film

Jessie Buckley: From reality TV hopeful to Oscar winner

BY PETER MURPHY

  • Irish President Catherine Connolly sent Buckley her "warmest congratulations" on Monday on the "historic moment of becoming the first Irish woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
  • Irish actress Jessie Buckley capped her spectacular rise to Hollywood stardom on Sunday, winning a best actress Oscar for her searing portrait of motherhood and love undone by loss in "Hamnet" The 36-year-old actress from a small town in Ireland's remote southwest received the award for her work as William Shakespeare's wife Agnes, devastated by the death of their son, the eponymous child in director Chloe Zhao's acclaimed film.
  • Irish President Catherine Connolly sent Buckley her "warmest congratulations" on Monday on the "historic moment of becoming the first Irish woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
Irish actress Jessie Buckley capped her spectacular rise to Hollywood stardom on Sunday, winning a best actress Oscar for her searing portrait of motherhood and love undone by loss in "Hamnet"
The 36-year-old actress from a small town in Ireland's remote southwest received the award for her work as William Shakespeare's wife Agnes, devastated by the death of their son, the eponymous child in director Chloe Zhao's acclaimed film.
Her expressive intensity as the grieving heart of the story -- an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 bestselling novel of the same name -- captivated audiences, moving many moviegoers to tears.
"This is really something," an emotional Buckley said, hailing her fellow nominees and saying she wanted to work with all of them.
The bewitching Agnes has "a strong, wide open heart and a mother with an epic landscape inside her", Buckley told The Irish Times, underscoring the emotional depth of the role.
In February, on becoming the first Irish woman to win a BAFTA best actress award for her performance, she dedicated it to "the women past, present and future that have taught me and continue to teach me how to do it differently".
"You brought the mother out of the shadows, and you stood her in absolution beside the giant that is Shakespeare", she said to O'Farrell in the audience.
Buckley was the closest thing to a shoo-in this awards season, sweeping the precursor prizes including the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards.
On Sunday, she bested Rose Byrne ("If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"), Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value"), Emma Stone ("Bugonia") and Kate Hudson ("Song Sung Blue"). 
Irish President Catherine Connolly sent Buckley her "warmest congratulations" on Monday on the "historic moment of becoming the first Irish woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
She also praised the achievements of all the other Irish nominees and Richard Baneham who won his second Oscar for visual effects.
Buckley didn't have a child when she took on the role of Agnes.
But she became pregnant "a week" after finishing "Hamnet", she told The New York Times, and gave birth to a baby girl in autumn 2025.

'Nurtured and respected'

Born on December 28, 1989 to a poet, Tim Buckley, and Marina, a former opera singer and vocal coach, the actress was encouraged to join school theatre productions from a young age.
Growing up in Killarney, County Kerry with four siblings, she credits her upbringing for shaping her artistic instincts.
At home, "music, writing and expressing yourself was really nurtured and respected," she told The Irish Times.
Buckley first made waves as a reality TV hopeful in 2008's "I'd Do Anything", a BBC talent show scouting for a production of "Oliver" in London's West End.
Although she lost in the final, judges urged her to pursue formal dramatic training. 
She graduated from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2013 and immersed herself in the works of The Bard.
That same year, she secured roles in adaptations of "Henry V" and "The Winter's Tale" in London.
Television roles followed including in a BBC dramatisation of "War and Peace" (2016), and the HBO hit miniseries "Chernobyl" (2019).
Buckley made her film debut in "Beast" (2017), a psychological thriller set on Jersey in the Channel Islands, and earned a BAFTA nomination for her lead role in the 2018 film "Wild Rose" about an aspiring country singer and ex-convict from Glasgow.
She has often returned to her Shakespearean theatrical roots, playing Juliet at the National Theatre in 2021 with another rising star, Josh O'Connor.
She earned her first Oscar nomination in 2022 for best supporting actress for her portrayal of a tormented mother in Maggie Gyllenhaal's tense psychological drama "The Lost Daughter".
An accomplished singer, she won an Olivier Award in 2022 for best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the West End revival of "Cabaret".
That same year, she released a folk album with Bernard Butler, former guitarist of the band Suede.
Buckley lives in the English countryside in Norfolk with her husband, a mental health worker, who she married in 2023.
Her current project, in theatres now, is Gyllenhaal's "The Bride!" -- a genre-hopping take on the bride of Frankenstein's monster in which she co-stars opposite fellow Oscar winner Christian Bale.
cla-pmu/jkb/sst/ach 

film

Five top moments from the Oscars

BY SUSAN STUMME AND MAGGY DONALDSON IN NEW YORK

  • Top winner Paul Thomas Anderson said he made "One Battle After Another" -- the top winner with six prizes -- for his kids as an apology "for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them."
  • This year's Oscars saw "One Battle After Another" cap its outstanding awards season by taking home the night's top prize for best picture, as "Sinners" also won big.
  • Top winner Paul Thomas Anderson said he made "One Battle After Another" -- the top winner with six prizes -- for his kids as an apology "for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them."
This year's Oscars saw "One Battle After Another" cap its outstanding awards season by taking home the night's top prize for best picture, as "Sinners" also won big.
It was a particularly competitive night rife with impressive performances, quippy one-liners, high fashion on the red carpet and tearful acceptance speeches.
Here's a rundown of the night's highlights:

Musical moments... and a rare tie

The night's first musical number recreated an extraordinary scene from vampire horror flick "Sinners," a montage that traces the history of Black music from West Africa to the Delta Blues to hip-hop.
Actor Miles Caton led other castmates in the rendition of "I Lied to You," joined by other A-list performers such as ballerina Misty Copeland -- who danced despite recently undergoing a hip replacement.
Later on, the three singers from the fictional girl group HUNTR/X from "KPop Demon Hunters" belted out a rendition of "Golden."
The smash hit then got its flowers, taking home the prize for best original song and becoming the first K-pop song to win the category.
The Oscars audience also witnessed a rare tie: two films won the prize for best live-action short, "Two People Exchanging Saliva" and "The Singers."
"You just ruined 22 million Oscar pools," said O'Brien, after waiting for the double acceptance speeches to end.

Politics take the stage

As he presented the award for best international film, past winner Javier Bardem made a statement: "No to war and Free Palestine."
Norwegian family dramedy "Sentimental Value" won the prize. 
In his speech, filmmaker Joachim Trier paraphrased African American author James Baldwin, who he said "makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children."
"Let's not vote for politicians who don't take this seriously into account."
Top winner Paul Thomas Anderson said he made "One Battle After Another" -- the top winner with six prizes -- for his kids as an apology "for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them."
"But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency," he said.
And Pavel Talankin, the co-director and protagonist of "Mr Nobody Against Putin," said the world should "stop all of these wars now."

Farewell to the greats

A lengthy In Memoriam segment was given ample airtime after a year that took a number of film legends with it.
Billy Crystal -- himself a veteran Oscars host -- delivered a heartfelt tribute to his late friend and regular collaborator Rob Reiner, who was murdered along with his wife at their Los Angeles home late last year.
A crew of people Reiner famously worked with, including Meg Ryan, then appeared onstage.
A who's who of some of Hollywood's heaviest hitters who died in the last year were also honored, including Diane Keaton, Catherine O'Hara and Robert Redford.
The 83-year-old icon Barbra Streisand sang for her friend Redford, delivering a few bars from "The Way We Were" for her co-star in the film of the same name.
"Bob had real backbone, on and off the screen," said Streisand. "I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail." 

Promo opportunity

The Oscars were broadcast by the network ABC, which is owned by Disney, and organizers took the opportunity to advertise the studio's upcoming films.
While presenting awards, Sigourney Weaver and Pedro Pascal -- stars of this year's "Star Wars" film "The Mandalorian & Grogu" -- performed a bit that featured Grogu (also known as Baby Yoda) in the audience.
And Vogue doyenne Anna Wintour alongside Oscar winner Anne Hathaway delivered a humorous sketch that doubled as promo for the forthcoming "The Devil Wears Prada 2," to be released this spring.
Marvel cinematic universe stars Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. also reunited onstage ahead of the release of "Avengers: Doomsday" later this year.

