A few hours separate us from the grand awards ceremony that will take place Monday morning 11.03.2024 and several are hit. With some categories “locked”, such as the “Oppenheimer” of the 13 nominations expected to be scanned at the awards, with the “Poor Things” of George Lanthimos’ 11 nominations having intense Greek interest and the prognostics giving and taking a few days before the Oscars ceremony at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, we take a… walk on films based on true events. The truth is that movies based on true stories always have a special magic and at the same time create more intense feelings for us. Oppenheimer 13 Nominations : Film, Direction (Christopher Nolan), 1st Man (Kilian Murphy), 2nd Man (Robert Downy J.), 2nd Gay (Emily Blunt), Written Screenplay, Photography, Montage, Music, Scene, Costumes, Sound, Haircuts & Makeup Christopher Nolan’s film is considered one of the best of the year and has already set a bow for Oscars with 13 nominations. Oppenheimer is based on the life of quantum physicist and father of Robert Opneheimer’s atomic bomb, with Killian Murphy in the lead role. He was the iconic physicist who led the notorious “Manhattan Project”, the program that developed the first atomic bomb and changed history and humanity once and for all. He was the man who from “hero” turned into a “danger” for America’s national security and was badly removed from the Atomic Energy Commission. A member of a secular Jewish family in New York City in 1904 Oppenheimer graduated with honors from Harvard University in just three years. By the time World War II broke out in 1939, he had become a respected physicist at the University of California in Berkeley. In 1940 he married Katherine Visering Oppenheimer (played by Emily Blood in the film), with whom they had two children, Peter and Tony. Despite his burning relationship with doctor and psychiatrist Jean Tatlock (played by Florence Pugh), Oppenheimer and Katherine stayed together until his death in 1967. In May 1942, the chairman of the National Defence Research Committee, who happened to be one of the Oppenheimer professors at Harvard, put him on the program for developing a nuclear weapon, which had taken the green light from then US President Franklin Roosevelt. In June 1942 the notorious Manhattan Project was created, a highly classified Anglo-American nuclear weapons production program. Oppenheimer moved to the Manhattan program complex in the New Mexico desert, gathering the greatest minds in physics. There, hundreds of scientists and engineers developed Gadget (the world’s first nuclear test device), Little Boy (the atomic uranium bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan) and Fat Man (the atomic plutonium bomb dropped in Nagasaki, Japan). Oppenheimer performed his “duty” for the country, but once he saw his creation ruin Japan, he realized the real consequences of his actions. From there on he refused to develop more atomic bombs for the government. After Oppenheimer refused to participate in investigations into the completion of a hydrogen bomb – at the command of Truman – he went backstage. He entered the target of anti-communism of the time and his name “cleared” after 68 years. The US government advocated cancelling its contract as an advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission. When Oppenheimer resisted, he was brought to justice and the infamous 1954 security hearings. However, the US scientific community supported Oppenheimer, and despite losing his title, he somehow emerged as a hero and unjustly slandered. Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat cancer and died in 1967 at the age of 62. His ashes were scattered in the water on Gibney Beach. Killers of the Flower Moon 10 Nominations : Film, Direction (Martin Scorsese), 1st Female (Lily Gladstone), 2nd Man (Robert De Niro), Written Screenplay, Photography, Montage, Scene, Music, Clothing, Hairdressing & Make-up Martin Scorsese’s film “Killers of the Flower Moon” (The Killers of the Flower Moon) tells one of the most shocking stories of crime and mystery in the USA. This is an adaptation of David Gran’s book of the same name (2017). The film was filmed on the Osage land, using actors, technicians and advisors of tribe descendants. The plot of the project takes place in Oklahoma in the 1920s, when the marginalized Indians of the region, members of the Osage tribe, discovered oil deposits in their barren land and gained incredible wealth. So from absolute poverty they began to live and display their gold-bearing income which they would quickly “pay”. Soon, they will begin to be murdered under the indifferent looks of Americans and local authorities. The murders shocked American public opinion and remained in History as the “State of Horror”. The killings were part of a plan for the disappearance of the natives and the snatching of their property. And within this context, comes the story of the love relationship of a young native, Molly, with a dangerously naive and easily manipulated veteran of World War I, who returned to his city and becomes a pawn in the evil plans of a Mason’s uncle, the “King”. At the heart of Killers of the Flower Moon, both in the book, and in the film, is Molly ( ), a modest, wealthy Osage, whose family was targeted, as one of her sisters had been shot, another’s house was set on fire, while their mother was probably poisoned. Later, Molly became seriously ill. Just like the book, the film captures both Molly’s intense personal history and cultural prejudice that favored crimes. Nyad 2 Candidates : First Female (Anette Benning), Second Female (Jody Foster) Having given up her career for about 30 years, she makes the decision not just to return to sport, but to make her dream of 28 reality: swimming from Cuba on the Miami coast. But there is a significant difference: She is now 60 years old and the only, at least, companion to all this crazy and complicated venture is Bonnie Stoll’s friend. After some failed efforts, the dream becomes a reality. He finally becomes the first man to make the dangerous journey without a shark protection cage, as Walter Penis and Susie Maroney had done in 1978 and 1997, respectively. Society of the Snow (The Snow Society) 2 Nominations : International Film, Makeup/Mallia His Spanish director’s film, Juan Antonio Bayona is based on where he had rocked the world. The crash of an airplane carrying a football team, crashes into glaciers in the Andes. The few passengers who survive the crash are in one of the world’s most difficult environments to survive and are forced to cannibalize those who failed. The film is based on Pablo Wiersi’s novel of the same name, a journalist and screenwriter from Uruguay, while directors and actors had extensive contacts with survivors and families of victims to best deliver their stories. The history of survivors of Uruguay Air Force Flight 571 in 1972 is one of those dramas of life that are beyond reality. A plane chartered to carry