Day: March 12, 2023

Hollywood is gearing up for the 95th Academy Awards, where “Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in the lead nominee and the film industry will hope to move past “the slap” of last year’s ceremony. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Oscars, including when they are, where to watch the live show and this year’s controversies.

When are the Oscars?

The Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EDT and be broadcast live on ABC.

Can you stream the Oscars?

The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. Some of these services offer brief free trials. Here’s what you need to know about how to watch or stream the show live. 

Who is hosting?

Jimmy Kimmel will host for the third time and his first time since 2018. That was also the last Oscars to feature a solo host. The show went hostless for several years after Kimmel’s last outing. Last year, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes hosted as a trio. In an ad for this year’s show styled after “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kimmel made his humble case for being the right person for the job while noting that he can’t get slapped because “I cry a lot.” 

What’s nominated for best picture at the 2023 Oscars?

The 10 movies competing for best picture are: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking.” Here’s a guide to how you can watch them. 

Who is presenting?

Presenters include: Halle Bailey, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Andrew Garfield, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Florence Pugh and Sigourney Weaver. They join a previously announced group including: Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña and Donnie Yen. A third wave was announced Thursday: Halle Berry, Paul Dano, Cara Delevingne, Harrison Ford, Kate Hudson, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Olsen, Pedro Pascal and John Travolta. 

What else is in store for the shoe?

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has said that winners to all categories will be announced live on the show. (Last year, some categories were taped in a pre-show, something that caused an uproar among academy members.) All signs point to a full slate of musical performances, with Rihanna performing “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava singing Chandrabose and M.M. Keeravaani’s “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR.” Nominee Lady Gaga, on the other hand, will not sing “Hold My Hand,” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” during the show. On Monday, show producers announced that Lenny Kravitz will deliver the “In Memoriam” performance. 

Who are the favorites?

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s indie sci-fi hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” comes in with a leading 11 nominations. Close on its heels, though, is the Irish friends-falling-out dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” with nine nods, a total matched by Netflix’s WWI film “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) may have a slight edge on Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) for best actress. Best actor is harder to call, with Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Austin Butler (“Elvis”) in the mix. In the supporting categories, Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) are the frontrunners, though Jamie Lee Curtis’ Screen Actors Guild Awards win may have thrown a wrench into the supporting actress category. Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) may win his third best director Oscar, though the Daniels may have emerged as the frontrunners. AP Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle are predicting a big haul for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” 

What’s been controversial this year?

Aside from the usual snubs and surprises, this year’s biggest to-do has been the debate surrounding Andrea Riseborough’s unexpected nomination for best actress. Riseborough was nominated for the little-seen, Texas-set drama “To Leslie” after many A-list stars rallied around her performance. When two other best-actress contenders — Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola Davis (“Woman King”) — were snubbed, some saw that as a reflection of racial bias in the film industry. The academy launched an inquiry into the star-studded, grassroots campaign for Riseborough but found no reason to rescind her nomination. 

What else should you look for?

Just the reading of the title to one of this year’s short film nominees should prompt a wave of giggles. John Williams (“The Fabelmans”), up for best score, is the oldest nominee ever, at 90 years old. After historic back-to-back best-director wins by Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), no women were nominated this year for best director. Also don’t expect to see Will Smith at the Oscars anytime soon. After striking Chris Rock at last year’s ceremony, Smith was banned by the film academy from attending for 10 years. In a live Netflix special on Saturday, Rock finally punched back at Smith with a blistering stand-up set about the incident. 
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Brent Sass, the defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion, withdrew from this year’s race on Saturday, citing concerns for his health.

Sass scratched at the Eagle Island checkpoint, a statement from the Iditarod said. Eagle Island is about 966 kilometers into the nearly 1,609-kilometer race.

“He didn’t feel he could care for his team due to current concerns with his periodontal health,” the statement said. The condition typically relates to gum disease.

A plane was being sent to Eagle Island to fly Sass off the trail, according to a video posted on the Iditarod Insider webpage.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sad, but it is what it is,” Sass’ father, Mark Sass, told Alaska Public Media. “I just want him to be OK.”

The Iditarod said all 11 dogs on Sass’ team were in good health.

Sass was in the lead when he arrived at the Eagle Island checkpoint late Friday night with an almost four-hour advantage over his nearest competitor, Jessie Holmes of Brushkana.

Holmes was the first musher to leave the Eagle Island checkpoint early Saturday morning. The 40-year-old Alabama native in 2004 moved to Alaska, where he is a carpenter and appears on the National Geographic reality TV show Life Below Zero, about people who live in rural Alaska.

The race started for 33 mushers on March 5 in Willow. It takes the sled dog teams over two mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and the treacherous Bering Sea ice en route to the finish line in Nome. Mushers had to contend with another issue during the first week of competition: Altering their race strategy because of high heat in interior Alaska.

The winner is expected to mush down Nome’s Front Street, a block off the Bering Sea, to the finish line either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Before the competitive start to the race, mushers greeted fans March 4 during a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage and drove auction winners riding in their sleds for a 17.7-kilometer jaunt through the streets of the state’s largest city.

The 33 mushers represented the smallest field ever to start a race, one short of the first race run in 1973.

Since then, three mushers including Sass have withdrawn.
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When Richard McKinney was getting married last year, friends stepped in to help. Bibi Bahrami cooked Afghan dishes — from rice with carrots and raisins to chicken and beef — for the wedding guests. Her husband officiated the Islamic part of the ceremony. 

At first glance, nothing seems unusual about that off-camera wedding scene — until you know the on-camera story of how McKinney and the Bahramis met. The short version is this: Angry and filled with hate for Muslims, the broad-shouldered, tattooed veteran once wanted to bomb the Bahramis’ Islamic Center of Muncie in Indiana and inflict mass casualties on its congregation. 

