Peter Ramsey 1st African-American director to earn an Academy Award for an animated feature
By Jonathan Landrum Jr., Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Everyone's favorite neighborhood web-slinger is now an Oscar winner: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" won for the best animated feature Academy Award on Sunday evening.
It is the first Marvel superhero film to win an Oscar.
The ground-breaking and mind-bending film about multiple spider-heroes from multiple universes gives Sony Pictures its first Oscar for animated feature, a category that has been dominated by Disney for its 18-year existence.
"It was a film to all humans that we have the potential to be heroes," said Peter Ramsey, who became the first African-American director to win an Oscar for an animated feature film. He stood onstage with fellow directors Rodney Rothman and Bob Persicetti, along with Chris Miller, who co-produced the film with Phil Lord, one of its co-writers.
"This was a huge responsibility," Ramsey added. "We knew how important it was going to be for black kids to Latino kids, you know, kids who can be their best selves no matter who they are. We're gratified that people are receiving this story."
"Spider-Verse" features alternate spider heroes from different dimensions with the voices of Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld and Mahershala Ali.
Moore plays Miles Morales, a biracial Brooklyn teen who gains an array of superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Morales' hero melds his superpowers, including enhanced hearing, wall-crawling and camouflage abilities, and wearing a red-and-black outfit and a cool pair of sneakers.
"We wanted a movie that challenges the audience to believe in themselves," Miller said. "We wanted them to be inspired and make a difference in the world — to possible be a mentor or hero."
Lord echoed Miller's sentiments.
"So when we hear that somebody's kid was watching the movie, and turned to them and said 'He looks like me or they speak Spanish like us,' we feel like we already won."
Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed to this report.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More