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Tag: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  • Oscars: Latvia Bets on Animation Again, but ‘Dog of God’ Is “on the Other End of the Spectrum” From ‘Flow’

    Latvia made a splash at the 2025 Oscars by winning the best animated feature award for Flow. The small Baltic country’s submission for the 2026 best international feature film Oscar is, again, an animated movie. But Dog of God, from director brothers Lauris and Raitis Abele, is very, very different from Flow, including being a genre film and much more graphic and provocative.

    While director and producer Gints ZilbalodisFlow told the dialogue-free story of a solitary cat’s emotional journey, Dog of God is set in the 17th century and focuses on a woman accused of witchcraft and how her trial uncovers the existence of a werewolf. Rooted in Latvian folklore, it explores such themes as tribalism, the role of power elites, religion, and dogmatic thinking and rhetoric. The result is a frenzied fever dream full of horror, sexual desire and myths.

    The brothers co-wrote the script with Ivo Briedis and Harijs Grundmanis. The voice cast features Regnars Vaivars, Jurgis Spulenieks, Kristians Karelins, Einars Repse, Agate Krista and Armands Bergis. Producing the film were Raitis Abele for Tritone Studio and Kristele Pudane, with Giovanni Labadessa serving as a co-producer. 

    Media Move is handling global sales on Dog of God. ESC Films acquired the French rights for the film, Weird Wave took it for Greece, and Little Dream Pictures for Germany. For the U.S., Cartuna acquired the movie.

    Dog of God was a strange and intense experience — even in the making, it often felt like we were chasing something wild and unknowable,” Lauris and Raitis Abele said in a statement ahead of the film’s world premiere at Tribeca.

    The Abele brothers talked to THR about Dog of God, how they originally planned it as a live-action movie, and why they hope to provoke debate rather than being politically correct.

    The film’s story is inspired by actual events that took place “60 kilometers from where we live,” Lauris tells THR. And the belief in witchcraft and related ideas is still widespread. “We’re a Christian country, but we’re quite pagan.”

    The brothers’ unusual cinematic voice stems from their appreciation of things that surprise them. “We like weird cinema, surreal cinema,” Lauris explains. “There are new narratives which we could see emerging [more and more], because everything is so calculated and very commercialized these days. For commercial product, you can’t afford experiments or weird stuff.”

    While Dog of God was initially planned as a live-action story, animation helped with the brothers’ interest in pushing the envelope.

    After the brothers’ psychedelic first feature film, Troubled Minds (2021), about their experience with a bipolar artist friend, Raitis was asked to work with the team of the Latvian animators of Flow. “I was helping them out with our studio, and I was just in this environment of animation experiments,” he recalls. When the Dog of God script didn’t get the hoped-for reaction from the country’s film center and various people the creatives pitched it to, Raitis suggested the animation approach. But Lauris was against it.

    But when an animator friend of theirs created some sketches, things changed. “Lauris said, ‘Oh, this is something that we would like to watch ourselves,’” Raitis tells THR. “So, we changed the script to go more fairy tale, because animation opens up more possibilities.”

    The brothers are happy with that choice to this day. “Animation gave us freedom,” Lauris tells THR. “In an adult animation world, we can go to hell rather than filming with a blue screen or finding real caves. It gave us a lot of artistic freedom. There are not many boundaries. We could do pretty much anything.”

    Or, as Raitis puts it: “What we say when we introduce the film is, ‘and now for something completely different.’”

    Dog of God

    Media Move

    That also means that Dog of God is different from the Latvian animated hit Flow, even though some animators worked on both movies. “Our film is absolutely on the other end of the spectrum,” Raitis emphasizes. “And the reaction from the film center was also positive. They liked this film, and they liked that it’s different. If it were similar, but did not reach the same heights as Flow, that would be bad. It’s very hard to compete with somebody who got an Oscar. But we went in the opposite direction. Flow has opened doors for Latvian animation. But it’s also good for the Latvian Animation Association that we are showing different kinds of films.”

    The brothers are particularly proud and happy that Dog of God has found audiences beyond genre festivals.

    And that even though the film includes “pagan sexuality that is very pre-Freudian,” as Lauris says. “I guess that was the care everywhere around Europe [back in the day]. The Canterbury Tales, for example, or The Decameron. So this is kind of our naughty, pre-Christian, pagan stuff.”

    Raitis shares that Latvian and Baltic folk songs were one of the inspirations for Dog of God. “We have 12 thick volumes of folk songs, and number six has naughty folk songs,” he tells THR. “In school, we were not allowed to read that.”

    Despite its local inspirations and setting, core themes of the movie feel universal and current. The brothers say they like the idea of the audience wondering if some of the things that take place in Dog of God could be happening today. “Evil ideas and human flaws do not go in circles, but in spirals,” offers Lauris. “And these things and more can happen these days. They are kind of archetypes — from witch hunts and hypocrisy to human desires.” Is there a hero in the film? “We say, Oh, these days all the heroes are dead. So, we don’t have any good characters in this film.”

    The werewolf character in Dog of God is based on the trickster archetype, Raitis explains, highlighting: “He’s neither bad nor good.”

    The brothers often hear that viewers see their movie as criticizing the church. “No, it’s not criticizing the church,” Raitis says. “It’s a critique of dogmatic thinking, abuse of power and hypocrisy. That can come from a church, a government institution, a company or whatever.”

    Dog of God

    What is next for the Abele brothers? They have already received funding for their next film, a live-action feature called Wagner and Satan. “We still want to be in this genre environment, because we fell in love with genre after going to the various festivals,” Raitis explains. “This audience feels very good to us, and we feel good to them.” The movie is based on a true story, “but of course, we are twisting it in all directions,” he adds.

    Richard Wagner lived in Riga and worked as a conductor before he became a famous composer. “The fact is that when he left Riga, he decided he would become a composer and just change his life. So definitely, there was a Faustian pact that happened here in Riga,” argues Raitis. “And as we have all these pagan traditions, we are mixing that in. So, we put Wagner before he was Wagner in this world, where he makes a pact with the devil. It’s also based on one quote from Wagner that he was so close to composing music that would make the whole world go mad. And we believe that he stole some pagan manuscript from here with this music. And later, the whole world did go mad for a certain period of time.”

    Concludes Lauris:” Even if it’s a genre film, as a young person, Wagner was kind of this anti-establishment person, and then when he gained some recognition, he became a monarchist. So it’s also a symbolic deal with the devil and explores when a revolutionary becomes establishment.”

    Georg Szalai

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  • Oscars: Academy Reveals Full Lists of Qualifying Documentary, International and Animated Features

    A total of 201 documentary features, 86 international features and 35 animated features are eligible for Oscar recognition this season in the best documentary feature, best international feature and best animated feature categories, respectively, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday.

    The only time more documentaries were deemed eligible — 238 — was the year in which the pandemic led to an extension of the period of eligibility from 12 to 14 months (Jan. 1, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021) and docs that did not play in theaters were considered.

    This year’s list of eligible documentary features includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor and Apocalypse in the Tropics, Apple’s Come See Me in the Good Light and Neon’s Orwell: 2+2=5. It also includes two acclaimed films made by celebrities about their famous parents, HBO’s My Mom Jayne and Apple’s Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which were directed by Mariska Hargitay and Ben Stiller, respectively. And there are several titles related to recent turmoil in the Middle East, including Hemdale/Metallux’s Torn: The Israel-Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets and the self-distributed Coexistence, My Ass!, Holding Liat and Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

    The most glaring omission from the list: The Eyes of Ghana, a documentary directed by the two-time Oscar-winning documentarian Ben Proudfoot, which is still seeking distribution. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that a late decision was made to hold the film for next awards season. Other high-profile docs that were expected to be on the list but are not, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, include A24’s Marc by Sofia, Oscar winner Sofia Coppola’s portrait of Marc Jacobs, and Oscar winner Questlove’s Hulu film Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius).

