Deadline Hollywood - Emmy Nominees Part 1 - 02/10/16

PRESENTS

FEBRUARY 10, 2016 THE NOMINEES PART 1

D ALICIA VIKANDER MATT DAMON ROONEY MARA MARK RUFFALO CHARLIE KAUFMAN

DICAPRIO’S TRIUMPH

Why The Revenant is the star’s high-water mark.

DEADLINE.COM/AWARDSLINE

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5 B A F T A AWA R D NOMINATIONS INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM BEST ACTOR EDDIE REDMAYNE • BEST ACTRESS ALICIA VIKANDER

“+ + + +.

GORGEOUS, HEARTBREAKING AND UNFORGETTABLE. EDDIE REDMAYNE GIVES THE PERFORMANCE OF T H E Y E A R .”

RE X REED, N EW YORK OB SERVE R

“E D D I E R E D M A Y N E GIVES THE GREATEST PERFORMANCE OF HIS CAREER. A C I N E M A T I C L A N D M A R K .”

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P ETER DEB R U G E, V AR IETY

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS ®

INCLUDING

BEST ACTOR EDDIE REDMAYNE • BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALICIA VIKANDER “V I K A N D E R A D D S S M O K E A N D S H A D I N G .”

A LONS O DU R ALDE, THE WR A P

“A L I C I A V I K A N D E R CONJURES SOMETHING D A Z Z L I N G A N D U N E X P E C T E D .”

C HRI S N ASHAWAT Y, EN T ERT AIN M EN T WE E KL Y

“A L I C I A V I K A N D E R I S T H E Y E A R ’ S B R E A K O U T S T A R .”

ERI N WHIT N EY, T HE HU FFIN GT ON POST

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARD

®

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS • ALICIA VIKANDER

© 1995 SAG-AFTRA

WINNER WINNER

CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARD BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS • ALICIA VIKANDER

WITH LOVE COMES THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF

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PUBLISHER

Stacey Farish ACTING EDITOR

Joe Utichi

CONTENTS FEBRUARY 10, 2016

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Craig Edwards

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Matthew Grobar

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DEADLINE COEDITORS

Nellie Andreeva Mike Fleming Jr.

DEADLINE AWARDS COLUMNIST

Pete Hammond

DEADLINE CONTRIBUTORS

Anita Busch Anthony D’Alessandro Lisa de Moraes Jeremy Gerard Patrick Hipes Ali Jaafar David Lieberman Ross Lincoln Dominic Patten Erik Pedersen Denise Petski David Robb Nancy Tartaglione

AWARDSLINE CONTRIBUTORS

Antonia Blyth Chris Chapman Daniel Doperalski Gabriel Goldberg Adam Lawrence Helen O’Hara John Russo Drew Wiedemann Damon Wise (production)

CHAIRMAN & CEO

Jay Penske

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

George Grobar

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

Craig Perreault

GENERAL COUNSEL & S.V.P., HUMAN RESOURCES

Todd Greene

V.P., CREATIVE

Nelson Anderson V.P., FINANCE

Ken DelAlcazar V.P., TV ENTERTAINMENT SALES

Laura Lubrano

DIRECTOR, FILM & TV

Carra Fenton

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES, FILM & TV

Brianna Hamburger Tiffany Windju

AD SALES COORDINATOR

Malik Simmons

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Natalie Longman

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

Stacey Farish 310-484-2553 sfarish@pmc.com

FIRST TAKE Behind the scenes on The Big Short

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TABLE READ Ennio Morricone makes sweet music for Quentin Tarantino; Gold Derby’s Actor charts

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PETE HAMMOND On AMPAS’s ‘historic’ changes, and how Gregory Peck got there first

8-15

LEO RISING Leonardo DiCaprio opens up about The Revenant and his journey so far

18-29

DIALOGUE: OSCAR NOMINEES Alicia Vikander Matt Damon László Nemes Nick Hornby Rooney Mara Mark Ruffalo & more

30-32

OSCAR HANDICAPS Pete Hammond on the Actor, Actress and Director races

33

FLASH MOB Thesps gather for the SAG Awards

34

FINAL FRAME A statistical look at this year’s Best Actor contenders

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ON THE COVER: LEONARDO DICAPRIO PHOTOGRAPHED

BY JOHN RUSSO THIS PAGE: ALICIA VIKANDER PHOTOGRAPHED

BY CHRIS CHAPMAN

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★ | first take

A Numbers Game MARCH 20 15, NE W O R LE A NS, LOU ISI AN A

CHRISTIAN BALE SITS AT THE DESK where he would spend much of his time during the production of Adam McKay’s tragicomedy The Big Short, about the 2008 financial crisis and those who saw trouble coming before anyone else. The Big Short segments off its actors—though names like Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt were clearly a major selling point, Bale doesn’t interact with any of those co-stars in the film. This helped him in his portrayal of money manager Michael Burry, a loner whose glass eye and unconventional confidence created distance between him and his colleagues. For Bale, though, a sense of the film’s scope and power came later on. “I was by myself in an office for two weeks doing my part, so when I saw the rest of the film, it was all a revelation,” he says. “I had no idea what was going on, but now I see what Adam has done, and it’s bloody entertaining.” For McKay, Bale’s subtle yet powerful performance was startling.

“The first day of shooting, I saw him dial in that character, and boom! He was Michael Burry for the rest of the movie,” McKay says. “About halfway through working with Christian, I asked if he was tired of me saying, ‘Great take.’” —Matthew Grobar

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CHARTED TERRITORY

★ | table read

Gold Derby’s Oscar Odds

FROZEN Ennio Morricone, left, and Quentin Tarantino at Abbey Road Studios.

ricone sat down with outspoken auteur Quentin

tion on Tarantino’s latest; the bloody, frostbitten western The Hateful Eight.

Morricone, who was composing scores in his

Morricone chased Tarantino’s approval, ultimately providing the director with a score

20

93% 1/20

2á

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

0

2% 50/1

3â

Matt Damon (The Martian)

0

2% 50/1

4á

Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)

0

2% 50/1

5â

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

0

1% 80/1

that went far beyond the clichés of the average Western, with hints of his earlier work on John

born, couldn’t have been more complimentary

credit that Morricone pulled it off superbly, as a

88% 2/13

result of the mental and physical space that was

Brie Larson (Room)

19

about his new colleague and friend. The Mae-

1á

stro praised Tarantino’s embrace and adapta-

given to create without friction. “The creative

7% 14/1

process isn’t easy,” Morricone says. “I have to

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

1

tion of classical, traditional cinematic genres,

2â

and found meaning behind his violence. “I’ll

go into a crisis and question myself. I have to

2% 50/1

form a very important theoretical basis for the

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

0

say something I said to Quentin when he first

3á

came to Rome to visit me,” Morricone began.

music I’m going to produce, because this music

1% 66/1

will have the moral strength necessary for each

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

0

“I’ve been impressed and even shocked by the

4á

violence of some of his sequences. But after a

score, regardless of the relevance of the film.

5â

Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

0

1% 80/1

Tarantino’s position is always on the side of the

tin Tarantino.”

