ReportWire

Tag: oscars

  • Inside Ke Huy Quan’s Heartwarming Red Carpet Takeover

    Inside Ke Huy Quan’s Heartwarming Red Carpet Takeover

    Ke Huy Quan is having a great time. Stacking nominations for his star turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once, he seems to embody the magic of Hollywood — and the kindness of the universe, as his EEAAOO character Waymond would note — as Quan brims with sincerity and joy throughout his interviews, starstruck selfies with fellow actors and his awards season red carpet takeover. 

    “I made it onto the GQ best-dressed list, which I always wanted to be on!” Quan tells Vanity Fair, his surprise and delight radiating through the call. 

    For that honor, Quan graciously — and effusively — credits his stylist, Chloe Takayanagi, whom he’s worked with since the Oscar-nominated film premiered at South by Southwest in March 2022. “In the beginning, Ke just wanted to go very simple and classic for the premieres,” says Takayanagi, who eased the Oscar nominee back into the spotlight nearly four decades after his Goonies promo rounds with director Steven Spielberg.

    Ke Huy Quan in Thom Browne for ” Everything Everywhere All At Once” during the 2022 SXSW premiere on March 11, 2022 in Austin, Texas. 

    By Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images.

    Ke Huy Quan attends the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards wearing Thom Browne, Oliver Peoples and an Omega watch. Styling by Chloe Keiko. Grooming by Anissa Emily.

    By Amy Sussman/Getty Images.

    For Quan’s awards season debut at the Golden Globes in January, Takayanagi — who trained under Keanu Reeves’ longtime stylist (and Anonymous Content Manager-Producer) Jeanne Yang — dressed the nominee in a double-breasted black Thom Browne tuxedo, with a rakish grosgrain trim. But for Quan, the dashing ensemble went far beyond a fashion roundup placement.

    “It’s not just the look, it’s how I was feeling and what that moment means for me,” says Quan, who likes to keep the suits as heartfelt mementos of achieving his long-suppressed dream to return to acting. That night was unforgettable for both Quan and viewers: He moved the audience to tears and earned a standing ovation from Spielberg with his touching acceptance speech.

    “I watched the Golden Globes for decades, so never did I think that I would be nominated and then — what — win? Oh, my gosh,” says Quan. “So that outfit that I was wearing made me feel really comfortable and that was the only way that I could go up there and give a thankful speech.”

    A look through Quan’s red carpet outings shows his growing ease with style experimentation — and his poses, including his now-trademark finger point. “That’s all him,” says a proud Takayanagi. “I’m getting bolder,” says Quan. “In the beginning, I was reluctant to get out of my comfort zone and [Takayanagi is] so good at easing me into new territories.”

    Starting with the Critics Choice Awards, Takayanagi began introducing more “textures and colors” into his streamlined suit silhouettes. Quan celebrated Lunar New Year — and another win — in a ruby red velvet jacket with a Mandarin-collar and black trousers by Armani. “I want him to still be comfortable with what he’s wearing, but I want it to show his personality a little bit as well,” says Takayanagi. 

    Ke Huy Quan at the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival wearing Thom Browne. 

    By Elyse Jankowski/Getty Images.

    Ke Huy Quan at the 95th Oscars Nominees Luncheon held in Beverly Hills, California. Wearing Todd Snyder, John Smedley, The Kooples, Grenson Shoes, Omega, and Oliver Peoples. 

    By Gilbert Flores/Getty Images.

    For the Oscars luncheon, Quan — in an emerald green corduroy blazer, over a tonal fine-knit from John Smedley — took a round of exuberant selfies with fellow nominees and joint finger-pointed with Top Gun: Maverick star and producer Tom Cruise. He later invigorated BAFTA decorum in a rich monochrome navy tuxedo, with a natty velvet jacket and coordinated bow-tie. For a visit to The Today Show, in between, Quan hugged Al Roker, and charmed fellow guest Elizabeth Banks while wearing a mustard Paul Smith sweater, with a lively rainbow-collar. At the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Quan made history as the first Asian male film winner. He made another rousing speech in a deep blue Gucci tuxedo, with contrasting black peak lapels and a distinctive De Beers pin resembling two fans. Counting down toward the Oscars, he plans to wear a jaunty plaid suit by Thom Browne for the more relaxed Independent Spirit Awards. 

    Ke Huy Quan and Al Roker on February 15, 2023. Styled by Chloe Takayanagi.

    By Nathan Congleton/Courtesy of NBC/Getty Images.

    Fawnia Soo Hoo

    Source link

  • The Surreal Oscar Campaign for ‘The Hours,’ 20 Years Later

    The Surreal Oscar Campaign for ‘The Hours,’ 20 Years Later

    Julianne Moore as Laura Brown.PARAMOUNT/EVERETT COLLECTION.

    Weinstein and Rudin had feuded across several previous projects, so some headbutting was to be expected on The Hours. Rudin developed the script with Hare for about a year, though, and had final cut. He toyed with the mercurial Weinstein by showing off the film’s bold creative decisions—prosthetic included. “Scott won most of the fights,” Cunningham says. However, according to New York magazine at the time, Weinstein nixed a premiere for The Hours at the Venice International Film Festival, which Rudin interpreted as retaliation. He sent Weinstein—a notorious chain-smoker—a crate of cigarettes, which quickly became legend. The enclosed note read “Thanks as always for your help.”

    Weinstein was coming off of getting “caught” waging a smear campaign against the real-life subject of the previous year’s best picture winner, A Beautiful Mind, says Press: “That’s the year that Harvey started to pay a price in the press—he got caught really being abusive and spreading that stuff about John Nash. The next year you would’ve seen a subtle shift because the press was focusing more on the dirty tricks.”

    Even so, the fact that Weinstein and Rudin were firmly established as bullies made for good copy—which they didn’t seem to mind. “One of the reasons filmmakers seek to work with Harvey and me is they want that combative ability,” Rudin told the Los Angeles Times weeks before the Oscars. “They don’t want you to be nice and sweet. They want you to go and kill for them. And that is the job. You are supposed to go out there and mow down the opposition.” 

    Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf.PARAMOUNT/PHOTOFEST.

    The true extent of the two men’s alleged misconduct hadn’t yet been reported, of course. Weinstein has since faced dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct, and he’s currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a criminal sexual act and rape in New York. Allegations of abusive behavior against Rudin, first printed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, detailed instances of physical violence and bullying against employees. His career has since stalled.

    Back in their glory days, however, they served as their own hype machines. “You had them spending millions and millions of dollars,” Press says. Sometimes, as with Kidman, it worked; other times, not so much. “Absolutely everybody told me I was going to win,” Hare says of the best adapted screenplay category, which he lost to The Pianist’s Ronald Harwood. He spent months on the trail with victory in mind. “When I didn’t win, I was pretty pissed off for about two and a half hours.” The next day, he says, “I didn’t care anymore.” 

    Outside of Kidman’s win, The Hours slightly underperformed at the Oscars, at which Catherine Zeta-Jones won best supporting actress; both Streep and Moore went home empty-handed. A few months before, however, it won best drama picture and actress (Kidman) at the Golden Globes, which wound up being the peak of its awards run. All three Hours actors were nominated and in attendance; Streep even won the supporting actress award for Adaptation, her first win since 1982’s Sophie’s Choice, which prompted the star to begin her speech by saying, “I’ve just been nominated 789 times, and I was getting so settled over there for a long winter’s nap!”

    Cunningham attended the Globes as well. He remembers the “great party,” sitting in the same room as Kidman, Streep, Moore, and Rudin, as a validation of The Hours’ most hotly debated (facial) feature. “In some parallel dimension, the movie went down over Nicole Kidman’s plastic nose,” he says. “It didn’t happen in this dimension.” 

    Listen to Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast now.

    David Canfield

    Source link

  • Honey, the Heartthrobs Are Home

    Honey, the Heartthrobs Are Home

    For years, there’s been a void in Hollywood. Despite all the young, fresh talent parading along red carpets and across our screens, there was one type missing: the quintessential heartthrob.

    Heartthrobs of yore had a hold on me — and on pop culture as a whole. And there have always been jawdroppingly beautiful people in Hollywood. That’s part of its whole thing. But heartthrobs are in their own class. Their swoon-worthy looks combined with their out-of-this-world charisma place them in a league of their own. But where have all the heartthrobs gone?

    Despite male celebrities like Timothee Chalamet or Harry Styles winning our hearts, their energy doesn’t give heartthrob in classic Hollywood style.

    Perhaps, in an age of social media, the endless scrum of influencers and TikTok stars have desensitized us to pure beauty. Liking a photo or scrolling through a feed is blasé compared to slavering over the latest TV interview with your heartthrob of choice and then plastering their limited-edition, J14 posters to your bedroom wall.

    Or maybe Tarantino was right when he said that actors don’t play “leading men” anymore. “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” he said in an interview in 2022. “But they’re not movie stars, right? Captain America is the star. Thor is the star.”

    Though his statement got backlash, he was right … in a way. I miss the days when I’d go to the movies just to watch my heartthrob take the screen. Because that’s precisely what it means to be a heartthrob: you’re defined by your charisma, not the pedigree bestowed to you by the industry or a giant like Marvel.

    It’s why Leonardo DiCaprio mysteriously remains alluring (though he is only allured by women under 25). It’s why Brad Pitt remains one of the most famous movie stars in the world, despite not winning an Oscar for acting until 2020.

    But never fear, heartthrobs are here.

    With the Oscars barrelling towards us, Vanity Fair just released its annual Hollywood Issue. And this year’s spread is a feast for the eyes.

    This year’s coveted cover spot was awarded to Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Ana de Armas, Jonathan Majors, Keke Palmer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Julia Garner, Regé-Jean Page, Emma Corrin, Hoyeon, and Jeremy Allen White.

    Familiar faces like Keke Palmer and Selena Gomez entertained us as former child stars. But last year marked significant growth in their careers.

    Newer faces like Florence Pugh, Julia Garner, Hoyeon, and Ana de Armas have been impressing the industry over the past few years and finally had landmark career breakthroughs in 2022.

    But the most revelatory part of the list: the return of the heartthrob. Austin Butler! Jonathan Majors! Aaron Taylor-Johnson! Regé-Jean Page! Jeremy Allen White! Siri, play ‘Woman in Love’ by Barbra Streisand! Siri, add ‘My Man’ to the queue!

    And. Vanity Fair, I want to thank you for your service. From the bottom of my throbbing heart. The creative direction held nothing back. Set a dark, sexy club, the entire set harkened back to old Hollywood. And though the diverse cast selected signals a long-awaited, inclusive standard of beauty, the charm of the classic Heartthrob is alive in this intergalactic generation of superstars.

    LKC

    Source link

  • The 10 Most Surprising Oscar Best Picture Winners

    The 10 Most Surprising Oscar Best Picture Winners

    Every year, film buffs and casual viewers alike get excited when the Academy releases their annual list of nominations — especially when it comes to the Best Picture category. You see, unlike every other category, the Best Picture trophy carries a bit more weight to it. There are less quantifiable elements to it than a more specific category, such as Sound Editing or Costume Design. In those categories, you can pinpoint certain merits based on technique or attention to craft. As a concept, “Best Picture” implies that a film manages to score highly in several departments — but even beyond that, it leaves the biggest impression on its audiences.

    The term “Oscar bait” refers to a movie (typically, a drama) that seems particularly geared toward a certain demographic — the industry professionals who get to decide the nominations each year. These films often feature A-list actors in challenging roles, heavy-hitting themes, and sweeping scores. They’re the clear front-runners, and no one is really surprised when they take home the big prize. But other times, a movie has an unexpected victory. Whether it falls into a genre that isn’t typically celebrated at the Academy Awards, or it snubs a more “Oscar-worthy” title, sometimes a film’s win comes as quite a shock to the audience. At the end of the day, though, the news shouldn’t come as a shock to the Academy — they’re the very ones who picked it, after all.

    Below, you’ll find 10 of the most shocking Best Picture winners in Oscar history.

