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      In Zoe Saldaña, a Choreographer Finds His Dream Dancer

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      The Academy Award-nominated actress discovers her inner dancer in “Emilia Pérez” with the help of the choreographer Damien Jalet.Zoe Saldaña is an actress, but buried inside her is a highly trained dancer. This has always been obvious to me; the film “Emilia Pérez” has made it clear to the world. Finally, Saldaña — a devoted ballet student through her childhood and teenage years — can be recognized for the force that she is: an extraordinary mover.All actors use their bodies, but Saldaña has long been on another plane. She doesn’t just interpret characters, she moves through them with such salient physicality that her body often has as much to say as the dialogue she speaks. Even in the TV series “Lioness,” in which she plays a fierce Central Intelligence Agency officer, her body guides her like a coiled spring — a taut, muscular vessel of strength and sensitivity.In Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” with choreography by Damien Jalet, Saldaña’s dancing is front and center. And it is a meaningful part of why her portrayal of Rita, a Mexican lawyer helping a cartel boss with gender confirmation surgery, earned an Academy Award nomination.Jalet should have been nominated, too, but there are no Oscars for choreography. Yet his contribution is immeasurable. The story of “Emilia Pérez” is unorthodox enough; even more unconventional is the way it unfolds through music and dance. The songs’ merit is questionable; they employ, at times, employ the worst kind of Broadway-musical talk-singing. But Jalet’s choreography — sometimes invisibly, sometimes clearly — grounds the film.In “Emilia Pérez,” dance is the pathway for Saldaña’s character to become more outspoken, more comfortable in her body.Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 — WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS — PATHÉ FILMS — FRANCE 2 CINÉMA 2024.Jalet has a partner in Saldaña whose speed and exactness in gestural vocabulary electrify scenes without falling into the sketchy territory of mime. In a film about physical transformation, dance is the pathway for Saldaña’s character to become more outspoken, more comfortable in her skin. And dance has accomplished another transformation for Saldaña, the actress, by opening eyes to her range and radiance. Her precision is stunning.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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      A Guide to the Documentary Oscar Nominees

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      A quick guide to the nominated films and why you should watch them.Since the best documentary feature category was first established at the Oscars in 1942, the nominees have been like a snapshot of the year: wars and social concerns, heroes and headlines. This year is no exception. On paper, each of the five nominees look as if they’re ripped from the headlines, chosen for some metric like “urgency” or “timeliness.”But these are no ordinary documentaries. In the past decade, the Academy has gotten much better about nominating nonfiction films that stretch and push at their boundaries, challenging audiences in how they convey their subject matter. Most opt to confront world events through intensely personal stories, and all of them carefully show why their individual stories have far-reaching implications.So, as the 2025 Oscars are upon us, here’s a quick guide to the nominated films and why you should watch them.With “Black Box Diaries” (streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime), the director Shitori Ito takes a courageously personal approach to her biting critique of the handling of sexual assault cases in Japan. In 2017, Ito held a news conference to announce allegations that a prominent Japanese journalist had raped her. In the documentary, she chronicles the fallout of that accusation. The film is both intimate and enraging. As Manohla Dargis wrote in her review, it’s “a tense and tangled crime story, one in which Ito is at once the victim, lead investigator, dogged prosecutor and crusading reporter.”My colleagues and I have written about “No Other Land” (in select theaters) a lot during the past year. It’s probably the most acclaimed documentary of the year, centering on the lives of families who have witnessed their homes, in the occupied West Bank region of Masafer Yatta, be demolished over and over again. Despite its obviously timely story and a directorial team of two Palestinian and two Israeli filmmakers, it hasn’t been able to secure a distribution deal in the United States, which is why it isn’t available to stream here. If you can see it in a theater, don’t overlook how well it’s made, mixing home video archives, journalistic footage and conversations between the filmmakers to powerful effect.“Porcelain War” (in select theaters) has picked up a raft of awards from guilds and critics this season. It, too, looks through the lens of the personal to tell an urgent story — this one about the war in Ukraine. The film centers on Slava Leontyev, who directed the film with Brendan Bellomo, and who is a ceramist as well as a member of a Ukrainian special forces unit. Art and warfare blend in the film, which melds GoPro footage from the battlefield with looks at Leontyev’s work, finally landing on a hopeful note about the value of beauty in darkness.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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      Gene Hackman, Hollywood’s Consummate Everyman, Dies at 95

