Nominee

Looks like when you sit down to watch the 96th Oscar Awards ceremony this time, seekers of a little controversy will not have to wait for one with bated breath as Alexander Payne’s widely celebrated and praised The Holdovers is already attracting the wrong kind of attention. In a shocking expose by Variety, it has been revealed screenwriter Simon Stephenson (who penned Luca) accused Payne, the director of The Holdovers, of plagiarising the unproduced script he wrote, titled Frisco. Based on the email evidence revealed by…

Republicans in North Carolina have selected Mark Robinson as their nominee in the swing state’s 2024 gubernatorial race. Robinson — the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, who will now face Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in the general election — has a richer history of bigoted commentary than any major-party political candidate in recent memory. He has leveled truly vile attacks against Muslims, Jews, women, and the LGBTQ community, while pushing a torrent of conspiracy theories about everything from…

A 721-page biography about the father of the atomic bomb, a send-up of the publishing industry’s simplification of black lives and a Glaswegian tale of an adult woman with an infant’s brain: the books that inspired this year’s best picture Oscar nominees are as varied as the films they spawned. Leading us to ask: if there was a golden statuette for “best book that inspired a best picture nominee”, what would the contenders be?Killers of the Flower Moon by David GrannJournalist David Grann’s 2017 investigation into the…

Nikki Haley indicated she no longer feels bound by the Republican National Committee pledge she made to endorse the eventual GOP nominee. Haley is the only remaining high-profile Republican candidate challenging former president Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination. “You did sign a pledge, an RNC pledge to support the eventual nominee. Do you still feel bound by that pledge?” Kristen Welker asked Haley. “I have always said that I have serious concerns about Donald Trump. I have even more…

What happens in the school staffroom? What do the teachers talk about? As a child I remember standing just outside the door of the staffroom, waiting to carry the corrected notebooks for the class as some of the other teachers who had an off period, sat by themselves, or had a cup of tea. In Germany's Oscar nominee for Best International Film, The Teacher's Lounge, the same curiosity opens up a world of contradictions, accusations and power dynamics. Come unprepaded for İlker Çatak's nail-bitingly intense drama, and…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThe songwriter Diane Warren has spent more than four decades conjuring overwrought bangers by the bucketful – power ballads that plead and mourn and crescendo, the kind irresistible to office parties and chintzy karaoke machines. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” drunkenly warbled by the most overconfident person you know from HR. A handful of…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeMark Ruffalo has admitted that while he’d like to win his first Oscar at the forthcoming March ceremony, there is one fellow nominee in particular whom he wouldn’t mind losing the category to. The Poor Things star, 56, landed his fourth Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Yorgos Lanthimos’s absurdist comedy sci-fi.Ruffalo is up against Sterling K Brown (American Fiction),…

Acclaimed actress-filmmaker Jodie Foster finds it is "cool" that there`s been 47 years between her first Oscar nomination for `Taxi Driver` and her most recent for `Nyad`. The 61-year-old actress was recently shortlisted for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role accolade for her work on `Nyad,` an biographical sports drama film about swimmer Diana Nyad`s multiple attempts in the early 2010s to swim the Straits of Florida, with flashbacks to her early life. Jodie, whose first nomination was for `Taxi Driver` in 1976,…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeDanielle Brooks knows how you’re meant to react to an Oscar nomination. The tears. The shock. The “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it,” the Orange Is the New Black star mimics, dryly. “But,” she says, “I do believe it. This has been a culmination of so many years of hard work and patience; not getting discouraged, not quitting.”The 34-year-old is speaking from New Zealand, where she’s…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThe Oscar-nominated hit film Past Lives has just been added to Netflix UK.Korean-Canadian writer and director Celine Song’s debut movie is nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at next month’s Oscars, while its star Teo Yoo is up for Best Actor at the Baftas. The hugely acclaimed film was released in UK cinemas in September, but now it’s available to watch on Netflix…