Chloé Zhao Makes History at the Oscars

Director Chloé Zhao made history at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, becoming only the second woman to ever win Best Director for Nomadland (after Kathryn Bigelow won in 2010 for The Hurt Locker) and becoming the first woman of color to win the award. Zhao, raised in China, also became the second Asian to win best director in a row, following Bong Joon Ho’s win last year for Parasite. 

Oscar-Nominee Emile Mosseri on Scoring for Family Dynamics in “Minari”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on January 19. Emile Mosseri is nominated for Original Score.

Dream-like piano notes accompany the Yee family as they gaze out the windows of their beat-up station wagon, on their way to a new home in rural Arkansas. Hoping to make it as a farmer, patriarch Jacob (Steven Yeun) is in the process of uprooting his wife, Monica (Yeri Han),

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on March 31. For part II of this interview, click here.

Actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried go for their characters’ leisurely evening stroll outside San Marino’s Huntington Library, which is subbing in for William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  The only thing is, it’s not night – and the actors are wearing custom-tinted contact lenses to help them avoid squinting,

Art Director Daniel Lopez Muñoz on Finding Pixar’s Oscar-Nominated “Soul”

This interview with Daniel Lopez Muñoz is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on December 24, before the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.

Once again Pixar tackles the subjects of the meaning of life, fearlessness in the face of change, synchronicity, and inspiration in their new film Soul. It’s the first time, however, that they have centered the story on a Black man,

Oscar-Nominated Editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen on Giving “Sound of Metal” its Rhythm

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on April 13.

Excitement was running high. The team behind Sound of Metal, Darius Marder’s offbeat drama about a punk rock drummer (Riz Ahmed) who faces life-changing decisions after losing his hearing, was gathered together via Zoom to watch the Oscar nomination announcements. Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, the film’s editor, was settled in front of his computer at his home in Copenhagen when the unthinkable happened.

Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer Trish Summerville on Diving Into Hollywood’s Past in “Mank”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on January 25, since then, Summerville has been nominated for Best Costume Design. 

David Fincher’s black and white epic, Mank, revisits the storied Hollywood era of the late 1930s when Orson Welles was writing what would go down in history as one of the best films of all time, Citizen Kane. But did he write it alone or with the help of Herman Mankiewicz,

Oscar Nominees Mia Neal & Sergio Lopez-Rivera on the Hair & Makeup of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on March 17.

I got a chance to speak to hair department head Mia Neal and makeup artist Sergio Lopez-Rivera about their work in George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom before the Oscar nominations were announced. Tasked with, among other challenges, turning Oscar-nominee Viola Davis into the real-life Ma was no easy feat,

Oscar-Nominated Makeup Department Head Gigi Williams on “Mank”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on March 23. 

David Fincher‘s Mank is the most Oscar-nominated film of the year, amassing ten, thanks to the beauty and brilliance of its black-and-white execution. One of those nominations belongs to makeup department head Gigi Williams, a veteran who picks her work based on her belief in the director. In Fincher, she was collaborating with one of the most precise filmmakers in the business,

Editor Gabriel Rhodes on Cutting the Oscar-Nominated Doc “Time”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on April 14.

“I never thought a film could be made with such a minimal amount of information,” says editor Gabriel Rhodes. But not only was it made; it currently has an Oscar nomination for best feature-length documentary.

The film in question is called, simply, Time. Coming from director/artist Garrett Bradley,

Oscar-Nominee Shaka King on Writing & Directing “Judas and the Black Messiah”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. Our conversation with Shaka King was originally published on March 30, before he was nominated for two Oscars. The film was nominated for Best Picture (the nomination includes King and producing partners Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler), and King was nominated for Best Original Screenplay along with co-writers Will Berson, Kenny & Keith Lucas.

Judas and the Black Messiah galvanized moviegoers with its fact-based story about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton,

Oscar-Nominated DP Sean Bobbitt on Framing a Historic Power Struggle in “Judas and the Black Messiah”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. Our conversation with Sean Bobbitt was first published on February 11, before he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

The late Fred Hampton, former chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, was renowned for his skill as an orator and his work in his community, though the American government chose to mainly view the young activist as a threat.

Oscar-Nominee Terence Blanchard on Scoring Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on June 12, 2020. Terrence Blanchard is nominated for Original Score.

Spike Lee’s films’ timeliness speaks to his prescience, and to his fearless, decades-long willingness to examine the continued and persistent injustice experienced by Black Americans. His new film Da 5 Bloods lands in the midst of a pandemic disproportionately affecting Black,

Oscar-Nominee Alan Baumgarten on Editing Aaron Sorkin’s Rapid-Fire Dialogue in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on October 13, 2020. Baumgarten has since been nominated for an Oscar for Editing.  

For his latest feature, writer and director Aaron Sorkin shifts his political eye from the West Wing to the US government’s judicial branch. In The Trial of the Chicago 7, Sorkin revisits the drawn-out trial of a group of Vietnam War protestors,

Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter Kemp Powers on Finding Truth & Beauty in “One Night In Miami”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. The original story ran on February 2, before Kemp Powers was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Also worth noting—he co-directed Pixar’s Soul, which is nominated for Best Animated Feature. 

After nearly two decades as a news reporter, Kemp Powers knew a good story when he found one. Discovering that four cultural icons — heavyweight champ Cassius Clay, soon to take the name Muhammad Ali;

Oscar-Nominee Yuh-jung Youn on Creating Family in “Minari”

This interview with Yuh-jung Youn is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on February 16, before she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung’s film Minari is about a Korean family chasing the American dream in 1980s Arkansas. Steven Yeun and Yeri Han play parents Jacob and Monica, who have brought their two kids Ann and David to live and work on a farm,

Oscar-Nominee Daniel Kaluuya on Honoring Fred Hampton’s Legacy in “Judas and the Black Messiah”

This interview with Daniel Kaluuya is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on February 23, before Kaluuya was nominated, alongside co-star Lakeith Stanfield, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Daniel Kaluuya is such a comedian it’s hard to imagine he’s made a career out of acting in some of the most profound dramas of the past five years—a fact that he too, seems to frequently forget.

Oscars Announce Shortlists for Nine Categories

We’re starting to get a little bit of an outline of how this year’s Oscars is going to look. First, the Golden Globes nominations allow us to start our annual ritual of trying to read the tea leaves on what they might say about the Academy’s pending big night. Often, due to the Globes having a much smaller base of voters (the Hollywood Foreign Press) and the relatively little overlap between the HFP and the Academy means that the Globes nominations are hardly predictive.

Streaming Films Will Be Eligible for the Oscars 2021 Ceremony

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has voted to allow films that did not have a theatrical run this year to be eligible for Oscars until further notice. The Academy is responding to the unprecedented shutdown of movie theaters due to the coronavirus pandemic in order to flatten the curve of the spread, with many huge film release dates moved out 2020 completely. Considering the reality of the current state of the film industry,