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      Gene Hackman, who never fit the mold of a Hollywood movie star but became one all the same, playing seemingly ordinary characters with deceptive subtlety, intensity and often charm in some of the most noted films of the 1970s and ’80s, has died, the authorities in New Mexico said on Thursday. He was 95.Mr. Hackman and his wife were found dead on Wednesday afternoon at the home in Santa Fe., N.M., where they had been living, according to a statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. The cause of death was unclear and under investigation. Sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of Mr. Hackman; his wife, Betsy Arakawa; and a dog, according to the statement, which said that foul play was not suspected.Mr. Hackman was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two during a 40-year career in which he appeared in films seen and remembered by millions, among them “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The French Connection,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Unforgiven,” “Superman,” “Hoosiers” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”The familiar characterization of Mr. Hackman was that he was Hollywood’s perfect Everyman. But perhaps that was too easy. His characters — convict, sheriff, Klansman, steelworker, spy, minister, war hero, grieving widower, submarine commander, basketball coach, president — defied pigeonholing, as did his shaded portrayals of them.Still, he did not deny that he had a regular-Joe image, nor did he mind it. He once joked that he looked like “your everyday mine worker.” And he did seem to have been born middle-aged: slightly balding, with strong but unremarkable features neither plain nor handsome, a tall man (6-foot-2) more likely to melt into a crowd than stand out in one.It was Mr. Hackman’s gift to be able to peel back the layers from characters who carried the weight of middle age.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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      Oscars 2025: Print Your Ballot to Make Your Predictions

