By Robert Goldrich, The Road To Oscar Series, Part 2

The classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac from the play written by Edmond Rostand in 1897 has proven to be timeless. But perhaps the premise of a man who harbors love for a woman–all the while thinking that he was unworthy of her love due to his physical appearance–was more timely than ever as interpreted and embraced by director Joe Wright whose imagination was initially sparked when he saw Erica Schmidt’s musical staging of the epic story at a theater in Connecticut in which Peter Dinklage played Cyrano opposite Haley Bennett as Roxanne. Wright was deeply moved and he enlisted Schmidt to write a bold new film adaptation, yielding Cyrano (MGM, United Artists Releasing) with a cast headed by Dinklage and Bennett.

The compelling relevance, though, for Wright was rooted in present-day realities. “When I started developing the movie,” Wright recalled, “Brexit had happened in Britain, Trump was in the White House. The idea of making a film about essentially compassion or a film that I hoped would help generate compassion with an audience felt appropriate. And it became more than just appropriate when the pandemic happened, sitting in isolation for all of those months. It became urgent. I was desperate to make the film at this time because I felt like I was starved of human connection–and scared of how I might approach human connection afterwards. I wanted to make a film that talked about that–the simple difficulty of human connection, how we often fail to connect through our own fears, fears of intimacy, of being seen. And maybe through the very process of making the film we might create some connection among the filmmaking cast and crew, and ultimately create a connection between us and the audience. It was important to me that this be a theatrical feature so that there could be a connection between the people in the room (movie theater)."

While the pandemic was a driving motivator, it also carried formidable obstacles to getting a movie made. Wright related, “It was on June 28, 2020 when I called Eric Fellner (producer and Working Title co-chair) and said, ‘We’ve been developing this script for two years now and we’re ready. I want to shoot it.’ He said, ‘You are absolutely crazy–in the middle of a pandemic.’ I asked him to give me a likelihood of it getting financed. He said there was about a five percent chance. Okay, great. I’ll take five percent. It’s better than nothing. We went to various financiers, including our usual lot. Everyone was very nervous. No one wanted to make anything. Then we went to Mike De Luca at MGM. He said yes. He explained, ‘If I don’t, then I’m betting against the future of film.’”

Wright said that he found the perfect partners in De Luca and MGM. “The idea of doing a musical at MGM felt right,” related Wright, alluding to the studio’s famed heritage in musicals. However, Wright was looking to create a different kind of musical that departed from that lineage. His goal was “to do a musical that didn’t feel like a musical, to make a musical where the songs felt natural and integrated into the drama. There wasn’t any kind of fanfare. There wasn’t the feeling that we would do a big song and then get back into the story.” DeLuca and MGM embraced and supported that vision. The story, the drama, the characters, Wright affirmed, always took priority.

Those characters also include the powerful Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), a wealthy, egomaniacal suitor enamored with Roxanne, and Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a King’s Guard recruit who serves under Cyrano. Christian shares with Cyrano and Roxanne a common bond of failing to make a true connection. Christian’s physical appearance stirs Roxanne and she pleads with Cyrano to watch over and protect him. Cyrano pledges to do so and encourages Christian to woo Roxanne with love letters. These wise and witty letters, though, are penned by Cyrano, leading Roxanne to mistakenly feel a soulful bond with her handsome suitor. But romance, real or imagined, falls by the wayside as war breaks out. Together and apart our protagonists experience happiness, despair, denial, discovery and destinies beyond what they envisioned for themselves.

Key for Wright to realizing what he hoped would be his destiny of bringing Cyrano to fruition in the midst of the COVID pandemic was reuniting with trusted collaborators. Their shorthand with one another over the years would be essential to clearing the many hurdles that Cyrano posed to them. Among those compatriots were cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC, editor Valerio Bonelli, production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer.

McGarvey has twice been nominated for Best Cinematography Oscars–for the Wright films Atonement and Anna Karenina. Greenwood is a six time Academy Award nominee for Best Production Design–four for Wright’s Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina and Darkest Hour. Nominated with Greenwood each time was her long-time creative partner, set decorator Spencer. And Cyrano marks editor Bonelli’s fourth collaboration with Wright–the others having been the “Nosedive” episode of Black Mirror, The Woman in the Window and Darkest Hour.