Bear Basics

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 1á

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

13

61% 8/13

2â

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

3

16% 11/2

3â

Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

3

15% 11/2

4â

Christian Bale (The Big Short)

1

7% 14/1

5á

Tom Hardy (The Revenant)

0

2% 66/1

COSTUME IS KEY TO SURVIVAL IN THE REVENANT

After working with directors like Terrence Malick and David Fincher, costume designer Jacqueline West’s collaboration with Alejandro González Iñárritu on The Revenant has secured her a third Oscar nomination. She had spent time living in South Dakota and knew the story of mythical fur trapper Hugh Glass, played in the film by Leonardo DiCaprio. That’s what drew her to the project, and she determined to go beyond the “mountain man” clichés in her designs for Glass. They were inspired in part by the work of mid-19th century painters Alfred Jacob Miller and Karl Bodmer, and were fairly simple on the whole; DiCaprio’s costume consisted primarily of a humble, hooded frock coat, reflecting Iñárritu’s vision of a monastic, stoic protagonist. Iñárritu and West decided together that after Glass is attacked by a bear early on in the film—an event that sets the plot in motion and gives this quiet man his drive—he would adopt the bear’s skin as part of his wardrobe.

“It’s such a lyrical image, and there’s an irony that the thing that almost killed him saves his life,” says West. “It keeps him warm, it protects him and it gives him buoyancy on the river.” —Matthew Grobar

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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

ODDS

for him only. It’s a symphony dedicated to Quen%

we’re shocked by the horror of this violence,

%

“I wanted to give him his unique soundtrack,

EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN

long meditation process, I realized that while

ODDS

BEST ACTRESS

%

Carpenter's The Thing. And it’s to Tarantino’s

EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN

own signature style before Tarantino was even

1á

Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

17

79% 1/4

2â

Rooney Mara (Carol)

3

16% 5/1

3á

Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

0

2% 50/1

4á

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)

0

2% 66/1

5â

Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)

0

1% 80/1

M OR RI CO NE : KE V IN M AZ U R / U N I V ERSAL M US IC ; COST U M E S K ETCH : K I RSTE N F RA N SON

discuss their delightfully unorthodox collabora-

victims and the underclass.”

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

ODDS

Tarantino at London’s Abbey Road Studios, to

1â

EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN

IN DECEMBER, Italian composer Ennio Mor-

BEST ACTOR

ODDS

A SELF-PROFESSED FAN OF ENNIO MORRICONE’S CLASSIC SPAGHETTI WESTERN SCORES, QUENTIN TARANTINO FINALLY WORKED WITH THE MAESTRO.

BY MATTHEW GROBAR

%

A western legend

EXPERTS PREDICT TO WIN

At press time, here is how Gold Derby’s experts ranked the Oscar chances in the Actor and Actress races. Get updated rankings and make your own predictions at GoldDerby.com

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pete hammond

members, who hadn’t worked in eons but still prized their vote. He eased that hardship by moving them to “Associate” status. That meant that while their voting rights were taken away, they were still able to feel part of the affair by attending screenings and lectures. Sound familiar? That’s exactly how the idea is being sold this time around; voters who have ballots taken away can still attend screenings and receive screener DVDs under their “emeritus” status.

The media glare on Peck’s effort wasn’t nearly as harsh as it is now for Boone Isaacs.

The Academy was able to make significant changes to its membership, keep it fairly quiet, and come out relatively unscathed.

Peck sent a letter to all members stating that 335 of them had been reclassified as Associates with no voting rights; 109 additional members were taken from craft branches and re-designated as membersat-large, which still allowed them to nomiTHE OMEN AMPAS of today should learn from the lessons of Gregory Peck’s rule changes in the ‘60s.

Gregory Peck’s AMPAS Youth Infusion How the Academy’s recent rule changes were revolutionary… nearly 50 years ago.

nate Best Picture candidates and vote most categories in the final tally. As Boone Isaacs reportedly plans to do, Peck gave the individual branches the right to designate who was in, who was out, and how the voting system was going to work. “We are making the Academy more truly what it has always been or meant to be: a society of working professionals actively involved in the making of films,” Peck said at the time.

FOR ALL THE TALK ABOUT “HISTORIC” CHANGES to the

burial of King, and, ironically, two nominated

makeup of the membership and Board of Governors, in response

films that dealt with bigotry owned the

meaning changes don’t mean there won’t

to a threatened Oscar boycott over a woeful lack of diversity in the

evening. The Best Picture winner In The Heat

be controversy. It was immediately pointed

nominations of the last two years, the Academy faced similar crisis

Of The Night and the interracial marriage

out that under the reforms pressed for

before, and found a way to make it work. Nearly 50 years ago, none

comedy Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner—

by Peck, one of those deactivated voters

other than Atticus Finch himself, Oscar-winner Gregory Peck, used

both starring Sidney Poitier—won the most

would have been Academy pioneer and

his position as president of AMPAS to oversee a series of sweeping

awards. The Academy of the time at least

former president Frank Capra, who shot his

changes. Enacted after a two-year study was completed, Peck’s

didn’t have to deal with the crisis over the

final film—Pocketful Of Miracles—a decade

changes could provide a template for the struggles faced by the

diversity shutout that moved the current

earlier. The Academy realized that excep-

current Academy regime, which promised to double the numbers

leadership to take hard measures.

tions had to be made. This could have

of women and minority members by 2020, to keep the Academy relevant and the Oscars meaningful.

AP P HOTO

Cheryl Boone Isaacs finds herself in a tough spot, but imagine

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a con-

As Boone Isaacs will discover, well-

influenced the 2016 dictum that an Oscar

nection between the two crises. Peck

win or nomination automatically ensures

insisted before his term ended in June

lifetime voting rights.

the difficulties faced by Peck in a far more volatile time. The assas-

1970 that the Academy had to reshape

As with Peck, the current Academy

sination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, forced him to break

its stodgy image, informed by a mostly

leadership must be changeable on the

precedent and delay the Oscar ceremony for the first time ever—by

white, old voting body. He pressed for the

traverse of this slippery slope. At least cur-

two days, from April 8 to April 10. Several performers nominated or

Academy’s membership rolls to be infused

rent Academy leaders can take comfort in

scheduled to present had said they would not appear unless the

with younger, more active members. He

knowing this isn’t the first time the organi-

ceremony was held after King’s funeral. This is certainly different than

began a campaign to encourage them

zation tried to change its DNA to reflect the

the current social media outcry and recent veiled boycott talk from

to join AMPAS, reminiscent of the global

sensibilities of a new filmmaking generation.

several actors and directors of color, following the second straight

effort the current Academy has launched

They might learn some lessons from Peck,

year in which Alejandro González Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki were

to bring in a more diverse class of voters.

who was not only a champion of progress

Peck realized that his efforts would

and diversity onscreen, but also carved a

practically alone among non-white nominees in major categories.

In 1968, the Oscar telecast went on without incident after the

mean retiring many older and/or inactive

better future for the Academy. ★

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As he survives The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio looks back on a career lived in front of the camera. Over dinner with Mike Fleming Jr., the 41-year-old star opens up about his formative mistakes, his closest collaborators, and why pain is temporary but film is forever.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY

John Russo

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“I’M STARVED, I HAVEN’T EATEN ALL DAY,” IS THE FIRST THING LEONARDO DICAPRIO SAYS

when he arrives in the backroom of a downtown restaurant in New York, where he is barnstorming the release of The Revenant.

In a moment, DiCaprio has ordered everything on the menu. Even a few minutes in, you feel like you’re having dinner with a regular guy, albeit one better-looking than any guy you’ve ever met, who also happens to be the biggest movie star in the world.

What becomes clear is that DiCaprio has just as voracious an appetite for teaming with the best directors around, providing they’ll challenge themselves to take the biggest possible creative risk, of course. That’s the connective tissue between Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, all audacious, ballsy films that became the biggest-grossing hits of those directors’ careers.

Unassuming in person, DiCaprio has been famous since Titanic, and he’s comfortable wearing it to get passion projects made and create awareness on global issues such as climate change. With a fifth acting nod at this year’s Oscars for The Revenant, he looks back over his career to reflect on his journey to this point.

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THE WILD ONE DiCaprio battled frostbite and exhaustion to realize frontiersman Hugh Glass.

