Oscar Nominees Luncheon Takes Place in the Shadow of COVID, Ukraine and Those Oscar Changes

Ariana DeBose is taking home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s . She is the second actress to win the Oscar for playing the Broadway character, following Rita Moreno‘s win in 1962.

the riskiest Oscars ever. Can we talk about a different side of the event?  Can we acknowledge the sheer variety of the films that are competing for Best Picture? There’s “Belfast,” a gentle memory piece from Kenneth Branagh that moved me more than anything else I saw in 2021. “CODA,” in which what could be a predictable feel-good story gains resonance in the way it places a deaf family at the center of the story.

Sean Penn is sending a message to the producers of the Oscars.

It is an anxious waiting game for Marijke Hoek, who is hoping to welcome Ukrainian refugees into her home in Burnage. The 60-year old signed up to the UK’s Homes for Ukraine scheme to actively help with the war in Europe, but the ‘complex’ process is ‘taking too long.’

2022 Oscars are set to be an unforgettable evening celebrating the year’s most impactful work in film. On Sunday, March 27, writers, directors and actors alike will return to the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California, for the 94th annual Academy Awards.

2022 Oscars are set to be an unforgettable evening celebrating the year’s most impactful work in film. On Sunday, March 27, writers, directors and actors alike will return to the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California, for the 94th annual Academy Awards.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterIn “The War of the Worlds,” Tom Cruise flees an alien invasion in a Plymouth minivan. The camera swoops around and around, capturing the drama inside the van as it swerves through traffic, and rising from a point below the bumper to look down on the chaos from high above.That shot was made possible by the Russian Arm, a gyro-stabilized crane mounted on the roof of a car. The technology was introduced in the late 1990s, and has become a mainstay of the “Fast and Furious” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises as well as Marvel and DC superhero films such as “Black Widow” and “Wonder Woman.” Whenever there’s a car chase or a cavalry charge or a stampede of giant robots, the director calls for the Russian Arm.

LONDON -- Sci-fi epic “Dune” won five prizes and brooding Western “The Power of the Dog” was named best picture as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021.New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for “The Power of the Dog,” becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards’ seven-decade history.Lead acting trophies went to Hollywood star Will Smith and British performer Joanna Scanlan, as an event that has worked to overcome a historic lack of diversity recognized a wide range of talents — including its first deaf acting winner in Troy Kotsur for “CODA.”Last year’s awards ceremony was largely conducted online, with only the hosts and presenters appearing in person.

Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who traveled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries that transported audiences to little-known places of suffering, died Sunday after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine.

Brent Renaud, an acclaimed filmmaker who traveled to some of the darkest and most dangerous corners of the world for documentaries that transported audiences to little-known places of suffering, died Sunday after Russian forces opened fire on his vehicle in Ukraine.The 50-year-old Little Rock, Arkansas, native was gathering material for a report about refugees when his vehicle was hit at a checkpoint in Irpin, just outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the area has sustained intense shelling by Russian forces in recent days.Renaud was one of the most respected independent producers of his era, said Christof Putzel, a filmmaker and close friend who had received a text from Renaud just three days before his death.

Benedict Cumberbatch is a master of impressions.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has acquired all North American rights to two previous Ukrainian Oscar entries “Bad Roads” and “Donbass,” as well as the Sundance award-winning documentary “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange.”“Bad Roads,” which was Ukraine’s Oscar candidate last fall, marks the feature debut of playwright-turned-filmmaker, Natalya Vorozhbit. The politically minded omnibus film, which premiered at Venice in 2020, is adapted from Vorozhbit’s play and unfolds in the recently invaded Eastern region of Donbass.“Bad Roads” features four stories shedding light on life in the front-line war zone of Donbass: one man alleging to be a schoolmaster is accosted by the military at a checkpoint, two teenagers wait for their soldier boyfriends in a dilapidated town square; a journalist is held captive and gets brutally assaulted; and a young woman apologizes to an elderly couple for running over their chickens.

Nicole Kidman was a no-show at Monday’s annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon.