MCN Columnists

By Laura Rooney laura@moviecitynews.com

Nomination Reactions

“I am sitting in a coffee shop with my mum and just found out I have an Oscar nomination. Feeling very overwhelmed and just can’t believe it. Better pick out a gown.” – Sam Smith

“I am in London and just heard the good news! We gave it our all on this film and this appreciation from the Academy means a lot to me and my colleagues who made it possible. Champagne and Mezcal will run tonight!” – Alejandro G. Inarritu

 

“I am incredibly humbled by this honor. I was not expecting it … especially at this time in my life.” – Sylvester Stallone

“We made this movie with a lot of love: love for science, love for cinema, a sort of radical optimism about human beings. We didn’t know if the world would embrace it. They did, and now I’m so thrilled the Academy has embraced it too.” – Simon Kinberg, The Martian producer
“I don’t think we can expect any Oscars, but we’re perfectly happy just to be invited to the party. I think I’ll just keep looking around and go, ‘Wow. These people are supposed to be my peers?” – Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
“We were screaming like idiots in the pitch black with the smell of waffles in the room.” – Adam McKay, The Big Short
“”I was eating my lunch and the news came through. It gave me indigestion, but it was great news.” – Mark Burton, Shaun the Sheep
From the bottom of my heart thank you to the Academy. You have given our film the strongest of spotlights on a subject matter so cru”cial for many women across the world today. As a female director this support is crucial and I trust the absolute power of cinema to trigger change. Thank you to the five young actresses of Mustang for their courage and their persistence in defending freedom, the entire team of the film and to Cohen Media for having carried Mustang to such a beautiful day. Thank you to France, I am extremely proud and grateful to represent this country here today. This nomination is an absolute honor and a dream come true. ” – Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Mustang

“When we made Brooklyn, we had no idea of what was to come. It is the most personal film I have ever done, the hardest one too. I am honoured to represent this film with my friends – John, Nick, Finola, Yves, Colm, Amanda. This has all been a dream. To see how the film has been embraced has been heartwarming. Thank you so very much to The Academy – you are a group of people I respect greatly and to be recognized by you means so much.” – Saoirse Ronan

 

“I am profoundly honored by this Oscar nomination. Since 2007, over 100,000 people have been killed in the Mexican drug wars and over 25,000 have disappeared. I made CARTEL LAND to put a face to this violence and to examine the ramifications of what happens when citizens take the law into their own hands to fight back.Hopefully, this nomination will give voice to those trapped by this senseless cycle of violence, suffering, and corruption.” – Matthew Heineman, Cartel Land

“This is incredible news to wake up to. I am thrilled. I didn’t think the experience of working with Quentin [Tarantino] and this cast could get any more rewarding….to get this recognition for this role is such a joy.” – Jennifer Jason Leigh

 

“The Oscar noms were announced today. We now know who’s going to be throwing up at the Vanity Fair party.” – Chris Rock, via Twitter

 

“This nomination lends a voice to so many victims and their families around the world. Thank you to The Academy for recognizing the movement of people who have come together around The Hunting Ground and ‘Til It Happens To You’ in the name of sexual assault. Diane Warren and I are simply honored to represent the voices of so many survivors.” – Lady Gaga

 

“It makes it feel very personal, even though that’s kind of silly to say about an animated film with lots of color. It’s completely absurd in that it has emotions as characters, yet at its heart it really feels like this is something that came from my personal experience that was meaningful and difficult for me, both myself growing up and watching my kids grow up, specifically my daughter.” – Pete Docter, Inside Out

 

“I am so grateful to the Academy for their recognition of this film. Making ‘The Revenant’ was one of the most rewarding and collaborative experiences of my life. None of this would have been possible without Alejandro’s talent, vision and determination. Our dedicated crew also deserves to share in this moment. Together, they have created a truly unique cinematic experience. Congratulations to all of my fellow nominees this season. Thank you to the Academy.” – Leonardo DiCaprio

 

“I am beyond grateful and humbled by this nomination. I feel incredibly honored to be recognized among the other amazing women in this category. Joy is an incredibly inspiring story about an ordinary woman who does extraordinary things. For me, working with David O. Russell has been nothing short of extraordinary, and I share this nomination with him as well as our incredible supporting cast. I could not be more proud to be a part of this film and thankful to the producers and Fox for their unyielding support.” – Jennifer Lawrence

 

“I am deeply grateful to The Academy for this honour. To be recognized alongside these actresses and their inspiring performances is humbling. To be a part of bringing The Danish Girl to life was such a gift and to receive this nomination is a thrill.” – Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

 

“Wow! Our film #Prologue has been nominated for an #oscarnoms. Mo and I thrilled.” – Richard Williams, via Twitter

 

“This is an incredible day for everyone involved in Room. Thank you to the Academy for honoring us with four nominations — it’s beyond all our wildest dreams. It is a testament to everyone who gave so much of themselves to make this film happen. I am so proud of Emma Donoghue whose incredible novel started the journey, of Ed Guiney, my filmmaking other half who has been with me, driving the train, from the beginning, and to everyone at Element Pictures Dublin, my filmmaking home, of the extraordinary Brie Larson and the prodigy that is Jacob Tremblay. Also love and thanks go to Stephen Rennicks, Nathan Nugent, Ethan Tobman and Danny Cohen, my filmmaking team. What a day for Irish cinema! I am so delighted.” – Lenny Abrahamson, director of Room

 

“I’m unbelievably honored and excited to be recognized by the Academy, and even more thrilled to share this honor with Lenny Abrahamson, Emma Donoghue and the entire ROOM family of filmmakers, cast, and crew. I’m so lucky and humbled to be a part of this beautiful story, in a once-in-a-lifetime role. Congratulations to my fellow nominees. Truly, I am very grateful this morning.” – Brie Larson

 

“It is a delight to be celebrated as a supporting actor in Steven’s beautiful film, Bridge of Spies. I cannot separate my work in the film from the work of my friend Tom Hanks. Every thought, every look, every expression you are celebrating in my portrayal of Rudolph Abel, I found them all in the thoughtful generous presence of Tom Hanks beside me, or behind the camera, yet still with me 100%, every take, every moment. Of course you would witness none of it without Steven, nor are any of the choices of what you witness mine. The performance belongs equally to him and all his wonderful crew, who I am proud to call friends, as I admire them enormously. May I say, I am particularly proud to be nominated as a supporting actor, as I find the level of supporting acting in films these days utterly convincing and very often extremely moving, even the smallest parts.” – Mark Rylance
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon