Djimon Hounsou got very real about his treatment in Hollywood.
04.03.2023 - 05:11 / variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Of the 10 films up for best picture, no fewer than six run 199 minutes or more. On one extreme, James Cameron’s punishing “Avatar” sequel is long enough to require bathroom breaks. At the other, Daniels’ ADHD-styled “Everything Everywhere All at Once” proves equally exhausting, dedicating every hyperkinetic second to stimulating easily distracted audiences. It’s enough to make folks grateful for the lower-profile but still engaging live-action shorts category, where nominees are bound by a strict 40-minute time limit. This year’s crop — the so-so “2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action” program — clocks in at under two hours. Available in theaters and on myriad streaming platforms, the international assembly may be a hit-and-miss affair, but never outstays its welcome.
Set in a rarely seen corner of Greenland, “Ivalu” follows a Native girl as she tries to make sense of her sister’s disappearance. It’s a visually striking 16 minutes, full of drone shots over frozen Arctic scenery as young Pipaluk (Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann) follows a raven through the ice-covered landscape to the place where her sister, the title character (played by Nivi Larsen), took her own life. “Ivalu” presents one of those mysteries that’s constructed mostly for the audience’s benefit, as flashbacks reveal that Pipaluk was well aware of what Ivalu suffered, having been forced out of the bedroom the two girls shared by their father (Angunnguaq Larsen) on dark, drunken nights. Dramatically speaking, it’s powerful to withhold this information at first, relying on us to put the pieces together. Confronting sexual abuse in such communities makes for a worthy subject, which co-directors Anders Walter and Pipaluk K.
Djimon Hounsou got very real about his treatment in Hollywood.
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has tapped Disney television executive Lauren Kisilevsky to lead the build-out and oversee the development and production of movies and series in its Live Action Family, Kids and Young Adult division. Kisilevsky will serve as executive vice president of live-action family, kids and young adult, reporting to Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden.“Lauren is an expert developer who has consistently identified quality brand building material and IP for young audiences,” Harden said in a statement. “An incredible collaborator and team player, Lauren has a fantastic track record of developing and executing creatively distinctive projects with strong leadership.
EXCLUSIVE: Lauren Kisilevsky is reuniting with Reese Witherspoon after being hired to oversee live-action family programming at Hello Sunshine.
The Oscars’ annual In Memoriam segment on Sunday included a live performance of the song “Calling All Angels” by Lenny Kravitz.
accepting the award alongside Marc Gustafson. He referred to his wife as «the love of his life» before also honoring his late parents and his children, whom he shares with Morgan. «Animation is cinema,» del Toro said. «Animation is ready to be taken to the next step.
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic How long does a documentary need to be? Frederick Wiseman frequently goes long, and Oscar-winning “OJ: Made in America” ran nearly eight hours. Lately, with “Bill Russell: Legend” and “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker,” streamers have embraced the so-called “two-part documentary” — a fancy term for what used to be called a miniseries. So, while there are no limits on how much longer docs can get, it’s refreshing to see a compelling subject covered in 40 minutes or less, and doubly rewarding to realize that four of the five packaged in ShortsTV’s “2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary” found audiences on their own merits, even without theatrical distribution.
EXCLUSIVE: Catapult Film Fund today announced its newest group of film teams to earn prestigious research grants, a fortunate cohort who will receive mentorship from some of the brightest names in documentary, including Oscar nominee Sara Dosa.
Academy Awards are this weekend, giving you some time to catch up on your Oscar watchlist. This year, there’s a wide range of films nominated for awards, whether you’re into superheroes, stories about complicated musicians, or tales about the war.
The 95th Academy Awards are less than two weeks away. The Oscars ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will take place Sunday, March 12. Ahead of Hollywood’s biggest night, you have ample time to catch up on the films you may have missed or need to re-watch at home.