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      The New York Times
      2025 Oscars Ballot
      Best Picture
      ☐ “Anora”
      “The Brutalist”
      ☐ “A Complete Unknown”
      ☐ “Conclave”
      “Dune: Part Two”
      ☐ “Emilia Pérez❞
      ☐ “I’m Still Here”
      ☐ “Nickel Boys”
      “The Substance”
      ☐ “Wicked”
      Best Director
      ☐ Jacques Audiard,
      “Emilia Pérez❞
      ☐ Sean Baker,
      “Anora”
      ☐ Brady Corbet,
      “The Brutalist”
      ☐ Coralie Fargeat,
      “The Substance”
      ☐ James Mangold,
      “A Complete Unknown”
      Best Actor
      Adrien Brody,
      “The Brutalist”
      Timothée Chalamet,
      “A Complete Unknown”
      ☐ Colman Domingo,
      “Sing Sing”
      ☐ Ralph Fiennes,
      “Conclave”
      ☐ Sebastian Stan,
      “The Apprentice”
      Best Actress
      ☐ Cynthia Erivo,
      “Wicked”
      ☐ Karla Sofía Gascón,
      “Emilia Pérez”
      Mikey Madison,
      “Anora”
      ☐ Demi Moore,
      “The Substance”
      ☐ Fernanda Torres,
      “I’m Still Here”
      Best Supporting Actor
      ☐ Yura Borisov,
      “Anora”
      ☐ Kieran Culkin,
      “A Real Pain”
      ☐ Edward Norton,
      “A Complete Unknown”
      ☐ Guy Pearce,
      “The Brutalist”
      Jeremy Strong,
      “The Apprentice”
      Best Supporting Actress
      ☐ Monica Barbaro,
      “A Complete Unknown”
      ☐ Ariana Grande,
      “Wicked”
      ☐ Felicity Jones,
      “The Brutalist”
      ☐ Isabella Rossellini,
      “Conclave”
      ☐ Zoe Saldaña,
      “Emilia Pérez❞
      Original Screenplay
      ☐ “Anora”
      “The Brutalist”
      ☐ “A Real Pain”
      ☐ “September 5”
      “The Substance”
      Adapted Screenplay
      “Conclave”
      ☐ “A Complete Unknown”
      “Emilia Pérez❞
      “Nickel Boys”
      “Sing Sing”
      Animated Feature
      ☐ “Flow”
      ☐ “Inside Out 2”
      “Memoir of a Snail”
      “Wallace & Gromit:
      Vengeance Most Fowl”
      “The Wild Robot”
      Production Design
      ☐ “The Brutalist”
      ☐ “Conclave”
      ☐ “Dune: Part Two”
      ☐ “Nosferatu”
      “Wicked”
      Costume Design
      ☐ “A Complete Unknown”
      ☐ “Conclave”
      ☐ “Gladiator II”
      “Nosferatu”
      “Wicked”
      Cinematography
      “The Brutalist”
      “Dune: Part Two”
      ☐ “Emilia Pérez❞
      ☐ “Maria”
      ☐ “Nosferatu”
      Editing
      ☐ “Anora”
      “The Brutalist”
      “Conclave”
      “Emilia Pérez”
      “Wicked”
      Makeup and Hairstyling
      “A Different Man”
      “Emilia Pérez”
      “Nosferatu”
      “The Substance”
      ☐ “Wicked”
      Sound
      ☐ “A Complete Unknown”
      “Dune: Part Two”
      “Emilia Pérez❞
      “Wicked”
      ☐ “The Wild Robot”
      Visual Effects
      “Alien: Romulus”
      “Better Man”
      “Dune: Part Two”
      “Kingdom of the
      Planet of the Apes”
      ☐ “Wicked”
      Original Score
      “The Brutalist”
      “Conclave”
      “Emilia Pérez❞
      “Wicked”
      “The Wild Robot”
      Original Song
      ☐ “El Mal”
      (“Emilia Pérez”)
      “The Journey”
      (“The Six Triple Eight”)
      “Like a Bird”
      (“Sing Sing”)
      “Mi Camino”
      (“Emilia Pérez”)
      “Never Too Late”
      (“Elton John: Never Too Late”)
      Documentary Feature
      “Black Box Diaries”
      ☐ “No Other Land”
      “Porcelain War”
      “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
      “Sugarcane”
      International Feature
      ☐ “I’m Still Here,” Brazil
      ☐ “The Girl With the
      Needle,” Denmark
      ☐ “Emilia Pérez,” France
      ☐ “The Seed of the
      Sacred Fig,” Germany
      ☐ “Flow,” Latvia
      Animated Short
      ☐ “Beautiful Men”
      “In the Shadow of the Cypress”
      “Magic Candies”
      “Wander to Wonder”
      ☐ “Yuck!”
      Documentary Short
      ☐ “Death by Numbers”
      “I Am Ready, Warden”
      “Incident”
      “Instruments of a
      Beating Heart”
      ☐ “The Only Girl in
      the Orchestra”
      Live-Action Short
      “A Lien”
      “Anuja”
      “I’m Not a Robot”
      “The Last Ranger”
      ☐ “The Man Who Could
      Not Remain Silent” More

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      How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars

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      Yura Borisov, who is nominated for an Academy Award on Sunday, is pulling off a rare feat: pleasing audiences at home in Russia as well as in the West.On the face of it, the Russian actor Yura Borisov was an unlikely actor to land an Oscar nomination in 2025.Just a few years ago he played a guileless soldier in a Kremlin-sponsored movie that celebrated a Soviet tank model. Later, he starred in a biopic of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who invented the Russian automatic rifle.But after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he stopped playing in militaristic movies. Last year, Western audiences fell in love with him as a tight-lipped but sentimental mafia errand boy in “Anora,” a Brooklyn-based indie dramedy about a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch.At the Academy Awards on Sunday, Borisov is up for best supporting actor for the role.The war in Ukraine cut many Russian artists off from the West, but Borisov has been among the few who managed to transcend the dividing lines. He has continued a career in Russia, without endorsing or condemning the war, while in the West, he has evaded being seen as a representative of state-sponsored Russian culture.“Borisov hasn’t picked a side,” said Anton Dolin, a leading Russian film critic. “Maybe he is just very smart, or maybe he thinks he is not smart enough,” Dolin said by phone from Riga, Latvia, where he now lives in exile.“It doesn’t matter,” Dolin added. “His behavior and strategy have been impeccable.”Borisov at the BAFTA Film Awards in London this month. Over the past weeks, he has been on the road campaigning for awards for “Anora” and attending ceremonies.Andy Rain/EPA, via ShutterstockWe 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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      Oscars 2025 Predictions: Who Will Win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

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      The best picture race has been full of twists and turns. The best actress race is closely contested. Our expert predicts which films and artists will get trophies on Sunday.Best PictureMark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in “Anora.”Neon✓ “Anora”“The Brutalist”“A Complete Unknown”“Conclave”“Dune: Part Two”“Emilia Pérez”“I’m Still Here”“Nickel Boys”“The Substance”“Wicked”After a few years where the best picture winner was practically ordained from the start of the season, at least this race has given us some twists and turns.First, there was the saga of “Emilia Pérez,” which led the field with a near-record 13 nominations but collapsed in controversy after the unearthing of disparaging tweets by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón. Then “Anora,” a front-runner that was utterly shut out at January’s Golden Globes, scored top prizes from the producers, directors and writers guilds.Those wins usually presage a best picture victory, especially because the producers guild uses a preferential ballot similar to the Academy’s. But in the late going, another contender began to surge as “Conclave” took the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (where “Anora” was once again shut out) as well as best film honors at the BAFTAs, the British equivalent to the Oscars.One thing gives me pause, though: If “Conclave” had the sort of across-the-board Academy support that a best picture winner can usually count on, it shouldn’t have missed out on slam-dunk Oscar nominations for directing and cinematography. “Anora” earned all the nominations it needed to, and its guild spread is hard to argue with, so that’s the film I project will win.Best DirectorJacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”✓ Sean Baker, “Anora”Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”Baker picked up the DGA trophy but has strong competition from Corbet, who won best director at the BAFTAs. Still, I suspect the Academy will embrace “Anora” in both of the top categories. It helps that Baker has turned every acceptance speech he’s made this season into an upbeat rallying cry for theatrical independent filmmaking.Best ActorAdrien Brody in “The Brutalist.”Lol Crawley/A24✓ Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”Brody has been collecting prizes all season, though his reign was halted last weekend when Chalamet scored a last-minute SAG win. But Chalamet faces headwinds from an Academy that remains stubbornly resistant to recognizing young men: No one under 30 has ever won the best actor Oscar except for Brody himself, who notched his win for “The Pianist” at age 29. Come Sunday, he’ll add a second Oscar to the mantel.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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      Conan O’Brien on his Oscars Hosting Gig

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      Conan O’Brien is not a cynic — at least not when it comes to the Oscars, which he is hosting for the first time on Sunday. The Emmy-winning comedian, podcaster, traveler and movie buff is genuinely excited — “I get to do this!” he enthused — but also thoroughly worried.“It’s the thing I wake up and think about at night: What’s the best way to tackle this? How? In a way that makes me creatively happy?” he said.Since he accepted the job late last year, O’Brien, 61, has had an emotionally taxing few months. In December, his parents, who were in their 90s, died three days apart, in his childhood home in Massachusetts. Not long after the double funeral, just as he was settling back in Los Angeles to work on the Oscars, the fires started there, and his home was evacuated. When his wife called to ask what to save, his only thought was of a 1980 letter from the author and essayist E.B. White. O’Brien had written to him, as a teenage fan, “and he wrote me back a really sweet letter,” O’Brien said. “So I said, just grab that. And if the rest goes, it goes.”He is still living in a hotel, where he has hung the letter on a wall, he said in a video interview from his office on Monday. The conversation was discursive — pensive and funny. Though he hosted the Emmys twice (most recently in 2006), he has never attended the Oscars. “This was the only way I could get invited,” he joked.His preparation has included bringing in 10 of his own writers to work with Oscar-night stalwarts, running jokes by the crew, and dropping in at clubs in Los Angeles to try out material. “I started seriously writing comedy around the time I was 18,” he said, “and it’s what I think about all the time.” Yet even for him, there is no formula. “It’s frustrating, but it’s not math. You can’t prove it. The only way to find out is to try it on people.”“This was the only way I could get invited,” O’Brien joked about his hosting duties.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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      Ready for Their Close-Ups at the Oscar Nominees Dinner

