‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress

Update ‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress
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(CL-R) Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, and Charles Roven, winners of the Best Picture award for “Oppenheimer”, pose with Al Pacino (L) in the press room during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at Ovation Hollywood on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
Update ‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress
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Update ‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress
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US actor Robert Downey Jr. accepts the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for "Oppenheimer" onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California on March 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 March 2024
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‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress

‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress
  • Downey portrayed Rear Adm. Lewis Strauss in “Oppenheimer,” hailed as one of his best performances in years
  • Randolph won the best supporting actress trophy for playing a grieving mother in the comedy set in a New England boarding school

LOS ANGELES: “Oppenheimer,” a solemn three-hour biopic that became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned best picture at a 96th Academy Awards that doubled as a coronation for Christopher Nolan.
After passing over arguably Hollywood’s foremost big-screen auteur for years, the Oscars made up for lost time by heaping seven awards on Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, including best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and best director for Nolan.
In anointing “Oppenheimer,” the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences did something it hasn’t done for more than a decade: hand its top prize to a widely seen, big-budget studio film. In a film industry where a cape, dinosaur or Tom Cruise has often been a requirement for such box office, “Oppenheimer” brought droves of moviegoers to theaters with a complex, fission-filled drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb.
“For better or worse, we’re all living in Robert Oppenheimer’s world,” said Murphy in his acceptance speech. “I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.”
As a film heavy with unease for human capacity for mass destruction, “Oppenheimer” also emerged – even over its partner in cultural phenomenon, “Barbie” – as a fittingly foreboding film for times rife with cataclysm, man-made or not. Sunday’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles unfolded against the backdrop of wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and with a potentially momentous US election on the horizon.
The most closely watched contest of the Academy Awards went to Emma Stone, who won best actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in “Poor Things.”




US actress Emma Stone accepts the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for "Poor Things" onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 10, 2024. (AFP)

In what was seen as the night’s most nail-biting category, Stone won over Lily Gladstone of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone would have become the first Native American to win an Academy Award.
Instead, Oscar voters couldn’t resist the full-bodied extremes of Stone’s “Poor Things” performance. The win for Stone, her second best actress Oscar following her 2017 win for “La La Land,” confirmed the 35-year-old as arguably the preeminent big-screen actress of her generation. The list of women to win best actress two or more times is illustrious, including Katharine Hepburn, Frances McDormand, Ingrid Bergman and Bette Davis.
“Oh, boy, this is really overwhelming,” said Stone, who fought back tears and a broken dress during her speech.
Sunday’s broadcast had razzle dazzle, including a sprawling song-and-dance rendition of the “Barbie” hit “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling, with an assist on guitar by Slash and a sea of Kens who swarmed the stage.
But protest and politics intruded on an election-year Academy Awards, where demonstrations for Gaza raged outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Late during the show, Kimmel read a critical social media post from former president Donald Trump.
“Thank you for watching,” said host Jimmy Kimmel. “Isn’t it passed your jail time?”
Nolan has had many movies in the Oscar mix before, including “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and “The Dark Knight.” But his win Sunday for direction is the first Academy Award for the 53-year-old filmmaker. Addressing the crowd, Nolan noted cinema is just over a hundred years old.
“We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here,” said Nolan. “But to think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”
Downey, nominated twice before (for “Chaplin” and “Tropic Thunder”), also notched his first Oscar, crowning the illustrious second act of his up-and-down career.




