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Thread: The Academy Awards

  1. #46
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    92nd short lists


    92ND OSCARS SHORTLISTS

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists in consideration for the 92nd Academy Awards in nine categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film and Visual Effects.

    INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
    Ten films will advance to the next round of voting in the International Feature Film category (formerly known as Foreign Language Film) for the 92nd Academy Awards. Ninety-one films were eligible in the category.

    Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round. They must have viewed the submitted films theatrically and met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. Their seven choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s International Feature Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist.

    In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt-in to participate and must view all 10 shortlisted films in order to cast a ballot.

    The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

    Czech Republic, “The Painted Bird”
    Estonia, “Truth and Justice”
    France, “Les Misérables”
    Hungary, “Those Who Remained”
    North Macedonia, “Honeyland”
    Poland, “Corpus Christi”
    Russia, “Beanpole”
    Senegal, “Atlantics”
    South Korea, “Parasite”
    Spain, “Pain and Glory”


    MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
    Ten films will advance in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 92nd Academy Awards. All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view seven-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on Saturday, January 4, 2020. Members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

    The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

    “Bombshell”
    “Dolemite Is My Name”
    “Downton Abbey”
    “Joker”
    “Judy”
    “Little Women”
    “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
    “1917”
    “Once upon a Time…in Hollywood”
    “Rocketman”


    MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
    Fifteen scores will advance in the Original Score category for the 92nd Academy Awards. One hundred seventy scores were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

    The scores, listed in alphabetical order by film title, are:

    “Avengers: Endgame”
    “Bombshell”
    “The Farewell”
    “Ford v Ferrari”
    “Frozen II”
    “Jojo Rabbit”
    “Joker”
    “The King”
    “Little Women”
    “Marriage Story”
    “Motherless Brooklyn”
    “1917”
    “Pain and Glory”
    “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
    “Us”

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    MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
    Fifteen songs will advance in the Original Song category for the 92nd Academy Awards. Seventy-five songs were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

    The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title and song title:

    “Speechless” from “Aladdin”
    “Letter To My Godfather” from “The Black Godfather”
    “I’m Standing With You” from “Breakthrough”
    “Da Bronx” from “The Bronx USA”
    “Into The Unknown” from “Frozen II”
    “Stand Up” from “Harriet”
    “Catchy Song” from “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part”
    “Never Too Late” from “The Lion King”
    “Spirit” from “The Lion King”
    “Daily Battles” from “Motherless Brooklyn”
    “A Glass of Soju” from “Parasite”
    “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
    “High Above The Water” from “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”
    “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from “Toy Story 4”
    “Glasgow” from “Wild Rose”


    VISUAL EFFECTS
    Ten films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 92nd Academy Awards. The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films online or attend satellite bake-off screenings in January 2020. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

    The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

    “Alita: Battle Angel”
    “Avengers: Endgame”
    “Captain Marvel”
    “Cats”
    “Gemini Man”
    “The Irishman”
    “The Lion King”
    “1917”
    “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
    “Terminator: Dark Fate”

    Nominations voting begins on Thursday, January 2, 2020 and concludes on Tuesday, January 7, 2020.

    Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020.

    The 92nd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
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  2. #47
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    One of my all-time favorite films

    One of the greatest swordfights ever captured on film.

    Hollywood Flashback: 'Ras****n' Won an Oscar and Broke Records in 1952
    10:30 AM PST 1/11/2020 by Bill Higgins

    [IMG]https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/12/ras****n_-_photofest_-_h_2019_.jpg[/IMG]
    Daiei Studios/Photofest

    Toshirô Mifune played a bandit, Tajômaru, and Machiko Kyô portrayed a samurai’s wife, Masako, in Akira Kurosawa’s classic Ras****n.

    Akira Kurosawa's movie, which told conflicting versions of four eyewitness accounts of a murder and rape in 8th century Japan, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and an honorary Academy Award for best foreign-language film.

    In 1951, William R. Wilkerson himself, The Hollywood Reporter's editor and founder, took a break from his rabid campaign of exposing entertainment industry communists to attend the Venice Film Festival. He was not impressed.

    "Most of those sitting in on the awards may have been bought for a bottle of Chianti," he wrote in his Trade Views opinion column.

    Besides having nothing good to say about the festival, Wilkerson made no mention of Japan's Ras****n winning the Golden Lion. Akira Kurosawa's film, which told conflicting versions of four eyewitness accounts of a murder and a rape in 8th century Japan, had shaken the festival.

    Six months after Venice, in March 1952, Kurosawa's masterpiece began playing at the Beverly Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. THR had a look, and wrote in its review, "An intriguing film, both from academic and entertainment viewpoints, Ras****n is an amusingly ironic tale of ancient Japan, beautifully photographed and capably acted."

    Not exactly wildly enthusiastic, but 10 days after the review was published, the film was given an honorary Oscar for best foreign-language film. (In those days, the Academy's board decided on honorary winners the night before the ceremony, and Kurosawa did not attend.)

    With that award putting it on the map, Ras****n went on to set box office records for a subtitled film.

    This story first appeared in a January stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
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  3. #48
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    the noms

    Selected for films we've discussed here.