Wright has known McGarvey for 25-plus years. The DP has lensed five of Wright’s features. “We have a kind of trust and clear-sighted conversation that continues to this day,” shared Wright. “He is a master. But there’s something about Seamus’ work that is always deeply humane.”

The working relationship with Greenwood and Spencer dates back to Wright’s very first television job. “A soon as I have an idea of what I might want to do, I talk to Sarah. We start discussing it. I show her early drafts of the script and try to develop the film with her, making it as site specific as possible. I often write into the screenplay ideas that Sarah has come up with. Our ideas are so meshed now, its difficult to tell if the ideas are hers or mine.”

Wright first worked with editor Bonelli on the Black Mirror episode. The director said of Bonelli, “He has an extraordinary facility both technically and emotionally. It’s rare to get that balance. You get editors who are deeply emotional beings but perhaps not so technically astute. And you get very technical editors who are not able to emotionally gauge the material. I sit next to him over four or five months editing. He pushes me and I push him. It’s a very very close partnership.”

For Cyrano, cast and crew came together during the pandemic with a deep trust which Wright said will continue to impact his filmmaking. “I set out to  make a film devoid of any cynicism or irony, to make something for the here and now that was open-hearted….It feels good to have done this and I will continue to do that, to kind of lay yourself open and feel that it will be okay–to trust and not have to protect yourself.” It’s that trust, after all, that can lead to the most meaningful connections with others.

Reinaldo Marcus Green
King Richard (Warner Bros. Pictures) is a story that director Reinaldo Marcus Green can relate to while also marking a full circle journey for him in which mentors became collaborators. On the former score, Green and his brother were groomed by their dad to be Major League Baseball players. While that didn’t quite come to pass–the filmmaker to be did play college ball and got a couple of MLB tryouts–the process was one motivated by unconditional love, learning, fun and compassion. That experience gave Green a special connection to the King Richard script written by Zach Baylin which introduces us to a couple of talented teen sisters, Venus Williams (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena Williams (Demi Singleton), whose father, Richard (Will Smith), had a dream that they would become world class tennis players. 

While that would seem at best a longshot for two Black girls from Compton, Calif., Richard Williams trained them for success–on the tennis court, academically and personally, stressing the importance of self-respect, humility and believing in yourself. Both Venus and Serena got their initial training on dilapidated public tennis courts in Compton–often in harm’s way with neighborhood gangs nearby. Yet while Richard Williams was beaten down literally and figuratively in life, he was not dissuaded from dedicating himself to helping all his kids attain excellence. The patriarch, though, was not alone in shaping and nurturing his daughters–three other sisters also provided support, love and camaraderie, as did their mom Oracene, aka Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis), who took on the role of coaching the younger Serena when professional coaches turned their attention to Venus. 

“Oracene was as instrumental as Mr. Williams was. That, to me, is what is so exciting,” said Green. “Yes, it’s called King Richard but it’s also Queen Oracene. I’m so excited for the world to know that this woman, whom they saw in the stands, was their coach on the courts and in life.”

Green also had some “coaches”–at the Sundance Directors Lab and at NYU-Tisch Graduate Film School–who helped him develop as a filmmaker. That development was evident in his debut feature, Monsters and Men, which rolled out at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where it earned a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding First Feature. Green went on to helm the first three episodes of the Netflix series Top Boy, and has since wrapped his sophomore feature, Joe Bell, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival.

For King Richard, Green wound up recruiting several of those alluded to “coaches,” mentors/instructors who gave him guidance earlier in his career.  Cinematographer Robert Elswit, ASC and editor Pamela Martin, ACE were Sundance Directing Lab advisors during the summer when Green was making Monsters and Men. Green is an unabashed fan of their work, citing Elswit’s lensing of There Will Be Blood and Martin’s work on such films as The Fighter and Little Miss Sunshine. At NYU graduate film school where Spike Lee was one of his instructors, Green met legendary production designer Wynn Thomas. Green is also an admirer of Thomas’ work, including his production design on Lee’s films, particularly Malcolm X. Thomas has made history on different fronts, credited as being the first African-American film production designer, the first Black production designer to become a member of the Art Directors Guild in Los Angeles, and the first African American nominated for the Art Directors Guild Award (for his design work on Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!). Among Thomas’ many other credits are director Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, a Best Picture Oscar winner.

