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Tag: Academy Awards

  • Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

    Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

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    A pair of rare Nike sneakers donated to a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon, are up for auction and are expected to raise as much as $20,000

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The shiny, gold Nike sneakers were hard to miss in the donation pile at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year.

    They were Air Jordan 3s, size 12 1/2, and one of just a few custom pairs that had been made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they’re up for auction, where they could fetch $20,000 to benefit the shelter.

    The shoes were anonymously dropped in the donation chute at the Portland Rescue Mission in the spring. A formerly homeless man in the mission’s long-term shelter program found them while sorting through donations and brought them to the attention of the staff, according to a blog post on the mission’s website this week.

    Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the kicks in 2019 for Lee, who wore his pair to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers weren’t Lee’s personal pair, but were among a few made for him to give out to his inner circle, the Portland Rescue Mission said.

    Hatfield visited the shelter and authenticated the shoes. He also signed a replacement box and donated other Nike merchandise. The company is based in nearby Beaverton, Oregon.

    “I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here,” Hatfield said in a statement shared by the Portland Rescue Mission. “It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”

    The shoes are on auction at Sotheby’s until Monday, and could fetch $15,000 to $20,000, according to the auction house. Sotheby’s is waiving its fee, so all of the proceeds will benefit the shelter, which has helped people struggling with homelessness, hunger and addiction since 1949.

    The identity of whoever donated the shoes remains a mystery.

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  • Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

    Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

    [ad_1]

    A pair of rare Nike sneakers donated to a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon, are up for auction and are expected to raise as much as $20,000

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The shiny, gold Nike sneakers were hard to miss in the donation pile at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year.

    They were Air Jordan 3s, size 12 1/2, and one of just a few custom pairs that had been made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they’re up for auction, where they could fetch $20,000 to benefit the shelter.

    The shoes were anonymously dropped in the donation chute at the Portland Rescue Mission in the spring. A formerly homeless man in the mission’s long-term shelter program found them while sorting through donations and brought them to the attention of the staff, according to a blog post on the mission’s website this week.

    Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the kicks in 2019 for Lee, who wore his pair to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers weren’t Lee’s personal pair, but were among a few made for him to give out to his inner circle, the Portland Rescue Mission said.

    Hatfield visited the shelter and authenticated the shoes. He also signed a replacement box and donated other Nike merchandise. The company is based in nearby Beaverton, Oregon.

    “I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here,” Hatfield said in a statement shared by the Portland Rescue Mission. “It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”

    The shoes are on auction at Sotheby’s until Monday, and could fetch $15,000 to $20,000, according to the auction house. Sotheby’s is waiving its fee, so all of the proceeds will benefit the shelter, which has helped people struggling with homelessness, hunger and addiction since 1949.

    The identity of whoever donated the shoes remains a mystery.

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  • Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

    Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

    [ad_1]

    A pair of rare Nike sneakers donated to a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon, are up for auction and are expected to raise as much as $20,000

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The shiny, gold Nike sneakers were hard to miss in the donation pile at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year.

    They were Air Jordan 3s, size 12 1/2, and one of just a few custom pairs that had been made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they’re up for auction, where they could fetch $20,000 to benefit the shelter.

    The shoes were anonymously dropped in the donation chute at the Portland Rescue Mission in the spring. A formerly homeless man in the mission’s long-term shelter program found them while sorting through donations and brought them to the attention of the staff, according to a blog post on the mission’s website this week.

    Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the kicks in 2019 for Lee, who wore his pair to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers weren’t Lee’s personal pair, but were among a few made for him to give out to his inner circle, the Portland Rescue Mission said.

    Hatfield visited the shelter and authenticated the shoes. He also signed a replacement box and donated other Nike merchandise. The company is based in nearby Beaverton, Oregon.

    “I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here,” Hatfield said in a statement shared by the Portland Rescue Mission. “It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”

    The shoes are on auction at Sotheby’s until Monday, and could fetch $15,000 to $20,000, according to the auction house. Sotheby’s is waiving its fee, so all of the proceeds will benefit the shelter, which has helped people struggling with homelessness, hunger and addiction since 1949.

    The identity of whoever donated the shoes remains a mystery.

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  • Movie Review: Emerald Fennell chronicles a promising young man in audacious, shock-filled ‘Saltburn’

    Movie Review: Emerald Fennell chronicles a promising young man in audacious, shock-filled ‘Saltburn’

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    Two years ago Emerald Fennell stood on the Oscars stage hoisting her writing trophy for “Promising Young Woman,” a scathing look at rape culture and a balancing act of wit, style, shock value, audacity, great acting and pitch-black humor — plus a timely #MeToo message.

    That’s a lot for a debut film, and we didn’t even mention the best director nomination. Not surprisingly, anticipation has been hot for the writer-director’s next effort (as an actor, she’s already graced a little film this year called “Barbie,” in the suitably dark role of pregnant, discontinued Midge).

    Now “Saltburn” is here, and the results are enticing but decidedly mixed — perhaps because Fennell seems to be trying to one-up herself by leaning on the shock value, at the eventual expense of other storytelling elements.

    Make no mistake, the clever writing is here, as is the style, the sleek technique, and some terrific performances (Rosamund Pike is especially delicious in a supporting role). What’s missing, or muddled, is the message — and perhaps even more, the heart. After two hours of cringing and gasping in both awe and discomfort, we’re left admiring the “how” of what she’s doing but still figuring out the “why.”

    One thing that’s not lacking: beauty. Unsurprisingly, Fennell excels at lush production values, especially in presenting the imposing, seductive and somewhat debauched Saltburn — no, not a person, but a country manor! This is England, and a story of class dynamics, so it’s surely fitting that the star be a piece of real estate. (And let’s just say, the phrase “real estate porn” takes on an added dimension here.)

    We start, though, at Oxford. Here we meet our main character, Oliver Quick (and if that doesn’t take you straight back to Dickens, nothing will). It’s 2006, and Oliver (Barry Keoghan, ever-watchable and unpredictable) is a freshman on scholarship, feeling out of his league. At his first tutorial, he announces he read all 50 books on the summer reading list. His bemused teacher tells him nobody does that.

    Oliver soon learns that life at Oxford isn’t about what you’ve read, but who you know. In the Hogwarts-style dining hall, he can barely find someone to sit with — only a needy mathematics major. He has no earthly connection to the rest of the privileged, entitled (and in some cases, titled) student body, but aches to fit in.

    And then aristocratic golden boy Felix appears, like a Greek god. Played by Jacob Elordi, currently appearing as Elvis in “Priscilla,” Felix is gorgeous and effortlessly rakish; he seems to have never encountered hardship. Unless you count a flat tire on his bike, which is how Oliver meets him, lending his own bike so Felix can get to class.

    The two become friends. It’s obvious what’s in it for Oliver, but what’s in it for Felix? That’s less clear, but Oliver’s home life has been hard. So, when Oliver tells Felix a tragedy has occurred involving his drug-addicted parents, Felix invites him to spend the summer at his family palace, er, home.

    The family includes Felix’s beautiful but unstable sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver), his comically out-of-touch father, Sir James (Richard E. Grant, very funny), and the terrifically droll Pike as Elspeth, Felix’s glamorous, clueless mother. Also spending the summer is cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe, excellent) a Saltburn outsider himself — American-born, a person of color — but compared to Oliver an insider, which is crucial. The great Carey Mulligan, Oscar-nominated for “Promising Young Woman,” has a welcome cameo as an unwelcome guest.

    The early Saltburn days are intoxicating. Felix points out the various Rubens portraits, the original Shakespeare folios, that sort of thing. Days are spent lounging languidly on the lawn by the mossy pond. Dinner is black tie, so Oliver needs a loaner jacket and cufflinks. These people even play tennis in tuxes.

    Then the really crazy stuff starts happening.

    And we mean Fennell-level crazy. In “Promising Young Woman” there was a slow burn to the shocking, graphic ending. Here, the shocks come early. A few involve bodily fluids. Fennell knows how to startle the most jaded of film audiences — guests at the screening I attended either gasped or giggled in embarrassment.