It’s not easy to tackle a gruesome subject matter with humor. And to make the Irish dark comedy work, its filmmakers drew inspiration from their own ideations of life and death. An Irish Goodbye, written and directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White, follows a pair of estranged brothers who must learn to get along after their mother’s untimely passing. Lorcan (James Martin), an adult with Down syndrome, takes his mother’s death the hardest and soon fears that his brother will abandon him. While Turlough (Seamus O’Hara) grapples with whether he should ship Lorcan off to live with their aunt in London or learn to care for his brother. Though death is not a revolutionary topic in the cinematic medium, the unique and heartfelt way Berkeley and White explore grief through centering on the unusual brotherhood is poignant. Fresh off of a BAFTA win and headed to the Oscars, the filmmakers discuss their inspiration, casting actors with disabilities and creating a sentimental exploration of love and grief.
nominees luncheon, and we came upon Steven Spielberg, as one does…he said, ‘I’ve seen your film three times now and I’ve cried in a different spot,” Malala said. Spielberg is nominated as director, cowriter and a producer of his majorly autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” for this year’s Oscar ceremony.Malala remembers this vital moment as being singular as well.
95th Academy Awards are less than two weeks away. The Oscars ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will take place Sunday, March 12.
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic On Oscar night, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” will almost certainly win the Academy Award for feature animation. For many of those following along at home, it will look as though the director of “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shape of Water” is being rewarded for some kind of secondary passion, as if del Toro had scaled Everest and then set his sights on a smaller peak on which to plant his flag. But that’s not how it happened at all. Way back in Mexico, del Toro started his filmmaking career doing animated shorts: Obsessed with Ray Harryhausen, the amateur future auteur built rudimentary armatures, painstakingly repositioning the puppets one frame at a time. Decades later, once established in Hollywood, del Toro accepted a side gig at DreamWorks Animation, serving as a story consultant on films such as “Megamind” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” as a pretext for teaching himself the trade. With “Pinocchio,” he put those lessons to work on a stop-motion passion project that’s every bit as challenging as his most impressive films.
Watch the full discussion here.
Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the trippy and moving arthouse film that was a big theatrical hit last summer, won the top prizes at both, all but guaranteeing that it will take home the Academy Award for Best Picture on March 12 at the Dolby Theatre.Momentum for what once was its closest rivals — “The Fabelmans,” “The Banshees of Inisherin” and, to a lesser extent, “Top Gun: Maverick” — is dead. There is no conceivable path to victory for any of those movies.
own memoir for the 26-minute film and was also on the call, offered this tidbit: “I sent a link to Dick’s Sporting Goods. It’s not a lie. I slid into their DM’s and was like, ‘Hey.
Karen Idelson The subtleties of war. The struggle with loss and grief. The search for a home and belonging. The terror of puberty. The realization of mortality. This year’s Oscar nominees in the animated feature category never shied away from the big issues. Underneath the bold exteriors of their artistic and technological achievements, each one embraced difficult, rich themes. “I think there’s a way that young and old can both feel the emotion and the meaning of the story,” says “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” helmer Joel Crawford. “Puss’ story is something we can all relate to in a way. He’s this fearless hero who has this moment where when he comes across the wall, feels fear for the first time because he knows he’s run out of lives and that he’s mortal — like all of us — for the first time. That moment is an impression of fear that I think everybody can feel. But then we are also able to tap into to some brighter kind of themes as well like hope through this impressionistic style we used in the animation.
Fresh off her big performance at the 2023 Super Bowl, Rihanna is gearing up for another performance at the 2023 Oscars.
Katie Reul editor The Elephant Whisperers Kartiki Gonsalves’ documentary debut, “The Elephant Whisperers,” released on Netflix, shines a spotlight on the ways in which climate change and human encroachment are rapidly destroying the habitats of Asian elephants. The film’s dire warning is subtly woven into a heartfelt narrative about forging family in unlikely places with elephant caretakers Bomman and Bellie at its core. The duo raise an orphaned elephant named Raghu, whom they’ve cared for since infancy, as well as another calf named Ammu. “[Bomman and Bellie] are still understanding the process of what the Oscars exactly are, but they’re just overwhelmed with messages and calls and really happy to share their lives with such a large audience,” Helmer Kartiki Gonsalves told Variety. “I don’t think they’ve ever had this kind of recognition before.”
Ryan Seacrest shocked fans last week with his announcement he was leaving Live with Kelly & Ryan after this season. But for everyone who worked on the show it was a relief months in the making! Not because they dislike him, of course — because they were worried!