Hildur Guðnadóttir’s ‘Joker’ Score Continues Its Awards Roll With Oscar Nomination

Surely no composer can be said to have exploded on the 2019 film scene more than Hildur Guðnadóttir: Emmy-winner for the miniseries “Chernobyl,” Golden Globe winner for “Joker” and now Oscar-nominated for that film, all in less than four months.

Very few artists achieve the breakout year that Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadóttir has forged for herself, first winning an Emmy for HBO's Chernobyl in September and then seeing the R-rated comic book adaptation she worked on cross $1 billion at the box office. That film, Warner Bros.' Joker, also is responsible for making her the first solo female composer to win a Golden Globe.

Parasite’s” historic Oscar nominations haul includes editor Yang Jinmo, who won for dramatic feature at the Jan. 17 American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards. Yang’s win for “Parasite” was the first time a film in a foreign language won. Historically, in 11 of the past 15 years, the winner of the dramatic feature ACE award has gone on to win the Oscar for editing.

Charles Dickens’ 160 year-old “best of times/worst of times” conundrum from “Tale of Two Cities” beautifully sums up the state of filmmaking in this young century. Seemingly around every corner there’s a new disruptive technology changing, and often complicating, either production or distribution.

With her latest best original song nomination for "I'm Standing With You" from the Fox feature Breakthrough, Diane Warren now holds an Oscar record -- if not yet an Oscar. Her 11th career mention makes her the most-nominated woman in Oscar history without a single win.

Some years, the short films nominated for Academy Awards make a well-rounded, coherent program; other years, they feel like a random grab-bag.

Given the ever-shrinking barrier of what constitutes a feature-length film in arthouses, two of the films competing for this year's Documentary Short Oscar only barely qualify for the category. Shown back to back in a theatrical setting, they represent the least inviting of the four touring Oscar Shorts programs this year, however worthy their subjects.

Movie lovers with only a casual interest in compiling a complete set of Oscar-night predictions will likely find their most entertaining evening of short-film viewing to be the Live Action category — a diverse bunch of films, spanning the globe, offering a wide range of emotional experience and just enough topical relevance to feel nutritious.

Despite including a predictably high percentage of studio product (two out of five), this year's batch of films competing for the Animated Short Oscar are more adventurous than usual in terms of technique and style, appearing to employ yarn, clay and papier-mache in addition to the usual pixels and ink.

Harriet Frank Jr., the two-time Oscar nominee forHudandNorma Raewho partnered with her husband, the late Irving Ravetch, to form one of the great screenwriting teams in Hollywood history, has died. She was 96.Frank died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, her nephew, Michael Frank, told The New York Times.Frank and Ravetch worked on 17 features together, including eight directed by Martin Ritt over a 32-year span and three that were adapted from William Faulkner novels.

Antonio Banderas is an official Oscar nominee! The 59-year-old received a nomination in the Best Actor category for his role in Pain and Glory. As if his first nomination wasn’t exciting enough, the story about getting the news makes the experience even better.

"Woopeti WOOOP"

By Matt Grobar

This week fans went into a frenzy after it was announced that Jennifer Lopez did not get an Oscars nomination for her role in Hustlers. But turns out, there was another Academy Award-level role that could’ve gone to JLo. In Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue, the 50-year-old superstar shared she turned down a famous role that earned the actress an Oscars nomination in 2003.

It was quite an exciting Monday morning for legendary songwriter Diane Warren, 63, and This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, 39. On Jan.

Dark comic-book story “Joker” led nominations on Monday for the Oscars in a best picture line-up dominated by stories by or about men and featuring only one actor of colour despite efforts over the past few years to diversify the field.

Cynthia Erivo is one step closer to becoming an EGOT winner.The actress and singer is nominated for best actress for her portrayal as Harriet Tubman in Harriet and best original song for co-writing and performing the film's number "Stand Up," at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards.If Erivo wins one of the categories, she would become the 16thperson to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.