US actor Robert Downey Jr. accepts the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for "Oppenheimer" onstage during the 96th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California on March 10, 2024. (AFP)

“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the academy, in that order,” said Downey, the son of filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.
“Barbie,” last year’s biggest box-office hit with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales, ultimately won just one award: best song (sorry, Ken) for Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “What Was I Made For?” It’s their second Oscar, two years after winning for their James Bond theme, “No Time to Die.”
But after an awards season that stayed largely inside a Hollywood bubble, geopolitics played a prominent role. Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza snarled traffic around the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, slowing stars’ arrival on the red carpet and turning the Oscar spotlight toward the ongoing conflict. Some protesters shouted “Shame!” at those trying to reach the awards.
Jonathan Glazer, the British filmmaker whose chilling Auschwitz drama “The Zone of Interest” won best international film, drew connections between the dehumanization depicted in his film and today.
“Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The war in Gaza was on the minds of many attendees, as was the war in Ukraine. A year after “Navalny” won the same award, Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing chronicle of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, won best documentary. The win, a first for The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline,” came as the war in Ukraine passed the two-year mark with no signs of abating.




Raney Aronson-Rath, from left, Mstyslav Chernov, and Michelle Mizner pose in the press room with the award for best documentary feature film for "20 Days in Mariupol" at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Invision/AP)

Mstyslav Chernov, the Ukrainian filmmaker and AP journalist whose hometown was bombed the day he learned of his Oscar nomination, spoke forcefully about Russia’s invasion.
“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history,” said Chernov. “And I’m honored. Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this (for) Russia never attacking Ukraine.”
In the early going, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein-riff “Poor Things” ran away with three prizes for its sumptuous craft, including awards for production design, makeup and hairstyling and costume design.
Kimmel, hosting the ABC telecast for the fourth time, opened the awards with an monologue that emphasized Hollywood as “a union town” following 2023’s actor and writer strikes, drew a standing ovation for bringing out teamsters and behind-the-scenes workers — who are now entering their own labor negotiations.
The night’s first award was one of its most predictable: Da’Vine Joy Randolph for best supporting actress, for her performance in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.” An emotional Randolph was accompanied to the stage by her “Holdovers” co-star Paul Giamatti.
“For so long I’ve always wanted to be different,” said Randolph. “And now I realize I just need to be myself.”
Though Randolph’s win was widely expected, an upset quickly followed. Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” won for best animated feature, a surprise over the slightly favored “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Miyazaki, the 83-year-old Japanese anime master who came out of retirement to make “The Boy and the Heron,” didn’t attend the ceremony. He also didn’t attend the 2003 Oscars when his “Spirited Away” won the same award.
Best original screenplay went to “Anatomy of a Fall,” which, like “Barbie,” was penned by a couple: director Justine Triet and Arthur Harari. “This will help me through my midlife crisis, I think,” said Triet.
In adapted screenplay, where “Barbie” was nominated — and where some suspected Greta Gerwig would win after being overlooked for director — the Oscar went to Cord Jefferson, who wrote and directed his feature film debut “American Fiction.” He pleaded for executives to take risks on young filmmakers like himself.
“Instead of making a $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies,” said Jefferson, previously an award-winning TV writer.
The Oscars belonged largely to theatrical-first films. Though it came into the awards with 19 nominations, Netflix was a bit player. Its lone win came for live action short: Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on the story by Roald Dahl.
Historically, having big movies in the mix for the Oscars’ top awards has been good for broadcast ratings. The Academy Awards’ largest audience ever came when James Cameron’s “Titanic” swept the 1998 Oscars.
 


Winners in key categories for the 96th Academy Awards

HOLLYWOOD: Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" was the big winner of the night with seven awards, while "Poor Things" — a female take on the Frankenstein story — won four.

  • Best picture: "Oppenheimer"
  • Best director: Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best actor: Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best actress: Emma Stone, "Poor Things"
  • Best supporting actor: Robert Downey Jr, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best supporting actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
  • Best original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, "Anatomy of a Fall"
  • Best adapted screenplay: Cord Jefferson, "American Fiction"
  • Best international feature film: "The Zone of Interest" (United Kingdom)
  • Best animated feature: "The Boy and the Heron"
  • Best documentary feature: "20 Days in Mariupol"
  • Best original score: Ludwig Goransson, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best original song: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, "What Was I Made For?" from the "Barbie" soundtrack
  • Best cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best film editing: Jennifer Lame, "Oppenheimer"
  • Best makeup and hairstyling: "Poor Things"
  • Best costume design: "Poor Things"
  • Best production design: "Poor Things"
  • Best sound: "The Zone of Interest"
  • Best visual effects: "Godzilla Minus One"

