“Queer” is an adaptation of William S. Burrough’s auto-fiction about alter ego Lee (Craig), a middle-aged drug addict wandering through Mexico City in the late 1940s. For Anderson, the famed creative director of Loewe and JW Anderson, this period-specific assignment expanded his imagination about what could be achieved within the guardrails of mid-century wardrobe.

The clothes worn by Lee and Allerton (Starkey), a figure of Lee’s obsession in the story, were designed to evoke the essence of the characters. Lee’s white suit, for example, turns browner as the plot proceeds – and Anderson even had an idea, though unrealized, to stain the fabric with actual heroin. With Allerton, his translucent short-sleeved shirts foreshadow a drug-fantasia sequence late in the film, which challenges the notion of human layers.

During a conversation from Anderson’s London office on Zoom, we began by talking about his consultation while searching for the actor to play Allerton.

Director Luca Guadanigno has referred to you, with a smile, using the mafia term for trusted advisor, “consigliere.” And he wanted your advice on the casting of Allerton, right?
Yeah. I was in L.A., and then Luca called and was like, “I am going to meet this actor that I sent you the tape of. I want you to come and interview him.” And I was like, “What do I know?” But I walked in to meet them. I was with Luca and we were having breakfast with poor Drew, who was probably saying to himself, “What’s going on?” But we chatted for just a minute and I then said to Luca, “That’s him.”

He clearly trusts your understanding of the silhouette in fashion history – creating an illusion of a person through the cut of their clothes. You both knew that Allerton had to have an unreadable, mysterious quality.
And a period era, 1950s face, which is very important but can be hard to get with contemporary actors. Luca had mentioned that they were searching so much to try to find the right guy. With Daniel Craig, who’s basically playing William S. Burroughs, there’s a lot to latch onto. But Allerton is unknowable and there is a certain ambiguity in Drew, which I noticed in his demeanor. That’s unusual to find this balance of a modern actor.

Is that common for Luca to seek advice from you?
Oh, that’s the most powerful thing about Luca. Not just for me. That he has complete belief in his crew and is able to pluck people who have never done things before and will entrust you implicitly. I’d never designed costumes for a movie before he asked me to do “Challengers.”

So when you go to Luca and you say, “What look do you want for this character?” he immediately says, “Show me what you want to do.” And I can’t speak for everybody, but I think that’s most people’s experience with him. I’ve actually stolen that from him and applied it to my day job.

Had you read “Queer” before this project?
I remember reading it when I was at university. At first, I was like, “What is this?” Burroughs is a mindf–k. But then I re-read it and saw everything differently. What is real and what is not real is a big part of it.

We all gild things up as we get older, especially in terms of remembering the past. I think we do this in relationships. Perhaps you met someone when you were younger and it was this magical moment, but we have an amazing ability for rose tinted glasses. The book speaks to that. And I think that’s why all of us who worked on “Queer” fell so deeply into the project.

Can you describe that?
Honestly, the experience really affected my life. In all different aspects. It really did something psychologically to me. I made big decisions in my life and none of it would have happened without this work. And I was on set in Cinecittà, in these built imaginary things, on a project which, as a gay person, I very much related to.

It was a very emotional process, because it was quite physical in terms of how much research into the time period was involved. But as the whole process was unfolding, I found it incredibly rewarding how I further understood myself and my job through a story about queer culture.

Whereas with “Challengers,” which I’m very proud of, I was a foreigner in this tennis world and I had to become completely obsessed in a very short period of time.

On your Instagram, you show a lot of the costumes and wardrobe tests from “Queer.” What was it like to meet Daniel Craig in Brooklyn for a fitting?
Before the fitting, I was absolutely petrified because it was my second job but this guy has done blockbusters for years. And there was me with this big rack of vintage clothing and I was trying to sell him on the idea that we were only going to have one garment for the whole movie. And he got it instantly. Long rack of suits and Daniel picked the right one. Yeah, he picked exactly the one that we wanted to use. He got the whole idea right away.

So that off white suit he wears, that’s the same suit for the whole movie?
Yeah, the idea was that everything had to fit in a suitcase. So we didn’t make duplicates. Everything was original, including the underwear and shoes and eyeglasses, from the period. We washed the clothes and sometimes didn’t wash the clothes, because the suit gets very dirty as the story goes on. I had this idea, which Luca thought was great, that Lee would start with a white shirt, like cocaine, and then as the shirt got darker and browner, it represents heroin.