Green reached out to Elswit, Martin and Thomas to work on King Richard. They accepted. Green described learning that they would collaborate with him as being “an incredible moment,” marking kind of a “full circle” navigation where he got to team with the masters who meant so much to him. He remembered first meeting Martin and thinking at the time he would try to lay the foundation for some future working relationship. Thankfully, that came to pass.

Green called Elswit “a genius storyteller” who “taught me a lot about hard work.” The director said that the 71-year-old Elswit “has the energy of a 15 year old.” Going location scouting with Elswit was a tremendous learning experience, related Green.

Thomas, said Green, writes everything on little index cards, walks you through a space and has a very specific way of showing what he wants to design. What Thomas did with the Williams family house in a 1990s’ setting was remarkable, assessed Green. The house wasn’t a complete replica of their Compton residence but true to its spirit. He designed it so the camera could move freely, deploying strategically placed moving walls for flexibility. Then the pandemic hit–at which point only about a third of the film was shot. Thomas had laid much of the groundwork but had to move onto another project that got underway prior to the resumption of King Richard. Production designer William Arnold took over and, continued Green, was “so thoughtful and respectful of the work (done by Thomas).” 

The inherent challenge in King Richard was doing justice to a story about people who are real and alive–and achieving that in a film that’s in the two-and-a-half hour range. Baylin’s script was spot on, said Green, focusing on a time when we could see the sisters in their youth and how their family life shaped them. Green noted that King Richard really isn’t a tennis movie but rather an inspiring story about “family, belief, love and triumph.”

In terms of lessons learned from the experience of his first studio film, Green shared that trusting one’s instincts is important. “That’s kind of what has gotten me to where I am. I’m happy that I stuck to my guns on this movie.” He observed that there are a lot of voices to listen to, including the studio, the family, producers. But ultimately, he affirmed, “You need one voice to make it feel like one movie.” Choosing a sports analogy–in this case the responsibilities of a football quarterback–Green observed, “You have to stay in the pocket and not get sacked. You feel pressure from all these places but you remain calm in the pocket and hit your target.” His advice to any young artist being pulled in different directions is to not lose focus on what got you there. Green added that there’s value in sticking to your “true North” which is “something that I very much hope a lot of folks do when they are marking that first leap from independent to studio film.”

Tom McCarthy
Getting an ovation at the Cannes Film Festival is gratifying for any director. But it took on an extra special dimension for Tom McCarthy to witness that response earlier this year to Stillwater (Focus Features), a film he directed and co-wrote. A predominantly French audience embraced a movie by an American filmmaker where cultures–seemingly destined to clash–somehow come together as Bill Baker (Matt Damon), an unemployed oil-rig worker from Oklahoma, befriends a French actress (Camille Cottin) and her eight-year-old daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). Their relationship is one of discovery, love and liberation as Bill finds and forms a new family while on an extended visit from the U.S. to Marseille to try to repair a tattered family tie to his own daughter, Allison (Abagail Breslin), who’s imprisoned there for a murder she insists she didn’t commit.

Cannes is known, in some circles notorious, for being a place that’s quick to let you know if they don’t like a movie. Instead the French reaction was that this love story and quest for family rang true–that they too had connected with a story about an improbable connection between people from vastly different countries, walks of life, political and social orientations. Similarly initial screenings in Oklahoma and America’s heartland were well received. Moviegoers bought into and felt a measure of empathy for the unlikely bond that evolved. 

These early audience reactions meant the world to McCarthy who felt the challenge of being a U.S. director looking to make a movie set in France feel realistic to the French. “That Cannes screening is something I’ll never forget,” related McCarthy who brought in French co-writers Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré to help attain that desired authenticity.

