“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.

“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,

“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,

“September 5” Production Designer Julian Wagner on Recreating the 1972 Olympic Attack From the Inside Out

Named after a day that will live in infamy, September 5 (in theaters now) recounts the terrorist attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics, as told from the perspective of ABC Sports broadcasters led by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and Geoff Mason (John Magaro). Confined largely to their studio control room, purpose-built just a few yards from Olympic Village, journalists watched the attack in horror, scrambling to capture the tragedy with now-antiquated gear yoked to then-new satellite technology.

Oscar-Nominated Makeup Artist Julia Floch-Carbonel on the Beauty of Transformation in “Emilia Pérez”

Emilia Pérez made history by casting Karla Sofía Gascón, the first transgendered woman to be nominated for a best actress Academy Award. The musical melodrama from director Jacques Audiard centers on Gascón’s portrayal of Mexican cartel boss Manitas, who undergoes surgery to begin a new life as Emilia. Nominated for an astonishing 13 Oscars, the film, co-starring Zoe Saldaña (also nominated for best supporting actress), Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz,

From Ranch to Rodeo to Rig: How the Hair on “Yellowstone” & “Landman” Tells the Story

The season finale of Yellowstone, the modern-day Western saga that became a cultural touchstone, aired in December. Audiences didn’t have to wait long for creator Taylor Sheridan’s next project, Landman, the first season of which was released even before Yellowstone bowed on Paramount+. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Tommy Norris, a West Texas oil company operations manager (or landman), who, over the course of a single week,

“The Brutalist” Production Designer Judy Becker on Designing Fictional Mid-Century Modernist Masterpieces

A World War II refugee architect and a robber baron meet in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and modernist design history is made. The premise of The Brutalist, a 3.5-hour critical darling and Golden Globe winner from writer/director Brady Corbet, is as American as apple pie. But from the moment Holocaust survivor Làszló (Adrien Brody) pulls into New York Harbor, the film was shot in Europe. Working primarily in and around Budapest, production designer Judy Becker (Carol,

“Anora” Cinematographer Drew Daniels on an Old School Approach to Modern, Misguided Love

Shot over 37 days in New York, one of this year’s awards darlings is Sean Baker’s compulsively riveting Anora, a lap-dancing underworld version of Cinderella. Mikey Madison plays the titular stripper, Anora/”Ani,” who thinks she has hit the jackpot when playboy and heir to a Russian oligarch, Ivan “Vanya” (Mark Eydelshteyn), falls in love with her. In an instant, she is plunged into a world of immense wealth, but will she be able to hang on to the rags-to-riches fantasy when forces outside of their budding romance are pressed into service to tear them apart?

Creating Count Orlock With “Nosferatu” Director Robert Eggers & Special FX Makeup Designer David White

Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) is a putrid feast for the eyes. In writer/director Robert Eggers’ brilliant Nosferatu remake, the iconic creature of the night is a decaying figure – nightmarish precisely because his living death was wrought with such chilling reality. Whether the Count is deep in the shadows or full view, his monstrosity remains mortifyingly intoxicating. It makes you feel even more empathy for Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter as she becomes enraptured by the Count’s deathless spell.

“Better Man” Director Michael Gracey on Monkeying With Robbie Williams in Bold Bio-Pic

Australian director Michael Gracey skyrocketed to success after releasing his debut feature, the 2017 Hugh Jackman-led musical The Greatest Showman. For his second narrative feature, Better Man, which is also a musical, he has tackled the life story of English pop singer Robbie Williams. There’s a twist, though. For the entirety of the film, Williams is portrayed as a CGI-animated chimpanzee. Gracey co-wrote the film and has a producing credit,

How “Anora”‘s DP & Production Designer Brought a Deconstructed Cinderella to New York

Halfway through Sean Baker’s Anora, there’s a scene where exotic dancer turned newlywed Ani (Mickey Madison) is tied up and gagged with a red scarf. The dilemma is a response to her breaking the nose and slap-boxing two men questioning her marriage to a silver-spooned Russian rich boy named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). The scarf (and its color) can easily be overlooked during the unfolding chaos that plays out as a real-time home invasion lasting for roughly 25 minutes and sees Ivan run away from his bride.

“Nosferatu” Production Designer Craig Lathrop on Creating Count Orlock’s Gothic World

Writer/director Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu continues his streak of delivering singular, stunning cinematic spectacles that have ranged in scale from the terrifyingly intimate (The Witch) to psychotically intimate (The Lighthouse) to the rousingly epic (The Northman). With Nosferatu, Eggers has found perhaps the perfect material for his sensibilities—rich in detail, steeped in myth,