Acting isn’t easy – if it were, then everyone would be doing it. The trick to becoming an actor is hard work and diligence. If you are an aspiring actress and wondering how to become a super performer, then there are proven pathways for you to tread. There is no shortcut to success, but some tips will allow you to become a good actress.

Studying the craft

A lot of the acting training is looking and studying the craft. Studying the craft is all about understanding the art and establishing a foundation for developing and building your skill. Acting schools are a vital part of the training too. Schools and training curricula will allow you to learn the ropes of the trade. Keep in mind that your favorite movie stars have sort of formal training from acting schools. If you cannot enroll in a full-time school, consider other options like workshops and local classes. You can also get involved in researching acting books and plays to learn more about the craft of acting.

Multiple auditions

Practice at your training classes and audition as much as you can. Sure, the first few times will be highly nervous for you, but the more you go through it, the better will be your base. Keep in mind you need to develop your memorization skills as well. Therefore, seeking out various acting roles will put you at an advantage. Remember that auditioning is a skill in itself and is a vital part of the training. The more you move up in your career, the auditions will get more demanding – so start early.

Building the perfect resume

Once you start landing roles, you need to put together a resume that you can carry along to future auditions. Your acting resume is the best way to showcase your skills to the casting directors. Always keep a digital copy handy for electronic submissions. Also, make sure to click profile shots and headshots. Headshots are the best way to showcase personality, emotion, and communication abilities. If you can’t hire a professional photographer, then ask your “click-happy” friend to snap a few for you.

Hire an agent

Once you have acquired enough experience about the workings of the industry, it is time for you to research talent agencies to hire the right agent. Talk to your actor friends and your peers to make an informed choice about agencies and agents. You might think that having an agent is a luxury for a beginner, but having one will allow you to focus on your acting career. Your agent will help you with building connections, promotions, and landing roles.

Practice, practice, practice

Understandably, unemployment is a part of life, and you will have dry spells between roles. However, that doesn’t mean that you should let your acting skills dull. Instead, attend classes and workshops; these are the perfect practice grounds for aspiring actors and actresses. Also, you can improve your craft by working with a variety of performers.

Lastly, it is vital to be able to market yourself. Advertise your skills on social media platforms and increase your outreach. All the best!

 

George Segal, a banjo player turned actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1966. ” and worked on the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs” into his late 80s, died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California, according to his wife.

In a tweet, Sonia Segal said, “The family is saddened to announce that George Segal passed away this morning due to complications from bypass surgery.” He was 87 years old when he died.

In the 1970s, when lighthearted adult comedies became popular, George Segal was best known as a comedic actor, becoming one of the biggest stars on television.

His most well-known role, however, was in the harrowing drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” ” is based on the acclaimed play by Edward Albee.

He was the last credited member of the small ensemble, all four of whom earned Academy Award nominations: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for leading roles, Sandy Dennis and Segal for supporting roles. The women received Oscar nominations, but the men did not.

He was best known to younger viewers for his roles as magazine publisher Jack Gallo on the long-running NBC series “Just Shoot Me” from 1997 to 2003, and grandfather Albert “Pops” Solomon on “The Goldbergs” since 2013.

“We have lost a legend today. It was a true joy to be a small part of George Segal’s incredible legacy,” said Adam Goldberg, who based the show on his own childhood in the 1980s. “I ended up casting the right person to play Pops by sheer luck. George, like my grandfather, had a mysterious light in his heart.”

In his heyday in Hollywood, he played a stuffy philosopher opposite Barbra Streisand’s freewheeling prostitute in 1970’s “The Owl and the Pussycat,” a cheating husband opposite Glenda Jackson in 1973’s “A Touch of Class,” a desperate gambler opposite Elliot Gould in director Robert Altman’s 1974 “California Split,” and a bank-robbing suburbanite opposite Jane Fonda in

Segal’s reputation as a handsome leading man had been gradually rising since his first film, 1961’s “The Young Doctors,” in which he had ninth billing. His first leading role was as a nefarious prisoner at a Japanese prison camp during World War II in the film “King Rat.”

 

He played Nick, one half of a young couple invited over for drinks and to see the bitterness and anger of a middle-aged couple, in the film “Virginia Woolf.”

Director Mike Nichols wanted someone who could win Elizabeth Taylor’s approval, and when Robert Redford turned him down, he turned to Segal.

Segal was “close enough to the young god he needed to be for Elizabeth, and clever enough and amusing enough to cope with all the embarrassment,” according to Nichols’ biographer Mark Harris.

Segal died on the same day as Taylor, ten years later.

He rode the film to stardom for a long time. Then, in the late 1970s, “Jaws” and other action films changed the face of Hollywood, and Segal’s light comedies fell out of favor.

In a 1998 interview, he said, “Then I got a little older.” “I began portraying urban fathers. And then that guy morphed into Chevy Chase, and there was nowhere to go after that.”

Segal’s films in the 1980s and 1990s were mostly forgettable, with the exception of the 1989 hit “Look Who’s Talking.” He went on to appear in two failed television dramas, “Take Five” and “Murphy’s Law.”

