The 2024 Oscar jury faces a herculean task. It’s a Best Picture pick that sums up the film industry’s intense, strange and varied journey over a year in which many things happened at once. On the one hand, the theater experience has become stronger and its recovery has become evident after the devastating impact of the health emergency caused by the pandemic. On the other hand, there was the shock caused by the writers’ strike, which seemed to threaten this recovery.
But the truth is that 2023 was rich in offers. In particular, riskier and higher quality than many others. Cinema seemed to move away from the countless sequels, prequels and spin-offs of popular intellectual properties. That is, approach more mature, sober offerings that tackle complex topics ranging from the crimes of genocide to perceptions of authoritarianism. So, the selection of candidates for the best films of the year. celebrates this diversity and summarizes a renewed vision of cinema as a medium of culture and history.
We leave you with ten curiosities about the 2024 Best Picture nominees that you may not have known about. From a set of cameras that allowed us to explore the daily life of Nazism, to a production that parodied patriarchy through the color pink. It is an enthusiastic look at the seventh art as a language and, above all, as an expression of the era to which it belongs. His greatest attribute.
“American Fantasy”: a successful debut
One of the big surprises in the 2024 Oscar nominations was the film adaptation of the famous novel. Erasing Percival Everett. But what’s even more surprising is that this is the first film directed by Cord Jefferson. The director also fought with other, bigger names—even Spike Lee. until he was chosen to talk about racism and intellectual prejudice.
For Jefferson, this is a double triumph. Critics considered Everett’s book a twisted satire of elitism in American academia. Therefore, its adaptation required a writer capable of conveying the mocking and melancholy tone of the original. The screenwriter wrote up to three drafts, which were consistently rejected, until he finally surprised him with the final version. This also led him to get the job of directing the film. A triumph that still surprises much of Hollywood.
“Anatomy of a Fall”, a curious love story
The film, which details the details of an accidental death that could have been murder, has a rare combination of talent and curiosity. Let’s start with the fact that its director is also its screenwriter along with his husband Arthur Harari. Which led to speculation about some of the plot’s most intense scenes. it shows how a marriage breaks down due to daily disappointments.
On the other hand, by special decision of the couple, the central characters of the film bear the same names as the actors who play them. What does it do Sandra (played by Sandra Hüller) and Samuel (Samuel Theis) delivers more than intriguing on-screen dynamics. Without a possible murder, the only thing left to do is wonder if the tense scenes showing the collapse of a relationship are… It will be nothing short of a good performance.
Pink world “Barbie”
The great 2023 film and 2024 Oscar favorite that turned generations of girls’ favorite doll into a movie star did something else. He left the world without the color pink. This is not an exaggeration: the film’s production exhausted the world’s supply of different shades of color. But especially mythical Panton PMS 219 C patented by the brand and produced in limited quantities.
According to Greta Gerwig’s interview with Los Angeles TimesDuring filming, which began during the pandemic, they encountered some unforeseen difficulties. These include distribution problems and the closure of pigment stores due to the health crisis. The situation as a whole led to the fact that by the end of the construction of the mythical city Barbieland, the reserves are barely enough to cover the last details. “I don’t think we made a mistake,” Gerwig joked to the newspaper.
Shame on “Those Who Remain”
What’s already considered an instant Christmas movie classic also harbors a nasty secret. Its director Alexander Payne returns to cinema with the production after a significant break. Reason: At the height of the #MeToo storm, actress Rose McGowan accused him of raping her.
It all would have happened when the translator of this 2024 Oscar nominee was barely fifteen years old. The scandal erupted after the release of the full-length film Little big life in 2017. During promotions, the director had to respond to the allegations and denied them. As well as saying the relationship was consensual, he insisted McGowan was already 18 when it happened. The controversy became more complicated when the artist accused Hollywood of complicity and silence “in favor of powerful people.” The accusation did not reach any court.
Unique backstory for the Moon Killers
Martin Scorsese’s work, based on David Grann’s book of the same name, is a dark and tense meditation on hate crimes. But it also provides context—almost involuntary—to a particular fact in the American legal system.
The case featured in the 2024 Oscar-nominated film was the first case of the newly created Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At the time, the film was directed by J. Edgar Hoover, who devoted time and resources to the Osage tragedy. This particular moment in the film is not fully explored, but it does show a strange panorama of deaths in the region.
Master’s training
A great tribute to the life of Leonard Bernstein, directed, written and starring Bradley Cooper, is more than just biographical film. It is also an exploration of time, prejudice and the pressures that a musician had to suffer due to his sexual orientation. However, Premise did not fail to show his virtuosity on stage and his talent for musical direction.
And this is more than just staging. Cooper, who wears prosthetics and has trained to achieve the lean, wiry physique of a conductor, also spent six years training to conduct an orchestra. As he told Variety, it was an effort that allowed him to fully understand Bernstein’s dedication to art. The actor’s tenacity can be enjoyed in some of the best scenes in the story.
Detail of the Oppenheimer script
Christopher Nolan’s most personal work is a prodigy both in front of and behind the camera. From recreating an atomic explosion using practical effects to using color and chiaroscuro to analyze point of view. The British director put a lot of effort into giving the film an original touch.
But one of the strangest things is in the script. Contrary to the norm that the text should be written in the third person singular, Nolan’s adaptation is written in the first person. Which allows you to take a completely unknown excursion into the psychology of the main character.
Visual longing for “Past Lives”
The plot of playwright Celine Song captivates with its twilight romance and its final tension, which made the most indifferent cry. But lovers of traditional photography are struck by another detail. The tape was recorded on 35mm film, specially manufactured by Kodak for filming. This allowed director of photography Shabier Kirchner make lighting and composition decisions that favor the texture of celluloid.
The result is an aesthetic section that creates a melancholic and almost dreamlike atmosphere for the film. Another detail is that the interior shots have a yellowish tint, while the exterior and sadder ones are blue. This allows the story to explore the psychology of the characters through the visual proposition.
Inspiration for “Poor Creatures”
Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) will go down in cinema history as one of the strangest and most poetic actresses on the big screen.. But at the same time, an interesting point. Her already characteristic thin figure, with thick hair and thick eyebrows is not accidental, but comes from Standing nude girl with long black hair and blue-black curtain cartoonist Egon Schiele.
The 1911 work shows a thin woman with her hair down to her ankles, looking straight ahead. Yorgos Lanthimos decided that her wild appearance was ideal for Belle, which is not in Alasdair Gray’s origin book.
The claustrophobic world of “Zone of Interest”
To achieve the immersive feeling of peering into the lives of a seemingly ordinary family, director Jonathan Glazer used more than ten cameras. Also, to allow the actors to act more or less improvise in some scenes. The result is a completely new look at the Nazi Holocaust, as well as a number of stunning visual solutions.
Including several thermal images taken in the middle of the night to show the dark side of hopelessness in their story.Overall the film presents a very harsh vision of authoritarianism, violence and cultural indifference.
Source: Hiper Textual