Irish themed hotel inspired by Oscar Wilde opens in Manchester

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentReflecting the growing presence of French players at the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will host a live viewing party in Paris on Sunday for its French members and industry guests for the first time ever. The Parisian Oscar viewing party will be held at Blanche, a mansion that used to be the oldest and most legendary film school in Paris and was turned into a lavish private club.

Jamie Dornan and Amelia Warner are stepping out for the night!

Frustrations in some quarters over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ plan to present Oscars to eight crafts categories before Sunday’s ABC telecast and then weave edited versions of those winners into the live show may lead to acts of protest that go up all the way to the podium at the Dolby Theatre.

The 31-year-old American actor is one of the big favourite to pick up a gong at Sunday’s Oscars. Awards season is in full swing in Hollywood, with the 94th Academy Awards taking place this weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: Given how late the Oscars are this year on March 27, and how Covid held older adults back from attending cinemas, an Oscar halo effect was never expected to take place at the domestic box office for Best Picture nominees.

Pre-Oscar week always spells angst for Hollywood, but will voters feel better if a “feel good” movie is crowned Best Picture?

This year’s Academy Awards present the chance for a large number of landmark wins, from the first Sundance movie to win Best Picture to the youngest songwriting winner ever to the longest gap between wins by a composer.We’ll start our list with “CODA,” which could provide plenty of landmarks all by itself.If “CODA” wins Best Picture, it would become the first film to do so after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. It would also be the first winner whose main cast is predominantly deaf.It would become the second film to win Best Picture without a Directors Guild nomination for its director, after “Driving Miss Daisy.”It would also become the first to ever win without Oscar nominations for either directing or film editing.And it would become the first movie with fewer than four total nominations to win Best Picture since “Grand Hotel” won with only a single nomination in 1932.If either Apple’s “CODA” or Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” wins Best Picture, it will become the first film released by a streaming company to take that award.If Jane Campion wins the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for “The Power of the Dog,” she’ll become the first woman to win in both of the Oscar writing categories.

Diane Garrett Ambitious in scope and storytelling, “Pachinko” seems tailor-made for today’s international streaming wars. It arrives March 25 on Apple TV Plus with a literary pedigree and “Minari” Oscar winner Yuh-jung Youn in a starring role.

Halle Berry is still the only Black woman to ever win Best Actress at the Oscars despite over 90 years of the Academy Awards.

After several years in which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vacillated between eight or nine Best Picture nominees, Oscar has returned to a set number of 10 films for its top prize. The whole idea of doubling the amount from five to 10 came about in 2010 to encourage voters to select a broader range of films that might actually include some popular titles. That lasted a couple of years before the Academy tweaked it, allowing anywhere from five to 10 movies to make the cut. Now, with dwindling ratings, AMPAS once again decided to pin their hopes on a solid 10 in the hope that a Spider-Man or a Bond film could catch the fancy of the 9,487 eligible voters and help improve ratings with an audience favorite or two for viewers to root for. No such luck. This year’s lineup, which certainly has its share of warm-hearted crowd pleasers, only produced one film that even came close to making more than $100 million at the domestic box office, Dune, which debuted day-and-date on HBO Max. Nevertheless, ratings potential aside, the lineup of 10 nominees this year are a worthy bunch. Here are the 10 nominees for BEST PICTURE.

Vanity Fair Oscar party, which will return bigger and better in 2022. Experience the red carpet exclusively on Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party: Live livestream, which will start immediately after the at 11 p.m. EST/8 p.m.

Clayton Davis It’s all come down to this. Ninety-four years of Oscar history have been digested and cross-examined to help yield the critical answer: Which films and performances will win Academy Awards on March 27?By the sheer scope of its nomination tally, Netflix is the closest it’s ever been to taking home the statuette for the Academy’s most prestigious prize.

Clayton Davis With the Oscars just days away, the awards pundits and Hollywood whisperers are trying to read all the tea leaves and figure out what’s winning in all 23 categories.A longtime friend and former writing colleague, Mark Johnson at Awards Daily, recently broke down the art of predicting, putting them into four simple rationales: data analysis, cultural zeitgeist, conversations with AMPAS members and gut instinct.The data piece is what’s driven by Film Twitter, while the cultural zeitgeist you see through viral videos on TikTok (for example, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto,” isn’t nominated for Oscar but helps “Dos Oruguitas.”)This year’s crop of nominees represents interesting record breakers and trends in the Oscar canon. So let’s break it all down and how it could hint to potential winners in the wings.