Furthermore, audience response played on another significant level given today’s state of disconcerting affairs. In an era in which we are profoundly divided because of our differences–exacerbated further by isolation during the pandemic, and related contentiousness–Stillwater runs deep as a soulful relatable piece. “It’s a really tricky time to be putting art out into the world,” observed McCarthy who views Stillwater as “a unique reflection of the time it was released in.”  

The story contains other twists and turns, along with the suspense of Bill making progress, through startling means, towards exonerating his daughter when a lead on a male murder suspect emerges. The casting of Damon was key, assessed McCarthy, citing the star’s built-in hero persona that could then be subverted during the course of the film, challenging audiences and altering perceptions as the story sojourns into unexpected places. Damon steps into Bill’s shoes and in turn viewers step into his evolving world–not just in a foreign country but in terms of a new emotional and human landscape.

McCarthy turned to some trusted collaborators–including from the Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight which he directed and co-wrote–to help bring Stillwater to life, including cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, ASC and editor Tom McArdle. The latter, who earned a Best Editing Oscar nomination for Spotlight, has cut all of director McCarthy’s features. McCarthy said that he has come to rely on McArdle to “start reading early drafts and start thinking of the movie in terms of the edit. I think of him as the third or fourth writer on a movie.” McCarthy added that McArdle “understands my tempo” and his “superpower” is the ability “to be reductive with emotional and intellectual moments, and make them clear. He brings clarity and resonance to the moments.”

McCarthy cited DP Takayanagi’s “work ethic and attention to detail,” describing him as “a master of his craft, incredibly thoughtful” and constantly pressing on the story and what the scene is about, striving to understand the essence of the scene. The DP, continued McCarthy, was instrumental in getting viewers “to be with Bill and feel him in his space and his place. You can smell and sense the difference in different locations.”

Another collaborator on Spotlight whom McCarthy turned to for Stillwater was venerable producer Steve Golin, the CEO and founder of Anonymous Content, who passed away in April 2019 at the age of 64. “When you lose people in your life creatively and professionally, you don’t realize how huge they are until they’re gone. He was a seminal character who got stuff done and made,” said McCarthy of Golin. McCarthy recalled that Stillwater came to pass because Golin believed in it. “In a hotel over lunch one day I pitched him Stillwater,” related McCarthy. “He said, “I’m in. Figure it out, whatever you need.’ I told him I wanted to hire these French writers. ‘Let’s do it,’ Steve said. He freed you up to tell the stories you were passionate about and believed in. Even when we didn’t agree on things, he was pushing for what was best for the movie. There was no other agenda. He was a special filmmaker and a special guy.”

Golin earned three Best Picture nominations, winning for Spotlight in 2016. The other two nods were for The Revenant, also in 2016, and Babel in 2007.

Martin Ruhe, ASC
The opportunity to collaborate again with director George Clooney was among the prime factors drawing cinematographer Martin Ruhe, ASC to The Tender Bar (Amazon Studios). Ruhe first worked with Clooney as an actor, lensing him in The Americans, and then teamed with the director/producer/actor and his producing partner Grant Heslov on the TV miniseries Catch-22. Ruhe shot episodes directed by Clooney, Ellen Kuras and Heslov–one for the latter earned the DP his second ASC Award nomination last year. The first nod came in 2012 for what turned out to be an ASC Award-winning effort on the telefilm Page Eight.

After Catch-22, Clooney and Heslov sought out Ruhe for The Midnight Sky, an apocalyptic sci-fi drama which brought an empathy and deep pathos uncharacteristic of that genre generally. The collaborative relationship with Clooney and Heslov now resumes with The Tender Bar, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author J. R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same title. The film introduces us to J.R. Sheridan (played by Daniel Ranieri as a boy, Tye Sheridan as a young man) who–in the general absence of his abusive father–grows up in the glow of a bar under the aegis of its proprietor/bartender, J.R.’s Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Charlie leads a band of colorful characters at the bar who all have caring father figure qualities. They collectively fill a void in J.R.’s life as his mom (Lily Rabe) struggles to provide him with opportunities denied her. We are privy to witnessing J.R. grow up, pursuing his dreams–with one foot planted in Uncle Charlie’s bar for guidance and support.

