Tom Cruise lived up to his tag as “the last real movie star” as around 200 of this year’s Oscar nominees gathered to celebrate – and boost their competition – at the Academy’s annual luncheon in the Monday.
In a room full of A-listers such as Steven Spielberg and Cate Blanchett, there is no doubt that Cruise remained the most photographed, with a crowd of fans from Hollywood moguls to Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai lined up to greet him throughout the event.
The Cruise has been chosen this year as a production of Top shot: Maverick, which he also tagged. The film is a frontrunner for the best picture Oscar – Hollywood’s most prestigious award. “It’s amazing… I just want to take people to the movies,” Cruise said AFP. “But this is great,” he declared, gesturing to the ballroom in Beverly Hills, filled with Oscar nominees and Academy voters, and lined outside with giant gold statues and buttonholes.
Pakistani Yousafzai, wearing a Saniya Maskatiya dress, attended as a director-general of Stranger at the Door, a short story about a US Marine who plots to blow up a mosque in his hometown. “Definitely,” she told the publication after meeting Cruise. “I saw him on the screen and now I see him.”
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12. The Academy’s voters this year gave different options for the awards package such as Maverick, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – increasing expectations that the Oscars TV audience will again. “The awards gods are smiling down on us — there’s nothing we can do about it,” joked Glenn Weiss, who returns to host the Oscars next month. new.
During her luncheon speech, Academy president Janet Yang reiterated her desire to drop the “unprecedented” controversy of last year, when Will Smith was famously beaten Chris Rock on the Oscars stage before the ban.
“What happened on stage is completely unacceptable. And the response from our organization is not enough,” he said. Smith was allowed to sit at the Oscars and accept his best actor award after beating Rock, and was later banned from attending the Academy Awards for ten years.
The Academy “must be strong and compassionate and honest” in times of crisis, Yang said, to applause. After lunch, the names of all 182 nominees were read, along with the judges representing their countries in the group. of international films, then announced the nominees for “picture of the class.”
Everything everywhere at once, a sci-fi thriller with many Asian characters that many critics are considering for best picture, received several awards. this year and 11, and his people received many great shouts on Monday. “We paid them a lot of money to do that!” The best comedian – actress Michelle Yeoh, described the great success of the indie film as “a dream come true.”
Colin Farrell and Austin Butler, best actor nominees and stars of the highly contested films “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Elvis,” also drew big cheers from the afternoon crowd.
‘American Dream’
Notable for her absence on Monday was Andrea Riseborough, who contested the nomination of the most impressive woman after a last-minute social media post. uploaded by famous celebrities.
But some of the participants were Kazuo Ishiguro, who was chosen for writing the screenplay for the drama British Living, about five years after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm.
“This is very different… It’s like a manifestation of the American dream. A lot of people dream about being here,” he said. “The Oscars are more like an election — there’s a lot more publicity” than other popular awards, he added.
‘Stranger At The Gate’ Oscar nodded
Malala, who announced her entry into Strangers at the Door earlier this month, expressed her gratitude after the film was nominated in the Best Documentary Short Film category.
Directed and produced by Joshua Seftel, Stranger at the Door tells the story of a US Marine, Richard “Mac” McKinney, who originally planned to bomb a mosque but converted to Islam. Impressed by the Muslims inside the mosque, he abandoned the plan of bombing the mosque and converted to Islam. He is now the president of that mosque.
“This film is a powerful true story of forgiveness and redemption,” Yousafzai said in a statement to Differences. “I hope the film challenges all viewers to question their assumptions and show kindness to everyone they meet.” He later shared on Twitter, “When I first saw this movie, it opened my mind and changed my perspective. I am honored to support Joshua Seftel’s Stranger at the Gate, a powerful true story. about redemption.”
In an interview with Star Press, McKinney recalled, “These people are killers,” his first impression of them in the center. However, those inside, they saw the ex-Marine was worried and needed their friendship.
“When Josh Seftel, the director of Stranger at the Gate, contacted me as the president of the Islamic Center of Muncie with the idea for this short film,” said Bibi Bahrami. “I jumped at the chance to show how our Muslim community in Muncie was able to welcome Mac with open arms.”
Anything to add to the story? Share in the comments below.