    THE 92ND ACADEMY AWARDS | 2020
    Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center
    Sunday, February 9, 2020
    Honoring movies released in 2019

    ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
    NOMINEES
    LEONARDO DICAPRIO
    Once upon a Time...in Hollywood
    JOAQUIN PHOENIX
    Joker

    ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
    NOMINEES
    BRAD PITT
    Once upon a Time...in Hollywood

    CINEMATOGRAPHY
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Lawrence Sher
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Robert Richardson

    COSTUME DESIGN
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Mark Bridges
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Arianne Phillips

    DIRECTING
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Todd Phillips
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Quentin Tarantino
    PARASITE
    Bong Joon Ho

    FILM EDITING
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Jeff Groth
    PARASITE
    Yang Jinmo

    INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
    NOMINEES
    PARASITE
    South Korea

    MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou

    MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Hildur Guðnadóttir
    STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
    John Williams

    BEST PICTURE
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh and Quentin Tarantino, Producers
    PARASITE
    Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers

    PRODUCTION DESIGN
    NOMINEES
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
    PARASITE
    Production Design: Lee Ha Jun; Set Decoration: Cho Won Woo

    SOUND EDITING
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Alan Robert Murray
    1917
    Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Wylie Stateman
    STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
    Matthew Wood and David Acord

    SOUND MIXING
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic and Tod Maitland
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler and Mark Ulano

    VISUAL EFFECTS
    NOMINEES
    AVENGERS: ENDGAME
    Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken and Dan Sudick
    STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
    Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy

    WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
    NOMINEES
    JOKER
    Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver

    WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
    NOMINEES
    ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD
    Written by Quentin Tarantino
    PARASITE
    Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won; Story by Bong Joon Ho
    REVIEWS
    Joker
    Once upon a Time...in Hollywood

    THREADS
    Joker
    Once upon a Time...in Hollywood
    Parasite
    Skywalker
    Endgame
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  4. #49
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    The return of #OscarsSoWhite

    FILM NEWS JANUARY 15, 2020 6:30AM PT
    #OscarsSoWhite Creator: With a Mostly White Academy, What Could We Expect? (Column)

    By APRIL REIGN


    CREDIT: ETHAN SANDS

    When I created #OscarsSoWhite in 2015, the Academy membership was 92% white and 75% male. The Academy has improved those numbers a bit, and now its membership is 84% white and 68% male. So yesterday did not come as a surprise. When I saw the nominations, I was disappointed that there were so many talented filmmakers who were not going to be acknowledged and recognized by their peers.

    Since I started #OscarsSoWhite, the pushback has often been, “Well, there just weren’t enough diverse films to nominate.” But that clearly was not the case in 2019, with films like “Just Mercy,” “Us,” “Luce,” “Clemency,” “The Farewell” and so many others. When we have this wealth of talent in front of and behind the camera, and they are still not recognized by what is considered the pinnacle in the industry, then we need to take a closer examination of who the Academy membership is, what the voting process is and see where we can make systemic change.

    I believe in a meritocracy; cast a wide net, nominate the most talented and most qualified individuals, and the best person should win. But if you aren’t viewing the films, then you cannot be sure that you have actually seen the most talented and qualified.

    Overwhelmingly, what we saw in 2019 with these nominations is that most of them are films that reflect the experiences of straight white men. Since the majority of the Academy are white males, and the nominations are viewed through their lens, that may explain why we are seeing the nominations that we are. I am not using words like racism or discrimination or bigotry; I am saying we all bring our own lens and our own experiences to our entertainment consumption. And it’s a problem that the Academy’s voting membership is not required to view the films before they vote, so it really becomes a popularity contest — a popularity contest among mostly straight white males.

    The movie studios have a limited budget for marketing, promotion and advertising. If they are releasing half a dozen or more films a year, they have to make very tough decisions about which films they believe have the best chance of winning awards. Those are the ones that they promote during awards season. Unfortunately, smaller films, films that may not be blockbusters but are incredibly important works of art, are left by the wayside. I would love to see a world where all of the movies that are eligible are available to Academy membership online. That puts more responsibility on Academy members to actually expand their network and view these films. Then there’s no excuse.

    Yes, Cynthia Erivo was nominated for playing Harriet Tubman in “Harriet.” But of the black actresses who have been nominated for best actress or best supporting actress, the vast majority play women dealing with trauma: women in abject poverty, women who were enslaved, or women who were subservient to others. What does it mean when Lupita Nyong’o can win for her performance in “12 Years a Slave,” playing an enslaved woman, but is completely shut out when she’s playing not just one, but two fully realized characters in “Us”? Those are the questions we need to be asking.

    It’s hard to say who else should have been nominated this year, because then the next question is whose place would they have taken? “Parasite” received six Academy Award nominations, all very well-deserved. But none of the cast did. And then obviously we can talk about some of the female directors who were not nominated, like Kasi Lemmons for “Harriet,” Lulu Wang for “The Farewell” and Lorene Scafaria for “Hustlers.”

    #OscarsSoWhite has always encompassed all traditionally underrepresented communities, not just race and ethnicity: It’s also gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, First Nations status and age. And in the 91-year history of the Oscars, only five women have been nominated for best director, and only one has won. The Academy cannot stand for the idea that there’s only been one woman worthy of being named best director in over 90 years.

    What I am encouraged by is that there are more marginalized filmmakers who are creating their own production companies and saying, “We’re no longer going to wait for the big studios to create the art that we want to see. We’re going to do it ourselves.” Michael B. Jordan is a great example of that, not only creating Outlier Society productions, but also being an early adopter of the Inclusion Rider, ensuring that people behind the camera are getting opportunities as well. Because I’ve always said it’s not just about the faces that we see on the screen. It’s about who’s telling the story, and whose stories are being told.

