Further veterans of the Academy Awards who round out the 2025 creative team include production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley and red carpet show EP David Chamberlin. Michael Bearden, meanwhile, will make his debut as music director. 

In a Monday statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said, “We are delighted to announce the return of our incredibly dynamic and creative Oscars team, Raj, Katy, Hamish, Misty, Alana and Dave. And we are thrilled to announce the addition of the brilliant Michael Bearden. Their love for cinema, their collective creative vision and their unparalleled expertise in live television make them the perfect team to create an exceptional show for our global audience on the film industry’s biggest night.”

Kapoor and Mullan added, “We are thrilled to lead the brilliant Oscars production team again and work alongside the Academy and Disney/ABC to help create an unforgettable night of television for movie lovers worldwide. We hope to continue to inspire and connect new generations to share our love for the art of filmmaking and celebrate all the incredible artists who are Oscar-nominated this year.”

Kapoor has won two Emmys, earlier this year for the 96th Oscars and in 2022 for “Adele: One Night Only.” He was nominated four times for exec-producing the Grammys and again in 2023 for “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter.”

The showrunner shared the 2024 Outstanding Variety Special (Live) Emmy with Mullan, who was also EP on, among many other titles, “Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas,” “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration,” “The Little Mermaid Live!” and the London Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. She is a partner in the live event production company Done + Dusted, which was founded by Hamilton.

Five-time Oscars vet Hamilton directed his first Academy Awards in 2010 for the 82nd ceremony. He earned two of his 12 total Emmy nominations for directing the 86th and 87th Oscars (in 2014 and 2015), and won for the 96th Oscars. In 2023, he won his first Emmy for the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Buckley and Billingsley also won an Emmy for production design on the 96th Oscars. Billingsley is the winner of three additional Emmys, for art directing the 2020 and 2021 Academy Awards and the 2012 Grammys. Buckley has a total of six Emmy nominations.

“Last year’s show was a tremendous success in no small part to the creative vision of Raj, Katy, Hamish and their teams. We are excited to have them back and can’t wait for what’s in store for the 97th telecast,” Rob Mills, Walt Disney Television’s executive vice president of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, said.

New to the Oscars fold is Bearden, whose long list of credits includes his Emmy-nominated music direction for both the Super Bowl LI Halftime Show (with Lady Gaga) and “One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.”

Finally, Chamberlin will serve as executive producer of ABC’s “The Oscars Red Carpet Show” for the sixth consecutive time.

The Oscars will take place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, airing live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The official live red carpet show kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

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Established in 1972 as a showcase for emerging global talent, the Student Oscars have been awarded to such filmmakers as Pete Docter, Spike Lee and Robert Zemeckis at the beginning of their careers. This year, the competition received a total of 2,683 entries from 738 colleges and universities worldwide, with Gold placement going to projects from France, the United States and the Czech Republic.

The winners are listed below, and all are also eligible to compete for the 97th Oscars in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category.

Alternative/Experimental
Gold: Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, “A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers,” San Francisco State University
Silver: Dori Walker, “In Living Memory,” Brown University
Bronze: Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India

Animation
Gold: Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer and Estelle Bonnardel, “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” MoPA 3D Animation School, France
Silver: Kei Kanamori, “Origami,” Digital Hollywood University, Japan
Bronze: Spencer Baird, “Student Accomplice,” Brigham Young University

Documentary
Gold: Hannah Rafkin, “Keeper,” School of Visual Arts
Silver: Aaron Johnson, “The 17%,” Chapman University
Bronze: Rishabh Raj Jain, “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness),” New York University

Narrative
Gold: Pavel Sýkora and Viktor Horák, “The Compatriot,” Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic
Silver: Jens Kevin Georg, “Crust,” Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Germany
Bronze: Robin Wang, “Neither Donkey nor Horse,” University of Southern California

The post 2024 Student Oscar Winners Include Film School Grads in France, USA, Czech Republic appeared first on TheWrap.

Delpero’s drama is set in 1944 in the alpine village of the film’s title. When a young Sicilian soldier named Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico) comes to town, his presence, according to the synopsis provided by Sideshow and Janus Films, “disrupts the dynamics of the local teacher’s family, changing them forever. During the four seasons marking the end of World War II, Pietro and Lucia, the eldest daughter of the teacher, instantly drawn to each other, led to marriage and an unexpected fate. As the world emerges from its tragedy, the family will face its own.”