(AFP)

 

 

 


Review: Apple TV’s ‘Before’ is a showcase for Billy Crystal

Review: Apple TV’s ‘Before’ is a showcase for Billy Crystal
Jacobi Jupe and Billy Crystal in 'Before' - Apple TV+
Updated 31 October 2024
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Review: Apple TV’s ‘Before’ is a showcase for Billy Crystal

Review: Apple TV’s ‘Before’ is a showcase for Billy Crystal
  • Creepy drama gives the famed comic a chance to show his serious side

LONDON: There are many unsettling things about Apple’s new psychological drama “Before”, but first among them is the sight of star Billy Crystal playing it absolutely straight — and not, as you might suspect, in a way that would enable the iconic funnyman to play it so seriously that it’s almost funny.

Here, Crystal is child psychologist Eli Adler, a gifted doctor struggling to come to terms with the recent suicide of his wife, Lynn. Not many laughs there, you’ll agree. While Eli is dealing with visions of Lynn, and recurring nightmares of hurling himself into an empty swimming pool, he finds a troubled young boy who won’t speak, scratching his hands bloody attempting to break into Eli’s house.

Eli’s colleague Gail (Sakina Jaffrey) has been trying to convince him to take on a new case — one of a troubled young boy who won’t speak and is plagued by horrifying visions. Before you can say “contrived coincidence,” we learn the two boys are, in fact, one and the same. What are the chances?

As Eli begins to investigate what led Noah (Jacobi Jupe) to stop speaking and start drawing creepy pictures of an abandoned barn — the same barn Eli finds in a picture among his wife’s things — the as-yet-unrevealed link between the two begins to solidify. With two episodes broadcast (of the 10 scheduled), the story behind whatever brought Eli and Noah together looks set to be eked out across the limited series, but writer/creator Sarah Thorp doesn’t hold out on audiences too much. So while there’s still a lot of hinting at seemingly unconnected elements — Noah’s visions of water leaking into his reality, his unnerving tendency to lapse into 17th-century Dutch, the often-sinister nature of Eli’s visions of Lynn — there’s enough dangled threads weaving together all of the above that viewers can feel like figuring out the mystery is achievable.

And, wonderfully, the cherry on the top is Crystal, demonstrating a gift for drama that few of his numerous roles ever hinted at. Eli is believably grief-stricken, world-weary and simply exhausted at the strangeness of what’s going on around him. Whatever the mystery at the heart of “Before” ends up being, the real gem here is the discovery of how effective a serious Billy Crystal can be.


Highlights from this year’s ‘Festival Favorites’ at RSIFF 

Highlights from this year’s ‘Festival Favorites’ at RSIFF 
The Inevitable Journey to Find a Wedding Dress
Updated 31 October 2024
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Highlights from this year’s ‘Festival Favorites’ at RSIFF 

Highlights from this year’s ‘Festival Favorites’ at RSIFF 

JEDDAH: The category’s movies are ‘films that stay with the viewer long after the fall of the curtain,’ says RSIFF’s Antoine Khalife 

‘Agora’  

Director: Ala Eddine Slim 

Starring: Majd Mastoura, Neji Kanawati, Bilel Slatnia 

The Tunisian filmmaker’s third feature, which was backed by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund, has already proven to be a winner. At the Locarno Film Festival in August it picked up the Pardo Verde Award, which is “given to a film that best reflects an environmental theme and is unafraid of asking difficult questions.” It centers on a small town where a series of disturbing events that seem to bridge the world of the living and the dead — including the return of three missing people who don’t appear to be quite themselves any longer — has attracted the attention of the authorities. Or, at least, of people claiming to be the authorities. 