    We’re going into year number six of #OscarsSoWhite, and the Academy has never reached out to me directly about these issues. With respect to issues of inclusion and representation, I have never had a conversation with someone from the Academy about how to improve things within the Academy and in Hollywood as a whole. I knew doubling the number of people of color from 8% to 16% within the Academy was not going to be sufficient. The fastest growing demographic of moviegoers is the Latinx community. They’re almost never represented with respect to Academy nominations, or within the ranks of the Academy. That’s not the way it should be. I would love to have those conversations — making the films available online is just one of many ways that I would suggest the Academy adopt structural changes.

    The last thing I will say is that some of the onus is on the Academy, some of the onus is on Hollywood. But there’s also onus on us as consumers, as regular moviegoers who pay our hard-earned dollars to either sit in a theater or stream movies at home. We must choose not to reward mediocrity. We must continue to use our platform — our ratings and our dollars — to support films that reflect a myriad of experiences. And we need to support the smaller films, the ones not playing at the Cineplex, but at the smaller art-house theaters where very often the magic happens. And to lift those films up to our friends, our family members and our online colleagues.

    April Reign created the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, a viral call-to-action that turned into a social movement and spurred the Academy to change the composition of its membership, adding more women and people of color. A former lawyer, she travels internationally as a speaker and inclusion consultant.
    I confess that I was mostly focused upon Parasite this year. The Farewell seemed too indie to make the cut. And given that I write a column focused predominantly on Chinese cinema, I wasn't looking at the bigger picture here.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #50
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    AZN Academy Awards?


    Why Doesn't the Academy Nominate Asians for Best Actor?

    Even when predominantly Asian movies earn Oscar nominations, the actors in them don't receive nods for their acting.
    By Bettina Makalintal
    Jan 17 2020, 4:00am


    PHOTO COURTESY NEON ENTERTAINMENT

    On Monday, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite became the first South Korean movie to be nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Picture and Best International Feature Film. Rounding out Parasite's six total nominations were nods for Directing, Film Editing, and Production Design. Despite the film's memorable performances—from Song Kang Ho's palpable tension as he sweats and hides beneath a coffee table to Park So Dam's quick, sharp wit—acknowledgments in acting categories were pointedly missing.

    It wasn't just the Academy Awards; the Parasite cast was shut out of acting nods at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, too. But as Erik Anderson of prediction site Awards Watch pointed out in a now-viral tweet, that's part of a more jarring pattern by the Academy: Even when movies with predominantly Asian casts are nominated for over five Academy Awards, the actors in them aren't acknowledged for their acting.

    That's been the case from 1987's Last Emperor (9 nominations) to 2000's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (10) to 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha (six) to 2008's Slumdog Millionaire (10) and 2012's Life of Pi (11), Anderson wrote, and it's happened now with Parasite. So, what gives?

    With consideration in so many awards categories, it's clearly not the case that these films are good save for their acting. "They get nods for Best Picture, but they're not getting acting nods," Sylvia Chong, associate professor and director of the University of Virginia's American Studies Program, told VICE in a phone call. "So how did they get to be so wonderful if they're so poorly acted?"

    Media studies scholars told VICE that the reasons behind this lack of recognition are multi-layered. With pop culture reflecting society at large, Asian actors face more than just industry issues. Beyond the general lack of distribution of Asian films, the difficulty Asian actors face in breaking into Hollywood's mainstream, and the Academy's mostly-white demographics, Asians in Hollywood must also go up against the racial stereotypes and biases of American society, which inform the way viewers perceive their performances. When it comes to judging the work of Asian actors, the white American mainstream has historically been clouded by bias.

    As the Los Angeles Times found in a 2012 report, Oscar voters were 94 percent white and 77 percent male, with Black voters eking out only two percent and Latinx voters making up even less. The Academy's current breakdown isn't clear, but ABC reported last year that based on the most recent numbers provided, it was making steps toward change, with women making up 49 percent of the members added in 2018 and people of color accounting for 38 percent. Despite these efforts, the fact remains that in 2018, people of color still made up only 16 percent of the Academy's overall voting body.

    "I think there's a sort of cultural and racial myopia about what emotion might look like in other cultural and racial contexts," Chong said. Calling out performance's from two of this year's Best Actress nominees, Renee Zellwegger in Judy and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story, she explained that Americans are used to a specific style of dramatic performance to convey that emotions are deep or legitimate. Combine that with the faulty stereotype that Asians are "inscrutable" and "that they lack emotion," Chong suggested, and Awkwafina's snubbed performance in The Farewell, for example, "might come across as a lack of feeling, being tired" to viewers less versed in the work of Asian actors. Meanwhile, she said, the "emotion on Scarlett Johansson, which we're more accustomed to, becomes the beleaguered wife."

    With the continued lack of Asian actors in Hollywood's leading roles, Asian characters aren't afforded the same complexity as those of other races, and viewers might be more hesitant to recognize the technical chops of Asian actors even when they don't realize it.

    "When you hire someone to be an Asian in a supporting role, you don't see the work that goes into performing that: You see that as them being themselves," Chong said. "In the earlier part of the century, people preferred blackface or yellowface actors over people from the actual race because what they were doing was seen as requiring actual craft."

