Aurelia Butler
More stories
- in Music
A Jazz Quintet Bubbling With Good Vibes? Meet the Women of Artemis.
The pianist Renee Rosnes formed the group in 2016, and it has evolved into a five-piece drawn from different nations and generations with a common goal.The multinational, intergenerational jazz quintet Artemis is, as they might say, bubbling. Last fall, it topped Downbeat magazine’s reader’s poll as jazz group of the year for the second time running. On Friday, the band released its third album, “Arboresque,” which captures both the hard-bop strut of the most beloved 1960s recordings by its storied label, Blue Note Records, as well as Artemis’s own fresh take on jazz tradition.“We’re not here to prove anything,” said the pianist Renee Rosnes, 62, the group’s musical director and, in her words, “organizational force.” “We’re just playing music together, in conversation, with reverence for each other.”At the suggestion of a French promoter, Rosnes formed Artemis in 2016 to perform concerts in Paris and Luxembourg for International Women’s Day. “I never had such a proclivity to put together a band of all female musicians before,” she said. “But here’s a lot of players that I love.”She assembled an all-star septet, featuring the trumpeter Ingrid Jensen — who named the group for the Greek goddess of the hunt and wilderness — the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, the bassist Linda May Han Oh, the clarinetist Anat Cohen, the saxophonist Melissa Aldana and the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. “I love their playing, and who they are,” Rosnes said, “and I thought it could be fun.”“We’re not here to prove anything,” Rosnes said. “We’re just playing music together, in conversation, with reverence for each other.”Scott Rossi for The New York TimesIt was fun, of course — and a commercial draw. A European tour in 2017 introduced the group’s permanent rhythm section (Allison Miller on drums and Noriko Ueda on bass), and Don Was, the president of Blue Note, signed Artemis on the spot after its set at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2018, a performance preserved on NPR’s “Jazz Night in America” program.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
Oscars 2025’s Unforgettable Looks: Ariana Grande, Zoe Saldana, Halle Berry
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday was the end of an awards season that lost some of its luster because of tragic wildfires and controversies surrounding certain nominated films. But, for the most part, the heaviness in the air did not dim the sparkle of the season’s red carpets — and the custom “Academy Red” rug that stars paraded down at the Oscars was no exception.The occasion known as Hollywood’s biggest night had stars pulling out all the stops. Some turned heads in brilliant colors: saturated reds and blues, for instance, as well as pastel yellows and pinks. Others shone in metallic finery that shimmered with each step they took. And many who went with understated tuxedos or gowns made them more special with sparkly jewelry.Of all the fabulous attire, these 21 ensembles took the cake when it came to looks at the Oscars that won’t soon be forgotten.Emma Stone: Most Glazed!Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesA piece of fine porcelain came to mind upon seeing the actress in her pale Louis Vuitton dress covered in glassy sequins.Michelle Yeoh: Most Smurfette!Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
Sean Baker Wins Best Director Oscar for ‘Anora’
Whoever won the prize for best director on Sunday night was going to receive a first directing Oscar, but no nominee has labored as a filmmaker more single-mindedly for a longer time than Sean Baker, the creative force behind “Anora.”By winning the Oscars for director, original screenplay, film editing and best picture (as a producer), Baker tied the record for most Oscars won by an individual in one year with a very famous name. Walt Disney won four awards for four different films in 1954, none of them particularly well remembered today.“Anora,” a Cinderella story that foregrounds hot topics like class, immigration and global capitalism through the story of a stripper who initially accepts money for sex, is in many ways typical of Baker’s oeuvre. Like several of his past movies, including “Tangerine” (2015) and “The Florida Project” (2017), it blends comedy and drama, depicts sex workers sympathetically and makes copious use of nonprofessional actors.But “Anora” signaled Baker’s mainstream recognition. Nearly a year ago, the film won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival; more recently, it picked up top prizes from the directors and producers guilds. On Sunday, the movie’s star, Mikey Madison, received the Oscar for lead actress.Baker beat out the directors Jacques Audiard, for “Emilia Pérez”; Brady Corbet, for “The Brutalist”; Coralie Fargeat, for “The Substance”; and James Mangold, for “A Complete Unknown.” More
- in Movies
Mikey Madison Wins Best Lead Actress Oscar for ‘Anora’
Mikey Madison, who played a feisty and tenacious sex worker in the movie “Anora,” won the Oscar for best lead actress.It was Madison’s first Oscar nomination.The win was something of an upset; Demi Moore, who has seen a career revival for her dynamic performance as an aging fitness star in “The Substance,” was favored to win her first Oscar for the role.“Anora” — which went on to win the biggest award of the night: best picture — was directed by Sean Baker and revolves around Madison’s character, known as Ani, as she has a whirlwind romance with a Russian oligarch’s son after meeting him at her strip-club gig.The role required feats of physicality, both in performing the job of a dancer in a strip club and in fighting back when the oligarch sends his henchmen to force the couple to annul their Las Vegas marriage.“This is a dream come true — I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow,” Madison said in her acceptance speech, in which she thanked Baker, her family and the movie’s movement consultant, Kennady Schneider, among many others.Madison also underscored the influence that sex workers had on her performance. To study her character, she read memoirs by sex workers, underlining sections of Andrea Werhun’s “Modern Whore.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
‘No Other Land,’ Whose Politics Deterred Distributors, Wins Best Documentary
