“The Substance” of Nightmares: Oscar-Nominated Makeup Effects Master Pierre Olivier Persin on His Terrifying Transformations

Since its release last fall, writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s body horror thriller The Substance has artfully shocked Academy Award voters to the tune of five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Outstanding Actress nominee Demi Moore portrays aging actress Elisabeth, who gets way more than she bargained for after injecting herself with a serum that makes her look younger in the form of lithe “Sue,” played by Margaret Qualley.

“A Complete Unknown”: Orchestrating 60+ Live Performances for Oscar-Worthy Sound

In one of this year’s tour de force performances, Timothée Chalamet’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters took almost six years to perfect (partly thanks to COVD-19 delays in production). For director James Mangold’s music biopic, A Complete Unknown, Chalamet not only learned to play the guitar and harmonica for the film, but also mastered Dylan’s famously idiosyncratic style to deliver over 40 flawless live-to-camera performances as the narrative charts his meteoric rise after arriving in New York in 1961.

First Image From Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” Reveals Matt Damon as Odysseus

Matt Damon had a meaty role in Christopher Nolan‘s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, playing Leslie Groves, the United States Army Corp of Engineers officer who directed the Manhattan Project, cherry-picking Robert J. Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) despite the government’s concerns about his loyalties. As great as Damon was, it was Murphy’s movie—he had the title role, after all—but now it seems it’s Damon’s turn. A new image released on X reveals that in Nolan’s latest,

No More Games: “September 5’s” Oscar-Nominated Writers on the Day Terror Took Center Stage

The thriller September 5, directed and co-written by Tim Fehlbaum, revisits the day the Palestinian militant group Black September took nine Israeli athletes hostage during the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the script, which Fehlbaum wrote with Moritz Binder, is a tightly-paced journalism procedural centered on the ABC Sports studio’s broadcast of the attack as it happened.

Peter Sarsgaard stars as Roone Arledge,

How Director Mohammad Rasoulof Shot his Oscar-Nominated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in Secret

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof wanted to tell a big story — so he went small. The Seed of the Sacred Fig explores his country’s authoritarian rule, repressive justice, patriarchal dominance, and women’s rights through its impact on one family.

Taking place during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom movement, a nationwide protest sparked by the arrest of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman jailed for not wearing a hijab and beaten to death while in custody,

“Conclave” Oscar Nominee Peter Straughan on Scripting a Devilishly Good Vatican Thriller

Conclave is great, gripping entertainment from the first shot to the last. It’s a drama, both honest and escapist, deftly shot, performed, and staged by artists at the top of their respective games. In the hands of Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Peter Straughan, Edward Berger’s contemplative film moves briskly within the Vatican walls. A movie that takes us into one of the most secretive rituals on Earth – about the search for a new pope – is remarkably light on its holy feet.

Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie’s on “Sugarcane”: Their Oscar-Nominated Exploration of Trauma and Truth

Toronto-born filmmaker and investigative journalist Emily Kassie has covered conflict around the globe, from the Taliban’s crackdown on women to child labor in Turkey. “But I had never turned the lens on my own country,” says Kassie. That’s changed with Sugarcane, which mixes a grassroots investigation with personal and collective reckoning of years of forced separation, assimilation, and abuse of Indigenous children by Catholic priests at St. Joseph’s Mission Indian residential school in British Columbia,

Oscar-Nominated Producer Maria Carlota Bruno on Recreating a Transcendent Heroine in “I’m Still Here”

In 1964, a coup d’état overthrew Brazilian president João Goulart, initiating a military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. The former congressman Rubens Paiva went into self-exile at the time of the coup but returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1970, where he settled into a pleasant household near Leblon Beach with his wife, Eunice Paiva, and their five children. Rubens continued quietly supporting dissident Brazilian expatriates and, in January 1971, was arrested and disappeared during a military raid.

“Nickel Boys” Writer/Director RaMell Ross on Camera as Consciousness in His Oscar-Nominated Film

An introspective, promising teenager hitchhiking to college gets a ride in a car that turns out to be stolen. The driver is Black, and so is the boy. Deemed an accomplice despite his innocence, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is remanded to Nickel Academy, a segregated Florida reform school. Nickel Boys, the Oscar-nominated film based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys, follows the harrowing path Elwood is placed on by the Jim Crow South.

“Conclave’s” Oscar-Nominated Costume Designer Lisy Christl on the Fashion of Faith

Following his Oscar-winning WWI epic, All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s latest, Conclave, focuses on a different kind of battle, dropping us into the Vatican in his twisty ecclesiastical thriller. After the death of the current Pontiff, the honorable and evenhanded Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is charged with convening one of the most secretive rituals in the world, the conclave, where over 100 cardinals from around the world are sequestered until they decide who amongst them will be the next leader of the Catholic Church.

