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Italian Oscar Nominees Get Together at the Italian Cultural Institute

For the first time, people once again gathered in person at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood, the façade of the building lit with the colors of the Ukrainian flag in support of the ongoing and tragic conflict. The occasion, however, was a celebratory one, to honor the two-time Oscar nominee and legendary maestro of cinematography Dante Spinotti and two of the three Italian nominees for this year’s Oscar: Enrico Casarosa, director of the animated film Luca and Massimo Cantini Parrini, costume designer of Cyrano.
  • Industry

Docs: “A Song for Cesar” Highlights the Entwined Nature of Activism and Art

If conventional dramatic biopics grapple consistently with the difficulties of condensing a full and rich life into a reasonable running time, so too do nonfiction films examining a specific person or even a social movement – in their case typically struggling with integrating that focused illumination into a broader portrait of the changing culture at large. Co-directed by Abel Sanchez and Andrés Alegria, A Song for Cesar brings a unique point of view to the life and legacy of labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who in the 1960s worked tirelessly on a series of campaigns to improve the lives and livelihoods of exploited, overwhelmingly immigrant Mexican field laborers in the United States.
  • Industry

“The Lost Daughter”: A Story of Choices by Maggie Gyllenhaal

The fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal would be one of the key players of the 2022 awards season became obvious after the world premiere of The Lost Daughter at the 78th Venice Film Festival, where Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay for the psychological drama which she both wrote and directed. Her feature directorial debut also brought Gyllenhaal, who is already a Golden Globe-winning actress, her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, along with numerous other accolades for Best Directing and Best Adapted Screenplay.