In the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature category, the category that corresponds most closely to Best Visual Effects at the Oscars, the nominees were “Better Man,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Twisters.”

All 10 of the films on the Oscars’ Best Visual Effects shortlist received VES nominations. In addition to the five nominees in the VES Outstanding Visual Effects category, “Civil War” and “Gladiator II” received two nominations and “Alien: Romulus,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Wicked” each received one.

The VES Awards have 25 categories that cover photoreal and animated features, episodic work, commercials, games, and real-time, CG and student projects. The record for VES nominations is 14, which was set by “Avatar: The Way of Water” two years ago.

In the animated-feature categories, “The Wild Robot” led with five nominations. In the episodic categories, “Shōgun” and “The Penguin” led with four each.

The nominations were selected by VES members at 49 in-person and virtual panels that took place around the world in a continuous 30-hour period.

The winners will be announced at the VES Awards ceremony on Feb. 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Also at that ceremony, “Shōgun” actor-producer Hiroyuki Sanada will receive the VES Award for Creative Excellence; director and visual effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki will receive the VES Visionary Award; and virtual reality pioneer Dr. Jacquelyn Ford Morie will receive the VES  Georges Méliès Award.

Here is the full list of nominated films and projects. For a list of the nominated visual effects artists and craftsmen in each category, go to www.vesglobal.org.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATUR
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Mufasa: The Lion King
Twisters

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Blitz
Civil War
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Nosferatu
Young Woman and the Sea

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Inside Out 2
Moana 2
The Wild Robot
Transformers One
Ultraman: Rising

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Fallout; The Head
House of the Dragon; Season 2; The Red Dragon and the Gold
Shōgun; Anjin
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew; Episode 5
The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power; Season 2; Eldest

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL EPISODE
Expats: Home
Lady in the Lake; It Has to Do With the Search for the Marvelous
Masters of the Air; Part Three; The Regensburg-Schweinfurt Mission
The Penguin; Bliss
The Tattooist of Auschwitz; Pilot

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A REAL-TIME PROJECT
[REDACTED]
Destiny 2: The Final Shape
Star Wars Outlaws
What If…? – An Immersive Story
Until Dawn

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A COMMERCIAL
YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket: The Magic of Sunday
Disney; Holidays 2024
Virgin Media; Walrus Whizzer
Coca-Cola; The Heroes
Six Kings Slam; Call of the Kings

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A SPECIAL VENUE PROJECT
D23; Real-Time Rocket
The Goldau Landslide Experience
MTV Video Music Awards; Slim Shady Live
Tokyo DisneySea; Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure
Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony; Run

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Better Man; Robbie Williams
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; Noa
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; Raka
Mufasa: The Lion King; Taka

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Inside Out 2; Anxiety
The Wild Robot; Roz
Thelma The Unicorn; Vic Diamond
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl; Gromit

OUTSTANDING CHARACTER IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Secret Level; Armored Core: Asset Management; Mech Pilo
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred; Neyrelle
Disney; Holidays 2024; Octopus
Ronja the Robber’s Daughter; Vildvittran the Queen Harpy

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Civil War; Washington, D.C.
Dune: Part Two; The Arrakeen Basin
Gladiator II; Rome
Wicked; The Emerald City

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Kung Fu Panda 4; Juniper City
The Wild Robot; The Forest
Transformers One; Iacon City
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl; Aqueduct

OUTSTANDING ENVIRONMENT IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Dune: Prophecy; Pilot; The Imperial Palace
Dune: Prophecy; Two Wolves; Zimia Spaceport
Shōgun; Osaka
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Season 2; Doomed to Die; Eregion

OUTSTANDING CG CINEMATOGRAPHY
Better Man
Dune: Part Two; Arrakis
House of the Dragon; Season 2; The Red Dragon and the Gold; Battle at Rook’s Rest
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ; Egg Climb

OUTSTANDING MODEL IN A PHOTOREAL OR ANIMATED PROJECT
Alien: Romulus; Renaissance Space Station
Deadpool & Wolverine; Ant-Man Arena
Dune: Part Two; The Harkonnen Harvester
Gladiator II; The Colosseum

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN A PHOTOREAL FEATURE
Dune: Part Two; Atomic Explosions and Wormriding
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; Burning Village, Rapids and Floods
Twisters
Venom: The Last Dance; Water, Fire & Symbiote Effects

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE
Kung Fu Panda 4
Moana 2
The Wild Robot
Ultraman: Rising

OUTSTANDING EFFECTS SIMULATIONS IN AN EPISODE, COMMERCIAL, GAME CINEMATIC, OR REAL-TIME PROJECT
Avatar: The Last Airbender; Legends; Koizilla
Shōgun; Broken to the Fist; Landslide
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew; Pilot; Spaceship Hillside Takeoff
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Season 2; Shadow and Flame; Balrog Fire and Collapsing Cliff
Three Body Problem; Judgement Day

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A FEATURE
Better Man
Dune: Part Two; Wormriding, Geidi Prime, and the Final Battle
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The Wild Robot

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN AN EPISODE
Shōgun; Broken to the Fist; Landslide
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew; Episode 6; Jaws
The Boys; Season 4; Life Among the Septics
The Penguin; After Hour

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITING & LIGHTING IN A COMMERCIAL
Virgin Media; Walrus Whizzer
Coca-Cola; The Heroes
Corcept; Marionette
Disney; Holidays 2024

OUTSTANDING SPECIAL (PRACTICAL) EFFECTS IN A PHOTOREAL PROJECT
Blitz
Constellation
The Penguin; Safe Guns

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY AWARD
Dune: Part Two; Nuke CopyCat
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga; Artist-driven Machine Learning Character
Here; Neural Performance Toolset
Mufasa: The Lion King; Real-Time Interactive Filmmaking, From Stage To Post
The Penguin; Phase Synced Flash-Gun System

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS IN A STUDENT PROJECT
Dawn (entry from ESMA – École Supérieure Des Métiers Artistiques)
Student Accomplice (entry from Brigham Young University)
Pittura (entry from ARTFX – Schools of Digital Arts)
Courage (entry from Supinfocom – Rubika)

The post ‘Dune: Part Two’ Leads Visual Effects Society Nominations appeared first on TheWrap.

The March 2 date of the 97th Academy Awards ceremony will not change.

The news followed earlier changes made shortly after the wildfires hit last week.

In a statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said, “We are all devastated by the impact of the fires and the profound losses experienced by so many in our community. The Academy has always been a unifying force within the film industry, and we are committed to standing together in the face of hardship.”

“Due to the still-active fires in the Los Angeles area, we feel it is necessary to extend our voting period and move the date of our nominations announcement to allow additional time for our members,” they continued. “Additionally, as we want to be sensitive to the infrastructure and lodging needs of the region in these next few weeks, it is imperative that we make some changes to our schedule of events, which we believe will have the support of our industry.”

“Our members always share how important it is for us to come together as a community, and we are determined to use this opportunity to celebrate our resilient and compassionate industry. We also look forward to honoring our frontline workers who have aided with the fires, recognizing those impacted, and encouraging people to join the Academy in supporting the relief efforts,” the message concluded. “We will get through this together and bring a sense of healing to our global film community.”

The nominations voting period, which was originally scheduled to end on Sunday, Jan. 12, and was then extended to Tuesday, Jan. 14, has now been extended through Friday, Jan. 17, which was the original date that nominations were scheduled to be announced.

Nominations will now be announced on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 5:30 a.m. PST, with the in-person component of the announcement canceled. Nominees will be revealed in a virtual event with no in-person media coverage.

In addition, the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, originally scheduled for Monday, Feb. 10, has been canceled. The Scientific and Technical Awards, scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 18, will be rescheduled for a later date that has yet to be determined.

The changes will not alter the date of the Oscars show, March 2, or the timetable for final voting, which begins on Feb. 11 and ends on Feb. 18.

The new dates are subject to change, according to the Academy.

AMPAS has also made a $750,000 donation to the Motion Picture and Television Fund for victims of the fires.

The post Oscars Postpone Nominations, Cancel Nominees Luncheon Due to LA Wildfires appeared first on TheWrap.

The award given out by a jury from the international film critics association FIPRESCI was open to 35 of the 85 eligible films in the category, including all 15 of the Oscars shortlisted titles. “I’m Still Here” won in a field that also included Golden Globes winner “Emilia Pérez,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” “Flow,” “Vermiglio,” “Kneecap” and others.

Italy’s “Vermiglio” won the award for screenplay, while acting awards went to Zoe Saldaña for “Emilia Pérez” and the trio of Irish hip-hop musicians Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Provái for “Kneecap.”

The documentary award was open to 10 nonfiction films that screened at the festival. The Palestinian/Israeli film “No Other Land,” was the only eligible film that also made the Oscars Best Documentary Feature shortlist. It has also won the top prize from the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye Honors and a number of critics’ groups.

Seven films qualified for the New Voices/New Visions Award, which was open to first or second features from filmmakers judged by the festival programming team to be the most distinctive new directors of the past year. Romanian director Bogdan Mureșanu won the award for “The New Year That Never Came,” with actress-turned-director Embeth Davidtz taking a special mention for “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.”

In other awards, the Ibero-American Award for the best of 10 festival films from Latin America, Spain or Portugal went to Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s “Sujo”; the Desert Views Award, given by a jury of local filmgoers to a film that promotes understanding and acceptance, went to the U.S./Ukraine coproduction “Checkpoint Zoo”; the Young Cineastes jury of high school film fans chose Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv’s “Tatami” over Reema Kagt’s “Superboys of Malegaon,” Gabriele Fabbro’s “Trifole” and William Goldenberg’s “Unstoppable”; and the Bridging the Borders Award, which was sponsored by 360 Media and carried a cash award of $2,000, went to the French drama “Souleymane’s Story” from director Boris Lojkine.

The 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival ran from Jan. 2-12 in the desert resort town east of Los Angeles.

Here are the winners and jury statements:

FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film: “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), Director Walter Salles

Jury Statement: “To ‘I’m Still Here,’ for conveying the horror of encroaching dictatorship from the intimate perspective of a mother defending not just her family of five, but her dignity. Evoking the severity of the violence without resorting to melodrama, director Walter Salles captures a critical moment of history in scrupulous and compelling detail.”

FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Screenplay: “Vermiglio” (Italy), Director Maura Delpero

Jury Statement:  “To writer-director Maura Delpero, for subverting the conventions of a wartime drama within the framework of an elegant period piece — and letting the story unfold through the eyes of complicated female characters.”

FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actress in an International Feature Film: Zoe Saldaña – “Emilia Pérez”(France), Director Jacques Audiard

Jury Statement: “To Zoe Saldaña, for the ferocity and complexity of her performance in ‘Emilia Pérez,’ which shows a virtuosic range of expression, from song and dance to her potent interpretation of a morally shaded character. Although her character plays a supporting role, she drives the narrative with the power of a protagonist.”

FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor in an International Feature Film: Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Provái  – “Kneecap” (Ireland), Director Rich Peppiatt

Jury Statement: “To Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Provái, for their seamless performance as an ensemble of musicians who make their acting debut in Kneecap. Proving equally authentic and explosive in both capacities, they bring a fresh and propulsive energy to the whole notion of cultural identity.”

FIPRESCI jury: Brian D. Johnson (Canadian Film Critic), Marcelo Janot (Brazilian Film Critic), and Paola Caseslla (Italian Film Critic).

*

Best Documentary Award: “No Other Land” (Palestine), Directors Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor

Best Documentary Award Special Mention: “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story” (Ireland/ United Kingdom), Director Sinéad O’Shea

Jury Statement: “For its compelling immersion into the lives of Palestinian villagers in the West Bank who face the constant threat of expulsion from their homes by the Israel Defense Forces and attacks by Israeli settlers, we award the Best Documentary Award to “No Other Land.” This film foregrounds the bond between two filmmakers – one Palestinian, the other Israeli – without sentimentalizing the relationship, but emphasizing the different rules that apply to Israelis who live under civil law and Palestinians governed by Israeli military justice. We complement festival programmers on an extraordinary selection of documentaries in competition and award a Special Mention to “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story,” which reveals the creative genius and exceptional life force of the great Irish writer.