“Challengers” and “Queer” are very different, but in both of them, the characters are living out of suitcases. And so the reappearance of the same clothes makes logical sense.
It’s very interesting. Actually, I didn’t think about the living-out-of-suitcases idea for “Challengers” but it is absolutely true. You know, on a daily basis, we do not change outfits six times a day, unless you’ve got a whole lotta time on your hands. I really wanted a reappearance of these clothing items because that is what we do. We find an outfit in life and we stick to it for certain time periods. Then perhaps we get bored and move on.

Allerton is wearing a dark blue sweater at one point, which he says he bought in Scotland. I like how specific it is.
Yeah, that’s straight from the novel. So Luca said that it had to be from Scotland. It had to be an authentic Shetland sweater, and I found one which had been made in 1950 in Scotland. It was the most subtle of things, but it’s so exciting during the creative process. Because I was like, wow, these things still do exist. They’re out there, someone’s got them.

And with Lee and that suit, the clothes really exemplify his character.
The undoneness, yeah. That’s a big part of it and that comes from researching Burroughs. And from researching Adelbert Lewis Marker, who was the inspiration for Allerton, and the contrast between the two men.

For me, it’s like Allerton fills garments. And then suddenly, as the camera gets closer, you realize that maybe it’s moth eaten. He looks perfect from a distance, but there’s a hole here and a stain there, but it’s doesn’t matter because there’s this inner glow so it all works.

But for Lee, it’s like there is a carcass that the clothing is just holding on to. There’s still a swagger within him, kind of like Patrick in “Challengers,” because there’s no care. He’s not pristine. When I watch “Queer” now, I feel like I can smell his suit. It reminds me of my grandfather. That smell of cigarettes and aftershave.

And if someone else senses that, then that’s what’s so rewarding. I’m just so proud and happy of these projects, “Challengers” and “Queer,” because I never even knew if I could costume design for films. But I’m grateful for Luca throwing me in the deep end.

The post ‘Queer’: Why Fashion Designer Jonathan Anderson Was Consulted About Casting Drew Starkey appeared first on TheWrap.

“Oh, I love this seat,” she said. “I only have this one chair in this room, and when I invite friends over, we all want to be in this spot. My daughter reads in here, as well. It’s my happy place.”

The serenity of Suri’s calmly floating chair stands in contrast to “Santosh,” her phenomenal, noir-soaked feature directorial debut that follows a female police officer (Shahana Goswami) investigating the murder of a lower-caste girl in Northern India. The film uses its procedural format to mine deeper as a cultural character study.

“Santosh” is the Oscar submission from the United Kingdom, the country which won the Best International Film award with “The Zone of Interest” 11 months ago.

“I’m really happy that Britain’s standing behind this film,” Suri said. “We’re funded with British money primarily and I’m a British filmmaker. And I think the choice was really important on a deeper level.” She mentioned that the history of the U.K. and India, while not a subject of her story, cannot be ignored given the movie’s thick air of corruption, especially within law enforcement.

In the film, Santosh is a widowed woman in India who, thanks to a regional custom, is allowed to inherit her late husband’s job as a cop. She joins the force and soon gains a mentor in Geeta (Sunita Rajwar), a jaded, stone-faced elder officer with an ideology about police work that’s difficult to peg.

In conversation with TheWrap, Suri discussed her inspirations and her economical approach to filmmaking.

Mild spoilers to “Santosh” follow:

Your background is in documentaries, but the genesis of this film started with a photograph you looked at, is that right?
Yes, I was focusing on endemic violence against women in India, researching with NGOs, trying to hold the camera up to it. And then a few years later I saw an image of the protests that followed after the 2012 case of a horrible gang rape on a bus in Delhi.

In this amazing photograph, there was a lady police officer, a woman standing in front of all these angry female protesters, and she had a very enigmatic expression on her face. And I just knew she was the way into this story. Because she has the power, but she doesn’t have the power. She’s a perpetrator of violence, potentially, but also a victim. What was her story?

I just thought that was a much more interesting way in. Plus, I didn’t think I’d be granted the access that I needed to tell the story as a documentary. So I realized this was going to have to be a fiction film.

Can you talk about your two main actresses? Santosh is played by Shahana Goswami, who is a very glamorous figure in Indian cinema but also so believable in the role.
Shahana said that she felt very anxious about playing that role because this is not a role she plays, a lower middle class constable. But she has a sort of earthiness about her and a very natural beauty, which doesn’t require dropping down. She also she nailed the language and she has these amazing large expressive eyes, which add quite a lot to the storytelling.

And I really love the sensuality she has within the role. Which was important to me, because I wanted the audience to imagine a passionate life she may have had with her husband, actually. That’s why I gave her a love marriage, as opposed to another kind.