Then, in 1997, he became famous for his role as Gallo in the David Spade sitcom “Just Shoot Me,” in which he played a man who, despite his gruff demeanor, hires his daughter (Laura San Giacomo) and holds Spade’s useless office boy character on his payroll simply out of love for both.

Many people paid tribute to Segal on Tuesday night, including series co-star Brian Posehn.

Segal’s “Just Shoot Me” Posehn said, “I grew up watching him, absolute old school charm, effortless comedic timing.” “Working on scenes with him was a highlight of my career, but getting to know him and making the legend laugh was much better.”

Segal played the banjo for fun during his long acting career, becoming very accomplished on the instrument he first picked up as a teenager. He performed with the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, which he founded.

Segal started entertaining at the age of eight, performing magic tricks for neighborhood children, and was born in 1934 in Great Neck, New York, the third son of a malt and hops dealer.

He went to a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania and formed “Bruno Linch and His Imperial Band” while at Columbia University, where he also played banjo.

Segal worked at the New York theater Circle in the Square on a non-salaried basis after graduation, doing everything from ticket taking to understudy acting. He studied drama with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen and made his professional acting debut in Moliere’s “Don Juan” off-Broadway for one night.

He was drafted into the Army after appearing on Broadway in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.” After being discharged from the army in 1957, he returned to the stage and started landing small film roles.

Before divorcing in 1981, Segal married Marion Sobel, a television story writer, and they had two children, Elizabeth and Polly.

He married his second wife, Linda Rogoff, in London in 1982 and was heartbroken when she died 14 years later of a stomach disease.

In 1999, he told an interviewer, “There was a time when I said, ‘It’s not adding up; I don’t get it anymore.'” “After Linda died, I became disinterested in everything. I just tried to make a living. Acting, like life, had become a chore.”

He finally reconnected with Sonia Schultz Greenbaum, his high school girlfriend from 45 years ago. They spoke on the phone for up to six hours at a time and married only a few months after reuniting.

“Just listening to me unload helped me get through the hardest days of my life,” Segal said in 1999. “It was awe-inspiring.”

 

It’s a rare year when the majority of Oscar nomination surprises are positive, but 2020 was also a rare year for filmgoing and award promotions. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Netflix, the most popular streaming service, received the most nominations in a year where we watched all from our couches. However, there were a few surprises on Monday morning.

The snubs and surprises in the 93rd Academy Award nominations are listed below.

THEIR TIME HAS COME FOR FEMALE DIRECTORS.

Just five women had ever been nominated for best director in the 92 Academy Awards, and never more than one in the same year. Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” and Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman” are the two nominees this year. This is not shocking because of their quality, but because female directors have a long history of being ignored by the academy. And there’s still room for improvement. There has never been a Black woman nominated for best director (although Regina King’s “One Night in Miami” would have been a deserving first), and only one woman has ever won: Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” in 2009. Maybe by April 25th, the number would have doubled.

FAN FEVER CAN BE USEFUL AT TIMES.

And you felt you were alone in your respect for Maria Bakalova and Paul Raci? This year’s “Sound of Metal” was a Cinderella tale, but no matter how many positive reviews it received, Oscar pundits and moviegoers seemed resigned to the fact that Raci’s breakthrough role as a deaf counselor to Riz Ahmed’s character would be ignored when it came time for Oscar nominations. Bakalova of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” seemed to be an out-of-the-box option for a supporting nomination at first. Oscar voters, after all, have eyes and, more often than not, taste.

WHERE DOES THE LEAD IN ‘JUDAS’ COME FROM?

Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya were both nominated for supporting actor in Warner Bros.’ “Judas and the Black Messiah,” despite the fact that neither Judas nor the Black Messiah was the main character. In the Shaka King film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Kaluuya played Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, and Stanfield played an FBI informant who infiltrated the group in the late 1960s.

Near Earned A RAZZIE AND AN OSCAR NOMINATION

It’s not unusual for Oscar nominees to also receive a Razzie nomination in the same year (think Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side” and “All About Steve”), but it’s rare for the same performance. Glenn Close receives the dubious award this year for her depiction of Mamaw in Ron Howard’s adaptation of J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy.” The Netflix film was widely panned by critics (it currently has a dismal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Close seemed to get away with her no-nonsense, baggy t-shirt wearing grandmother relatively unscathed. Despite being nominated eight times, the 73-year-old has never received an Academy Award.

MISSED BY TOM HANKS

What went wrong for Tom Hanks? He gave one of his best performances in years as a Civil War veteran attempting to reunite a young German girl raised by Native Americans with her distant family in Paul Greengrass’ Western odyssey “News of the World.” With six nominations to his credit, Tom Hanks is one of the most nominated actors of all time, and his back-to-back wins for “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump” made history. Despite being nominated for an Academy Award last year for his role as Fred Rogers, he has failed to make an impact. To be a true snub, one of the best actor candidates (Riz Ahmed, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, and Steven Yeun) will have to be dropped, and I’m not sure any of them should be. Maybe it was just an especially difficult year.

Lift your glass to ‘ANOTHER ROUND.’

Thomas Vinterberg of Denmark snatched one of the coveted five best director awards this year for his film “Another Round,” in which four friends participate in a social experiment to see how their lives would be if they were constantly “buzzed.” The film, which starred Mads Mikkelsen, was well received, but it seemed to be a long shot for the major Oscar categories. In reality, when the directing category was revealed on Monday, Vinterberg said he wasn’t even paying attention. Vinterberg said, “It was a total surprise.” ”Of course, we never saw that coming, which added to the sense of ecstasy and increased the aspect of celebration dramatically.” It was also nominated for best foreign film.

WHERE ARE THE ‘DA 5 BLOODS’?

Maybe Netflix already had too many legitimate Oscar candidates this year, or maybe it came out too early in 2020, but Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” seems to have gotten lost in the mix for no apparent reason. Despite positive reviews, the film about Black Vietnam veterans was completely ignored by the Golden Globes, and it now has only one Oscar nomination: for Terence Blanchard’s score. Delroy Lindo, the film’s lead star, has been overlooked for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations.

 

Chadwick Boseman was nominated for an Academy Award for his last role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” on Monday, half a year after his death.

While the best actor nomination was widely anticipated, it was still historic. Boseman is the first Black actor to be nominated for an Oscar after his death. Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”), and Gary Oldman (“Mank”) were also nominated.

Only James Dean, Spencer Tracy, Peter Finch, Ralph Richardson, Massimo Troisi, and Heath Ledger have been nominated since their deaths. Finch for his performance in 1976’s “Network” and Ledger for his performance in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

Jeanne Eagels’ role in the 1929 film “The Letter” won her a posthumous nomination for the second Academy Awards.

Many believe Boseman will take home the award for his “best performance of his life.” He also won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama last month. Taylor Simone Ledward, Boseman’s widow, accepted the award on his behalf.

Boseman died of colon cancer in August of last year, at the age of 43. Three months later, Netflix released the August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman plays Levee, an ambitious trumpeter whose hopes come crashing down during a recording session at a white-owned record label with Ma Rainey (Viola Davis).

Boseman also starred in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” as a US soldier in the Vietnam War, a role for which he earned critical acclaim. The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominated Boseman posthumously for his roles in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Da 5 Bloods,” both of which he played.
The Academy Awards are covered in detail.

None of Boseman’s collaborators on either film said they were aware of his illness until after his death. In 2016, he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer.

This is Boseman’s first Academy Award nomination.

 

Following a pandemic year that closed theaters and upended the film industry, the Academy Awards nominated two female filmmakers for the first time, a traditionally diverse list of actors, and David Fincher’s lead-nominee “Mank,” a conventional kind of Oscar candidate — an old Hollywood homage — in a rather untraditional year.

Fincher’s black-and-white period drama “Mank,” about “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, comfortably topped nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards, which were postponed two months due to the coronavirus pandemic, with ten nominations, including best picture, best director, acting nominations for Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, and a slew of others for its lavish craftsmanship.

Nominations were granted to a wide range of candidates. “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Nomadland,” “Minari,” “Sound of Metal,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” and “The Father,” all of which are nominated for best picture, earn six nominations. Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” was also nominated for best picture.

In the category of best director, history was made. Just five women have been nominated in the past. This year, there were two for the first time. Chloé Zhao’s elegiac road-trip drama “Nomadland” earned a nomination, as did first-time feature filmmaker Fennell’s pitch black #MeToo revenge comedy. On Twitter, Fennell, who is also up for best screenplay, wrote, “Never going to stop crying.”

Zhao is the most nominated woman in Oscar history, and she is the first woman of color to be nominated for best director. In the best picture category, she was also nominated for the film’s adapted screenplay, editing, and as a director. Lee Isaac Chung for the tender family drama “Minari,” Fincher for “Mank,” and Thomas Vinterberg for his heavy-drinking Danish tragicomedy “Another Round” were the other directing nominees.

It’s the most diverse collection of nominees in the history of the Academy Awards, and a far cry from the all-white acting nominations that sparked the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag five years ago. Nine of the 20 acting nominees are black, including Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Steven Yeun (“Minari”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and Andra Day (“The People vs. Billie Holiday”), as well as supporting nominations for Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”).

Day, who was nominated for her portrayal of Billie Holiday, said, “We have to remember how hard these people have worked.” “We have to accept their abilities.”

“It’s strange hearing your own name,” Ahmed, the first Muslim nominated for best actor, said. “I also silently thanked God and felt grateful.”

Davis earned her fourth Oscar nomination for her role in 2016’s “Fences,” making her the most nominated Black actress in history. Yeun is the first Asian American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Shaka King’s strong Black Panther drama “Judas and the Black Messiah” is the first best-picture nominee of an all-Black producing team (King along with Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King). According to the Academy, a record 70 women were nominated for 76 Oscars.

Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”), Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”), and Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) are the other nominees for best actress. Anthony Hopkins, who stars in the dementia drama “The Father,” is the final best actor nominee.

With moviegoing almost wiped out by the coronavirus, the best-picture winners had a meager $14.1 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada. For the first time, the most coveted awards in Hollywood have gone to films that were almost exclusively seen at home.