Produced by Cinedora, Charades and Versus Productions, “Vermiglio” was acquired by Sideshow and Janus Films out of Venice, with a plan to release the film this year. In addition to De Domenico, it stars Martina Scrinzi, Roberta Rovelli and Tommaso Ragno. Delpero’s previous film, “Maternal” from 2019 (also her feature directorial debut), told the story of a teenage mother living in a home run by nuns in Buenos Aires.

The “Vermiglio” news came less than a week after France chose Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” as its entry, which immediately put it in front-runner status. That film, a musical crime comedy about a Mexican cartel boss (Karla Sofía Gascón) undergoing sex reassignment surgery, made a splash at Cannes, where stars Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldaña shared a best actress prize. It is considered a strong contender for Best Picture.

France leads all countries in the number of best international feature Oscar nominations and is second to Italy for the number of wins: France’s 9 vs. Italy’s 11. Among the storied Italian films that have won the category are “La Strada” (1956), “Nights of Cabiria” (1957), “8 1/2” (1963), “Amarcord” (1973) — and yes, plenty of movies not directed by Federico Fellini, including Vittorio De Sica’s “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” (1964), Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” (1988) and most recently, Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty” in 2013. Last year, Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano” was nominated.

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Five of the 15 winning films come from international film schools in India, Japan, France, Czech Republic and Germany, while the remainder come from film schools in the U.S., including USC, NYU, Chapman, Brigham Young University, Brown, the School of Visual Arts and San Francisco State University.

Three of the international schools — the National Institute of Design in India, Digital Hollywood University in Japan and Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku in the Czech Republic — are winning Student Academy Awards for the first time.

Unusually, no film school received more than one award.

Winners were selected from a pool of 2,683 entries from 738 colleges and universities worldwide. Previous Student Academy Award winners include Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Spike Lee, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis.

The winning films are eligible to compete for the Academy Awards in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Film category. Past winners have received 67 Oscar nominations and won 15 awards.

It was previously announced that this year’s presentation ceremony, usually held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, will take place at the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square in London on Monday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. BEST, in partnership with Rolex. Gold, silver and bronze placements in each of the four categories will be announced at the ceremony.

The Student Academy Awards were founded in 1972 to provide a platform for rising talent by creating opportunities to showcase their work.

This year’s Student Academy Awards winners are below, listed alphabetically by category.

Alternative/Experimental
Akshit Kumar, “bonVoyage pour monVoyage,” National Institute of Design, India
Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, “A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers,” San Francisco State University 
Dori Walker, “In Living Memory,” Brown University

Animation
Florian Maurice, Maxime Foltzer & Estelle Bonnardel, “Au Revoir Mon Monde,” MoPA 3D Animation School, France
Kei Kanamori, “Origami,” Digital Hollywood University, Japan
Spencer Baird, “Student Accomplice,” Brigham Young University

Documentary
Rishabh Raj Jain, “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness),” New York University
Hannah Rafkin, “Keeper,” School of Visual Arts 
Aaron Johnson, “The 17%,” Chapman University 

Narrative
Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, “The Compatriot,” Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku, Czech Republic
Jens Kevin Georg, “Crust,” Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Robin Wang, “Neither Donkey nor Horse,” University of Southern California

The post USC, NYU and Chapman Are Among 2024 Student Academy Awards Winners appeared first on TheWrap.

The move to the U.K. underscores the Academy’s increasing emphasis on international student films. Last year, the three winners in animation and three in narrative were all from European schools. Academy CEO Bill Kramer referenced the international focus in a statement:

“As a leader in our international film community, and as our organization becomes more global in focus, the Academy is thrilled to bring the Student Academy Awards to London this year. We are deeply grateful to our partners at Rolex for their support of this vital program and for sharing our commitment to discovering and fostering emerging filmmakers. We are also so very thankful to the BFI London Film Festival for its partnership.”

The Student Academy Awards have long functioned as a networking opportunity for emerging filmmakers, and despite the move, this year’s event will be no different. Winners have access to panels and “exclusive access to Academy members,” the statement noted. The winners of the 51st Student Academy Awards will be announced in September — and all winning films will be eligible to compete in the 97th Oscars in the animated short, live action short and documentary short categories.

Since the Student Academy Awards began in 1972, past winners have included Spike Lee, Robert Zemeckis, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Patricia Riggen, Patricia Cardoso and “South Park” creator Trey Parker. More recent winners who have gone on to land Oscar nominations include Lachlan Pendragon, whose “An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It” made the cut for best animated short in 2023.

