“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Producer Jonathan Wang on Making an Oscar Juggernaut
It might seem as if Everything Everywhere All at Once came out of nowhere to dominate this year’s Oscar voting with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and two Best Supporting Actress nods for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis respectively. But in fact, producer Jonathan Wang has been working with writer-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert since 2011.
“Alice, Darling” Director Mary Nighy on Her Chilling, Emotionally Resonant Feature Debut
Alice, Darling, Mary Nighy’s feature film directorial debut explores an insidious form of emotional and psychological abuse: coercive control. In its stirring portrait of Alice, a young woman in denial about her partner’s manipulative and oppressive behavior — played with dazzling depth by Anna Kendrick — the film takes an honest look at the unsettling impact of such abuse. When Alice spends a few days away with her two best friends, she is forced to face her reality and make a life-altering choice.
Sundance 2023: Filmmaker Razelle Benally on Her Showtime Doc Series “Murder in Big Horn”
The Sundance staff and execs have always believed it essential to honor Indigenous people as part of their film festival and institute, as exampled by their Native Lab and Indigenous Program. This year, there is an even greater focus on Native cultures, both inside and outside the cinemas, with 11 Indigenous films as part of the program. 2023 also marked the inaugural year for The Indigenous House, which provided a gathering space for community members and allies,
Writer/Director Elegance Bratton on His Breakout Film “The Inspection”
Writer/director Elegance Bratton’s autobiographical The Inspection is one of the year’s breakout films. Bratton stuck with the project for years because it most reflected who he is: a gay Black man who was homeless as a teenager, a Marine Corps veteran, and a Columbia University and NYU-educated filmmaker.
Bratton’s struggles began practically at birth with that unusual, magnificent name. “My mother named me Elegance but had a problem with me being gay,” Bratton said over the phone from his home in Baltimore.
“Emancipation” Hair Department Head Andrea Bowman on Her Oscar-Shortlisted Work
Andrea Mona Bowman knew that Emancipation was going to be special.
Based on a true story, Emancipation stars Will Smith as Peter, a Southern slave who breaks free from his Confederate captors and escapes into the Louisiana swaps. Chased for days, Peter makes his way to Baton Rouge, where he joins the Union army to fight for his freedom. There, he is introduced to new technology — photography. Peter agrees to have his bare back — covered from waist to neck with deep scars from repeated whippings — captured on film.
“Babylon” Composer Justin Hurwitz Deconstructs His Oscar-Shortlisted Score
“I’m very obsessive, and I can only do one thing at a time, so when Damien has a movie to work on, I go all in.” That’s composer Justin Hurwitz talking about his ongoing collaboration with filmmaker Damien Chazelle, and clearly, the laser vision has paid off. Hurwitz started working on his Oscar short-listed score for Babylon back in 2019, a few years after winning two Academy Awards for the Chazelle-directed La La Land.
“Babylon” Production Designer Florencia Martin Conjures Hollywood’s Decadent Early Days
She designed Paul Thomas Anderson’s flashback to 1970s-era L.A. in Licorice Pizza and shaped the fifties look inhabited by Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. Now, production designer Florencia Martin takes viewers back to 1920s Hollywood in Oscar-winning writer/director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, which immerses Margot Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy and Brad Pitt’s Jack Conrad in the gloriously decadent early days of silent film. Chazelle, a stickler for authenticity, shot at Old Hollywood locations,
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody” Composer Chanda Dancy on Scoring Whitney Houston’s Complex Life
When the shortlist for the 2023 Oscars was announced, composer Chanda Dancy was included for her work on the film Devotion. If she is nominated, she’ll make history as the first Black female composer to be nominated for an Academy Award. Dancy brings that winning streak into 2023 with her score for the new film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Naomi Ackie as Houston.
“George & Tammy” Costume Designer Mitchell Travers on the Power Couple’s Fashion Forward Approach
When George Jones and Tammy Wynette sang, the nation listened. The chart-topping talents performed some of the most memorable songs in country music history and their love story rivaled any of their lyrics. Together, they shaped the industry amid the rise of television and against the backdrop of a rapidly changing American landscape. Showtime’s limited series George & Tammy, created by Abe Sylvia, captures the tumult and triumph of their decades in the spotlight.
