Steve Bellamy, president of Kodak Motion Picture and Entertainment, is celebrating a total of 29 Academy Award nominations for movies shot on Kodak film. “La La Land,” “Fences,” “Hidden Figures,” “Jackie,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “Loving,” “Silence,” “Suicide Squad” and “Hail Caesar!” were all captured on KODAK 35mm and 16mm Motion Picture Film stock.
On the heels of movies captured on film winning nine of the 14 motion picture awards at the Golden Globes and taking 34 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations, the 29 Academy Award nominations reflect a resurgence of motion picture artists understanding just how valuable film is as a tool for storytelling. The big winner was “La La Land” with 11 BAFTA and 14 Academy Award nominations.
Having already garnered two Golden Globes nominations, “Loving” director Jeff Nichols said: “There was no way I was going to make ‘Loving’ unless we were going to shoot it on 35mm film. It was a love story that needed an emotive medium like celluloid. The story just would not have worked on a 2K or a 4K video camera.”
Even for smaller-budget and short movies, film matters. Currently playing at the Sundance Film Festival is the film work of the next generation of great directors – “Beach Rats,” director Eliza Hittman; “Frantz,” director Franรงois Ozon; “Golden Exits,” director Alex Ross Perry; “Person to Person,” director Dustin Guy Defa; and “Call Me by Your Name,” director Luca Guadagnino. Academy Award-nominated directors shooting on film – Jeff Nichols and Damien Chazelle – started their careers in Park City, Utah. Film also dominated at Cannes Film Festival this year with the top five awards going to movies shot on film. And at the 2016 Hollyshorts Film Festival, of the near 4000 submissions, only two movies were shot on film. These two, however, took three of the top awards.
“Movies captured on film are winning nominations and awards at a disproportionately high rate,” said Bellamy. “The best artists are choosing film, but it goes beyond their choices. You don’t just see film, you feel it. There is an emotive dynamic with film that makes heartfelt moments more heartfelt, joyful moments more joyful, sad moments sadder. Film benefits from the world’s greatest motion picture artists using it, but the world’s greatest motion picture artists also make better movies because they use film.
Similar to the previous two years, film fared very well in 2016 with blockbusters like “Jason Bourne,” “Jack Reacher,” “Justice League,” “Suicide Squad,” “The Magnificent Seven,” and “Hail Caesar!” – all of which were captured on film.
Below is a complete list of Academy Award© Nominees for movies captured on Kodak film stock:
BEST PICTURE:
“Fences”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Linus Sandgren, “La La Land”
Rodrigo Prieto, “Silence”
COSTUME DESIGN:
Madeline Fontaine, “Jackie”
Mary Zophres, “La La Land”
DIRECTING:
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
FILM EDITING:
Tom Cross, “La La Land”
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson, “Suicide Squad”
MUSIC:
Mica Levi, “Jackie”
Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land”
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG):
Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul. “City of Stars” from “La La Land”
Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul. “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from “La La Land”
PRODUCTION DESIGN:
Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh, “Hail, Caesar!”
David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds – Wasco, “La La Land”
SOUND EDITING:
Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred latrou Morgan, “La La Land”
SOUND MIXING:
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Marrow, “La La Land”
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY):
August Wilson, “Fences”
Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi, “Hidden Figures”
WRITING (ORIGNAL SCREENPLAY):
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More