Director Wes Ball & Oscar-Nominated VFX Supervisor Erik Winquist on the Groundbreaking Visuals of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes took the franchise to new heights of photorealism and immersive filmmaking. The groundbreaking series has pushed the envelope in motion capture and beyond, starting with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and carrying on through three subsequent films. The latest film, Wes Ball‘s 2024 epic Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards,

Oscar-Nominated VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert on Infrared Insanity in “Dune: Part Two”

In the first part of our conversation with Oscar nominee Paul Lambert, the visual effects supervisor of Dune: Part Two emphasized the benefits of utilizing as many of the practical shots as possible to maximize believability. A veteran of more than 25 years, he is aware that his best work may well go unnoticed: “My goal with visual effects is more about trying to hide everything I do than to make it stand out.” Today,

“The Brutalist” Producers on the Demands and Delights of Building a Masterpiece

“Everybody was paddling in the same direction to support Brady’s vision, from the producers, the cast, the crew,” says The Brutalist producer Nick Gordon. “It’s a very special movie, and we’re glad it’s connecting with audiences in the way that it is.”

On a call with Gordon and fellow producer Trevor Matthews, the tandem behind Brookstreet Pictures explained how they helped director Brady Corbet create his masterpiece. At Brookstreet,

Oscar Nominated VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert on Turning the Worm in “Dune: Part Two”

Just nominated for his fourth Oscar for Dune: Part Two, VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert is a three-time Oscar winner—for Damien Chazelle’s First Man and two of director Denis Villeneuve’s films, Blade Runner 2049 and Dune: Part One. Having now worked on three of Villeneuve’s films thanks to Part Two, he has developed a shorthand with the director that makes overseeing hundreds of visual effects staff across multiple VFX houses go as smoothly as possible.

The Bad Guys Assemble in Meaty “Thunderbolts” Super Bowl Trailer

Marvel’s antiheroes unleashed a new trailer during Sunday night’s Super Bowl (in which the Philadelphia Eagles decimated the Kansas City Chiefs). The Super Bowl trailer for Marvel’s Thunderbolts is set to Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” with Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova/Black Widow feeling a lot less confident then we’ve seen her in the past. In fact, she needs her fellow ‘Bolts to give her a pep talk and get her head back in the game.

Brad Pitt Gets Behind the Wheel in “F1” Teaser Released During Super Bowl

Brad Pitt is suited up and strapped in for the first look at F1, unleashed during the Philadelphia Eagles domination of the reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, during Sunday night’s Super Bowl.

F1 stars Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former driver who returns to Formula 1 alongside Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce, his teammate at APXGP, a fictional team on the circuit. The feature, from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski,

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” Launches Tom Cruise Into the Super Bowl

If this is Tom Cruise’s last mission as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt, he chose an auspicious time to unleash a furious new look—in the midst of the Philadelphia Eagles prime time demolition of the reigning champs in the Kansas City Chiefs during the Super Bowl. The game wasn’t close, but Ethan’s hunt (pun intended) to secure a rogue AI and save the world is balanced on a knife’s edge.

The fresh look at Cruise’s 8th mission in the decades-old franchise,

“Emilia Pérez’s” Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume on Finding the Light in the Darkness

By now, you’ve either seen or definitely heard about Emilia Pérez. If you haven’t yet seen the film, then likely the first thing you heard was about its accolades—it’s the most Oscar-nominated film of the year, 13 in all. The other story that you’ve definitely heard about is the attention swirling around Emilia herself, Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated star of the film, who is at the center of controversy over her offensive,

Rihanna Has Entered Her Blue Era in First “Smurfs” Trailer

Ladies and gentlemen, Rihanna has entered her blue era.

Director Chris Miller’s Smurfs has the most potent possible Smurfette leading the new movie—yes, Rihanna—and she’s front and center in the first trailer for the film.

While Rihanna is undoubtedly the biggest star in just about any room or scene she’s in, animated or not, the heart of the Smurfs is the entire village of characters created by the Belgian comic artist and writer Peyo.

“Presence” Screenwriter David Koepp on Writing a Ghost Story Told by the Ghost

One of the unwritten rules of screenwriting is you don’t put camera direction in the script. It’s about the worst possible move for a writer, a serious no-no in Hollywood, and the number one way to guarantee your work never gets produced. But in the case of Presence, a new, propulsively effective haunted-house movie with a twist, it was possible for the screenwriter David Koepp to put such objections aside and embrace the visual possibilities because the camera,