2025 OSCAR NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

After being delayed several times due to the tragic California wildfires, the 2025 Oscar nominations have finally been announced. Bringing a quirky sense of humor to the proceedings early this morning, Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott revealed this year's picks. "Emilia Pérez", the controversial musical-drama about a Mexican drug kingpin who transforms their gender, leads the field with thirteen nominations. "The Brutalist", an epic drama that explores a Holocaust survivor who immigrates to America, and "Wicked", the long-awaited big screen version of the popular Broadway musical, are both close behind with ten nominations each. "Conclave", the thriller involving the selection of a new pope and "A Complete Unknown", the tale about the early years of folk music legend Bob Dylan, went on to receive eight noms. Along with these five films, the indie dramas, "Nickel Boys" and "Anora"; the body-horror satire, "The Substance"; the Brazilian political drama, "Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here)" and the sci-fi sequel, "Dune: Part two" round up the Best Picture category.

Some highlights include Ralph Fiennes, nominated for his amazing performance in "Conclave", who went twenty-eight years between his last Best Actor nomination for "The English Patient". Karla Sofía Gascón in "Emilia Perez" is the first transgender actor nominated for an Oscar. It has been since 1997 that all of the directing nominees are first-timers with Coralie Fargeat’s nomination for "The Substance" makes her the tenth female earning a Best Director nomination. Fernanda Montenegro (who was nominated for "Central Station" in 1998) and Fernanda Torres joins Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli as the only mother-daughter nominated for Best Actress. The Latvian film, "Flow" became the third animated feature to receive duo nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature. And Diane Warren received her sixteenth nomination for Best Original Song without a competitive win for her work in "The Six Triple Eight", the Tyler Perry WWII drama about an all-black female battalion.

The 97th annual Academy Awards will be held on March 2nd at the Dolby Theatre with first-time host, Conan O’Brien. And for the first time, the Oscars will be livestreamed on Hulu.

Here is the complete list of nominations for the 2025 Oscars:

Best Picture:

"Anora"
"The Brutalist"
"A Complete Unknown"
"Conclave"
"Dune: Part Two"
"Emilia Pérez"
"Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here)"
"Nickel Boys"
"The Substance"
"Wicked"

Best Director:

Sean Baker, "Anora"
Brady Corbet "The Brutalist"
James Mangold, "A Complete Unknown"
Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez"
Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"

Best Original Screenplay:

Sean Baker, "Anora"
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, "The Brutalist"
Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain"
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David, "September 5"
Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"

Best Adapted Screenplay:

James Mangold and Jay Cocks, "A Complete Unknown"
Peter Straughan, "Conclave"
Jacques Audiard in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi, "Emilia Pérez"
RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes, "Nickel Boys"
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield, "Sing Sing"

Best Actress in a Leading Role:

Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked"
Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez"
Mikey Madison, "Anora"
Demi Moore, "The Substance"
Fernanda Torres, "I’m Still Here"

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"
Timothée Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown"
Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"
Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave"
Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice"

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

Monica Barbaro, "A Complete Unknown"
Ariana Grande, "Wicked"
Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist"
Isabella Rossellini, "Conclave"
Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

Yura Borisov, "Anora"
Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown"
Guy Pearce, "The Brutalist"
Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"

Best Cinematography:

Lol Crawley, "The Brutalist"
Greig Fraser, "Dune: Part Two"
Paul Guilhaume, "Emilia Pérez"
Ed Lachman, "Maria"
Jarin Blaschke, "Nosferatu"

Best Film Editing:

Sean Baker, "Anora"
David Jancso, "The Brutalist"
Nick Emerson, "Conclave"
Juliette Welfling, "Emilia Pérez"
Myron Kerstein, "Wicked"

Best Production Design:

"The Brutalist" (Production Design: Judy Becker, Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia)
"Conclave" (Production Design: Suzie Davies, Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter)
"Dune: Part Two" (Production Design: Patrice Vermette, Set Decoration: Shane Vieau)
"Nosferatu" (Production Design: Craig Lathrop, Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová)
"Wicked" (Production Design: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)

