Innholdsfortegnelse for Award Special 43A, December 16, 2021 i The Hollywood Reporter

“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. That’s what I was put here to do.”WILL SMITH The King Richard star, to Interview magazine, reflecting on why he performs and what inspires him to keep coming back to it. “Meryl Streep was our last choice.”JENNIFER LAWRENCE The Don’t Look Up star, to Vanity Fair, joking that “so many other actresses had passed” on Streep’s role in the Netflix film. “Who the fuck cares about Adam McKay?”ADAM MCKAY The Don’t Look Up director, to Vanity Fair, musing about the fading concept of celebrity, particularly in regard to himself. “This poor guy had to tell Lin-Manuel Miranda every day not to sing.”ALEXANDRA SHIPP The Tick, Tick … Boom! star, to Town and Country magazine, remembering that the movie’s castmembers couldn’t sing too closely to…

In 1975, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who died Dec. 9 at age 93, was the first woman to be nominated for a directing Oscar. Eighteen years later, Jane Campion became the second, for her 1993 period drama The Piano. The film follows a mute Scottish woman (Holly Hunter) who is sold into marriage by her father and moves to New Zealand with her daughter (Anna Paquin). Campion lost to Steven Spielberg, who earned his first directing award (for Schindler’s List). But, like Wertmüller, Campion was nominated for original screenplay, which she won. Campion told the crowd, “When I was a student … I used to feel deeply cynical about awards nights like this. But tonight I’m really overwhelmed — in fact, I’ve been close to tears a few times. I’m…

Asghar Farhadi is a brilliant writer and director who at just 49 is already among the most accomplished filmmakers ever to emerge from Iran. The Hollywood Reporter has said that his films have “revolutionized new Iranian cinema, pulling it out of the much beaten path of realism pioneered by directors like Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and onto a new, highly dramatized and theatrical road.” His films explore contemporary life’s complexities and moral dilemmas via brilliant screenplays that the Los Angeles Times has compared to a Russian doll, with “stories that are inside each other,” and that NPR has likened to an onion: “You peel one layer and there’s another layer fresh, ready for you.” Five of the nine features he has directed were chosen by Iran to represent it…

BEST PICTURE Sian Heder’s charming portrait of a hearing girl from an otherwise deaf family — the film swept Sundance this year en route to a record-breaking distribution deal with Apple — was a surprise inclusion on the top 10 list announced Dec. 8 by the American Film Institute. This black-and-white take on the Shakespeare classic, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand under the direction of McDormand’s husband, Joel Coen, brought more good news for Apple — and co-distributor A24 — when it landed in the AFI top 10. Amazon was shut out of the AFI top 10 list, even though most people thought that this Aaron Sorkin-directed behind-the-scenes portrait of a week in the lives of I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem)…

STUDIO Amazon RELEASE DATE Dec. 10 CAST Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda BEING THE RICARDOS Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star in writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s behind-the-scenes drama set during one rocky week of production on I Love Lucy REVIEWED BY DAVID ROONEY ON DEC. 7 Hollywood adores few things more than a Hollywood story, so there should be no shortage of folks nostalgic for bygone studio days, ready to eat up Being the Ricardos. But this chronicle of a fraught week in the production of CBS’ phenomenally popular 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy, and the personal and professional lives of its married stars, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, arguably is as much about Aaron Sorkin as his celebrated subjects. From the walk-and-talks to the smug swipes at almost…