    The list of eligible international features includes five widely lauded films that are being distributed in the U.S. by Parasite backer Neon and could conceivably all earn nominations: Norway’s Sentimental Value, Brazil’s The Secret Agent, South Korea’s No Other Choice, Spain’s Sirāt and France’s It Was Just an Accident. It Was Just an Accident, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, was directed by Jafar Panahi, a filmmaker from Iran but does not reflect well on the country; as a result, Iran submitted the much lower-profile Cause of Death: Unknown, while France submitted It Was Just an Accident, on the basis that much of the film’s financing was French.

    Other countries that made interesting submissions include Japan (GKIDS’ Kokuho, a film about Kabuki performers, which is now the highest-grossing non-animated film in that country’s history); Iraq (Sony Classics’ The President’s Cake won two prizes at Cannes); Belgium (Music Box’s Young Mothers could bring the brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne the first Oscar noms of their distinguished careers); and Taiwan (Netflix’s Left-Handed Girl, which was co-written by Anora Oscar winner Sean Baker).

    Meanwhile, at least three countries submitted acclaimed documentaries for best international feature consideration: Ukraine (PBS’ 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a doc about a Ukrainian platoon’s fight to retake a city from Russian invaders, which was directed by Mstyslav Chernov, who won the best doc feature Oscar two years ago); North Macdeonia (Nat Geo’s The Tale of Silyan, from Tamara Kotevska, whose 2019 film Honeyland was nominated for best international feature and doc feature Oscars); and Denmark (Mr. Nobody Against, a film about Vladimir Putin’s propaganda efforts, which is still seeking U.S. distribution).

    And the list of animated features includes giant blockbusters like Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which is now the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the highest-grossing international film in the U.S. of all time, as well as the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025; streaming hits like Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, which is now that streamer’s most watched film ever; acclaimed indies like Neon’s Arco, a French-language critics’ darling that counts Natalie Portman among its producers; and highly-anticipated forthcoming titles like Disney’s Zootopia 2.

    Among the animated films that were expected to contend but are not on the list of eligible titles, either because they were not submitted or because they failed to meet the eligibility requirements, are A24’s Ne Zha 2, Sony’s Paddington in Peru and Paramount’s Smurfs.

    The documentary feature and international feature categories are winnowed down to shortlists before nominations, while the animated feature category goes straight to nominations. Shortlist voting will span Dec. 8-12, 2025, and the announcement of the shortlists will come on Dec. 16. Nominations voting in all categories will span Jan. 12-16, 2026, and the announcement of the nominations will come on Jan. 22, 2026.

    A full list of eligible animated, documentary and international features follows.

    Eligible animated features

    Thirty-five features are eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

    To determine the five nominees, members of the Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote in the category. Academy members outside of the Animation Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture. Animated features that have been submitted in the International Feature Film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in the category.

    “All Operators Are Currently Unavailable”

    “Arco”

    “The Bad Guys 2”

    “Black Butterflies”

    “Boys Go to Jupiter”

    “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc”

    “ChaO”

    “Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing”

    “David”

    “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle”

    “Dog Man”

    “Dog of God”

    “Dragon Heart – Adventures Beyond This World”

    “Elio”

    “Endless Cookie”

    “Fixed”

    “Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie”

    “In Your Dreams”

    “KPop Demon Hunters”

    “The Legend of Hei 2”

    “Light of the World”

    “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”

    “Lost in Starlight”

    “A Magnificent Life”

    “Mahavatar Narsimha”

    “Night of the Zoopocalypse”

    “Olivia & las Nubes”

    “100 Meters”

    “Out of the Nest”

    “Scarlet””Slide”

    “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants”

    “Stitch Head”

    “The Twits”

    “Zootopia 2”

    Eligible documentary features

    Two hundred one features are eligible for consideration in the documentary feature film category for the 98th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in the voting process.

    Documentary features that have won a qualifying film festival award or have been submitted in the international feature film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in the category. Films submitted in the documentary feature film category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including best picture. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.

    “Abby’s List, A Dogumentary”

    “Ada – My Mother the Architect”

    “Afternoons of Solitude”

    “The Age of Disclosure”

    “Ai Weiwei’s Turandot”

    “The Alabama Solution”

    “All God’s Children”

    “The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener”

    “Always”

    “Amakki”

    “American Sons”

    “Among Neighbors”

    “animal.”

    “Antidote”

    “Apocalypse in the Tropics”

    “Architecton”

    “Are We Good?”

    “Art for Everybody”

    “Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse”

    “The Art Whisperer”

    “Artfully United”

    “Assembly”

    “BTS ARMY: Forever We Are Young”

    “Becoming Led Zeppelin”

    “Being Eddie”

    “Below the Clouds”

    “Benita”

    “Between the Mountain and the Sky”

    “Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell’s Swimsuit Issue”

    “Billy Idol Should Be Dead””BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions”

    “Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny”

    “Bodyguard of Lies”

    “Brothers after War”

    “Can’t Look Away: The Case against Social Media”

    “Caterpillar”

    “Champions of the Golden Valley”

    “Checkpoint Zoo”

    “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie”

    “Child of Dust”

    “Chronicles of Disney”

    “Coexistence, My Ass!”

    “Come See Me in the Good Light”

    “Complicated”

    “Cover-Up”

    “Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution”

    “Cutting through Rocks”

    “Dalit Subbaiah”

    “The Dating Game”

    “Deaf President Now!”

    “Democracy Noir”

    “Diane Warren: Relentless”

    “Dog Warriors”

    “Drop Dead City”

    “The Duel We Missed”

    “El Canto de las Manos”

    “Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire”

    “The Encampments”

    “Endless Cookie”

    “Europe’s New Faces”

    “Facing War”

    “Fatherless No More”

    “Fiume o Morte!”

    “Folktales”

    “Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea”

    “For the Living”

    “14 Short Films about Opera”

    “From Island to Island”

    “Ghost Boy”

    “Girl Climber”

    “Go to the People”

    “Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus””Grand Theft Hamlet”

    “Heaven. Poste Restente”

    “Heightened Scrutiny”

    “Holding Liat”

    “I Know Catherine, the Log Lady”

    “I, Poppy”

    “I Was Born This Way”

    “If You Tell Anyone”

    “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be”

    “I’m Only Blind”

    “Imago”

    “In Limbo”

    “In Waves and War”

    “In Whose Name?”

    “Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958 -1989”

    “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”

    “Janis Ian: Breaking Silence”

    “The King of Color”

    “The Last Class”

    “The Last Holocaust Secret”

    “The Last Philadelphia”

    “The Last Twins”

    “Li Cham (I Died)”

    “The Librarians”

    “Life After”

    “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story”

    “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story”

    “Love+War”

    “Mahamantra – The Great Chant”

    “The Man Who Saves the World?”