    The 10 Most Shocking Best Picture Winners In Oscar History

    These movies shocked the film world on their way to winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

    The Worst Oscar Best Picture Winners

    These movies won the Academy Awards for Best Picture over better, more deserving films.

    Claire Epting

    Source link

  • Jimmy Kimmel Reacts To Oscar Betting: ‘They’re Encouraging Someone With A Gambling Problem To Slap Me’

    Jimmy Kimmel Reacts To Oscar Betting: ‘They’re Encouraging Someone With A Gambling Problem To Slap Me’

    By Brent Furdyk.
    Published:

    Jimmy Kimmel will be keeping a look out for potential slappers when he takes to the stage of the Dolby Theater in March to host the Oscars.

    Kimmel, who has hosted twice before, addressed the 2023 nominations during Tuesday night’s edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

    One thing that surprised him, he noted in his monologue, was that online gambling sites are now taking bets on which films and actors will be winning awards.


    READ MORE:
    Jimmy Kimmel To Return To Host The Oscars For A Third Time In 2023

    In addition, he pointed to one category referencing last year’s infamous Will Smith slap of Chris Rock: “Will any host or award presenter be slapped during the show?” reads the bet.

    “If you put $100 on yes, you win $1,200 — which, I have to say, seems like they’re encouraging someone with a gambling problem to slap me,” Kimmel quipped.

    Kimmel also pointed to the Best Oscar nominees, which included “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, “Top Gun: Maverick”, “Elvis”, “Avatar: The Way of Water” and, he joked, “six movies that no one has seen — including a movie called ‘Triangle of Sadness’, which I always thought was a slice of Papa John’s pizza.”


    READ MORE:
    Regina Hall On Jimmy Kimmel Hosting Oscars: ‘I Hope Nobody Comes Out Of The Audience This Time’ (Exclusive)

    Kimmel will be hosting the Oscars on Sunday, March 12.

    Brent Furdyk

    Source link

  • ‘My Year of Dicks’: It’s Real, It’s Oscar-Nominated, and You Can Watch It Now

    ‘My Year of Dicks’: It’s Real, It’s Oscar-Nominated, and You Can Watch It Now

    Each year one moment from the Oscar nominations announcement earns unintentional buzz, most notably seen in past pronunciation snafus. But when the 2023 Oscar nominations were read by Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams, people were talking about one nominee’s provocative title itself—not the delivery of it.

    “My Year of Dicks,” Ahmed said while announcing the nominees for best animated short film. He then chuckled, his break eliciting laughter from attendees in the pressroom. Giggles continued when Ahmed read the next nominee, the eccentrically titled An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It. After a brief pause, Williams capitalized on the moment, quipping, “No comment.”

    The 25-minute short with the attention-grabbing title made first-time Oscar nominees out of director Sara Gunnarsdóttir, who became the first female Icelandic filmmaker to get an Academy Award nomination, and writer Pamela Ribon, who hails from Disney Animation with credits on Moana and Ralph Breaks the Internet. Dicks (insert Ahmed’s laughter here) is adapted from Ribon’s memoir, Notes to Boys (And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public), and inspired by her own experiences coming of age in the early ’90s.

    Told in five chapters, set in genres ranging from vampire tale to horror film, the story centers on a 15-year-old girl named Pam who is hell-bent on losing her virginity over the course of a particularly phallic 365 days in small-town Texas. Ribon, who has called this project a “homegrown experience,” quotes her real-life letters and uses video recordings of her teen self; she even cast some of her own family members in the short. 

    Amidst commentary around the nominations’ biggest snubs and surprises, the official My Year of Dicks Twitter account shared the following message: “We are so grateful for the nomination from our animation community, and for this chance to share such a personal story of awkward, teenage wonder with a worldwide audience. Thank you, thank you.” In a follow-up tweet, the account shared video of the nominations announcement, writing, “If just announcing our title can get that level of giggles (Thanks, Riz and Allison!), we can’t wait to see what’ll happen when you watch the film.”

    You can watch My Year of Dicks at this Vimeo link before the 2023 Oscars on Sunday, March 12. 

    Savannah Walsh

    Source link

  • For the First Time, Two Sequels Were Nominated for Best Picture

    For the First Time, Two Sequels Were Nominated for Best Picture

    It’s not often that sequels really go up for serious Oscar consideration… and it’s never been the case that two are up for Best Picture at the same time. Both Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water have managed to get Oscar nominations, but they face some stiff competition.

    Other films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars this year include Everything Everywhere All at Once, Elvis, Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, All Quiet on the Western Front, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking. Of course, regardless of how this all goes for Joseph Kosinski or James Cameron, we can at least all agree that it’s been a great year for movies.

    Both films are up for a variety of other nominations. For Avatar: The Way Of Water, we have nominations for Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Production Design. On the other hand, Top Gun: Maverick is sitting pretty with a few more nominations and in some weightier categories. It’s in the running for Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

    Both films made a ton of money at the box office, received rave reviews from critics, and were well-liked by the general public. Unfortunately, when you’re up against such great films, that’s not always a guaranteed win. Luckily, both of these films also arguably have a pretty huge cultural impact, and that can really give them a leg up. Top Gun: Maverick also has nominations in some pretty key categories like Best Film Editing. Even if it doesn’t win Best Picture (which is very unlikely), it could still take home some Oscars in other categories.

    Regardless of how this goes, everyone involved with both movies should be excited to know that they were part of breaking an Oscars record. People frequently push back against the sequel-wave that Hollywood has been riding, but these nominations show that sometimes, sequels really are good.

    The Best Oscar Best Picture Winners Ever

    More than 90 films have earned the title of Best Picture from the Academy Awards. These are the best of the best.

    Cody Mcintosh

    Source link

  • Fashion Trivia: The Couturier and the Costume Designer

    Fashion Trivia: The Couturier and the Costume Designer

    Test your fashion-industry knowledge with our new-old weekly series, Fashion Trivia! There’s no prize (yet) for having the right answer, but you get theoretical bonus points for not using Google.