Her boss is played by Sunita Rajwar. It’s so great how we think she might be a minor character during the first 45 minutes of the movie, but then you keep building her into a figure of such complexity and duality.
Sunita is very bubbly and optimistic and jolly in her personality, and in India, many of her roles have been as the comic auntie. Everyone chases her for selfies on the street. And we have a tradition of this Indian matriarchal role, which is quite a strong archetype, so we knew we had to undercut that. So we talked through it and Sunita has such a real vulnerability about her, facially and physically, which expresses a life lived and maybe some hurt, and I feel that.

The most interesting thing about her character is that she is kind of unknowable – which I only fully realized while finishing the film. She has a scene at the end where she’s sort of justifying herself, and I was editing that up until the last minute to try and make it work.

And then I realized that I still don’t know if she believes her own rhetoric or not. What she says is deeply disturbing but also kind of understandable.

She has an incredible line of dialogue in the film, about two different types of untouchables: “The ones that no one wants to touch and the ones that can’t be touched.“
I don’t think I write dialogue that well, so I was super excited when I thought that up. The line does really sum up how everything works. It’s not only true of India, of course, but if you look at it on a more general scale, there are people who matter less everywhere. There are power structures and structures of neglect. The line sort of synthesizes everything.

As a first-time narrative filmmaker, there’s often a temptation to show off with your camera. But your compositions are so economical. How did you develop the visual style?
I always wanted to be a writer and I came to cinema because I was so excited about the economy of it. That’s the whole pleasure of it for me and even when I’m teaching, it’s always about how few shots can you tell it or with what precision can you tell it with. And still be fully immersive.

I wanted to take the audience and put them there next to my lead character, so that they can also experience the sort of little, shitty urban space she’s navigating through. And if the camera was ever going to point to itself and say, “Hey, aren’t sexy,” then I’ve pulled the audience out of it. So it was a bit of push-pull with the cinematographer [Lennert Hillege]. He had a lot of really great ideas and wanted to put a few more sexy shots in.

Well, this is where I need to ask you about the shot near the very end. Santosh is at a train station and as the train arrives, she glimpses a young couple through the gaps in the train. It just amazing how one simple shot can express so much. It’s like an old zoetrope or a flip book. Was it all done in camera?
Oh yes, of course. In the camera and with the timetables of train arrivals by our side, but this is in India and you never know how reliable the timetables are. So we had crew members down to do trainspotting for us.

I’d written in the script that the couple were going to be there, this runaway couple at the train station that Santosh observes and what they would represent to her. Sort of like a dream or a fantasy in some way. Then I was at the train station and I saw the station master behind a passing train and I thought, “Oh God, that’s how she’s going to experience this moment.”

We knew it had to be a cargo train, because they have bigger slots between cars. And we cast the girl the day before and the guy was from our catering team. Then we quickly got the costumes and the lighting set up. There’s also a slow zoom in the scene. And then we saw the train coming and we had one or two chances and we just got the shot.

I want to give a lot of credit to my brilliant boy and girl who acted in that shot. And my wonderful camera team. It was a very nerve-wracking night to grab that shot. If we didn’t get it right then, there was no money for reshoots. And they all pulled it off.

The post India-Set Murder Mystery ‘Santosh’ Is More Than Just a Crime Procedural 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

The post Academy Extends Oscars Voting, Changes Date of Nominations in Response to LA Wildfires appeared first on TheWrap.

That could change with his latest marvel, “The Wild Robot.” Based on the beloved book by Peter Brown, “The Wild Robot” follows ROZZUM unit 7134 (voiced with delicacy and humor by Lupita Nyong’o), a high-tech service robot who washes ashore on a deserted island populated only by animals. That’s where she accidentally destroys the nest of a gosling (voice by Kit Connor), whom she later raises as her son. The film is another wild stylistic swing from DreamWorks Animation, pushing the expressiveness developed in movies like “The Bad Guys” and Oscar nominee “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” Sanders and his collaborators implemented a painterly style that gets more tactile as the movie goes along; Roz herself gets scratched up and worn down.

One sequence that captures everything that “The Wild Robot” is going for is set in a snowstorm. Roz’s adopted gosling Brightbill has already left, and the punishing weather is threatening all life on the island. Not only is it a huge technological accomplishment but it’s also a staggering emotional sequence, with the plainspoken brutality of the island on full display, all underlined by Kris Bowers’ sweeping score.

Sanders said that the sequence is one of “the biggest moments in the film”: Roz heads out with her fox sidekick Fink (Pedro Pascal), whose ability to smell helps them find trapped animals. “We have the largest-scale shots at the very beginning, where you start ultra-wide and you’re pushing in, and the snowstorm is at full speed, and the snowstorm gets worse, more intense as the sequence progresses until you get to the very end. It’s at night, and Roz is pushing her way through,” Sanders said.