    It's an extension of the broader perception of Asian people, Chong explained. "It's not just the portrayal of Asian people, but the denigration of Asian people in the social and political sphere. If you're used to seeing Asians as your servants, as coolies, as domestics, you're never going to need to [ascribe] to them real emotion," she said.

    A similar perspective was shared by Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist and author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism. "If the stereotype is that Asians are not expressive and the entire enterprise of acting and the reward of the Oscars is about being expressive, those stereotypes work against Asian actors," Yuen told VICE. "There's variation in expression, just as there is variation of expression in Western cultures, but there's racism against Asians: the idea that all Asians look alike, the inability to distinguish between Asians and [different] Asian cultures. Those old racist ideas that Asians have to face in the general culture definitely impact how they fare in popular culture."

    While differences in language are often suggested as the barrier to the mainstreaming of foreign film in the United States, Yuen pointed to the fact European actors have been nominated and won in the Academy Awards' acting categories for non-English performances.

    "If you think about the European actors who have won, those languages are more similar to English than Asian languages. The nice word is familiarity, but the reality is that it's biased," she said. Further disproving the language debate is the fact that movies like Slumdog Millionaire and Memoirs of a Geisha are either mostly or entirely in English, yet those films' acting nods remain absent.

    To Yuen, the Academy's failure to recognize the work of Asian actors is further proof of its need to diversify. "I think the Academy needs to be more aware of its biases and work on inviting people who are not just Americans into the Academy, inviting international filmmakers and artists into the Academy so there can be a more global viewpoint when it comes to awareness of film and also taste," she said.

    Yuen speculated, however, that Parasite's specific problem—and the issues affecting the movies Anderson called out—may be even more specific than the Academy as a whole. As she pointed out, each award category is nominated by members of the corresponding branch, with actors nominating actors, directors nominating directors, and so on. The exception is Best Picture, for which all voting members have a say.

    "If it's peer-nominated, maybe there's less peer awareness, and it's the actors' fault that they're not nominating their Asian peers," Yuen speculated. "There's a lack of awareness of Asian talent in general, and a lack of opportunities for Asian actors to cross over, and because of the peer nomination, there's a lack of interaction between Asian actors and Hollywood actors—and all of that, I would say, comes down to biases."

    It's easy for outsiders to call awards like the Oscars irrelevant or to suggest that we ignore them entirely, but as it stands, they still validate and create new opportunities for creatives, especially those who haven't yet become household names.

    "I wish that the Academy Awards were more irrelevant, but the rewards system does open doors for distribution as well as green lighting projects for Asian Americans. It's not irrelevant in that way," Yuen said.

    It's not just a conclusion limited to pop culture: If society has to operate through problematic institutions, we can at the very least ask for those systems to get better. While it's too late now for the casts of Parasite or the unfortunately ignored Farewell to receive acting considerations, who knows what films and successes next year might bring?

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  6. #51
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    I'm not surprised that this appeals to Gen Z and millennials.


    Oscars Box Office: 'Parasite' Feasts on Younger Moviegoers

    6:40 AM PST 2/4/2020 by Pamela McClintock

    The best picture contender is already one of the top-grossing foreign-language films of all time in advance of the Feb. 9 Academy Awards ceremony.

    Bong Joon Ho's Oscar contender Parasite continues to feed on impressive numbers as it widens its reach at the U.S. box office in advance of the Feb. 9 Academy Awards ceremony, where it will compete for the best picture prize.

    Through Feb. 2, the genre-bending thriller's domestic gross rested at $33.2 million, one of the best showings of all time for a foreign-language film. When Parasite first opened in select theaters in October, it scored a massive per-location average of $131,000 — the best showing of 2019. Still, even the most seasoned box office analysts said that the South Korean film would top out at no more than $20 million in the U.S.

    One of the secrets to the specialty pic's ongoing, surprise success is its appeal to younger consumers (Gen Z and millennials).

    When Parasite finally expanded nationwide late last month after scoring numerous accolades, almost 60 percent of ticket buyers over the Jan. 24-26 weekend were between ages 18 and 34, according to those with access to PostTrak's exit surveys.

    Often, movies competing in the Oscar race draw their box office strength from older, "adult" moviegoers, but Parasite is skewing younger than most. In its second weekend in wide release (1,060 cinemas), Parasite's 18 to 34 audience was again at 61 percent.

    That compares with 40 and 47 percent, respectively, for fellow best picture contenders 1917 and Little Women in their second weekends, according to PostTrak.

    "Parasite is a hit with younger audiences for whom the movie likely represents the epitome of cool international cinema. The film has become a conversation piece with layers of plot that unravel like an onion and this has fueled massive social media buzz and of course with multiple Oscar nominations, a solid increase in box office for a film that might have otherwise stalled out short of $30 million in North America," says Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore.

    In a second milestone, Parasite has passed up 2017's I, Tonya ($30 million) to become the top-grossing release in the three-year history of U.S. indie distributor Neon, run by Tom Quinn, not adjusted for inflation.

    Parasite — about an impoverished family who con their rich bosses — is nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

    Among other awards wins so far, Parasite is the first foreign-language film ever to receive top honors from the Screen Actors Guild.

    Globally, Parasite's gross currently rests at more than $163 million, led by South Korea with more than $73 million in ticket sales.