    “A Man with Sole: The Impact of Kenneth Cole”

    “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore”

    “Meanwhile”

    “Men of War”

    “Mighty Indeed”

    “Mr. Nobody against Putin”

    “Mistress Dispeller”

    “Monk in Pieces”

    “My Armenian Phantoms”

    “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay”

    “My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow”

    “Natchez””The New Yorker at 100”

    “Night in West Texas”

    “1985: Heroes among Ruins – The Triumph of the People”

    “Norita”

    “Of Mud and Blood”

    “One to One: John and Yoko”

    “Orwell 2+2=5”

    “Our Time Will Come”

    “Out of Plain Sight”

    “Paint Me a Road Out of Here”

    “Paparazzi”

    “The Parish of Bishop John”

    “Pavements”

    “The Perfect Neighbor”

    “The Pool”

    “Predators”

    “Prime Minister”

    “The Prince of Nanawa”

    “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk”

    “Rebel with a Clause”

    “Remaining Native”

    “Riefenstahl”

    “Rise Up! 14 Short Films about Alliance for Positive Change”

    “River of Grass”

    “The Road between Us: The Ultimate Rescue”

    “The Rose: Come Back to Me”

    “Row of Life”

    “Sanatorium”

    “A Savage Art”

    “Schindler Space Architect”

    “Secret Mall Apartment”

    “Seeds”

    “Selena y Los Dinos”

    “Sensory Overload”

    “76 Days Adrift”

    “Shari & Lamb Chop”

    “The Shepherd and the Bear”

    “Shoot the People”

    “Shuffle”

    “The Six Billion Dollar Man”

    “67 Bombs to Enid”

    “Slumlord Millionaire””Songs from the Hole”

    “Soul of a Nation”

    “Speak.”

    “Stans”

    “Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere”

    “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost”

    “Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter”

    “Story of My Village”

    “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror”

    “The Stringer”

    “Suburban Fury”

    “Sudan, Remember Us”

    “Supercar Saints”

    “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted”

    “The Tale of Silyan”

    “Thank You Very Much”

    “There Was, There Was Not”

    “Third Act”

    “This Ordinary Thing”

    “Through the Fire (The Eaton Fire: The Aftermath)”

    “Torn: The Israel -Palestine Poster War on New York City Streets”

    “Trade Secret”

    “Trains”

    “Twin Towers: Legacy”

    “2000 Meters to Andriivka”

    “Unbanked”

    “UnBroken”

    “Under the Flags, the Sun”

    “Unseen Innocence”

    “Viktor”

    “Viva Verdi!”

    “WTO/99”

    “Walk with Me”

    “Walls – Akinni Inuk”

    “We Were Here – The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe”

    “Welded Together”

    “The White House Effect”

    “Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones?”

    “Wisdom of Happiness”

    “The Wolves Always Come at Night”

    “Worth the Fight”

    “Writing Hawa”

    Eligible international features

    Eighty-six countries or regions have submitted films that are eligible for consideration in the International Feature Film category for the 98th Academy Awards.

    An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the United States with a predominantly (more than 50 percent) non-English dialogue track.

    Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.

    Albania, “Luna Park”

    Argentina, “Belén”

    Armenia, “My Armenian Phantoms”

    Australia, “The Wolves Always Come at Night”

    Austria, “Peacock”

    Azerbaijan, “Taghiyev: Oil”

    Bangladesh, “A House Named Shahana”

    Belgium, “Young Mothers”

    Bhutan, “I, the Song”

    Bolivia, “The Southern House”

    Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny”

    Brazil, “The Secret Agent”

    Bulgaria, “Tarika”

    Canada, “The Things You Kill”

    Chile, “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”

    China, “Dead to Rights”

    Colombia, “A Poet”

    Costa Rica, “The Altar Boy, the Priest and the Gardener”

    Croatia, “Fiume o Morte!”

    Czech Republic, “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be”

    Denmark, “Mr. Nobody against Putin”

    Dominican Republic, “Pepe”

    Ecuador, “Chuzalongo”

    Egypt, “Happy Birthday”

    Estonia, “Rolling Papers”

    Finland, “100 Liters of Gold”

    France, “It Was Just an Accident”Georgia, “Panopticon”

    Germany, “Sound of Falling”

    Greece, “Arcadia”

    Greenland, “Walls – Akinni Inuk”

    Haiti, “Kidnapping Inc.”

    Hong Kong, “The Last Dance”

    Hungary, “Orphan”

    Iceland, “The Love That Remains”

    India, “Homebound”

    Indonesia, “Sore: A Wife from the Future”

    Iran, “Cause of Death: Unknown”

    Iraq, “The President’s Cake”

    Ireland, “Sanatorium”

    Israel, “The Sea”

    Italy, “Familia”

    Japan, “Kokuho”

    Jordan, “All That’s Left of You”

    Kyrgyzstan, “Black Red Yellow”

    Latvia, “Dog of God”

    Lebanon, “A Sad and Beautiful World”

    Lithuania, “The Southern Chronicles”

    Luxembourg, “Breathing Underwater”

    Madagascar, “Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story”

    Malaysia, “Pavane for an Infant”

    Mexico, “We Shall Not Be Moved”

    Mongolia, “Silent City Driver”

    Montenegro, “The Tower of Strength”

    Morocco, “Calle Malaga”

    Nepal, “Anjila”

    Netherlands, “Reedland”

    North Macedonia, “The Tale of Silyan”

    Norway, “Sentimental Value”

    Palestine, “Palestine 36”

    Panama, “Beloved Tropic”

    Paraguay, “Under the Flags, the Sun”

    Peru, “Kinra”

    Philippines, “Magellan”

    Poland, “Franz”

    Portugal, “Banzo”

    Romania, “Traffic”

    Saudi Arabia, “Hijra”

    Serbia, “Sun Never Again”Singapore, “Stranger Eyes”

    Slovakia, “Father”

    Slovenia, “Little Trouble Girls”

    South Africa, “The Heart Is a Muscle”

    South Korea, “No Other Choice”

    Spain, “Sirât”

    Sweden, “Eagles of the Republic”

    Switzerland, “Late Shift”

    Taiwan, “Left -Handed Girl”

    Tunisia, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”

    Turkey, “One of Those Days When Hemme Dies”

    Uganda, “Kimote”

    Ukraine, “2000 Meters to Andriivka”

    United Kingdom, “My Father’s Shadow”

    Uruguay, “Don’t You Let Me Go”

    Venezuela, “Alí Primera”

    Vietnam, “Red Rain”

    Scott Feinberg

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  • Egypt’s Oscar Hopeful ‘Happy Birthday’ Follows an 8-Year-Old Maid Who Is a Class Act in a World of Classism

    This Oscar season, you may find yourself falling in love with an eight-year-old maid and celebrating Happy Birthday. That is the title of the coming-of-age drama film, directed and co-written by Sarah Goher in her feature directorial debut, which is Egypt’s submission for the best international feature category at the 2026 Oscars. Jamie Foxx is a producer on the movie, starring newcomer Doha Ramadan, Nelly Karim, Hanan Motawie, Sherif Salama, and Aly Sobhy.

    It was co-written by Goher’s life and creative partner, Mohamed Diab. The duo previously also worked together on the Marvel series Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac, as well as Diab’s Clash and Bus 671. Happy Birthday was produced by Ahmed El Desouky for SkyLimit Production.

    The film tells the story of Toha, the already-mentioned young maid, who works for an upper-class family and Cairo and is determined not to let anyone stop her from throwing a great birthday party for her friend, her employer’s daughter. In the process, Happy Birthday explores “issues of class, power, and belonging through the eyes of an innocent child,” as a preview for the movie on the website of the 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), where it starts screening on Saturday, notes.

    The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, where it won the awards for best international narrative feature and best screenplay in such a feature, along with the Nora Ephron Award.