In a tweet, Aaron Sorkin, writer-director of “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” said, “We learned a lot of hard lessons last year, but one nice one was that people would find a way to go to the movies, even if they can only go as far as their living rooms.”

Netflix led all studios with 35 nominations, as predicted. The streaming service is still looking for its first best-picture winner, and “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” — a film that Paramount Pictures sold off during the pandemic — are both contenders this year. Netflix was also the most nominated last year, with 24 nominations, but just two wins.

There were also other streamers in the mix. Amazon Studios, in particular, was well-represented, with 12 nominations for “Sound of Metal,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” and “One Night in Miami.” Both Apple TV+ and Disney+ earned their first nominations for “Wolfwalkers,” “Greyhound,” and “Soul,” “Onward,” respectively. Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which attempted to lead a box-office comeback, earned nominations for production design and visual effects.

Presenters Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas announced the nominations from London. Normally, the Academy Awards will have aired by now, but this year they will be broadcast on April 25. The film academy announced Monday that the event would take place at both the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and Union Station, the city’s railway center.

This year’s awards season, which is usually a months-long whirlwind of previews, cocktail parties, and schmoozing, has been completely virtual, depriving the Oscars of any of their hype and predictability. Early 2021 releases were added to the list of eligible films, as well as films that were not released in theaters.

“There is nothing more conventional in our industry than the Academy Awards,” Oldman said in a statement, “which hopefully sends a sign of hope that we can get out of this.” “The Oscars serve as a reminder that normalcy can still exist.”

Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” which was nominated solely for its score, was one of the films hoping for a better showing on Monday. Just eight films were nominated for best picture, with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” and Golden Globe winner “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” being left out.

Despite the film’s lack of a best-picture nomination, Sacha Baron Cohen, who played Borat, was nominated for his supporting role as activist Abbie Hoffman in “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” and “Borat” star Maria Bakalova was nominated for best supporting actress. Glenn Close for “Hillbilly Elegy” and Olivia Colman for “The Father” were also nominated in this category.

The documentary category may have been the most competitive, with nominations for “Collective,” “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolt,” “The Mole Agent,” My Octopus Instructor,” and “Time.” The Romanian documentary “Collective,” about investigative journalism and government corruption, is only the second film to be nominated for both best documentary and best foreign film. “Quo Vadis, Aida?” from Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Another Round” from Denmark, “Better Days” from Hong Kong, and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” from Tunisia were the other foreign film nominees.

“Onward,” “Over the Moon,” “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon,” “Soul,” and “Wolfwalkers” are the nominees for best animated film.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC will hope that the nominees will generate more interest than they have elsewhere. Over the pandemic, interest in small golden statuettes has plummeted. Last month, ratings for a mostly virtual Golden Globes fell to 6.9 million viewers, a 64 percent decrease from 2020. The Grammys, on the other hand, managed to crack through the Zoom barrier on Sunday.

The pandemic has been punishing for the movie industry, with the notable exception of fueling streaming subscriber development. Production slowed to a halt, blockbusters were postponed or redirected to streaming, and thousands of people were laid off or furloughed as a result.

However, as coronavirus cases have decreased and vaccines have been increased, the outlook for Hollywood has improved. Movie theaters are reopening in the U.S.’s two largest markets, New York and Los Angeles. In addition, several larger films, including Walt Disney Co.’s “Black Widow” (May 7) are set to be released in May and beyond.

 

“To make this believable, I leaned on Sam Cooke’s signature confidence and swagger. There were many times when I felt like I didn’t quite measure up. But in those moments, I’d lean on Sam’s assurance, because he knew how to hold his own. In an interview, Leslie Odom Jr., who was nominated for best supporting actor and best original song for his role as Sam Cooke in “One Night in Miami,” said, “There were times, there were moments when it felt like bringing him so close helped me find some of that magic in myself.”

“It’s strange to hear your own name, so I just quietly gave thanks and felt some gratitude… I was punching the air and jumping up and down in my bed and screaming when I heard (names of fellow nominees including Paul Raci and Darius Marder)! Everyone on the set of this movie was doing it because they wanted to push themselves and go further than they had previously. In an interview, Riz Ahmed, who was nominated for best actor for “Sound of Metal,” said, “This was all of us trying to see how far we could go.”

“Wow Wa We Waa!” exclaims the narrator. Thank you so much for this honor, Academy! I can’t believe it — hearing my name in the same breath as these incredible women and their incredible performances is a dream come true! In a statement, Maria Bakalova, nominated for best supporting actress for “Borat,” said, “I am so grateful to Sacha Baron Cohen and my “Borat” family, and I congratulate them on their adapted screenplay nomination.”

“As a writer, it pains me to say this, but I’m beginning to believe the cast’s performance has something to do with the film’s quality. In an interview, Aaron Sorkin, director and screenwriter of “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which was nominated in six categories including best picture, said, “It felt like I was getting tossed the keys to a Formula One race car and as long as I didn’t put the car in the wall, these actors were going to win.”