    Fennell is also comfortable with the world she seeks to paint. Even if you didn’t know beforehand, it’s pretty clear from the vividly rendered Oxford scenes that the director attended Oxford herself, and her scenes of student life at that storied institution, seen through outsider Oliver, form the most authentic-feeling part of the film.

    But how long will Oliver remain an outsider? Will this uncertain and complicated young man, who arrives at the Saltburn gates too early and too naive to have waited for the footmen to collect him at the station, ever fit in, something he covets above all else? That’s the question the rest of the movie answers, taking increasingly sinister twists and turns.

    As if in a garden maze, perhaps? Like any self-respecting, spectacular period mansion, Saltburn has one of those, too, where some key action takes place. More broadly, though, the maze seems to symbolize the effect of this film: pretty, seductive, challenging, forbidding and ultimately confounding.

    “Saltburn,” an Amazon/MGM Studios release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout, some disturbing violent content, and drug use.” Running time: 127 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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  • Woody Allen Fast Facts | CNN

    Woody Allen Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen.

    Birth date: December 1, 1935

    Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

    Birth name: Allan Stewart Konigsberg

    Father: Martin Konigsberg, worked various jobs

    Mother: Nettie (Cherry) Konigsberg, bookkeeper

    Marriages: Soon-Yi Previn (December 22, 1997-present), Louise Lasser (divorced), Harlene Rosen (divorced)

    Children: daughters adopted with Soon-Yi Previn: Manzie Tio Allen (2000), Bechet Dumaine Allen (1998); with Mia Farrow: Satchel Farrow (1987, now goes by Ronan), Dylan O’Sullivan Farrow (1985, adopted daughter), Moses Farrow (1978, adopted)

    Education: Attended New York University and City College of New York.

    He legally changed his name at 17 to Heywood Allen.

    Allen has worked as a comedy writer, stand-up comic, screenwriter, actor, playwright, musician and director.

    He has 24 Oscar nominations and four wins: 16 for writing, with three wins; seven for directing, with one win; and one nomination for acting.

    Allen has one Emmy nomination for writing.

    Allen has appeared in dozens of the movies he’s directed and claims to have never watched his films once they are released.

    Although Allen is best known for comedies, he has explored different genres including dramas (“Interiors”), thrillers (“Match Point”) and musicals (“Everyone Says I Love You”).

    Most of his movies have been filmed in and around New York.

    He plays the jazz clarinet and piano.

    1950-1960 Comedy writer.

    1961-1964 A standup comic.

    July 1964 Releases his first comedy album, “Woody Allen.”

    June 22, 1965 – The first movie he wrote and performed in, “What’s New Pussycat?” is released.

    November 17, 1966 “Don’t Drink the Water,” Allen’s first play, opens on Broadway.

    February 12, 1969-March 14, 1970 – “Play It Again, Sam,” his second play, runs on Broadway with Allen in the lead. In 1972, he reprises his role in the movie adaptation.

    1978 – “Annie Hall” wins four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Written for the Screen and Best Actress. Allen earns two of the four Oscars as writer and director. He is also nominated for Best Actor but does not win.

    1987 Wins the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for “Hannah and Her Sisters.” He is also nominated for Best Director for the same film.

    1992 His 12 year relationship with actress Mia Farrow ends when she discovers his affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Subsequently, allegations of sexual molestation are made by their adopted daughter, Dylan, 7. A two-year custody battle for their three children Satchel, Dylan and Moses ensues, which Farrow wins.

    April 1998 The documentary, “Wild Man Blues,” is released, showcasing Allen’s love for the jazz clarinet and his association with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band.

    2002 – Makes his only appearance at an Academy Awards ceremony. He appeals for the continued use of New York as a setting for movies after September 11, 2001.

    2012 – Wins an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Midnight in Paris.”

    February 1, 2014 – An open letter written by Dylan Farrow is published in the New York Times, recounting her allegation that Allen sexually assaulted her when she was a child. A representative for Allen releases a statement the next day, denying the charges.

    February 7, 2014 – Allen responds in an op-ed column released by The New York Times. He says the allegations are untrue and rooted in his acrimonious breakup with Mia Farrow.

    September 30, 2016 – Allen’s first video streaming series, “Crisis in Six Scenes” debuts on Amazon.com.

    January 2018 – Several actors who appeared in Allen’s latest film, “A Rainy Day in New York,” announce they will be donating their salaries to charity amid questions about longstanding sexual abuse claims against Allen. The movie has yet to be released.

    September 16, 2018 – In a New York magazine profile, Soon-Yi Previn defends Allen against allegations of molestation.

    February 7, 2019 – Allen and his production company file a lawsuit against Amazon claiming the company backed out of a $68 million four-picture deal.

    November 8, 2019 – Allen and his production company reach a settlement with Amazon in a breach of contract lawsuit.

    March 23, 2020 – Allen’s memoir “Apropos of Nothing” is published by Arcade Publishing. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, originally acquired the rights to the book but canceled their plans to publish it after employees walked out in protest.

    February 21, 2021 –Allen v. Farrow,” a four-part HBO docuseries that examines Allen’s relationship with Farrow and sexual-assault allegations by their daughter Dylan premieres.

    March 28, 2021 – In an interview for “CBS Sunday Morning,” Allen denies the sexual abuse allegation by his daughter Dylan.

    June 7, 2022 – “Zero Gravity,” Allen’s new essay collection is published.

    September 27, 2023 Allen releases his 50th film and first French-language film, “Coupe de Chance.”

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  • Academy Awards Fast Facts | CNN

    Academy Awards Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is some background information about the Academy Awards, also known as the “Oscars.”

    March 10, 2024 – The 96th Annual Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.

    March 12, 2023 – The 95th Annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.

    Best Picture

    “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

    Actor in a Leading Role

    Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”

    Actress in a Leading Role

    Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

    Actor in a Supporting Role

    Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

    Actress in a Supporting Role

    Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

    Director

    Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

    The full list of winners

    Best Picture
    “CODA”

    Actor in a Leading Role
    Will Smith, “King Richard”

    Actress in a Leading Role
    Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

    Actress in a Supporting Role
    Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”

    Actor in a Supporting Role
    Troy Kotsur, “CODA”

    Director
    Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”

    The full list of winners

    PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm has tallied the ballots since 1934. Newspaper headlines announced the winners before the ceremony until 1941, when the sealed envelope system was put in place. Prior to a PwC envelope mix-up in 2017, when an error was made during the award announcement for Best Picture, only two partners from the firm knew the results until the envelopes were opened. After 2017, new procedures were adopted, which include adding a third balloting partner to also memorize the list of winners. The third partner sits with Oscar producers in the control room while the other two balloting partners are posted on opposite sides of the stage. Additionally, the PwC partners are prohibited from using cellphones and social media backstage during the show.

    Walt Disney is the most honored person in Oscar history. He received 59 nominations and 26 competitive awards throughout his career.

    Composer John Williams is the most nominated living person – 52 nominations (including five wins).

    Meryl Streep is the most nominated performer in Academy history with 21 nominations.

    Jack Nicholson is the most nominated male performer in Academy history with 12 nominations.

    Katharine Hepburn had the most Oscar wins for a performer, with four.

    Daniel Day-Lewis is the only person to have three Best Actor Oscars.

    Tatum O’Neal is the youngest person to ever win a competitive Oscar at 10 years, 148 days old.

    Only three films have won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing: in 1934, “It Happened One Night”; in 1975, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”; and in 1991, “The Silence of the Lambs.”

    No one film has ever taken home all six top prizes, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.

    Scientific and Technical Awards are given out in a separate ceremony for methods, discoveries or inventions that contribute to the arts and sciences of motion pictures.

    May 16, 1929 – The first Academy Awards are held in the Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets cost $5.

    1929 – The first Best Picture award goes to “Wings.”

    1929 – The first statuette ever presented is to Emil Jannings, for his Best Actor performance in “The Last Command.”

    1937 – The first presentation of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is given to Darryl F. Zanuck.

    1938 – Due to extensive flooding in Los Angeles, the ceremony is delayed for one week.

    March 19, 1953 – First televised ceremony is from the Pantages Theater in Hollywood.

    1966 – The awards are first broadcast in color.

    1968 – Due to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the ceremony is moved forward two days as the original date is the day of King’s funeral.

