Welcome to our special Academy Awards SHOOT>e.dition, which includes all 16 feature story installments of SHOOT’s “The Road To Oscars” Series, as well as other related coverage.
The weekly “Road To Oscar” Series began back in October 2019. This series has shared insights from assorted Oscar contenders and/or nominees, including:
- Directors Todd Phillips (Joker), Rupert Goold (Judy), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Jay Roach (Bombshell), Steven Bognar (American Factory), Ladj Ly (Les Miserables) Find Stories Here
- Cinematographers Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (1917), Phedon Papamichael, ASC (Ford v Ferrari), Lawrence Sher, ASC (Joker), Mihai Malaimare Jr. (Jojo Rabbit), Cesar Charlone (The Two Popes), Ed Lachman, ASC (Dark Waters), Yorick Le Saux, AFC (Little Women), Eigil Bryld (The Report) Find Stories Here
- Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff (a two-time Best Picture Oscar nominee this year for The Irishman and Joker) Read Article Here
- Editors Andrew Buckland (Ford v. Ferrari), Tom Eagles (Jojo Rabbit), Affonso Goncalves (Dark Waters), Nick Houy (Little Women), Nat Sanders (Just Mercy), Wyatt Smith (Harriet), Melanie Ann Oliver (Judy) Find Stories Here
- Visual effect supervisor Pablo Helman (The Irishman) Read Article Here
- Production designers Barbara Ling (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood), Ra Vincent (Jojo Rabbit), Jess Gonchor (Little Women), Mark Tildesley (The Two Popes), Mark Friedberg (Joker), Kave Quinn (Judy) Find Stories Here
- Costume designer Mark Bridges (Joker) Read Article Here
- Composer Alexandre Desplat (Little Women) Read Article Here
- Writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) Read Article Here
- Sound mixer Tom Fleischman (The Irishman) Read Article Here
This compendium of Oscars season coverage also spans Chat Rooms, a Cinematographers & Cameras feature story, DGA Awards and AFI Fest coverage, even Fall Directors Series profiles. These different elements connected with such artisans as:
- Directors Sam Mendes (1917), Chinonye Chukwu (Clemency), Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Scott Z. Burns (The Report), Waad al-Kateab (For Sama), Feras Fayyad (The Cave)
- Cinematographers Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF (Honey Boy), Dick Pope, BSC (Motherless Brooklyn)
- Editor Jinmo Yang (Parasite) Read Chat Room interview here
Plus we've included Oscar nominations announcement coverage. Find SHOOT >e.dition | On The Road To Oscar online here.
So read on and enjoy. And remember, there’s more Oscars content to come, including SHOOT’s coverage of Academy Awards night on February 9th.
The Road to Emmy
And, stay tuned for SHOOT's 2020 16-Part Road to Emmy Series that will kick off with a special preview feature on March 20th with regular weekly installments of the Series beginning on May 15th.
Click Here to read installments from the 2019 Road to Emmy Series.
Click Here for SHOOT 2020 Emmy FYC Marketing information.
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 — and those many "Babadook" memes — 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 — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — 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