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“[Alejandro] wanted to get into the mindset of each lead character, RIGHT OFF THE BAT.

HE HAD SET THE BAR SO HIGH THAT EVERYTHING ELSE WE DID, WE FELT LIKE WE COULDN’T BACK DOWN; WE WERE ALL-IN.”

The Revenant is a masterpiece. An auteur

see what the fuck happened to us; he didn’t want

You took your first turn into adulthood with

at his height, investing all his clout to put

to have the answers beforehand. Everyone in this

The Aviator, which you were originally going

together such a preposterously difficult and

movie is just trying to survive, and it’s a very honest

to do with Michael Mann, and then with

ambitious shoot, where every day you travel

movie. Hugh Glass is this man who has survived

Marty. Why was Howard Hughes so impor-

hours to fine, pristine, snowy landscapes and

every possible thing you could imagine, but what

tant to you?

shoot a scene in natural light, and then get up

Alejandro was getting towards is something about

At that time, these aviators were like space travel-

the next morning and do it again. I am glad I

us that keeps pushing us forward, and making us

ers. To me, Howard Hughes represented the iconic

wasn’t there, but the result was singular.

adapt and want to live.

new man out west, who came into Hollywood with

Alejandro prepared us from the onset for what a

all this wealth, who dated all the hottest actresses

painstaking challenge we were taking on. I don’t

The tracking shot idea sounds like what

in the world, but who, at the end of the day, was

think we ever could’ve imagined all the difficulties,

Scorsese did with the nightclub scene in

this hardcore aviator that was really looked upon,

because of the weather, and the logistics of getting

Goodfellas.

at the time, as this frontiersman going into outer

there. That opening scene? He originally wanted to

What was interesting was, we did this Q&A

space. That obsession, his fascination, coupled

do a series of tracking shots with Tom and I, like he

recently after a screening, and Marty wanted to

with him being consumed by [a fear of] micro-

did in Birdman... He wanted to do almost a virtual

[host] it, and so he’s asking us questions at the

scopic organisms that took control of his entire

reality continuous shot from both Tom and my

Embassy Uptown. Alejandro and I were both like,

psyche towards the end of his life… it was just the

sightlines. But logistically, he realized when he got

“Oh my God, the Maestro, this national treasure,

most fascinating character study I’d ever heard of.

there it was never going to work. If you re-watch

is asking us about cinema.” That is what he is,

It was John Logan and Michael Mann that devel-

the opening sequence—and it’s something I didn’t

particularly to us.

oped it, and it took ten years to write that script,

even realize, but it’s why we rehearsed it for so

over 30 different drafts. Michael went off to do Ali

long—he wanted to get into the mindset of each

It’s refreshing you look at him that way,

and I had just done Gangs of New York with Marty,

lead character, right off the bat. So it starts travel-

despite making more films with him than

and I asked him if he wanted to do it. At first, he

ing with Tom, and then it travels with my point of

anyone else.

wasn’t interested.

view, then it goes to the American Indian’s daugh-

I grew up watching his work, and Alejandro did as

ter, who gets taken away, back into some wander-

well. Marty said this film was like silent cinema; like

Why?

ing guy who shoots a horse, back into my point of

a silent movie. When I first met Marty—when we

He looked at the title of the screenplay and it said

view. It was all this one snaking, fucking shot that

did Gangs of New York and The Aviator—he was

The Aviator, and he said, “Eh, I don’t really care

lasted 15 minutes. He had set the bar so high with

showing me silent films. A lot of Buster Keaton

about aviation.” But then he also said, “I didn’t

that sequence that everything else we did, we felt

and Chaplin stuff; original silent gangster movies.

really care about boxing either when I read Raging

we couldn’t back down; we were all-in.

He would talk to me about the art of being a silent

Bull.” So he picked it up and he thought it had a

film actor, and then I go do this movie, which is, for

fascinating take on this man’s life. You have him

We’ve all read the stories of hardship, and you

the most part, silent film acting. Alejandro tells me

driven so far forward in the world of technology,

could see how miserable and cold it would be,

he first met Marty after Amores Perros. He always

movies, aviation, which made him this giant mogul,

wading through ponds and mud in freezing

gives you DVDs, and he gave him I Am Cuba, and

but then the simultaneous degradation of his

weather. How did he pitch all that to you, to

a Kurosawa movie, either Yojimbo or Sanjuro. Ale-

mental stability is the exact opposite. He thought

let you know what was in store?

jandro said it was “like God, handing me down the

it was one of the best screenplays he’d ever read,

To be honest, it was more what he didn’t say,

keys to what I was to become”. It dawned on him,

and of course he’s in love with that era of Holly-

because he couldn’t really articulate it, but there

sitting there in that Q&A, that his style is based on

wood too, and he started talking to me about using

was a real sincere passion, and a yearning to get

those DVDs Marty handed him at the beginning

this ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s style of color processing

lost. That’s what got me. It was a calling to him. It

of his career, in his office, when he said, “Hey kid,

with the film. The opening scene of The Aviator has

was something about documenting wilderness,

you’re a great young director. You should check

this strange, almost sepia, color that is two-tone

and a time period that was so raw in the screen-

these movies out.” Alejandro said that his tracking

blue and red and evocative of that decade. Most

play, and so simple. I think he loved the simplicity

shots here were right out of I Am Cuba, and these

people don’t pick up on it, but the next decade

of the story. He wanted it to feel like a documen-

other scenes are like Sanjuro or Yojimbo, and these

in the story features this completely different

tary. He wanted to put us in these situations and

others are Tarkovsky, which Marty also gave him.

type of color processing. Marty started to obsess

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about this, and about the whole Howard Hughes story, and that is how the movie became what it became.

Your Appian Way is an ambitious production company, and that was the first film where you took a hands-on approach to producing.

Scorsese is quite a rebound after Michael Mann decided he wasn’t going to do it.

It was always Michael’s film, until he went to do Ali. He told me, “Look, you’re free to do what you want with this; I just did this crazy biopic, and it’s not my headspace right now.” It really became the first movie that I got to champion. At the point I came into the industry I regarded the producer, and the director especially, as the father figure. I came from the auditioning process of, “Am I going to get this role?” Then being able to say, “Wait, this is something I believe in.” To then go ask a director of Scorsese’s caliber was not only nerve-wracking, but it brought a whole different sense of responsiFrom left: Michael Keaton, Brian d’Arcy James, John Slattery, Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schreiber

bility. I wasn’t an actor for hire. It felt like, holy shit, if this falls on its ass, if it’s a failure? That’s a huge reflection on… not me as an artist, but certainly my taste, and what I think is interesting. Still to this day, there are two movies that I get very nostalgic about; that and This Boy’s Life. But Aviator, I suppose it was having some sense of control—involvement beyond just being asked to walk in and act—that makes me feel an emotional attachment to it. I find that, even today, I get slightly offended if people say something bad about The Aviator.

You mention nostalgia about your experience with This Boy’s Life. That movie started your upward progression and teamed you with Robert De Niro. Every towheaded kid went for that role and tried to impress him. What did De Niro see in you?

I still don’t know. I remember thinking to myself, “Shit, I’ve got to do something memorable. I’ve got to do something to just rattle these people’s cages.” I went in and they were doing this mustard jar sequence [in the audition], and Bob’s like, “Is it empty, is it empty?” I just stood up and threw my chair down, and screamed at him, “No, it’s not empty!” And then Bob had this smirk on his face, and just started slowly busting up; laughing in my face. And then he looked at everybody else, and the whole room starting laughing, and I was like, “Holy shit, I blew it. I blew this. I blew this whole opportunity.” But I guess at 15, you misunderstand.

