Achievements span filmmaking disciplines, long and short-form fare
By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) --The big winners on Oscar night may have been set in the 19th-century American South and outer space, but for many people across the Atlantic, this year's Academy Awards belonged to Britain.
Best-picture winner "12 Years a Slave" has a British director — Steve McQueen — and star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, who lost out on an acting Oscar to Matthew McConaughey.
"Gravity," which took seven trophies, starred Americans Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and had a Mexican director, Alfonso Cuaron, but it was made in London, using British special effects teams (Framestore being the lead VFX studio) and postproduction facilities.
"It's very obvious the amazing quality and sophistication of the British film industry made this film happen," said Cuaron, who won a directing Oscar for the 3-D space thriller.
Prime Minister David Cameron was quick to praise the British successes, congratulating McQueen in a tweet Monday and calling the wins for "Gravity" ''a tribute to the brilliance of British special effects wizards."
As usual, British performers made a strong showing in the acting categories, where Judi Dench, for "Philomena" and Sally Hawkins for "Blue Jasmine" were both nominees. But this year also recognized British effects artists, composers — Steven Price took an Oscar for his "Gravity" score — and cinematographers. (Spare a thought for Britain's Roger Deakins, cinematography nominee for "Prisoners," who has now had 11 Academy Awards nominations without a win.)
British director Malcolm Clarke won the documentary short prize for "The Lady in Number 6," a profile of musician and Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer, who died last week at age 110.
The British Film Institute — a government-funded body that distributes millions each year in lottery profits to filmmakers — said the industry was benefiting from "long-term strategic investment in development."
It said a combination of investment from the lottery and from broadcasters like the BBC and Channel 4 and moviemaking tax incentives allowed Britain's film industry "to punch above its weight."
Harry Potter can take some of the credit, too. All eight of Warner Bros. big-budget films were made in England, providing both plenty of income and a decade-long training ground for British cast, crew, craftspeople and technicians.
Some filmmakers lament the fact that many of these made-in-Britain successes are not telling British stories. But most are happy about a Hollywood boom that will see the next "Star Wars" film shot at Britain's Pinewood Studios, also home to the James Bond franchise.
"Creatively and technically, British filmmaking is at the top of its game," said British Film Institute chief executive Amanda Nevill.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More