a Uruguayan rugby team to Chile crashes into the heart of the Andes. Surviving members remain trapped in the frozen wilderness for 2.5 months and no longer having any choice to live are forced to resort to extreme measures, such as cannibalism. The narration begins from the day they leave for a match in Santiago, Chile and reaches up to 72 days later, when survivors eventually returned home. The instinct of survival led to cannibalism, after finally, the 16 people who managed to return home about 2.5 months later, fed the meat of those who failed. Two of the survivors, 72-year-old today Roberto Kanessa and his peer Nando Parado without equipment and all alone in a deadly landscape, leave to seek help. After 10 days they meet a man who eventually led to their salvation. Flamin’ Hot Nomination : Song The Flamin’ Hot film directed by Eva Longoria is inspired by the true story of Richard Montanize, which came to be made by a concierge, an executive at Frito-Lay. He had the idea of spicy snacks to attract the developing Latin market. Mexican-American Montanize (played by Jesse Garcia) is attributed the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, initially using in his kitchen shavings from snacks of this company that had been considered unsuitable for sale. The snack became a phenomenon of world pop culture. “We all write our own stories,” says the protagonist in the first trailer of “Flamin’ Hot”. “This is mine”. In the film we also see PepsiCo’s CEO (Frito-Lay’s parent company) Roger Enrico, played by Tony Salub. The film created enough “noise”. In an article in 2021 the “Los Angeles Times” reported that Montanez had exaggerated his role in creating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. He responded from PepsiCo saying that: “We attribute the release and success of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and other products to many people working at PepsiCo, including Richard Montanez”. Rustin Nomination : First Male (Colman Domingo) The film is based on the true story of activist Bayard Rustin who helped Martin Luther King and others organize the 1963 March in Washington. In Rustin we see the period of his life during which he faced racism and homophobia trying to help change human rights by helping Martin Luther King organise the legendary Washington March in 1963. The film manages to present a step – step in how the march to Washington was set up. He relates how Bayard Rustin managed to give organizational and political status a heterogeneous group of children, white and black and how he led the protesters to the Lincoln Monument. The direction is signed by George Wolfe, written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black. In production by Michelle and Barack Obama, “Rustin” is an attempt to restore Bayard Rustin’s huge heritage. Io Capitano Nomination : International Film Mateo Garone’s film, nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film, is a film inspired by true stories, and watches the modern odyssey of two Senegalese teenagers, who abandon their own in search of a better tomorrow in Europe. 16-year-old Sejdu and his cousin Musa live poor in a village in Senegal. They dream of living in Europe, where, as they think, everything is possible, even a musical career for Sejdu. Their journey begins with hope, evolves into an unthinkable Odyssey and ends up in a nightmare: traffickers, slavers, corrupt police, mobsters, blackmail and torture desperate immigrants in Libya. “The film was based on many stories of young children who crossed Africa bound for Europe. As I listened to their testimonies, it became clear to me that these stories are probably the only truly epic account of our times,” says the director and continues: “Before I made the film, I knew from the media about the extremes that migrants suffer in these travels, but through images of floating bodies, sunken ships and people screaming for help, and through the tragic reports of victims and survivors. I was used to seeing numbers, not people. But when I visited a youth reception center in Catania, and heard the story of a young 15-year-old African, I realized that I wanted my camera to focus on all of this through a perspective that would be exactly opposite to that of the media, that is, the perspective of these people” concludes.Maestro 7 Nominations: Original Screenplay, Sound, Photography, I Men’s (Bradley Cooper), I women’s (Carey Mulligan), Film, Comimations & Make-up The film Maestro is based on the life of composer Leonard Bernstein. The film, starring and director Bradley Cooper focuses on Burnstein’s complicated relationship with the lovers of his life, namely music, his wife Felicia Montealegre, but also his extramarital relationships with men. Felicia Montealegre marries Leonard Bernstein aware of his sexuality. She even, as she once wrote to him in a letter published, considered their marriage “a bloody mess”. But something that didn’t stop her from staying married to him for more than 25 years. “You are gay and you may never change. You don’t admit the possibility of a double life, but if your mental calm, your health, your entire nervous system depend on a certain sexual pattern, what can you do? … I am willing to accept you as you are, without being a witness… let’s try to see what happens if you are free to do whatever you want, but without guilt and confession.” She even admits in the same letter that she never regretted marrying him. Friends and family members confirm that Bernstein and Montealegre loved each other very much. Bernstein was trying to hide his true self from a deep homophobic America of the 1950s. He sought advice from Aaron Copeland, a composer who was openly homosexual, but still had a very private life. The film also describes Bernstein’s recurring relationships with music scholar Tom Cothran, with whom they took a joint vacation in North Carolina. Past Lives 2 Nominations : Film, Original script “Past Lives” is the directorial debut of Celine Song and a deep personal story, about love, fate and everything that determines a man’s personality and course. Korean-born Celine Song directs an autobiographical film. The film “Past Lives”, summarizes 25 years of love between two people residing on different continents and divides them countless miles. It begins with their first teenage skirmishes in Seoul, 90, and ends in today’s New York, when adults now see the emotional fantasies they cultivated from afar confronting reality. Past Lives is considered a favourite for the Academy of Best Film, Director and Original Screenplay, next to George Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla and Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction. “I believe there is a piece you leave behind in the place you left from,” says Song, who like her protagonist, emigrated from Korea to Toronto at 12 years old before moving to New York at 20.
Oscar 2024: Movies based on true events
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in Lifestyle