Jury: Dale Cohen (UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic), Matthew Carey (Deadline), and Tishon Pugh (New Orleans Film Society)

*

New Voices New Visions Award: “The New Year That Never Came” (Romania), Director Bogdan Mureșanu

New Voices New Visions Special Mention: “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”(South Africa), Director Embeth Davidtz

Jury Statement: “The director of our winning film lives up to the promise he showed in 2019 when his short ‘The Christmas Gift’ won ShortFests’ Best of the Festival Award. We appreciated the way that he incorporates a myriad of storylines, bringing them to a triumphant conclusion set to Ravel’s ‘Bolero.’ We especially admired his use of dark comedy to explore the impact on individual citizens of the Ceausescu dictatorship and its fall. We’d also like to give a Special Mention to Lexi Ventor for her stunning portrayal of Bobo in ‘Don’t Let’s Go the Dogs Tonight.’ Her presence and emotional intelligence offer a child’s eye view of the experience Zimbabwe faced as it entered its period of decolonization.”

Jury: Beth Barett (Seattle International Film Festival), Gil Robertson (African American Film Critics Association), and Justine Barda (Telescope Film)

*

Ibero-American Award: “Sujo”(Mexico), Director Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez

Ibero-American Special Mention: “Manas” (Brazil/Portugal), Director Marianna Brennand

Jury Statement: “We have unanimously selected ‘Sujo’ for its elegant, nuanced portrayal of a young boy struggling to escape overwhelming violence and poverty in a small Mexican town. The film is meticulously paced and darkly poetic, offering its protagonist an unusually optimistic and humane ending to his story. Featuring outstanding performances from its young cast and beautiful, ethereal cinematography, ‘Sujo’ cements filmmaker duo Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez’s rising-star status in the contemporary Mexican cinema scene.”

Jury: Anna Marie De La Fuente (Variety), Chloë Roddick (Morelia International Film Festival), and Danny Hastings (Official Latino Film Festival)

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Desert Views Award Winner: “Checkpoint Zoo”(United States/Ukraine), Director Joshua Zeman

Desert Views Special Mention: “Desert Angel”(United States), Director Vincent DeLuca

Jury Statement: “The 2025 Desert Views Jury is proud to present the Desert Views Award to Checkpoint Zoo. This film embodies the spirit of community through a small group of local Ukrainians that captured the hearts of a global audience through social media posts in the early chaotic days of the Russian invasion. Against all odds and great personal sacrifice, an unlikely group of volunteers united their community and inspired hope globally in an effort to rescue animals.”

Jury: Jose Macias (Desert Hot Springs), Margaret Quirante (Morongo Valley), Matt Ramirez (Cathedral City), Tanisha L. Alston (Palm Desert), and Sohelia Crane (Palm Desert)

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Young Cineastes Award Winner: “Tatami” (Georgia/Israel/Iran), Directors Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv

Young Cineastes Special Mention: “Superboys of Malegaon”(India/United States), Director Reema Kagti

Jury Statement: “The 2025 Young Cineastes Jury is proud to present the Young Cineastes Award to ‘Tatami.’ We selected this film because it is a ‘non fiction’ fictional story packed with unique visuals, that brings foreign political awareness to its viewers. The film tells a story of resilience where every decision impacts individuals’ lives.”

Jury: Joseph Manjarrez (Palm Springs High School), Lyla Valentine (Palm Desert High School), and Stephanie Lopez (Palm Springs High School)

*

Bridging the Borders Award: “Souleymane’s Story”(France), Director Boris Lojkine

Bridging the Borders Special Mention: “Happy Holidays”(Palestine/Germany/France/ Italy/Qatar), Director Scandar Copti

Jury: Abbas Yari, Ali Murat Erkorkmaz, Bijan Tehrani, Granaz Moussavi, Keely Badger, Marcy Garriott, Michael Franck, Matt Ferro, Susan Morgan Cooper, and Vladek Juszkiewicz.

The post ‘I’m Still Here’ Beats ‘Emilia Pérez’ to Win Top Award at Palm Springs Film Festival appeared first on TheWrap.

The film was made by two Israeli and two Palestinian filmmakers over the last five years during the conflict in Gaza. It also won the best-feature award at the IDA Documentary Awards, the other major award devoted to nonfiction films.

“Porcelain War” won the Audience Choice Award, the one Cinema Eye category voted on by the public.

The award for directing went to Mati Diop for “Dahomey,” while the production award went to “Union.” “No Other Land” won the award for the best first feature.

“Eno” won for visual design, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” for editing and sound design, “Sugarcane” for cinematography, “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” for musical score.

The Cinema Eye Honors were founded in 2007 in New York City. In the ceremony’s first 17 years, its winner has matched the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature only four times, with “Man on Wire,” “The Cove,” “Citizenfour” and “American Factory.” But the Cinema Eye winner has been nominated for the top nonfiction Oscar in all but three of those years.

Most of the Cinema Eye winners, including “No Other Land,” “Dahomey,” “Porcelain War,” “Eno,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Union” and “Sugarcane,” are on the Oscars 15-film shortlist in the documentary feature category.

Cinema Eye nominations are selected by three different nominating committees made up of documentary programmers, curators, film critics and writers and Cinema Eye alumni. Final voting is done by more than 1,000 members of the documentary and filmmaking community.

Here is the list of winners:

Nonfiction Feature

“No Other Land“
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Julius Pollux Rothlaender and Bård Harazi Farbu

Direction
Mati Diop, “Dahomey”

Production
Mars Verrone and Samantha Curley, “Union”

Editing
Rik Chaubet, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”

Cinematography
Christopher LaMarca and Emily Kassie, “Sugarcane”

Original Score
Uno Helmersson, “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin”

Sound Design
Ranko Pauković and Alek Bunic Goosse, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”

Visual Design
Brendan Dawes, “Eno”

Debut Feature
“No Other Land,” Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor

Audience Choice Prize
“Porcelain War“
Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
“Incident“
Directed by Bill Morrison | New Yorker

Unforgettables Honorees
Shiori Ito, “Black Box Diaries”
Brian Eno, “Eno”
Lhakpa Sherpa, “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa”
Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, “No Other Land”
Patrice Jetter, “Patrice: The Movie”
Jenna Marvin, “Queendom”
Chris Smalls, “Union”
Harper Steele, “Will and Harper”

Spotlight
“Black Snow”
Directed by Alina Simone

Heterodox
“Songs from the Hole”
Directed by Contessa Gayles

Broadcast Film
“Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.”
Directed by Jeremy O. Harris

Nonfiction Series
“Telemarketers”
Directed by Adam Bhala Lough and Sam Lipman-Stern

Anthology Series
“How To with John Wilson Season 3”
John Wilson, Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman and Clark Reinking

Broadcast Editing
“Girls State”
Amy Foote, editor

Broadcast Cinematography
“Ren Faire”
Nate Hurtsellers, cinematographer

The post ‘No Other Land’ Named Best Documentary at Cinema Eye Honors appeared first on TheWrap.