    Q: In 2011, Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy were vocal about how unhappy they were with the lack of recognition for their work on ballet costumes for “Black Swan” during awards season. (The costume designer on the project was Amy Westcott, who clarified the situation here.)  More than 50 years prior, a famous couturier contributed costumes to a similarly acclaimed film in much the same way, but kept quiet when its actual costume designer was nominated for — and won — the Oscar. Who was it?

    Fashionista

    Source link

  • 40 Awkward Red Carpet Encounters That Will Make You Seriously Uncomfortable

    40 Awkward Red Carpet Encounters That Will Make You Seriously Uncomfortable

    Nancy O’dell Tells Taylor Swift She’s Going Home With a Lot of Men Tonight (2015 Grammys)

    While interviewing Taylor Swift on the 2015 Grammys red carpet, ET’s Nancy O’dell actually told Taylor Swift: “You’re going to walk with more than a trophy tonight, I think, lots of men.” Taylor responded with perhaps the fiercest death stare of all time. “I’m not going to walk away with any men tonight,” she said. The conversation lightened up from there, but it was off to a rough start, to say the least.

    Source link

  • Inside the New York Film Critics Circle Celebration: Heartfelt Thanks, Sake Bombs, and More

    Inside the New York Film Critics Circle Celebration: Heartfelt Thanks, Sake Bombs, and More

    At Wednesday night’s New York Film Critics Circle gala at New York’s Tao Downtown, there was no suspense to be found, no “envelope please”—the critics’ group voted on and announced its winners a month ago. Instead of awards shows’ usual tension and cutting between contenders to see the elation or disappointment after a winner is announced, at the NYFCC ceremony the rule of the night was celebration only as industry notables paid tribute to their colleagues over plates of lobster fried rice and miso-glazed cod—served, appropriately, family-style. 

    If one big winner of the evening had to be selected it might be Tár, winner of the best actress and best-picture prizes. Director Todd Field was introduced by Martin Scorcese via video, with the legendary director saying that “the clouds lifted when I experienced Todd’s film Tár.” Field himself paid tribute to his star, Cate Blanchett, in his acceptance speech, calling her “a fucking humble artist who stands at the ready,” and “a believer, a defender of the faith.” Blanchett, likewise, told Field in her own speech that “this menu is yours, Todd, every single morsel of it.” (For the uninitiated, it was a reference to the NYFCC’s awards certificate, which is presented sheathed in a large blue portfolio.)

    Stephen Colbert did the honors of introducing Blanchett. “I was truly moved by your performance as a magnetic, larger-than-life, creative woman; a leader at the height of her powers; intensely, feverishly focused on defeating the Dark Lord Sauron,” he said. “Lydia Tár would have taken that fucking ring,” he said before calling himself out as “a huge fan of both Todd Field and his wife’s cookies.” 

    Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke Huy Quan continued his moving awards-season comeback arc with a win for best supporting actor, thanking directors the Daniels in his acceptance speech.

    He recalled a reporter asking him a bog-standard red-carpet question—“how does it feel?”—while he promoted Everything Everywhere, his first film in decades following his child stardom in the 1980s.

    “I couldn’t quite articulate how I was feeling, aside from saying, ‘It feels incredible,’” he said. “And I realized I couldn’t explain because it was a feeling I hadn’t had for a long, long time. In fact, it was more than 30 years. And it was the same feeling that I had when I was a kid, when I was a working actor.”

    “So I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, and our producer, Jonathan Wang, for making me feel like a kid again.” 

    The directing duo introduced Quan, with Scheinert thanking the actor for being willing to talk about difficult memories and “[promoting] the shit out of this movie this year.” 

    “It’s hard what you went through when Hollywood stopped casting you, like idiots,” he said. 

    Kwan noted Quan’s particularly special presence. “It’s not just his talent or adorable smile,” he insisted. The actor is, he said, “someone who could make us believe in an unkind world that there is still a place for kindness.” The duo toasted Quan onstage with sake (Scheinert called the actor’s sake bombs life-changing), complete with what they said is Quan’s signature move—plopping the empty cup upside down on top of your head after drinking. 

    Banshees of Inisherin actor Kerry Condon found herself in the rare position of winning no awards herself, but accepting two of them, on behalf of best-actor winner Colin Farrell and best-screenplay winner Martin McDonagh, neither of whom could make it to the gala. (Seth Meyers, introducing Farrell’s award, passed on a message from the actor that “he wanted me to tell you, and this is a direct quote, how fecking sorry he is.”) Condon took a few comedic liberties on the speeches her friends prepared, quipping that “Martin is in Southeast Asia, which is a long way to go to avoid an awards ceremony,” and during Farrell’s remarks, “then he goes into this long bit to make me red in the face, and I’m not reading it.” 

    Accepting Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’s award for best animated feature, Jenny Slate said, “I think we tried to make a film that showed the shape of an embrace. It just ended up looking like a shell with one eye and two shoes.”

    The gala was a remarkable gathering of names, the New York film and arts community getting together in person for their traditional January celebration for the first time since 2020 for the presentation of the awards. David Byrne, Keke Palmer, Nan Goldin, Jim Jarmusch, Jordan Peele, and more were on hand. 

    Kase Wickman

    Source link

  • Dressed to Kill (and Thrill): Costumes Fit for an Oscar

    Dressed to Kill (and Thrill): Costumes Fit for an Oscar

    Babylon (Paramount)

    We meet Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) in Babylon just as she’s skidded her car onto the front lawn of a glamorous Hollywood house party she’s hoping to crash. She steps out of the car in a skintight red ensemble with a plunging neckline that immediately signals this is someone who captures people’s attention—even in a rollicking bash with an elephant, debaucherous dancers, and a little person hopping around on a penis-shaped pogo stick. Babylon costume designer and three-time Oscar nominee Mary Zophres says of Robbie’s lady-in-red entrance, “We knew that it needed to be striking, we wanted it to be sexy, and we wanted it to stand out in the crowd.”