“As we worked on it, I realized how rarely we see birth onscreen, despite the fact that it is such a universal human experience. To be seen only for that, let alone the subject we put onscreen… I learned early on that one out of every four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, but it is never discussed. So, if this recognition means that the film is seen and conversations begin in a few homes, I believe we have achieved everything we could have hoped for. Vanessa Kirby, best actress nominee for “Pieces of a Woman,” said in an interview.

“I recognize that the success of (co-producer) Ryan Coogler’s film, ‘Black Panther,’ is critical to our film. In an interview, Shaka King, who was nominated for best picture and best original screenplay for the film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” said, “We wouldn’t have gotten this film made without his participation.” He directed, co-produced, and co-wrote the film, which received six nominations and is the first best picture nominee produced entirely by African-Americans.

“Oh, no, I’ve never even considered it. That story was about the other side of the world, not the other side of the world. So not to me,” Yuh-Jung Youn, who was nominated for best supporting actress for her role in “Minari,” said in an interview after arriving in Vancouver, Canada, and starting a quarantine period.

“It means more to me than I can express to be a part of this historic year for the Academy, alongside so many incredibly talented filmmakers, and I’m particularly honored to be nominated alongside the incredible Chloé Zhao. I am truly honored and grateful to be among the many exceptional female filmmakers who have created such beautiful, inspiring, challenging, and varied work this year. — Emerald Fennell, best director and best original screenplay nominee for “Promising Young Woman,” which also won nominations for best picture and best actress.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to travel with our talented team of filmmakers and to meet so many wonderful people who generously shared their stories with us. Thank you very much to my Academy colleagues for honoring this film that is so dear to my heart,” Zhao said in a statement.

“It came as a full shock. We were in the middle of talking about something else and, of course, we never saw that coming, which added to the sense of ecstasy and increased the level of celebration dramatically. …… It’s midday here, and I’ve already consumed my fair share of champagne; bubbles are always a good start. It hastens the process. And yes, I’ll have a few drinks tonight,” Thomas Vinterberg said in an interview about his nomination for best director for “Another Round,” which was also nominated for best foreign feature film.

“Everyone has just embraced me for who I am and what I have to say. Being a young 23-year-old Black woman, this is big. In an interview, H.E.R., who was nominated for best original song for “War for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah,” said, “I’m only paving the way for those who will continue to fight alongside me, and for those who will come after me for generations and generations to come.” The singer won a Grammy for her protest song “I Can’t Breathe” on Sunday.

“Being remembered by a global community like this is amazing. We spent years and years grinding away in an attic on the tip of Africa. It’s difficult to say why viewers have reacted so strongly… In an email message, Pippa Ehrlich, co-director of the nominated documentary film “My Octopus Teacher,” said, “I believe they are referring to parts of the story that are universal to almost every person on Earth — passion, friendship, connection, and hope.”

“There’s a moment when you see your movie and it’s what you hoped for, but it’s there, and you can’t believe it, and it’s an extremely satisfying fulfilling thing. I am still amazed that I was given the opportunity to direct it… (Late screenwriter) Audrey Wells wrote a story knowing she would not live to see it, she put her heart and soul into it to convey a message that was ideal for the world at this time… I am still amazed that I was given the opportunity to direct it…” — Glen Keane, director of

“This is a watershed moment for Tunisia. Tunisians were in desperate need of good news. But that was the big news of the day, and I’m overjoyed. — Kaouther Ban Hania, director of “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” a best foreign film nominee.

 

Complete list of nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards:

Best picture: “The Father”; “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Mank”; “Minari”; “Nomadland”; “Promising Young Woman”; “Sound of Metal”; “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Best actor: Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”; Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, “Mank”; Steven Yeun, “Minari.”

Best actress: Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”; Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”; Andra Day, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

Best supporting actor: Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”; Leslie Odom Jr., “One Night in Miami…”; Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”; Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal”; LaKeith Stanfield, “Judas and the Black Messiah.”

Best supporting actress: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”; Olivia Colman, “The Father”; Amanda Seyfried, “Mank”; Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari.”

Best director: Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”; Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”; David Fincher, “Mank”; Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”; Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round.”

Original screenplay: “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Shaka King and Will Berson; “Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung; “Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell; “Sound of Metal,” Darius Marder and Abraham Marder; “Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin.

Adapted screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, “The Father”; Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”; Kemp Powers, “One Night in Miami…”; Ramin Bahrani, “The White Tigers.”

Animated feature: “Onward”; “Over the Moon”; “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”; “Soul”; “Wolfwalkers.”

Original score: “Da 5 Bloods,” Terence Blanchard; “Mank,″ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; ”Minari,” Emile Mosseri; “News of the World,” James Newton Howard; and “Soul,″ Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste.

Original song: “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”; “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Io Sì (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)”; “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami…”; and “Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Cinematography: “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Mank”; “News of the World”; “Nomadland”; “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Costume design: The nominees for best costume design: Alexandra Byrne, “Emma”; Ann Roth, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Trish Summerville, “Mank”; Bina Daigeler “Mulan”; Massimo Cantini Parrini “Pinocchio.