I guess they kind of liked it, because Bob was like, “That kid… there’s something interesting there,” and they brought me back. I was this kid that came from television and commercials, and I had no idea how to conduct myself on a set. I had no understanding of when to shut up. Like when you see

THE INTERPRETER Since the blockbuster success of Titanic (top) turned him into the hottest movie star on the planet, DiCaprio’s career has featured diverse and challenging performances in features like (clockwise from middle) The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Beach.

Robert De Niro preparing; I’d get a squeeze on the arm from [director] Michael Caton-Jones if I was telling too many jokes, or cracking up, or trying to D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“My mother drove three hours a day just to take her kid to a better school.

MY PLAYGROUND WAS A JUNKYARD, BUT I’D GO TO FRIENDS’ HOMES AND THINK, ‘WAIT. YOU HAVE A POOL… WITH A WATERFALL? WHAT IS BEVERLY HILLS? BEL AIR? WHAT IS ALL THIS?’”

converse with the crew members. He let me know:

Never crossed that line?

to do any of this shit.” So I would push my parents

“An actor prepares, Leonardo.” “Oh, right, right.

No. I literally grew up with that everywhere. Every-

and they would take me on auditions. There were

Yeah, yeah.”

where I looked. Literally, I would walk outside my

casting directors that wouldn’t accept me because

house and it was full-on, in my face, with crack-

I was a break-dancer, or I had the wrong haircut.

Martin Scorsese once told me he met you

heads everywhere, and it made me think twice. It

But it really was me pushing my parents to give me

because De Niro told him he should, so he was

was a great lesson. And I’m not saying that’s what

some sort of way out of the world that I was in.

important to your career. When you’re 15, how

kids need to see in order to run away from it, but it

did you process working right alongside him?

was just never going to be an option for me.

Back to The Revenant for a moment. While you were on this endless shoot, people in

I watched him like crazy. I came onto that set having seen anything Martin Scorsese and Robert De

That doesn’t mean you were an angel. How

Hollywood said, “Leo never worked this hard

Niro had ever done; every single film. I remember,

does a future six-time Oscar nominee get

making a movie, and he might never put him-

at 15, putting myself through this self-prescribed

fired from Romper Room?

self through something like this again.” But

cinema history, obsessively. I was sitting in my

I have very faint memories of it, but I remember my

I wasn’t surprised because of how all-in you

bedroom watching every VHS tape I could rent,

stepbrother had dabbled in acting when he was

were playing the manic Jordan Belfort in The

just going to the video store all day long. I’d started

young. Romper Room was the big hit show, and

Wolf of Wall Street.

doing that before the audition, watching their work

there I was. I remember running up to the camera,

Yeah, but on that one I was in New York City. And I

and all this stuff from the ’70s. That led me to

looking into it and slapping it. They had to sit me

got to do this [he waves at the food on the restau-

foreign films and all that stuff. He was only there

down multiple times. And when the host said,

rant table] every night.

for half the shoot, but when he was there, it was

“Hey, kids, it’s story time,” I’m screaming, at the top

just so completely different. I came from a sitcom

of my voice, “Yeaaah!” And then they fired me. I’m

Still, you were so exhausted you took a break.

where everyone’s hanging out, joking, laughing, and

afraid I deserved it. They had to kick me out.

The Revenant was a brutal shoot. Has it left you spent or rejuvenated?

then, “Action,” and you just roll right into the scene.

I did a year of Growing Pains, and they let me out to

What a blow. You kept going though, doing

I don’t want to commit to one or the other, as far

go do this movie. It was like a culture shock. It was

commercials. When did you realize this might

as taking a break. Tom Hardy is off doing some-

like being in the big leagues, right away.

be a life?

thing else, but Alejandro and I both feel like, “Oh

Since my stepbrother had done it, I knew there

my God.” We have no idea what’s next. We’re still

Considering you grew up before the camera

was this group of kids who were auditioning for

recovering, I think, especially him. Me, I just do the

and found your way in the dark, it’s remark-

things, and I kept pressuring my parents to let

movie. He had to sit in the editing room, and work

able how well adjusted you are. From Michael

me do it. I lived in West Hollywood, near East LA.

with sound mixers, doing frog background noises

Jackson to River Phoenix, there is a long list of

My dad lived in Silver Lake, and I got accepted to

for months in the post-production. It definitely

kids who didn’t transition as well as you have.

this elementary school, UES. They chose three

gave us a feeling that we had been on a massive

Looking back, how were you able to avoid

kids a year to sponsor and fund their education,

journey that swept us away. It was a real endur-

those pitfalls?

and I was one of them. There was a Mexican kid,

ance test just psyching yourself into getting back

I suppose it’s a combination of things. They’re all

a Hindu kid, and me, that year. There was no bus

on set every day, because the challenges were so

individual stories. A lot of them, unfortunately,

going there, so my mother drove me all the way

immense.

are about either lost childhood—about the lack

across town, 45 minutes each way, back and forth.

of support while you’re going through something

Three hours a day just to take her kid to this better

We read these press narratives: The Rev-

as shocking as becoming recognized around the

school. I saw the way the other world lived. My

enant’s troubles on set, or the Titanic budget.

world immediately—or probably drugs. Unfortu-

playground was a junkyard, but I’d go to friends’

How much does that other, cynical narrative

nately, all of this can put you into a state of inse-

homes and think, “Wait. You have a pool… with a

bother you?

curity or vulnerability. You feel like you need to be

waterfall? What is Beverly Hills? Bel Air? What

It doesn’t. The only thing that I think is that it

able to handle every situation, even though every

is all this?” On career day at school, they’re like,

would be a shame for people not to understand

situation can be incredibly difficult to navigate, and

“Alright, what do you want to be? Choose some-

the other part, but I believe they do. The narrative

drugs unfortunately have given people an alternate

thing. Travel agent? You should decide now, so you

here has been hardship, but I hope, historically,

reality, or some other way to cope, and I just—

can start taking classes for it.” I’m like, “I don’t want

that people understand the sincere effort that

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INTO THE WOODS Despite the hardships, DiCaprio is proud of the resulting film. “The difficulty will fade away. What you’re left with is what’s onscreen.”

Alejandro put into this for authenticity, and that

That’s an interesting question. Before Titanic, I

You could have been Spider-Man, or any

he went above and beyond to make something

had no conception of what any of that meant.

superhero. You did The Beach. How did the

incredibly special, cinematically. And that it is not

It was shocking. People said, “Do you realize

Titanic experience forge your decisions

something we see done very often nowadays. But

how big of a movie this is?” I said, “Yeah, it’s

about the movies you wanted to make?

it doesn’t even need to be spoken. You and me,

big. It’s a big movie.” They’re like, “No. No. No,

I had forged, by then, exactly what type of films

we’ll watch these fucking movies 20 years later,

it’s the biggest movie ever,” and I’m like, “Well,

I wanted to do. I used it as a blessing, to make

because it’s all there and because he strived for

what does that mean?” I thought, “Okay, so it

R-rated, different kinds of movies—to throw

excellence and made something different and

made a lot of money, and people are seeing it.

the dice a little bit on things I wanted to act in

outrageous. The difficulty of making Titanic or The

Great.” And then my whole life became about

because people would want to finance those

Revenant, all of it will fade away. What you’re left

other things that weren’t about acting. Titanic

movies now. I’d never had that before Titanic.

with is what’s onscreen.

was very much an experiment for Kate Winslet

It was always, “Can I have this role, please?”

and I. We’d done all of these independent

I think there’s a yearning for adult movies out

Your Revenant co-star, Tom Hardy, has had the

movies and I loved her as an actress. She said,

there that have some spectacle and some balls

most amazing year, and because he disap-

“Let’s do this together, we can do this,” and

to them, and I’m a fan of those movies. I want

pears into these parts, you wonder if he even

then we did and it became something that we

to see these films being made, so if I can get

gets recognized on the streets, even after

could have never foreseen. We never predicted

them financed… I still feel that way and I still get

his dual performance as the Kray brothers in

that it would be what it was, and I said, “Okay,

excited about that. ★

Legend and playing the title role in Mad Max:

slow down. Let all this pass a little bit.” I knew

Fury Road. You, on the other hand, became

it was going to be an adjustment. I knew there

world-famous after Titanic. Are there enough

was an expectation of me to do a certain thing

Visit DEADLINE.COM/AWARDSLINE

benefits of fame to make it worthwhile, or do

at that point, and I knew I had to get back to

to read much more of Mike Fleming’s

you envy Tom?

what my intentions were from the onset.

conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio.