In an email sent to members on Wednesday afternoon, AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer said that Oscar nomination voting, which had been scheduled to end on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 12, would be extended by two days and would close on Tuesday, Jan. 14. Voting began on Wednesday morning.

As a result, the nominations announcement would be delayed by two days and would take place on a Sunday for the first time ever.

Other changes include screenings and pre-nomination “bake-offs” in select categories.

The moves were the latest in a string of awards-related changes because of the wildfires. Earlier on Wednesday, the American Film Institute announced that it was postponing its AFI Awards luncheon scheduled for Friday, Jan. 10; BAFTA announced the cancellation of its annual BAFTA Tea Party, which had been scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 11; and the Critics Choice Awards moved its date from Jan. 12 to Jan. 26.

Here is the email sent to members by Kramer:

Dear Academy members,

We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California. So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you. 

Given the fire situation, we want to share some updates regarding an extension to the Oscars nominations voting window as well as updated information on Oscars Shortlist Screenings, Oscars Bake-Offs, and the Academy Museum.

Nominations voting for the 97th Oscars opened this morning at 9am PT. We will be extending the voting window by two days to give members more time to cast their ballots. Voting will now close on Tuesday, January 14 at 5pm PT.

As such, our Oscars Nominations Announcement will move from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19. More information on the announcement will follow soon.

The International Feature Film Shortlist Screening scheduled to take place this evening in Los Angeles will be rescheduled to later this week. Shortlist screenings will continue as scheduled in New York and London. Please note that all 15 shortlisted films in the International Feature Film category are available on the Academy Screening Room (ASR).

The in-person Los Angeles Sound Branch Bake-Off scheduled for Saturday, January 11 has been canceled. The Bay Area, London and New York Sound Bake-Off schedules remain unchanged. Please note that the Sound Bake-Off will be available to all members on the ASR.

The in-person Los Angeles and New York Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch Bake-Offs scheduled for Saturday, January 11 have been canceled. Members of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch are invited to participate in a virtual discussion with the designated nominees that will be held on Saturday, January 11 – with details to follow soon. Please note that Bake-Off clips of the shortlisted films will be available on the ASR. 

The in-person Los Angeles and Bay Area Visual Effects Branch Bake-Offs scheduled for Saturday, January 11 have been canceled. Members of the Visual Effects Branch are invited to participate in a virtual discussion with the designated nominees that will be held on Saturday, January 11 – with details to follow soon. Please note that Bake-Off clips of the shortlisted films will be available on the ASR. 

Finally, the Academy Museum is closed today, Wednesday, January 8. All screenings will be rescheduled. Please go to www.academymuseum.org for more information. 

If you have any questions, please let me know or please feel free to contact Academy Support. They can be reached at support@oscars.org or +1 855.742.9140 from 8am – 8pm PT.

Thank you for your understanding during this complex time. We hope everyone is safe.

Bill Kramer
CEO

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But now the makers of the animated film “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” are taking on an even more daunting challenge: They’re not only building a story only glancingly mentioned in Tolkien’s legendarium, but they’re doing so using the medium of anime, a distinctly different form from the CG-heavy live-action world that Jackson created.

For director Kenji Kamiyama (“Blade Runner: Black Lotus,” “Napping Princess”), however, the different medium was an advantage. “Hand-drawn pictures give the audience room for imagination,” he said in an email interview. “In live-action, the expression needs to be as real as possible to sustain suspension of disbelief, but in anime, a degree of unreality can also be convincing.”

Still, his film depicted key locations from Jackson’s films — in particular the kingdom of Rohan and the fortress of Helm’s Deep from “The Two Towers” — to tell the back story of Rohan King Helm Hammerhand and his daughter Héra in the war that gave Helm’s Deep its name.

“We depict the same places shown in Peter Jackson’s films with the same basic designs, thus making the audience aware of the connection between the world of the live-action ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the world depicted in this animation,” Kamiyama said. “Although the background art is mostly hand-drawn, we took care to make it look realistic via lighting effects and camera work.”

Additional links to the Jackson films include the narration by Miranda Otto in the character of Rohan noblewoman Éowyn, whom she played in the last two “LOTR” movies.

“We had to make a film that was comparable to Hollywood movies,” Kamiyama said. “Since the scale of this project was so different from any other animated films I’d done in Japan, just completing the film within the given set of parameters for this grand project was itself the challenge.”

Animators accustomed to working in anime had particular problems during the huge battle scenes, in which  scores of warriors and horses move independently, a technique seldom used in their usual medium. “The animators’ instinct is to copy and reuse the same animated movements, so I had to convince them to change them one by one,” he said.

For a climactic battle fought by Helm Hammerhand in a blinding snowstorm, Kamiyama created a vivid action scene in which the action isn’t always seen. “Here it felt almost like shooting a live-action movie,” he said. “I wanted to make the snowstorm be dangerous enough to kill anyone standing there, so I had the effects team give their all. At the final compositing stage, we considered the balance between the visibility and the obscurity of the characters, and I gave instructions that sometimes it was okay for the characters to be hidden from view.”

Asked if he was conscious of trying to satisfy viewers who had a strong emotional connection to this world either through the books or the films, Kamiyama said, “Most certainly. That was the part I paid the most attention to. I knew I couldn’t please everyone on all fronts, but by being a fan myself, I tried to understand their passionate feelings and then looked for things that would satisfy my own inner devotee.”