Animated short film: “Burrow”; “Genius Loci”; “If Anything Happens I Love You”; “Opera”; “Yes-People.”

Live action short film: “Feeling Through”; “The Letter Room”; “The Present”; “Two Distant Strangers”; “White Eye.”

Documentary feature: “Collective”; “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”; “The Mole Agent”; “My Octopus Teacher”; “Time.”

Documentary short subject: “Colette”; “A Concerto Is a Conversation”; “Do Not Split”; “Hunger Ward”; “A Love Song for Latasha.”

International film: “Quo Vadis, Aida?”, Bosnia and Herzegovina; “Another Round,” Denmark ; “Better Days,” Hong Kong; “Collective,” Romania; “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” Tunisia.

Sound: “Greyhound”; “Mank”; “News of the World”; “Soul”; “Sound of Metal.”

Production design: “The Father”; “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; “Mank”; “News of the World”; “Tenet.”

Film editing: “The Father”; “Nomadland”; “Promising Young Woman”; “Sound of Metal”; “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Makeup and hairstyling: “Emma”; “Hillbilly Elegy”; “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; “Mank”; “Pinocchio.”

Visual effects: “Love and Monsters”; “The Midnight Sky”; “Mulan”; “The One and Only Ivan”; “Tenet.”

 

At the Grammy Awards, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish made history. Similarly, hundreds of musicians who had been mostly sidelined for a year due to the pandemic were able to make music again.

The Grammy Awards on Sunday defied the Zoom trap that has plagued other award shows with a remarkably intimate evening that felt like viewers were welcomed into a private club with their favorite artists at its finest.

The four most coveted Grammy Awards were won by four different women. Swift’s “folklore” was named album of the year; Eilish’s “All I Wanted” was named record of the year for the second year in a row; H.E.R.’s topical “I Can’t Breathe” was named song of the year; and Megan Thee Stallion was named best new artist.

The four awards that Beyoncé has earned Sunday brought her up to 28 Grammys in her career, more than any other female artist. Last Juneteenth, her celebration of Black culture, “Black Parade,” won best R&B performance, and she shared two awards with Megan Thee Stallion for their collaboration on “Savage.”

She is tied with Quincy Jones for the second most Grammys ever, and she is chasing down the champion, late conductor George Solti, who won 31.

Husband Jay-Z, who won his 23rd Grammy on Sunday for songwriting on “Savage,” and even their 9-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, who won best music video with mom, add to the family trophy case.

Beyoncé said, “This is such a magical night.”

Swift, who used the pandemic as an excuse to record a new album and re-record one of her older ones, became the first woman to win the Grammy for album of the year for the third time. It’s also been done by Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Frank Sinatra. She won for “Fearless” in 2009 and “1989” in 2015.

On the Grammys, she performed a medley of three songs with collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, including “cardigan” and “august” from “folklore” and “willow” from “evermore.”

“I want to express my gratitude to the fans,” she said. “In this magical world that we built, you guys met us.”

Eilish became just the third artist to win back-to-back Grammys for album of the year following her sweep last year. Roberta Flack won for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly With His Song” in 1974, while U2 won for “Beautiful Day” and “Walk On” in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

Eilish almost gave the award away when she and her collaborator-brother Finneas accepted it. Megan Thy Stallion was moved to tears when she said that the rapper deserved the Grammy for “Savage.”

Due to the pandemic, CBS host Trevor Noah hosted the Grammy Awards on an outdoor stage set up across from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, with only a few nominees and guests in attendance.

The shows were held at the Staples Center, but several artists performed at the same time, such as when Harry Styles, HAIM, and Eilish opened the show. Artists were captured on camera enjoying their fellow nominees, such as when country singer Mickey Guyton softly sang along to Miranda Lambert and Post Malone proudly held up a red cup in glee at Cardi B and Stallion’s performance of “WAP.”

According to British singer Jacob Collier, it created an atmosphere unlike any other Grammy display.

Collier, who received his fifth Grammy, said, “There was something really unique about how intimate it was, and to have it stripped back and just to be hanging out with those fellow nominees was just fantastic.” “Communal celebration has a special significance for me, particularly after all this time of silence and being alone.”

“I can’t wait to get out as a band,” Lambert said. Even though she wasn’t playing, Lizzo couldn’t help herself: “I’m presenting because I L-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-VE You

Some of the performances, such as Bruno Mars and Anderson.Silk Paak’s Sonic and Dua Lipa’s, looked like they were taking place on the set of “Soul Train” — just ask your parents.

Even in such a simple atmosphere, there was still space for spectacle: the massive bed for “WAP” belongs in the Grammy Hall of Fame. The elaborately choreographed scene in Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture” recreated the police killing of Rayshard Brooks and the resulting violence.

The latter was joined by Beyoncé’s “Black Parade,” which she said was made to celebrate the world’s “beautiful Black kings and queens,” and H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe,” which was a reference to Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor who died at the hands of police.

“Keep the war that we had in us in the summer of 2020,” H.E.R. advised.