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This is not a dramatization.

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“POWERFUL...

a vivid tale of heroism and villainy.”

A.O. Scott,

FOR YOUR OSCAR CONSIDERATION ®

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

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D THE DIALOGUE

OSCAR NOMINEES 2016

Interviews by Antonia Blyth, Anthony D’Alessandro, Mike Fleming Jr., Matt Grobar, Helen O’Hara, Nancy Tartaglione and Joe Utichi

ALICIA VIKANDER

▶ Actress in a Supporting Role ▷ The Danish Girl

How did you approach playing Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl?

I looked up to her so much for her capacity to love. I think I’m a big romantic, and she never seemed passive to me. She always has such force, and always sees a bigger picture. She knows where she is in that. She sees the real person that she loves and will support that person through anything. I was touched by that when reading the script; the kind of immense amount of love between those people and going through what they did in a time when there was no reference.

Of course, that was probably what I was most nervous of, to translate the capacity of unconditional love back to the screen.

You also played a robot this year in Ex Machina.

How challenging was that?

You have questions for every role, but I’ve always been able to relate to them as being human. Ava was of course, very different. As an actress, by the end of the film, you actually need to know more about her than the writer probably, and Alex [Garland]’s script was the best thing I ever read. The physicality was also something that I enjoyed working with. It was interesting that you didn’t have to use any real sexual female reference to grab the other characters’ attention. I made her more pristine and more precise, and almost perfect in the way she moved. –A.B.

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A N D R EW W H I T E H U R ST

▶ Visual Effects ▷ Ex Machina

Where did the inspiration for Ava come from?

She doesn’t look like any movie robot we’ve seen.

We looked at a lot of really hightech racing bikes and Formula 1 car suspension—these shapes that feel almost organic but mechanical at the same time. Anything where there’s a lot of strength-to-weight ratio is really important, and where there’s a lot of high-tech materials and design processes. So we look at all that kind of stuff because it will give it an essence of mechanical ability, and also because I just don’t want it to look like a robot from another film, if we can avoid it.

How would you describe the process of working with writer-director Alex Garland?

There was a lot of experimentation.

It’s very helpful for me to work with a director who can draw. We solved so many problems sitting with a big stack of paper and a load of Sharpies. Part of my job as the visual effects supervisor is try and get inside the director’s head. A fair amount of the time I’d second guess what Alex would ask for, if he were in the room every day, and then we’d put things together for him to look at. Sometimes, we’d do a couple of different versions if we weren’t sure. There are real world compromises you’re having to make, and that sort of ongoing design conversation never finishes.

–J.U.

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M AT T DA M O N

▶ Actor in a Leading Role ▷ The Martian

This movie came together very quickly; you signed on when Drew Goddard was going to direct his screenplay, right?

I was going to do it with Drew directing. I read it, I loved it and I watched his movies, which were excellent. When Drew had to bow out, I thought I was going to wait and we would put it on the backburner for a year.

About a week later we got a call that Ridley Scott wanted to do it. He said yes right away.

He’s a lot like Clint [Eastwood], and these guys who’ve been making movies a long time.

They don’t screw things up by thinking about them too much.

He’s made so many movies that are just fantastic, and all so different. He’s not bothered by anything.

You won your first Oscar, for screenwriting, early in your career with Good Will Hunting. It was a great moment for you and Ben Affleck. How do you look back on it?

Ben and I always said, “Look, if this movie ends up as just a videocassette on our mantle, that’s good enough for us.”

That made every decision that followed really easy. Every time we said yes or no, it was about trying to make the movie we really wanted to make. Winning the Oscar released me from having to chase that control subsequently. I felt a real peace about the whole thing.

I remember vividly that I sat up that night, staring at this Academy Award, going, “Thank God I didn’t fuck anybody over for that.” I didn’t have to think about it anymore, and I don’t feel any need to do so now.

Other than the fact that now Ben has two of ‘em. I mean, he can’t have more than me; that’s fucked up... –M.F.J.

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C H A R L I E K AU F M A N D U K E JO H N S O N ▶ Animated Feature ▷ Anomalisa

How did Anomalisa begin?

CK: I had written it as a play, and it was performed as a play in 2005. Initially, I didn’t know if it should be a movie because it was what we called a “sound play” and it was specifically nonvisual. It was just people on stage reading—creating it in the minds of the audience—so we had to translate it into something that was visual. My friend Dino Stamatopoulos saw the play and he was interested—he liked it. He’d founded an animation studio and Duke was a partner there and a director. Dino asked if I wanted to make it into a movie.

What was your response to working on a project funded through Kickstarter?

DJ: It was great for us. I don’t think any of us knew really what to expect—this was in the earlier days of Kickstarter. We felt that it wasn’t a film that would have been financed through traditional avenues so we were looking for alternate ways to find funding, and someone recommended this new thing. We just kind of went for it—we didn’t know if it was going to work or not. It ended up being very successful for us, and even though it was just kind of seed money to get us started, it got us the attention of a guy named Keith Calder of Snoot Entertainment, who came on board and offered to finance the rest of the film. –M.G.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS CHAPMAN

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LASZLO NEMES

▶ Foreign Language Film ▷ Son of Saul

How did you find your lead, Géza Röhrig? What made you want to cast him in such a pivotal role?

I knew him from before; we’ve been friends for 10 years and I really wanted someone who would already have a sort of personal story of the Holocaust. He’s been thinking about it for his entire life and I think in a way he carries in him the scars of the 20th Century. I think you can feel it in him, and for that reason he has this incredible presence I needed for the film that was unique.

The sensory experience is so important in Son of Saul. How did you arrive at that?

That was important in my short films also. Going to the movies is not only about images and story, it also can be about the viewer’s experience and be immersive and hypnotic; a real experience. That is something that I always wanted to explore, and how do you recreate the concentration camp through imagery alone? You need to plunge the viewer through the entire experience. Sound for that is key, because sound gives you a constant reference to everything that’s going on which you don’t have access to. It helps recreating a human experience, which was about limitations and the harsh conditions, and you don’t have access to all the information. Sound constantly helps the imagination expand and we needed that for this movie. –N.T.

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F I N O L A DW Y E R A M A N DA P O S EY

NICK H O R N BY

▶ Best Picture ▷ Brooklyn

▶ Adapted Screenplay ▷ Brooklyn

Why do you think Brooklyn has resonated so much with audiences?

NH: In America, everyone has some version of that story in their family – not Irish necessarily but anything. So we’ve been told a lot of stories. One woman posted a photo of her mother standing on the deck of a boat, more or less wearing the same dress as Eilis. Emigration is a lifedefining moment, but normally, because it’s so everyday, people don’t dramatise it.

Has it begun to feel more timely since it screened at Sundance ‘15?