This story first appeared in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post ‘The War of the Rohirrim’ Insists That You Can Drag Anime Into the ‘Lord of the Rings’ Universe appeared first on TheWrap.

Audiard was nominated for “Emilia Pérez,” Baker for “Anora,” Berger for “Conclave,” Corbet for “The Brutalist” and Mangold for “A Complete Unknown.”

The nominations make “Anora,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave” and “Emilia Pérez” the only films to be nominated in the top category by both of the major guilds that announced on Wednesday, the Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. “The Brutalist” was not nominated in SAG’s ensemble category, while “Wicked” was nominated for SAG’s cast award but not for director Jon M. Chu.

Other directors who didn’t make the DGA list include Coralie Fargeat for “The Substance” and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune: Part Two.”

In the category for first-time feature directors, the nominees were Payal Kapadia for “All We Imagine as Light,” Megan Park for “My Old Ass,” RaMell Ross for “Nickel Boys,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel for “Armand” and Sean Wang for “Dìdi.”

DGA nominations have historically been among the most accurate guild noms for predicting what Oscar voters will do, but the two groups haven’t matched up five-for-five since 2010.

Since then, the Academy’s Directors Branch has gotten increasingly idiosyncratic and international. Last year, it chose French director Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall” and British director Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest” over DGA nominees Greta Gerwig for “Barbie” and Alexander Payne for “The Holdovers.”

In previous years, the Academy chose Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) over DGA nominee Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) over Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) over Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) and Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”) and Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”) over Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”) and Bobby Farrelly (“Green Book”).

Winners will be announced at the 77th annual DGA Awards on Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The list of nominees and their directing teams:

THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM

The nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

JACQUES AUDIARD
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)

SEAN BAKER
Anora
(Neon)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Olivia Kavanaugh
• First Assistant Director: Liza Mann
• Second Assistant Director: Sofía Blanco
• Second Second Assistant Director: Steve Coleman
• Location Manager: Ross Brodar

EDWARD BERGER
Conclave
(Focus Features)

BRADY CORBET
The Brutalist
(A24)

JAMES MANGOLD
A Complete Unknown
(Searchlight Pictures)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Michael Bederman
• First Assistant Director: Douglas Torres
• Second Assistant Director: Brad Robinson
• Second Second Assistant Directors: Billy Brennan, Veronica Grant
• Location Manager: Anthony Pisani

***

MICHAEL APTED FIRST-TIME THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM

PAYAL KAPADIA

All We Imagine as Light
(Sideshow & Janus Films)

MEGAN PARK

My Old Ass
(Amazon MGM Studios)

RAMELL ROSS

Nickel Boys
(Amazon MGM Studios)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Kenneth Yu
• First Assistant Director: James Roque
• Second Assistant Director: Jonathan M. Warren
• Second Second Assistant Director: Thalia Skaleris
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Zachery Scherer
• Location Manager: Batou Chandler

HALFDAN ULLMANN TØNDEL

Armand
(IFC Films)

SEAN WANG

Dìdi
(Focus Features)

The post ‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Anora’ Receive Directors Guild Nominations appeared first on TheWrap.

The moment is quintessential Pete Seeger, a man who wore the same gentle smile whether he was leading sing-alongs or facing adversity that included a lengthy period in the 1950s where he was blacklisted after being at the height of his popularity with the folk group The Weavers. Seeger’s essential goodness always stood out, wrote Elijah Wald in “Dylan Goes Electric!,” the book that served as the inspiration for “A Complete Unknown.” In Edward Norton’s uncanny performance as Seeger, we see the goodness and the smile, but also the strain it takes to always be so good and positive, even about things like bathroom aromas.

“Pete’s daughters, who are in their 70s and 80s, told me about that,” Norton said, beaming. “They said there had been this period when they got this composting toilet and that their dad was always saying, ‘It’s so amazing!’ But they said it always smelled.”

That scene illustrated one of the joys of “A Complete Unknown” to Norton, who came on when Benedict Cumberbatch had to drop out for scheduling reasons after the end of the actors’ strike. Director James Mangold brought Norton in to join a cast that included Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a fictionalized version of Dylan’s first New York girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.

Mangold, Norton said, gave him orders that the actor loved: “He said, ‘Please go out and mine Pete Seeger and bring me back a bunch of gold.’” Norton watched everything he could get his hands on (an easier task in the age of YouTube), talked to friends and family and suggested additions like the toilet exchange and the fact that Seeger’s kitchen appliances were painted what the socialists of the era called “Freedom Red.”

“I told Jim that the day before we shot in the cabin, and he immediately had the refrigerator and the stove painted red,” he said.

Before getting the part, Norton had been familiar with Seeger’s music, which popularized folk to a broader audience throughout the 1950s and helped pave the way for the success of the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary and ultimately Dylan in the ’60s. And from living in New York, he knew Seeger as an “Olympian” of the left, active in social and environmental causes until his death in 2014.

The revelations, though, came when he explored the dark days of Seeger’s career, when his socially conscious music inspired by the likes of Woody Guthrie helped put him in the crosshairs of an America obsessed with rooting out and blacklisting communists, socialists and leftists.

“You can’t understand what was going on with him in the early ’60s unless you understand that he played summer camps for 10 years for 20 bucks,” Norton said. “He was as far out in the cold as someone who had been famous with the Weavers could be. But he kept the flame alive, and Joan Baez and Peter Yarrow and Bob Dylan say that seeing Seeger in the ’50s was part of why they became folk musicians.

“In the ’60s, he’s reaping what he sowed through a very rough period. If you don’t understand that, you can’t understand the layers of emotion in the wonderful period from ’62 to ’64, where it feels like days of heaven to him.”

Like Chalamet and Barbaro, Norton sings and plays his character’s songs himself — and he nails it, though he was surprised to discover what the toughest part of the job would be. “You gotta get the music right,” he said. “That’s the gig. And Peter Yarrow said to me the thing about Pete Seeger is that he sang the song three times at the same time: He sang it, taught it to you and then harmonized with you once he taught it to you.