The sequence was as art-directed and designed as everything else in “The Wild Robot.” The way that the snow is piled up and the direction of the wind is “all being choreographed,” said Sanders. The sequence is punctuated, too, with deceptively difficult time-lapse moments. “It’s not a straight sped-up bit because if it was, people wouldn’t see the animals very clearly,” Sanders said. “It’s a mix of Roz coming in at speed, momentarily hitting real time, and then going back into fast forward. The fire pit is running at a different rate of fast-forward, too.”

The snow sequence is also a great example of the heart and humor of “The Wild Robot”—told, like some of the more powerful passages of the movie, almost wordlessly. “Those are the moments that hand it to Kris Bowers and hand it to the animators,” Sanders said. “The more you talk about it, the less effective it’s going to be.”

The scene ends with a long take—one of two supersized “oners” in the movie—of all the animals gathered in the little cabin that Roz had made for herself, Brightbill and Fink. “That is something I’ve never done before,” said Sanders. “The amount of work that we poured into it was so incredibly worth it. And it took months.” It is also, as Sanders pointed out, very fun to watch. “You soak in everything that you want the audience to get in that big oner, and when you’re finished with it, everything after that is just gravy.”

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

The post ‘The Wild Robot’: How That Epic, Nearly Wordless Snow Storm Scene Came Together 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.

“I was struck by the idea of recognizing something beautiful in the world and then feeling the need to destroy it,” Pearce said. “Or the need to control it as a way to feel less powerless. The psychology behind that is so fascinating and horrible to me.”

Pearce’s character in the film, the stately-named Harrison Lee Van Buren, is one of the year’s most intriguing creations. He’s not a trophy hunter in the literal sense, but a rich, immoral rogue who’s also dashing and cultured within the film’s 1950s Pennsylvania setting.

The patriarch of a family dynasty, Van Buren is the benefactor of Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), and the abusive bond between the two men forms the backbone of the epic plot. The movie runs more than three-and-a-half hours, including a 15-minute intermission that Pearce pointed out was specified in the script, along with a photograph of what might appear on the screen during the break. “It was one of the many clever things that told me how special this project would be,” he said.

“The Brutalist” is not the first special project for the Australian actor, now 57, who gained a massive fanbase in the mid-1980s with his part on the Aussie soap “Neighbours” (he’s returned to the series as recently as this year) and then moved to leading roles in films as zig-zaggedly varied as “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” “L.A. Confidential,” “Memento” and “The Proposition.” His TV credits include “Jack Irish,” “A Spy Among Friends” and an Emmy-winning role in Todd Haynes’ “Mildred Pierce.”

But not unlike the pre-“Oppenheimer” Cillian Murphy, Pearce is a well-regarded journeyman who’s never even been in the running for an Oscar nomination. “I’ve had people say to me over the years, ‘How come you’re not nominated?’” he said with a laugh. “And a part of me feels flattered at the question. It’s nice to know they’re asking.”

That statistic could soon change – “The Brutalist” has won three major Golden Globes including Best Picture (Drama) – though he was certainly not drawn to this lower-budget, hugely ambitious enterprise by the lure of golden statuettes. He was attracted to the work of emerging actor-turned-director Corbet (“Vox Lux,” “The Childhood of a Leader”) and intrigued about sharing scenes with Brody, with whom he had never worked.

“To be honest, I was intimidated by Adrien’s skill and ability as an actor,” Pearce said. “And that certainly helped my performance. Adrien plays László with a natural groundedness and confidence in his gifts. And Van Buren isn’t sure how to manage that because his own confidence is a show that he’s learned how to put on over the years.” 

There is a theatricality in Pearce’s embodiment of Van Buren, especially in his early scenes. While developing the character, Corbet and co-writer Mona Fastvold thought of the voice and screen presence of midcentury actors such as Joseph Cotten and James Mason.

There’s also a hint of Clark Gable in Van Buren’s trimmed mustache and a pinch of John Huston (“Chinatown” era) in his baritone. According to Pearce, he did not base the character on anyone but he’s glad to hear that audiences are drawing those comparisons. “Van Buren comes with all sorts of complexities in the script, and that tells me that I landed in the right place with him,” he said.

“I’m always interested in what’s going on underneath a character and how they are presenting to the world,” he added. “Are they conscious of what’s underneath? Are they not conscious of it? The beauty of film is that we see public and private moments with a character. Obviously, someone like Van Buren is quite extreme in that he knows how to dominate a room. He’s the boss, always in control. But then there might be a tiny hiccup – a little eye flick where we see his insecurity and envy and unresolved bitterness. And the audience goes, ‘Wait, what was that?’ All of that outward presentation is precarious, and it can come undone quite easily.”