Best International Feature Film:

"Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here)" (Brazil)
"Pigen med nålen (The Girl with the Needle)" (Denmark)
"Emilia Pérez" (France)
"Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums (The Seed of the Sacred Fig)" (Germany)
"Straume (Flow)" (Latvia)

Best Animated Feature Film:

"Straume (Flow)"
"Inside Out 2"
"Memoir of a Snail"
"Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"
"The Wild Robot"

Best Animated Short Film:

"Beautiful Men"
"In the Shadow of Cypress"
"Magic Candies"
"Wander to Wonder"
"Yuck!"

Best Documentary Feature Film:

"Black Box Diaries"
"No Other Land"
"Porcelain War"
"Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat"
"Sugarcane"

Best Documentary Short Film:

"Death by Numbers"
"I Am Ready, Warden"
"Incident"
"Instruments of a Beating Heart"
"The Only Girl in the Orchestra"

Best Live Action Short Film:

"A Lien"
"Anuja"
"I’m Not a Robot"
"The Last Ranger"
"The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent"

Best Costume Design:

Arianne Phillips, "A Complete Unknown"
Lisy Christl, "Conclave"
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman, "Gladiator II"
Linda Muir, "Nosferatu"
Paul Tazewell, "Wicked"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado, "A Different Man"
Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini, "Emilia Pérez"
David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne StokesMunton, "Nosferatu"
Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli, "The Substance"
Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth, "Wicked"

Best Original Score:

Daniel Blumberg, "The Brutalist"
Volker Bertelmann, "Conclave"
Clément Ducol and Camille, "Emilia Pérez"
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, "Wicked"
Kris Bowers, "The Wild Robot"

Best Original Song:

"El Mal" from "Emilia Pérez" (Music by Clément Ducol and Camille, Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard)
"The Journey" from "The Six Triple Eight" (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
"Like a Bird" from "Sing Sing" (Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
"Mi Camino" from "Emilia Pérez" (Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol)
"Never Too Late” from “Elton John: Never Too Late" (Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin)

Best Sound:

Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco, "A Complete Unknown"
Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill, "Dune: Part Two"
Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta, "Emilia Perez"
Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis, "Wicked"
Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts, "The Wild Robot"

Best Visual Effects:

Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan, "Alien: Romulus"
Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs, "Better Man"
Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer, "Dune: Part Two"
Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"
Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould, "Wicked"

DAVID LYNCH (1946 - 2025)

David Lynch, the visionary filmmaker who utilized provocative style and surreal imagery to create some of the most memorable and influential cinema, has passed away on January 15th. He had recently been diagnosed with emphysema after smoking heavily for most of his life. Lynch was seventy-eight.

He began studying art at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., later transferring in to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Lynch left after a year, deciding he wasn't getting much out of academia, and set about traveling Europe with friend, Jack Fisk who would later become a production designer and director. Upon his return, Lynch enrolled to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where Fisk was attending. This was when he became interested in filmmaking and made his first short. Lynch applied for a grant with the recently formed American Film Institute to help him finance another short film. He was accepted and made "The Grandmother" in 1970.

Later that year, Lynch moved to Los Angeles to begin studying with AFI Conservatory, making more short films before attempting his first feature film. After several production problems and having to take a loan from his father to help finish the film, "Eraserhead", a bewildering yet intriguing, black & white body horror drama, was completed in 1977. This low-budget indie was initially met with viewer disinterest and negative reviews. But a successful midnight screening run in New York, spreading to San Francisco and Los Angeles, turned "Eraserhead" into a popular cult film.

The comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks saw "Eraserhead" and loved it. He offered Lynch an opportunity to direct "The Elephant Man", an adaptation of the successful Broadway production which Brooks held the film rights, based on the real-life story of a severely deformed man in Victorian London saved from a life in a freak show by a sympathetic doctor. The film was a critical and box-office hit, earning eight Academy Award nominations including Best Director.