    Parasite isn't the only best-picture contender enjoying a major awards boost at the box office — 1917 has grossed a stellar $250 million to date globally, followed by Little Women with $164 million and Jojo Rabbit with $65 million.



    PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
    THRnews@thr.com
    PamelaDayM

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  7. #52
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    And the winners are...

    Many congratulations to Parasite! What a history-making win.

    List below cherry-picked for films discussed here.
    OSCAR WINNERS

    BEST PICTURE
    Parasite
    Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers

    ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
    Joaquin Phoenix
    Joker

    ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING…
    Brad Pitt
    Once upon a Time... in Hollywood

    DIRECTING
    Parasite
    Bong Joon Ho

    INTERNATIONAL FEATURE…
    Parasite
    South Korea

    MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
    Joker
    Hildur Guðnadóttir

    PRODUCTION DESIGN
    Once upon a Time...in Hollywood
    Production Design: Barbara Ling,…

    WRITING (ORIGINAL…
    Parasite
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  8. #53
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    It was all about Parasite for me.

    FEBRUARY 10, 2020 4:31am PT by Scott Feinberg
    Oscars: Making Sense of the Historic 'Parasite' Win and the Rest of the Night


    Arturo Holmes/ABC

    The 'Parasite' team onstage after winning the best picture Oscar

    The Hollywood Reporter's awards columnist dissects Sunday's results.

    On Sunday night — one year after Green Book was awarded the best picture Oscar, and one month after only a single person of color was among the 20 people nominated for an acting Oscar and no female filmmakers were among the five finalists for the best director Oscar — the best picture Oscar was awarded to a film not in the English language for the first time in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards.

    What the aforementioned information should remind you of is that the Academy is not a monolith. It is an organization comprising 8,469 individuals. Most of them are still older white men. An increasing number are not. Many of them are brilliant. Quite a few are not. Sometimes their choices surprise and delight us. And other times they do not.

    At the end of Sunday's 2020 Oscars, I couldn't help but feel that this was one of those times that the Academy — and really all of us in Hollywood — should feel good about it. Indeed, in 1949, when the British film Hamlet became the first non-American best picture Oscar winner, gasps and boos were audible in the room. But in 2020, when the Korean film Parasite became the first non-English-language best picture Oscar winner, Hollywood's elite stood on their feet and enthusiastically applauded.

    How did Parasite — a film with subtitles, without stars familiar to Americans and backed by Neon, a tiny distributor with limited means — manage to sustain its mojo all the way from May's Cannes Film Festival through February's Oscars and ultimately vanquish, among others, Universal's 1917 (the heavy favorite going into the night), Sony's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (which was tailor-made for the hometown crowd) and Warners' Joker (the most-nominated film of the year and biggest blockbuster up for best pic), an outcome predicted by virtually none of the top-tier pundits?

    No one can say for sure, but one can make educated guesses...

    1. Parasite is a funny, haunting, bold film that most filmmakers regard as extremely well made and immensely entertaining. And even if its third act genre-switch jars some, its exploration of tensions between the wealthy and the poor is, sadly, timely and internationally relevant. In other words, it captured the zeitgeist.

    2. The film's understated and wryly funny writer-director Bong Joon Ho, under the guidance of veteran publicist Mara Buxbaum, made the rounds and became something of a folk hero (#BongHive), and its ensemble cast was equally easy to root for. (It was a bigger deal than we realized when the cast got a standing ovation just for taking the stage at the SAG Awards, and also when they eventually won the best ensemble SAG Award, which was chosen by a far larger and more populist voting body than the Academy.) The best ensemble SAG Award certainly doesn't always predict the best picture Oscar, but it predicts virtually all best picture Oscar shockers, from Shakespeare in Love to Crash to Spotlight and now Parasite.

    3. More Academy members are probably willing to watch a non-English-language film in 2020 than ever before, in part because such films have been normalized by regular best pic noms in recent years (Amour, Roma, etc.), and in part because the Academy's recent membership drive — while primarily focused on bringing in more women and people of color — also brought in a ton of people based outside of America, who are used to watching films with subtitles.

    In the end, Parasite, in the 100th year of Korean cinema, took home a field-leading four Oscars: picture (a prize previously won by only one other film that had already won Cannes' Palme d'Or, 1955's Marty), director, original screenplay and international feature. And, at the post-show Governors Ball, rival campaigners told me that even they were happy for the film and those associated with it, including and especially Neon chief Tom Quinn. Quinn is a genuinely good guy who has championed Bong for years — he handled 2006's The Host and 2009's Mother while at Magnolia and 2013's Snowpiercer while at TWC-Radius — and presided over a clean and classy campaign for Parasite. (Credit must also go to ID's Buxbaum and the Perception PR team, who never stopped believing that this outcome was possible.)

    Besides, most others left with at least something to phone home about: Warners had Joker's lead actor Joaquin Phoenix and original score; Roadside had Judy's lead actress Renée Zellweger; Sony had Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's supporting actor Brad Pitt and production design and Little Women's costume design; Netflix had Marriage Story's supporting actress Laura Dern and documentary feature American Factory (though The Irishman went 0-for-10, the second-worst shutout in Oscars history); Searchlight had Jojo Rabbit's adapted screenplay; Paramount had Rocketman's original song; 20th Century Studios had Ford v Ferrari's film editing and sound editing; Pixar had animated feature Toy Story 4; and Lionsgate had Bombshell's makeup/hairstyling.