For Ruhe, perhaps the biggest challenge was having to shoot The Tender Bar during the pandemic. He noted that there were crew members “whose faces I never saw” yet the masks didn’t prevent them from collaborating to help create “a warmth and intimacy” that the story required. “The trick with smaller films is to get the tone right, to provide room for the actors,” said Ruhe who added, “To pull through and be able to make this film and tell a story in this environment, a lockdown, felt like a little miracle to me.”

Ruhe deployed the ARRI Alexa Mini, sometimes two of those small cameras, to get close and personal with the cast, not disrupting performances with big heavy gear. Lenses included Cooke S4 and Augenieux Optimo Lightweight Zooms. The bar set that was constructed has a lived-in charm akin to the real thing. 

For the most part, though, Ruhe said, “There wasn’t much trickery” as the focus was simply on the actors while realizing Clooney’s desire to pay homage to 1970s and ‘80s films. “It’s a warmhearted story and he loved the characters,” shared the DP who conjectured that Clooney was attracted to the project in part for its 180 degree turn from The Midnight Sky. “After The Midnight Sky, a dystopian film, he wanted to do something warm and heartfelt.”

At press time, Ruhe was set to embark on The Boys in the Boat–co-directed by Clooney and Heslov–centered on the University of Washington’s men rowing team. This underdog crew is chronicled from their Depression-era beginnings to winning the Gold Medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin where they beat Nazi Germany’s rowing contingent of so-called “Master Race” athletes. 

Sabine Hoffman, ACE
Actor Rebecca Hall makes her directorial debut with Passing (Netflix), fashioning a screenplay adapted from Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same title which carries themes of colorism alongside sexism, race, class and gender. The story centers on two Black women, Irene (portrayed by Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), who can “pass” as white women. While Clare decides to pose as white, Irene maintains her heritage. The two women, who grew up in the same community, lost touch with one another until by chance their paths crossed. This sparked an unexpectedly longer term reunion in which Clare returns to her roots–unbeknownst to her racist white husband (Alexander Skarsgârd)–setting off ripple effects, subtle and not-so-subtle, on the women and their families. 

Hall entrusted the editing of this story–shot in painterly, impressionistic black and white by Eduard Grau, ASC, AEC–to Sabine Hoffman, ACE, marking their first collaboration. Editor Hoffman was familiar with Larsen’s novel, having read it years ago, and in her initial meeting with Hall they shared their enthusiasm for the story, talking in depth about the characters. After being offered the gig, she met a couple more times with Hall before the shoot to talk more in depth about the protagonists. Hoffman valued that early dialogue, benefiting from a sense of Hall’s vision, also reflected of course in the script penned by the director.

Hoffman described Hall as “an incredible director and writer, wonderful to work with.” The editor credited Hall with authoring an insightful adaptation, leading to a film where both the words–and what’s unsaid–are essential. “What is between the lines, what is not being said, what’s being left out” becomes key, said Hoffman. “The story has so many layers, a lot of complexity.” Editing that complexity was a challenge marked, said Hoffman, by conveying “the ambivalence of the whole story but at the same time providing the audience with a relatable emotional experience.”

That relatability is critical to evoking empathy for the characters, principally Irene and Clare as we see their impact on each other–and those around them. Things start to at first slowly unravel for Irene when Clare re-enters her life. While this unhinges Irene, she is also attracted to the dangerousness of what Clare seems compelled to do.

Part of the journey involves trusting the audience as there’s even ambiguity in the ending, which preserves the spirit of the story. “People seem to be able to see it in all different ways,” said Hoffman, leaving the viewer to complete the story based on his/her/their perceptions. 

This is conducive to sparking conversations among people–and within each person as individual perceptions are subject to exploration. That’s a lingering dynamic which Hoffman embraces, noting that she loves watching the film and hearing audiences afterwards.

The process of teaming with Hall to help make this film, observed Hoffman, was akin in some respects to that exploration. Hoffman praised Hall for leaving room for such exploration creatively. While Hall was thoroughly prepared and had much already storyboarded up front, Hoffman said that she and her colleagues on Passing felt they had safe space in which to play, to try something else on occasion, helping the film get to a place which reflected the spirit and vision that Hall had for the story. Hoffman assessed that she’s extremely happy with the end result, particularly as a film which can be watched multiple times and continue to engage someone on a deep level.

