Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin (a.k.a. Awdah Hathaleen), who was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot to death in the West Bank on Monday. The news was initially reported by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, who posted a video of an Israeli settler, identified as Yinon Levi, …
Read More »Karla Sofía Gascón Makes History as First Openly Trans Oscar-Nominated Actress
Emilia Pérez first picked up Oscar buzz when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where film pundits praised the musical-drama-comedy’s leading lady, Karla Sofía Gascón’s performance. Gascón received her flowers Thursday morning making history as the first openly trans actress to earn an Oscar nomination. Jacques Audiard’s …
Read More »'Faye' Is a Portrait of an Artist as a Diva-Dearest Genius
It’s a fine line between genius and madness, and an even thinner, barely visible gossamer thread that demarcates genius and being categorized as difficult. Faye Dunaway has been labeled both, though in a competition between those two descriptives, “difficult” often had a three-to-one lead. Most documentaries about legendary stars would …
Read More »'Don't Tell Me I Can't Do Something': June Squibb on Kicking Ass in 'Thelma'
If there’s one thing June Squibb has always known, it’s that she wanted to pursue a career in acting on her own terms. She’s the first to admit that she’s stubborn, but it’s a trait that has served her well over the past seven decades as she transitioned from local …
Read More »'She's Abrasive — and I Loved Her.' Emily Blunt on Her 'Oppenheimer' Role
Emily Blunt is laughing. Talk to the actor for any given amount of time — it could be six hours, might be six minutes — and you’ll hear her do this a lot. She’s a full-body laugher, not the snorting, shaking-fits kind but the pitching-about type, as if she was …
Read More »'Superpower' Is Sean Penn's Odd Vanity Project About Zelensky
Sean Penn knows what you think of him. Several minutes into the two-time Oscar winner’s new film, Superpower, ostensibly a documentary about the battle-hardened president of Ukraine, Penn’s gravelly voice answers a question posed in interviews past: Who do you think you are, Walter Cronkite? You have a savior complex? …
Read More »Oscars 2022: 10 Biggest Snubs and WTF Surprises
The artists who hand out little gold men every year at the Oscars announced their nominations for the 2022 Academy Awards, and the results were the typical mishmash of predictable choices, pleasant surprises, and disturbing omissions. For every unexpectedly cool decision made by the Academy — A hat trick for …
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