Because of the coronavirus deaths, the “in memoriam” segment was extended, with Lionel Richie paying tribute to Kenny Rogers, Silk Sonic honoring Little Richard, Brandi Carlile honoring John Prine, and Brittany Howard’s roof-rattling rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” followed by Chris Martin.

DaBaby’s “Rockstar,” Guyton’s “Black Like Me,” the first Black woman nominated for best country solo performance, and Black Pumas’ “Colors” were among the other standout performances.

H.E.R., Fiona Apple, and Kaytranda each took home two Grammys. Prine and Chick Corea both received two posthumous awards.

Kanye West won best contemporary Christian album for “Jesus is King,” Justin Bieber shared Dan + Shay’s country award for “10,000 Hours,” and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow won best spoken word album for “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth.”

 

Movie theaters in New York City reopen Friday after nearly a year of cobwebs, restoring film titles to Manhattan marquees that had previously read messages like “Wear a mask” and “We’ll be back soon.”

Holly Stillman was emotional shortly after noon at the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street after seeing Lee Isaac Chung’s tender family drama “Minari” for the first time in New York. “My mask is soaked,” she said.

She was similarly astounded to be back in a movie theater. Despite Stillman’s fears that the COVID-19 protocols would make the experience too limited, she found it to be euphoric.

Stillman said, “It was just you and the movie screen.” “Even though I don’t eat popcorn, it was great to smell it as soon as I walked into the theater.”

Only about half of movie theaters are open nationally, but the number of reopenings is increasing. Many other theaters reopened last summer to coincide with the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” but the attempt at a revival failed. Throughout the five boroughs, theaters remained closed. One of the world’s most important film centers remained dark for almost a year.

The resumption of moviegoing in New York is a critical first step in the rebirth of a theatrical industry that has been harmed by the pandemic.

“It’s a symbolic moment,” said Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics in New York, which released “The Father” and “The Truffle Hunters” in Manhattan theaters on Friday. “It implies that the theatrical environment has a chance to reactivate.”

The long-awaited day had almost religious significance for some moviegoers who consider the big screen to be the only place to see a film.

JM Vargas, who had tickets to “Minari,” “The Last Dragon,” and “Chaos Walking” on Friday, compared going to the movies to going to church. “It’s been a year since I went to church.”

The city’s cinemas are currently only running at 25% capacity, with a maximum of 50 people per auditorium. Masks are needed, cinema seats are blocked out, and air filters have been upgraded, as in other areas.

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that cinemas could reopen under those conditions, several theaters were caught off guard. The Film Forum, the Alamo Drafthouse, the Metrograph, and Regal Cinemas are among the city’s most well-known theaters, all of which plan to open in the coming weeks. Some people needed more time to get ready. The Cinema Village in Manhattan had burst a pipe two weeks before, flooding the lobby after remaining idle all winter — one more bit of bad luck in a grueling year.

“This was the worst horror film I’ve ever seen. Nicolas Nicolaou, owner of the Cinema Village and theaters in Queens and New York, said, “I don’t think any Hollywood director could have dreamed it up.” “We had no idea we’d be completely shut down for so long.”

One of the biggest movie markets, along with Los Angeles (where theaters are already closed), is New York. It’s a crucial epicenter of word-of-mouth for smaller films. It’s a necessary evil for blockbusters. Hollywood studios have moved most of their larger productions before more theaters open, or they’ve steered films to streaming platforms, without New York or Los Angeles open.

According to John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, “the New York opening is very important to the theater industry in New York, in the country, and around the world.” “We in the movie theater industry depend on films that are seen all over the country and the world. We keep seeing movies exit the theatrical release schedule to be rescheduled for later dates due to a lack of markets. The most prominent of these markets is New York.”

The future for theaters has been brightening for the first time in a long time, thanks to President Biden’s prediction that every adult will be vaccinated by the end of May. Even though it was streaming on HBO Max, “Tom & Jerry” outperformed at the box office last weekend, grossing $14.1 million. Despite Universal Pictures’ decision to switch the “Fast & Furious” sequel “F9” from late May to late June, other films have been pushed forward, reversing the trend of postponements.

Sony Pictures has announced that “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” will be released in May. “A Quiet Place II,” from Paramount Pictures, has taken over the May 28 slot previously held by “F9.” The release date for The Walt Disney Company’s “Black Widow” is still set for May 7. Southern California theaters are set to reopen in the coming weeks, adding to the excitement.

Fithian explained, “It’s not like we’re going to go back to record-breaking business this summer.” “We’re going to crawl, then walk, and then run,” says the narrator. It will take until 2022 for sustained profitability to return to the company.”

But, if not crowded, New York’s movie theater lobbies were buzzing again on Friday. The box office windows were decorated with sold-out signs for the evening. Even a smidgeon of celebrity was resurrected. Liam Neeson was scheduled to appear at the AMC in Lincoln Square to promote “The Marksman.”

Masked moviegoers flocked to the IFC Center in Greenwich Village to catch up on their favorite films, even if they were watching. The IFC is hosting a four-week “What’d We Miss?” sequence, which includes films like “First Cow” and “MLK/FBI,” which the theater was unable to screen in the previous year.