Following this achievement, Lynch was offered a chance to turn Frank Herbert's science fiction novel, "Dune" into a movie. Since the film was set in the distant future, the director decided to add more eccentric touches to the screenplay and production design. However the producer, Dino de Laurentiis was not at all happy with the results, deciding to remove footage from the final cut which dramatically altered the plot. Despite these changes in an ill-fated attempt to salvage the film, "Dune" was a commercial failure upon it's release.

Lynch was still contractually obligated to make another film for De Laurentiis. This lead to an original work from Lynch: a strange, mystery thriller called "Blue Velvet". Set in quiet, small town, a college student discovers a severed human ear in a field which leads him deep into a criminal conspiracy and a romance with a troubled lounge singer. "Blue Velvet" became a critical sensation at the time and now considered a cinematic masterpiece, earning Lynch another Oscar nomination for Best Director.

After his dark romantic-comedy, "Wild at Heart" with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern (which won the Palme d'Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival), Lynch decided to explore television and created "Twin Peaks", a dreamlike, murder-mystery drama. The show only lasted two seasons but has since become a cult classic and had a feature film in 1992, "Twin Peaks: Fire Walks With Me" which served as prequel to the series. His next two films, a surreal neo-noir drama, "Lost Highway" and "The Straight Story", a true story of an eighty year old man traveling across states only on a lawn mower, received largely mixed reviews.

But it would be his next film that would go on to be thought of as the finest in his illustrious career. Described as "A love story in the city of dreams", "Mulholland Drive" had originally been conceived as a television pilot. But after executives rejected the program, Lynch set about turning it into a feature film. This Los Angeles set story involves a struggling actress (in a career breakthrough for Naomi Watts) who finds a dazed woman (Laura Harring), suffering from amnesia, living in her home and in grave danger. Mesmerizing, atmospheric and sublimely odd, "Mulholland Drive" was very well received (later considered by many films groups to be one of the greatest films of all-time) and won Lynch the Best Director award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and received his final Best Director Oscar nomination.

Despite this incredible success, Lynch struggled to get another movie made. It would take six years later for him to complete "Inland Empire" with Laura Dern, a one hundred and eighty minute mystery-thriller shot entirely on digital video that is more dense, fragmented and experimental than "Mulholland Drive". This film would sadly end up being the final feature film Lynch would make.

What I have admired about Lynch is that he had always refused to offer explanations about his intentions with each of his films, preferring to let the work speak for itself and enjoying the various interpretations that have been expressed. He boldly created dark edged cinema that challenged and provoked yet still featured an optimistic undercurrent that was also an undeniable part of his work. Lynch was a singular artist whose transcendent films will continue to fascinate and inspire.

WINNERS OF THE 2024 GOLDEN GLOBES AND OTHER AWARD NEWS

The 2024 Golden Globes were given out on January 5th and you would have never known they had been away. Now in their 82nd year, the Globes have found their way back on solid ground once again after the last few years embroiled in messy scandals which had distracted them from their mission to glamorously kick off award season. The comedian, Nikki Glaser, making her debut as host of the Globes, proved to be a perfect fit, keeping the show upbeat and lively while gently teasing the stars in attendance with funny yet largely inoffensive jokes.

As for the awards, "Emilia Pérez" had entered this race with the most nominations with ten and took home four awards including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Two unexpected yet well-deserved winners were Demi Moore receiving Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for the body-horror satire, "The Substance" and Fernanda Torres won Best Actress in a Drama for her turn in "Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here)", the Brazilian political drama from filmmaker, Walter Salles. Brady Corbet and his over three hour, dramatic epic, "The Brutalist" was another big winner receiving awards for Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Director and Best Actor for star, Adrien Brody. And the winner of the first "Cinematic and Box Office Achievement" movie category was "Wicked". I still have no clear idea what this dubious award really means ("It's not good enough for Best Drama or Best Musical or Comedy but it made money so it should get an award too") but congratulations to the witches.