    For Goher, the film came from personal experience. The Egyptian was born and raised in New York, but would spend summers with her grandmother in Cairo. “The only other kid my age in my grandma’s apartment was this little girl, and I thought she was extended family,” the filmmaker tells THR. “We would play, and she was the most fun thing for me whenever I’d go to Egypt. And then after a couple of summers, I realized she was my grandma’s maid.”

    The girl one summer was no longer there, and Goher later realized that noone was talking about this because having young maids was not legal but common. “Child labor is not allowed in Egypt, but there’s this gray area where families in Egypt, if not in this generation, in a previous generation have a child around them that was in this limbo,” Goher explains. “So that became the inspiration for this film.”

    She knew that casting the young lead was key. “I knew very well early on that I had to cast the girl right, or else the whole thing would fall apart, and I wanted a girl who understood the socio-economic world of the character,” Goher shares. She and the creative team used street casting, Facebook, TikTok and the like.

    ‘Happy Birthday’

    Courtesy of PÖFF

    In the end, she asked to meet 60 girls at the Cairo Opera House for about eight hours. “I wanted them all dressed the same so no one would know who was from the nice neighborhood and who was from the [poorer] neighborhood,” Goher recalls. “I had these girls dancing and singing, doing mirror exercises, breathing exercises, and improvisations around the film. And then, very quickly, when you have kids by themselves, away from their parents, and with other kids, they really open up in a way that you start to see a lot about them quickly.”

    Young Doha Ramadan stood out. “She’s such a confident and creative girl,” says Goher. “She would tell me these crazy stories about herself, her friends, and about things in her neighborhood, and these scary stories that they tell each other. And I realized that the kids who are really good actors are really good storytellers.”

    The two worked closely throughout the process. “I needed her to understand that this is fiction,” Goher explains. “And I wanted to have her input into her character, because I did not want to be projecting a story from my imagination about someone like her.”

    The filmmaker hopes that audiences will fall in love with the character of Toha just like some of her friends who are not into children did. “They don’t want kids, but they fell in love with Doha and Toha. Neither has any sense of self-pity,” Goher tells THR. “Toha doesn’t see the tragedy of her life. She just wants to live it like, and that’s something I think we all need to see.”

    The filmmaker didn’t want to wrap the film and send Ramadan back to her own life without paying back time and effort for all the young talent’s work on the movie, so she created an “enrichment program.” After all, Ramadan didn’t know how to read when they started filming, even though she memorized the entire script, including all the other actors’ lines. “As soon as we finished shooting the film, I got her a private tutor to teach her reading and writing,” Goher tells THR. “And I also enrolled her at the Opera House, which has a gifted youth center, so she’s been taking ballet there.”

    Concludes the Happy Birthday director: “I wanted her to see herself as an artist, because in her socio- economic class, art is not something that’s a priority. I needed to give her an outlet that she could continue to follow. And I’m very grateful for her mother and her family, who have been completely supportive and cooperative throughout this entire process.”

    Georg Szalai

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  • AMPAS Honors 2025 Student Academy Award Winners

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored its global student winners at the 52nd Student Academy Awards ceremony on Oct. 6. The celebration, held at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City, featured remarks by Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor, as well as awards presentations by filmmakers Craig Brewer, Jon M. Chu and Alex Woo.

    This year’s Student Academy Awards winners were chosen from a total of 3,127 entries received from 988 colleges and universities around the globe. Gold, Silver and Bronze placements were announced in each category, and students were presented with trophies during the ceremony. First-time honors went to the University of Copenhagen, Gobelins, Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, London College of Communication and the University of the West of England Bristol.

    The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide an opportunity for emerging talent to showcase their work within the industry. All student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for the 98th Oscars in the categories of animated short film, live action short film or documentary short film. Past winners have gone on to receive 69 Oscar nominations and have won or shared 15 awards.

    See below for the full list of 2025 Student Academy Award winners, listed alphabetically by category.

    Alternative/Experimental
    Gold: Xindi Zhang, “The Song of Drifters,” University of Southern California
    Silver: Vega Moltke-Leth, “Without Perfection,” University of Copenhagen, Denmark
    Bronze: Mati Granica, “flower_gan,” London College of Communication, United Kingdom

    Animation
    Gold: Tobias Eckerlin, “A Sparrow’s Song,” Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Germany
    Silver: Lucas Ansel, “The 12 Inch Pianist,” Rhode Island School of Design 
    Bronze: Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré & Maud Le Bras, “The Shyness of Trees,” Gobelins, France

    Documentary
    Gold: 
    Tatiana McCabe, “Tides of Life,” University of the West of England Bristol, United Kingdom
    Silver: Rebeka Bizubová, “Confession,” Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia
    Bronze: Jane Deng, “I Remember,” New York University 

    Narrative
    Gold: Jan Saczek, “Dad’s Not Home,” Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School, Poland
    Silver: Meyer Levinson-Blount, “Butcher’s Stain,” Tel Aviv University, Israel
    Bronze: ZEFAN, “Kubrick, Like I Love You,” Columbia University

    Brande Victorian

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  • Oscars: Submissions Now Open for 97th Awards

    Oscars: Submissions Now Open for 97th Awards

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scienceswebsite for submissions to be considered for the 2025 Oscars is now open, the Academy announced Friday.

    The Academy is currently accepting general entries (best picture and other categories), animated features, animated shorts, documentary features, documentary shorts, international features, live action shorts, original scores and original songs.

    Submissions are due on different dates between Aug. 15 and Nov. 14, depending on the submission’s category and the date of its qualifying run. (General entries, animated features, documentary features and short films of all sorts have two different due dates, one for submissions that qualified before July 1 and another for submissions that qualified on or after that date.)

    The 97th Oscars will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Early contenders include spring indie Challengers; summer blockbuster Inside Out 2; Cannes standouts Anora, Emilia Pérez and The Substance; and Sing Sing, a drama that opens in theaters today.

    The 2024 Oscars, which took place this past March, saw Oppenheimer named best picture and win six other awards including best director (Christopher Nolan), best actor (Cillian Murphy) and best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.). Best actress went to Poor Things Emma Stone and best supporting actress was won by The Holdovers Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

    Scott Feinberg

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  • Movie Academy Invites Nearly 500 To Join Membership For 2024

    Movie Academy Invites Nearly 500 To Join Membership For 2024

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

    This year’s list across 19 branches include 2024 Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers; Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and production design team James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek; 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov, War Is Over! producer Brad Booker; The Zone of Interest sound duo Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn; the Godzilla Minus One VFX team Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki; American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson; and Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.

    Jefferson and Triet are among eight names on the list who were invited to more than one branch (noted in the list below with asterisks); invitees must select one branch to join.

    Other notables include Killers of the Flower Moon Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone; SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland; Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.; John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski; and the Past Lives trio of Celina Song, Greta Lee and Teo Yoo. Song is also a multi-branch nominee (Writers and Directors).

    “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of new members to the Academy,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang today. “These remarkably talented artists and professionals from around the world have made a significant impact on our filmmaking community.”

    The Academy said the 2024 class is made up of 44% who identify as women, while 41% belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 56% are from 56 countries and territories outside U.S. A total of 71 Oscar nominees and 19 winners are among the invitees to AMPAS’ 19 branches.

    The 487 new members for this year is up from the 398 invited in 2023. The record for most invitees came in 2018, when 928 were asked amid the Academy’s overhaul of its rolls as it focused on diversifying its membership.