Why Every Digital Costume in “Avatar: The Way of Water” Really Exists
Daring adventures, illuminating discoveries, and unbelievable wonders are hallmarks of James Cameron’s blockbuster films. In trademark fashion, Avatar: The Way of Water is a technological feat that developed new filmmaking tools in production. Yet, costume designer Deborah L. Scott (Titanic, Back to the Future, Avatar, E.T.) said that is all secondary to Cameron’s driving force. “Jim doesn’t like sci-fi that much,” she noted. “You can see it even in Aliens.
Best of 2022: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Hair Department Head Camille Friend on The Sequel’s Stunning Looks
Both 2018’s Black Panther and this year’s Wakanda Forever have hugely impacted popular culture, not least by expanding the acceptance and expression of Afro-Futurism in everything from fashion and hairstyles to architecture. Both production designer Hannah Beachler and costume designer Ruth E. Carter won Oscars for their work on the first film and are in the running for a return to the podium with Wakanda Forever.
Best of 2022: How The “Babylon” Sound Team Built a Sonic Bacchanal
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
The opening sequence to Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (in theaters today) hits you like one of the many lines of powder its characters will ingest. It’s eye-opening, choreographed chaos, leaving you with an intensely euphoric feeling – quite fitting for a story that revisits Hollywood’s infancy of the 1920s and ‘30s when La La Land was a sandbox of drugs,
Best of 2022: “The Woman King” Director Gina Prince-Bythewood on Her Singular, Sweeping Historical Epic
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
When director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s most recent film, The Old Guard, premiered on Netflix in July of 2020, the critically acclaimed action drama became one of the top 10 original launches in the platform’s history. Prince-Bythewood is following that with one of the most anticipated films of 2022,
Best of 2022:”Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” Animation Supervisor Brian Leif Hansen Packs Puppets With Emotion
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
Inside a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Portland, a little boy made of wood galvanized efforts by stop motion filmmakers for three years before emerging now to wow moviegoers in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. This dark stop-motion iteration of Carlo Collodi’s 1882 tale, in theaters and streaming on Netflix,
Best of 2022: “Nope” Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema on Capturing the Epic Scope of Jordan Peele’s Latest
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema failed to get into two Dutch film schools, so he worked in a soap factory, played in a band, and survived unemployment as a self-described “slacker” before finding his creative footing at a renowned cinema academy in Lodz, Poland. Since then, he’s made up for lost time through collaborations with A-list auteurs,
Best of 2022: “Succession” Director Mark Mylod on Season 3 & TV’s Most Irresistibly Twisted Family
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
Succession director Mark Mylod knows his way around family drama. Mylod’s been with the series since the first season, directing the second episode (the pilot was helmed by co-creator Adam McKay), and is now the most tenured Succession director of them all, with 12 episodes to his credit.
Best of 2022: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Production Designer Hannah Beachler Reveals Her Guide to Talokan
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
When Chadwick Boseman died unexpectedly after leading the cast as the title character in 2018’s Black Panther, it shocked and saddened the world. There was, understandably, some doubt as to whether a sequel could succeed without him. What director and co-screenwriter Ryan Coogler did with Wakanda Forever,
Best of 2022: “Stranger Things 4” Music Editor Lena Glikson on Cutting Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
From the get-go, Netflix hit Stranger Things has excelled in the art and craft of needle drops. Encompassing eighties classics from David Bowie’s “Heroes” in Season One to “Everlasting Love” in Season Three, song choices curated by three-time Emmy-nominated music supervisor Nora Felder have consistently amplified the characters’
Best of 2022: Bill Hader on Bringing Up “Barry”
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
For eight seasons, Bill Hader gained a legion of fans with the hilarious characters he brought to life on Saturday Night Live. Since then, his popularity has only grown with his Emmy-winning portrayal of the manic hitman/aspiring actor in the HBO series Barry. But to hear Hader tell it,
Best of 2022: “House of the Dragon” Co-Creator & Co-Showrunner Ryan Condal on Season One & Beyond
It’s that time of year—we look back on a few of our favorite interviews from 2022 in our annual year-end list.
The first season of House of the Dragon has come to a close as an unqualified success. The premiere saw the largest single-day viewership for a series debut in HBO’s history and continued to land consistently in the top five titles streamed across all platforms through its last episode.