Rolex, which supports the Student Academy Awards, is a supporter of the Academy100 initiative, a “$500 million global revenue diversification and outreach campaign,” according to the Academy.

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“The Awards committee is thrilled to have a wide range of applicants representing innovation across our branches,” said Scientific and Technical Awards Committee co-chairs Darin Grant and Raymond Yeung in a statement.

“Our diverse committee of industry experts will investigate 11 areas of advancement, including character dental prosthetics, fire-protective stunt gels, and CG rendering techniques. The continued evolution of production and post-production, along with technologies that merge them, such as components of virtual production related to in-camera visual effects, highlights the evolution of motion picture workflows based on these advancements.”

After investigations in each technology category, the committee will then meet in the fall to vote on recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors, which will make the final awards decisions. Honorees will be presented at the Scientific and Technical awards presentation.

The film academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards Committee has begun investigations into the following 11 areas:

· Character dental prosthetics
· On-set tools for live compositing of virtual characters and environments
· In-camera visual effects rendering or playback engines
· LED processors for in-camera visual effects
· Image-based lighting for CG rendering
· Heat-protective gel for stunt performer safety
· Artist-friendly tools for constructing anatomical character simulation setups
· Final frame post process denoisers for CG rendering
· Dynamic time alignment of multiple moving microphones
· Stabilized multi-camera systems for capturing wide FOV plates
· Transportable six-degrees-of-freedom motion bases capable of supporting heavy loads

The deadline to submit additional entries is Sept. 5 at 5 p.m. PT. For rules and directions regarding submission, click here.

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Hollywood’s biggest night will air at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

The deadline for general entry, Best Picture and RAISE submissions will be Nov. 14, 2024. Preliminary voting will begin at 9 a.m. PT on Dec. 9, 2024, and run until 5 p.m. PT on Dec. 13.

The Oscars Shortlists will be unveiled on Dec. 17 and Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17. Nominations voting begins at 9 a.m. PT on Jan. 8 and ends at 5 p.m. PT on Jan. 12, while finals voting begins at 9 a.m. PT on Feb. 11 and ends at 5 p.m. PT on Feb. 18.

Other key dates include the Governors Awards on Nov. 17, 2024, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon on Feb. 10, 2025, and the Scientific and Technical Awards on Feb. 18, 2025. All dates are subject to change.

Wednesday’s update follows a record-breaking 2024 telecast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on March 10.

The festivities brought in 21.01 million total viewers after seven days of viewing on ABC, Hulu and digital platforms, according to Nielsen and internal data, marking the award show’s biggest multiplatform audience since 2020 (which gathered 25.8 million total viewers across platforms). It’s also the third consecutive year that the Oscars grew in total viewership, with a 5% bump compared to the prior year’s broadcast (21.01 million vs. 19.93 million).

Christopher Nolan’s dramatic epic about the invention of the atomic bomb “Oppenheimer” was the big winner of the evening. Out of the 13 nominations the movie received, “Oppenheimer” won seven — including Best Picture, Nolan for Best Director, Cillian Murphy for Best Actor, Robert Downey Jr. for Best Supporting Actor, Ludwig Göransson for Best Score, Hoyte van Hoytema for Best Cinematography and Jennifer Lame for Best Film Editing.

Thanks to her win for “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” Billie Eilish became the youngest two-time Oscar winner in the history of the awards show. Elsewhere, Downey Jr. became the first “Saturday Night Live” cast member to win an Oscar, while “Godzilla Minus One,” which took home Best Visual Effects, marked the first Oscar nomination and win for a “Godzilla” movie.

To stay up to date on all things awards season, check out TheWrap’s coverage here.

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“There seems to be some controversy about my not mentioning every film by name last night before announcing the Best Picture award,” Pacino detailed in a statement obtained Monday by TheWrap. “I just want to be clear it was not my intention to omit them, rather a choice by the producers not to have them said again since they were highlighted individually throughout the ceremony.”

The statement came after social media users reacted to Pacino coming out to present the final award of the evening and choosing to not name the nominees before declaring “Oppenheimer” the winner.

“Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture,” he said in the telecast. Clips of all the Best Picture nominees had played throughout the ceremony, but he did not revisit them in his introduction.

Pacino simply came out, said, “I have to go to the envelope for that, and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see: ‘Oppenheimer.'”

