Ariana Grande and Kieran Culkin join the film Academy: Who else is in?
Ariana Grande is certified popular with the film Academy.
The "Wicked" star is part of 2025's class of 534 inductees into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announced on June 26. (Her equally popular co-star Cynthia Erivo joined in 2020.)
The list of new members in the actor category includes Gillian Anderson, Naomi Ackie, Monica Barbaro ("A Complete Unknown"), Dave Bautista, Jodie Comer, "Succession" stars (and battling screen siblings) Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong, Oscar best actress winner Mikey Madison ("Anora"), Jason Momoa ("Aquaman"), Adriana Paz ("Emilia Pérez'), Aubrey Plaza ("My Old Ass" ), Andrew Scott ("All of Us Strangers") and Sebastian Stan ("The Apprentice").
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"These exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community," Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said in a joint statement about the new members in 19 Academy branches.
The animation branch inductees include the team behind "Inside Out 2": Kelsey Mann, Deanna Marsigliese and Alessandra Sorrentino.
Four-time Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel and his wife, writer/producer Molly McNearney, were inducted into the associates category, along with 2025 Oscar host Conan O'Brien.
New members in the directors category include Gia Coppola ("The Last Showgirl") and Brady Corbet ("The Brutalist" writer and director was also inducted into the writers group).
The team behind Oscar best documentary winner "No Other Land" was inducted into the documentary group: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor.
Brandi Carlile and Jack Dolman ("Wicked") were among the musicians invited into the music branch.
A complete list of the 534 inductees is here.
Aside from the honor and bragging rights, the major perk of Academy admission is the power to vote on movies for the Oscar awards. The Academy has "an ongoing commitment to representation, inclusion and equity" for membership, according to the group's statement.
The incoming group is 41% women, 45% are from underrepresented communities, and 55% are from 60 countries and territories outside the United States.
The Academy announced on June 17 that "Mission: Impossible" star Tom Cruise, country music legend Dolly Parton, choreographer Debbie Allen and production designer Wynn Thomas will receive honorary career Oscars at the Academy's Governors Awards on Nov. 16.
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29 minutes ago
Lalo Schifrin, composer of the 'Mission: Impossible' theme, dies at 93
Lalo Schifrin, the composer who wrote the endlessly catchy theme for 'Mission: Impossible' and more than 100 other arrangements for film and television, died Thursday. He was 93. Schifrin's sons William and Ryan confirmed his death to trade outlets. The Associated Press' messages to Schifrin's publicist and representatives for either brother were not immediately returned. The Argentine won four Grammys and was nominated for six Oscars, including five for original score for 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'The Fox,' 'Voyage of the Damned,' 'The Amityville Horror' and 'The Sting II.' 'Every movie has its own personality. There are no rules to write music for movies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press in 2018. 'The movie dictates what the music will be.' He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the World Cup championship in Italy in 1990, in which the Three Tenors — Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras — sang together for the first time. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music. Schifrin, also a jazz pianist and classical conductor, had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. But perhaps his biggest contribution was the instantly recognizable score to television's 'Mission: Impossible,' which fueled the just-wrapped, decades-spanning feature film franchise led by Tom Cruise. Written in the unusual 5/4 time signature, the theme — Dum-dum DUM DUM dum-dum DUM DUM — was married to an on-screen self-destruct clock that kicked off the TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1973. It was described as 'only the most contagious tune ever heard by mortal ears' by New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane and even hit No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. Schifrin originally wrote a different piece of music for the theme song but series creator Bruce Geller liked another arrangement Schifrin had composed for an action sequence. 'The producer called me and told me, 'You're going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it's going to start with a fuse,'' Schifrin told the AP in 2006. 'So I did it and there was nothing on the screen. And maybe the fact that I was so free and I had no images to catch, maybe that's why this thing has become so successful — because I wrote something that came from inside me.' When director Brian De Palma was asked to take the series to the silver screen, he wanted to bring the theme along with him, leading to a creative conflict with composer John Williams, who wanted to work with a new theme of his own. Out went Williams and in came Danny Elfman, who agreed to retain Schifrin's music. Hans Zimmer took over scoring for the second film, and Michael Giacchino scored the next two. Giacchino told NPR he was a hesitant to take it on, because Schifrin's music was one of his favorite themes of all time. 'I remember calling Lalo and asking if we could meet for lunch,' Giacchino told NPR. 'And I was very nervous — I felt like someone asking a father if I could marry their daughter or something. And he said, 'Just have fun with it.' And I did.' 'Mission: Impossible' won Grammys for best instrumental theme and best original score from a motion picture or a TV show. In 2017, the theme was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame. U2 members Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. covered the theme while making the soundtrack to 1996's first installment; that version peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 with a Grammy nomination. A 2010 commercial for Lipton tea depicted a young Schifrin composing the theme at his piano while gaining inspiration through sips of the brand's Lipton Yellow Label. Musicians dropped from the sky as he added elements. Born Boris Claudio Schifrin to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires — where his father was the concertmaster of the philharmonic orchestra — Schifrin was classically trained in music, in addition to studying law. After studying at the Paris Conservatory — where he learned about harmony and composition from the legendary Olivier Messiaen — Schifrin returned to Argentina and formed a concert band. Gillespie heard Schifrin perform and asked him to become his pianist, arranger and composer. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States, playing in Gillespie's quintet in 1960-62 and composing the acclaimed 'Gillespiana.' The long list of luminaries he performed and recorded with includes Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dee Dee Bridgewater and George Benson. He also worked with such classical stars as Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim and others. Schifrin moved easily between genres, winning a Grammy for 1965's 'Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts' while also earning a nod that same year for the score of TV's 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' In 2018, he was given an honorary Oscar statuette and, in 2017, the Latin Recording Academy bestowed on him one of its special trustee awards. Later film scores included 'Tango,' 'Rush Hour' and its two sequels, 'Bringing Down The House,' 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey,' 'After the Sunset' and the horror film 'Abominable.' Writing the arrangements for 'Dirty Harry,' Schifrin decided that the main character wasn't in fact Clint Eastwood's hero, Harry Callahan, but the villain, Scorpio. 'You would think the composer would pay more attention to the hero. But in this case, no, I did it to Scorpio, the bad guy, the evil guy,' he told the AP. 'I wrote a theme for Scorpio.' It was Eastwood who handed him his honorary Oscar. 'Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream,' Schifrin said at the time. 'It is mission accomplished.' Among Schifrin's conducting credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed music director of Southern California's Glendale Symphony Orchestra and served in that capacity from 1989-1995. Schifrin also wrote and adapted the music for 'Christmas in Vienna' in 1992, a concert featuring Diana Ross, Carreras and Domingo. He also combined tango, folk and classical genres when he recorded 'Letters from Argentina,' nominated for a Latin Grammy for best tango album in 2006. Schifrin was also commissioned to write the overture for the 1987 Pan American Games, and composed and conducted the event's 1995 final performance in Argentina. And for perhaps one of the only operas performed in the ancient Indigenous language of Nahuatl, in 1988 Schifrin wrote and conducted the choral symphony 'Songs of the Aztecs.' The work premiered at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids with Domingo as part of a campaign to raise money to restore the site's Aztec temple. 'I found it to be a very sweet, musical language, one in which the sounds of the words dictated interesting melodies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press at the time. 'But the real answer is that there's something magic about it. ... There's something magic in the art of music anyway.'
an hour ago
Amanda Seyfried says she auditioned for 'Wicked' 6 times, shares advice for actors
Amanda Seyfried is opening up about how she auditioned for " Wicked" multiple times. On the latest episode of " In the Envelope: The Actor's Podcast," Seyfried said she auditioned for the Jon M. Chu-directed musical six times. "I auditioned like six times for Wicked because that had to be really just right," she said. "And I loved it. I was busy. I barely had time to do it, but I made it work." She added, "I worked my ass off for years and years and years on that music. I'm competitive with myself in a really healthy way, I think." Ariana Grande was eventually cast as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba for the musical-to-film adaptation. "Wicked: For Good," the sequel to the "Wicked" part one, will arrive in theaters Nov. 21, 2025. As with "Wicked," Seyfried, who starred in the 2012 film "Les Misérables," said she did six auditions before being cast in that movie as well. Of the audition process, she said, "I actually love it, because it's scary as hell, but I love getting notes and shifting my performance." "It's like a puzzle for me," she said. "I love the puzzle and I love the competition. And I love waiting for the phone call with the feedback from the casting director." She continued, "If someone's like, 'I just want to see your take on this,' I'd be like, 'Great. I'll show it to you.' I love helping people audition. I love directing actors … I think there's something really beautiful about auditioning, because if you really have this skill, then you're going to show it no matter what." Her biggest piece of advice for actors was to be themselves in an audition. "I think centering yourself and just saying what you feel as opposed to a bunch of bull---- is going to be helpful, because that insecurity that's filtered through your behavior is not attractive," she said.
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
New film academy members include Danielle Deadwyler, Ariana Grande, Jason Momoa, Conan O'Brien
NEW YORK (AP) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited 534 new members to its organization on Thursday, adding recent Oscar nominees and many more to Hollywood's most exclusive club. The newest class of Oscar voters includes a number of stars like Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza, Danielle Deadwyler and Andrew Scott. They, along with filmmakers, below-the-line professionals and executives will bring the film academy's membership total to 11,120, with voting members numbering 10,143. That's the largest membership ever for the academy. Since the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the film academy has added thousands of members to swell its ranks and diversify its voting body. This year's class is 41% female, 45% from underrepresented communities and 55% from outside the U.S. Those new members will make the entire academy 35% women, 22% from underrepresented communities and 21% international. 'We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy,' said academy chief executive Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang in a statement. 'Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community.' Invitations went out to 91 Oscar nominees and 26 winners, including best actress winner Mikey Madison ("Anora") and best supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain"). Recent nominees who were invited include Ariana Grande, Jeremy Strong, Sebastian Stan and Monica Barbara. Gints Zilbalodis, the director of best animated film winner 'Flow" will join the animation branch. Other filmmakers set to join the academy include Mike Flanagan ('Doctor Sleep'), Azazel Jacobs ('His Three Daughters'), Brady Corbet ('The Brutalist'), Coraline Fargeat ('The Substance') Jane Schoenbrun ('I Saw the TV Glow'), Halina Reijn ('Babygirl') and Gia Coppola ('The Last Showgirl'). Payal Kapadia ('All We Imagine As Light'), Lena Waithe ('Queen & Slim') and Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley of 'Sing Sing' were all invited in the writers branch. In the music branch, new members include Brandi Carlile ('Elton John: Never Too Late'), Branford Marsalis ('Rustin') and Youssou N'Dour ('Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love'). The last two emcees to host the Oscars — Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien — were also invited as members. After a well-reviewed broadcast that drew 19.7 million viewers, O'Brien is returning to host the 2026 Academy Awards on March 15. A few new rules will await the 2025 academy members. For the first time, members will be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final road of Oscar voting. This year, a new award category for casting will be voted on for the upcoming Oscars. The academy has also established a new Oscar for stunt design, but that won't be given out until 2028.
