations all around the world. And in this respect, Contenders is here to bust open the myth that the Academy Awards are solely a vehicle for the American film industry: you’ll see we have films from Italy, Poland, Sweden, Argentina, Ireland and Germany.
When the nominations were revealed, there was that annual period of mourning for the favorites that fell
by the wayside. There were no women at all in the directing category, which especially stung for admirers of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s action drama The Woman King , and Danielle Deadwyler’s powerful performance in Till went unrewarded. Also surprising was the shutting-out of Park Chan-wook’s thriller Decision to Leave , which shocked even the director’s biggest rivals in the international stakes. But the fact that so many high-profile movies didn’t get across the line proves just how crowded the field is this year. And so, to help you make sense of it all, our Contenders Film event lines up the nominees for a quickfire discussion of their projects, allowing them to reveal their methods
HOME STRETCH
and intent with wit, humor and insight.
What’s most exciting about this year’s crop of nominees is that there is just so much to talk about, and not just in terms of features. Starting small, from the world of shorts, we have one liveaction (Alice Rohrwacher’s La Pupille) and one animated (Matthew Freud and Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse). Meanwhile, at the opposite end, we have Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis, a film that’s every bit as big as its bigger-than-life subject. In between, we have international entries such as Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, in which a donkey runs away from the circus; Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl, where family secrets are devastatingly revealed; All Quiet on the
Western Front, Edward Berger’s take on a punishing wartime novel; and Argentina, 1985, Santiago Mitre’s edgy political drama about the fall of military fascism in the South American country.
From the animated feature category, there’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio , the director’s ground-breaking stopmotion retelling of Carlo Collodi’s famous fable about the puppet that dreams of being a real human boy. Representing Best Supporting Actor, Brian Tyree Henry discusses his role alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway , a study of trauma and recovery. Sarah Polley’s star-studded Women Talking , competing for Best Film and
Adapted Screenplay, tells the story of a Mennonite community that is forced to take action against male abuse, and from the documentary camp there’s Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love , a stunning portrait of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, whose mutual passion ultimately cost them their lives in 1991. Finally, for some much-needed laughter, we have Best Picture competitor Triangle of Sadness , a raucous skewering of the lives of the rich and vacuous from double Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund.
So now, with AwardsLine’s Executive Editor Joe Utichi leading the way as emcee, we invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. ★
Meet the moderators
The Deadline staffers who’ll be guiding you through this year’s Contenders
YOUR EMCEE
JOE UTICHI EXECUTIVE AWARDS EDITORJoe oversees Deadline’s awards coverage, including its dedicated print magazine for the Oscar and Emmy seasons, AwardsLine. He also edits Deadline’s special “Disruptors” edition for the Cannes Film Festival and serves as the emcee for its Contenders events. He has been aboard since 2012. Prior to joining, his work regularly appeared in his native UK—for outlets including The Sunday Times and The Guardian— and around the world. He has also worked extensively in film and television, producing EPK and production notes and working as a unit publicist. He is a member of BAFTA and has sat on multiple juries for the BAFTA Film Awards.
YOUR MODERATORS
MATTHEW CAREY DOCUMENTARY EDITOR, AWARDS
Matthew Carey joined Deadline fulltime in 2020, after a long association as a freelancer, to specialize in coverage of the nonfiction film landscape. Matthew is a writer and producer whose work has appeared on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. He has written extensively about documentary film for CNN and CNN.com, Documentary magazine, NBCNews.com and TheWrap.
VALERIE COMPLEX ASSOCIATE EDITOR/FILM WRITER
Valerie joined Deadline in September 2021 from Gizmodo’s genre news site io9 and a freelance writing career that includes bylines at Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Collider, Conde
Nast, Harper’s Bazaar and many others. A writer of graphic novels and screenplays and a lover of all things film, she is part of Deadline’s reviews team and is host of Deadline’s Scene
2 Seen podcast, where she provides a platform for both up-and-comers and established voices. Valerie is based in New York.
ROSY CORDERO SENIOR TV REPORTER
Rosy joined Deadline in July 2021 as Senior TV Reporter. She covers the small-screen industry, continues to lift up talent from marginalized communities and spearheads Deadline’s Diversity & Inclusion coverage. She previously worked at Entertainment Weekly, where she had been a digital news writer for the past two years. Before that, in her freelance career, she wrote for Deadline,
Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Latina. com and the New York Daily News. She is based in Los Angeles.
ANTHONY D’ALESSANDRO EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/ BOX OFFICE EDITOR
Anthony covers box office, breaking film news, awards-season features and festival news. His first job in the film industry was at Savoy Pictures’ headquarters in New York where he worked in film distribution. In the summer of 1999, he was hired by Variety and moved to Los Angeles, and remained in the newsroom covering numerous parts of the industry, including box office, for about a decade. Prior to arriving at Deadline in the fall of 2011, where he co-edited the site’s sister publication AwardsLine, Anthony covered the box office beat for Indiewire’s Thompson on
Hollywood. He also co-produced Matt Walsh’s film A Better You .
RYAN FLEMING CRAFTS EDITOR, AWARDSLINE
Ryan joined Deadline in March 2021 as Assistant Editor for AwardsLine, rising to Crafts Editor in 2022. He received his MFA in Studio Art at The City College of New York in 2019. He contributes to the awards coverage of animation and the craft side of film and television. In his role as Crafts Editor, Ryan also contributes to the editing of Deadline’s AwardsLine magazines and interviews contenders above and below the line.