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      On Tuesday night, over 100 Oscar nominees gathered at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles for a class photo in the David Geffen Theater.Demi Moore, left, who starred in “The Substance,” and Cynthia Erivo, center, who starred in “Wicked,” are both vying for a best actress Oscar. Zoe Saldaña, right, is nominated in the best supporting actress category for her role in “Emilia Pérez.” In the upper left corner of the group, seated two rows above Timothée Chalamet, Ralph Fiennes clasped his hands and looked deep in thought, as though he were still pondering matters of papal importance in “Conclave.” Grouped together in the front row, the Oscar-nominated actresses Zoe Saldaña, Mikey Madison, Monica Barbaro, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande formed a power quintet. “Everyone say ‘Oscar nominee!’” Erivo crowed as the flashbulbs went off.Ariana Grande is competing for a best supporting actress award for her role in “Wicked.”Still, with so many A-list filmmakers in the frame, there was bound to be someone who asked for another take. Here, it was the “Dune: Part Two” auteur Denis Villeneuve, who noted that the best director nominee James Mangold (“A Complete Unknown”) had the misfortune of arriving in the theater just after the class photo had been snapped.Jeremy Strong is nominated in the best supporting actor category for his role in “The Apprentice.”“Can we take a picture again?” asked Villeneuve.Sebastian Stan is competing for a best actor Oscar for his turn in “The Apprentice.”Academy president Janet Yang granted his wish, though she noted good-naturedly, “No more stragglers.”Isabella Rossellini is a best supporting actress nominee for her performance in “Conclave.”Typically, the nominees would have gathered earlier this month for the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, an event that was canceled this year as the academy reshuffled its schedule because of the Los Angeles wildfires. In its place, the nominees were invited to a cocktail hour and dinner held just days before this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.Mikey Madison is up for a best actress award for her role in “Anora.” Over cocktails before the class photos were taken, the “Sing Sing” star Colman Domingo chatted with the “Nickel Boys” director RaMell Ross, while Grande hugged the journalist Tracy Gilchrist, who had conducted the widely memed “holding space” interview with her and Erivo. Nearby, the “Substance” director Coralie Fargeat was engaged in a deep conversation with Jane Fonda, who had inspired the character played by Demi Moore in the film.Demi Moore is a best actress nominee for her turn in “The Substance.”With Oscar voting long concluded, the night’s schmoozing felt more fraternal than frantic. There were no winners and losers, nor campaigns to still be waged. Instead, there was free-flowing champagne and conversation, and best of all, none of it had to fit into an acceptance speech or commercial break.Timothée Chalamet is nominated in the best actor category for “A Complete Unknown.”Ralph Fiennes is vying for a best actor award for his performance in “Conclave.”Cynthia Erivo is nominated in the best actress category for her role in “Wicked.”Sean Baker is a best director nominee for his film “Anora.”Monica Barbaro is nominated in the best supporting actress category for “A Complete Unknown.”Diane Warren is nominated for the original song “The Journey” from the film “The Six Triple Eight.” Adrien Brody is up for a best actor award for his performance in “The Brutalist.”The director Denis Villeneuve, whose film “Dune: Part Two” is up for best picture. More