Here is the list of winners from the 2024 Golden Globes (Motion Picture):

Best Motion Picture (Drama): "The Brutalist"
Best Motion Picture (Musical Or Comedy): "Emilia Pérez"
Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement: "Wicked"
Best Director (Motion Picture): Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist"
Best Screenplay (Motion Picture): Peter Straughan, "Conclave"
Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama): Fernanda Torres, "I’m Still Here"
Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): Demi Moore, "The Substance"
Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture: Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"
Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama): Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"
Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): Sebastian Stan, "A Different Man"
Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture: Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Best Motion Picture (Non-English Language): "Emilia Pérez" (France)
Best Motion Picture (Animated): "Flow"
Best Original Song (Motion Picture): "El Mal" from "Emilia Pérez" Music & Lyrics By: Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard
Best Original Score (Motion Picture): Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, "Challengers"

The Screen Actors Guild announced their nominations on January 8th with these awards focused on honoring the best acting performances of the year. "Anora", "A Complete Unknown", "Emilia Pérez" and "Wicked" each received three nominations including Outstanding Performance By a Cast in a Motion Picture. "Conclave" is the other film in that category along with Ralph Fiennes as a nominee for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor. The 31st Annual SAG Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 23, 2025 live on Netflix and hosted by actress Kristen Bell.

Here is the list of nominations of the 2024 SAG Awards (Film):

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:

"Anora"
"A Complete Unknown"
"Conclave"
"Emilia Pérez"
"Wicked"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role:

Pamela Anderson, "The Last Showgirl"
Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked"
Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez"
Mikey Madison, "Anora"
Demi Moore, "The Substance"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"
Timothée Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown"
Daniel Craig, "Queer"
Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"
Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave"

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role:

Monica Barbaro, "A Complete Unknown"
Jamie Lee Curtis, "The Last Showgirl"
Danielle Deadwyler, "The Piano Lesson"
Ariana Grande, "Wicked"
Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role:

Jonathan Bailey, "Wicked"
Yura Borisov, "Anora"
Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown"
Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture:

"Deadpool & Wolverine"
"Dune: Part Two"
"The Fall Guy"
"Gladiator II"
"Wicked"

And the National Society of Film Critics, a group that counts amongst its members many of the country’s leading film critics, have made their selections of the best in the year of cinema. Announced on January 4th, the NSFC awarded "Nickel Boys", RaMell Ross' moving drama that follows the lives of two African-American boys who try to survive at an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida, as their pick of Best Picture with “All We Imagine as Light” and “Anora” as the runner-ups.

Here is the list of winners from the 2024 National Society of Film Critics:

Best Picture: "Nickel Boys"
Best Director: Payal Kapadia, "All We Imagine as Light"
Best Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain"
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Hard Truths"
Best Supporting Actress: Michele Austin, Hard Truths"
Best Actor: Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing"
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Best Film Not in the English Language: "All We Imagine as Light"
Best Nonfiction Film: "No Other Land"
Best Experimental Film: "The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire"
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys"
Film Heritage Award: To Save and Project: The MoMa International Festival of Film Preservation; IndieCollect and Scott Eyman

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (2024)

Written by James Mangold and Jay Cocks



Directed by James Mangold



Where & When: Landmark Theatres Sunset, West Hollywood, CA. December 25, 2024 10:00 PM



Bob Dylan has been known as a rock and roll poet, a musical artist who was able to intuitively use the social and political upheaval that was beginning to happen at the time in the early 1960's and capture it into an momentous anthem. His thoughtful and uplifting words would go on to make a deep connection with his youthful peers. Beginning with his arrival to New York's Greenwich Village, rumpled, eccentric and essentially homeless, Dylan found inspiration all around him. And while many people didn't know what to make of this peculiar individual, they did realize he was an exceptionally, gifted talent. With "A Complete Unknown", James Mangold's riveting biopic, the film traces this brief period of Dylan making a powerful impact on folk music and how this crushing fame made him want to explore another musical avenue, much to the emphatic objections by folk purists.