    Director Damien Chazelle told Zophres early on that he wanted to avoid typical looks from the 1920s and 1930s in his Hollywood period piece. But the designer wanted this look to be something that Nellie, a scrappy aspiring actor, could have made herself at home during that period. “She’s trying to get away with as little clothing as possible but still be allowed into the door,” says Zophres, who went through six different prototypes before landing on this look. At first, the vintage-silk top was paired with pants, but then, inspired by an image of a woman from the Ziegfeld Follies, Zophres created a pair of hot pants and wrapped a sarong around it. “Instantly, you know somebody daring is wearing that,” Zophres says. “Someone who’s got a zest for life and is not afraid to take chances.”

    Rebecca Ford, Katey Rich, Chris Murphy, Yohana Desta

    Source link

  • Keke Palmer, ‘RRR’ Get Huge Oscar Boosts From New York Critics Awards

    Keke Palmer, ‘RRR’ Get Huge Oscar Boosts From New York Critics Awards

    Several scrappy Oscar hopefuls received major visibility boosts with Friday’s announcement of the New York Film Critics Circle winners, the first critics’ group to weigh in with their selections for the favorites of the year. Keke Palmer, explosively good and charismatic in Jordan Peele’s Nope, pulled off a glorious upset by taking best supporting actress, a vital kick start to receiving larger recognition down the road in a messy, overcrowded category. (You might compare it to another breakout first-timer winning NYFCC, the Borat sequel’s Maria Bakalova, who went on to an Oscar nod.) And S.S. Rajamouli, the man behind the action epic RRR, overtook a slew of big names in the directing field, crucial as that audience hit attempts to mount a campaign after India chose not to submit it for best international feature.

    But it was Tár, Todd Field’s beloved portrait of a revered conductor, which dominated, winning best picture and actress for star Cate Blanchett, the clear front-runner at this stage of the latter category. 

    Elsewhere, NYFCC recognized a few heavy hitters already appearing a little more unstoppable by the day. They include Martin McDonagh, taking screenplay for The Banshees of Inisherin, and Ke Huy Quan, universe-hopping patriarch of Everything Everywhere All at Once (who also picked up a Gotham Award this week), winning best supporting actor. The former Indiana Jones child star is riding a heartfelt comeback narrative while representing one of the year’s biggest overall contenders. Rivals including Banshees’ Brendan Gleeson and The Fabelmans’ Judd Hirsch will need to act quickly to dent Quan’s momentum.

    Meanwhile, one of the cinematography race’s strongest contenders, Top Gun: Maverick’s Claudio Miranda, prevailed over fellow Oscar winners in The Fabelmans’ Janusz Kamiński and Empire of Light’s Roger Deakins (Miranda won the Oscar for Life of Pi), while Colin Farrell made a significant leap in the best-actor race, cited for both his contender The Banshees of Inisherin and spring sci-fi hit After Yang. 

    The documentary race, when it comes to the Academy, will open up to more populist choices that critics aren’t as drawn to—remember My Octopus Teacher?—but for now there’s little reason to see any film but Laura Poitras’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed as the one to beat, at least among precursor groups. The incendiary Nan Goldin portrait, exploring her artistry as well as her explosive activist campaign against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, wins with NYFCC to kick off what will surely be a healthy prize run in the months ahead.

    It can be hard to assess the impact of a group like NYFCC on the race as a whole. Last year, voters went for Lady Gaga in the best-actress race, a seeming huge boon to her House of Gucci campaign, but the Academy dismissed that film to such an extent that even she was left off of the nominations list in one of the year’s biggest snubs. Yet that same year, NYFCC also named Drive My Car the best film of the year—at that point, a fairly unknown Japanese film, but thereafter, the toast of film critics around the US (it’d later win with Los Angeles and the National Society of Film Critics) and an inspired best-picture Oscar nominee. You can draw a straight line to that from its NYFCC win.

    So what does this mean for Tár? NYFCC’s top choices tend to at least be nominated for best picture—La La Land, Boyhood, Lady Bird, Roma, among recent examples—though there are exceptions, from Carol to 2020’s First Cow. In this demanding but brilliant movie’s case, it’s proof that it will be a force to be reckoned with as the season revs up.

    Full list of winners:

    • Best Picture: Tár (dir. Todd Field)
    • Best Director: S.S. Rajamouli, RRR
    • Best Actor: Colin Farrell, After Yang and The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Tár 
    • Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
    • Best Supporting Actress: Keke Palmer, Nope
    • Best Screenplay: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
    • Best International Film: EO (dir. Jerzy Skolimowski)
    • Best Non-Fiction Film: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (dir. Laura Poitras)
    • Best Animated Film: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (dir. Dean Fleischer Camp)
    • Best First Film: Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells)

    Content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    David Canfield

    Source link

  • With ‘The Fabelmans,’ Julia Butters Reaches New Hollywood Heights

    With ‘The Fabelmans,’ Julia Butters Reaches New Hollywood Heights

    She has yet to reach high school, but 13-year-old Julia Butters is already building the career of any actor’s dreams. At the age of 10, she stole scenes opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. It was on that set where Butters would first meet Steven Spielberg, who cast her as a proxy for his eldest sister in his memoir film, The Fablemans. 

    “I saw Steven walking around the valet [at Universal Studios]. I waved to him through the window, he waved to me, and I was freaking out,” Butters tells Vanity Fair during a recent Zoom. “That was my only interaction with Steven Spielberg ever, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s the closest I’m ever going to get to him.’” 

    Her prediction didn’t age well. Just a handful of years later, Spielberg and Tony Kushner’s script, emblazoned with the Amblin Entertainment logo, came her way. “I was so excited,” Butters says. “I remember just being like, ‘Don’t blow it. You gotta try your best. You gotta try your hardest. We have to make this worth it.’ And it turned out to be worth it.”

    After securing the role of Reggie, inspired by Spielberg’s real-life sister Anne, Butters had just one question: “Is there a monkey in this movie?” The actor had watched Spielberg, a 2017 HBO documentary about the legendary filmmaker, which recounts the time his mother spontaneously brought a pet monkey home. “I had this joke on set where that was what made me want to do the movie,” she says. “That was the deal—if there was a monkey, I would work on it.” And how was it sharing the screen with an orangutan? Says Butters, “Crystal was such an incredible actress.”