Conan's jokes

Host Conan O'Brien nodded to politics and pulled a few punches, some with global appeal and a few one-liners for the insiders.
"It's great to be back hosting the Oscars. Last year, when I hosted, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything's going great," he joked, pausing for effect.
O'Brien also had a pointed industry remark for Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos: "It's his first time in a theater."
He also alluded to the Jeffrey Epstein drama. 
"It's the first time since 2012 that there are no British actors nominated for best actor or best actress," O'Brien said. "A British spokesperson said, 'Yeah, well, at least we arrest our pedophiles.'"
"Marty Supreme" star Timothee Chalamet, who left empty-handed, also got a notable roast, as O'Brien took shots at the actor who recently disparaged ballet and opera.
bur-mdo/sst

film

With Oscar race locked, actresses celebrate backstage anyway

BY ANDREW MARSZAL

  • Reinsve predictably lost best actress, but the whole gang took to the stage as "Sentimental Value" won best international film.
  • At an Oscars full of nerve-shreddingly tight races, best actress was one of Sunday night's few entirely predictable categories.
  • Reinsve predictably lost best actress, but the whole gang took to the stage as "Sentimental Value" won best international film.
At an Oscars full of nerve-shreddingly tight races, best actress was one of Sunday night's few entirely predictable categories.
Pundits were -- correctly -- unanimous that Jessie Buckley would win for her tear-jerking turn as William Shakespeare's wife in "Hamnet."
But that did not stop her rival nominees enjoying the night -- if anything, they were the life and soul of the party.
Emma Stone, a two-time best actress winner already, spent much of the ceremony happily chatting backstage with friends and admirers in the theater's most exclusive lobby.
"The bar is the place!" Stone, nominated for her role in conspiracy theory thriller "Bugonia," told AFP.
Indeed, while the Oscars are being handed out in the adjoining theater, the Dolby Theater's ground-floor bar is renowned as a free-flowing gossip, networking and champagne spot for the industry's movers and shakers.
Stone jokingly admitted she wasn't sure exactly how many Academy Awards she'd attended, but by now knew where to wait for her category to come up.
For Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve, it was a second trip to Hollywood's top awards show, but a first as an acting nominee.
She came to the Oscars four years ago for best foreign film contender "The Worst Person in the World," but was personally recognized this time for "Sentimental Value."
"It's so much more chill this time -- this time I actually know people!" she told AFP.
Moments later, she effusively greeted Pedro Pascal like an old friend. He promptly stepped on her toe as they embraced and profusely apologized, to mutual laughter.
After her fellow supporting actor and actress nominees had missed out in their early categories, the film's Norwegian team gathered at the bar again with their plus ones.
"Last time I couldn't bring a guest. This time, I got to bring my sister," the Norwegian star added.
Reinsve predictably lost best actress, but the whole gang took to the stage as "Sentimental Value" won best international film.
"It's about a very dysfunctional family, and it's the opposite of what I felt of this beautiful group behind me," said director Joachim Trier, from the stage.

'Exciting'

This year, the Oscars bar's raucous chatter was muted temporarily by the moving tribute to Rob Reiner and the start of the "In Memoriam" section honoring Hollywood legends who died this year.
There was spontaneous applause when Catherine O'Hara, star most recently of Hollywood satire "The Studio," was shown on screens.
Inside the theater, wins for "Sinners" consistently drew the loudest cheers from the in-person audience, with even those in the nosebleed seats rising to a standing ovation when Michael B. Jordan won best actor.
"I'm only here because of the people that came before me," said Jordan, before name-checking a number of the small group of previous Black Oscar acting winners including Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, to wild applause.
As for Buckley, she too periodically appeared at the bar before and during the ceremony, not stopping to chat much, but seemingly showing no nerves as she was wished the best of luck by many of those she passed.
"Thank you," she grinned with a confident smile, before collecting her seemingly inevitable prize.
"Thank you to the incredible women that I stand beside -- I am inspired by your art and your heart and I want to work with every single one of you," she shouted out to her fellow nominees from the stage, as the night drew toward its close.
Amz/hg/sst

film

'One Battle After Another' dominates Oscars

BY HUW GRIFFITH

  • Both "One Battle" and "Sinners" were produced by Warner Bros.
  • "One Battle After Another" triumphed at the Oscars on Sunday, winning six awards, including the coveted best picture statuette, besting "Sinners" in a thrilling finale to one of the most competitive awards seasons in recent years.
  • Both "One Battle" and "Sinners" were produced by Warner Bros.
"One Battle After Another" triumphed at the Oscars on Sunday, winning six awards, including the coveted best picture statuette, besting "Sinners" in a thrilling finale to one of the most competitive awards seasons in recent years.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson personally won three Oscars, the first of his career, for his political thriller that tackles the hot-button issues of immigration raids and white supremacy.
"You make a guy work really hard for one of these," he said to laughter as he accepted the award for best director.
"I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them," he said after collecting the best adapted screenplay prize.
"But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency
"One Battle" tells the story of a pot-addled ex-revolutionary, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who struggles to remember passphrases in a battle of wits against the terrifying Colonel Lockjaw, played by best supporting actor winner Sean Penn.
The film also won best editing and the inaugural award for casting.
Anderson is one of the greatest auteurs of contemporary US cinema, but until Sunday had never won an Oscar, despite 11 previous nominations for acclaimed films including "There Will Be Blood" and "Boogie Nights." 

'Sinners' wins four

Ryan Coogler's "Sinners," a bluesy vampire fable that offers a meditation on America's difficult racial history, had come into the evening with a record-tying 16 nominations.
It left with four awards, including best original screenplay for Coogler and best actor for Michael B. Jordan, who plays gangster twin brothers Smoke and Stack seeking their fortune in the segregated South.
Jordan told reporters backstage that he had created detailed journals to flesh out the backstories of both roles in order to clearly express "those nuances between the two."
Other prizes were best score for Ludwig Goransson and best cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first time a woman won in that category.
Coogler called his writing award "an incredible honor" and told journalists he credited a creative writing professor for his success. 
Both "One Battle" and "Sinners" were produced by Warner Bros. Studio, which was the subject of an intense bidding war between Paramount and Netflix.
The studio claimed 12 of the 24 awards on offer on Sunday.
In perhaps the least surprising award of the evening, Jessie Buckley won best actress for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's heartbroken wife Agnes navigating the loss of their son in "Hamnet."
Buckley told journalists backstage that it felt "crazy" to win the award on what is Mother's Day back in her native Ireland.
"I feel like what a gift to get to explore motherhood through this incredible mother that Agnes is," she said.
Amy Madigan took home the Oscar for best supporting actress for her turn as a demented witch in horror film "Weapons."
The veteran performer, who scooped the Actors Award two weeks ago, said: "I was in the shower last night, and I thought, 'Well, this must be a special day, because I'm shaving my legs'."
Norwegian family drama "Sentimental Value" was named best international feature.
"KPop Demon Hunters" won for best animated feature and best original song for "Golden."

Poignant tributes

Veteran host Conan O'Brien kept proceedings light and funny, with his signature blend of zany satire.
That included a swipe at allies of President Donald Trump, who had so objected to Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny being the star of the Super Bowl halftime show that they had put on their own.
"I should warn you tonight could get political, okay?" he told Tinseltown's biggest names.
"And if that makes you uncomfortable, there's an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock."
A lengthy In Memoriam segment paid emotional tribute to director Rob Reiner, who was stabbed to death in his home in December, and to Robert Redford, which included a rare stage performance from Barbra Streisand.
Billy Crystal, whom Reiner cast opposite Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally," said Reiner's effect on Hollywood was immeasurable.
"Rob's movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be: far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier and far more human," he said.
Streisand, 83, who played opposite Redford in the 1973 classic "The Way We Were," said she had loved a man who affectionately called her "Babs."
"He was a brilliant, subtle actor," she said. "Bob had real backbone, on and off the screen.
"I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail. I miss him now more than ever."  
hg/sst

film

Stars bring glamour to Oscars red carpet

BY SUSAN STUMME

  • - Hockey stars, real and fictional - Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
  • Hollywood's best and brightest stars on Sunday hit the red carpet for the 98th Academy Awards, the movie industry's biggest night.
  • - Hockey stars, real and fictional - Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
Hollywood's best and brightest stars on Sunday hit the red carpet for the 98th Academy Awards, the movie industry's biggest night.
Here are some of the top looks:

Spring hues

Pops of spring color were a welcome sight on the red carpet.
Jessie Buckley, who won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's grief-stricken wife in "Hamnet," looked regal in a red Chanel off-the-shoulder bodice and flowing pink ball skirt.
Chase Infiniti, who plays Leonardo DiCaprio's daughter in "One Battle After Another" is not a Oscar nominee -- but she has definitely arrived on the red carpet.
Infiniti oozed glamour in a lilac sleeveless Louis Vuitton dress with a fitted bodice and a cascade of ruffles tumbling from her hip to the floor, creating a long train.
And veteran director Spike Lee brought a splash of color to his ensemble of muted neutrals with a bright purple hat and bow tie. In the past, he has worn the hue to honor Prince.

Black and white

Black and white is a perennial favorite of the stars, and best actress nominee Rose Byrne embraced it, while also adopting the spring trend in a strapless black Dior gown covered in white blooms.
Byrne, nominated for her performance in "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," told ABC the film was an "examination of parenthood."
Emma Stone, in Byrne's category for "Bugonia," rocked a shimmering white Louis Vuitton floor-length gown with cap sleeves.
And Teyana Taylor, who has ruled the red carpet all awards season, wore a black and white feathered sleeveless Chanel gown with a sheer panel over her toned stomach.
Best actor winner Michael B. Jordan ("Sinners") wore a custom Louis Vuitton black suit with a Chinese-inspired stand collar and onyx buttons.

Hockey stars, real and fictional

Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
"Heated Rivalry" stars Hudson Williams has been everywhere since the gay hockey love story series went viral -- carrying the Olympic torch in Italy, appearing on "Saturday Night Live" alongside co-star Connor Storrie and now, the Oscars.
Williams rocked an all-black Balenciaga ensemble -- double-breasted suit, shirt and tie -- with a glittering brooch to finish the look.
But the Hollywood hockey star was not the only one at the Dolby Theatre.
Hilary Knight and Hannah Bilka, two of the stars of Team USA's gold medal winning women's ice hockey squad, were ready for their closeup on the Oscars red carpet.
bur-sst/mdo

film

'One Battle After Another' wins best picture Oscar

BY SUSAN STUMME

  • Despite Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" leading the nomination tally with a record-setting 16, "One Battle" racked up the precursor awards, from the Critics Choice Awards to the Golden Globes to the BAFTAs. Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland," the movie follows the story of the fictional French 75, a radical leftist revolutionary group staging a series of bombings in support of liberal causes.
  • Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" -- a wild tale of leftist revolutionaries, white supremacists and immigrant detention centers -- felt to many filmgoers like it offered a window on modern America.
  • Despite Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" leading the nomination tally with a record-setting 16, "One Battle" racked up the precursor awards, from the Critics Choice Awards to the Golden Globes to the BAFTAs. Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland," the movie follows the story of the fictional French 75, a radical leftist revolutionary group staging a series of bombings in support of liberal causes.
Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" -- a wild tale of leftist revolutionaries, white supremacists and immigrant detention centers -- felt to many filmgoers like it offered a window on modern America.
But the zany political satire -- chock full of heart-pounding car chases, gunfights and harrowing escapes -- also features romance, offbeat humor, and a touching story of a father's unconditional love for his daughter. 
That potent mix earned the movie a best picture Oscar on Sunday -- and overall top honors with a total of six golden statuettes.
"The thing that gets me really excited about making films is collaborating with people," Anderson told reporters backstage.
The director rallied a cast of megawatt A-listers including past Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn (who won again on Sunday) and Benicio Del Toro. He also got a searing breakthrough turn from Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor.
The film's Oscar success seemed preordained. 
Despite Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" leading the nomination tally with a record-setting 16, "One Battle" racked up the precursor awards, from the Critics Choice Awards to the Golden Globes to the BAFTAs.
Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's novel "Vineland," the movie follows the story of the fictional French 75, a radical leftist revolutionary group staging a series of bombings in support of liberal causes.
Their work starts to go off the rails when they rescue a group of immigrants from a facility on the US-Mexico border, and group firebrand Perfidia Beverly Hills (Taylor) makes an enemy of the fantastically named Colonel Steve Lockjaw (Penn).
Perfidia vanishes, and her explosives expert lover Pat (DiCaprio) goes into hiding with their daughter Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti). 
Lockjaw meanwhile slowly picks off each member of the French 75, and gets involved with a group of white supremacists called the Christmas Adventurers.
Cut to 16 years later, and Pat, known now as Bob Ferguson, is off the grid and in a constant state of paranoia. Lockjaw however locates him -- and isn't afraid to stage bogus immigration crackdowns to catch him.
Willa, now a teen, vanishes, but Bob, his brain addled by years of alcohol and drug use, struggles to reconnect with his revolutionary pals to find her. DiCaprio goes on a journey -- in his bathrobe and an unfortunate man bun -- to salvage his family.
"I love the idea that you expect this character's going to use massive espionage skills, but he cannot remember the password," DiCaprio told reporters in September when the film opened.

'It's not going away'

Car chases in the desert haze, a teen hidden by an order of nuns called the Sisters of the Brave Beaver, Del Toro chewing the scenery as karate dojo owner (and part-time savior of immigrants) Sensei Sergio: the film is relentless, leaving the viewer on edge.
The movie dissects "how we have stopped listening to one another, and how these characters thinking or acting in these extremes can bring a lot of hurt," DiCaprio told The New York Times.
It is the first movie in two decades directed by Anderson that is set in the present day, after "There Will Be Blood," "The Master," "Inherent Vice," "Phantom Thread" and "Licorice Pizza."
But Anderson insists his statement is not particular for this moment in time.
"The biggest mistake I could make in a story like this is to put politics up in the front," the filmmaker told the Los Angeles Times last year.
"You have to care about the characters and take those big swings in terms of the emotional arcs of people... That's not a thing that ever goes out of fashion. But neither does fascism."
"I'm not trying to diminish what's happening right now," he told the paper. "But I'm also trying to say that what’s worse is that it's not going away."
sst/msp

film

Oscars night: latest developments

  • Norway's from , which came into the night with nine nominations, took home that prize.
  • Welcome to Oscars night! 
  • Norway's from , which came into the night with nine nominations, took home that prize.
Welcome to Oscars night! 
AFP is bringing you all the latest developments from the star-studded 98th Academy Awards in Hollywood.
ComedianConan O'Brienhosted the evening that saw big winner"One Battle After Another"take home six awards followed by"Sinners"with four.
Here's the latest from the marathon night's final stretch:
won the night's top prize for best picture, capping off a dominant awards season run for the high-octane humorous thriller about a former revolutionary's search for his daughter.
Teyana Taylorput the director in a headlock as fellow starChase Infinitiwas bubbling over with joy.
"Let's have a martini -- this is pretty amazing," said Anderson, fresh off a win for best director.
"You make a guy work hard for one of these," said the widely acclaimed filmmaker, who won the first Oscars of his career for director, best adapted screenplay and picture as one of the film's producers.
"I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them," Anderson said in accepting that prize, "but also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency."
won the award for best actress for her starring role in
as William Shakespeare's grieving wife.
She called playing the character "the greatest collision of my life," as the film centered on motherhood and coincided with her own journey towards becoming a parent.
"It's Mother's Day in the UK today, so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart," said a tearful Buckley. "We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds."
realized he'd walked onstage chewing gum, and -- before pretending to toss it into the audience -- swallowed it, recalling his winning moment from last year.
He then pulled handwritten notes out and feigned preparing for a lengthy monologue -- another reference to last year -- until show producers turned on the play-off music.
Brody then promptly presented the prize for best actor toMichael B. Jordanfor his role playing twin gangsters in"Sinners."
"God is good," said the actor to wild applause.
He thanked the team behind the film for "betting on a culture and betting on original ideas," adding that "I stand here because of the people that came before me," listing off Black Oscar winners includingSidney Poitier.
Jordan bested the likes of a surely disappointedTimothee Chalamet --who served as one of the night's punching bags over his recent belittling comments about ballet and opera.
used his time onstage as a presenter for best international film to make a statement:
said the Spanish actor, who wore pins with the same messages.
Norway's
from
, which came into the night with nine nominations, took home that prize.
He accepted the award in paraphrasing the famed Black American authorJames Baldwin, who Trier said "makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children."
"Let's not vote for politicians who don't take this seriously into account."
The second musical performance of the night -- which followed a showstopping montage number from the smash "Sinners" -- was the beloved
from the "KPop Demon Hunters" fictional girl group.
The smash hit then got its flowers, taking home the prize for best original song and becoming the first KPop song to win the category.
"This song is not about success -- it's about resilience," said tearful singer-songwriterEjaeonstage.
"One Battle After Another"won the Oscar for best editing, while rival"Sinners"scored for cinematography.
became the first woman to win in the latter category, and paid homage to her predecessors.
"I'm so honored to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don't get here without you guys," she said.
The best original screenplay prize went toRyan Cooglerfor"Sinners,"the acclaimed supernatural vampire drama set in the segregated Deep South, which he dubbed "an incredible honor" as he thanked his family and cast members.
mdo/sst

film

South Koreans bask in Oscars triumph for 'KPop Demon Hunters'

  • South Koreans hailed their latest cultural product to infect the world with "K-syndrome" -- the irresistible surrender to the country's movies, music, books, fashion and cuisine.
  • South Korean fans and media basked in the success of "KPop Demon Hunters" on Monday after the film clinched two Oscars and added to the country's growing pantheon of cultural hits.
  • South Koreans hailed their latest cultural product to infect the world with "K-syndrome" -- the irresistible surrender to the country's movies, music, books, fashion and cuisine.
South Korean fans and media basked in the success of "KPop Demon Hunters" on Monday after the film clinched two Oscars and added to the country's growing pantheon of cultural hits.
The fantasy flick, a clash of good versus evil drawing heavily on Korean mythology and driven by a pulsing K-pop soundtrack, won the Academy Awards for best animated feature and best original song at Sunday's ceremony in Hollywood.
It had already built a massive global following, becoming the most-watched original film of all time on streaming giant Netflix and hoovering up accolades including a Grammy for lead track "Golden", the first such win for a K-pop song.
South Koreans hailed their latest cultural product to infect the world with "K-syndrome" -- the irresistible surrender to the country's movies, music, books, fashion and cuisine.
"So the so-called K-syndrome is now going into animated film as well," wrote one viewer using the YouTube handle Kim Chang-soo, echoing widespread pride online.
Much of the domestic reaction centred on Korean-Canadian co-director Maggie Kang's emotional acceptance speech, with the Seoul-born filmmaker dedicating the prizes to her motherland.
"The culture ministry should at least award her a medal for that speech!" one internet user commented on a news portal.
A headline in the Hankook Ilbo newspaper quoted Kang's address directly, blaring: "This is for Korea and Koreans everywhere".
News channel YTN lavished praise on Kang's "heartfelt message to Korea", referring to the movie by its affectionate shorthand "Kedehun", a combination of the title's first three syllables.
The film's dual Oscars triumph caps a remarkable run since its June release on Netflix.
On the back of its blockbuster-style debut, the platform also released a limited "sing-along" edition in North American cinemas for one weekend, which topped the box-office chart.
Netflix has already announced a sequel, though no release date has been set.
The film's Grammy win for "Golden" was widely viewed as a breakthrough moment for K-pop, marking the genre's first victory at an awards show that had eluded the industry despite its global popularity.
kjk/mjw

film

Ryan Coogler: from indie to blockbuster to Oscar

BY SUSAN STUMME

  • "I see Ryan the most in this movie," Jordan told The Hollywood Reporter.
  • Ryan Coogler launched his career with an indie look at police brutality in America.
  • "I see Ryan the most in this movie," Jordan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Ryan Coogler launched his career with an indie look at police brutality in America. He moved on to transform the Marvel universe culture with his blockbuster "Black Panther" films.
And now, just shy of his 40th birthday, Coogler is an Oscar winner, for best original screenplay for horror period piece "Sinners," an unlikely mash-up of racial segregation, Southern blues and vampire-fueled gore.
The Warner Bros film -- starring Coogler's steady collaborator, Michael B. Jordan, as twins in 1930s Mississippi -- became a box office smash, raking in nearly $370 million worldwide.
"I'm very nervous and they're gonna play me off. I grew up in Oakland, California, and we can talk a lot," Coogler said Sunday.
"This is an incredible honor."
Despite initial skepticism by industry insiders about the film, "Sinners" shattered the record for most Academy Awards nominations for a single film with 16.
It ended up with four awards -- best actor for Jordan, Coogler's prize, best score for Ludwig Goransson and best cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman to ever win in that category.

From Oakland to Cannes

Coogler's rapid ascent onto Hollywood's A list was hardly likely back when he was intending to major in chemistry at college.
He was born on May 23, 1986 in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco. 
He remained in the area for his entire childhood, running track and playing football -- a sport that would lead to a scholarship for college.
Praise from the teacher of a creative writing course during his freshman year sparked an interest in screenwriting, and Coogler took film classes while earning a degree in finance.
A gift of screenwriting software from girlfriend Zinzi -- now his wife, production partner and mother of their three children -- further kindled his ambition.
"When football began to feel like a chapter he might be closing, I could see he was looking for a place to pour that same energy into, and filmmaking was it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. 
Two years after earning a graduate degree from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, Coogler wrote and directed "Fruitvale Station," his first feature.
The 2013 film recounted the real-life story of Oscar Grant, a young Black man who was shot dead by a transit police officer in Oakland during a 2009 arrest, sparking protests and riots.
The movie marked his first collaboration with Jordan -- who has gone on to star in all of Coogler's work. It earned multiple awards, including at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.
It was only the beginning.

Blockbusters

Coogler followed up with "Creed" (2015) a spin-off of the "Rocky" franchise, with Jordan as the young boxer, and Sylvester Stallone reprising his iconic role -- as his trainer.
Three years later, he released "Black Panther," putting a rich portrait of the fictional high-tech African country Wakanda on screen -- and elevating Black representation in Hollywood.
"Black Panther" went on to win three Oscars, and secured a best picture nomination.
Its 2022 sequel was largely defined by the death of star Chadwick Boseman after a battle with cancer, which forced Coogler to rewrite the film.
"Me and Chad were getting closer, so it was like a wound to the heart," Coogler told The Hollywood Reporter.

Vampires and the blues

So far, "Sinners" is perhaps his most personal project -- sparked by wanting to learn more about a great-uncle who had introduced him to the blues and was from Mississippi.
It also came from his own imagination, not from current events or existing intellectual property.
"I did feel more vulnerable," Coogler told The New York Times about the experience.
Jordan plays both Smoke and Stack, twin brothers who fought in World War I and return home to the southern state after a time in Chicago working for crime lords such as Al Capone.
They want to open a juke joint -- but their dreams collide with the ghosts of slavery, white supremacy and the white vampires as a metaphor for the exploitation of Blacks.
One central scene that employs magical realism to trace the history of Black music from West Africa through the blues to present-day hip-hop is a standout -- before the blood flows.
"I see Ryan the most in this movie," Jordan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Upcoming projects include the third "Black Panther" film and a new cinematic take on "The X-Files," the 1990s hit sci-fi show about FBI agents investigating the unknown.
sst/bgs

film

Oscar winners in main categories

  • "One Battle After Another" emerged as the big winner with six awards, followed by "Sinners" with four.
  • Here are the winners in key categories for the 98th Academy Awards, which were handed out in Hollywood on Sunday.
  • "One Battle After Another" emerged as the big winner with six awards, followed by "Sinners" with four.
Here are the winners in key categories for the 98th Academy Awards, which were handed out in Hollywood on Sunday.
"One Battle After Another" emerged as the big winner with six awards, followed by "Sinners" with four.
Best picture: "One Battle After Another"
Best director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "One Battle After Another"
Best actor: Michael B. Jordan, "Sinners"
Best actress: Jessie Buckley, "Hamnet"
Best supporting actor: Sean Penn, "One Battle After Another"
Best supporting actress: Amy Madigan, "Weapons"
Best original screenplay: Ryan Coogler, "Sinners"
Best adapted screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, "One Battle After Another"
Best international feature film: "Sentimental Value" (Norway)
Best animated feature: "Kpop Demon Hunters"
Best documentary feature: "Mr. Nobody Against Putin"
bur-sst/jgc

film

Paul Thomas Anderson: eclectic filmmaker, critical darling

BY HUW GRIFFITH

  • The filmmaker had already won a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe and a Directors Guild Award in the run-up to the Academy Awards.
  • Director Paul Thomas Anderson has often been on the outside looking in during an eclectic career of boundary-pushing filmmaking, but he received the ultimate insider's accolade Sunday -- the Oscar for best director of his acclaimed "One Battle After Another."
  • The filmmaker had already won a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe and a Directors Guild Award in the run-up to the Academy Awards.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson has often been on the outside looking in during an eclectic career of boundary-pushing filmmaking, but he received the ultimate insider's accolade Sunday -- the Oscar for best director of his acclaimed "One Battle After Another."
The Los Angeles native has long been a critical darling, with a raft of previous Academy Award nominations dating back to his breakout film "Boogie Nights" and including his last feature "Licorice Pizza."
But "One Battle After Another" -- with an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor -- has proved unstoppable during awards season.
Anderson also took home the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and shared the Oscar for best picture as a producer.
"I'm so happy to call the movies home," Anderson told the audience.
With "One Battle After Another" a quirky tale about a pot-addled revolutionary who must get back into the game to rescue his daughter, the 55-year-old Anderson bested Chloe Zhao for "Hamnet," Josh Safdie for "Marty Supreme," Joachim Trier for "Sentimental Value" and Ryan Coogler for "Sinners."
The filmmaker had already won a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe and a Directors Guild Award in the run-up to the Academy Awards.

'Boogie Nights' breakthrough

Born in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1970, Anderson grew up in California and studied at New York University before dropping out after a single semester.
By then, Anderson had already developed a strong interest in film, having made a 30-minute mockumentary about a male porn star during high school.
The subject of the film would form the inspiration for his 1997 breakthrough movie "Boogie Nights," often described as the best big-screen depiction of the porn industry, which earned Anderson his first Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.
The film also garnered an Oscar nod for Julianne Moore and burnished the reputations of a crop of young actors who subsequently went on to great success including Mark Wahlberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle and John C. Reilly.
Anderson followed "Boogie Nights" with the 1999 drama "Magnolia," which skillfully interweaves the lives of several people living in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles.
The film -- which earned Anderson another Oscars nod for best original screenplay, and an acting nomination for Tom Cruise -- famously featured a bizarre biblical twist in which the sky suddenly rains down thousands of exploding frogs.
The quirky 2002 rom-com "Punch-Drunk Love" followed, starring Adam Sandler as a hapless small business owner who falls for his sister's co-worker (Emily Watson).
While the film was a critical hit, it flopped at the box office, recouping only $17 million against a $25 million budget.
As a result, Anderson had trouble raising funding for his next film "There Will Be Blood," based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 book "Oil!" and shot in Texas for a budget of around $25 million.
But it ended up with eight Oscar nominations and two statuettes -- for best actor Daniel Day-Lewis and best cinematography.

Loyal company of actors

Perhaps due to his habit of creating roles for his stars that result in critical accolades, several of Anderson's movies have seen him reunite with a stable of revered actors.
Anderson teamed up again with Hoffman for 1950s-set "The Master," which centered on a Scientology-inspired nascent cult called "The Cause." All three lead actors -- Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams -- were nominated for Oscars.
Phoenix then worked again with Anderson on "Inherent Vice," the first-ever screen adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel. The 1970s-set Los Angeles detective noir earned Anderson an adapted screenplay Oscar nomination.
And in 2017, Day-Lewis returned for "Phantom Thread."
The fashion drama set in 1950s London earned Day-Lewis his third best actor Oscar. 
Anderson tapped into a different talent pool for "Licorice Pizza," his nostalgic 1970s love letter to the San Fernando Valley.
Anderson earned his third directing nomination for the film -- after "There Will Be Blood" and "Phantom Thread" -- along with best picture and screenplay nods, but came away empty-handed from the 2022 ceremony.
Away from the screen, Anderson's partner is actress and comedian Maya Rudolph. The couple has four children.
amz-hg/sst

film

Michael B. Jordan battles his way to Oscar for 'Sinners'

BY ROMAIN FONSEGRIVES

  • - 'Charisma' - The twin roles fall right in line with other characters designed for Jordan by Coogler, who has featured the actor in all of his films -- always a complicated, imperfect man.
  • Michael B. Jordan on Sunday won the best actor Oscar for playing twins confronted with pure evil in vampire race fable "Sinners" -- tortured fighters typical of the roles director Ryan Coogler has repeatedly created for him.
  • - 'Charisma' - The twin roles fall right in line with other characters designed for Jordan by Coogler, who has featured the actor in all of his films -- always a complicated, imperfect man.
Michael B. Jordan on Sunday won the best actor Oscar for playing twins confronted with pure evil in vampire race fable "Sinners" -- tortured fighters typical of the roles director Ryan Coogler has repeatedly created for him.
Jordan made good on the momentum he gained by winning the SAG Actor Award two weeks ago to bring home an Academy Award in his first try.
He bested "Marty Supreme" star Timothee Chalamet, who had been the frontrunner for most of Hollywood's awards season, along with Leonardo DiCaprio of "One Battle After Another," Wagner Moura ("The Secret Agent") and Ethan Hawke ("Blue Moon").
At age 39, Jordan joins a small circle of Black actors who have won the prestigious best actor Oscar, after Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker and Will Smith.
"I stand here because of the people who came before me," an emotional Jordan told the audience.
"Sinners," a supernatural tale of racial segregation in 1930s Mississippi, was a box office success in large part due to Jordan's compelling performances as Smoke and Stack, World War I veterans who return home after working in organized crime in Chicago.
The brothers want to open an off-the-books juke joint, smack in the middle of the Prohibition era. 
Of course, they want to make some money, but they also want to help the locals drown their sorrows in alcohol and the blues.
Things quickly go sour when white vampires come calling, looking to quench their thirst for blood and music.

'Charisma'

The twin roles fall right in line with other characters designed for Jordan by Coogler, who has featured the actor in all of his films -- always a complicated, imperfect man.
The pair started their collaboration with "Fruitvale Station" (2013), in which Jordan played Oscar Grant, a young Black man battling fate until he is shot dead by a police officer. 
They moved on to the titular boxer in "Creed," tormented by his father's legacy, and the villainous Killmonger of "Black Panther," traumatized by being an orphan in a racist world.
Coogler says Jordan's success in tough roles is a "testament to his charisma."
"As soon as you put the camera on him, you just naturally care about the guy, he told The New York Times in April last year, when "Sinners" debuted.
The filmmaker has turned Jordan into a star over the last decade, even when the actor doubted he could overcome the perennial obstacles for Black performers in Hollywood.
Coogler "gave me the reassurance and the confidence that I needed," Jordan told the Times in the same interview.
"It made me double down and fueled this fire that I had to make it a reality."

'Workaholic'

Born in California on February 9, 1987 and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Jordan's teacher mom pushed him into modeling at age 11.
After a few commercials, Jordan picked up small television roles before his first real break, appearing in a season of the lauded HBO crime drama "The Wire" at age 15.
He then did stints on soap opera "All My Children" and the NBC football drama "Friday Night Lights" before moving on to the big screen with a role in 2012's "Red Tails," about the Tuskegee Airmen, a crew of Black pilots during World War II.
"Fruitvale Station" came out the following year, and his partnership with Coogler was sealed.
In 2015, the director called him back for "Creed," a reboot of the "Rocky" franchise with Jordan playing Adonis, the son of Rocky's nemesis Apollo Creed and Sylvester Stallone sliding back into his signature role -- this time as Adonis's trainer.
His first taste of the superhero genre came in the unfancied 2015 adaptation of "Fantastic Four" as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, but "Black Panther" and its sequel solidified his presence in the Marvel cinematic universe.
Since then, Jordan has carefully managed his image. 
He has made no secret of going to therapy to shed Killmonger's demons, but has said little about his private life and described himself to GQ last year as a "workaholic" whose longest relationship lasted a year.
In recent years, he has moved into co-producing some of the films in which he has appeared, including "Just Mercy" and "Without Remorse." He even directed the third installment of the "Creed" series himself.
He is directing and starring in an upcoming adaptation of "The Thomas Crown Affair," expected in theaters in 2027, in which he will play the role of the gentleman thief previously taken on by Steve McQueen and Pierce Brosnan.
But Jordan has a new dream.
"I'm looking forward to directing something that I'm not in at all," he told Vanity Fair earlier this year.  
rfo/sst/mlm

US

Norway's Oscar winner 'Sentimental Value': a failing father seeks redemption

BY PIERRE-HENRY DESHAYES

  • Despite its international success, Trier's sixth feature film was not a hit with all Norwegian critics.
  • Norwegian family drama "Sentimental Value" -- a bittersweet and melancholic story of an ageing absent father seeking forgiveness from his daughters who have learned to get along without him -- won the Oscar for best international film on Sunday. 
  • Despite its international success, Trier's sixth feature film was not a hit with all Norwegian critics.
Norwegian family drama "Sentimental Value" -- a bittersweet and melancholic story of an ageing absent father seeking forgiveness from his daughters who have learned to get along without him -- won the Oscar for best international film on Sunday. 
Arthouse filmmaker Gustav Borg, played expertly by Sweden's Stellan Skarsgard, turns up out of the blue at his ex-wife's funeral, re-entering his daughters' lives years after abandoning them, and offers the eldest -- troubled actress Nora (Renate Reinsve) -- the lead in his next movie.
What follows is a painful dissection of past traumas and unspoken tensions between a failing father -- no longer wanted yet trying to redeem himself with a new movie script -- and his two very different yet inextricably close daughters. 
In a sign of the gulf separating them, Borg writes a suicide scene for Nora, unaware that his daughter -- whose success as a stage actress barely conceals her inner demons -- once tried to end her own life.
In a reversal of roles, younger sister Agnes, played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, has grown into the family's rock.
"It sounds cheesy, but I wept a lot making this film because I was so moved by the actors," director Joachim Trier told AFP last year.
"The actors are my friends. I know that they were being halfway a character and halfway themselves," said Trier, who penned the script with his screenwriting partner Eskil Vogt.
Critics broadly hailed the actors' performances.
Both Skarsgard and Lilleaas were nominated for best actor/actress in a supporting role, while Reinsve -- who won the best actress award at Cannes in 2021 for Trier's previous film "The Worst Person in the World" -- was nominated for best actress.
American actress Elle Fanning was also nominated in the best supporting actress category, playing a Hollywood starlet who comes to work on Borg's film after Nora rejects the role written for her.