NH: It’s funny; the very first conversation I had about this with a director was with the late Mike Nichols. He said, “You should think about: why now?” That was maybe 2011. At the time I didn’t know. Every year the film failed to get funded, it seemed to become more relevant. Just by telling an individual story about how traumatic it is to leave your home, it becomes part of this political debate that’s going on in America. –H.O.H.

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TOM Mc C A RT H Y

▶ Director ▷ Spotlight

You were dealing with a grand ensemble cast here. Was it tough to structure the narrative around them?

It’s a big question, and it was a particular challenge and gamble. I felt like we took our inspiration from the actual investigation, and we were really worrying less about giving each actor their moment.

It was about: have we given each reporter and editor their due? And these actors come in and there was something about the ensemble nature that I think released them from scene to scene, because there was no single protagonist required to carry any scene.

What are you most proud of about the film?

The thing I’m really excited about is the sort of higher-level theme of societal complicity; that outside of maybe Cardinal Law, there’s not really one bad person in this movie. What there seems to be is a bunch of good people who made some bad decisions. It’s not just about the Boston Globe taking on the Catholic Church. It’s about all these problems that we face in society and how we deal with them. It’s very difficult even for adults to get these complex problems right; sometimes even our best intentions fall short. –M.F.J.

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RO O N EY MARA

▶ Supporting Actress ▷ Carol

Looking back on Carol, which scene lives with you?

There are two, actually. Both of them were with Cate. The first is where Carol and Therese have lunch together for the first time.

It was the first scene we got to do together where we really had a back-and-forth. We had the whole day to shoot, which was a luxury given our schedule, and we did the scene in its entirety.

Someone [on set] observed, “That was like playing tennis with someone really good.” Yeah, it’s like playing tennis with the best tennis player. The second scene is the one that bookends the film when we’re having tea. That was another scene we got to do in long takes. There was so much subtlety and nuance going on.

Patricia Highsmith drew inspiration for the novel, The Price of Salt, from a customer she observed during her stint as a department store clerk.

Did you draw on that for your performance?

It’s funny, because [the screenwriter] Phyllis Nagy told me that she was observing me during the first week on set and she thought I had Pat’s cadence down, as well as the way she moved and her essence.

In preparing for the dialect, there were some interviews with Highsmith that I had been listening to, but I wasn’t trying to match her voice. I was just trying to find women from that time to listen to and she happened to be one of them. –A.D.A.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DREW WIEDEMANN

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D R EW G O D DA R D

▶ Adapted Screenplay ▷ The Martian

It’s rare for a movie of this scale to have a sole screenwriter credit.

I think that’s right. So much of this was unique in the sense that I don’t know if we’ll ever repeat how this came together. A friend of mine, who was a producer at Fox, said, “I’ve just read this e-book that I think you should look at.” I said, “Are you saying you want me to adapt a blog?” (Laughs.) He sent it over to me and it was great; I just couldn’t put it down. But I thought it would be impossible to get made because there’s no version of doing space for cheap.

We’d have to go to a studio and say, “Give us $100 million to make this blog into a movie.”

How do you communicate the science in the time you have to tell the story?

It’s really hard because so much of the book is first-person pasttense diary entries. That’s not really the thing that screenwriting is based on. We had to figure out how we were going to get this across without dumbing it down.

Part of what makes this project special is the science, and if we stripped that out it would have been just a B-movie. And I love B-movies; I don’t say that as a derisive term. But it wouldn’t have connected in the way I wanted this movie to connect. –J.U.

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EMMA D O NO G H U E

▶ Adapted Screenplay ▷ Room

You wrote the screenplay before the book was even published. Why did you decide to take that step?

Well, the great thing was that I wasn’t being commissioned.

I was writing it for myself with nobody looking, and the book hadn’t even been published.

That was an ideal way to begin. I borrowed 20 books on screenwriting from my local university library, tried to absorb their insights and then plunged in. I thought there was no point in making some company hire me to do the first draft if they really didn’t want it. So, I thought this was a far more honest way to proceed: I write it and then when I talk to filmmakers I can say, “Look, here it is. Do you like it? Shall we proceed?”

What kind of help did you get from the film’s director, Lenny Abrahamson?

I realize a lot of the advice in the books is how to write a spec script that looks kind of crisp and professional. Like that advice about, “you come into a scene late and you get out early.” A sort of maximum efficiency. But I remember Lenny saying to me, “No, write it long. Write me a long, messy, natural, turning scene and I’ll do the cutting.” So, getting to write in that context when you’re not desperately trying to find funding–it’s more you’re working in a to-and-fro way with the director. It was a blissful way to work and I enjoyed it so much. –A.B.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS CHAPMAN

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S A N DY P OW E L L

▶ Costume Design ▷ Carol

You were attached to Carol even before Todd Haynes.

How did that come about?

The producer, Elizabeth Karlsen, said to me, “I’ve got the rights to this book,” and it turned out that I’d discovered it a couple of years before. I had never read Patricia Highsmith, and was on a train platform and I didn’t have a book to read for the journey back. It was on one of those little kiosks where you can only buy Stephen King books. I was blown away immediately. In fact, I read it in a single sitting, and I thought then, “This would make the best film.” I remember saying to Todd, “God, Liz has got this great project. I wish you could do it.”

It seems that the two main characters, played by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, are very much separated and defined by the clothes they wear.

The difference between them, obviously, is resources. Carol has money, and she’s older, so she can afford the up-todate, fashionable clothes.

Therese has less money, but her clothes aren’t ’40s because she’s young—she is buying contemporary clothes.

She wouldn’t still be wearing clothes from the ’40s. She’s contemporary as well, but at a completely different price and level of class. –J.U.

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2/5/16 11:09 AM

MARK RU F FA L O

▶ Supporting Actor ▷ Spotlight

Spotlight is an ensemble movie; did you worry you wouldn’t get your moment?

I’d given up long ago the idea of, “Am I going to have my acting moment?” I found that chasing outcomes and trying to impress people—and all the things that happen when you get really protective about your moments—left me feeling empty. The agreement we made here, without even speaking about it, was that we’d share and respect each other and play like a team. So when the moment comes where someone says, “Do you think you should be up for lead?” I’m like, “No, man, I’m in an ensemble. My part isn’t the lead.” It happened naturally, out of the spirit of the filmmaking.

How did it feel when the full team assembled on set?

When we were sitting in those rooms, those ensemble scenes were just magic.

You are just sort of floating in it and it’s shared; there’s no ego. That becomes fun and easy. Tom led us that way starting in rehearsals, and you find yourself marveling at watching your team play: “Oh my god, that was a great moment for Michael.

Rachel, man, the way she listens. Look at Brian and how he mastered Matt Carroll’s accent in that scene.” It became more enjoyable as it went along. –M.F.J.

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OSCAR H AN DICAPS / BY P ETE H A M M O N D

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Bryan Cranston Trumbo

It seems to be the case every year now that the Best Actor race is extremely competitive and there are always very worthy contenders left at the starting gate. As recently as October, you’d have been hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t think that Johnny Depp was a shoo-in for a nomination as Whitey Bulger in Black Mass. But where was he on nominations morning? Stunner, but these races are all about momentum, and somewhere along the way that film just lost it, despite a vibrant campaign and personal appearances from Depp. Another worthy contender might have been nine-year-old Jacob Tremblay for his remarkable performance in the otherwise nicely nominated Room, but a campaign for him in support (because of his age, not the role) probably just confused matters, and he was out. So what about those who are in? Here’s the rundown.

A multiple Emmy winner for Breaking Bad’s iconic Walter White, as well as a recent Tony winner as LBJ in Broadway’s All The Way, Cranston has been no stranger to major awards shows in recent years. It was only a matter of time before he found a worthy film role to bring him to the precipice of Oscar, and in blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, he not only found one, but knocked it out of the park.

