Latest news with #RaMellRoss
Axios
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Tampa Theatre to host screening of Oscar-nominated "Nickel Boys," Q&A
The Tampa Theatre will host a special screening of "Nickel Boys" on March 22, followed by a discussion with filmmaker RaMell Ross, forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle and journalist Ben Montgomery. Why it matters: The film adapts Colson Whitehead's award-winning novel, a fictional portrayal of the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, where students suffered horrific abuse for over a century. "Nickel Boys" had a limited theatrical run last year and was nominated this month for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Zoom in: The film tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a Black teenager from Jim Crow-era Tallahassee, and his friend Turner as they navigate Nickel, an abusive reform school in Florida. Flashback: The Tampa Bay Times series, " For Their Own Good," written by Montgomery and former Times reporter Waveney Ann Moore, inspired Whitehead's novel. For 109 years, Florida sent wayward boys from across the state to Dozier — and the series chronicled the men who survived the school and demanded acknowledgment, resolution and reparation. Dozier closed in 2011, and soon after, researchers from USF found the remains of children in unmarked graves at the school. The big picture: Attendees will have the chance to hear from the filmmaker, along with the reporter and researcher who helped uncover the real story. The Florida Institute for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science (IFAAS) at USF partnered with Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios for the special screening. The event is free, and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
USA Today
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Where to watch the 2025 Oscars: TV channel, other streaming options
Where to watch the 2025 Oscars: TV channel, other streaming options Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: Look into Oscar-nominated film 'Nickel Boys' 'Nickel Boys' directed by RaMell Ross is nominated at the Oscars for best picture and best adapted screenplay. One of the most cinematic events of Hollywood's award show season is just a few hours away. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences are slated to present a number of awards, recognizing artistic and technical excellence across the film industry, to the makers and actors behind some of your favorite films from 2024 at 97th Academy Awards. Last month, the Academy unveiled its Oscar nominees which includes a broad range of films, from the nearly four-hour historical drama "The Brutalist" to the fantasy musical blockbuster "Wicked." The 2025 Oscars will be held at the at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday night. And comedian Conan O'Brien has been tapped to serve as this year's master of ceremonies. Details of the ceremony remain under wraps, but there's a good chance that event organizers will take a cue from the recent Grammy Awards, which tastefully and appropriately made heroic firefighters and fundraising a focus after wildfires wreaked havoc across Southern California last month. Rate your 'Film of the Year': Join our Movie Meter panel and make your voice heard! Here's how and where to watch the events of the big night, including how to catch the red carpet. Watch the Oscars with a Fubo FREE trial When and where are the Oscars? The 97th Academy Awards are Sunday, March 2 and will be broadcast live from 7-10 p.m. ET. The Oscars' venue is none other than the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, which has been the venue for the Academy Awards since 2001. It was previously known as the Kodak Theatre, located inside the Ovation Hollywood shopping center. The state-of-the-art theatre, designed with the Academy Awards broadcast in mind, has a seating capacity of 3,300. Before the Dolby Theater became the mainstay, the ceremony bounced between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Shrine Civic Auditorium and Expo Center from 1990 until 2001. Oscars 2025: See the full list of nominees How to watch the Oscars on TV, other streaming options The 97th Academy Awards will air live Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.m. ET/4 PT, on ABC. You can also stream the awards ceremony live on the ABC app, Hulu, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV. Watch the Oscars with a Fubo FREE trial Where to watch Oscars red carpet The official red-carpet show, hosted by Julianne Hough and Jesse Palmer, starts at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 PT on ABC. E!'s "Live From the Red Carpet" special begins at 4 p.m. ET/1 PT. Watch the Oscars Red Carpet FREE on Fubo Contributing: Saman Shafiq and Marco della Cava, USA TODAY We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn't influence our coverage.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
RaMell Ross: You ‘Don't Need a Lot of Money to Make a Film That's Cinematic and Deserves to Be in Theaters'
RaMell Ross had strong words about the state of the independent film industry and what he's looking to post-'Nickel Boys' while on the Spirit Awards blue carpet, speaking to IndieWire Saturday, February 22. The documentary-turned-narrative director's 'Nickel Boys' (Amazon MGM Studios) is up for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Feature and Best Cinematography. DP Jomo Fray had already won that award as of writing for his first-person-perspective dive into a 1960s Florida boarding school where Black students are being abused. Colson Whitehead wrote the novel that inspired the Oscar Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominee. More from IndieWire 'The People's Joker' Filmmaker Vera Drew Believes Mainstream Queer Representation Has Gotten 'So Stale' Nicole Kidman's Husband on 'Expats,' Brian Tee, Shot the Most Intense Scene with Her First Speaking to IndieWire's Features Writer Alison Foreman at the Spirit Awards ahead of the night's ceremony, Ross was asked about the future of theatrical releases for boldly minded independent films like 'Nickel Boys.' 'It's strange because big budget doesn't necessarily imply theatrical release anymore,' he said. 'I don't think you need a lot of money to make a film that's cinematic and deserves to be in theaters, but people feel like there's a certain production quality that one needs. When unions come into play, the budgets are bloated. I don't have the answers.' When not making films like 'Nickel Boys' or the Oscar-nominated documentary 'Hale County This Morning, This Evening' (2018), Ross teaches filmmaking at Brown University, which he said has given him a knowing position as a mentor to younger directors and storytellers. And perhaps making him more savvy in terms of giving advice. 'The most important part of that mentoring process is trying to figure out what the student actually wants, not what they say they want, because what they say they want is what they rarely actually want,' Ross said. 'Do you want the status of being a filmmaker, or do you want to make great films? Do you want your script to explore these ideas, or do you want to use the script and these ideas to make a film so that you can make another film about these ideas? The depth of one's intention and the source of the drive to make one's work really weeds out how much money you need.' As for audiences, he said, they 'have no idea what they want. Cultures in general are led by people who make decisions that are more geared toward what they want to see than what the culture wants to see, and the culture follows. Because what culture wants is more of what it go. That … psychological state is never right for artists.' As for the future of filmmaking or what we should look forward to or be afraid of, Ross said, 'I think we should be afraid of things continuing as they are, and we should hope for new models and paradigms and more risk, and a more generous assessment of relationships between return and piece, piece of work. It would be nice if they could be slightly more divorced so that the work isn't being reduced to communicate, it's actually being made more complex, to mistify. That doesn't necessarily make money.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BAFTA's 11th Hour Oscar Surprises
A version of this story first appeared on The Ankler. BAFTA Adds Fresh Intrigue to the Oscar Race Oscar season was speaking with an English accent this weekend, with many of the race's top contenders making the trip to London for Sunday's BAFTA Awards. The fact that a slew of additional guild awards took place the night before didn't even slow major contenders' roll. During Saturday night's WGA Awards, held in both New York and Los Angeles, the top two screenplay prizes were handed out first specifically so that the recipients, Anora writer-director Sean Baker (for original screenplay) and Nickel Boys' auteur RaMell Ross and his co-writer Joslyn Barnes (for adapted screenplay) could catch their flights to London immediately change of location also made for a slight mood shift in the Oscar race, just a week after Anora's huge wins with the Critics Choice, Directors Guild and Producers Guild awards marked it as an Oscar frontrunner. The top BAFTA award for best film went to Conclave, which — with London-based producers Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell as well as star Ralph Fiennes — was the closest to a hometown favorite in the pundits expected Conclave to have an edge in London over the very American Anora, but a more interesting upset came in the directing category, where The Brutalist's Brady Corbet triumphed. Add to that Adrien Brody's win for best actor, a category he now seems to have sewn up, and victories for score and cinematography, and The Brutalist got a much-needed boost from BAFTA at exactly the right moment. Final Oscar ballots, after all, are due on Tuesday at 5 hours after its WGA win, Anora also lost at the BAFTAs to Jesse Eisenberg's screenplay for A Real