Accepting the Oscar for best documentary feature on Sunday night, two filmmakers behind “No Other Land,” which chronicles Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank, called on the world to work to help halt the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, free the remaining Israeli hostages captured in “the crime of Oct. 7” and chart a more equitable path forward for Palestinians.“When I look at Basel, I see my brother,” said Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist and one of the filmmakers, referring to his fellow director, the Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who had just spoken. “But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws, that destroy lives, that he cannot control.”Adra said that their film “reflects the harsh reality we have been enduring for decades and still resist, as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”The selection of “No Other Land” for best documentary feature represented a landmark and a rebuke. Despite a string of honors and rave reviews, no distributor would pick up this film in the United States, making it nearly impossible for American filmgoers to see it in theaters or to stream it. This shortcoming made “No Other Land” part of a broader trend in recent years in which topical documentaries have struggled to secure distribution.The film is often brutal, featuring disturbing images of razed houses, crying children, bereft mothers and even on-camera shootings. (Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the government has the right to clear the area depicted in the film.) And it entered a perennially supercharged political climate at an especially sensitive moment, debuting within months of Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s response in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.The politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are especially prominent in Hollywood. Last year, the entertainment executive Ari Emanuel, who is Jewish, drew boos after criticizing Israel’s conservative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, while accepting an award from a major Jewish group in Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Movies
Trump and Politics Were Largely Absent From the Oscars
Washington was an entire country away.At the Academy Awards on Sunday, there were relatively few references to politics. The most direct commentary on President Trump and the upheaval in the capital was an oblique reference by the host of the telecast, Conan O’Brien.“You know, ‘Anora’ is having a good night,” Mr. O’Brien said, referring to the Oscar-winning film about a sex worker’s short-lived romance with the son of a Russian oligarch. One of the movie’s emotional high points is when its working-class protagonist, played by Mikey Madison, dresses down the powerful family.“I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian,” Mr. O’Brien said.The comment was the closest he got to uttering the name of Mr. Trump, whose administration has been dealing with the fallout from his public blowup in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The dispute involved Mr. Trump scolding Mr. Zelensky for his harsh words for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Aside from alluding to the country’s “divisive politics,” Mr. O’Brien also kept Washington at arm’s length during his opening monologue, in which he kept the focus on Hollywood.Daryl Hannah was more direct as she presented the best editing category. “Slava Ukraine,” she said, before moving on to the award at hand.In accepting the award for best supporting actress, Zoe Saldaña hinted at the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands,” she said.The most political moment of the telecast, by far, was the award for best documentary feature, which went to “No Other Land,” an exploration of the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank.During his acceptance speech, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist and one of the filmmakers, called “on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.”Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who directed the film with Adra, said he believed there was a political solution to the conflict that includes national rights “for both of our people.” “And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path,” he said.The Oscars were the latest awards ceremony this year to largely steer clear from politics. Presenters and winners at the Golden Globes avoided the subject, while a few artists alluded to politics onstage during the Grammys.A reference to the president during the Oscars was perhaps most likely in the best actor category, in which Sebastian Stan was nominated for his portrayal of Mr. Trump in “The Apprentice.” Instead, the award went to Adrien Brody for “The Brutalist.” More
- in Movies
‘Anora’ Wins Best Picture During a Dominant Night at the Oscars
“Anora,” a comedy-drama about an exotic dancer who weds a flighty Russian, won best picture at the Oscars on Sunday night, capping a dominant performance for a movie that was far from a box-office smash.In addition to winning the top award as a producer, Sean Baker won Oscars for directing, original screenplay and editing, tying Walt Disney’s record with four competitive Oscars in one year. Mikey Madison also won the award for best actress. (The only category that “Anora” was nominated for but did not win was best supporting actor, in which Yura Borisov lost to Kieran Culkin, who starred in “A Real Pain.”)“Anora” established its award-season bona fides last May, when it won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Still, it did not dominate this season in the manner of the recent best picture winners “Oppenheimer” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”Although “Anora” earned impressive wins with Hollywood’s producers, directors and writers guilds, it was shut out for top awards at the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the BAFTAs.In the best picture category, “Anora” defeated “The Brutalist,” which won three Oscars for best actor (Adrien Brody), cinematography and score. Several other movies in the category earned two Oscars: “Dune: Part Two” (visual effects, sound), “Emilia Pérez” (supporting actress, song) and “Wicked” (production design, costume design).Discounting the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, “Anora” becomes the lowest-earning film to take home the night’s biggest prize.It has collected only $15.6 million since arriving in theaters in October, according to Comscore, which compiles ticketing data. Last year’s best picture winner, “Oppenheimer,” sailed past the $300 million mark. More