    Spielberg’s love of his sister is clear throughout The Fabelmans, shown through details and observations too specific to be made up—from her likening the family’s Northern California move to being “parachuted into the land of the giant sequoia people” to asking when “Sammy” plans on making movies with roles for girls. Although often in the periphery, Reggie’s protectiveness over her mother, Mitzi (played by Michelle Williams), breaks through. During a camping trip, she shields her inebriated mother, dancing by the fire in a transparent nightgown, from prying eyes. And after learning of her parents’ split, she observes that it must be difficult for their mother to be “loved by someone who worships” her as their father does. 

    “She feels a responsibility to be kind of the mother of the family while her mom is out playing and dancing and having fun and living life,” Butters tells me of Reggie. “Her mother has such a way about her—this innocence, it’s like a breath of fresh air. She feels youthful and young and happy. She just radiates such a glow. Reggie really wants to protect that and keep that fire lit.”

    Butters, who plays Reggie from ages 13 to 16, grew similarly attached to her onscreen Fabelmans family—Williams as free-spirited mother Mitzi, Paul Dano as by-the-numbers father Arnold, fellow sisters Natalie (Keeley Karsten) and Lisa (Sophia Kopera), and Gabriel LaBelle, who plays the Spielberg-inspired character of Sammy. “We all built a safe space where you can say what’s on your mind if you’re feeling anxious or sad or happy,” Butters says. “And I think that was really important with such an intense set,” adding of her younger costars, “We were all geeking out over the fact that we had made our dreams come true, working with Steven.”

    When I ask Butters if she had jitters about meeting the real-life Anne, who would, after the period depicted in the movie, go on to cowrite and produce Big, starring Tom Hanks, she pauses. “I get nervous about everything, so that’s kind of a funny question.” Butters, who played a kid with obsessive-compulsive disorder on the ABC sitcom American Housewife, says she struggles with her own anxieties, which made their own appearance on the set of The Fabelmans.

    One day, a scene involving Reggie and Sammy quickly bantering while washing dishes was placed in front of Butters, who was in the thick of schoolwork, just 30 minutes before it was meant to be filmed. “I was having trouble getting it out on set,” she remembers. “I got super anxious because I was on a Steven Spielberg set and I really wanted to do the best I could. So of course when I couldn’t get it, I got frustrated with myself. And I beat myself up to the point of shaking.”

    Savannah Walsh

    Source link

  • Box Office: ‘Prey For The Devil’ Nabs $3 Million Friday As Oscar Contenders Struggle

    Box Office: ‘Prey For The Devil’ Nabs $3 Million Friday As Oscar Contenders Struggle

    With the big Halloween movies already in play and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever two weeks away, it is another quiet weekend for newbies at the domestic box office. The one new wide release is Lionsgate’s long-delayed Prey for the Devil. The PG-13 horror flick earned $660,000 in Thursday previews and grossed another $2.83 million Friday. That suggests an over/under $7 million opening weekend in 2,450 theaters, about in line with cautiously optimistic forecasts. Considering the relative lack of buzz, expectedly lousy reviews (17% and 3.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes), star-free cast and harsh scary season competition, this is a moral victory even if it’s not remotely a barnburner. The film got a C+ from Cinemascore, which is almost good for a low-profile horror flick, but I would expect it will be ancient history by the time it pops up on PVOD in a few weeks.

    United Artists expanded Till into semi-wide release in its third frame. The acclaimed and Oscar-buzzy drama earned $1.03 million in 2,058 theaters. That suggests a $2.78 million (+665%) weekend for a mediocre $1,351 per-theater average and $3.607 million 17-day total. Unless it truly becomes a must-see film for Oscar watchers and related general audiences, and that could happen if Danielle Deadwyler gets a Best Actress nomination, we are looking at an under-$10 million domestic finish. With all due respect, audiences wanting a big studio flick for/from/by/about empowered Black heroes will flock to the MCU sequel opening in two weeks. To be fair, and I say this with zero judgment, we saw likewise in 2016 when Nate Parker’s much-discoursed Birth of the Nation was ignored in favor of Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington’s popcorn-y but righteously angry The Magnificent Seven remake.

    Likewise, rave reviews and social media discourse aside, Cate Blanchett’s TÁR isn’t exactly mainstream entertainment, and I would have said that in 1994 as well. I am old enough to remember critics and pundits decrying the lack of theatrical business for Quiz Show and Ed Wood, even if back then, at least folks were showing up for Pulp Fiction. The 2.5-hour melodrama about a world-famous and top-of-her-field conductor dealing with skeletons in her closet and/or chickens coming home to roost, expanded to 940 theaters on weekend three and earned $340,000 on Friday. That positions the Focus Features release for a $1 million weekend. That gives the Best Actress frontrunner (for now) a mere $920 per-theater average and $2.5 million 17-day total. Searchlight’s The Banshees of Inishin expanded to 59 theaters for an over/under $440,000 (+139%) weekend and $7,458 per-theater average.

    Focus Features’ Armageddon Time debuted in five theaters yesterday to indifferent results. James Grey’s mostly acclaimed 80’s set melodrama stars Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins and at least tries to be a little less nostalgic than is usual for the sub-genre. However, I imagine if any such (loosely autobiographical) coming-of-age drama is going to break out commercially, it will be Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans over Thanksgiving weekend. Armageddon Time earned $35,000 on Friday for an over/under $78,000 weekend and a $13,000 per-theater average. Nobody is expecting big bucks from films like Triangle of Sadness ($2.24 million in 24 days) or Decision to Leave ($794,000 after 17 days). Still, I will be curious to see which of this season’s awards contenders can at least make as much as David O. Russell’s mega-bomb Amsterdam ($15 million) or even Terrifier 2 ($7.7 million and rising).