With SAG, BAFTA, Globe and Critics' Choice nominations as well, he has turned into a formidable contender and a dark horse coming up on the outside.

Matt Damon

Leonardo DiCaprio

Michael Fassbender

Eddie Redmayne

Damon, a former two-time acting nominee and winner of a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunting, spends most of his screen time alone in The Martian as astronaut Mark Watney, which is a challenge any actor would realize as tops in degrees of difficulty, hence the nomination. His Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy certainly can’t hurt his momentum—even if it did land in the wrong category— and a BAFTA nod eases the pain of not making SAG’s list. Still, he’s a real long shot at best.

A clear frontrunner if ever there was one, the neverOscared DiCaprio deserves a win on his fifth try in the acting categories, if only for what he had to endure during the making of this rugged adventure epic in a role with only a handful of lines. If he does finally land the statuette, he should break off a piece for that grizzly bear. DiCaprio looks to be running the board with recent Globe, Critics' Choice and SAG wins, as well as BAFTA recognition. He appears to be unbeatable this time around.

Fassbender doesn’t look anything like the real Steve Jobs, but he was totally convincing in a role that, ironically, was first going to DiCaprio before the film changed course and studios. His character is on every page of Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant, almost Shakespearean script, and Fassbender showed sides of his talent never before seen.

The box office failure of the movie, though, didn’t help, and the nomination here (and at SAG and BAFTA) may well have to be the award this time around, as all the buzz is for DiCaprio.

Last year’s winner in this category for The Theory Of Everything is back, going for a second consecutive Oscar—a feat accomplished in Best Actor annals only

by Tom Hanks and Spencer Tracy. The odds of a repeat victory, therefore, are long, but Redmayne did everything he needed to do and then some, to be totally convincing and human in the role of the first transgendered woman. He was also BAFTA and SAG nominated after winning those trophies last year. He’s bucking the odds, but it has been done.

The Martian

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The Revenant

Steve Jobs

The Danish Girl

This is easily the year’s toughest category, simply because you could have filled it threeor four-times over with genuinely deserving nominees. Just consider that the list of also-rans includes Paul Dano, Michael Shannon, Idris Elba, Michael Keaton, Jacob Tremblay and so many others.

As for the lucky five who did get in, Christian Bale as Michael Burry in the well-loved The Big Short is going for his second Oscar in this category (he won for The Fighter in 2011), and he could be the spoiler. Like Matt Damon in The Martian, he also spends most of his time on screen alone, and has never been more affecting.

Mark Ruffalo, also playing a real-life character as dogged newspaper reporter Mike Rezendes in Spotlight, clearly stood out for the Academy in a tight ensemble, landing him the nom. Tom Hardy was great in both Mad Max: Fury Road and a dual role in Legend, so if voters consider that work along with his nominated, evil turn in The Revenant, he could absolutely snatch this prize.

The great theatre actor Mark Rylance proves he’s no slouch in movies as the Russian spy in Bridge Of Spies, and he has been winning his share of precursor prizes, so an Oscar for him might be a way of honoring the Steven Spielberg movie too.

But all of them, excellent as they are, are going to have to fight off the great Oscar story of Sylvester Stallone, reprising his beloved role of Rocky Balboa in Creed. Even though he missed out on SAG and BAFTA nods, his Globe and Critics' Choice wins prove he has lots of momentum and sentiment on his side.

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BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Cate Blanchett Carol

Early in the season it became apparent that this would be a much stronger year for the usually light Best Actress race. In fact, the women definitely appeared to be matching the men for a competitive and dense lineup of great roles this time around. Add to that the unusually large number of terrific parts for veterans like Maggie Smith, Blythe Danner and Lily Tomlin and it seemed, for a brief moment, highly likely that the older contenders were going to dominate. But in typical Oscar fashion, that wasn’t to be. None of those names made the final list, and the vets are repped only by 69-year-old Charlotte Rampling, with two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett taking a second spot. The rest of field are all actresses in their 20s, demonstrating the strength of the current generation, and it looks like the battle is going to be fought between them this year.

At the beginning of the season it appeared Cate Blanchett might be splitting her votes between two great performances: disgraced news producer Mary Mapes in Truth and a society woman caught in a love affair with a young sales clerk in the ‘50s set lesbian drama Carol. The former never caught on, but Carol proved just the ticket to bring Blanchett back to the category she won just two years ago. SAG, BAFTA, Globe and Critics Choice nominations are also hers this year, but a third Oscar so soon after winning her second seems unlikely.

Brie Larson

Jennifer Lawrence

Charlotte Rampling

Saoirse Ronan

Playing a loving and concerned mother trying to make a life for her five-yearold son while confined to an 11 x 11ft room in the first half, and then a complex daughter in the second half, Larson is the frontrunner in this category. Larson made this highly difficult balancing act look easy, winning the hearts of Oscar’s acting branch and scoring her first nomination in her 20s. She's also won at the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice and SAG, with BAFTA ahead. This looks to be the one to beat.

Lawrence—already an Oscar winner for Silver Linings Playbook, and now the youngest four-time nominee in Academy history—landed another meaty role as Miracle Mop creator and Home Shopping Network star Joy Mangano. She brought humor, heart and grit to the first real drama she has ever had to carry alone; or one that didn't also include a bow and arrow, at least. But for someone who clearly has it all, will the Academy want to go there again so soon? Plus, hers is the film’s sole nomination, so it’s an uphill climb, despite a recent Golden Globe win.

Surprisingly, the British Rampling—winner of the Silver Bear at Berlin, the European Film Award and LA and Boston film critics' Best Actress—missed out on a BAFTA nomination, but then came roaring back with her first ever Oscar nod in a very long career. Rampling could have a shot for her luminous performance, but this is the film’s only recognition from Oscar. The question is, will voters actually get all the way through their screeners in this slow and deliberate dissection of a marriage in crisis?

In a year in which immigration has become such a hot button topic, Ronan’s lilting turn as an Irish émigré to New York in the early 50s, who must choose between two countries and two men, puts a human face on the issue. The movie, understandably, has won hearts and minds and recognition from SAG, BAFTA and the New York Film Critics for Ronan, who has now gained her second Oscar nomination since Atonement when she was just 13 years old. She could be the spoiler here, especially with the expert Fox Searchlight mounting the campaign.

Room

Joy

45 Years

Brooklyn

Category fraud is a term we have heard a lot this year, and nowhere more so than in relation to this category, which places two arguably leading roles among the supporting actresses.

Rooney Mara in Carol and Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl have been seesawing in earlier awards contests between nominations as lead (Golden Globes for both, BAFTA for Vikander) and supporting, but the Academy’s actor branch bought into the campaigns of their respective distributors and placed them both in the Best Supporting Actress category for Oscars.

How this will affect the rest of the field remains to be seen, but this, much like the Best Actress race itself, is a formidable race this year.

Newly minted Golden Globe winner Kate Winslet is trying to become one of those rare thesps with Oscars in both lead and supporting categories as she grabs nomination number seven for her great turn as Joanna Hoffman in Steve Jobs.

As the only woman on the Spotlight investigative news team, Rachel McAdams was a standout with a subtle and effective portrayal of Sacha Pfeiffer in Spotlight. And Jennifer Jason Leigh, as Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, gave as good as she got in a performance that, like Leonardo DiCaprio in Revenant, proved she is about as tough as they come.

But it might come down to Mara and Vikander, both with those big, meaty roles.

Mara won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, while Vikander prevailed at the Critics' Choice Awards and SAG. A toss-up?