    See below for the full list of 2024 invitees:

    Actors

    Jessica Alba – “Machete,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
    Erika Alexander – “American Fiction,” “30 Years to Life”
    Swann Arlaud – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Bloody Milk”
    Shabana Azmi – “Godmother,” “Arth”
    Obba Babatunde – “City of Lies,” “The Manchurian Candidate”
    Saleh Bakri – “The Blue Caftan,” “The Band’s Visit”
    Stephanie Beatriz – “Encanto,” “In the Heights”
    Danielle Brooks – “The Color Purple,” Clemency”
    Tia Carrere – “True Lies,” “Wayne’s World”
    Sergio Castellitto – “Don’t Move,” “My Mother’s Smile”
    Alfredo Castro – “El Conde,” “Tony Manero”
    Jason Clarke – “Oppenheimer,” “Zero Dark Thirty”
    Kate Del Castillo – “Under the Same Moon,” “American Visa”
    Gang Dong-won – “Broker,” “Peninsula”
    Lily Gladstone – “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Unknown Country”
    Rachel House – “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” “Boy”
    Sandra Hüller – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest”
    Maeve Jinkings – “Toll,” “Neon Bull”
    Greta Lee – “Past Lives,” “Gemini”
    Kate Mara – “Megan Leavey,” “The Martian”
    Dash Mihok – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Thin Red Line”
    Catherine O’Hara – “For Your Consideration,” “Best in Show”
    Da’Vine Joy Randolph – “The Holdovers,” “Dolemite Is My Name”
    Fiona Shaw – “The Last September,” “The Butcher Boy”
    Qi Shu – “The Assassin,” “Three Times”
    D.B. Sweeney – “Dinosaur,” “Eight Men Out”
    Jasmine Trinca – “Fortunata,” “Honey”
    Koji Yakusho – “Perfect Days,” “The Blood of Wolves”
    Teo Yoo – “Past Lives,” “Vertigo”

    Casting Directors

    Dixie Chassay – “Dune: Part Two,” “Poor Things”
    Kharmel Cochrane – “Saltburn,” “The Northman”
    Angela Demo – “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”
    Jennifer Euston – “American Fiction,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”
    Rene Haynes – “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Revenant”
    Gayle Keller – “Bros,” “The King of Staten Island”
    Moira Miller – “A Fantastic Woman,” “The Green Inferno”
    Masunobu Motokawa – “Perfect Days,” “The Wandering Moon”
    Ulrike Müller – “Ghost Trail,” “Scorched Earth”
    Elsa Pharaon – “A Silence,” “Holy Motors”
    Alejandro Reza – “Noche de Bodas,” “Gringo”
    Luis Rosales – “Cassandro,” “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”
    Limor Shmila – “The Vanishing Soldier,” “The Stronghold”
    Rebecca van Unen – “Sweet Dreams,” “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
    Chamutal Zerem – “Karaoke,” “Foxtrot”

    Cinematographers

    Eric Branco – “Story Ave,” “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
    Chananun Chotrungroj – “Birth/Rebirth,” “The Trapped 13: How We Survived the Thai Cave”
    Matthew Chuang – “You Won’t Be Alone,” “Blue Bayou”
    Andrew Commis – “Blueback,” “Babyteeth”
    Ashley Connor – “Polite Society,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”
    Josée Deshaies – “The Beast,” “Passages”
    Alex Disenhof – “Alice,” “Captive State”
    Jomo Fray – “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “Port Authority”
    Damián García – “Jungleland,” “I’m No Longer Here”
    Magdalena Górka – “Die in a Gunfight,” “An Ordinary Man”
    Ryuto Kondo – “Monster,” “A Man”
    Dariela Ludlow Deloya – “A Million Miles Away,” “Prayers for the Stolen”
    Catherine Lutes – “Close to You,” “Mouthpiece”
    Aurélien Marra – “L’Homme Debout,” “Two of Us”
    Igor Meglic – “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” “Fast X”
    Crescenzo Giacomo Notarile – “Bullet,” “Moonwalker”
    Sophia Olsson – “Charter,” “Echo”
    Yerkinbek Ptyraliyev – “Yellow Cat,” “Karinca”
    Jamie Ramsay – “All of Us Strangers,” “Living”
    Nanu Segal – “Emily,” “Donkey Punch”
    Hidetoshi Shinomiya – “Drive My Car,” “The Town of Headcounts”
    Jigme Tenzing – “The Monk and the Gun,” “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”
    Ravi Varman – “Japan,” “Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two”
    Maria von Hausswolff – “Godland,” “A White, White Day”
    Sophie Winqvist – “Clara Sola,” “Pleasure”

    Costume Designers

    Dave Crossman – “Napoleon,” “1917”
    Mario D’Avignon – “Midway,” “Hochelaga, Land of Souls”
    Anne Dixon – “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” “The Song of Names”
    Jürgen Doering – “Personal Shopper,” “Clouds of Sils Maria” 
    Leesa Evans – “Always Be My Maybe,” “Bridesmaids”
    Gabriela Fernández – “I’m No Longer Here,” “Cantinflas”
    Małgorzata Karpiuk – “The Zone of Interest,” “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
    Kazuko Kurosawa – “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai,” “Silk”
    Ann Maskrey – “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
    Mona May – “Enchanted,” “Clueless”
    Rama Rajamouli – “RRR,” “Baahubali: The Beginning”
    Sheetal Sharma – “Gangubai Kathiawadi,” “Kesari”
    Preeyanan “Lin” Suwannathada – “The Creator,” “Buffalo Boys”
    Jill Taylor – “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “My Week with Marilyn”
    Mónica Toschi – “A Ravaging Wind,” “Argentina, 1985”
    Holly Waddington – “Poor Things,” “Lady Macbeth”
    Khadija Zeggaï – “Passages,” “Love Crime”

    Directors

    Fede Álvarez – “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” “Don’t Breathe”
    Kyle Patrick Alvarez – “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” “C.O.G.”
    Lila Avilés – “Totem,” “The Chambermaid”
    Jamie Babbit – “The Stand-In,” “But I’m a Cheerleader”
    Minhal Baig – “We Grown Now,” “Hala”
    Bahrām Beyzaie* – “When We Are All Asleep,” “Killing Mad Dogs”
    Jayro Bustamente – “La Llorona,” “Tremors”
    Steven Caple Jr. – “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” “Creed II”
    İlker Çatak* – “The Teachers’ Lounge,” “I Was, I Am, I Will Be”
    Ayoka Chenzira – “Alma’s Rainbow”
    Justin Chon – “Blue Bayou,” “Ms. Purple”
    Rima Das – “Tora’s Husband,” “Village Rockstars”
    JD Dillard – “Devotion,” “Sweetheart”
    Alice Diop – “Saint Omer,” “We”
    Sally El Hosaini – “Unicorns,” “The Swimmers”
    Leslie Harris – “Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.”
    Cord Jefferson* – “American Fiction”
    S.S. Rajamouli – “RRR,” “Eega”
    Boots Riley – “Sorry to Bother You”
    Alex Rivera – “The Infiltrators,” “Sleep Dealer”
    A.V. Rockwell – “A Thousand and One”
    Juliana Rojas – “Good Manners,” “Necropolis Symphony”
    Emma Seligman – “Bottoms,” “Shiva Baby”
    Celine Song* – “Past Lives”
    Angel Manuel Soto – “Blue Beetle,” “Charm City Kings”
    Justine Triet* – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Sibyl”
    Anand Kumar Tucker – “The Critic,” “Leap Year”
    David Yates – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
    Susan Youssef – “Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf,” “Habibi Rasak Kharban”