    Universal, meanwhile, finished in second place with three wins, all for 1917 — cinematography, sound mixing and visual effects — which is nothing to shrug at. But I'm sure that the first-rate folks behind that film's campaign are disappointed, if only because so many signs — including top prizes from the directors and producers guilds and the Critics' Choice, Golden Globes and BAFTA awards — had suggested a bigger showing was in store. Nevertheless, considering how late they received their first print of the film to begin screening, and that they, too, had to sell a film starring nobody that most Academy members had ever heard of, they gave it a great ride.

    To me, the main takeaway from Sunday night is a reminder that the present-day Academy is truly unlike any other awards-dispensing body, and therefore Oscar winners — especially in the best picture category in the era of the preferential ballot — cannot be predicted with the same sort of confidence that used to be possible. That new reality is nerve-racking for us pundits (although I can live with my 20 for 24 showing this year), but it ought to be exciting for film lovers who like surprises.
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  9. #54
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    Not much in life truly surprises me anymore, but this year’s academy awards did surprise me a bit. Especially with Parasite. I don’t watch the awards shows much but for some reason chose to watch it this year. It seemed that the show also moved along pretty smoothly, and didn’t seem to lag as much as in previous years. Maybe it’s better this way, without a designated host.

  10. #55
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    And of course, because it's 2020, there's racist backlash

    Entertainment 2/10/20 6:35am Read time: 1 minute 141 comments
    'These People Are The Destruction Of America': BlazeTV Host Slammed After South Koreans Win Oscar

    Jon Miller played to the Trump xenophobes after South Korea's 'Parasite' historic Oscar win for Best Picture.
    By Ed Scarce



    Fairly predictable from the far-right loons, when easily the Best Picture of the year won the Oscar last night. That it just happened to be made in a foreign language and setting proved to be to much to bear for this BlazeTV host.

    Source: New Civil Rights Movement

    A host of Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV is under fire after posting what some are calling a racist attack on the director of the Oscar-winning film “Parasite.”

    “These people are the destruction of America,” Jon Miller said in his tweet about Bong Joon-ho, the director of the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. “Parasite” won a total of four Oscars Sunday night, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, and Best Picture.

    “A man named Bong Joon Ho wins #Oscar for best original screenplay over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917,” Miller, who hosts BlazeTV’s “White House Brief,” wrote.

    Miller tried walking that back a little with some mansplaining, but Twitter soon let him have it, with both barrels.

    Jon Miller

    @MillerStream
    Replying to @MillerStream
    “These people” are obviously not Koreans but those in Hollywood awarding a foreign film that stokes flames of class warfare over 2 films I thought were more deserving simply to show how woke they are.That should be clear from the rest of what I tweeted about tonight’s production.

    5,792
    6:28 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    9,440 people are talking about this
    And the reaction poured in:

    John Legend

    @johnlegend
    Replying to @MillerStream
    Do they pay you for these dumb takes or is this something you do for fun

    270K
    6:32 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    Martina Navratilova

    @Martina
    Replying to @MillerStream
    Does being a racist ass come naturally to you or did you have to work at it?

    4,790
    6:06 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    313 people are talking about this
    Yashar Ali ��

    @yashar
    Replying to @MillerStream
    You ok???? You gonna survive this? pic.twitter.com/mOXRvw8cQX

    Embedded video
    31.2K
    8:04 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    Racism WatchDog
    @RacismDog
    BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK https://twitter.com/MillerStream/sta...83232378380289

    Jon Miller

    @MillerStream
    A man named Bong Joon Ho wins #Oscar for best original screenplay over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917.

    Acceptance speech was: “GREAT HONOR. THANK YOU.”

    Then he proceeds to give the rest of his speech in Korean.

    These people are the destruction of America.
    215K
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    CarmelaHuerta ✍️��
    @musicaamazigh
    Replying to @MillerStream
    No, white racists are the destruction of America. I don't see any Koreans parading down our city streets Nazi -style, holding assault weapons, and threatening ethnic & racial groups

    9,649
    7:59 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    Nick Fane
    @NickFaneMusic
    Replying to @MillerStream
    Imaging writing a film in Korean that was so good that the Academy gave you a nom for Best Picture, not just Best Foreign Language Film.

    Your screenplay, in Korean, is nominated and you win. And you give your acceptance speech in Korean the language of your movie.

    Unthinkable.

    3,936
    6:10 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    Becca ������
    @_Llamazing
    Jesus **** blatantly racist **** like this gaining traction makes me so god**** mad. Shame on you, Jon Miller. You are the disease that's trying to strangle the humanity out of the USA, not a brilliant creative mind who deserves a win no matter what language they think in.

    View image on Twitter
    426
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    Fiona Nova
    @FionaNova
    Jon Miller, not everyone has to ****ing learn english for your convenice you gaping ******* https://twitter.com/MillerStream/sta...83232378380289

    Jon Miller

    @MillerStream
    A man named Bong Joon Ho wins #Oscar for best original screenplay over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 1917.

    Acceptance speech was: “GREAT HONOR. THANK YOU.”

    Then he proceeds to give the rest of his speech in Korean.

    These people are the destruction of America.
    7,100
    7:22 PM - Feb 9, 2020
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    824 people are talking about this
    I disdain giving someone like this the spotlight because the taunt is such an obvious grab for attention. But at the same time, we should look at it for what it is and not fail to respond.