Emotional battles

The beautiful old Scandinavian-style wooden home in Oslo where the film was shot is itself a character in the story, bearing the emotional weight of several generations in its walls.  
It is where Borg's mother hung herself when he was a young child, the home he fled after his divorce, and finally the location where he plans to set his new film after his ex-wife's death.
It is also the scene of wrought emotional battles between him and his daughters.
"The house is a witness of the unspoken," Trier told Script Magazine.
At the movie's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it received an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation, winning the Grand Prix second prize.
In addition to its nine Academy Award nominations, the film was also nominated for eight Golden Globes -- though only Skarsgard walked away with a prize -- and eight BAFTAs, winning for Best Film Not in the English Language.
"I'd seen his films, and I felt, 'When is he going to call me?'" Skarsgard told a press conference in Cannes last year.
"I wanted to work with him, because I felt that he can get something out of me that maybe someone else can't."
The 74-yar-old Skarsgard, who has eight children, also noted that he was well-suited for the role.
"When you're an older man who is in the film business, and you have a lot of kids, this is perfect for you," he said.
Trier has said the movie's filmmaker father is a mash-up of great auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieslowski and John Cassavetes.
Despite its international success, Trier's sixth feature film was not a hit with all Norwegian critics.
Some saw it as too slick, too self-absorbed because of its film-world plot, and too aesthetic to be relatable to average filmgoers.
Nonetheless, even before Hollywood had its say, "Sentimental Value" broke every box office record for a Norwegian film.
phy/po/sst

film

Sean Penn: Hollywood's rebel with a cause wins third Oscar

BY PAULA RAMON

  • Famed for both his powerful, challenging performances and his disdain for Hollywood's awards circuit, Penn did not attend Sunday's Oscars gala.
  • Sean Penn, Hollywood's eternal rebel, on Sunday won a third Oscar for his comic yet terrifying portrayal of an absurdly uptight soldier ashamed of his past in "One Battle After Another."
  • Famed for both his powerful, challenging performances and his disdain for Hollywood's awards circuit, Penn did not attend Sunday's Oscars gala.
Sean Penn, Hollywood's eternal rebel, on Sunday won a third Oscar for his comic yet terrifying portrayal of an absurdly uptight soldier ashamed of his past in "One Battle After Another."
After previous lead actor Oscars for "Mystic River" and "Milk," the best supporting actor win makes Penn just the eighth performer in Academy Awards history to pick up a trio of golden statuettes.
Penn fended off his "One Battle" co-star Benicio Del Toro, as well as Delroy Lindo ("Sinners"), Australia's Jacob Elordi ("Frankenstein") and Sweden's Stellan Skarsgard ("Sentimental Value").
Famed for both his powerful, challenging performances and his disdain for Hollywood's awards circuit, Penn did not attend Sunday's Oscars gala.
In "One Battle After Another," he plays Colonel Steven Lockjaw, a ramrod military officer who briefly succumbs to his passion for revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). 
Years later, he literally mobilized an army to prevent that brief indiscretion from destroying his political ambitions. 
The character could hardly be further from the real Penn, whose liberal views and social activism have led him to adventures that seem straight out of a movie.
Most famously, in 2015 he secretly traveled to a clandestine location in Mexico to interview drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, not long before the notorious crime kingpin's arrest.
He befriended Hugo Chavez, the then-leader of Venezuela and fierce nemesis of Washington, and gave his "Mystic River" Oscar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying it could be melted "down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians."

Married to Madonna

Born in August 1960 in Los Angeles to director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, Penn grew up in the industry that he has so often infuriated by refusing to play its game, and abandoned his dream of being a lawyer to study acting.
In 1981, he made his Broadway debut in the play "Heartland" and his movie debut that same year as a military cadet in "Taps." He won some fame as a surfer dude in Amy Heckerling's 1982 hit teen flick "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
It was arguably not his acting that first propelled him to global celebrity, but his 1985 marriage to pop star Madonna, with whom he co-starred in the universally-panned 1986 mega-flop "Shanghai Surprise."
After four years of turbulent marriage, during which he served 32 days in jail in 1987 for hitting a movie extra, the pair divorced.
But while Penn's romances have had their well-chronicled highs and lows, his acting career only followed one trajectory: up.
Penn took starring roles in films such as "Colors" (1988) opposite Robert Duvall, as a brutal sergeant in Brian de Palma's "Casualties of War" (1989) and in the 1989 comedy "We're No Angels" with Robert De Niro.
In 1991, he made his directorial debut with "The Indian Runner," an impressive Vietnam War-themed drama inspired by a Bruce Springsteen song.
Penn appeared as a reptilian lawyer in the 1993 thriller "Carlito's Way," before saying he was retiring from acting to direct, and making 1995's "The Crossing Guard" with Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston.
In 1995, Penn was lured back to the screen by friend Tim Robbins, earning his first Oscar nomination for the death row tale "Dead Man Walking."
As his bad boy image began to wear off, he garnered two more Academy Award nods for "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999) and for his role as a mentally disabled father in 2001's "I Am Sam."

'Milk'

In 2004, Penn finally converted an Oscar nod into a win with Clint Eastwood's drama "Mystic River," in which he plays a grieving father who takes justice into his own hands.
He would triumph again five years later with "Milk," in which he portrayed Harvey Milk, the San Francisco activist who became one of the first openly gay men elected to US public office. 
In the ensuing years, Penn took fewer major movie roles as he pursued his own activism.
In 2013, Penn organized a brilliant operation to smuggle Jacob Ostreicher, an American businessman under house arrest in Bolivia on suspicion of organized crime and money laundering, out of South America using false documents.
He has also spearheaded humanitarian campaigns, including the Hurricane Katrina response in New Orleans, and in Haiti after the impoverished Caribbean nation's 2010 earthquake.
But "One Battle" has put the 65-year-old firmly back at the heart of Hollywood.
He joins Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan as the only male actors with three Oscars -- a feat also achieved by Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman, Frances McDormand and Katharine Hepburn, who won four.
Penn has two children with his second ex-wife, the actress Robin Wright.
pr/amz/sst

film

Amy Madigan wins Oscar as 'Weapons' villain Aunt Gladys

BY SUSAN STUMME

  • In the run-up to the Academy Awards, Madigan was not the overarching favorite, but wins at the Critics Choice Awards and the Actor Awards bestowed by the Screen Actors Guild snowballed into Oscars success.
  • Amy Madigan scored her first Oscar nomination 40 years ago and has openly admitted she never thought she would return to the Academy Awards conversation.
  • In the run-up to the Academy Awards, Madigan was not the overarching favorite, but wins at the Critics Choice Awards and the Actor Awards bestowed by the Screen Actors Guild snowballed into Oscars success.
Amy Madigan scored her first Oscar nomination 40 years ago and has openly admitted she never thought she would return to the Academy Awards conversation.
But her fan-favorite turn as the voodoo-wielding evil Aunt Gladys in horror hit "Weapons" has made her a TikTok star -- and an Oscar winner for best supporting actress.
The 75-year-old Madigan on Sunday bested a crowded field that included Teyana Taylor ("One Battle After Another"), Wunmi Mosaku ("Sinners"), and two stars of "Sentimental Value" -- Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.
She also defeated a long-standing tendency for horror films to be ignored when it comes time to hand out the golden statuettes.
"I'm very overwhelmed," Madigan told the audience, thanking director Zach Cregger for writing her a "dream part."
In "Weapons," an original story that grossed $270 million worldwide, Madigan plays Gladys, the mysterious aunt of a young boy whose entire elementary school class vanishes one night -- at the same precise time.
The film tells the story from multiple perspectives, but eventually converges on Gladys, who (spoiler alert) is using voodoo rituals to drain the life force of people around her to keep herself alive. 
Cue zombie-like adults, rabid children and lots of gore.
What makes the character indelible is the ghoulish heavy makeup, a bright red wig with tiny bangs, and oversized tinted sunglasses -- a cartoonish look that has gone viral. 
In the run-up to the Academy Awards, Madigan was not the overarching favorite, but wins at the Critics Choice Awards and the Actor Awards bestowed by the Screen Actors Guild snowballed into Oscars success.
"Did you think Aunt Gladys would end up here at the Oscars?" she told Variety before the gala. "No. Not because of quality, but because of genre bias. But I've loved being wrong about this."
It is the highest honor in Madigan's long career, which features dozens of film and television credits, along with multiple turns on stage.