    1976-present – ABC broadcasts the Oscars.

    1981 – Due to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, the ceremony is postponed 24 hours.

    2001 – The Best Animated Feature Film category is added.

    June 23, 2009 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces that beginning in 2010, 10 films will receive nominations in the Best Picture category, instead of five.

    June 26, 2009 – The Academy announces that beginning in 2010, new rules governing the Best Song category may eliminate that category in any given year. Also, the Irving G. Thalberg and Jean Hersholt honorary awards will be given at a separate ceremony in November.

    June 14, 2011 – The Academy announces new rules governing the Best Picture category, the number of movies nominated may vary from 5 – 10 in any given year and will not be known until the nominees are announced. The new rule goes into effect in 2012.

    November 9, 2011 – Eddie Murphy drops out as host of the Oscars in February 2012, one day after producer Brett Ratner quits the show, because of a remark he made that was considered homophobic.

    January 18, 2016 – Following criticism two years in a row about the lack of diversity with Oscar nominees, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy, issues a statement saying that “in the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond.”

    January 24, 2017 – The romantic musical, “La La Land,” picks up 14 Oscar nominations, tying the record held by “All About Eve” and “Titanic.” After complaints in 2016 about a lack of diversity, six Black actors receive nominations for their performances, a record.

    February 26, 2017 – Following the moment “La La Land” is mistakenly announced as best picture, “Moonlight” becomes the first film with an all-Black cast to win the Academy Award for best picture. Additionally, Mahershala Ali is the first Muslim actor to win best supporting actor.

    August 8, 2018 – In a letter to members, the Academy announces that it is adding a new category in 2019 for outstanding achievement in popular film. The letter doesn’t specify the criteria for a “popular” film.

    September 6, 2018 – The Academy announces that it is rethinking the decision to add a popular film category. Academy CEO Dawn Hudson says in a statement, “There has been a wide range of reactions to the introduction of a new award, and we recognize the need for further discussion with our members.”

    December 6, 2018 – Kevin Hart steps down from hosting the Oscars after past homophobic tweets surface.

    February 5, 2019 – ABC confirms that the Academy Awards will be hostless. This will be the first time in 30 years that the ceremony will be without a host.

    February 9, 2020 – “Parasite” becomes the first non-English film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. It is also the first film to win both Best International Feature and Best Picture.

    February 9, 2020 – The 92nd Academy Awards draws an average of 23.6 million views, the lowest ratings in the show’s history.

    June 15, 2020 – For the first time in 40 years, the Academy postpones the 93rd Oscars. The last time the Oscars were postponed was in 1981, when the ceremony was delayed 24 hours because of an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. In addition to the delay, the Academy agrees to extend the eligibility window for films, which usually corresponds to the calendar year. For the 2021 Oscars, the new window will be extended until February 28, 2021.

    September 8, 2020 – The Academy announces that movies must meet certain criteria in terms of representation in order to be eligible for the Academy Award for best picture beginning in 2024. Introduced under an initiative called Aperture 2025, the organization says the goal is to “encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.”

    April 25, 2021 – Yuh-jung Youn is named best supporting actress for her role in “Minari” and becomes the first Korean actress to win an Oscar. Chloe Zhao is named best director for “Nomadland” and becomes the first woman of color and the first woman of Asian descent to earn the award. She is also only the second woman to win.

    May 27, 2021 – The Academy announces that the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony will be held in March 2022, a month later than originally scheduled.

    March 27, 2022 – Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on the face after Rock makes a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head while presenting the award for best documentary. Smith then says “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!” twice. Censors muted the verbal part of the exchange for viewers at home in the United States.

    March 12, 2023 – Michelle Yeoh is named best actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win the award.

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  • Jimmy Kimmel returning to host the Oscars for 4th time at 96th Academy Awards

    Jimmy Kimmel returning to host the Oscars for 4th time at 96th Academy Awards

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    Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is returning to the Oscar stage once again for the 96th Academy Awards.

    Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang announced Wednesday that the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host will take on hosting duties for Hollywood’s biggest night for the fourth time. 

    Jimmy Kimmel hosting 95th Annual Academy Awards
    Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks onstage during the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California.

    / Getty Images


    Kimmel’s wife Molly McNearney will also return for a second consecutive year as executive producer for the show.

    “We are thrilled about Jimmy returning to host and Molly returning as executive producer for the Oscars,” Kramer and Yang said in a statement. “They share our love of movies and our commitment to producing a dynamic and entertaining show for our global audience.” 

    Kimmel earned an Emmy nomination for hosting last year’s 95th Oscars and had back-to-back duty as the host of the 89th and 90th Oscars. 

    “I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times,” Kimmel joked in a statement. 

    When he was chosen last year, he quipped that it was only “after everyone good said ‘no.’”

    The 96th Academy Awards are set to air live on ABC on Sunday, March 10, 2024.

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  • Jimmy Kimmel to host the Oscars for the fourth time

    Jimmy Kimmel to host the Oscars for the fourth time

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    Jimmy Kimmel is returning as host of the Academy Awards for the second straight year and fourth time overall

    ByJAKE COYLE AP film writer

    November 15, 2023, 4:32 PM

    FILE – Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 4, 2018. Kimmel is returning as host of the Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Jimmy Kimmel is returning as host of the Academy Awards for the second straight year and fourth time overall, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday.

    ABC is turning again to its late-night host a year after bringing Kimmel back for a 2023 ceremony that drew 18.7 million viewers, the most since 2020’s pre-pandemic broadcast. In the wake of Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, Kimmel led a cautious ceremony that helped stabilize the Academy Awards after years of turmoil.

    Kimmel also hosted the Oscars in 2017 and 2018.

    “I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times,” Kimmel said in a statement.

    Though the comic is inching up in the record books, he’s still a long ways from the most frequent Oscar emcee. That title belongs to Bob Hope, who hosted a record 19 times either solo or as a co-host. Billy Crystal hosted nine times all between 1990 and 2012.

    The film academy earlier announced that Raj Kapoor will serve as executive producer and showrunner, Katy Mullan will executive produce and Hamish Hamilton will direct. They’ll be joined by Molly McNearney, executive producer of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and Kimmel’s wife, who will return for a second consecutive year to serve as an executive producer for the show.

    “Jimmy has cemented himself as one of the all-time great Oscars hosts with his perfect blend of humanity and humor, and Molly is one of the best live TV producers around,” Kapoor and Mullan said in a statement.

    The 96th Academy Awards will air live on ABC on March 10 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

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  • Sophia Loren Fast Facts | CNN

    Sophia Loren Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of award-winning screen legend Sophia Loren.

    Birth date: September 20, 1934

    Birth place: Rome, Italy (grew up in Pozzuoli, outside of Naples)

    Birth name: Sofia Villani Scicolone

    Father: Riccardo Scicolone

    Mother: Romilda Villani

    Marriages: Carlo Ponti (April 9, 1966-January 10, 2007, his death; September 17, 1957-September 3, 1962, annulled)

    Children: Edoardo, Carlo Jr.

    At six, her chin was cut by shrapnel during a bombing in World War II.

    Other screen names used before becoming Sophia Loren were Sofia Lazzaro and Sofia Scicolone.

    Nominated for two Academy Awards and won one. She also received an honorary award.

    Nominated for eight Golden Globes and won five. She also received the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.

    Nominated for one Grammy Award and won.

    An accomplished cook, she has written three cookbooks.

    1949 – Enters the Queen of the Sea beauty contest and comes in second, winning a train ticket to Rome, where she begins modeling and acting in B-movies.

    Early 1950s – Is the runner-up in a nightclub beauty contest for Miss Rome. Movie producer Carlo Ponti is one of the judges.

    1951 – Makes her US film debut as an uncredited extra, with no lines, in the film “Quo Vadis?”

    Early 1950s – Adopts the last name Loren.

    October 23, 1953 – “Aida” opens; it’s her first major leading role.

    1957 – Loren appears in her first English-speaking leading role, “The Pride and the Passion.” She learns her lines by using cue cards of English words written phonetically.

    1962 – Wins the Best Actress Academy Award for “La ciociara (Two Women).”

    September 3, 1962 – Her marriage of almost five years to Carlo Ponti is annulled. Neither the Vatican nor Italian law recognizes Ponti’s 1957 divorce by proxy from Giuliana Ponti. Loren and Ponti are forced to annul their marriage after warrants for their arrest are issued.

    1964 – Stars in the movie, “Matrimonio all’italiana (Marriage Italian Style).” Nominated for an Academy Award.

    1964-1965 – Moves to France with Carlo Ponti and becomes a French citizen.

    1965 – Giuliana Ponti obtains a French divorce recognized by Italian law.

    April 9, 1966 – Loren and Carlo Ponti marry for the second time.

    July 24, 1968 – Loren and Ponti cleared of bigamy charges by Rome’s criminal court.

    January 23, 1979 – Loren is tried (in absentia), and acquitted, of complicity with Ponti in income tax evasion, misuse of government subsidies, and illegal export of Italian funds and artwork. Carlo Ponti is convicted and sentenced to four years in prison (two years were pardoned) and fined 22 billion lire ($24 million). All charges against him were cleared in 1987.

    1980 – Portrays both herself and her mother in the made-for-TV movie “Sophia Loren: Her Own Story,” based on her 1979 autobiography, “Sophia: Living and Loving, Her Own Story,” written with A. E. Hotchner.

    May 20, 1982 – Loren begins her 30-day jail term for tax evasion, for unpaid supplementary taxes for 1963-1964.

    June 5, 1982 – Serves 17 days of her 30-day jail term.

    1991Receives Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    2003 – Winner, Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children (along with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev) for reading Prokofiev’s “Peter and The Wolf.”

    2009 – Appears in the movie “Nine,” her first role in five years.

    November 2014 – Loren’s memoir, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: My Life,” is published.

    November 13, 2020 – “The Life Ahead” premieres on Netflix. The film stars Loren and is directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti.

    April 2021 – Loren opens Sophia Loren Original Italian Food, a restaurant and pizzeria, in Florence, Italy.

    September 24, 2023 – Is taken to hospital for surgery after falling in her home and suffering several fractures to her hip and thighbone.

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  • Barbra Streisand Fast Facts | CNN

    Barbra Streisand Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of singer and actress Barbra Streisand.

    Birth date: April 24, 1942

    Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

    Birth name: Barbara Joan Streisand

    Father: Emanuel Streisand, a teacher

    Mother: Diana (Rosen) Streisand Kind

    Marriages: James Brolin (July 1, 1998-present); Elliott Gould (March 21, 1963-1971, divorced)

    Children: with Elliott Gould: Jason Emanuel Gould

    Changed her name from Barbara to Barbra.

    Her father died when she was 15 months old.

    Has suffered from severe stage fright.

    Nominated for 46 Grammy Awards and has won eight.

    Nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and has won four.

    Nominated for five Academy Awards and has won two.

    Nominated for two Tony Awards, and has received a special Tony Award.

    1962 – Makes her Broadway debut in “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”

    1962 Signs a contract with Columbia Records.

    1963 – Her debut album, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” is released and wins her two Grammy Awards.

    1964 The Broadway musical “Funny Girl,” in which Streisand plays Fanny Brice, debuts.

    1965 Her television special, “My Name Is Barbra,” airs. It earns Streisand an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award for the accompanying album.

    April 14, 1969 – Wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film “Funny Girl.”

    1970Receives a special Tony Award.

    1973 – The film “The Way We Were” opens.

    March 28, 1977 – Receives the Academy Award for Best Original Song, for the song “Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)” from the movie “A Star Is Born.”

    1983 Streisand’s directorial debut, “Yentl,” opens.

    1986 – The Streisand Foundation is established.

    1991 – “The Prince of Tides” opens, a film in which Streisand produces, directs and acts.

    1995 – Receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

    2008 Receives the Kennedy Center Honors.

    September 2014 – Streisand’s new album, “Partners,” is released and goes to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. This makes her the first artist to have a No. 1 album in each of the past six decades.

    November 24, 2015 – Is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

    February 2018 – Variety magazine releases an interview in which Streisand reveals that two of her dogs are clones of her deceased dog Samantha, who passed away in 2017.

    November 2, 2018 – Streisand’s album, “Walls,” is released. Streisand says the album embodies her feelings about Donald Trump and his presidency.

    July 7, 2019 – Streisand reunites with her “A Star Is Born” co-star Kris Kristofferson on stage at London’s Hyde Park for a sold-out crowd of 65,000 – the biggest audience she’s performed for since a Central Park performance for 150,000 in 1968, according to Variety.

    October 18, 2021 – Streisand funds The Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA. The institute’s goal involves “solving societal challenges” and will focus on four areas the artist and activist is most passionate about.

    November 4, 2022 – “Live at the Bon Soir,” a live album originally intended to be Streisand’s 1962 debut, is released for the first time.

    November 7, 2023 – Streisand’s memoir, “My Name is Barbra,” is published.

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  • United Nations of Cinema: 87 Films Compete for the International Feature Oscar

    United Nations of Cinema: 87 Films Compete for the International Feature Oscar

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    The 87 submissions for this year’s Academy Award for international feature mark a drop-off from the last few record-setting years when that number has been consistently in the 90s. Whether this is an immediate reaction to the Academy’s rule change mandating that at least 50% of every national selection committee needs to be made up of “artists and or craftspeople from the field of motion pictures” is an open question. But the big-hitters remain in the race and so, pending the official confirmation of the eligibility of the below from the Academy, here is the full international feature submissions list for the 96th Academy Awards. The 15-title shortlist is slated to arrive on Dec. 21, prior to the nominations announcement on Jan. 23 and the ceremony itself, which is dated for March 10.

    ALBANIA
    Alexander
    Director: Ardit Sadiku
    LOGLINE: A documentary about an engineer who, after being fired by the navy for dissidence, hijacked a warship to get himself an dhis family to freedom.
    PRODCO: Ardit Sadiku Film

    ARGENTINA
    The Delinquents
    Director: Rodrigo Moreno
    LOGLINE: A ticklish, gently surreal saga following two colleagues who collude in robbing the bank where they work.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

    ARMENIA
    Amerikatsi
    Director: Michael A. Goorjian
    LOGLINE: An Armenian-American relocates to Armenia after WWII and ends up in a Soviet prison for the crime of wearing a tie.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Variance Films

    AUSTRALIA
    Shayda
    Director: Noora Niasari
    LOGLINE: A Sundance Audience Award-winning drama following an Iranian immigrant struggling to raise her daughter in a women’s shelter. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

    AUSTRIA
    Vera
    Director: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
    LOGLINE: Vera Gemma, the daughter of an Italian icon, strikes up an intense relationship with a poor kid she injures in a traffic accident.
    INT’L SALES: Be For Films

    BANGLADESH
    No Ground Beneath the Feet
    Director: Mohammad Rabby Mridha
    LOGLINE: Ambulance driver Saiful pivots between his two wives and a brother who all need help he can’t afford to give. 
    INT’L SALES: Impress Telefilm

    BELGIUM
    Omen
    Director: Baloji
    LOGLINE: A Congolese man returns to Kinshasa with his pregnant white wife to pay a dowry to the family who regard him as cursed.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Utopia

    BHUTAN
    The Monk and the Gun
    Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
    LOGLINE: An American encounters a Bhutanese monk who has a valuable rifle in the second film from the Oscar-nominated “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” filmmaker.
    INT’L SALES: UTA 

    BOLIVIA
    The Visitor
    Director: Martín Boulocq
    LOGLINE: A wake singer recently released from jail fights his Evangelical pastor father-in-law for custody of his daughter. 
    PRODCO: CQ Films

    BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
    Excursion
    Director: Una Gunjak
    LOGLINE: A high schooler gets caught in her own spiralling lie which has consequences for her and her whole class. 
    INT’L SALES: Salaud Morisset

    BRAZIL
    Pictures of Ghosts
    Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
    LOGLINE: A wry, wistful documentary, featuring the filmmaker’s personal archival footage, tracing his relationship with the disappeared cinemas of Recife.
    INT’L SALES: Urban Sales

    BURKINA FASO
    Sira
    Director: Apolline Traoré
    LOGLINE: A revenge tale in which a young nomad in North Africa fights for survival after she is kidnapped by Islamist terrorists.
    INT’L SALES: Wide

    BULGARIA
    Blaga’s Lessons
    Director: Zaynê Akyol
    LOGLINE: A 70-year-old widow, conned out of her life savings by a phone scam, turns scammer herself to even the score.
    INT’L SALES: Heretic

    CANADA
    Rojek
    Director: Zaynê Akyol
    LOGLINE: Imprisoned former member of the Islamic State provide powerful testimony about their experiences of conflict in Syrian Kurdistan.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Icarus Films

    CHILE
    The Settlers
    Director: Felipe Gálvez Haberle
    LOGLINE: An Indigenous guide rides south with an English captain and an American mercenary to fence off land granted to a ruthless Spanish landowner.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

    COLOMBIA
    A Male
    Director: Fabián Hernández Alvarado 
    LOGLINE: A young man living in a youth shelter braves the urban culture of machismo to spend Christmas with his mother and sister.
    INT’L SALES: Cercamon

    COSTA RICA
    I Have Electric Dreams
    Director: Valentina Maurel
    LOGLINE: 16-year-old Eva lives with her mother, younger sister and cat, but longs to move in with her estranged father.
    INT’L SALES: Heretic

    CROATIA
    Traces
    Director: Dubravka Turic
    LOGLINE: An anthropologist experiences an identity crisis after her father’s death leaves her the last surviving member of her family.
    PRODCO: Kinorama

    CZECH REPUBLIC
    Brothers
    Director: Tomáš Mašín
    LOGLINE: The true story of two brothers who tried to escape communist Czechoslovakia in 1953 to join the US army in West Berlin.
    INT’L SALES: The Yellow Affair

    DENMARK
    The Promised Land
    Director: Nikolaj Arcel
    LOGLINE: Mads Mikkelsen stars in a rousing historical epic about a land battle between a commoner and a noble. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Magnolia Pictures

    EGYPT
    Voy! Voy! Voy!
    Director: Omar Hilal
    LOGLINE: An impoverished security guard poses as blind in order to play at the Blind Soccer World Championships in Europe. 
    INT’L SALES: Vox Studios

    ESTONIA
    Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
    Director: Anna Hints
    LOGLINE: A lyrical documentary observing the women who frequent a traditional Estonian sauna for healing and community.
    INT’L SALES: Autlook

    FINLAND
    Fallen Leaves
    Director: Aki Kaurismäki
    LOGLINE: A droll romance develops between a struggling part-time worker and an alcoholic builder.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

    FRANCE
    The Taste of Things
    Director: Trần Anh Hùng
    LOGLINE: Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel illuminate a lavish 19th-century “gastromance” between a cook and her gourmet employer.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: IFC Distribution

    GEORGIA
    Citizen Saint
    Director: Tinatin Kajrishvili
    LOGLINE: When a revered statue of a local saint disappears it spurs a crisis of faith in a Georgian mining community.
    INT’L SALES: Studio Artizm

    GERMANY
    The Teachers’ Lounge
    Director: İlker Çatak
    LOGLINE: An idealistic high school teacher faces spiraling consequences when one of her students is accused of stealing.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

    GREECE
    Behind the Haystacks
    Director: Asimina Proedrou
    LOGLINE: A local family living on Greece’s northern border face difficult personal choices in the wake of a tragic incident.
    INT’L SALES: TVCO

    HONG KONG
    A Light Never Goes Out
    Director: Anastasia Tsang
    LOGLINE: The devastated wife of a master neon signmmaker takes up his passion as her own following his death.
    INT’L SALES: Edko Films

    HUNGARY
    Four Souls of Coyote
    Director: Áron Gauder
    LOGLINE: An animation following a band of Native American teenagers who confront an oil pipeline project  while will affect their ancestral land.
    INT’L SALES: NFI World Sales

    ICELAND
    Godland
    Director: Hlynur Pálmason
    LOGLINE: A 19th-century Danish priest is sent to Iceland to establish a new parish but finds his faith challenged by the hardships of rural life. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Janus Films

    INDIA
    2018
    Director: Jude Anthany Joseph
    LOGLINE: A disaster film set during the 2018 Kerala floods in which people from all walks of life collectively try to survive the ensuing chaos.
    PRODCO: Anto Joseph Film Co.

    INDONESIA
    Autobiography
    Director: Makbul Mubarak
    LOGLINE: The callow young assistant and housekeeper to a retired general running for local election learns firsthand about Indonesian corruption.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Amazon Prime Video

    IRAN
    The Night Guardian
    Director: Reza Mirkarimi
    LOGLINE: A naive village boy’s quiet life is challenged when he encounters the engineer of a construction project.
    INT’L SALES: Banoo Film

    IRAQ
    Hanging Gardens
    Director: Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji
    LOGLINE: A young Iraqi’s life is upended when he rescues a sex doll from the Baghdad rubbish dumps where he works. 
    INT’L SALES: True Colours

    IRELAND 
    In the Shadow of Beirut
    Director: Stephen Gerard Kelly, Garry Keane
    LOGLINE: Modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of four families living in the impoverished neighborhoods where aninfamous 1982 massacre occurred.
    PRODCO: Abbout Prods.

    ISRAEL
    Seven Blessings
    Director: Ayelet Menahemi
    LOGLINE: In early ’90s Jerusalem a boisterous Jewish-Moroccan family celebrate their togetherness while also hiding painful secrets. 
    PRODCO: Ronen Ben-Tal Films

    ITALY
    Io Capitano
    Director: Matteo Garrone
    LOGLINE: Two young men embark on an epic odyssey from Dakar to Europe in a Venice Best Director-winning migrant drama.
    INT’L SALES: Pathé

    JAPAN
    Perfect Days
    Director: Wim Wenders
    LOGLINE: A contented Tokyo restroom cleaner with a simple, structured everyday life has a series of unexpected encounters.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Neon

    JORDAN
    Inshallah a Boy
    Director: Amjad Al Rasheed
    LOGLINE: The walls of Jordanian patriarchy close in quickly on the recently widowed mother of a small daughter.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Greenwich Entertainment

    KENYA
    Mvera
    Director: Daudi Anguka
    LOGLINE: A woman embarks on a crusade against an organ-trafficking ring operating in her small coastal town mear Mombasa.
    PRODCO: AR Films Prod.

    KYRGYZSTAN
    This is What I Remember
    Director: Aktan Arym Kubat
    LOGLINE: A man who lost his memory while working in Russia and returns to Kyrgyzstan for the first time in 20 years.
    INT’L SALES: Diversion

    LATVIA
    My Freedom
    Director: Ilze Kunga-Melgaile
    LOGLINE: A free-thinking and charismatic activist becomes a star of the Latvian National Awakening, which brings tough choices in her private life.
    PRODCO: Tasse Films, M-Films

    LITHUANIA
    Slow
    Director: Marija Kavtaradzė
    LOGLINE: A dancer and a sign-language interpreter build their own kind of intimacy pursuing an unconventional relationship. 
    INT’L SALES: Totem Films

    LUXEMBOURG
    The Last Ashes
    Director: Loïc Tanson
    LOGLINE: Hélène returns to her native village under a new identity on a mission of revenge against the powerful local Graff family.
    PRODCO: Artémis Prods., Samsa Films

    MALAYSIA
    Tiger Stripes
    Director: Amanda Nell Eu
    LOGLINE: A carefree 11-year-old girl suddenly starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.
    INT’L SALES: Films Boutique

    MEXICO
    Tótem
    Director: Lila Avilés
    LOGLINE: On the birthday of her dying father, 7-year-old Sol observes the relationships between his bickering, loving, boisterous family.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sideshow, Janus Films

    MOLDOVA
    Thunders
    Director: Ioane Bobeica
    LOGLINE: Rich-kid Victor and poor-girl Zinca form a forbidden friendship in the literal minefield of their village on the Transnistrian border.
    PRODCO: YOUBESC Film

    MONGOLIA
    City of Wind
    Director: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
    LOGLINE: A teenage shaman and a girl with a heart condition form a tentative connection in wintry Ulaanbaatar.
    INT’L SALES: Best Friend Forever

    MONTENEGRO
    Sirin
    Director: Senad Šahmanović
    LOGLINE: An American lawyer who changed her identity when she left the former Yugoslavia returns to her native Montenegro for an unusual inheritance case.
    PRODCO: Cut-Up

    MOROCCO
    The Mother of All Lies
    Director: Asmae El Moudir
    LOGLINE: A documentary exploring memory and willful forgetfulness with respect to the  director’s fraught family history and that of her nation.
    PRODCO: Insight Films

    NAMIBIA
    Under the Hanging Tree
    Director: Perivi Katjavivi
    A supernatural noir about an impetuous city cop assigned to a morbid case in a small desert town in Namibia.
    PRODUCTION: Old Location Films

    NEPAL
    Halkara
    Director: Bikram Sapkota
    LOGLINE: An unemployed drunkard takes a job as a postman which brings him to remote villages and makes him confront his demons. 
    PRODCO: Icefall Prods.