    Documentary

    Trish Adlesic – “The ABCs of Book Banning,” “Gasland”
    Daniela Alatorre – “A Cop Movie,” “Midnight Family”
    Waad Al-Kateab – “We Dare to Dream,” “For Sama”
    Anne Alvergue – “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn”
    Raed Andoni – “Ghost Hunting,” “Fix Me”
    Alethea Arnaquq-Baril – “Twice Colonized,” “Angry Inuk”
    Mila Aung-Thwin – “Let There Be Light,” “Last Train Home”
    Tina Baz – “Adolescents,” “Fix Me”
    Jorge Bodanzky – “The Amazon, a New Minamata?,” “Third Millennium”
    Moses Bwayo – “Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
    Caryn Capotosto – “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
    Nadim Cheikhrouha* – “Four Daughters,” “Benda Bilili!”
    Mstyslav Chernov – “20 Days in Mariupol”
    Michael Collins – “Almost Sunrise,” “Give Up Tomorrow”
    Flávia de Souza – “Aftershock,” “Open Heart”
    Jeanie Finlay – “Your Fat Friend,” “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth”
    Beadie Finzi – “Only When I Dance,” “Unknown White Male”
    Ellen Goosenberg Kent – “Torn Apart: Separated at the Border,” “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
    Sky Hopinka – “Kicking the Clouds,” “Malni: Towards the Ocean, towards the Shore”
    José Joffily – “A Symphony for a Common Man,” “Foreign Soldier”
    Rachel Lears – “To the End,” “Knock Down the House”
    Rebecca Lichtenfeld – “The Eternal Memory,” “The Nightcrawlers”
    Sergei Loznitsa – “Babi Yar. Context,” “Mr. Landsbergis”
    Aïcha Macky – “Zinder,” “The Fruitless Tree”
    Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala – “Delikado,” “Call Her Ganda”
    Elaine McMillion Sheldon – “King Coal,” “Heroin(e)”
    Mark Mitten – “A Compassionate Spy,” “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
    Vincent Moloi – “Skulls of My People,” “Men of Gold”
    Nisha Pahuja – “To Kill a Tiger,” “The World before Her”
    Pola Rapaport – “Addicted to Life,” “Broken Meat”
    RaMell Ross – “Easter Snap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
    Ousmane Samassekou – “The Last Shelter,” “The Heirs of the Hill”
    Frédéric Tcheng – “Invisible Beauty,” “Halston”
    Jennifer Tiexiera – “Subject,” “P.S. Burn This Letter Please”
    Hemal Trivedi – “Among the Believers,” “Saving Face”
    Christine Turner* – “The Barber of Little Rock,” “Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day””
    Keith Wilson – “Joonam,” “I Didn’t See You There”

    Executives

    Salma Abdalla
    Cate Adams
    Maya Amsellem
    Lenora del Pilar Ferrero Blanco
    Sasha Bühler
    Michelle Byrd
    Elaine Chin
    Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
    Paolo Del Brocco
    Gina Duncan
    Dan Friedkin
    Poppy Hanks
    Kate Hurwitz
    Iris Knobloch
    Tim League
    Sasha Lloyd
    Harvey Mason Jr.
    Daniela Michel
    Brittany Morrissey
    Brianna Oh
    Lejo Pet
    Areli Quirarte
    Matthew Reilly
    Chris Rice
    Ben Roberts
    Peter Safran
    Couper Samuelson
    Ellen Stutzman
    Fumiko Takagi
    Graham Taylor
    Emily Woodburne
    Kim Yutani

    Film Editors

    Timothy Alverson – “Halloween,” “Orphan”
    Michael Andrews* – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Shrek 2”
    Qutaiba Barhamji – “Four Daughters,” “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”
    Joseph Charles Bond – “Wildflower,” “The Man Who Knew Infinity”
    Victoria Boydell – “Saltburn,” “Rye Lane”
    Paul Carlin – “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “The Mystery of D.B. Cooper”
    Carlotta Cristiani – “The Inner Cage,” “Daughter of Mine”
    Cătălin Cristuțiu – “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World,” “Poppy Field”
    Annette Davey – “Dreamin’ Wild,” “Together, Together”
    Amy Foote – “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “The Work”
    Keith Fraase – “Past Lives,” “To the Wonder”
    Jo Francis – “Memory,” “Charming the Hearts of Men”
    Toni Froschhammer – “Perfect Days,” “Pina”
    Nassim Gordji-Tehrani – “Rosalie,” “The Wolf’s Call”
    Kaya Inan – “My Wonderful Wanda,” “In the Aisles”
    Lisa Lassek – “Leave the World Behind,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
    Jaume Martí – “Society of the Snow,” “God’s Crooked Lines”
    Rie Matsubara – “The Boy and the Heron,” “When Marnie Was There”
    Mike Munn – “To Kill a Tiger,” “This Is Not a Movie”
    Darrin Navarro – “Summering,” “Tallulah”
    Mdhamiri Nkemi – “Blue Story,” “The Last Tree”
    Hilda Rasula – “American Fiction,” “Vengeance”
    Josh Schaeffer – “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Molly’s Game”
    Laurent Sénéchal – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle”
    Takeshi Seyama – “The Boy and the Heron,” “Spirited Away”
    Michelle Tesoro – “Maestro,” “On the Basis of Sex”

    Makeup Artists and Hairstylists

    Ana Bulajić Črček – “Illyricvm,” “Number 55”
    Hildegard Haide – “Run to Ground,” “Extinction”
    Karen Hartley Thomas – “Golda,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield”
    Frédéric Lainé – “The Animal Kingdom,” “Benedetta”

    Marketing and Public Relations

    Michele Abitbol-Lasry
    Matt Johnson Apice
    Austin Barker
    Neil Bhatt
    Darnell Brisco
    Nasim Cambron
    Holly Connors
    Mauricio Azael Duran Ortega
    Stephen Garrett
    Christopher Gonzalez
    Andrea Grau
    Blair Green
    Carlos Alberto Gutiérrez
    Lisa Zaks Markowitz
    David Ninh
    Julien Noble
    Gitesh Pandya
    Michelle Paris
    Elaine Patterson
    Lonnie Snell
    Ray Subers
    Caren Quinn Thompson
    Jessica Thurber Hemingway
    Vilija Vitartas
    Stephanie Wenborn

    Music

    Michael K. Bauer – “Cassandro,” “The Equalizer 3”
    Stephen Bray – “The Color Purple,” “Psycho III”
    Anthony Chue – “Man on the Edge,” “G Storm”
    Gary M. Clark – “Flora and Son,” “Sing Street”
    Marius de Vries – “Navalny,” “CODA”
    Jerskin Fendrix – “Poor Things”
    Simon Franglen – “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Magnificent Seven”
    Jo Yeong-wook – “Decision to Leave,” “Hunt”
    Shari Johanson – “Maybe I Do,” “All Together Now”
    Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch – “All of Us Strangers,” “Living”
    Fabrizio Mancinelli – “Il Viaggio Leggendario,” “The Boat”
    Diego Navarro – “The Cuckoo’s Curse,” “The Wasteland”
    Martin Phipps – “Napoleon,” “The Princess”
    Plínio Profeta – “Desapega!,” “Nosso Sonho”
    Philippe Rombi – “Driving Madeleine,” “Joyeux Noël”
    David Sardy – “The Beekeeper,” “Zombieland”
    Katrina Marie Schiller – “Wonka,” “Black Mass”
    Carl Sealove – “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” “The Human Trial”
    Ryan Shore – “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World,” “Zombie Town”
    Kubilay Uner – “American Traitor: The Trail of Axis Sally,” “Force of Nature”
    Dan Wilson – “American Symphony,” “Love Again”