‘Black Dog’ 

Director: Guan Hu 

Starring: Eddie Peng, Tong Liya, Xin the dog 

The winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is, according to The Observer in one of many favorable reviews from the international press, a “heartfelt tale of outcast redemption.” Set in the Gobi desert in the northwest of China prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics — a time when the country was undergoing rapid redevelopment — it follows Lang, a recently released ex-convict (and former stuntman and musician) returning to his hometown, which he finds many people have left and is now home to a large community of stray dogs. One of them — the ‘black dog’ of the title — is rumored to have rabies, and there’s a bounty on its head which Lang decides he will try to collect. But when he actually encounters the dog, his plans change. 

‘Santosh’ 

Director: Sandhya Suri 

Starring: Shahana Goswami, Sunita Rajwar, Sanjay Bishnoi 

British-Indian documentary maker Sandhya Suri’s feature debut — a Hindi-language crime drama — is the UK’s entry for next year’s Oscars and has already received critical acclaim following its showing in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year. It’s a police procedural set in northern India and follows the title character, a young widow, who has taken over her late husband’s job as a police constable. Her newfound independence and power is somewhat negated by her discovery of the institutional corruption and sexism of law enforcement in the area. 

‘East of Noon’  

Director: Hala Elkoussy 

Starring: Menha El-Batroui, Ahmed Kamal, Omar Rozeik 

Screen Daily called this — Elkoussy’s second feature — “a sumptuous piece of filmmaking.” It’s a surrealist fable about a teenage musician, Abdo and his partner Nunna, who are looking for a way out of their impoverished town, which offers few prospects of a bright future. But the corrupt elders have other ideas, seeking to crush not just their rebellious dreams, but their spirits.  

‘Eephus’  

Director: Carson Lund 

Starring: Keith William Richards, Frederick Wiseman, Cliff Blake 

Set in a small Massachusetts town in the Nineties, “Eephus” follows an team of out-of-shape middle-aged men who play for the Adler’s Paint baseball team as they prepare to face their fiercest rivals in one final game before their stadium is demolished to make way for a new school. Variety called Lund’s movie an “adorably existential, off-kilter take on the sports movie.” 

‘Familiar Touch’  

Director: Sarah Friedland 

Starring: H. Jon Benjamin, Kathleen Chalfant, London Garcia 

Friedland’s intensely moving feature debut won the Lion of the Future at this year’s Venice Film Festival. It centers on a beautiful performance by Chalfant as Ruth, an octogenarian who is dealing with cognitive decline while transitioning to assisted living at a care facility. 

‘Freedom Way’  

Director: Afolabi Olalekan 

Starring: Adebowale Adedayo, Mike Afolarin, Bimbo Akintola 

In Olalekan’s fast-paced thriller, three young co-founders of a startup in Lagos struggle to keep their entrepreneurial dreams alive amid corruption, police violence and extortion that affects both them and their customers. 

‘The Inevitable Journey to Find a Wedding Dress’  

Director: Jaylan Auf 

Starring: Yasmin Raeis, Asmaa Galal, Salwa Mohamed Ali 

Egyptian social drama. On the eve of her wedding, Warda’s wedding dress is accidentally ruined leading her on a frantic trip around Cairo to find a replacement, accompanied by her best friend. It turns into a journey of self-discovery for Warda — one that causes her to reassess her relationship with the city. 

 


What to expect at Hia Hub 2024

What to expect at Hia Hub 2024
Updated 29 October 2024
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What to expect at Hia Hub 2024

What to expect at Hia Hub 2024

DUBAI: Hia Hub, Saudi Arabia’s fashion, beauty and lifestyle conference, returns for its fourth edition in Riyad’s JAX District.

Taking place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, the event will feature discussions, masterclasses, workshops, interactive exhibitions and live performances.