Pain, which seemed to be fading in the Oscar screenplay race given its lack of a best picture nomination. But by beating out not just Anora but also The Brutalist and The Substance at the BAFTAs, A Real Pain is displaying some strength in screenplay (as well as supporting actor, of course, where Kieran Culkin has a pretty clear path after Golden Globe, Critics Choice and BAFTA wins). The BAFTAs seemed to be eager to spread the wealth among a range of winners. Might the Oscars be inclined to do the same? No Moore in London Anora may not have widened its lead over the competition, but it scored a major surprise victory of its own, with Mikey Madison winning best actress over presumed favorite Demi Moore. I still suspect the SAG Awards next weekend will be eager to crown Moore and her unbeatable comeback story, and that the Academy will follow suit. But Madison's victory suggests not only that she's competitive, but that best actress may be more in play than expected. I'm Still Here star Fernanda Torres wasn't nominated at BAFTA, but you'd better believe her campaign team is paying attention to last night's an awards race that had felt so very wide open until recently, I wouldn't call any of this earth-shattering. I had a hunch that Anora's string of victories last weekend might have been squeakers, given how many films have received industry accolades this season. It's still possible Anora could make Baker the first person since Walt Disney himself to win four Oscars in a single year — Baker shares the film's nomination for picture (with his wife, Samantha Quan, and Alex Coco) in addition to his solo noms for director, original screenplay, and editing. But I think some space has opened, just a bit, for a wider group of winners to take home a slightly tweaked version of the BAFTAs, where A Real Pain wins original screenplay, Corbet wins director, something like Wicked or Conclave wins in editing, and Moore wins best actress. Anora could lose all of those categories, but that still wouldn't make its best picture win feel any less likely. Last week it became the first film in the history of Critics Choice to win best picture and no other award. If it does the same at the Oscars, it will become the first to do so since Grand Hotel way back in 1932. Sing Along Few people understand better than Guillermo del Toro how surreal it can be when, after years of toiling away at your work in varying levels of obscurity, you suddenly find the awards season spotlight shining on you. It happened for del Toro in 2018, when his tenth feature film, The Shape of Water, won four Oscars, including best picture and best director. And now it's happening for Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, whose film Sing Sing is nominated for three Oscars, including for the screenplay Bentley and Kwedar wrote in collaboration with two of the story's real-life inspirations, Clarence Maclin (who also acts in the film) and John 'Divine G' Whitfield (portrayed onscreen by Colman Domingo, who's also nominated). 'You guys are on a roll,' del Toro said to Bentley and Kwedar at the beginning of a recent Zoom call (shared with Prestige Junkie by Sing Sing's awards team), which you can watch exclusively above. Fresh off their latest trip to Sundance, where the Bentley-directed Train Dreams became one of the festival's breakout hits and few sales (to Netflix), they can only describe it as, well, surreal. 'We feel like we've just been operating in our little sandbox for a few years now, and it's lovely that all of this is happening,' Bentley adds. Del Toro starts by asking about the division of labor within Bentley and Kwedar's long-running partnership, in which they develop films together and take turns directing. 'Usually whoever is going to end up directing the film originated the idea and it just kind of fit into their bones,' says Kwedar, who directed Sing Sing. 'And then the other identifies that in their friend that this is something they have to do.' Kwedar's journey with Sing Sing began nearly a decade ago, when he read about the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York's Sing Sing prison and sought out the program's director, Brent Buell. After meeting with Buell and some of the program's veterans, both Bentley and Kwedar left feeling that 'if we could just translate the feeling of this room into a film, we'd have something special,' Kwedar recalls. 'We thought it would be very easy to do that. And then it took eight and a half years.' Del Toro may have never made a movie quite like Sing Sing — his next project, a new take on Frankenstein, is due later this year — but you can sense his genuine admiration for what they accomplished. 'This movie took basically a decade to make and then put in a compression chamber of having to shoot it in 18 days,' he says in awe. 'I mean my fastest movie was Kronos, and I shot that in 41 days.' 'Holy shit, that sounds luxurious,' Bentley responds. Hear the full conversation in the video above, and thanks to del Toro, Bentley and Kwedar for letting us eavesdrop.