    Producers

    Tom Ackerley – “Barbie,” “I, Tonya”
    Nadim Cheikhrouha* – “Four Daughters,” “The Man Who Sold His Skin”
    Jay Choi – “The Good the Bad the Weird,” “A Tale of Two Sisters”
    Jennifer Davisson – “Robin Hood,” “Live by Night”
    Fernanda De la Peza – “The Hole in the Fence,” “Robe of Gems”
    Simón de Santiago – “Regression,” “Agora”
    Diana Elbaum – “Hounds,” “Isn’t She Lovely?”
    Saïd Hamich Benlarbi – “Deserts,” “Return to Bollene”
    Alex Heineman – “Gunpowder Milkshake,” “The Commuter”
    Sandra Hermida – “Society of the Snow,” “Un Amor”
    John M. Jacobsen – “Trollhunter,” “Max Manus”
    David Koplan – “Spirited,” “Papillon”
    Ben LeClair – “American Fiction,” “Fair Play”
    Tatiana Leite – “Rule 34,” “Loveling”
    Agustina Llambí Campbell – “Argentina, 1985,” “The Wild Ones”
    Andrew Lowe – “Poor Things,” “Chevalier”
    Renata de Almeida Magalhães – “The Great Mystical Circus,” “The Greatest Love of All”
    Kaoru Matsuzaki – “Shoplifters,” “Like Father, Like Son”
    Kelly McCormick – “Bullet Train,” “Violent Night”
    Sarah Schechter – “My Policeman,” “Free Guy”
    Ritesh Sidhwani – “Gully Boy,” “Dil Chahta Hai”
    Leslie Urdang – “Rabbit Hole,” “Adam”
    Edward Vaisman – “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” “A Thousand and One”
    James Wilson – “The Zone of Interest,” “Under the Skin”
    María Zamora – “The Rye Horn,” “Alcarràs”

    Production and Technology

    Deva Anderson
    Keir Beck
    Nicholas Bergh
    Geoff Burdick
    Larry Chernoff
    Man-Nang Chong
    George Cottle
    Eddie Drake
    Shauna Duggins
    Jonathan Eusebio
    Clay Donahue Fontenot
    Kyle Gardiner
    Barrie Hemsley
    Joel C. High
    Susan Jacobs
    Renard T. Jenkins
    Joshua Levinson
    Larry McConkey
    David James McKimmie
    Samantha Jo “Mandy” Moore
    Kenny Ortega
    Prem Rakshith
    Chad Stahelski
    David Webb
    Woo-Ping Yuen

    Production Design

    Alain Bainée – “Society of the Snow,” “Official Competition”
    Annie Beauchamp – “Swan Song,” “Penguin Bloom”
    Ruth De Jong – “Oppenheimer,” “Nope”
    Douglas Dresser – “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Finch”
    Emmanuelle Duplay – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Red Island”
    Warren Flanagan – “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”
    Lorin Flemming – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
    Henry Fong – “Army of the Dead,” “A Wrinkle in Time”
    Jennifer Gentile – “Blue Beetle,” “Malignant”
    Shona Heath – “Poor Things”
    Sam Hutchins – “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” “Joker”
    Steven Jones-Evans – “Anyone but You,” “Carmen”
    Claire Kaufman – “Oppenheimer,” “White Noise”
    Carol Kupisz – “Napoleon,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
    Zsuzsa Mihalek – “Poor Things,” “Atomic Blonde”
    Edwin L. Natividad – “Blue Beetle,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
    Till Benjamin Nowak – “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Black Panther”
    Chris Oddy – “The Zone of Interest,” “King of Thieves”
    Jenny Oman – “Mr. Malcolm’s List,” “The Green Knight”
    Adam O’Neill – “Chevalier,” “Empire of Light”
    James Price – “Poor Things,” “The Iron Claw”
    Peggy Pridemore – “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House,” “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”
    Scott Purcell – “Ambulance,” “A Quiet Place”
    Steve Saklad – “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.,” “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar”
    Rick Schuler – “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Once upon a Time…in Hollywood”
    Don Shank – “Elemental,” “Luca”
    Andrew M. Siegel – “The Fabelmans,” “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”
    Tom Targownik Taylor – “Stand Up Guys,” “Little Fockers”
    Adam Willis – “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Marriage Story”
    Katia Wyszkop – “Peter von Kant,” “Une Jeune Fille Qui Va Bien”
    Milena Zdravkovic – “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”

    Short Films and Feature Animation

    Dan Abraham – “Once upon a Studio,” “Planes”
    Abigail Addison – “The Debutante,” “I’m OK”
    Michael Andrews* – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Megamind”
    Brad Booker – “WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” “The Book of Life”
    Samuel Caron – “Invincible,” “As Happy as Can Be”
    Nazrin Choudhury – “Red, White and Blue”
    Sarah Helen Cox – “Heavy Pockets,” “Plain Pleasures”
    Louie Del Carmen – “Luck,” “The Star”
    Kayla Galang – “When You Left Me on That Boulevard,” “Joan on the Phone”
    Amit R. Gicelter – “Letter to a Pig,” “Black Slide”
    Alan Hawkins – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
    Atsuko Ishizuka – “Goodbye, Don Glees!,” “No Game No Life: Zero”
    Tal Kantor – “Letter to a Pig,” “In Other Words”
    Àlex Lora – “The Fourth Kingdom,” “Us”
    James Mansfield – “Zootopia,” “Hercules”
    Patrick Mate – “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” “Puss in Boots”
    Boris Mendza – “Bazigaga,” “Rise of a Star”
    Yegane Moghaddam – “Our Uniform,” “On the Cover”
    Maral Mohammadian – “Impossible Figures and Other Stories I,” “Shannon Amen”
    Mari Okada – “Maboroshi,” “Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms”
    Ryo Orikasa – “Miserable Miracle,” “Datum Point”
    Frank Passingham – “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Kubo and the Two Strings”
    Ülo Pikkov – “’Til We Meet Again,” “Empty Space”
    Rebecca Pruzan – “Lovesick,” “Ivalu”
    Troy Quane – “Nimona,” “Spies in Disguise”
    Vincent René-Lortie – “Invincible,” “The Man Who Traveled Nowhere in Time”
    Carlos Segundo – “Big Bang,” “Sideral”
    Pauline Seigland – “One and Thousand Nights,” “Little Hands”
    Shuzo Shiota – “Blame!,” “Muybridge’s String”
    Justin K. Thompson – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
    Christine Turner* – “The Barber of Little Rock,” “Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day””
    Theodore Ty – “Nimona,” “Lilo & Stitch”
    Chie Uratani – “In This Corner of the World,” “Summer Wars”
    Viviane Vanfleteren – “Titina,” “The Secret of Kells”
    Atsushi Wada – “Bird in the Peninsula,” “The Great Rabbit”
    Virgil Widrich – “Fast Film,” “Copy Shop”
    Masaaki Yuasa – “Inu-Oh,” “Mind Game”
    Rayka Zehtabchi – “Are You Still There?,” “Period. End of Sentence.”