Pearce’s performance, for all its bravado, includes several moments of exceptional quietude – including a stunner of a closeup in the final moment before the intermission. He remembered the late Curtis Hanson, director of “L.A. Confidential,” who mentored him about the power of doing less.

“Curtis explained to me that the film itself is telling the story and that I should trust myself in being still and just observing and listening. There’s real value in that, even though it can be a very hard thing to commit to. But it’s all about trust. That’s why we watch the Gary Oldmans and Philip Seymour Hoffmans and Brandos and Hopkins and Adrien Brodys.”

As for the awards-season banter, Pearce is looking forward with a sense of well-earned serenity. “You know, it’s not a race where the first person who crosses the finish line wins,” he said. “When you combine sporting results with art, it feels confusing. But certainly it’s great to know that the film is connecting with people.”

At the mention of a potential Oscar nomination, he immediately mentions his mother, who died last year after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. “My mum would love all this. There she was, enabling me to go and be in theater when I was young. And for most of us, we just want to make our parents proud. She might not have liked Van Buren very much, but she would have really liked this film, I’m sure.”

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

The post Why ‘The Brutalist’ Star Guy Pearce Imagined a Big Game Hunter to Prepare for His Tycoon Role appeared first on TheWrap.

The discrepancy between films that have qualified for the top category and films that are eligible in other categories comes either because the filmmakers did not attempt to qualify – likely the case for several documentary, animated or international films. Or because of new eligibility rules that require Best Picture candidates to meet additional benchmarks for diversity and inclusion. This is the second year that Representation and Inclusion Standards (RAISE) have been enforced, though they did not appear to disqualify any serious contenders in the category.

Among titles excluded from Best Picture consideration are Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” starring Barry Keoghan, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut “Woman of the Hour,” Michael Keaton’s directorial debut “Knox Goes Away,” the summer action sequel “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and the musical remake “Mean Girls.”

Several shortlisted documentaries and international features are also not eligible, including “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “The Girl With the Needle,” “Dahomey,” “Frida,” “Armand” and “Universal Language.” The biopic “Waltz With Brando,” shortlisted in the makeup and hairstyling category, was also omitted from the best picture lineup.

The 323 eligible films are the most since the 2020 Oscars, when 366 films qualified under COVID-era rules that relaxed the theatrical requirement and made it easier to qualify. Last year, 321 films were eligible for Oscar consideration, with 265 given clearance to compete for Best Picture – 58 more titles than the current lineup.

In order to be eligible for consideration, Academy rules state, “feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, and complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue. Feature films must have a running time of more than 40 minutes.”

The full lists of eligibility rules are available here. The Reminder List of Productions Eligible for the 96th Academy Awards includes the cast members eligible for acting awards in each film.

Here is the full list of eligible features. Titles in ALL CAPS did not qualify for the Best Picture category:

“Aadujeevitham – The Goat Life”
“Abigail”
“The Absence of Eden”
“AFRAID”
“Albany Road”
“Alien: Romulus”
“All We Imagine as Light”
“Am I Racist?”
“AMERICAN CATS: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE CUDDLY”
“The American Society of Magical Negroes”
“American Star”
“AMERICANS WITH NO ADDRESS”
“Anora”
“The Apprentice”
“Argylle”
“ARMAND”
“Arthur the King”
“Babes”
“Babygirl”
“Back to Black”
“Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme”
“BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE”
“Band of Maharajas”
“The Beast”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
“Better Man”
“Between the Temples”
“THE BIBI FILES”
“The Bikeriders”
“BIRD”
“Black Dog”
“Blink Twice”
“Blitz”
“Bob Marley: One Love”
“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.”
“The Book of Clarence”
“BOY KILLS WORLD”
“BRIEF TENDER LIGHT”
“The Brutalist”
“Bull Street”
“Cabrini”
“CAPTAIN AVISPA”
“CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID”
“CATCHING FIRE: THE STORY OF ANITA PALLENBERG”
“CELEBRATING LAUGHTER, THE LIFE AND FILMS OF COLIN HIGGINS”
“Challengers”
“CHICKEN FOR LINDA!”
“CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT”
“City of Dreams”
“Civil War”
“Close to You”
“THE COLORS WITHIN”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“The Count of Monte Cristo”
“COUP!”
“The Critic”
“Cuckoo”
“Daddio”
“DAHOMEY”
“DANCE FIRST”
“Dandelion”
“DAUGHTERS”
“Day of the Fight”
“THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE”
“The Dead Don’t Hurt”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“The Deliverance”
“Despicable Me 4”
“THE DEVIL’S BATH”
“Dìdi”
“A Different Man”
“DON’T SAY IT”
“Drive-Away Dolls”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Elton John: Never Too Late”
“Emilia Pérez”
“The End”
“ERNEST COLE LOST AND FOUND”
“EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA”
“Evil Does Not Exist”
“Exhibiting Forgiveness”
“Ezra”
“The Fall Guy”
“Fancy Dance”
“FEDERER: TWELVE FINAL DAYS”
“THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED”
“FIGHTING SPIRIT: A COMBAT CHAPLAIN’S JOURNEY”
“The Fire Inside”
“Firebrand”
“FLIPSIDE”
“Flow”
“Fly Me to the Moon”
“FOLLOWING HARRY”
“FOOD INC 2”
“The Forge”
“FREE TIME”
“Fresh Kills”
FRIDA
FROM EMBERS
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
THE GARFIELD MOVIE
GAUCHO GAUCHO
GHOST CAT ANZU
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”
“Ghostlight”
THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE
GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS
“Gladiator II”
GLITTER & DOOM
BOG & COUNTRY
“Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire”
“Good One”
“Goodrich”
THE GRAB
“The Greatest Hits”
“Green Border”
“Handling the Undead”
“Hard Truths”
HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON
“Here”
“Heretic”
HIGH TIDE
“His Three Daughters”
“Hit Man”
HOLLYWOOD DEAL
HOMEGROWN
“The Hopeful”
“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1”
“How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies”
HUMMINGBIRDS
I AM CELINE DION
I CAN’T BREATHE
“I Saw the TV Glow”
“The Idea of You”
“IF”
“I’ll Be Right There”
“I’m Still Here”
“Imaginary”
“The Imaginary”
“Immaculate”
IN BETWEEN STARS AND SCARS: MASTERS OF CINEMA
IN HER PLACE
“In the Land of Saints and Sinners”
“In the Summers”
INDIGO GIRLS: IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL
“Inside Out 2”
INSIDE THE YELLOW COCCOON SHELL
“The Instigators”
“It Ends with Us”
“Janet Planet”
“Joker: Folie à Deux”
JOY
“Juror #2”
“Kanguva”
“The Keeper”
“Kensuke’s Kingdom”
“Kinds of Kindness”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
“Kneecap”
KNOX GOES AWAY
“Kraven the Hunter”
“Kung Fu Panda 4”
“La Cocina”
LAKE GEORGE
“The Last Front”
“The Last Showgirl”
“Last Summer”
“Late Night with the Devil”
“Lee”
LEFT BEHIND
“Lisa Frankenstein”
THE LISTENER
THE LONG WAY OF CARLOS GUERRERO
“Longing”
“Longlegs”
LOOK BACK
“The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim”
“Los Frikis”
LOST LADIES
THE LOST LEGACY OF TONY GAUDIO
“Love Lies Bleeding”
LOVELY JACKSON
LOVER OF MEN, THE UNTOLD STORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

MADAME WEB
MAHAYOGI
“Maria”
MARS EXPRESS
MARTHA
“MaXXXine”
MEAN GIRLS
MEETING YOU, MEETING ME
“Megalopolis”
“Memoir of a Snail”
MILESTONE
“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”
MISS OR MISSES
“Moana 2”
“Monkey Man”
MOTHER’S INSTINCT
MOUNTAIN QUEEN: THE SUMMITS OF LKAHPA SHERPA
“Mufasa: The Lion King”
MURDERESS
“My Old Ass”
“My Penguin Friend”
“National Anthem”
THE NEON HIGHWAY
“Never Let Go”
“Nickel Boys”
“Night Swim”
“Nightbitch”
“1992”
NO RIGHT WAY
“Nosferatu”
NURSE UNSEEN
“Oh, Canada”
OMNI LOOP
“One Life”
“The Order”
“Ordinary Angels”
THE OTHER, GOLD
“The Outrun”
PEDRO PARAMO
“The People’s Joker”
“The Performance”
“The Piano Lesson”
“Piece by Piece”
“Porcelain War”
“Problemista”
“Putul”