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BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

BEST DIRECTOR Adam McKay The Big Short

This issue of AwardsLine went to press moments before the DGA results were unveiled on Feb 6, but without question the big shocker in the AMPAS list—and isn’t there always at least one of those in this category?—was the omission of 78-year-old veteran Ridley Scott for his superb work on The Martian. Scott was the one DGA nominee who did not repeat on Oscar’s list, replaced instead by Room’s Lenny Abrahamson, with a small film that couldn't possibly be more different from the epic Martian. Readers will know by now whether sentiment for Scott, who most pundits had predicted would finally win the Best Director Oscar this year, propelled him into a DGA win. But as for those who did land Oscar's directorial nods this year, here is how it looks at this point.

A late entry after Paramount decided to move this planned 2016 release into the race. It was a bet that really paid off—if ever there was a dark horse, it's The Big Short and its director, Adam McKay. With BAFTA and DGA nominations, this frequent Will Ferrell collaborator is also the unlikeliest of nominees, but he took what looked like an impossible task and turned Michael Lewis’s business book into a funny, human, even harrowing look at the financial crisis of 2008. Its PGA win as Best Picture doesn’t hurt his prospects.

George Miller

Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Lenny Abrahamson

Tom McCarthy

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Scott’s absence from the lineup may be Australia’s well-liked veteran George Miller. Rebooting his Mad Max franchise after a 30 year absence, and turning it into an extraordinary action film like no other, Miller is a shining star this season and obviously hasn't been forgotten despite a May release for his film. It has withstood the onslaught of more obvious Oscar contenders and turned him into a semi-favorite, no matter the fate of his movie in the Best Picture race.

Iñárritu won the Oscar for Birdman in this category last year, along with Picture and Screenplay, making him unlikely to repeat that feat even for something as successful and admired as The Revenant, a filmmaking challenge from every angle you can imagine. If, however, he can pull this off, he would join only Joseph L. Mankiewicz and John Ford in backto-back Best Director wins.

And if he adds Best Picture to that, he would stand alone. Certainly the bumper box office reciepts haven't hurt his chances at all.

The surprise entry of Oscar’s Director class of 2015 is certainly this Irish helmer, who pulled off a technically challenging effort in making a movie that's largely set and shot in a tiny, cramped room. No CGI trickery involved. The directors’ branch clearly recognized what an awesome and tricky project this was and rewarded Abrahamson for pulling it off. Ultimately, though, it was the emotional power of the movie that won the day for him here, and this nomination is really the win no matter what happens.

Although Spotlight's directorial style was straightforward and not at all flashy, McCarthy—also nominated for co-writing the Original Screenplay with Josh Singer—managed to make the somewhat plodding and deliberate art of investigative journalism exciting and suspenseful. This movie— the best about journalism since 1976’s All The President’s Men—proved to be a perfectly-toned investigation-into-an-investigation and landed McCarthy his first Oscar nomination in this category.

Mad Max: Fury Road

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The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

It's David versus Goliath in this year’s Foreign Language battle: two countries never before nominated and a widely acclaimed Holocaust film from Hungary, all up against new entries from the much-awarded and well-established filmmaking industries of Denmark and France.

By far the favorite, based on its pedigree from Cannes and beyond, is Hungary’s harrowing Holocaust drama Son Of Saul. But it faces surprisingly stiff competition from France’s first nominee since 2009, Mustang, which for all intents and purposes (other than the nationality of its director) is decidedly Turkish.

Colombia’s demanding Embrace Of The Serpent and Jordan’s stunning Theeb (with its echoes of Lawrence Of Arabia) both come from those countries competing in the final circle of five for the first time. Could they have some rookie luck? Finally there's Denmark’s latest entry, A War, which continues a strong recent run for the country that has already won here three times out of 11 nominations.

Because of the structure of this contest, with six films chosen by the large volunteer committee of members, and three chosen by a small Executive Committee (better known as "saves", to prevent acclaimed films from elimination), we had nine semi-finalists which were whittled down to these five. Although the Academy will never confirm it, I have it on good authority that three of these five nominees were indeed the saves, and that includes Son Of Saul. Since, now, everyone in the Academy can vote on the winner, it could be that the popular Mustang has more general appeal than Saul, which is a tough screener to watch. An upset could be brewing.

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★ | flash mob

RE X /S H U T T E RSTO CK

22ND SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS, DOWNTOWN LA, JAN. 30 Top row, from left: Best Actor (Film) Leonardo DiCaprio and Best Actress (Film) Brie Larson; Jacob Tremblay; Michael Keaton and Tom McCarthy. Middle row, from left: Best Supporting Actress Alicia Vikander; Kate Winslet; Best Supporting Actor (Film) and Best Actor (TV Miniseries) Idris Elba. Bottom row, from left: Best Actress (TV Drama) Viola Davis; Eddie Redmayne; Lifetime Achievement recipient Carol Burnett; Best Actor (TV Comedy) Jeffrey Tambor.

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★ | final frame

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the longest career span among his peers, Bryan Cranston earned his first nomination for Trumbo, a film that otherwise went unrecognized. Michael Fassbender and Eddie Redmayne are also back, with nominations for Steve Jobs and The Danish Girl, respectively.

Though they’re the youngest of the bunch, both working in film only

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EDDIE REDMAYNE

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since 2006, their talent and box office results are undeniable, and Redmayne is the returning champ.

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AC ADE MY AWARD NOMINE E

BEST FOREIGN L ANGUAGE FILM NOW NOMINATED FOR

9

CÉSAR AWARDS INCLUDING BEST FILM AND BEST DIRECTOR

EVERY WOMAN HAS A STORY

A FILM BY

DENIZ GAMZE ERGÜVEN

W I N N E R “DENIZ GAMZE ERGÜVEN BRINGS A POWERFUL POINT OF VIEW AND HER OWN UNIQUE AND REFRESHING VOICE TO THIS ENLIGHTENING FEMALE-DRIVEN TALE.

‘MUSTANG’ IS NOT ONLY A GREAT FILM ABOUT WOMEN, IT IS A GREAT FILM, PERIOD.” PETE HAMMOND

LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS PRIZE - Cannes Film Festival NEW AUTEURS AUDIENCE AWARD - AFI Fest AUDIENCE AWARD - BEST FOREIGN FILM Chicago International Film Festival

BEST FIRST FEATURE - Philadelphia Film Festival EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LUX PRIZE FOR CINEMA NBR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD FIPRESCI PRIZE - European Film Awards LOS ANGELES SCREENINGS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10TH AT 7:30PM The Aero Theater 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403 Screening + Q&A with Deniz Gamze Ergüven & the five young actresses RSVP to: mustangrsvp@gmail.com THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH AT 7:00PM Samuel Goldwyn Theatre 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Official AMPAS Screening WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH AT 2:00PM, 5:00PM, 7:30PM The Pacific Design Center: Silverscreen Theater 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069 RSVP to: mustangrsvp@gmail.com

★★★★!

“

A GREAT MOVIE. ENORMOUSLY PLEASURABLE TO WATCH. CONFIRMS THAT SENSITIVE, HUMANIST, DEEPLY IMMERSIVE FILMMAKING REMAINS ALIVE AND WELL IN A WORLD BURSTING WITH VITAL STORIES AND INDELIBLE CHARACTERS.” ANN HORNADAY

NEW YORK CITY SCREENINGS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11TH AT 7:30PM FI:AF (Alliance Française) 22 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022 Screening + Q&A with Deniz Gamze Ergüven & the five young actresses RSVP to: mustangnyrsvp@gmail.com FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH AT 7:30PM Soho House 29-35 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10014 Screening + Q&A with Deniz Gamze Ergüven & the five young actresses RSVP to: mustangnyrsvp@gmail.com

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