“With something like ‘Wimoweh,’ he would tune in an open tuning so that there was at least one chord where he could take his hand off the guitar neck and conduct the audience. He makes it look effortless, but then you realize that he’s singing a part, taking his hand off the guitar and conducting, coming back on, picking it up, telling people what to do, guiding them through it, singing another line…”

He shook his head. “And he does all that while maintaining breath control and sounding great. When you start trying to do it, you realize how much interactive choreography is going on and how really, really difficult it is.”

The performance and the film, he added, “meant a lot to me,” especially coming in a film that had its doubters from the start. “I liked even the slight frisson of doubt, of Should we be doing this?” he said. “But Jim was so persuasive that he was not going to make a biopic. He was going to look at the collisions that made the stakes so high in that cultural moment.

“His thing was, ‘Dylan goes electric. Why did anybody care? Why were there any stakes to that?’ And he back-built from that to look at the anthropological stew that was going on.”

This story first appeared in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

The post Edward Norton Found the Keys to Pete Seeger in ‘A Complete Unknown’: His Music Was Intricate and His Toilet Smelled appeared first on TheWrap.

But in an awards season that was supposed to be the one that got back to normal – no pandemic, no strikes! – plenty of things are still unsettled. So here are a few things worth keeping in mind about this season as it marches toward the Jan. 17 announcement of Oscar nominations and, eventually, the Academy Awards on March 2.   

Yes, the Golden Globes can have an effect … of sorts

It’s silly to proclaim films Oscar frontrunners on the basis of Globes wins. The voting bodies are dramatically different: 300 or so critics and journalists, the vast majority of them based outside the U.S., in the case of the Globes, versus almost 10,000 film professionals, most of them living in the U.S., who vote for the Oscars.

More than half the time, the two Globe winners – one for a drama film and one for a musical or comedy – do not include the eventual Best Picture winner, which means that “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez” shouldn’t start clearing space in the trophy room quite yet. (Netflix, currently riding high with “Emilia Pérez,” can attest to that: The company won the top drama Globe for “The Power of the Dog” but has yet to win its first Best Picture Oscar despite nine nominations.)

But the Globes can put movies and people on the radar of voters. On Sunday night, for example, Demi Moore got exactly the kind of boost that the Globes can occasionally provide. I’ve long figured that the biggest problem with “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s wildly transgressive and bloody body horror film in which Moore stars, is that a hefty chunk of voters will either not want to watch it or they’ll start watching on the Academy Screening Room platform and turn it off at some point in the first hour when faced with its glorious excess.

But voters who were watching the Globes will probably have gotten a big nudge to put on the movie and to stick with it – partly because her win was so popular in the room, but also because she did the best thing you can do when you win a Globe and have Oscar ambitions: give a speech that will make people want to see you on their stage, too.

She did that. To a lesser extent, so did Adrien Brody and Zoe Saldaña. (And who are we to say to Saldaña that you shouldn’t cry that much at the Golden Globes, all my fellow Globe cynics?) No Oscar voter needs a couple hundred international journalists to tell them what movies they should vote for – but in some cases, they might influence the order of films on a watchlist.

Granted, there’s no real excuse for a voter to not have watched “The Substance,” “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Conclave,” “Anora,” “Nickel Boys,” “Sing Sing” and others by this point in the game. But every reminder helps.

The Best Actress race is very difficult

In one of the wins that was most surprising to many Globes viewers, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”) beat the formidable lineup of Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”), Angelina Jolie (“Maria”), Tilda Swinton (“The Room Next Door”), Kate Winslet (“Lee”) and Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”), all of whom have seemed to be either locks or strong contenders for Best Actress nominations. Torres absolutely deserved her nomination, as did the other five – but if you think it’s too bad that Oscar voters will have to leave one of them out because they only have five slots rather than six, that’s not the half of it.

The other Globes best-actress category,  Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, contained Demi Moore and also Mikey Madison from “Anora,” Cynthia Erivo from “Wicked” and Karla Sofía Gascón from “Emilia Pérez,” all of whom seemingly belong on any list of the year’s best performances. And then there’s Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who is astoundingly great in “Hard Truths” and simply must be nominated. By my count that’s 11 actresses who would feel like snubs if Oscar voters can’t find room for them – and plenty of others who ought to be in the conversation as well.

It’s too bad there’s not a leading actress contender in “The Brutalist,” because this year’s Best Actress race is the brutal-est.

This week’s tea leaves are the ones to really study

It’s important to note that the people who have voted so far are not the people who make movies. Those people – the voting bodies that have some actual overlap with Academy membership – are speaking out this week in an alphabet soup of guild and professional group nominations: MPSE, CAS, ADG, ASC …

And then there are the Big 4 — the guilds that tell us more about the Oscar race than the Golden Globes ever will. Those are the Screen Actors Guild nominations, which will be announced on Wednesday morning; the Directors Guild nominations a little later that same day; the Writers Guild nominations on Thursday, though WGA eligibility rules lessen their reliability as Oscar predictors; and the Producers Guild nominations on Friday morning.

If “Anora” and “Wicked” didn’t do as well as their supporters would have liked at the Globes – the former was shut out completely, the latter won only in the silly box-office-achievement category – they have plenty of opportunity this week to pick up ground courtesy of the groups that mean more. A little love from SAG, the DGA and especially the PGA will go a long way toward restoring the luster on their campaigns – though that love can and likely will help “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez” as well.  

So what’s going to happen?

At the moment, heading into the three days that should teach us a lot, I think the Best Picture nominees will be, in vague order of likelihood, “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Wicked,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Nickel Boys” and, in the hard-to-figure out last two spots, “Sing Sing” and “The Substance.”

I think the directing nominees will be Jacques Audiard, Brady Corbet, Sean Baker, Edward Berger and Coralie Fargeat, which will annoy the heck out of all those “Wicked” stans and prove that the Academy’s Directors Branch goes its own (very international) way.

I think the nominated actors will be Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Colman Domingo, Ralph Fiennes and Daniel Craig in lead and Kieran Culkin, Edward Norton, Guy Pearce, Denzel Washington and Yura Borisov in supporting. And the actresses will be Mikey Madison, Demi Moore, Karla Sofía Gascón, Cynthia Erivo and Marianne Jean-Baptiste in lead and Zoe Saldaña, Ariana Grande, Isabella Rossellini, Margaret Qualley and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in supporting.