Tunisian actress Dorra Zarrouk will host a meet-and-greet on Oct. 31, while on Nov. 2 Egyptian actress Yasmine Sabri will talk about her career, challenges within the entertainment industry, and her personal development.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Hia Magazine (@hiamag)

Iraqi YouTuber and content creator Noor Naeem, known as Noor Stars, will present a talk titled “Redefining Digital Success” on Oct. 31, where she will discuss achieving success in the digital world. The session will cover her methods for engaging with followers, balancing creativity with practical business strategies, and her experiences collaborating with major global brands.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Hia Hub (@hiahubofficial)

Egyptian dancer and actress Fifi Abdou will join a discussion on Nov. 3 titled “Fifi Abdou on Redesigning Arab Entertainment,” where attendees can learn about her career path, contributions to the arts, and her role in Arab entertainment.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Hia Hub (@hiahubofficial)

Also on Nov. 3, Saudi influencer Yara Al-Namlah, founder of Saudi skincare brand Treat, will host a session with her mother to discuss the personal experiences and family rituals that have shaped their skincare routines.

Masterclasses will include Lebanese celebrity makeup artist Bassam Fattouh, who will share tips and tricks; Maria Tash, who will offer insights on the art of piercing and fine jewelry design; Oscar de la Renta creative directors Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, who will discuss couture craftsmanship; and a skincare masterclass with Inge Theron, founder of FaceGym.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Hia Hub (@hiahubofficial)

International brands such as Benefit, YSL Beauty, Dior, Clinique, The Ordinary, Hublot, Shiseido, Guerlain and more will offer opportunities to connect with professionals and engage in hands-on learning through a series of workshops.


Sally Rooney, Hisham Matar and Arundhati Roy call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions

Sally Rooney, Hisham Matar and Arundhati Roy call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions
Updated 29 October 2024
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Sally Rooney, Hisham Matar and Arundhati Roy call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions

Sally Rooney, Hisham Matar and Arundhati Roy call for boycott of Israeli cultural institutions

DUBAI: Leading authors from around the world are calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.

More than 1,000 writers and publishing professionals have signed a letter pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that “are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.”

Popular authors who have signed the letter include Irish author Sally Rooney, known for novels like “Conversations with Friends,” “Normal People” and, most recently, “Intermezzo”; Pulitzer Prize-winning American-Libyan novelist Hisham Matar; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen; Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy; Mohsin Hamid, author of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”; and Booker Prize-nominated Avni Doshi, who is based in Dubai.

The authors pledged to not work with Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” including operating “discriminatory policies and practices” or “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid or genocide.”

Institutions that have never publicly recognized the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law” will also be boycotted.

The campaign was organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature (also known as PalFest), which runs annually with free public events in cities across Palestine.

“We, as writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book workers, publish this letter as we face the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century,” begins the statement, which goes on to say that Israel has killed “at the very least 43,362” Palestinians in Gaza since last October and that this follows “75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”

Culture “has played an integral role in normalizing these injustices,” it says. Israeli cultural institutions, “often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and art-washing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.”

Industry workers have a “role to play,” states the pledge. “We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement,” it reads, noting that “countless authors” took the same position against apartheid in South Africa.

The letter ends with a call to the signatories’ peers to join the pledge.


‘Love is Blind, Habibi’ announces reunion episode

‘Love is Blind, Habibi’ announces reunion episode
Updated 29 October 2024
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‘Love is Blind, Habibi’ announces reunion episode

‘Love is Blind, Habibi’ announces reunion episode

DUBAI: The cast members of the widely-acclaimed “Love is Blind, Habibi” inaugural season will return for a reunion episode to answer burning questions about their experiences filming the reality TV series.

Set to premiere on Nov. 1, the reunion episode will see them sit down with Saudi Arabian actress and host of the eponymous show Elham Ali, to dissect moments from the series.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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The Arab version of the international reality show was viewed more than 1.6 million times and ranked No. 6 globally on Netflix’s non-English shows chart.

Season one of “Love is Blind, Habibi” saw three couples get engaged. However, only one couple — Safa and Mohammed — made it down the aisle and tied the knot.

Audiences are eager to see how the married couple and the singles are doing.