    Sound

    Gina R. Alfano – “Baby Ruby,” “You Hurt My Feelings”
    Manfred Banach – “Home Sweet Home – Where Evil Lives,” “John Wick: Chapter 4”
    Stephanie Brown – “Haunted Mansion,” “The Marvels”
    Johnnie Burn – “The Zone of Interest,” “Poor Things”
    Alexandra Fehrman – “American Fiction,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
    Linda Forsén – “Love Lies Bleeding,” “A House Made of Splinters”
    Lee Gilmore – “Dune: Part Two,” “The Batman”
    Glynna Grimala – “End of the Road,” “Father Stu”
    Loveday Harding – “Heart of Stone,” “The Batman”
    Brent Kiser – “The Lionheart,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
    Frédéric Le Louêt – “Only 3 Days Left,” “Alibi.com 2”
    Steven A. Levy – “Oppenheimer,” “Tenet”
    Kate Morath – “The Boys in the Boat,” “Belfast”
    Mark Purcell – “Maestro,” “Dune”
    Alejandro Quevedo – “Murder City,” “Radical”
    David M. Roberts – “The Killer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”
    Shelley Roden     – “Elemental,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
    Jay Rubin – “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” “Master Gardener”
    Ian Voigt – “The Creator,” “The Hustle”
    Laura Wiest – “The Boogeyman,” “Sanctuary”
    Tarn Willers – “The Zone of Interest,” “Starve Acre”
    Linda Yeaney – “The Beekeeper,” “Interstellar”

    Visual Effects

    Gerardo Aguilera – “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Avengers: Endgame”
    Stephen Hugh Richard Clee – “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”
    Simone Coco – “Napoleon,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
    Ian Comley – “The Creator,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
    Tim Dobbert – “The Creator,” “Kong: Skull Island”
    Emile Ghorayeb – “Nope,” “Alita: Battle Angel”
    Michael Grobe – “Dune: Part Two,” “Fast X”
    Trevor Hazel – “The Creator,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves”
    Tamara Kent – “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire,” “The Flash”
    Julius Lechner – “The Batman,” “Spider-Man: Far from Home”
    Allan Magled – “Bad Boys for Life,” “Geostorm”
    Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet – “Napoleon,” “Cruella”
    Raymond McMillan – “Little Children,” “Dracula 2000”
    Lori C. Miller – “Nyad,” “Avatar: The Way of Water”
    Johnathan Nixon – “Nyad,” “Avatar: The Way of Water”
    Tatsuji Nojima – “Godzilla Minus One,” “Ghost Book Obake Zukan”
    Rick Walter O’Connor – “Bumblebee,” “A Quiet Place”
    Stephane Paris – “The Commuter,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”
    Laura Pedro – “Society of the Snow,” “A Monster Calls”
    Pietro Ponti – “The Marvels,” “Terminator Genisys”
    Kyle Robinson – “The Flash,” “Black Panther”
    Kiyoko Shibuya – “Godzilla Minus One,” “Ghost Book Obake Zukan”
    Kathy Siegel – “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Ford v Ferrari”
    Orde Stevanoski – “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” “Alice through the Looking Glass”
    Masaki Takahashi – “Godzilla Minus One,” “Parasyte”
    Alexis Wajsbrot – “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”
    Alex Wuttke – “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”
    Takashi Yamazaki – “Godzilla Minus One,” “Parasyte”
    Dennis Yoo – “The Batman,” “War for the Planet of the Apes”

    Writers

    Bahrām Beyzaie* – “When We Are All Asleep,” “Killing Mad Dogs”
    Elegance Bratton – “The Inspection,” “Pier Kids”
    Samy Burch – “May December”
    Dave Callaham – “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
    Alessandro Camon – “The Listener,” “The Messenger”
    Nicolás Casariego – “Society of the Snow,” “Intruders”
    İlker Çatak* – “The Teachers’ Lounge,” “I Was, I Am, I Will Be”
    Massimo Ceccherini – “Io Capitano,” “Pinocchio”
    Linda Yvette Chávez – “Flamin’ Hot”
    Akela Cooper – “M3gan,” “The Nun II”
    Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer – “Blue Beetle,” “Miss Bala”
    Zeina Durra – “Luxor,” “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!”
    Lee Eisenberg – “Good Boys,” “Bad Teacher”
    Massimo Gaudioso – “Io Capitano,” “Tale of Tales”
    Arthur Harari – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle”
    David Hemingson – “The Holdovers”
    Cord Jefferson* – “American Fiction”
    Erik Jendresen – “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Ithaca”
    Maryam Keshavarz – “The Persian Version,” “Circumstance”
    Marc Klein – “Mirror Mirror,” “Serendipity”
    Kogonada – “After Yang,” “Columbus”
    Tony McNamara – “Poor Things,” “The Favourite”
    Rhett Reese – “Ghosted,” “Deadpool”
    Tony Rettenmaier – “They Cloned Tyrone,” “Young. Wild. Free.”
    Bernard Rose – “Traveling Light,” “Candyman”
    Sarah Adina Smith – “The Drop,” “Birds of Paradise”
    Celine Song* – “Past Lives”
    Gene Stupnitsky – “No Hard Feelings,” “Good Boys”
    Takuma Takasaki – “Perfect Days,” “Honokaa Boy”
    Juel Taylor – “They Cloned Tyrone,” “Creed II”
    Erica Tremblay – “Fancy Dance,” “Heartland: A Portrait of Survival”
    Justine Triet* – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Sibyl”
    Eva Vives – “All about Nina,” “Raising Victor Vargas”
    Paul Wernick – “Ghosted,” “Deadpool”

    Artist Representatives

    Laura Berwick
    Eryn Brown
    John Carrabino
    Hillary Cook
    Tim Curtis
    Brian Dobbins
    Frank Frattaroli
    Jay Gassner
    Roger Green
    Laurent Gregoire
    Jermaine Johnson
    Theresa Kang
    Becca Kovacik
    Linda Lichter
    Douglas Lucterhand
    Devin Mann
    Gregory McKnight
    Evelyn O’Neill
    David Park
    Cynthia Lee Pett
    Valarie Phillips
    Maggie Pisacane
    Lindsay Porter
    Gretchen Rush
    Jodi Shields
    Chris Silbermann
    Carolyn Sivitz
    Gary Ungar
    Douglas Urbanski
    Steve Warren
    Alex Yarosh

    Patrick Hipes

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  • Who did the Oscars 2024 In Memoriam include? Full list of those remembered at the Academy Awards

    Who did the Oscars 2024 In Memoriam include? Full list of those remembered at the Academy Awards

    Here are the 2024 Oscar winners


    2024 Oscar winners: See who took home a trophy

    04:03

    During Sunday’s Oscars, the Academy paid tribute to actors, filmmakers, composers and others in the film industry who passed away over the last year. The In Memoriam segment is an Academy Awards tradition, paying homage to beloved stars and behind-the-scenes talents alike. Here’s a look at who was honored at the 2024 Oscars.

    Full list of the Oscars 2024 In Memoriam names

    The segment ended with a montage of additional names, and a link to the Academy’s website for more.

    How are the In Memoriam names chosen?

    According to Entertainment Weekly, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences committee reviews a list of around 300 submissions for the In Memoriam segment. The committee includes a representative from each of the academy’s 18 branches, the Washington Post reported. 

    The committee then decides who appears in the segment, based on their contributions to filmmaking. 

    Did the Oscars forget anyone in the 2024 In Memoriam list?

    Names are often left out of the list as it airs during the Oscars broadcast. The In Memoriam segment is never long enough to include all possible honorees, and fans often express frustrations over those left out of the on-air tribute. 

    The Oscars also has a list online honoring Academy members who have passed away this past year.

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