The IFC Center’s senior vice president, John Vanco, said, “We’re used to being present for the birth of these movies for New York viewers as they come into the public domain.” He admitted that the conditions were not ideal. They were, however, preferable to nothing. “I don’t think 25 percent isn’t good enough,” Vanco said. “It’s better than 0%,” says the author.

Tykon Herman settled in for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the IFC and had tickets for “The Trial of the Chicago 7” at 5 p.m.

“I’m one of the few people who doesn’t have Netflix,” Herman joked. “I’m not a traditionalist.” Since the first time I saw ‘E.T.,’ I’ve been a huge fan of the theater. It won’t be the same, but sitting in front of this computer gives me the impression that things will quickly return to normal.”

 

After 6 1/2 years of marriage, Kim Kardashian West filed for divorce from Kanye West on Friday, court records reveal. The step brings an impending end to the marriage of a reality TV sensation and a hip-hop and fashion icon with four kids, a vast fortune to divide and even more fame, one of the most followed celebrity unions of the 21st century.

Kardashian is seeking the children’s shared custody and her filing states that the pair has a prenuptial agreement that will decide how to split their properties. For their split, it quotes irreconcilable discrepancies and does not list a separation date.

In 2012, the couple started dating and had their first child in 2013. West proposed using the giant screen at the vacant waterfront ballpark of the San Francisco Giants later that year, and the two were married at a ceremony at a Renaissance fortress in Florence, Italy, on May 24, 2014.

The beginning of the marriage’s end comes after the September announcement that after 14 years, the show that made the reputation of her family, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” ended in 2021.

This marriage was the first for the West, 43, and the third for Kardashian, 40. Although the union was not long, considering the two oversized personalities, West’s well-known instability and the fact that Kardashian’s previous marriage, to former NBA player Kris Humphries, was fleetingly brief, it outlasted the predictions of many cynics who thought doom was imminent.

Kardashian’s first marriage to music producer Damon Thomas at the age of 19 in 2000 lasted until 2004, and she married Humphries in a widely hyped wedding in 2011, which was televised in a two-part special on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
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Less than three months later, she filed for divorce, while she was still legally married in 2012, when she and West, a friend who had paid tribute to her in his songs for years, became a couple and became pregnant.

“Since the Humphries divorce, after representing clients including Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Britney Spears, Kardashian has retained the services of perhaps the country’s best-known divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, dubbed the “Disso Queen. On Friday, in Los Angeles Supreme Court, Wasser filed for divorce. The celebrity website TMZ first mentioned it.

Kardashian is a Los Angeles-area lifer, but West comes from Chicago and spends most of his time at his ranch in Wyoming, including much of the last months of his marriage, and has said he wants his children with him.

All of their four children are seven or under: North, 7 years old, Saint, 5 years old, Chicago, 3 years old, and Psalm, 21 months old.

Both Kardashian and West have parlayed their original success into greater ventures, and have amassed tremendous wealth with it, his for becoming a sought-after hip-hop artist and the rapper behind “Stronger” and “Gold Digger,” hers for being a reality TV star on a par with a film star.

With its expensive clothes and coveted Adidas shoes, West’s Yeezy fashion line has become as much a part of his life and personality as his music. Kardashian, with smartphone apps and games in her name, along with beauty products and clothing, went from popular socialite to big businesswoman.

On Twitter, West has 30 million followers, and on Instagram, Kardashian has nearly 200 million. In the history of social media, both are among the most posted-about individuals.

West was a vocal Donald Trump supporter who last year became a minor presidential candidate; he ended up having little influence on the election. After gradually devoting herself to freeing the unjustly incarcerated, which led to meetings with Trump, Kardashian took tentative measures towards becoming a lawyer.

In several respects, while their marriage was highly high profile when two self-promotion experts became a partnership, the two did not appear all that much in public together. And their marriage’s inner workings were typically a well-guarded secret that had taken years to spill out into public view. West only appeared briefly on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” often acting as an often-discussed off-screen character, and unlike other Kardashian couplings, audiences didn’t even see made-for-TV versions of battles or extremely tender moments.

However, they had more than their share of globe-trotting, scene-making and controversy-stirring moments, including a trip to Jerusalem for the baptism of the North, to fashion weeks around the world, including one in Paris where Kardashian was bound and robbed, to the years-long rivalry with Taylor Swift that Kardashian was sucked into.

But there was not much overlap in their careers, and they spent much of their married time far apart.

And in comparison to his erratic public moments, her carefully crafted style frequently culminated in wild claims and over-sharing tweet storms.

West said he was trying to divorce Kardashian, that her mother Kris Jenner was a dictator, and that the family was trying to push him into medical care in one of these, since removed, in July 2020.

Kardashian replied on Instagram with a message asking individuals to show compassion for West as he was dealing with mental illness.

Kardashian said, “He is a brilliant but complicated individual who, in addition to the pressures of being an artist and a black man, has suffered the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation heightened by his bi-polar disorder.” “Those close to Kanye know his heart and sometimes understand his words and do not align them with his intentions.”

Since election night, West has not tweeted. On social media, Kardashian was quiet on Friday.