arts & life

f i lm

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Amy Winehouse

Oscars
2016

Laszlo Nemes

Nate Bloom | Special to the Jewish News

The tribe is
representing at this
year’s Academy
Awards.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Andrea Berloff

50 February 18 • 2016

T

he Oscars — the big megil-
lah — are being presented
7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, on
ABC, hosted by Chris Rock. Here,
a rundown of the verified Jewish
nominees in all but the technical
categories.
BEST PICTURE: (this Oscar
goes to the film’s principal produc-
ers, but never more than three
per film): The Big Short, Jeremy
Kleiner, 39; Bridge of Spies,
Steven Spielberg, 69, and Marc
Platt, 58; The Martian, Simon
Kinberg, 42; The Revenant, Arnon
Milchan, 71, and Steve Golin,
52; Spotlight, Michael Sugar, 51,
Nicole Rocklin, 36, and Steve
Golin. BEST SUPPORTING
ACTRESS: Jennifer Jason
Leigh, 54, The Hateful Eight.
BEST DIRECTOR: Lenny
Abrahamson, 49, Room. BEST
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Bridge of Spies, Joel Coen, 61,
Ethan Coen, 58, and Matt
Charman; Spotlight, Tom McCarthy
and Josh Singer, 43; Straight
Out of Compton, Jonathan
Herman, 55, and Andrea
Berloff, 34. BEST ANIMATED
FILM: Anomalisa, Charlie
Kaufman, 57, Duke Johnson and
Rosa Tran. BEST FOREIGN
LANGUAGE FILM: Son of
Saul (Hungary), Laszlo Nemes,

38. BEST DOCUMENTARY
(FEATURE): The Look of Silence,
Joshua Oppenheimer, 41; What
Happened, Miss Simone? Liz
Garbus, 45; Cartel Land, Matthew
Heineman, 51, and Tom Yellin,
63. BEST DOCUMENTARY
(SHORT): Last Day of Freedom,
Nomi Talisman, 48, and Dee
Hibbert Jones. BEST ORIGINAL
SONG: “Simple Song #3” from
Youth — music and lyrics by
David Lang, 59; “Til It Happens
to You” from The Hunting Ground
— music and lyrics by Diane
Warren, 59, and Lady Gaga. BEST
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ed
Lachman, 77, Carol; Emmanuel
Lubezki, 51, The Revenant.

FUN FACTS
Producer Marc Platt (Bridge of
Spies) is the father of actor Ben
Platt, 22, a star of the Pitch Perfect
movies; acting nominee Jennifer
Jason Leigh is still friends with
actress Phoebe Cates, 52. Both had
breakthrough roles in Fast Times at
Ridgemont High (1982). Cates came
out of virtual retirement to co-star
in The Anniversary Party (2001),
a very good movie that Leigh
co-directed and co-wrote. Leigh’s
maternal grandparents assisted
many Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
Jonathan Herman and Andrea

Berloff’s nominations for writ-
ing the hit film Straight Out of
Compton have garnered contro-
versy: No African American actors
in the film were nominated and
no black actors received Oscar
nominations for any 2015 film.
Herman agrees it’s odd that he, a
self-described white, gay, Jewish
guy, co-wrote Compton. He
explains that everyone thought the
existing script was a mess, and he
simply did what he was asked to
do: fix it. Liz Garbus (Miss Simone;
her third documentary to be
Oscar-nominated) is the daughter
of Martin Garbus, 81, a nation-
ally respected constitutional law
attorney. Her acclaimed documen-
taries with a Jewish theme include
Searching for Bobby Fischer (2011);
Diane Warren has won Grammys,
but she has never won an Oscar for
her songs, despite being nominated
seven times before.

THE NON-JEWISH CORNER
Two documentary films about
famous Jews are Oscar-nominated,
but their nominated filmmakers
aren’t Jewish. British Jewish singer
Amy Winehouse, who died in
2011 at age 27, is the subject of
Amy, a best feature-length nomi-
nee (filmmaker Asif Kapadia);
Claude Lanzmann, 90, the French

documentarian most famous
for his Holocaust film, Shoah, is
the subject of the short-length
documentary Claude Lanzmann:
Spectres of the Shoah (filmmaker,
Adam Benzine); Kate Winslet is the
favorite to win the best supporting
actress Oscar for playing Joanna
Hoffman, 60, a real-life Apple
executive in Steve Jobs; Charles
Randolph and Adam McKay,
co-nominees for their adapted
screenplay for The Big Short, are
both married to Jewish women
in show biz (respectively, Israeli
actress Mili Avital, 43, and direc-
tor Shira Piven, 54, the sister of
actor Jeremy Piven). Both showbiz
couples are raising their children
Jewish.

INTERNATIONAL
TRIBE CORNER
Director Lenny Abrahamson
(Room) is an Irish Jew, Laszlo
Nemes (Son of Saul) is a
Hungarian Jew who lives in France,
producer Arnon Milchan (Bridge
of Spies) is Israeli, Emmanuel
Lubezki (The Revenant) is a
Mexican Jew who now resides in
the States and Nomi Talisman
(Last Day of Freedom) is an Israeli
living in San Francisco. My favor-
ite Abrahamson quote: “I am an
unusual Irishman. I’m probably