The reaction in the room started out rather muted, almost as if the audience was confused on whether “Oppenheimer” had actually won or not.

“I’m obsessed with the way Al Pacino announced ‘Oppenheimer’ as Best Picture.’ Couldn’t have been more chaotic or confusing,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote in response.

“I realize being nominated is a huge milestone in one’s life and to not be fully recognized is offensive and hurtful,” Pacino went on to say in Monday’s statement. “I say this as someone who profoundly relates with filmmakers, actors and producers, so I deeply empathize with those who have been slighted by this oversight and it’s why I felt it necessary to make this statement.”

“Oppenheimer” would end the night with seven Academy Awards after being nominated in 13 categories.

The Hollywood Reporter first reported on Pacino’s statement.

The post Al Pacino Says His Offbeat Best Picture Delivery Was Decided by the Show’s Producers appeared first on TheWrap.

Posting about her Academy Awards night on Instagram, the iconic scream queen wrote that she flew in, took part in the ceremony, left to get a burger at In-N-Out and then flew out. (The blurry selfie above is hers.)

Now that’s how it’s done.

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A post shared by Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis)

Curtis was at the ceremony to help present the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for her work in “The Holdovers.” (It’s Oscar tradition to have the previous year’s recipient present that year’s winner.) Curtis was one of several past winners there to introduce the new crop of nominees, and was joined onstage by Regina King, Lupita Nyong’o, Mary Steenburgen and Rita Moreno. It was a very memorable moment.

Considering that Curtis’ post-Oscars photos at In-N-Out are in broad daylight, she definitely left the ceremony super early, since it crept into the nighttime hours in Los Angeles after starting around 4 p.m.

If you’re wondering what In-N-Out Curtis visited, it was the location on Cahuenga Boulevard, just up the street from where the Oscars take place at the Dolby Theatre. You can see the Universal City Hilton in the background, with the drive-thru lane buttressing the Universal City Nissan dealership. This is the same In-N-Out where Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice and business partner Ghislaine Maxwell was memorably photographed enjoying a burger and a book in 2019.

Earlier this awards season, Paul Giamatti was spotted at a Westwood In-N-Out after the Golden Globes, trophy in hand. And Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel has noted that stopping by In-N-Out after the ceremony has become an annual tradition.

“Nothing against McDonald’s, but on award show night, it’s In-N-Out,” Kimmel said.

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“It was a pinch-me moment for us,” the executive wrote in a Monday memo to employees obtained by TheWrap. “While the parties may be over, I am not done celebrating all of you.”

In addition to “Oppenheimer,” Universal’s specialty division Focus Features got in the win column with “The Holdovers,” with Da’Vine Joy Randolph winning for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as mourning school cook Mary Lamb.

“To the team at Focus, you continue to be the best at what you do — to find those deeply human stories that leave massive marks on our hearts like ‘The Holdovers,’ and make us want to send thank you notes to our favorite teachers,” she wrote.

“Oppenheimer” arrived at Universal after Nolan and his production company Syncopy ended a nearly two-decade partnership with Warner Bros. in 2021, beginning a fierce competition for the filmmaker’s next project. Universal landed the film after agreeing to commit $200 million in production and marketing spending towards the film and releasing the film in Nolan’s customary mid-July release slot with an extensive theatrical window.

“It started with a visit to Chris and Emma’s home, back in 2021. Reading the script for ‘Oppenheimer’ in Chris’s office, I was mesmerized as one of the most impactful moments in history felt overwhelmingly resonant today,” Langley wrote. “Soon after, our entire film group — and the entire company — rallied around this piece. From production to marketing to distribution, MSNBC to Peacock to our full symphony effort, our teams came together to share this story and show what makes this company unique.”

After grossing $957 million at the global box office — making it the highest grossing Best Picture winner in 20 years — “Oppenheimer” took the awards circuit by storm, becoming the 11th film to win the top prize at the Producers, Directors and Screen Actors Guild Awards before taking the top Oscar.

The release of “Oppenheimer” also came just after the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike on July 14, which left Nolan alone to promote the film during the prime of its theatrical run until the strike ended in November. SAG-AFTRA officially called the strike in the middle of the “Oppenheimer” premiere in London, leading the film’s cast to walk out.

“A special thank you to the teams at Universal and Focus who expertly navigated a complex and competitive awards season,” Langley said. “Even with added pressures and unexpected challenges, you ran this marathon flawlessly and didn’t let up until we crossed the finish line.”

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