    Scott Mendelson, Forbes Staff

    Source link

  • Sacheen Littlefeather’s Sisters Say Claim of American Indian Heritage Was A Fraud

    Sacheen Littlefeather’s Sisters Say Claim of American Indian Heritage Was A Fraud

    The most surprising moment in Oscars history now has a new twist. The San Fransisco Chronicle published an investigative report on Saturday that argues Sacheen Littlefeather, the American Indian activist who Marlon Brando dispatched to refuse his Best Actor Academy Award for The Godfather, was an “ethnic fraud.” According to her sisters, Littlefeather, who died earlier this month shortly after receiving an official apology from the Academy, was not, as she claimed to be, of Apache heritage, but half-Mexican. They also said she did not grow up with an abusive father, or in terrible poverty. “Of course we had a toilet,” her sister Trudy Orlandi said, debunking a longstanding claim. 

    Littlefeather’s two sisters, Orlandi and Rosalind Cruz, approached Native American journalist and activist Jacqueline Keeler, who is known for co-creating the #NotYourMascot hashtag in 2013 (which helped finally put an end to Washington D.C.’s football team’s former name) and has for years maintained a “Pretendians” list, exposing people who make false claims of American Indian heritage.

    The Chronicle article goes into great detail about Sacheen Littlefeather’s family tree. Born Marie Louise Cruz (nicknamed “Deb”), Keeler says there is no evidence to suggest anything but white heritage on her mother’s side and Mexican on her father’s. It was restoring their father’s name that ultimately inspired the sisters to come forward, they said. The Oxnard, California-born man, “never drank,” according to Orlandi, and was not mentally ill, refuting her sister’s claims. 

    Littlefeather said that she was given her name during the Native American occupation at Alcatraz, but Keeler’s investigation shows that she was never actually there. (Activist LaNada Warjack, who was on the island for the entire 18 months, said she never heard of her until the Oscars.) Moreover, Keeler wrote Littlefeather’s claim that Sacheen means “little bear” in Navajo is untrue. (“Shush yazh” would be the correct translation.) Also, Navajo people, Keeler said, do not name people after animals. 

    The sisters recalled that they used to make clothing at a local 4-H club, and used materials from the Sacheen Ribbon company, and suspect this was the name’s actual inspiration.

    Marlon Brando met Littlefeather through Francis Ford Coppola. At the time, she was trying to break into Hollywood and had already done a shoot for Playboy, which would ultimately be published after her appearance at the Academy Awards. (LaNada Warjack told Keeler that while she felt the Oscars action was impressive, the photo spread was suspicious: “The last thing we as Native women wanted anyone to think of us was as sex objects.”)

    At the 1973 ceremony, she wore traditional clothing and made a short statement about Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans. Raquel Welch and Clint Eastwood both made snide comments afterward, and Littlefeather later said she was blacklisted from the industry. She also claimed that John Wayne had to be held back by security men to prevent him from assaulting her on stage, a story that film historian Farran Smith Nehme has gone to great efforts to debunk. 

    The Academy’s apology to Littlefeather said that “[t]he emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long, the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.” In Saturday’s Chronicle story, the Littlefeather’s sisters said it was troubling to see her “venerated as a saint.”  

    Content

    This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

    Jordan Hoffman

    Source link

  • Box Office: ‘Halloween Ends’ Nabs Solid $41 Million Despite Peacock

    Box Office: ‘Halloween Ends’ Nabs Solid $41 Million Despite Peacock

    You could practically hear Michael Myers (now around 65 years old) telling Art the Clown and the various baddies (no spoilers) from Barbarian, The Invitation and Smile to get the hell off his lawn. Despite concurrent availability on Peacock, Universal and Blumhouse’s Halloween Ends opened on target with $41.25 million in its debut Fri-Sun frame. I’ve read chatter elsewhere that the Peacock factor hurt the film’s theatrical reception and that somehow this poorly reviewed, willfully divisive franchise-ender (for a franchise that has ended before and everyone knows will eventually be restarted) was supposed to open closer to $55 million. However, recent ‘fine, whatever’ trilogy enders like Fifty Shades Freed, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and The Maze Runner: The Death Cure opened with 80% of their respective predecessor’s opening weekends. Halloween Ends pulled 84% of Halloween Kills’ $49 million domestic launch.

    Not every ‘it all ends here’ finale plays like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II or Avengers: Endgame, especially with poor reviews and nothing new to offer. Some successfully sell the ‘end of an era’ hook. The critically acclaimed and unique (due to its real-world template and R rating) Logan parlayed Hugh Jackman’s last ride (uh…) into an $88 million Fri-Sun opening compared to $85 million for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and $53 million for The Wolverine. Right or wrong, if Marvel thought merely offering Deadpool 3 was enough to make it an event, they wouldn’t have coaxed Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back into the saddle. Even Breaking Dawn part II earned about what the earlier Twilight Saga sequels made ($281-$300 million) in North America, with the same over/under $140 million opening weekend as New Moon and Breaking Dawn part I.

    Did Halloween Ends, which promised a finale to the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode saga, lose a few bucks this weekend by being available on Peacock? Well, it was their most-watched movie ever in a two-day period. However, even a 10% bump is $45 million, which is the same ‘hold’ on opening weekend as Jurassic World Dominion ($145 million) compared to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148 million). That a poorly reviewed threequel to Halloween, following the poorly reviewed Halloween Kills, was never going to somehow approximate the lightning-in-a-bottle arrival of Halloween ($77 million in 2018). Such thinking made up my villain origin story in the days of ‘Pearl Harbor will surely top $100 million over Memorial Day!’ and ‘Book of Shadows will open with $30 million!’ There’s a reason I tend to be the guy saying, “Wait… let’s cool our jets here.”

    As with most biggies in the Covid era, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way. The Matrix Resurrections was always going to be a commercial miss, with or without HBO Max. Black Widow was never going to get anywhere near $1 billion worldwide, nor was Tenet or Wonder Woman 1984. David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends opened with $41.25 million this weekend, which is the third-biggest R-rated opening of the Covid era (since Bad Boys For Life in January of 2020) behind Jordan Peele’s Us ($44 million last July) and Halloween Kills ($49 million in October of 2021). The earlier two Halloween movies (even the 2018 one with great reviews and oodles of free media attention) were painfully frontloaded ($159 million from a $77 million debut and $92 million/$49 million), so we can expect likewise this time too.