The initial reason Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) had come to New York was to seek out his musical hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) who was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and convalescing at a psychiatric hospital. After sneaking in to the hospital late one evening, Dylan finds Guthrie, no longer able to communicate verbally, and his good friend, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). He performs a song he wrote that was inspired by Guthrie, making a deep impression on them. An intrigued Seeger, who was also a prominent musician of folk music and social activist, invites the young vagabond to stay with him and his family until he can get settled in the city.

Seeger has Dylan perform at open mics, introduces him to other musicians and industry figures which created a swirl of interest around the fledgling performer. Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) leaps at the chance to manage Dylan and helped get him signed to Columbia, still one of the biggest record labels on the planet. For his self-titled debut album in 1962, the producer, John Hammond (David Alan Basche) insisted Dylan should record mostly covers of traditional folk and blues songs. This album only sold modestly but while on tour, audiences responded well to Dylan's original compositions, encouraging Hammond to allow him to record them for his follow-up album.

Mangold is well known as a proficiently versatile filmmaker, dabbling in various genres throughout his career and excelling at many of them. He has worked his magic on dramas ("Girl, Interrupted"), romantic-comedies ("Kate & Leopold"), comic-book adventures ("Logan") and action-thrillers ("Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny"). And while some where not major box-office hits, these films had been expertly crafted and efficiently stimulating. Mangold had made a musical bio previously, taking on the life of country music legend, Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and his love affair with fellow performer, June Carter in "Walk The Line". This drama received five Academy Award nominations with Reese Witherspoon winning for Best Actress. Cash makes an appearance in "A Complete Unknown" (played here by Boyd Holbrook) who connects with Dylan first as a fan and later as a confidant.

The script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is not entirely successful in escaping the overly familiar beats of the Hollywood-styled biopic yet the solid direction and compelling, intimate performances help make this film a rewarding experience. Not surprisingly, music plays a strong part of "A Complete Unknown", effectively energizing the film with thrilling full-length performances of some of Dylan's greatest songs sung by Chalamet. The actor perfectly captures the essence of Dylan; a midwestern enigma who allowed people to only get so close to him, revealing as little about himself as possible and making up the rest. And while Chalamet's singing doesn't sound much like the musician, he does manage to find the emotional force of each song performed.

Dylan was consumed with getting each song just right, largely shutting out the world during his laser-focused, creative process. And while the world would benefit greatly by his passionate drive, the people who where closest to him would suffer the most by his lack of consideration. He first met Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), a popular folk singer, following one of her performances. Having dismissed him after he clumsily flirted with her, Dylan captured her attention once seeing him on stage much like the rest of the audience. Baez would record some of his songs and these temperamental musical artists would begin an on-again, off-again affair, made more complicated because he was living with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning). Based on Dylan's real-life girlfriend, Suze Rotolo (who he had requested for this character's name to be changed), Russo was a New York born activist who influenced him on politics, art and music and ended up being on the cover with him on his second album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". But once she had to start sharing him with the world, Sylvie began to feel less important in their relationship and Dylan didn't do nearly enough to reassure her.

The real drama in the film occurs after Dylan achieves great fame a few years later, abandoning his casual look of jeans and work shirts and taking on a more upscale style of a rock & roller. He would begin to chafe under the never ending glare by an adoring public and took on wearing black sunglasses, day and night, using them as a shield against constant prying eyes. It was also during this time Dylan started experimenting musically with the electric guitar during the recording of his next album. Word spread to the committee of the Newport Folk Festival who grow concerned since Dylan is supposed to headline their next event and strongly opposed to anyone deviating from the theme.

I'll admit I have never been much of a fan of the music by Bob Dylan, not really connecting to any of his songs and finding his nasal singing voice to be grating. But "A Complete Unknown" has certainly opened my eyes to recognize and appreciate what Dylan brought to music and the culture, expanding the idea of what a pop song can achieve through reflective, artistic expression. His vocal abilities may have been limited yet he was able to communicate through his colorful lyrics in a way that was distinctive and original.