“Queens”
“Queer”
“A Quiet Place: Day One”
RAY OF HOPE
REAGAN
“A Real Pain”
REBEL MOON – PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER
“Red One”
THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN
“The Return”
REZ BALL
“The Room Next Door”
“Rumours”
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS
SAMUEL: HOLLYWOOD VS. HOLLYWOOD
“Santosh”
“Sasquatch Sunset”
“Saturday Night”
SEBASTIAN
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
“Seeking Mavis Beacon”
SEPARATED
“September 5”
SHE TAUGHT LOVE
“Shirley”
“Sing Sing”
SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF WINDS
“The Six Triple Eight”
“Skincare”
SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY
“Small Things like These”
SMILE 2
“Sometimes I Think about Dying”
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2
“Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot”
“Spaceman”
“Speak No Evil”
SPELLBOUND
STATE ORGANS: UNMASKING TRANSPLANT ABUSE IN CHINA
STOP MOTION
“Strange Darling”
“The Strangers – Chapter 1”
“Stress Positions”
“The Substance”
“Sugarcane”
SUMMER SOLSTICE

“Suncoast”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story”
“Swatantrya Veer Savarkar”
THE TASTE OF MANGO
THAT CHRISTMAS
“Thelma”
THELMA THE UNICORN
THERE’S STILL TOMORROW
“The Thicket”
“Tokyo Cowboy”
“Touch”
“Transformers One”
“Trap”
“Tuesday”
“Twisters”
2073
“Ultraman: Rising”
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
“Unstoppable”
UNSUNG HERO
“Venom: The Last Dance”
“Vermiglio”
VESEKLA: THE RAINBOW ON THE CORNER AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD
VIGILANTES: AMERICAN’S NEW VOTE SUPPRESSION HITMEN
THE WAIT
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
WALTZING WITH BRANDO
‘WAR GAME
“The Watchers”
WAVES
“We Grown Now”
“We Live in Time”
WE WILL DANCE AGAIN
“White Bird”
“Wicked”
“Wicked Little Letters”
“Widow Clicquot”
“The Wild Robot”
“Wildcat”
“Will & Harper”
“William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill”
“Wolfs”
“WOMAN OF THE HOUR”
“Young Woman and the Sea”
“Your Monster”
“THE ZEBRAS”
“ZURAWSKI V TEXAS”

The post More Than a Third of Oscar-Qualifying Films This Year Are Not Eligible for Best Picture appeared first on TheWrap.

See the shortlisted films below. Nominations voting begins on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, and concludes on Sunday, January 12, 2025. Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2025.

The 2025 Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025 and will air live on ABC and stream on Hulu.

Animated Short Film

Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.

In the nominations round, Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

“Au Revoir Mon Monde”
“A Bear Named Wojtek”
“Beautiful Men”
“Bottle George”
“A Crab in the Pool”
“In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Magic Candies”
“Maybe Elephants”
“Me”
“Origami”
“Percebes”
“The 21”
“Wander to Wonder”
“The Wild-Tempered Clavier”
“Yuck!”

Live Action Short Film

Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.

In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Anuja”
“Clodagh”
“The Compatriot”
“Crust”
“Dovecote”
“Edge of Space”
“The Ice Cream Man”
“I’m Not a Robot”
“The Last Ranger”
“A Lien”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”
“The Masterpiece”
“An Orange from Jaffa”
“Paris 70”
“Room Taken”

See the other Oscar shortlists below.

• International
• Documentary
• Makeup, Visual Effects and Sound
• Original Score and Original Song

The post Academy Unveils Oscar Shortlists for Animated and Live Action Shorts appeared first on TheWrap.

The two frontrunners from “Emilia Pérez” — “El Mal” and “Mi Camino” — are both among the 15 shortlisted songs. Expectedly, the song category includes several high-profile singers, musicians and songwriters, such as Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Lainey Wilson, Maren Morris, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robbie Williams, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Surprising Oscar contender Kristen Wiig, who co-wrote “Harper and Will Go West” from Will Ferrell’s “Will & Harper” documentary, also keeps her hopes alive for her first Academy Award nomination.

Diane Warren’s inclusion for her latest song “The Journey,” which is featured in Netflix’s “The Six Triple Eight,” brings the potential for her eighth consecutive Oscar nomination in the Original Song category. Should she end up being nominated next month, it would mark her 10th Academy Award nomination in the last 11 years.

There were notable snubs in the song category as well: Lady Gaga for her original tune, “Folie à Deux,” in the underwhelming and widely panned “Joker: Folie à Deux”; and Miley Cyrus, who co-wrote the title track for Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl,” alongside Lykke Li and producer Andrew Wyatt.