    We’re still talking about a $33 million R-rated slasher threequel that had already earned $58 million global (including $3.5 million in IMAX) and should reach over/under $80 million domestic and around $115 million global. The Blumhouse trilogy cost about $63 million in total and should crack $500 million globally in the end. This is a franchise that, before 2018, had exactly one (Halloween H20 in 1998) well-liked and well-received (by the masses) installment. All due respect to the various champions of Revenge of Michael Myers, Curse of Michael Myers and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, but Michael Myers spent even the 1980s taking a pop culture backseat to the likes of Fred Krueger, Jason Vorhees and Chucky. But now Michael Myers is currently the most profitable (budget versus gross) supernatural horror slasher of all, almost entirely due to the Blumhouse trilogy.

    This marks the 16th #1 opening for Blumhouse (including Freaky, which did not get a day-and-date Peacock/theater release). Universal has four of this year’s 12 $40 million-plus openings (Halloween Ends, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Jurassic World Dominion and Nope). That’s more than any other studio and sans any Marvel/DC properties. Even with Paramount
    PARA
     offering up a breakout horror hit right when Universal starts to get cocky (A Quiet Place in early 2018, Smile three weeks ago), the Comcast
    CMCSA
    -owned studio still is the unofficial king of the horror movie mountain (see also: The Black Phone), which feels appropriate since they helped invent the modern horror movie with their 1930’s Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy and Invisible Man flicks. I wish their Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights mazes were anywhere near as immersive and scary as Knotts Scary Farm (or at least had a Minions maze), but I digress.

    The only other major opener was the platform debut of United Artists’ Till. The well-reviewed and Oscar-buzzy (especially for Danielle Deadwyler) historical drama concerns the infamous murder of Emmitt Till, whose slaying (and much-publicized open-casket funeral) was one of the galvanizing moments of the Civil Rights movement. The Chinonye Chukwu-directed drama earned $240,940 from 16 theaters for a $15,059 per-theater average. It has a 100% fresh and 7.9/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, with 95% among verified users and, uh… 76% among unverified users (cough-review bombing-cough). It will expand next weekend into 150-200 theaters before going wide (alongside Tar) on October 28. Speaking of Tar, Cate Blanchett’s conductor drama expanded to 32 theaters. The Focus Features release will earn $360,000 (+127%) this weekend for a $10,000 per-theater average and $585,000 ten-day total. The Banshees of Inisherin opens in limited release next weekend.

    Scott Mendelson, Forbes Staff

    Source link

  • ‘RRR’ Launches Oscars Best Picture Campaign

    ‘RRR’ Launches Oscars Best Picture Campaign

    RRR is monumental. Not just as a foreign film, but as a film in general. For those unfamiliar, RRR is an Indian film which tells the story of two actual historical figures living under British rule. While the characters are real, the film is thoroughly embellished. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have some of the insane action scenes, the excellent musical numbers, or the expertly choreographed dance sequences.

    The film has been a hit with both audiences and critics in the United States since its debut earlier in the year, and now the film’s producers are pushing for it to be nominated for Best Picture at the upcoming Academy Awards.

    Despite the absolute spectacle that is RRR, it’s facing some pretty heavy odds. Only one film that wasn’t in English has ever won an Oscar, that being Bong Joon-ho’s tale of class warfare, Parasite. For whatever reason, it seems like Americans really have an issue watching films if they’re required to read subtitles. Maybe it’s oversaturation in the Hollywood market, which means that most people don’t go out of their way to watch foreign films.

    Whatever the outcome at the Academy Awards, RRR is completely worth seeing. If you can’t find it in some local arthouse theater or something like that, your best bet is to hop onto Netflix. It’s currently streaming there, albeit only in a Hindi-language version. Still, it’s better than not seeing the movie at all.

    The Best Movies of 2022 So Far

    Of all the titles released so far this year, here are the ones you have to see.

    Cody Mcintosh

    Source link

  • Exceptional Minds With Autism Have Screen Cred on 3 of 5 VFX Oscar Nominations

    Exceptional Minds With Autism Have Screen Cred on 3 of 5 VFX Oscar Nominations

    Exceptional Minds visual effects artists on the spectrum earned screen credit for visual cleanup and/or title work on “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2,” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.”


    Sherman Oaks, CA, January 25, 2018 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Exceptional Minds Studio earned screen credit on three of the five Oscar nominated movies in the visual effects category announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday.

    Exceptional Minds Studio is the industry’s only working visual effects and animation studio of young professionals on the autism spectrum. Since opening its doors almost four years ago, the small studio has worked on visual effects for more than 50 major motion pictures and/or television series, including “The Good Doctor,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Doctor Strange.”  

    Many of our artists never even dreamed they would be working in this industry.

    Susan Zwerman, Exceptional Minds Studio Executive Producer

    “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” and “War for the Planet of the Apes” are on the studio’s list of more recent visual effects and title work for hire. All three films are up for the visual effects Oscar at the upcoming Academy Awards. “Each film is so deserving of this award. The vfx teams we worked with on each of these movies were beyond professional, and we are so thankful that they gave our artists the opportunity to work with them,” said Exceptional Minds Studio Executive Producer Susan Zwerman.

    “Many of our artists never even dreamed they would be working in this industry,” she added.  “I couldn’t even imagine doing this when I was young,” agreed Patrick Brady, one of the Exceptional Minds vfx artists on the autism spectrum.

    An estimated 90 percent of the autism population is under employed or unemployed, and few training programs exist to prepare young adults with autism for meaningful careers.

    Exceptional Minds Studio contracts out to the entertainment industry for roto & paint, tracker removal, split screen, green screen keying, and compositing as well as end title credit work and 2D animation. It is staffed by graduates of Exceptional Minds, which is the first vocational school of its kind to prepare young men and women on the autism spectrum for careers in visual effects and animation.

    “These young adults are proving that people with autism can not only work meaningful careers, but also thrive in the competitive entertainment industry,” said Exceptional Minds Executive Director Ernie Merlán.

    Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the U.S.

    Contact: Dee McVicker, 602-319-6912 or deemcv@grassrootsco.com

    Source: Exceptional Minds

    Related Media

    Source link