Academy Awards (Oscars)

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      ‘No Other Land,’ Whose Politics Deterred Distributors, Wins Best Documentary

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      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

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      Trump and Politics Were Largely Absent From the Oscars

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      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

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      ‘Anora’ Wins Best Picture During a Dominant Night at the Oscars

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      “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

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      ‘I’m Still Here’ Wins Oscar for Best International Feature

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      The Brazilian film “I’m Still Here,” based on the true story of an activist whose dissident politician husband disappeared at the hands of a military government, won the Academy Award for best international feature.Directed by Walter Salles, the movie was a blockbuster in Brazil, where many remember the legacy of the military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. The film is based on a memoir of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva: the son of Eunice Paiva, the film’s main character, and Rubens Paiva, her politician husband who disappeared after being arrested in a 1971 military raid of the Paiva house.“This goes to a woman who, after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime, decided not to bend and to resist,” Salles said while accepting the award. “This prize goes to her. Her name is Eunice Paiva. And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her: Fernanda Torres, and Fernanda Montenegro.”The film’s lead actress, Torres, won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama in a surprise victory in January and was also nominated for the best actress Oscar, but lost to Mikey Madison of “Anora.” Torres was the second Brazilian actress to receive a nod for that prize: The first was her mother, Montenegro, a grande dame of Brazilian film who plays an older version of her daughter’s character in “I’m Still Here.” She was nominated in 1999 for “Central Station,” also directed by Salles.“I’m Still Here” won in a category that included France’s entry, the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” which was once an Oscars front-runner; the Danish social drama “The Girl With the Needle”; the wordless Latvian animated film “Flow”; and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a film shot in secret in Iran and submitted by Germany.“I’m Still Here” is also nominated for best picture, making it the first Brazilian-produced film to compete for the top prize at the Oscars. More

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      Adrien Brody Wins Oscar for Best Actor for ‘The Brutalist’

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      Adrien Brody has won his second Oscar, this time for playing the fictional Hungarian architect László Tóth in the three-and-a-half-hour epic “The Brutalist.” The win on Sunday came 22 years after Brody received the best actor trophy for his work in “The Pianist,” which made him the youngest performer to ever receive that award. Both “The Brutalist” and “The Pianist” center on Holocaust survivor characters played by Brody.“Acting is a very fragile profession,” Brody said after accepting the award. “It looks very glamorous, and in certain moments it is. But the one thing that I’ve gained, having the privilege to come back here, is to have some perspective.”“No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away,” he continued. “I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that and the gratitude that I have to still do the work that I love.”“The Brutalist” charts László’s arrival in America after World War II, where he meets a wealthy industrialist (Guy Pearce) who enlists him to build a massive institute in Pennsylvania. Throughout the film’s awards run, Brody has spoken about his connection to the role through his mother, the photographer Sylvia Plachy, who was born in Hungary and lost relatives in the concentration camps.“I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” Brody said in a speech that saw the orchestra start to play music in an attempt to get him to conclude before he appealed to let him keep talking.“And I believe that I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world,” he continued. “And I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”But Brody’s campaign also weathered some controversy when it emerged that the film used artificial intelligence to improve the dialogue spoken in Hungarian. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Brody said: “Obviously, his postproduction process only touched some lines spoken in Hungarian. Nothing of the dialect was altered.”Despite the social media hubbub, Brody was the favorite to win the Oscar. He also won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Critics Choice Award. More

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      Morgan Freeman Honors Gene Hackman at Oscars

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      Morgan Freeman honored Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards on Sunday, opening the telecast’s in memoriam segment by saying that the film community had “lost a giant.”Last week, Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in their home in New Mexico. In recent days, the question of how they died has consumed Hollywood and bewildered the community of Santa Fe.Freeman appeared with Hackman in the 1992 western “Unforgiven,” which won Hackman his second Oscar, and the 2000 thriller “Under Suspicion.”“Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work,” Freeman said.Calling Hackman a “dear friend,” Freeman noted that the actor often said that he did not think about his legacy but hoped that people would remember him “as someone who tried to do good work.”“So I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more,” Freeman said.The producers of the telecast had only a few days to decide how they would honor one of the giants of acting. On Wednesday, law enforcement found Mr. Hackman’s body in the mud room of his home outside Santa Fe, next to his cane and sunglasses. Ms. Arakawa’s body was discovered in a bathroom, near an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the countertop.An examination of Mr. Hackman’s pacemaker indicated that the actor had died on Feb. 17, the Santa Fe County sheriff said. A detective wrote in an affidavit that Ms. Arakawa’s body had shown signs of decomposition and that Mr. Hackman showed signs of death “similar and consistent” with his wife.It could take weeks or longer for investigators to piece together a timeline as they interview the couple’s contacts and wait for toxicology results and autopsy reports. More

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      Halle Berry and Adrien Brody Recreate Famous Oscars Kiss on Red Carpet

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      Plenty of kisses were shared on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday night — but none could have been as nostalgic as the moment Adrien Brody and Halle Berry locked lips.More than two decades after Brody planted a shocking kiss on Berry at the 2003 Oscars after winning the best actor statuette for his role in “The Pianist,” she returned the favor in grand fashion as onlookers cheered. The moment, captured by Access Hollywood, quickly spread across social media.“That was one hell of a night for him, and for me as well,” Berry told Variety after smooching Brody, who is nominated for best actor for his role in “The Brutalist.” “Tonight I had to pay him back.”A reunion 22 years in the making. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/MkaF2xb6SE— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 2, 2025

      Berry told the outlet that she had seen Brody around Hollywood at various parties, but Sunday night was the first time in decades that they had seen each other on a red carpet.“He’s nominated this year,” she said. “He deserved that.”Their kiss onstage in 2003 made headlines and has become one of the most talked about Oscar moments in history.After kissing Berry that night, Brody quipped, “I bet they didn’t tell you that was in the gift bag.”Over the years, both actors have discussed the moment at length. On “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” in 2017, Berry said that the kiss was not planned and that she was as shocked as everyone else.Berry said that she went along with it “because I was there the year before, and I know the feeling of being out of your body.” Berry made history in 2002 for her role in “Monster’s Ball,” becoming the first Black woman to win an Oscar for best actress.Brody also revisited the kiss in a profile with Variety last month. “We live in a very conscious time, which is a wonderful thing,” he said. “And nothing that I ever do or have done or would’ve done is ever done with the intention of making anyone feel bad.” More

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      Oscars 2025 Winners: Updating List

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      The winning actors, directors, pictures and more at the 97th annual Academy Awards.The race to the Oscars has been more of a marathon than a sprint, with a few surprises, controversies and plenty of analysis along the way. Our awards columnist Kyle Buchanan has made his predictions, but tonight we find out which movies will take home the gold.Conan O’Brien has hosting duties, and even though this is a movie awards show, Doja Cat, Raye and Queen Latifah are set to perform. (The “Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande plan to take the stage, as well.)The ceremony is live from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, being broadcast on ABC and streaming on Hulu.Follow along as we update the list of winners.Kieran Culkin won the award for best supporting actor.Philip Cheung for The New York TimesBest Supporting ActorKieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”Read our profile.Nominees in this category: Yura Borisov, “Anora”;Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”; Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”; Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice” More