MATT GROBAR INTERNATIONAL TV CO-EDITOR
Matt joined the editors’ desk in March 2021 after five years as AwardsLine’s Assistant Editor. In that role, he
contributed to the coverage and editing of the magazines throughout the year, focusing on artist interviews revolving around awards season and its big nights including the Oscars and Emmys. Matt also manages the Production Value video series, which spotlights the premier craft talent working in film and TV. He also is part of Deadline’s festival studio team at the likes of Sundance, Tribeca and Toronto. Before Deadline he worked at UTA, 8thDay Pictures and Infinity Management International.
DOMINIC PATTEN SENIOR EDITOR, LEGAL & TV CRITIC
Dominic covers litigious Hollywood’s major lawsuits and weighs in on the current Golden Age of television with his video reviews and more. Before joining Deadline in 2012, he wrote for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
Washington Times, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. A frequent guest on NPR, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and CBS, he also has been a documentary director, TV producer, national news correspondent and a newspaper editor.
DAMON WISE FILM EDITOR, AWARDSLINE
Damon has contributed to Deadline since 2017. As a journalist, his film features, interviews and reviews have been published in publications such as Empire, Total Film, The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times, and as well as covering set visits and junkets, he is a regular attendee at key international film festivals. In 1998 he published his first book, Come By Sunda y (Sidgwick & Jackson), a biography of British film star Diana Dors, and he is currently an advisor to the London Film Festival.
THE FILMS
THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE
ARGENTINA, 1985
FIRE OF LOVE
FILMS
AMAZON STUDIOS Argentina, 1985
Santiago Mitre’s political drama
Argentina, 1985 is based on the real-life Trial of the Juntas, which oversaw the prosecution of Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship. In the movie, a team of lawyers build a case against the corrupt military faction about their various wrongdoings done between 1976-1983. The film stars Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, and Norman Briski.
APPLE ORIGINAL FILMS
Causeway
Director Lila Neugebauer’s feature debut is a somber psychological drama that examines the bonds of budding friendships and shared trauma. After suffering a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan, Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) reluctantly returns to her hometown, where she struggles to adjust to a normal life. While grappling with restlessness, Lynsey befriends James (Brian Tyree Henry), a disabled mechanic with a painful past.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Based on his 2019 illustrated book, Charlie Mackesy’s animated short follows a boy searching for a home. Along the way, he meets three animals who are also looking for a place to belong and begin to develop a bond. The short is directed by Mackesy and Peter Baynton, with the voice talents of Jude Coward Nicoll, Gabriel Byrne, Idris Elba and Tom Hollander.
DISNEY+ ORIGINAL Le Pupille
This Italian religious comedy, written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, follows a group of mischievous young Christian school girls as they search for fun during wartime. While on a Christmas break, the girls face the greatest temptation of all; trying not to get caught eating a delicious red cake. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón also produces.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS Fire of Love
Sara Dosa’s documentary follows the lives and careers of two daring French volcanologists. Scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, both passionate about volcanoes, spent two decades chasing eruptions and documenting their discoveries. Though they lost their lives in a 1991 volcanic eruption, they left behind a legacy of work that gave a deeper understanding of the natural world.
NEON
Triangle of Sadness
Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness follows Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), a celebrity model couple who are invited on a luxury cruise for the super-rich and famous by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). After the boat capsizes, the glamorous shipwrecked crew must learn to survive the harsh realities of being stranded on a desert island.
LE PUPILLE CAUSEWAY TRIANGLE OF SADNESSTHE FILMS: CONTINUED
NETFLIX
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front explores the World War I battlefront through the eyes of fatigued German soldiers. Based on the 1928 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, the film directed by Edward Berger follows the newly enlisted teenager Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) and his friends as they face the unspeakable horrors of serving with the German army on the frontlines.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro directs this warm, wild, stop-motion animated adaptation of the classic story Pinocchio from Carlo Collodi with Mark Gustafson. It’s a project del Toro has nurtured for years and marks his first animated feature film. Set in Italy during the reign of Benito Mussolini, Pinocchio filters the original Italian novel through del Toro’s typically gothic lens. Woodcarver Geppetto gets more than he bargains for when his wish to bring a wooden boy to life comes true.
ORION PICTURES/MGM PICTURES/ UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING Women Talking
In Women Talking, eight women confined to a conservative religious colony conduct secret meetings to discuss a series of sexual assaults they’ve experienced by the men in the community. The film is written and directed by Sarah Polley and based on the novel of the same name by Miriam Toews. Rooney Mara,
Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley and Frances McDormand also star.
SIDESHOW & JANUS FILMS EO
Director Jerzy Skolimowski’s minimalist drama EO follows the story of a Polish circus donkey that discovers the best and worst of humanity during his travels. Along with winning the 2022 Cannes Jury Prize, EO has been nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. EO stars Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo and Isabelle Huppert.
SUPER
The Quiet Girl
Directed by Colm Bairéad, The Quiet Girl follows nine-year-old Cáit (Catherine Clinch) who is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with distant relatives. She blossoms in the care of her loving foster parents and discovers a new way of living, but her abusive birth parents soon request her return.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES Elvis
Baz Luhrmann’s biopic takes a 20-year walk on the wild side depicting the unprecedented superstardom of the legendary Elvis Presley (Austin Butler). The story is told through the eyes of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), as he navigates Presley’s career through rock and roll, Hollywood movies and a consuming relationship with Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
WOMEN TALKING EO
ELVIS THE QUIET GIRL
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO
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