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  11. #56
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    $50+M for Parasite

    Box Office: 'Parasite' Heads for Huge $50M-Plus in U.S. After Historic Oscar Win
    5:00 AM PST 2/18/2020 by Pamela McClintock

    Globally, the South Korean film celebrated its best picture victory by crossing the $200 million mark.

    Bong Joon Ho's Parasite continued to make headlines following its historic Oscar best picture victory.

    Over the long Presidents Day holiday, the South Korean dark comedy-thriller made its biggest push yet in the U.S., expanding from 1,060 locations to 2,001. The move paid off as Parasite raced up the chart to No. 7 with $6.8 million — the film's top weekend gross to date (indie distributor Neon first opened the film in select art house cinemas in early October).

    Globally, Parasite celebrated its Academy Award victory by zooming past the $200 million mark for CJ Entertainment despite the fact that it opened in many key markets — including South Korea — months ago. This past weekend, it earned another $12.8 million for a foreign tally, through Sunday, of $161.1 million.

    Its worldwide gross of $205 million includes $44.49 million in ticket sales in the U.S., where it now ranks No. 4 on the list of the top-grossing foreign-language films of all time after passing up Instructions Not Included ($44.47 million), not adjusted for inflation.

    Box office analysts put Parasite's final U.S. gross at $50 million or more, the top showing for a non-English-language film since Zhang Yimou's Hero 18 years ago. Overall, Hero ($53.7 million) ranks No. 3 behind Roberto Benigni's 1997 hit Life Is Beautiful ($57.6 million) and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon from 2002 ($128.1 million).

    Some think Parasite could even approach $60 million.

    "It has become a must-see movie in a theater even though it is available on home video," notes Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian. "The only two movies people were talking about over Presidents Day were Sonic the Hedgehog and Parasite."

    Parasite is the first non-English-language film to ever win the Academy Award for best picture. It also won for best director, best original screenplay and best international picture. Also among the film's glittering array of awards is the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or.

    The pic's post-Oscar boost will be among the best in modern times, according to Comscore. A U.S. gross of $50 million would put the bump at 29 percent, on par with Slumdog Millionaire, which won the top Oscar prize in 2008. The only best-picture winner since 1998 to see a greater percentage gain was Million Dollar Baby 15 years ago (34 percent).

    Parasite is the widest non-English language release in the U.S. since 2004's Kung Fu Hustle, which played in 2,503 theaters.

    In yet another milestone, Parasite passed 2017's I, Tonya ($30 million) to become the top-grossing release in the three-year history of Neon, run by Tom Quinn, not adjusted for inflation.


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  12. #57
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    Remember #oscarssowhite?

    We really should launch a BLM thread in the OT forum.

    America Reckons With Racial Injustice
    Oscars: Future Films Must Meet Diversity And Inclusion Rules



    June 12, 202010:36 PM ET
    Vanessa Romo

    Although it provided few details Hollywood's motion picture academy said new measures will "develop and implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility by July 31."
    Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday announced a new initiative to expand diversity and inclusion within the filmmaking industry, as it faces renewed criticism over a lack of diverse representation on screen and behind the scenes.
    The latest effort to de-white-ify the film community, called "Academy Aperture 2025," includes a plan to require Oscar nominees to meet certain diversity and inclusion standards.
    "While the Academy has made strides, we know there is much more work to be done in order to ensure equitable opportunities across the board," Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement Friday. "The need to address this issue is urgent. To that end, we will amend — and continue to examine — our rules and procedures to ensure that all voices are heard and celebrated."
    Although it was light on details, the Academy said it is creating a task force of film industry leaders "to develop and implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility by July 31."
    The new rules are expected to "encourage equitable hiring practices and representation on and off screen," according to the statement.

    Additionally, the pool of Best Picture nominees will be permanently set at 10 beginning with the 94th Oscars in 2022. In recent years the number of films in the category has fluctuated between five and 10.
    The new measures come on the heels of a sweep of protests against institutional racism that were sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by a white police officer on Memorial Day.
    But the changes also follow years of conflict between filmmakers of color and the Academy, which they accuse of decades of exclusion of non-white directors, writers and actors in the competition for film's most prestigious prizes. In 2014, a complete shut-out of any non-white Academy Award nominees in the more prominent categories prompted the Oscars So White hashtag.
    As a result, the following year the Academy tried to broaden its voting membership, inviting over 300 new members. It also launched A2020, a plan designed to promote inclusion within the organization.
    As Yahoo reported:
    "In the more than 90 years of the Oscars, no Black director has ever won the Best Director award, no Black women have been nominated in that category, and only two films by Black directors have been awarded Best Picture: Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave and Barry Jenkins' Moonlight."
    Earlier this week, a record number of women and people of color were elected to the board of governors, including Whoopi Goldberg and Ava DuVernay.
    Moving forward, all Academy governors, branch executive committee members and Academy staff will be required to attend unconscious bias training.
    "To truly meet this moment, we must recognize how much more needs to be done, and we must listen, learn, embrace the challenge, and hold ourselves and our community accountable," said Academy President David Rubin.
    Gene Ching
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  13. #58
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    The Academy Awards

    I've been meaning to start a thread on this. I've copied a few posts above.


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  14. #59
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    Next Oscars

    Jun 29, 2020 6:15am PT
    Anne Hathaway Talks to Hugh Jackman About Hosting — and Bombing — at the Oscars

    By Kate Aurthur

    When Hugh Jackman was charged with hosting the 2009 Oscars — which took place during the Great Recession — his opening number made a number of jokes about the economy (Jackman introduced “the Craigslist dancers”) as he highlighted all the year’s best picture nominees. For “Frost/Nixon,” he pulled Anne Hathaway onstage to act out the back-and-forth from the film in front of a cardboard set, a bit that ended with Hathaway affecting Richard Nixon’s iconic arms-over-his-head-“victory”-sign pose, The performance was met with great applause.

    During their video chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue, Jackman recalled that after that Oscars ceremony, “We just immediately became friends.” The two actors, who both excel at musical theater, then went on to star in 2012’s “Les Misérables” — which brought him an Oscar nomination for best actor and her a win for supporting actress. This year, Jackman starred in HBO’s “Bad Education,” and Hathaway was in an episode of Amazon’s anthology series “Modern Love,” which they delved into during their discussion.

    As the conversation wound down, Hathaway brought up her own turn as the host of the Academy Awards, which she did in 2011 with James Franco. The ceremony is widely considered to have been a debacle, and both Hathaway and Franco have made fun of it over the years. To Jackman, Hathaway said she’d had so much fun performing with him in 2009 that she said yes when she was asked to do it.

    “I was like, ‘I want to be like Hugh. Yeah, I’ll give it a go,'” she said. “How could you? How could you set me up like that?”

    As they talked, Jackman assured her she had been fine, causing Hathaway to scoff in disbelief. He told a story about his last-minute nerves in 2009, which were dissipated when stage manager Valdez Flagg said to him, “‘Good luck out there. Mr. Jackman, don’t forget, there’s about a billion people watching.’ It just made me giggle and laugh.”

    “He just could see this guy is going into a dark place and I need to snap him out of it,” Jackman said. “It’s frightening, and sometimes it works out.”

    “Finish that sentence, Hugh!” Hathaway exclaimed. “Finish that sentence, sometimes it works out and sometimes —?”

    “Oh, stop it. Stop!” Jackman replied.

    The two then reminisced about how the 2009 performance came about. Hathaway said, “I remember it was an email about would you be open to it? Would you talk to Hugh?” She remembered giggling with him on the phone about the “Frost/Nixon” bit. “I was just like, ‘I know I’m going to say yes to this.’ Because I love silly, and it was just that really fun combination. Who wouldn’t want to sing and dance with you?”

    Jackman then reminded her about seeming excited backstage during her hosting gig. “You were having just so much fun,” he said. “I was not this calm and relaxed. But you’re showing me, ‘Look at all these costumes I get to wear.’ You remember?”

    Hathaway ended the debate definitively: “I was focusing on the parts of the show that I knew worked. You know how sometimes your optimism tips into delusion and you’re just like, ‘If I’m just really, really nice to everybody, everything’s going to work out?’ It did not work in that case, but I’m so happy that 50% of the people on this conversation did a really good job hosting the Oscars.”
    I blame Franco more than Hathaway.
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  15. #60
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    Oscars are going to be weird next year.

    I posted on Leap in our Chollywood Rising thread.

    Dec 2, 2020 10:10pm PT
    China Selects Peter Chan’s Volleyball Drama ‘Leap’ as its Oscar Contender

    By Rebecca Davis


    JETSEN HUASHI
    China on Thursday announced selection of Hong Kong director Peter Chan’s sports drama “Leap” as its contender for the Academy Awards’ best international feature film competition this year.

    The film tells the fact-based story of the Chinese women’s national volleyball team and their travails over the course of decades, from their world championship win in 1981 to their triumph at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Gong Li stars in the biographical drama as the legendary coach Lang Ping, who at nearly 60 remains the team’s current head coach, opposite Huang Bo (“The Island,” “Crazy Alien”).

    Notably, it was produced by Hong Kong’s Jojo Hui, who also produced the youth drama “Better Days,” which was announced as Hong Kong’s Oscar contender last Friday — giving her a rare double chance at the nominee short list.

    “Leap” won the mainland’s government-backed Golden Rooster Award for best feature film last weekend weekend, signaling the ruling Communist Party’s approval of the title. It was originally scheduled to release during the competitive Chinese New Year holiday last January, but had its debut pushed back by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It ended up debuting just ahead of the busy National Day holiday on Sept. 25, and went on to gross $127 million (RMB835 million).

    Its garlands made Hong Kong-born Chan, who turned 58 on Saturday, one of the few directors to win the top film prizes of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has won both best feature film and best director at China’s Golden Roosters (for “Leap” in 2020 and “American Dreams in China” in 2013, respectively), at the Hong Kong Film Awards (nabbing both for “Comrades: Almost a Love Story” in 1999 and ‘The Warlords” in 2008), and at the Taipei-based Golden Horse Awards (winning best picture for “Comrades” in 1997 and best director for “Perhaps Love” in 2006 and “The Warlords” in 2008).

    It remains to be seen whether his efforts on behalf of China will now garner Oscar acclaim.

    The news followed previous rumors that China might select the previously-censored patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” as its Oscar submission. That title, backed by Huayi Brothers and directed by Guan Hu, has become the highest grossing film in the world this year, but initially irked Chinese authorities with its depictions of a rival party, delaying its debut for over a year.

    Taiwan selected Chung Mong-hong’s dark family drama “A Sun” as its Oscar contender for this year back in late September.
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