    NETHERLANDS
    Sweet Dreams
    Director: Ena Sendijarević
    LOGLINE: The white owner of a Dutch East Indies sugar plantation leaves his estate to his illegitimate son by his Indonesian housemaid.
    INT’L SALES: Heretic

    NIGERIA
    Mami Wata
    Director: CJ Obasi
    LOGLINE: A remote West African village community worships the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and is guided by healer Mama Efe, her daughter Zinwe and protégé Prisca.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Dekanalog

    NORTH MACEDONIA
    Housekeeping For Beginners
    Director: Goran Stolevski
    LOGLINE: A lively, rowdy family drama following the domestic, romantic and generational conflicts in a crowded queer household.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Focus Features

    NORWAY
    Songs of Earth
    Director: Margreth Olin
    LOGLINE: The director traces her octogenarian father’s connection to nature in his mountain home nestled amid Norway’s spectacular landscapes.
    INT’L SALES: Cinephil

    PAKISTAN
    In Flames
    Director: Zarrar Kahn
    After the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s existence is ripped apart by figures from their past.
    INT’L SALES: XYZ Films

    PALESTINE
    Bye Bye Tiberias
    Director: Lina Soualem
    LOGLINE: A doc following the director’s mother, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbas, as she and her daughter return to her native village.
    INT’L SALES: Lightdox

    PANAMA
    Tito, Margot & Me
    Director: Mercedes Arias, Delfina Vidal 
    LOGLINE: A biodoc tracing the politicized love affair between high-profile Panamian politico Tito Arias and ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
    PRODCO: Betesda Films

    PARAGUAY
    The Last Runway 2, Commando Yaguarete
    Director: Armando Aquino, Mauricio Rial
    LOGLINE: An investigator with the Ministry of the Interior goes to extreme lengths to rescue a kidnapped colleage in the action sequel to 2018’s “The Last Runway.”
    PRODCO: Hei Films

    PERU
    The Erection of Toribio Bardelli 
    Director: Adrián Saba
    LOGLINE: The patriarch of a dysfunctional family faces his 70th birthday with one wish: to have an erection again. 
    PRODCO: Flamingo Films

    PHILIPPINES
    The Missing
    Director: Carl Joseph Papa
    LOGLINE: Animated sci-fi in which an Filipino animator without a mouth goes to find his missing uncle and finds instead a strangely familiar alien.
    PRODCO: Project8 Projects

    POLAND
    The Peasants
    Director: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman 
    LOGLINE: A beautiful peasant girl’s romances cause havoc in her village in a hand-painted animation from the “Loving Vincent” team. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sony Pictures Classics

    PORTUGAL
    Bad Living
    Director: João Canijo
    LOGLINE: Three generations of women run a failing Portuguese hotel and take out their increasing bitterness on each other.
    INT’L SALES: The Match Factory

    ROMANIA
    Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
    Director: Radu Jude
    LOGLINE: A wild, unruly satire following an overworked, underpaid production assistant as she interviews candidates for a workplace safety video.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Mubi

    SENEGAL
    Banel and Adama
    Director: Ramata-Toulaye Sy
    LOGLINE: A young couple in love want to leave their village responsibilities behind but magic, superstition and dark secrets will not make it easy. 
    INT’L SALES: Best Friend Forever

    SERBIA
    Because My Thoughts are Struggling
    Director: Milorad Milinković
    LOGLINE: Prince Mihailo struggles with a sense of duty to his people while a fatal conspiracy is being hatched against him. 
    PRODCO: Living Pictures

    SINGAPORE
    The Breaking Ice
    Director: Anthony Chen
    LOGLINE: In a freezing China’s frozen Northeast, three young people navigate a gentle thawing love triangle. 
    INT’L SALES: Rediance

    SLOVAKIA
    Photophobia
    Director: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
    LOGLINE: A docudrama tracing a day in the life of a Kharkiv family sheltering in subway tunnels from the Russian attacks.
    PRODCO: Punkchart Films

    SLOVENIA
    Riders
    Director: Dominik Mencej
    LOGLINE: Inspired by “Easy Rider,” two friends embark on a road trip through recently post-Yugoslav Slovenia and Croatia on their mopeds. 
    INT’L SALES: Staragara

    SOUTH AFRICA
    Music is My Life
    Director: Mpumi Supa Mbele
    LOGLINE: A biodoc of the late Joseph Shabalala, who attained worldwide fame contributing to Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album with his band, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
    INT’L SALES: Pop Twist Entertainment

    SOUTH KOREA
    Concrete Utopia
    Director: Um Tae-hwa
    LOGLINE: In the aftermath of a devastating Seoul earthquake, survivors hole up in a luxury apartment block to weather the aftermath. 
    INT’L SALES: Lotte Entertainment

    SPAIN
    Society of the Snow
    Director: J.A. Bayona
    LOGLINE: The true story of the 1972 Andes plane crash and the 16 survivors who made it through  the 72 days untuil their rescue. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Netflix

    SUDAN
    Goodbye Julia
    Director: Mohamed Kordofani
    LOGLINE: Two women are fatefully connected despite coming from opposing sides of every social divide in pre-secession Khartoum.
    INT’L SALES: MAD Solutions

    SWEDEN
    Opponent
    Director: Milad Alami
    LOGLINE: An Iranian refugee tries out for the Swedish national wrestling team in order to speed up his family’s asylum applications.
    INT’L SALES: TriArt Film

    SWITZERLAND
    Thunder
    Director: Carmen Jaquier
    LOGLINE: A young novitiate discovers faith and desire can be linked  when she returns to her village following the mysterious death of her sister.
    INT’L SALES: WTFilms

    TAIWAN
    Marry My Dead Body
    Director: Cheng Wei-hao
    LOGLINE: Supernatural comedy ensues when a straight cop is forced into a marriage with the ghost of a gay man.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Netflix

    TAJIKISTAN
    Melody
    Director: Behrouz Sebt Rasoul 
    LOGLINE: A music teacher in a children’s cancer center searches for 30 birds, to use their songs as the basis for a composition. 
    INT’L SALES: Dreamlab Films

    THAILAND
    Not Friends
    Director: Atta Hemwadee
    LOGLINE: A high schooler cynically decides to make a short film about a deceased classmate for his colllege application. 
    INT’L SALES: GDH 559

    TUNISIA
    Four Daughters
    Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
    LOGLINE: The family void left by two teenage girls who joined ISIS is explored in a metafictional hybrid doc.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Kino Lorber

    TURKEY
    About Dry Grasses
    Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    LOGLINE: A misanthropic schoolteacher posted to remote Anatolia is accused of innappropriate behavior by a favored student. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Sideshow, Janus Films

    UKRAINE
    20 Days in Mariupol
    Director: Mstyslav Chernov
    LOGLINE: Documentary following a team of trapped Ukrainian journalists covering the war from withing the besieged city of Mariupol.
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: PBS Distribution

    UNITED KINGDOM
    The Zone of Interest
    Director: Jonathan Glazer
    LOGLINE: Next door to Auschwitz, the family of camp commandant Rudolf Höss go about their daily domestic routine. 
    U.S. DISTRIBUTION: A24

    URUGUAY
    Family Album
    Director: Guillermo Rocamora
    LOGLINE: A teenager and his father set up a band to realize Dad’s lifelong ambition but soon generational tastes and tensions make it unsustainable.
    PRODCO: Cimarrón Cine

    VENEZUELA
    The Shadow of the Sun
    Director: Miguel Ángel Ferrer
    LOGLINE: A young deaf man enlists his estranged elder brother in  fulfilling his dream of entering a singing competition. 
    PRODCO: Magic Films, Multi Studios

    VIETNAM
    Glorious Ashes 
    Director: Bùi Thạc Chuyên
    LOGLINE: The lives of three women in a small Mekong Delta village intertwine as they deal with their difficult menfolk.
    INT’L SALES: Skyline Media

    YEMEN
    The Burdened
    Director: Amr Gamal
    LOGLINE: When a struggling couple in Aden find they are pregnant again, they make a decision drastically at odds with Yemeni social norms.
    INT’L SALES: Films Boutique

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  • Dolby Theatre Reportedly For Sale, Hollywood’s Home Of The Academy Awards

    Dolby Theatre Reportedly For Sale, Hollywood’s Home Of The Academy Awards

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    A prominent piece of Hollywood is for sale. The Dolby Theatre, the Los Angeles venue that is the host for the annual Academy Awards, is on the block, according to a Bloomberg report.

    The Dolby is part of the Ovation complex at Hollywood and Highland, a high-traffic tourist area even when the Oscars are not in session. The theater seats 3,400 and could fetch as much as $70 million, Bloomberg said, citing a source.

    The Oscars are contracted with the venue through 2028, and it has served as the host of other prominent entertainment shows, including the Latin Grammys and the finals of music competition American Idol.

    Gaw Capital USA bought the attached Hollywood & Highland complex in 2019 for $325 million with DJM Capital Partners Inc., a San Jose private real estate equity and development firm that rehabilitates troubled properties. The seller was Los Angeles developer CIM Group. At the time, the new owners were reportedly changing some retail outlets over to office space at the complex.

    The Dolby Theatre was not included in the transaction.

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  • This 1993 Outfit Kept Whoopi Goldberg From Dressing Up For “a Very Long Time”

    This 1993 Outfit Kept Whoopi Goldberg From Dressing Up For “a Very Long Time”

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    Nineties-era fashion is back in full force, but one of Whoopi Goldberg‘s outfits from 1993 has been haunting her all these years.

    Goldberg attended the 1993 Academy Awards in support of her turn in The Color Purple, rocking a metallic brocade jumpsuit in an allover seafoam and purple print, topping the look off with a shiny purple and lime green jacket-cape-open-front-skirt. At the Fashion Group International Night of Stars gala Tuesday evening, where she was honored with the American Icon Award, Goldberg reflected to Page Six Style that “everyone hated” that look, landing her on Worst-Dressed lists the next morning.

    “It hurt my feelings, I’m not going to lie. It hurt my feelings,” she said. Though she said she “absolutely” stands by her choice to wear the ensemble, she did let the reaction impact how she dressed for events after that. “It kept me from dressing up for a very long time. You have to remember, in those days, they would say things and you’d think, ‘Do I really look that ridiculous?’”

    Goldberg, who has since founded her own fashion line, called DUBGEE, and delights in displaying unique fashion finds like her infamous decapitated Barbie-filled platform shoes and high-heeled Crocs on her Instagram and on air, said that look was inspired by I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball’s bold sartorial choices.

    “Lucy would always come out in these great ensembles,” she said. “And I thought, I would like to wear that! And green is not a color I would normally wear; let me try it!”

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  • Miniature ‘Star Wars’ X-wing gets over $3 million at auction of Hollywood model-maker’s collection

    Miniature ‘Star Wars’ X-wing gets over $3 million at auction of Hollywood model-maker’s collection

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    DALLAS — A miniature X-wing Starfighter used in a “Star Wars” film sold for over $3 million during an auction over the weekend of items both collected and created by longtime Hollywood model-maker Greg Jein.

    The collection amassed by Jein, who died last year at the age of 76, brought in about $13.6 million during an event at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. The auction house said that everyone from model-makers to collectors and science-fiction fans attended, making the event its best-attended in years.

    Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president and a longtime friend of Jein’s, said in a news release Monday that the auction was “a profound testament to my friend as both a visual-effects master and one of the great collectors.”

    Jein not only had an Oscar and Emmy-nominated career making miniature models for nearly half a century, but he also spent a lifetime collecting costumes, props, scripts, artwork, photographs and models from the shows he loved.

    The Red Leader X-wing Starfighter that was used in the 1977 film “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” sold for about $3.1 million after a bidding duel between two collectors, the auction house said. Also going for an eye-popping amount was a “Star Wars” Stormtrooper costume that sold for $645,000.

    A rare surviving spacesuit from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” sold for $447,000.

    Jein was a fan of “ Star Trek ” before he worked on the franchise — and some of the items that he collected were popular at the auction. A filming model of the “SS Botany Bay” vessel from “Star Trek: The Original Series” from the 1960s went for $200,000 while prop devices from that series like a hero phaser went for $187,500 and a tricorder garnered $175,000.

    Jein, who grew up in Los Angeles, was still early in his career when he led the team that created the mothership for Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The model that appears gigantic in the movie is just over 5 feet (1.5 meters) long and now part of the collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. A small preliminary model, which is about 5 inches (12 centimeters) long, brought in $55,000 at the auction.

    Lou Zutavern, Jein’s longtime friend and shop supervisor, said that he and Jein always had “a ball” working together. He said Jein was a great friend, and recalled the time he brought a box filled with model kits to entertain Zutavern after he had a knee surgery.

    Zutavern said his friend had a love of Hollywood history, and a passion for seeking out items for his collection.

    “He loved the search and finding things and making a trade,” Zutavern said. “It was part of the fun for him.”

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  • Film academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s historic missing Oscar at Howard University

    Film academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s historic missing Oscar at Howard University

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    Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar


    Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar

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    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will gift a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s historic best supporting actress Oscar to Howard University in Washington, D.C., the organization announced Tuesday. McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Oscar for her supporting performance as Mammy in the 1939 classic “Gone with the Wind.”

    The Oscar will be presented to the school’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts on Oct. 1 in a ceremony titled “Hattie’s Come Home.” 

    At the segregated 12th Academy Awards ceremony in 1940 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, McDaniel and her guest sat separately from the other nominees, the academy said.  

    “It has made me feel very, very humble and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything I may be able to do in the future,” McDaniel said in her acceptance speech. “I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel. And may I say thank you and God bless you.”

    Hattie McDaniel with Academy Award
    Actress Hattie McDaniel is shown with the Oscar plaque she received for winning best supporting actress at the Academy Awards for her portrayal in “Gone With The Wind.” March 2, 1940, in Los Angeles, California. The award was for best supporting actress, and was made at the 12th annual Academy Awards ceremony.

    Bettmann via Getty Images


    Instead of a statue at the time, however, McDaniel received a plaque that was customary for supporting performance winners between 1936 and 1942, according to the academy.   

    Upon her death in 1952, the actress bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, and the award was displayed in the school’s drama department up until the late 1960s, according to the academy. 

    However, it has since mysteriously disappeared, and its whereabouts remain unknown, the academy said. 

    “Hattie McDaniel was a groundbreaking artist who changed the course of cinema and impacted generations of performers who followed her. We are thrilled to present a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s Academy Award to Howard University,” Jacqueline Stewart, Academy Museum president, and Bill Kramer, chief executive of the academy, said in a joint statement. “This momentous occasion will celebrate Hattie McDaniel’s remarkable craft and historic win.”

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  • Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar

    Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar

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    Academy to replace Hattie McDaniel’s missing Oscar – CBS News


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    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is finally replacing Hattie McDaniel’s long-lost Oscar. McDaniel was the first African-American person to win an Oscar, but the statue went missing from Howard University, where it had been donated after her death, decades ago.