Beyoncé, una de las nominadas al Oscar, se presentará en la próxima edición de los premios. La Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas anunció el pasado martes la actuación de la intérprete además de otros artistas como Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, Reba McEntire y Sebastián Yatra. Los cantantes presentarán las canciones nominadas de este año durante la entrega televisada del próximo domingo.Ariana DeBose, Penélope Cruz y ‘Encanto’ figuran entre los nominados al Oscar 2022: Mira la lista completaBeyoncé cantará Be Alive, la cual coescribió para King Richard.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorLos Angeles chef Evan Funke knows his way around the Oscars.Not only is his father, Alex, a three-time Academy Award winning visual effects director (“I’ve been to a couple of Oscars as a guest of my dad’s,” Evan says), but he’s also helped create the dishes for the annual Governors Ball several times alongside culinary celeb Wolfgang Puck.And now this year, Funke, whose Italian eateries Felix in Venice and Hollywood’s Mother Wolf are celebrity and industry hot spots, will make his debut designing the menu for the Vanity Fair viewing dinner and after-party, which returns this year to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills after the 2021 hiatus due to the pandemic. Variety caught up with Funke as he put the finishing touches on the top-secret menu to talk pasta, Bill Murray and the dangers of red sauce.How do you begin coming up with a menu for one of Hollywood’s biggest parties of the year? I want everyone to have pasta and one pasta that I really wanted to highlight is something that was passed on to me during my very first trip when I moved to Italy — Alessandra Spisni’s lasagna Bolognese.

Best PictureNominees:“Belfast”“CODA”“Don’t Look Up”“Drive My Car”“Dune”“King Richard”“Licorice Pizza”“Nightmare Alley”“The Power of the Dog”“West Side Story”“The Power of the Dog” has won at the Directors Guild and BAFTA and Critics Choice and Golden Globes – but all season long, I’ve had a feeling that “Power” would prove to be too austere and arty, that it wouldn’t have the broad support it needed to win under the preferential system that’s used to count votes in this category. But for months, nothing else showed that it could craft the consensus needed to beat “Power.”In the homestretch, though, a legitimate challenger emerged: not “Belfast” or “King Richard,” both of which once seemed capable of amassing the kind of widespread support needed to win, but “CODA,” a surprise hit at Sundance in 2021 that was acquired by Apple and won the SAG ensemble award, the key Producers Guild Award and a Writers Guild Award.“The Power of the Dog” will probably get a big boost from the international voters who may make up as much as a quarter of the Academy, while “CODA” is less divisive and can point to being a landmark in the depiction of deaf people on screen.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDuring ABC’s Academy Awards broadcast on March 27, Snap will air its first-ever Oscars TV spot, honoring the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. The ad shows people using Snapchat’s augmented-reality Lenses to learn American Sign Language.The ad (watch below) was inspired by the Oscar nominations for Apple Original Films’ “CODA” — the first motion picture starring a predominantly Deaf cast to receive a best picture nomination, and Troy Kotsur as the first Deaf male actor nominated in the supporting actor category — and the Oscar nod for Netflix’s “Audible,” which follows the journey of Maryland School for the Deaf high school athlete Amaree McKenstry-Hall, for documentary short subject.

Deadline has confirmed that Brian Kurland, a four-time Oscar-nominated sound mixer who sits on the Cinema Audio Society’s board, has resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over its plan to pre-tape several categories, including Best Sound.

DEAF movie star Troy Kotsur was embroiled in a drunken mid-air altercation — after he was forced to fly without his sign language translator. The star, 53, tipped for an Oscar this weekend, accidentally knocked a fork while gesticulating which struck another passenger.

Shalini Dore Features News EditorAustralia, that powerhouse in entertainment, feted 15 Oscar nominees from Down Under and New Zealand at the Australian consul general’s residence Wednesday in Brentwood.While celebrating the noms — 10 for Australia and five for New Zealand — Peter Ritchie, head of Australians in Film, said, “My mission here in L.A. is to open doors for some of the excluded and undiscovered writers and directors who could be the next Oscar nominees.”With Melanie Annan, editor of the nominated doc short “Three Songs for Benazir,” Ritchie said, “Australian influence is not necessarily only on Australia, but around the world.”Consul-general Jane Duke congratulated all the nominees. “You are really extraordinary,” she said.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorApple is getting ready to party on Oscar night.As the love and stack of awards for “CODA” have grown throughout awards seasons, I hear Apple is hosting a post-Academy Awards bash at the newly renovated mid-century building at 8899 Beverly Blvd.Not only does “CODA” have more than a strong possibility of picking up best picture but Troy Kotsur has been the long-time favorite to take home the gold for supporting actor.The festivities kick off at 8 p.m. The invitation requests “cocktail attire.”The Apple soiree joins several others taking place on Sunday, including the annual Governor’s Ball, the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party, Mercedes-Bens Viewing Party and Vanity Fair’s legendary dinner and after-party.

