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Around Tinsel Town
>> The Oscars are in town
The 96th Academy Awards ceremony took place on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Delivering Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. their first Oscars, ‘Oppenheimer’ took home seven of the 13 awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture. Emma Stone won Best Actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in ‘Poor Things’. Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki won his second Oscar for ‘The Boy and The Heron’. Protest and politics intruded on an election-year Academy Awards, where demonstrations for Gaza raged outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Here are a few highlights from the event:
> Here’s the complete list of winners
> ‘Oppenheimer’ wins Best Picture in epic landslide; Christopher Nolan wins his first Oscar
> Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. win their first Oscar for ‘Oppenheimer’
> ‘Poor Things’ pulls off hattrick of wins
> ‘Godzilla: Minus One’ makes history with first Oscar win for beloved kaiju
> ‘The Zone of Interest’ wins best international film
> ‘To Kill a Tiger’ misses out as ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ wins Best Feature Documentary
> ‘RRR’ sequence part of tribute to stunt community, ‘Naatu Naatu’ also makes appearance
> Indian art designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai remembered at 96th Academy Awards ‘In Memoriam’
Bollywood
Salman Khan teams up with A R Murugadoss for new film
‘De De Pyaar De 2’, starring Ajay Devgn, locks 2025 release
Pooja Hegde to star alongside Ahan Shetty in ‘Sanki’
Kartik Aaryan starts shooting for ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’
Ed Sheeran strikes iconic pose with Shah Rukh Khan; also meets Ayushmann Khurrana and Armaan Malik
Manoj Bajpayee’s ‘Bhaiyya Ji’ gets a release date
Sanjay Leela Bhansali to launch first ‘Heeramandi’ song on Miss World stage, floats music label
‘Darlings’ director Jasmeet K Reen to helm biopic on Madhubala
Shoojit Sircar’s next big film set for 2024 theatrical release
Sumeet Vyas to direct SonyLIV series ‘Raat Jawaan Hai’
‘Chhota Bheem’ live-action film gets release date
Hollywood
Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal to star in Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’
Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone reveal new film, ‘Kinds of Kindness’
Robert Pattinson starrer ‘The Batman Part II’ to release in October 2026
Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson’s sci-fi thriller ‘Mercy’to hit screens in August 2025
Dev Patel’s directorial debut, ‘Monkey Man’ stuns SXSW with rare standing ovation
Al Pacino to publish his memoir ‘Sonny Boy’ on October 8
Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom 3’ titled ‘The Last Dance’
‘The Bear’ renewed for season 4
Arnold Schwarzenegger joins Alan Ritchson’s Amazon Christmas comedy movie ‘The Man with the Bag’
Owen Wilson to headline golf comedy series from Apple TV+
‘Black Mirror’ Season 7 confirmed for 2025
Riley Keough, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup team up for Noah Baumbach’s Netflix film
Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan to star in action film ‘With Love’
Neve Campbell announces return to ‘Scream’ franchise
Sarah Paulson to star in the adaptation of Glennon Doyle’s book ‘Untamed’
Regional cinema
Ajith Kumar’s next titled ‘Good Bad Ugly’; to be directed by Adhik Ravichandran
Applause Entertainment to present Mari Selvaraj’s next starring Dhruv Vikram
‘Kubera’ first look: Dhanush intrigues in first film with Sekhar Kammula
Tovino Thomas wins best actor award at the Fantasporto Film Festival for ‘Adrishya Jalakangal’
Kamal Hassan and Shruti Hassan team up with Lokesh Kanagaraj for new romance music video, ‘Inimel’
Sai Dharam Tej changes name; launches own production banner
Arjun Ashokan teams up with ‘Archana 31 Not Out’ director Akhil Anilkumar
Shivarajkumar’s ‘Bhairathi Ranagal’ gets a release date
Nithya Menen’s next is a fantasy rom-com
‘Emakku Thozhil Romance’: First look of Ashok Selvan’s next out
Indrajith Sukumaran’s ‘Marivillin Gopurangal’ gets a release date
‘Sureshinteyum Sumalathayudeyum Hridayahariyaya Pranayakatha’ first look out
Ritu Varma to star opposite Sree Vishnu in ‘Swag’
Prime Video locks premiere date for Tamil series ‘Inspector Rishi’
‘Enjoy Enjaami’ controversy: Maajja responds to Santhosh Narayanan’s allegations
World cinema
Japanese cinema shines at Oscars 2024 with historic ‘The Boy and the Heron’ and ‘Godzilla: Minus One’ wins
Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest’ Oscar speech did not get the thumbs up from pro-Israel producer
Asghar Farhadi cleared of ‘A Hero’ copyright infringement claims by Iranian authorities
First international film festival in Chandigarh to open with ‘The Taste of Things’
‘Demon Slayer’ Season 3 recieves official release date and new trailer
Trailers
Balakrishna goes hunting for baddies in ‘NBK 109’ first glimpse
After Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment enter Riley’s head in ‘Inside Out 2’ trailer
Apple TV+ unveils trailer for new limited series, ‘Franklin’
‘The First Omen’ new trailer offers a terrifying sneak peek to the psychological horror film
GV Prakash Kumar stands up for Tamils in ‘Rebel’ trailer
Essential reading
1) Decoding the visual aesthetics of ‘Gaami’ with Vishwanath Reddy Chelumalla
>> Cinematographer Vishwanath Reddy explains the distinct visual textures that emulated a film-like quality while using digital
2) Kenja Chethan Kumar on ‘Chow Chow Bath’
>> The filmmaker says the title is inspired by the famous Karnataka dish, which combines savoury and sweet
3) Debut director Harshiv Karthik on his Telugu film ‘Bahumukham’
>> Harshiv Karthik talks about his maiden directorial venture, a psychological thriller in which he also plays the lead
4) Aesthetic Kunjamma’s black-and-white posters give glimpses of the eerie world of Mammootty-starrer ‘Bramayugam’
>> Arun Ajikumar shares about the trend-setting monochromatic posters of Rahul Sadasivan’s ‘Bramayugam’
5) Lights, camera, election: Bollywood goes into poll mode
>> A deep dive into how Hindi film narratives are promoting aggressive nationalism and Islamophobia before India votes this summer
What to watch
1) Jack Black, Awkwafina take you on a chuckle-filled ride in ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’
2) Sidharth Malhotra fights to keep ‘Yodha’, a formulaic flight afloat
3) ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ is high on decibels, low on nuance
4) Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Gentlemen’ is stylish and senseless
5) ‘To Kill a Tiger’ is a courageous story undone by superficial and over the top treatment
6) ‘My Name Is Loh Kiwan’ is a romantic melodrama that wastes its potential
7) ‘Sharathulu Varthisthai’ is a well-intended movie, albeit dull PSA
8) ‘Photo’ is a hard-hitting document of our dark times
9) Srinidhi Bengaluru makes a solid debut with ‘Blink’, a gripping time-travel drama
10) John Cena is fun, but his latest film ‘Ricky Stanicky’ isn’t
11) Emma Stone astounds in Yorgos Lanthimos’ wild, weird and wonderful ‘Poor Things’
12) Emraan Hashmi’s ‘Showtime’ is a fairly brisk and modest affair
13) Jaggesh-Guruprasad combo fails to create magic in ‘Ranganayaka’
14) Hotchpotch of themes goes haywire in ‘Bhimaa’