'Complete surprise'

Madigan was born in Chicago on September 11, 1950 to a journalist father and a mother who worked as an administrative assistant and did community theater in her spare time.
Her love of acting blossomed in high school plays. After college, she moved to Los Angeles, performing as a rock singer and studying at the venerable Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Small television roles led to her big-screen debut in "Love Child" (1982) opposite Beau Bridges, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination. And Madigan was off and running.
The following year, she married fellow actor Ed Harris. 
They have been one of Hollywood's most beloved couples for four decades, and have worked together on multiple projects including "Places in the Heart," "Pollock" and "Gone Baby Gone." They have one child, Lily.
Her first Oscar nomination came in 1986 for drama "Twice in a Lifetime," in which she played a woman suffering in a difficult marriage.
"The first time around, it was a complete surprise," she told Variety.

TV, film and stage

Madigan's resume included everything from a turn as the wife of Kevin Costner's character in the 1989 baseball classic "Field of Dreams" to John Candy's love interest that same year in comedy "Uncle Buck."
She has appeared on popular TV series "Grey's Anatomy," "How to Get Away with Murder" and "Frasier."
On stage, she made her Broadway debut in 1992 as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. She has also performed off-Broadway and in Los Angeles, and directed several productions.
She has talked about the difficulty of finding juicy roles in her later years.
"My husband works a lot more than I do," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2015.
"You know what the situation is. The reality is you have to make your peace with it sometimes even when you have a depressive day, which I still have."
But the majority of her roles have highlighted a steely resolve that is all Madigan.
Of Aunt Gladys, she told Deadline: "This is a woman who knows what she has to do, and she does it."
Upcoming projects include the Apple thriller "Sponsor" opposite Jason Segel.
sst/acb

Britain

Cowboy boots and line dancing: country music fever grips UK young

BY CAROLINE TAÏX

  • "We've been learning line dancing all year to be able to come here," said Smith, who came to the festival from Peterborough, in central England, with her partner.
  • Trinity Smith has been wearing her cowboy boots all week to break them in ahead of a weekend of non-stop dancing.
  • "We've been learning line dancing all year to be able to come here," said Smith, who came to the festival from Peterborough, in central England, with her partner.
Trinity Smith has been wearing her cowboy boots all week to break them in ahead of a weekend of non-stop dancing.
The 24-year-old teacher is one of tens of thousands of British fans flocking to a London country music festival, as the genre enjoys a surge in popularity among young adults.
At the O2 Arena in east London, the sheer number of cowboy hats, fringed jackets, denim micro‑shorts and rhinestone boots on display makes you wonder if the spot should be renamed "Nashville-on-Thames".
From Friday to Sunday, stars from Keith Urban to Zach Top -- along with up‑and‑coming artists, including several from Britain -- are performing at the Country to Country (C2C) festival.
Organisers say the event, the biggest of its kind in the UK, has drawn around 45,000 people, many in their 20s and 30s.
A tattoo stand is constantly busy, with cowboy boots, cacti and bull skulls proving especially popular.
"We've been learning line dancing all year to be able to come here," said Smith, who came to the festival from Peterborough, in central England, with her partner.
"I like stomping my heels," she added.

'Massive' growth in popularity

C2C has existed for several years but has been continuously expanding with sister events in Glasgow and Belfast. Manchester will come on board next year.
In mid-May, the historic Royal Albert Hall, one of London's best known venues, will also host another country‑music festival.
Country has long since spread beyond its US heartland. 
But in the UK -- home of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Oasis -- the genre's rise has been especially striking in recent years.
"It's the fastest growing music genre in the UK, and the UK has the fastest growth anywhere in the world," said John Finch, director of the UK Country Music Association.
Country accounts for only a small part of the British music market, but its popularity rose by almost 11 percent in the past year.
For Finch, this is "massive". Moreover, he says, the growth was mainly driven by the "younger generation" discovering it for the first time "rather than the older generation like me who's been in country for some time".

Beer, breakups and partying

A recent report by the British Phonographic Industry highlighted the "spectacular" growth of country music, driven in part by artists such as Beyonce.
Other influences have been Morgan Wallen and Post Malone. And, of course, Taylor Swift, who first rose to fame as a country singer.
TikTok has turbo-charged the trend, allowing aspiring artists to find global audiences overnight.
For Lewis Pittam, a 26-year-old actor and singer living near London, the appeal is obvious: "I think it's so much more modernised now especially with the up-and-coming artists that are around," he said.
William Martin, 22, and Cameron Fulton, 23, friends from the northeastern city of Newcastle, said it was the lyrics that hooked them.
"One minute singing about a truck and a beer, one minute singing about a girl that you fell out of love with. A different song for a different occasion," said Martin.
"You've got the sad songs, heartbreak songs, and then party in the summer," added Fulton, a mechanic.
Alyssa Flaherty, who at 22 is already well known, travelled from Nashville, the undisputed capital of country music, to perform on Sunday.
She still marvels at the enthusiasm of British crowds.
Playing her first English gig last August in York in the northeast, she said she had "no idea if these people are even going to know who I am or what they're coming to see.
"People were singing my songs back to me and I was like what is this?"
ctx/har/jj

film

Oscar nominees in main categories

  • Here are the nominees in key categories for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out in Hollywood on Sunday.
Here are the nominees in key categories for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out in Hollywood on Sunday.
Vampire period horror film "Sinners" shattered the all-time record for nominations with 16, followed by "One Battle After Another" with 13. 
"Frankenstein," "Marty Supreme" and "Sentimental Value" tied with nine nominations each.

Best picture

"Bugonia"
"F1"
"Frankenstein"
"Hamnet"
"Marty Supreme" 
"One Battle After Another"
"The Secret Agent"
"Sentimental Value"
"Sinners"
"Train Dreams"
- Best director - 
Paul Thomas Anderson, "One Battle After Another"
Ryan Coogler, "Sinners"
Josh Safdie, "Marty Supreme"
Joachim Trier, "Sentimental Value"
Chloe Zhao, "Hamnet"
- Best actor - 
Timothee Chalamet, "Marty Supreme"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "One Battle After Another"
Ethan Hawke, "Blue Moon"
Michael B. Jordan, "Sinners"
Wagner Moura, "The Secret Agent"

Best actress

Jessie Buckley, "Hamnet"
Rose Byrne, "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"
Kate Hudson, "Song Sung Blue"
Renate Reinsve, "Sentimental Value"
Emma Stone, "Bugonia"
- Best supporting actor - 
Benicio Del Toro, "One Battle After Another"
Jacob Elordi, "Frankenstein"
Delroy Lindo, "Sinners"
Sean Penn, "One Battle After Another"
Stellan Skarsgard, "Sentimental Value"

Best supporting actress

Elle Fanning, "Sentimental Value"
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, "Sentimental Value"
Amy Madigan, "Weapons"
Wunmi Mosaku, "Sinners"
Teyana Taylor, "One Battle After Another"
- Best international feature film - 
"The Secret Agent" (Brazil)
"It Was Just an Accident" (France)
"Sentimental Value" (Norway)
"Sirat" (Spain)
"The Voice of Hind Rajab" (Tunisia)
- Best animated feature - 
"Arco"
"Elio"
"Kpop Demon Hunters"
"Little Amelie or the Character of Rain"
"Zootopia 2"