Passing is part of a growing filmography for Hoffman which includes Queen Bees, Maggie’s Plan and The Glorias.

Alexandre Desplat
Eleven-time Academy Award-nominated composer Alexandre Desplat–who won Best Original Score Oscars for The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2015 and The Shape of Water in 2018–knew that The French Dispatch (Searchlight Pictures), his latest collaboration with director Wes Anderson, would pose its share of challenges, including one inherent in the film’s structure. In The French Dispatch, we find out about the death of Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (portrayed by Bill Murray), editor of the widely circulated American magazine in the film’s title, an international offshoot of a Kansas newspaper.  The Dispatch staff convenes at the publication’s headquarters in France to write his obituary. Memories of Howitzer flow into the creation of four stories: a travelogue of the seediest sections of the city itself; “The Concrete Masterpiece,” about a criminally insane painter, his guard and muse, and his art dealers; “Revisions to a Manifesto,” a chronicle of love and death at the height of a student revolt; and “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” a suspenseful tale of drugs, kidnapping and fine dining. 

Taking on “a film in four parts,” explained Desplat, meant that he “had to find a way of underlying each story with a specific sound and at the same time being able to connect with the other sections.”  Desplat said that achieving distinctive scores for each part while maintaining continuity between them throughout the entire film represented the biggest challenge that The French Dispatch posed to him as a composer. “I had to find a continuity even though everything is discontinued,” he said. Helping him be equal to the task was his strong collaborative bond with Anderson spanning such prior films as Isle of Dogs, Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox and the aforementioned The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

Also helpful was the fact that The French Dispatch is Anderson’s love letter to his adopted country, France–and Desplat is French. Desplat could relate to Anderson’s passion for French cinema, French actors and French cuisine. This lent itself to the composer creating a score with that feel of appreciation while being true to Anderson’s request that the music be provocative, unpredictable, fun but at the same time minimalist. The music never grows huge or bombastic, observed Desplat. Rather it stays “near the characters and tries to expand the feelings of those characters” who are portrayed by a cast which includes Benecio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Lea Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park and Owen Wilson.

“Wes’ world is a world of imagination,” said Desplat who shared that being plugged into that imagination as a composer is a creatively fulfilling experience. 

That imaginative dimension helps immeasurably in terms of avoiding the obvious. For The French Dispatch, Desplat explained that the goal was in large part “to write a French score for a film set in France without any of the clichés of what would be considered French. There’s no accordion, no waltz, nothing of what would be typical France.” This is a France born out of Anderson’s imagination–with no clichés. The French town where The French Dispatch is based, Ennui-sur-Blase, is fictional. Still the score, continued Desplat, is “very French,” with a mix of humor, love, joy and varied emotions.

Working with Anderson over the years, Desplat also sees a maturity in the director’s use of animation and how it’s weaved into his live-action films. The French Dispatch reflects that virtuosity as animation plays a key role in telling “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner” portion of the film. “The subtlety of the way he uses the technique he’s learned in animation is impressive,” said Desplat who added that his approach to the music doesn’t change when animation comes into play in a live-action film. Desplat’s process remains the same–simply striving to compose in a manner that’s right for the story.

Desplat’s first career Oscar nomination came in 2007 for The Queen. Two years later, Desplat scored a nod for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In 2010 the composer garnered his third nomination for Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. A year later Desplat was again an Oscar nominee, this time for The King’s Speech. In 2013, Desplat was nominated for Argo. Then came another Best Original Score nomination in 2014 for Philomena. And the same year (2015) Desplat won the Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel, he was also nominated for The Imitation Game. Then came the win for The Shape of Water in 2018. The next year Desplat was a nominee for Anderson’s Isle of Dogs.  And the composer’s most recent Oscar nod came in 2020 for Little Women.

This is the second installment of a 16-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies and on SHOOTonline.com, with select installments also in print issues. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 94th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. The 94th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

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