Among the 20 scores up for Oscar nomination consideration are Clément Ducol and Camille for “Emilia Pérez,” Stephen Schwartz for “Wicked,” Hans Zimmer for “Blitz,” Daniel Blumberg for “The Brutalist,” Kris Bowers for “The Wild Robot,” Volker Bertelmann for “Conclave,” Harry Gregson-Williams for “Gladiator II” and Danny Elfman for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”

Significant omissions included Reznor and Ross for “Queer,” Jon Batiste for “Saturday Night” and Nicholas Britell, Dave Metzger and Williams for “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Zimmer, who moves forward on the score shortlist for the war epic “Blitz,” did not meet the Academy’s eligibility requirements for “Dune: Part Two” as it incorporated elements from his previous score for 2021’s “Dune.”

The second round of voting begins Wednesday, Jan. 8 and closes Sunday, Jan. 12, with nominations announced Friday, Jan. 17. Final voting takes place from Tuesday, Feb. 11 to Tuesday, Feb. 18. The 97th Academy Awards will air live coast-to-coast Sunday, March 2, 2025, on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. For the first time in history, the Oscars will be streamed live on Hulu.

See the complete shortlists, below:

ORIGINAL SCORE

“Alien: Romulus”
“Babygirl”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
“Blink Twice”
“Blitz”
“The Brutalist”
“Challengers”
“Conclave”
“Emilia Pérez”
“The Fire Inside”
“Gladiator II”
“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1”
“Inside Out 2”
“Nosferatu”
“The Room Next Door”
“Sing Sing”
“The Six Triple Eight”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
“Young Woman and the Sea”

ORIGINAL SONG

“Forbidden Road” by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler and Sacha Skarbek from “Better Man”
“Winter Coat” Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen and Taura Stinson from “Blitz”
“Compress/Repress”  by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from “Challengers”
“Never Too Late” by Elton John, Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt from “Elton John: Never Too Late”
“El Mal” by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard from “Emilia Pérez”
“Mi Camino” by Clément Ducol and Camille from “Emilia Pérez”
“Sick in the Head” by Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Adrian Louis Richard Mcleod, and Toddla T from “Kneecap”
“Beyond” by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear from “Moana 2”
“Tell Me It’s You” by Lin-Manuel Miranda from “Mufasa: The Lion King”
“Piece by Piece” by Pharrell Williams from “Piece by Piece”
“Like a Bird” by Abraham Alexander, Brandon Marcel and Adrian Quesada from “Sing Sing”
“The Journey” by Diane Warren from “The Six Triple Eight”
“Out of Oklahoma” by Lainey Wilson, Luke Dick and Shane McAnally from “Twisters”
“Kiss the Sky” by Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack and Ali Tamposi from “The Wild Robot”
“Harper and Will Go West” by Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig and Josh Greenbaum from “Will & Harper”

See the other Oscar shortlists, below.

• International
• Documentary
• Makeup, Visual Effects and Sound
• Animated and Live Action Shorts

The post ‘Emilia Pérez,’ Pharrell Williams and Diane Warren Make Original Song Oscars Shortlist appeared first on TheWrap.

At last year’s shortlist announcement, only “Napoleon” appeared on all three lists. Films that landed on sound and VFX shortlists include “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Alien: Romulus” and “Gladiator II.” One film, “Emilia Pérez,” appeared on both the sound and makeup list. In a surprising omission, George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” was not shortlisted in any of the three categories.

The Makeup and Hairstyling category includes biopics such as “Maria,” “The Apprentice” and “Waltzing With Brando,” as per usual, but was otherwise dominated by genre movies, such as “Nosferatu,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “The Substance.”

Best Sound’s shortlist, now in its fourth year of early release, is ruled by action films such as “Gladiator II,” but also a strong showing from musical or music-biopics like “Wicked,” “Joker: Folie à Deux,” “Emilia Pérez” and “A Complete Unknown.”

For the category of Best Visual Effects, blockbusters appear in the lineup, including “Twisters” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Animal-centric movies also nabbed spots, such as “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Better Man.”

The nominations voting period will run from Jan. 8-12, 2025, with the official nominations announcement on Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards will then take place on March 2, 2025.

Check out the complete shortlists in these three Oscars categories, below:

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“The Apprentice”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
“A Different Man”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Maria”
“Nosferatu”
“The Substance”
“Waltzing with Brando”
“Wicked”

BEST SOUND
“Alien: Romulus”
“Blitz”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Gladiator II”
“Joker: Folie à Deux”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Alien: Romulus”
“Better Man”
“Civil War”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Gladiator II”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
“Mufasa: The Lion King”
“Twisters”
“Wicked”

See the other Oscar shortlists, below.

• International
• Documentary
• Makeup, Visual Effects and Sound
• Original Score and Original Song
• Animated and Live Action Shorts

The post ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Wicked’ Land on 2025 Oscars Shortlists for Makeup, Visual Effects and Sound appeared first on TheWrap.