The Guardian
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why Nickel Boys should win the best picture Oscar
The idea of praising a film for being beautiful is understandably suspect. It's the kind of gushing tribute paid to things that turn out to be lifeless and humourless. But RaMell Ross's Oscar-nominated film Nickel Boys, adapted from the novel by Colson Whitehead, really is beautiful; it creates beauty and even a kind of complex, defiant joy from generational pain and trauma caused by racism in the postwar United States. Of all the films on this mixed best picture nomination list, Nickel Boys – produced by Dede Gardner, Joslyn Barnes and Jeremy Kleiner– is the film which I'd most like to win, perhaps partly because as a film about the African American experience it for some reason isn't in the conversation in the way Barry Jenkins's Moonlight once was. Gorgeously shot by Jomo Fray and designed by Nora Mendis, the film follows the fortunes of Elwood, played by Ethan Herisse, a smart young black boy in 1960s Tallahassee, Florida, who gets thrown into a brutal reform school called The Nickel Academy (based on the notorious real-life Dozier School). This is a racist tyranny where the black kids are beaten and often killed, in which case they are secretly buried and officially described as 'runaways' – and all because Elwood innocently hitched a ride in a stolen car on his way to a technical academy for which he had been recommended on account of his academic promise. A nauseous irony re-routes him to a different institution. In the Nickel, he befriends another kid, a kindred spirit called Turner, played by Brandon Wilson, the only person he can open up to and discuss the four ways out of the Nickel: age out (it's for juveniles); serve your time (difficult, if you are deemed not to have submissively 'reformed'), die – or run. From other perspectives, Nickel Boys could look like a bromance (and it is an amazingly potent study in friendship) or like a particularly tragic kind of coming-of-age film, or a study in survivor guilt or even like a particular type of historical mystery with those flash-forward scenes in which one of the boys, now adult, is living a complicated, difficult life, brooding over online news stories concerning bodies found in the Nickel's grounds. And now, enigmatically, the camera is just behind the character's head, less an embodiment of his consciousness and more a kind of recording angel. But Nickel Boys is a powerful study in experience and identity, because of the film's central idea: it is shot from the point-of-view of one or the other of the two leads. We begin with Elwood, and the micro-intensity of all the little epiphanic things he looks at as a child, periodically glimpsing his own face in the reflection of a steam iron, or a TV screen, and finally (perhaps a kind of cheat) in some photobooth pictures he gets with a girlfriend. It's the kind of first-person technique we've seen in Robert Montgomery's noir Lady in the Lake or the sequence in Rouben Mamoulian's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. But after a while, at least partly because filming things purely from a certain character's viewpoint means we paradoxically get less of a sense of him, we switch to the viewpoint of the second lead. They look into each other's eyes (and it's a technique which, on first writing about this film, I found myself comparing to the British TV comedy Peep Show). There is such tenderness in the depiction of the two boys: imprisoned and yet also, in the grimmest of paradoxes, freed from the constraints and hypocrisies of the world outside the Nickel, a world of trying to pretend and to fit in with whiteness, of enduring the exhaustion of trying to finesse and negotiate an expedient third way between submission and rebellion. The moments of intimacy that Elwood and Turner have are their island surrounded by hate, and yet that hate is a kind of education, a red-pill moment of clarity that other kids do not have. Perhaps the most devastatingly emotional parts of the film are those with the wonderful Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood's grandmother, who comes to the school and is refused permission to visit him, but encounters Turner outside and declares that she will have to hug him instead – and does so repeatedly, hugging the camera, or indeed us, the audience. It's the single most moving thing I've seen in the cinema this year. The Nickel is a microcosm of Jim Crow America, or many another societies, in its evasions, its cruelties, its hypocrisies, its icy and fraudulent claim to be providing some kind of corrective moral guidance. Turner and Elwood are treated with cruelty and bigotry: to the white ruling class they look interchangeable. Yet there is such sweetness and gentleness in Nickel Boys, a counterweight to the grimness, because it is after all a film about childhood, and the way young people are vulnerable but also have resilience. The two Nickel Boys are heroes because of the intensity of what they see in the outer world and in each other. They bear witness.