Best documentary feature

"The Alabama Solution"
"Come See Me In The Good Light"
"Cutting Through Rocks"
"Mr. Nobody Against Putin"
"The Perfect Neighbor"
- Films with eight or more nominations - 
"Sinners" - 16
"One Battle After Another" - 13
"Frankenstein" - 9
"Marty Supreme" - 9
"Sentimental Value" - 9
"Hamnet" - 8
bur-sst/acb

film

'Snow White,' 'War of the Worlds' top Razzies

  • Dopey?
Dopey? Creepy? Unnecessary? 
Bizarre remakes of "Snow White" and "War of the Worlds" have topped the Razzies, the anti-Hollywood awards show that annually shames the industry's very worst films.
Disney's latest live-action remake of "Snow White" had been mired in controversies years before its disappointing release nearly a year ago.
Its star Rachel Zegler enraged Disney fans for comments denigrating the beloved 1937 original -- even labeling its Prince a stalker.
And the casting of a Latina actress was slammed as "woke" in some corners of social media.
But ultimately it was the film's bizarre computer-generated dwarfs that drew the most flak, and earned the movie two Razzies.
"Described as frightening, actually terrifying and garishly fake, the winner of the Worst Supporting Actor goes to all seven artificial dwarves," Razzies organizers said Saturday.
"AI doesn't have to cost over $250 million -- maybe $20.50, or a seven day free trial period," they added, referring to the Disney's film's reportedly enormous budget.
The seven cartoonishly gnome-like magical creatures were also named "worst screen combo."
"War of the Worlds" -- very loosely based on H.G. Wells' seminal novel, but told entirely through Zoom calls -- was named 2025's worst movie, with worst actor honoree Ice Cube also among the film's five "wins." 
The Amazon-released movie was slammed for its awkward product placement -- not least its climactic scene in which a Prime Air drone saves humanity from an alien invasion.
Despite -- or perhaps because of -- utterly scathing reviews, the film became an unlikely hit for Amazon, thanks to a phenomenon that critics dubbed "hate-watching" by "bored masochists."
"Pinching the title of a sci-fi classic and slapping it on another reimagined movie has turned a science fiction masterpiece into an unintentional laugh riot," said Razzies organizers.
Rebel Wilson was named "worst actress" for her role in "Bride Hard," an action-comedy in which she plays a maid of honor who is secretly an international spy, at a wedding hijacked by mercenaries.
amz/sst

Canada

Ryan Gosling's 'Hail Mary' is about making theatre-going films

BY ANTOINE GUY

  • Gosling also reflected on his three-decade trajectory in Hollywood, which has seen him rise to the top tier of actors -- and, as displayed in "Barbie", show off his long-hidden comedy chops.
  • As Hollywood grapples with existential questions and fickle audiences, one of its top stars, Ryan Gosling, has a simple credo.
  • Gosling also reflected on his three-decade trajectory in Hollywood, which has seen him rise to the top tier of actors -- and, as displayed in "Barbie", show off his long-hidden comedy chops.
As Hollywood grapples with existential questions and fickle audiences, one of its top stars, Ryan Gosling, has a simple credo.
"In this stage of my life, if I'm going to make films, I want it to be a film that is worth going to the theatre to see," the Canadian actor told journalists in Paris.
The comment was made as part of a globetrotting publicity tour for his latest move, "Project Hail Mary" -- but it could be read as part of the debate over the future of cinema.
The film is a sci-fi adventure about an astronaut who awakes on a spaceship with a mission to save the Earth from a sun-dimming phenomenon. Soon, he realises he is not alone in his quest, but has to work as a team with an alien he names Rocky.
Back on our real planet Earth, Hollywood is experiencing its own gloom, as industry layoffs accelerate, productions shift away from California, and streaming platforms eat into box office revenues.
The heroes it sends out to restore the shine are A-listers like Gosling, who proved more than up to the task in "Barbie", "Blade Runner 2049" and "La La Land".
But the 45-year-old has also been in a few less-than-stellar films, such as 2024's loss-maker "The Fall Guy" and 2022's Netflix thriller "The Gray Man", which got big viewer numbers but a poor critical reception.
"Project Hail Mary", which Gosling co-produced under a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, has him carrying most of the story solo in front of the camera -- along with the VFX alien Rocky, of course.
The movie is an adaptation of a novel by Andy Weir, who wrote "The Martian", about another solo astronaut overcoming hardships. That became a 2015 film starring Matt Damon.

Comedy chops

Gosling plays a not-especially-brave science teacher who has to rely on his knowhow as he pieces together his memory, and builds an alliance with Rocky.
"I felt appropriately intimidated by the challenge," Gosling said ahead of the movie's worldwide release in the coming days.
"I was really moved by Andy's point of view, or this lens that he looks at the world through, which is, he gives you this opportunity to pivot away from fear, and to maybe approach fear with curiosity, and to say maybe the future isn't something to be afraid of, but just to be figured out."
The actor added that the movie -- a dramatic comedy -- "felt like something I really wanted to make for my kids, and hopefully for their generation".
Gosling also reflected on his three-decade trajectory in Hollywood, which has seen him rise to the top tier of actors -- and, as displayed in "Barbie", show off his long-hidden comedy chops.
"It took me a while to realise that I could do things the way I wanted to," he said.
He started out in dramatic roles in serious independent films in which there "was really the unspoken rule that nothing funny can happen". Now, however, he feels the door has opened to roles offering wider range.    
Christopher Miller, who directed "Project Hail Mary" with longtime collaborator Phil Lord, said Gosling aptly married drama and comedy in the film.
"Few people can pull it off also, can make you laugh and cry at the same scene and moment... it's hard to think of other people who could have done what Ryan did in this movie and do it in a way that feels authentic and true," he said.
agu/rmb/jj

conflict

Ukraine's 'Origami Deer' sculpture rescued from frontline tours Europe

BY JAN FLEMR

  • The decision to invite Russian artists, banned from the 2022 and 2024 editions after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has sparked international uproar with the European Union threatening to cut funding for the Biennale.
  • An "Origami Deer" statue rescued from a Ukrainian city destroyed and occupied by Moscow's army is touring six European countries before featuring at the 61st Venice Biennale, which has sparked outrage over the inclusion of Russian artists.
  • The decision to invite Russian artists, banned from the 2022 and 2024 editions after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has sparked international uproar with the European Union threatening to cut funding for the Biennale.
An "Origami Deer" statue rescued from a Ukrainian city destroyed and occupied by Moscow's army is touring six European countries before featuring at the 61st Venice Biennale, which has sparked outrage over the inclusion of Russian artists.
Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova created the concrete work with her colleague Denys Ruban in 2019 for a park in the eastern city of Pokrovsk to replace a Soviet-era military plane displayed there.
In 2024, Kadyrova and historian Leonid Marushchak removed the deer, shaped like a paper origami, as Russian troops closed in and then occupied Pokrovsk.
The sculpture will be the main feature of the Ukrainian pavilion, named Security Guarantees, at the Venice Biennale.
It will feature alongside Russian exhibits at the the event that started in 1895 and comprises festivals, art and architecture exhibitions running from May 9 to November 22.
The decision to invite Russian artists, banned from the 2022 and 2024 editions after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has sparked international uproar with the European Union threatening to cut funding for the Biennale.
"It's very important for us to see how the entire world reacts to the situation, supporting us and opposing Russia's participation," Marushchak told AFP.
"If the Russians want to show their culture, they might as well organise a biennale in Pokrovsk which they have destroyed," he added.
En route to Venice, the deer has been exhibited in Warsaw, Vienna and Prague and will continue on to Berlin, Brussels and Paris.

Symbolises Ukrainian refugees

Displaced from its pedestal, the deer symbolises "millions of Ukrainians who have lost their home" and moved abroad, Kadyrova told AFP during a stopover in Prague.
The resemblance to paper origami refers to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 which saw Ukraine yielding its nuclear arsenal to Russia in exchange for security guarantees that did not materialise.
"So it's no more than paper," Kadyrova said.
Marushchak has been evacuating works of art from eastern Ukraine since the war started.
He has saved scores of objects, often taking huge risk with his team, to protect them from looting or theft.
One of the most dramatic rescue operations involved a 700-year-old stone lion statue evacuated from a museum in Bakhmut in 2023, just before the Russian army took the city, as Marushchak's car was hit by a shell on the way out.
"Other evacuations were difficult in that we didn't succeed as much as we wanted because the front line was too close and the danger was too big," Marushchak told AFP.
The Venice Biennale typically attracts more than 600,000 visitors to pavilions set up by participating countries.
Kadyrova said the Ukrainian team was not planning any protest over Russia's participation as "it's up to politicians".
"But I hope that some community will gather to pressure the Biennale, pressure Italy, and I hope that it will not happen."
frj/ach