And I believe that by Friday I will have changed my mind about at least a few of these predictions. Check back next week for the new, improved, post-guilds predictions. 

The post Why the Golden Globes Don’t Mean Very Much, and Other Things to Know About a Confusing Oscar Season appeared first on TheWrap.

In the Dramatic Series category, “Shōgun” received three of the five nominations, with “The Diplomat” and “True Detective: Night Country” receiving the other two. Nominated directors were Hiromi Kamata, Frederick E.O. Toye and Jonathan Van Tulleken for “Shōgun,” Alex Graves for “The Diplomat” and Issa López for “True Detective.”

In the Comedy Series category, Christopher Storer, Duccio Fabbri and actress-director Ayo Edebiri were all nominated for “The Bear,” while the category’s other nominees were Lucia Aniello for “Hacks” and Jeff Schaffer for “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

“The Penguin” had the same three-out-of-five feat in the Movies for Television and Limited Series category, receiving a trio of nominations to one each for “Disclaimer” and “Ripley.”

The guild also announced documentary nominations, with nods going to the directors of “Porcelain War,” “Sugarcane,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “Hollywoodgate” and “Daughters.”

The DGA will announce its feature-film nominees on Wednesday. The 77th annual DGA Awards will take place on Saturday, Feb. 8, in Los Angeles. At that ceremony, director Ang Lee will be presented with the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award, making him just the 36th director to receive the honor in the guild’s 88-year history.

Here is the list of TV and documentary nominees:

DRAMATIC SERIES

ALEX GRAVES

The Diplomat, “Dreadnought”
(Netflix)

HIROMI KAMATA

Shōgun, “Ladies of the Willow World”
(FX)

ISSA LÓPEZ

True Detective: Night Country, “Part 6”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Mari Jo Winkler
• First Assistant Director: Richard Graysmark

FREDERICK E.O. TOYE

Shōgun, “Crimson Sky”
(FX)

JONATHAN VAN TULLEKEN

Shōgun, “Anjin”
(FX)

***

COMEDY SERIES

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

LUCIA ANIELLO

Hacks, “Bulletproof”
(Max)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Chris R. Robinson
• First Assistant Director: Jeff Rosenberg
• Second Assistant Director: Erin Stern Linares
• Second Second Assistant Director: Alaina Neumann
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Chalis Romero

AYO EDEBIRI

The Bear, “Napkins”
(FX)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Carrie Holt de Lama, Tyson Bidner
• First Assistant Director: Duccio Fabbri
• Second Assistant Directors: Olivia Dame, Larissa Malarek
• Second Second Assistant Director: Sofía Blanco
• Location Manager: Maria C. Roxas

DUCCIO FABBRI

The Bear, “Doors”
(FX)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Carrie Holt de Lama, Tyson Bidner
• First Assistant Director: Larissa Malarek
• Second Assistant Director: Olivia Dame
• Second Second Assistant Director: Sofia Blanco
• Location Manager: Maria C. Roxas

JEFF SCHAFFER

Curb Your Enthusiasm, “No Lessons Learned”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Mary Church
• First Assistant Director: Adam Feil
• Second Assistant Director: Jessica Faires McGinn
• Second Second Assistant Director: Timothy Muir

CHRISTOPHER STORER

The Bear, “Tomorrow”=
(FX)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Carrie Holt de Lama, Tyson Bidner
• First Assistant Director: Duccio Fabbri
• Second Assistant Director: Olivia Dame
• Second Second Assistant Director: Sofía Blanco
• Location Manager: Maria C. Roxas

***

MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND LIMITED SERIES

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

KEVIN BRAY

The Penguin, “Top Hat”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Dana Robin, Bill Carraro
• First Assistant Director: Jude Gorjanc
• Second Assistant Director: Brad Robinson
• Second Second Assistant Director: Matt Merksamer
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Maritza Gomez
• Location Manager: Keith Adams

ALFONSO CUARÓN

Disclaimer
(Apple TV+)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Donald Sabourin
• First Assistant Director: Chris Carreras

JENNIFER GETZINGER

The Penguin, “A Great or Little Thing”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Dana Robin, Bill Carraro
• First Assistant Director: H.H. Cooper
• Second Assistant Director: Eric Calatayud
• Second Second Assistant Director: Matt Merksamer
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Maritza Gomez
• Location Manager: Keith Adam

HELEN SHAVER

The Penguin, “Cent’anni”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Dana Robin, Bill Carraro
• First Assistant Director: H.H. Cooper
• Second Assistant Director: Eric Calatayud
• Second Second Assistant Director: Matt Merksamer
• Additional Second Assistant Director: Maritza Gomez
• Location Manager: Keith Adams

STEVEN ZAILLIAN

Ripley
(Netflix)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Managers: Clayton Townsend, Joe Guest (New York)
• First Assistant Director: Peter Thorell
• Second Assistant Directors: Justin Bischoff (New York), Nick Notte (New York)
• Second Second Assistant Director: Melissa Morphet (New York)
• Location Manager: Paul Eskenazi (New York)

***

VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming for 2024 are:

PAUL G. CASEY

Real Time with Bill Maher, “Jiminy Glick, Andrew Cuomo, Adam Kinzinger”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Stacy Talbot
• Stage Managers: Brian Anderson, Patrick Whitney

JIM HOSKINSON

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez & Mavis Staples w/ Jeff Tweedy”
(CBS)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Directors: Yvonne De Mare, Karen Yaeger
• Stage Managers: Mark McKenna, Jeff Leib

DAVID PAUL MEYER

The Daily Show, “Indecision 2024: The Democratic National Convention ‑ Plot Twist!”
(Comedy Central)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Adrienne Ford
• Stage Managers: Bennymar Almonte (Lead), Tyler Goldman, Gena Rositano

LIZ PATRICK

Saturday Night Live, “John Mulaney / Chappell Roan”
(NBC)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Directors: Michael Mancini, Michael Poole, Laura Ouziel Mack, Janine DeVito, Amy Mancini
• Stage Managers: Gena Rositano, Chris Kelly, Eddie Valk, Tom Ucciferri