The longer version of what followed, how the kindness he encountered from congregation members helped change not just his plans but his life’s course, is chronicled in “Stranger at the Gate.” The 30-minute movie is nominated for best documentary short film at the 95th Academy Awards, set for Sunday. 

“We have been friends for years,” Bahrami, a former Afghan refugee and a grandmother of seven (the eighth is on the way), said of McKinney in an interview. “He’s like family at this point.” 

McKinney acknowledged that their unlikely bond is probably “mind-boggling” to many. “This whole journey has been very surreal,” he said. 

His is a story of second chances and transformation. It’s also one of love conquering hate, said “Stranger at the Gate” director Joshua Seftel. 

“It’s easy to feel hopeless these days. When I saw this story, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe there is a reason to believe in humanity,'” Seftel said. “If these two people can be friends, then why can’t any of us?” 

Seftel came across McKinney’s story when he was working on a documentary series titled “Secret Life of Muslims,” featuring American Muslims of diverse backgrounds and seeking to shatter negative stereotypes. 

“It’s easy to hate someone that we don’t know,” Seftel said. “The power of film and storytelling is that you can get to know someone through a film, and it can change the way people think.” 

The inspiration for that series, he said, was rooted in his own memories of antisemitism that he’s encountered and being called names as a Jewish kid. 

“After 9/11, I saw that kind of hate toward Muslims, and I just thought, ‘Maybe I can do something with my film work to try to help,'” he said. 

Bias prevalent

A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in 2021 found that 53% of Americans have unfavorable views toward Islam. 

McKinney was once one of those — fervently so. 

The end of a long military career left him angry, bitter, feeling worthless and drinking too much. His “destiny” to die in combat and return home in a flag-draped coffin a hero never panned out. He would look at himself and wonder who he was. 

He focused his hate on Muslims, some of whom, he said, had been his battlefield enemies when he was serving overseas. 

“My plan was to detonate an IED,” or improvised explosive device, outside the Islamic center on a Friday when worshippers would be gathered, he said in the film. “I was hoping for at least 200 or more, dead, injured.” 

He started going to the mosque in 2009, introducing himself as someone who wanted to learn about Islam. 

“I didn’t trust them. … I figured they would have me in the basement with a sword to my throat,” he recalled in the film. 

In reality, he said, he was welcomed and embraced by congregation members. 

Bahrami, who viewers learn is a fan of country music and whose husband dubbed her “the Mother Teresa of the Muslim community,” recounted comforting McKinney and giving him attention. Eventually, he found the sense of belonging he so craved. 

“I said I need to be Muslim,” McKinney said. 

Today, McKinney and Bahrami say they see the impact of the message behind their story in interactions with audiences after talks or screenings. 

“One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was when somebody told me after seeing the film that ‘you have given me a lot to think about,'” McKinney said. “I want people to think, because we live in a society where, unfortunately, there’s a lot of followers.” 

Someone told him how hearing his story saved him, as it made him think that everyone has a purpose to find. 

Bahrami, who Seftel said shows up at screenings with cookies for the audience, has had people hug her. Some have come up to her with tears, told her she gave them hope and courage or asked if they could “borrow” her for their own community. 

Others have posed a tough question: How did she forgive McKinney? 

She said that when she heard, in disbelief, of the plans McKinney once harbored, she invited him for dinner and asked him what he was thinking. 

“I’m a strong believer,” she said. “I think my faith is a big part of this forgiveness.” 

Another aspect, she added, was the vulnerability she saw in him and how apologetic he was. 

Bahrami recalled how when Seftel approached her to participate in the film, he found her in a coma. While recovering, she considered his request and had one thought: 

“God gave me a second life,” she said, “and if I die again, the story could live.” 
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In the 2022 Elvis film, Tom Hanks’ depiction of Elvis Presley’s real-life former manager, Colonel Tom Parker, is cruel, corrupt, and according to the 2023 Razzie award results, deserving of worst supporting actor and worst screen combo awards.

Before celebrating the best films of the season during the Oscar ceremony Sunday, the Razzie Awards called out the worst Saturday.

Despite the Forrest Gump actor’s legacy of Oscar-winning roles, many critics and fans condemned his performance in Elvis, particularly his accent.

The Razzies named Hanks worst supporting actor and worst screen combo for the actor and his “latex face” in the film.

Joining Hanks, biographical drama Blonde, starring Ana de Armas as Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe “won” Razzies for both worst picture and screenplay. De Armas, however, is in the running for best actress for the role at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

Also taking home a Razzie is Jared Leto, who portrays Michael Morbius, and Adria Arjona, who portrays Dr. Martine Bancroft, in the Sony Marvel film Morbius. Both won for worst actor and worst supporting actress.

The Redeemer Award, which is granted to a previous Razzie contender who’s redeemed themselves following their unfavorable fall to Razzie status, goes to Colin Farrell for the Oscar-nominated film Banshees of Inisherin.

Farrell was nominated in 2004 in the Razzie worst actor category for Winter’s Tale, but as a now 2022 best actor front-runner for his leading role, he has escaped from Razzie prison, possibly rising to Oscar status Sunday.

Finally, the Razzies awarded itself the worst actress award after it nominated 12-year-old Firestarter actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong for a Razzie. After allegations of bullying, Armstrong was later removed from the Razzie ballot.

The Razzies, the self-described “ugly cousin to the Oscars,” started in 1980 as the Golden Raspberry Awards, created by UCLA film school graduates and film industry veterans John J.B. Wilson and Mo Murphy.

More than 1,100 Razzie members from across the United States and about two dozen other countries vote on the awards, according to the Razzie website.
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