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  • Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Jackman separate after 27 years of marriage

    Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Jackman separate after 27 years of marriage

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    Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Jackman have decided to end their marriage after 27 years and two children, the pair told People magazine Friday

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 15, 2023, 2:28 PM

    FILE – Hugh Jackman, right., and Deborra-Lee Furness Jackman attend the premiere of Apple Original Films’ “Ghosted” in New York on April 18, 2023. Jackman and Deborra-lee Jackman have decided to end their marriage after 27 years and two children, the pair told People magazine Friday. In a joint statement provided to People, they said they “have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage.” (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

    The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Jackman have decided to end their marriage after 27 years and two children.

    “We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth,” they said in the joint statement. Their separation was first reported by People magazine.

    They said the statement would be their only one on their breakup. They added that their family is their highest priority and that they’ll undertake “this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness.”

    A representative for the couple confirmed the statement to The Associated Press Friday.

    The couple met in 1995 on the set of an Australian television show where both were actors. Deborra-lee Furness at the time was the more established of the two. They married in 1996 and had two children: Oscar, now 23, and Ava, now 18. Jackman also ascended to major stardom in Hollywood and on Broadway.

    The couple have been red carpet mainstays for years, posing together at the Oscars, at Broadway events and at the Met Gala, including the most recent edition in May. They attended Wimbledon together in July.

    In April, Jackman celebrated their 27th anniversary with a tribute on Instagram.

    “I love you so much. Together we have created a beautiful family. And life,” he wrote. “Your laughter, your spirit, generosity, humor, cheekiness, courage and loyalty is an incredible gift to me.”

    Furness, 67, is an advocate for orphans and adoption, especially in her native Australia, and one of the founding members of National Adoption Awareness Week.

    Jackman, 54, who played the superhero Wolverine in several movies, is reprising the role in “Deadpool 3,” which is on hold due to the actors strike.

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  • Janet Yang to serve second term as president of Oscars organization

    Janet Yang to serve second term as president of Oscars organization

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    Janet Yang has been re-elected to serve as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization said Tuesday

    ByLINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer

    Janet Yang has been re-elected to serve as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization said Tuesday. This will mark Yang’s second term as president of the organization that puts on the Oscars and her fifth year as a governor-at-large.

    Yang’s background in Hollywood is as a producer of films like “The Joy Luck Club,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Over the Moon” as well as the Emmy-winning film “Indictment: The McMartin Trial.” After serving the film academy in various positions over the years, she was elected president last year and oversaw the 95th Academy Awards in March, which saw an uptick in viewership compared to the last few years.

    Academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a statement that under Yang’s leadership, “these dedicated governors will guide the Academy’s ongoing efforts to elevate the work of our global membership and film community, highlight our industry’s rich history, foster meaningful dialogue, and continue to build equity and inclusion in every aspect of our organization.”

    The Academy’s board of governors also announced the election of several officer positions, including several first-time officers like Howard Berger to the Museum Committee, Brooke Breton to the Education and Outreach Committee, Tom Duffield to the Finance Committee and Howard A. Rodman to the Governance Committee.

    The 96th Oscars will be held on March 10, 2024, and broadcast live on ABC.

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  • Fans pay tribute to Coco Lee, Hong Kong singer who had international success

    Fans pay tribute to Coco Lee, Hong Kong singer who had international success

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    HONG KONG — Fans of singer and songwriter Coco Lee, who was known for her powerful voice and live performances, were gathering with flowers to pay their respects to their idol at her funeral in Hong Kong on Monday.

    The memorial services was attended by her family and friends, including singers Elva Hsiao and Jenny Tseng, as well as other supporters. Lee died July 5 at age 48.

    She was born in Hong Kong and attended school in San Francisco before releasing her first album in 1994 at age 19. She began her career as a Mandopop singer but branched out to release albums in Cantonese and English.

    She was the first Chinese singer to break into the American market, and her English song “Do You Want My Love” climbed to #4 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Breakouts chart in December 1999. In 2001, she sang “A Love Before Time” from Ang Lee’s movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at the Academy Awards, becoming the first Chinese American to perform at the Oscars.

    Lee was also the voice of heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney’s “Mulan,” and sang the Mandarin version of the movie’s theme song “Reflection.”

    Lee was married to Bruce Rockowitz, former CEO of Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung. She had two stepdaughters.

    Her death had shocked fans. Her siblings posted on Facebook that she had depression for years and had attempted suicide at home on July 2. She died a few days later.

    On Monday afternoon, more than 100 fans dressed in black were waiting outside the funeral home.

    Lin Jing, a fan from Fujian province in the southeast, said she admired Lee’s smile and appearance, adding: “She was really talented. She always tried to improve and she inspired women to feel independent.”

    Inside the funeral hall, three pink hearts made of flowers and other floral decorations were displayed below Lee’s photo.

    Her close friend, Hsiao, said during the ceremony that Lee was perfect idol to her even when she watched her performances as a student. After they became friends in the entertainment industry, Lee encouraged her when she was lost and treated her as “a little sister.”

    “She brightened my life with her happiness and bravery. I will keep preserving her spirit,” she said in a quavering voice.

    In a video for her memorial service, actors and singers from Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan recalled their memories with Lee and mourned her death.

    Action star Jackie Chan said in the video that everyone was proud of her when she sang at the Oscars.

    “To friends like us, Coco was a passionate and kind friend who showed care to us. She was really a good person. That’s why we are so reluctant to accept she has left us,” he said.

    Award-winning director Ang Lee recalled his exchanges with the late singer before the Oscars and said it was a pity she died so young. “We miss her very much. Coco, rest in peace,” he said in the video.

    In Coco Lee’s recent social media posts, she kept spreading positivity. In March, she posted about having to relearn how to walk after undergoing surgery for an old leg injury.

    “Successful surgery. Even though I’m in a lot of pain and I have to re-learn how to walk again, I know I can do it,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Yes I can and I will!”

    ___

    Associated Press video journalist Alice Fung and news assistant Annie Cheung contributed to this report.

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  • Stephanie Hsu says she once fought her love of art. The actress is now making waves in Hollywood.

    Stephanie Hsu says she once fought her love of art. The actress is now making waves in Hollywood.

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    Stephanie Hsu, the breakout star known for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” has been making waves in Hollywood — even described as Hollywood’s new “It” girl.

    She hopes to tackle producing and directing next. But she never thought the life she is now living was possible. 

    “And so the deeper work actually is going within myself and untangling all those knots. … It’s kind of finding the courage to actually be in your full bloom, as it were,” she said.

    If she could could speak to her younger self, she would say, “it’s okay to love art.”

    “I think I fought it for a really long time because I didn’t know if it was actually something that was possible for me, really,” Hsu said. “And I look back now and I wish I just allowed myself to love it sooner.”

    Hsu fell in love with acting when she was 6, but didn’t see it as a possible career path.

    “We just didn’t see a lot of ourselves onscreen growing up,” she said. “So I never really thought of it as a actual career trajectory. … In some ways I like to joke that it set me up for a lot of success, actually, because my standards were very low.”

    Born outside of Los Angeles and raised by a single mom from Taiwan, Hsu said being a part of a marginalized group made her feel the need to be “extra excellent” to be able to “have a seat at the table.”   

    But with acting, she faced some pushback. When she told her mom she dreamed of becoming an actress, her mother was skeptical and wanted Hsu to study business. 

    When Hsu began her acting career, she started in experimental theater and later originated the role of Karen the Computer in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.” She gained further recognition for her supporting role in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” before earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won best picture at the 95th Academy Awards in March.

    Michelle Yeoh became the first actress of Southeast Asian descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actress — for her role in the film.

    “That night we made history,” Hsu said. “And I feel like for the first time, the Asian community and the Asian community within the film industry was truly solidified and woven into the quilt of cinema history.”

    Hsu takes on a different role in the R-rated comedy “Joy Ride,” which tells the story of a woman’s humorous yet heartfelt journey as she searches for her birth mother in China. 

    “Joy Ride,” which will be in theaters Friday, not only has four Asian-American leads. Asian-American women also wrote and directed it — representation that Hsu said made her feel “safe.”

    “I like to say we knew we weren’t gonna be the butt of any joke. We were just four butts and four jokes,” she said, laughing. 

    “Sometimes you walk into spaces … if you don’t know that your creatives have a shared experience, sometimes on accident, even, things that are not meant to be offensive can be quite harmful,” she said.

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