PAUL PENNOLINO

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “India Elections”
(HBO)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Elliot Mendelson
• Stage Managers: Mark McKenna, Craig Spinney, Jeff Leib

***

VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – SPECIALS

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

HAMISH HAMILTON

The 96th Annual Academy Awards
(ABC)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Directors: Hayley Collett, Susan Kopensky, Lori Margules, Robin Mishkin Abrams, Sara Niimi, Kristen Patterson Terry, Michael Polito
• Stage Managers: Gary Natoli (Lead), Alexis Brusig, Rita Cossette, John Esposito, Zachary Figures, Valdez Flagg, Doug Fogel, Chris Hines, Alissa Levisohn Hoyo, Roxanne Lozano, Donna Parker, Ron Paul, Alec Potter, Tammy Raab, Jason Seligman, Jackie Stathis, Cheryl Teetzel-Moore, Ari Woog

BETH McCARTHY‑MILLER

The Roast of Tom Brady
(Netflix)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Directors: Debbie Palacio, Marty Pasetta Jr.
• Stage Managers: Lynn Finkel, Steve Hollander, Greg Kasoff, Ran Lowe, Jennifer Marquet, Christopher McDonald, Tammy Raab, Jackie Stathis

DAVID PAUL MEYER

The Daily Show Presents A Live Election Night Special With Jon Stewart: Indecision 2024: Nothing We Can Do About It Now
(Comedy Central)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Adrienne Ford
• Stage Managers: Bennymar Almonte (Lead), Tyler Goldman, Gena Rositano

GLENN WEISS

The 77th Annual Tony Awards
(CBS)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Directors: Ken Diego, Robin Mishkin Abrams, Ricky Kirshner, Susan Kopensky, Ryan Smith, Kristen Patterson Terry
• Stage Managers: Garry Hood (Lead), Peter Epstein, Bennymar Almonte, Joey Despenzero, Phyllis Digilio Kent, Doug Fogel, Jeffry Gitter, Tyler Goldman, Kevin Lishawa, Arthur Lewis, Jeff Markowitz, Cyndi Owgang, Jason Pacella, Annette Powlis, Elise Reaves, Cody Renard Richard, Lauren Class Schneider, Eddie Valk, Leslie Williams

ALI WONG

Ali Wong: Single Lady
(Netflix)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: John Irwin
• Stage Manager: Zoey Powers

***

REALITY PROGRAMS

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

NEIL DeGROOT

Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, “The Cliffs of Ireland”
(National Geographic)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Jeff Simms

JOSEPH GUIDRY

Deal Or No Deal Island, “Are You Decisive?”
(NBC)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: Greg Rosa

ARI KATCHER

Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, “Road Trip”
(HBO)

PATRICK McMANUS

American Ninja Warrior, “Las Vegas Finals 4”
(NBC)

Directorial Team:

• Associate Director: David Massey
• Stage Managers: Sara Brown, Sean P. Galvin, T.J. Ganser, Joseph R. Osborne, Louise Story

MIKE SWEENEY

Conan O’Brien Must Go, “Ireland”
(Max)

***

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

KAT COIRO

The Spiderwick Chronicles, “Welcome to Spiderwick”
(Roku Channel)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Grace Gilroy

MICHAEL GOI

Avatar: The Last Airbender, “Aang”
(Netflix)

Directorial Team:

• First Assistant Director: Michael Neumann
• Second Assistant Director: Chad Belair

JIM MICKLE

Sweet Tooth, “This Is a Story”
(Netflix)

JENNIFER PHANG

Descendants: The Rise of Red
(Disney+)

Directorial Team:

• Unit Production Manager: Wendy S. Williams
• First Assistant Director: Senica Billingsley
• Second Assistant Director: Mark E. Brown

AMBER SEALEY

Out of My Mind
(Disney+)

***

COMMERCIALS

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

LANCE ACORD

(Park Pictures)

An American Love Story, Volkswagen ‑ Johannes Leonardo

• Unit Production Manager: Karoline Kousidonis
• First Assistant Directors: Thomas Smith, Peter S. Jackson
• Second Assistant Directors: Carly Sturgeon, John Mattern
• Second Second Assistant Directors: Matthew Kramer, Reed Baum

KIM GEHRIG

(Somesuch)

A Life in Sound, SiriusXM – Uncommon

• First Assistant Director: Kate Greenberg
• Second Assistant Director: Rebecca Rogers

Am I A Bad Person?, Nike ‑ Wieden+Kennedy

• First Assistant Director: Guy Forgaard

Find Your Friends, Apple ‑ Client Direct

• First Assistant Director: Rodney Smith
• Second Assistant Director: John Nasraway
• Second Second Assistant Director: Isaac Meija
• Additional Second Assistant Directors: Michael Dudley, Kendall Wilmot

TIM HEIDECKER & ERIC WAREHEIM

(Prettybird)

Michael CeraVe, CeraVe ‑ WPP Onefluence (Ogilvy)

• First Assistant Directors: Matthew Smith, Kerstin Emhoff
• Second Assistant Director: Kiersten Fehlig
• Second Second Assistant Director: Matthew Hausmann

ANDREAS NILSSON

(Biscuit Filmworks)

Board Game, Hennessy ‑ Wieden+Kennedy ‑ London

First Office Poo, Andrex ‑ FCB ‑ London

One More, Apple ‑ Client Direct

• First Assistant Director: Scott Harris
• Second Assistant Director: Ronald Misetich

Whizzer, Virgin Media ‑ VCCP ‑ London

IVAN ZACHARIÁŠ

(Smuggler)

Flock, Apple ‑ Media Arts Lab

• First Assistant Director: Robert Phillips

***

DOCUMENTARY

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

BRENDAN BELLOMO & SLAVA LEONTYEV

Porcelain War
(Picturehouse)

JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT & EMILY KASSIE

Sugarcane
(National Geographic)

JOHAN GRIMONPREZ

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
(Kino Lorber)  

IBRAHIM NASH’AT

Hollywoodgate
(Fourth Act Film)

NATALIE RAE & ANGELA PATTON

Daughters
(Netflix)

The post ‘Shōgun,’ ‘The Bear’ Dominate Directors Guild TV Nominations appeared first on TheWrap.