Gallery: History makers, red carpet romance and living legends! What happened at the SAG Awards. . . (BANG Showbiz)The 'Dark Knight' actress directed Olivia Colman in 'The Lost Daughter', which tells the story of a college professor who confronts her unsettling past after meeting a woman and her young daughter while on vacation in Italy.

The Academy Awards are nearly upon us.

For most people, being nominated for a prize as illustrious as an Oscar would be enough to secure bragging rights for the rest of their lives but for those attending the prestigious ceremony, a golden statue isn’t the only thing to smile about. Ahead of the event on Sunday, Distinctive Assets has given a sneak peek into the award show’s infamous ‘Everyone Wins’ Nominee Gift Bag, and reports suggest that it boasts a hefty price tag of more than £105,000.

We have confirmed that "West Side Story" star Rachel Zegler has been invited to the Oscars after all.There’s word out there that the Academy has invited her to be a presenter, however, they won’t confirm. What is clear is that the actress’ production schedule in London on the Disney movie "Snow White" has loosened up so that she can head to Los Angeles and watch the show live instead of in sweatpants and her boyfriend’s flannel from her couch, as she indicated on Instagram over the weekend to her followers who were enraged to hear that the actress be a no-show.  Rachel Zegler initially told fans on social media that she wasn't invited to this year's Academy Awards despite her film being nominated.

Oscars has been eagerly watched by devoted cinephiles but, over the years, it has also become one of the most-anticipated events for fashion aficionados. Among Hollywood’s brightest stars walking the red carpet in front of millions of viewers, the strongest candidates set themselves up to be sartorially scrutinised and battle it out for the evening’s most hotly contested accolade; that of the best dressed. From Audrey Hepburn’s timeless take on formal dressing in the 50s to the fully-fledged glamour of the likes of Nicole Kidman in the 90s and today’s dazzling ensembles from Lupita Nyong’o and Emma Stone, the Academy Awards provides the perfect platform for A-listers and designer brands alike to celebrate the symbiotic relationship between film and fashion.

ONE of these little ones will have grown up to be an Oscar winner next week. These picture-perfect nippers are all up for gongs at the Academy Awards, which take place in Los Angeles in the early hours of Monday morning.

Oscar Isaac came face to face with a mega Moon Knight fan!

As Deadline broke yesterday, Beyonce has now been officially confirmed to sing in one of the slots of Best Original Song contenders on the 94th Oscars. As noted in the Deadline article speculation is her performance of her nominated song (co-written with DIXSON) called “Be Alive” from King Richard will take place via satellite from a Compton tennis court. That aspect however was not in the Academy’s long awaited announcement of plans for the Best Song presentations. As my colleague Mike Fleming noted the formal announcement would come after voting closed, and indeed it did exactly at 5pm PT which is the same moment ballots had to be in to Pricewaterhouse. The campaign is over. All that is left now is the show itself.

rallied in person and online in protest of the company’s response to a raft of anti-LGBTQ legislation that have either passed or are in the works in several state legislatures across the country. Some Disney employees, however, still had to work, especially those promoting “Moon Knight,” the latest Marvel Studios series to debut on Disney Plus.That did not stop the two stars of the series, Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, from speaking out on the topic.“I guess my comment would be: gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gayyyyyy!” Isaac told Variety, breaking into song during the virtual “Moon Knight” junket.“It’s an absolutely ridiculous law,” Isaac continued, speaking specifically about the “Don’t Say Gay” law that passed in Florida that prohibits instruction regarding gender identity and sexual orientation. “It’s insane.

Oscar Isaac has something to say about “Don’t Say Gay.”

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde) has signed on to star alongside Samantha Soule and Wendy vanden Heuvel in I Look To You, an upcoming indie feature written and directed by Daniel Talbott (Midday Black Midnight Blue).

The Cinema Audio Society and the Association of Motion Picture Sound have weighed on the simmering controversy over the pre-taped categories on Sunday’s Oscarcast.

The Academy doesn’t always get it right.