36 February 21 • 2019
jn

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
T

he Oscars awards ceremony will 
be held at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 
24, on ABC. Below are the “con-
firmed” Jewish nominees in all but the 
technical categories.
In November, honorary Oscars were 
awarded. One went to Lalo Schifrin, 
86. Born in Argentina, he moved to the 
U.S. in 1963. He was Oscar-nominat-
ed six times. His most famous works 
include the theme for Mission: Impossi-
ble, and the scores for Bullitt and Cool 
Hand Luke.
Acting: Rachel Weisz, 48, supporting 
actress for The Favourite. Weisz already 
won this Oscar for The Constant 
Gardener, so, given Oscar politics, she’
s 
unlikely to win again. She did just win 
the British equivalent of the Oscar for 
The Favourite, but being a Brit, she had 
a hometown advantage. 
Her Hungarian Jewish father, an 
engineer, settled in the U.K. in the 
1930s. Her mother fled Austria for 
England in 1938. Rachel’
s mother was 
the daughter of a Jewish father and 
a non-Jewish mother. Her mother 
formally converted to Judaism when 
she married her father. My sense is 
that Weisz isn’
t very religious, but she 
has played Jewish characters several 
times (a Soviet soldier in Enemy at 
the Gates, historian Debra Lipstadt 
in Denial and the rebellious, lesbian 
daughter of an Orthodox rabbi in 
Disobedience). 

 Honorable Mention (Acting): 
Melissa McCarthy is nominated for 
best actress for playing the late Lee 
Israel, a journalist turned celeb-
rity-letter-forger, in Can You Ever 
Forgive Me?; Adam Driver is nom-
inated for best supporting actor for 
playing a Jewish police officer in 
Blackkklansman; and Glenn Close is 
nominated for best actress in Wife, 
based on a novel of the same name by 
Meg Wolitz, 59.
 Music, Best Original Score: 
Nicholas Britell, 38, (If Beale Street 
Could Talk) and Marc Shaiman, 59, 
(The Return of Mary Poppins). Britell’
s 
two Oscar nominations are for films 
featuring African-Americans that were 
directed by Barry Jenkins, an African-
American. Best original song: Mark 
Ronson, 43, and Diane Warren, 62. 
Ronson co-wrote “Shallow” from A 
Star is Born. Warren wrote “I’
ll Fight,” 
a song used in RBG, a documentary 
about Supreme Court Justice Ruth 
Bader Ginsburg, 85. 
 Adapted Screenplay: The Ballad 
of Buster Scruggs, written by Joel 
Coen, 64, and his brother, Ethan, 61. 
This anthology Western is a Netflix 
original. The brothers Coen have 
already won four Oscars in various 
categories. BlacKkKlansman. The 
original film script (based on a book) 
was written by Charlie Wachtel and 
David Rabinowitz, both 32. They 
sold their script to director Spike Lee. 

Lee and Kevin Willmott made some 
changes, and they are co-nominees 
for this Oscar. Can You Ever Forgive 
Me?, co-written by Nicole Holofcener, 
58. A Star Is Born, co-written by Eric 
Roth, 73, who won this Oscar for 
Forrest Gump. 
Animated Feature: This Oscar 
category includes as nominees the 
films’
 writer(s), main producer and 
director(s). Scott Rudin was the 
producer of Isle of Dogs, a nominee. 
Rodney Rothman, 45ish, was a 
co-writer and co-director of another 
nominated film, Spider-Man: Into the 
Spider Verse. Animated Short Film: 
Animal Behaviour was co-directed by 
David Fine, 58. 
Documentary Feature Length: 
RBG, co-directed and co-produced 
by Julie Cohen, 54, and Betsy West. 
As noted above, this film is about 
Justice Ginsburg. It’
s become the sur-
prise hit of the year and has a good 
chance of winning. Her brother, 
Bruce Cohen, 57, is a top Hollywood 
producer who won a best picture 
Oscar for producing American 
Beauty. If Julie Cohen wins, she and 
her brother will be the 10th pair of 
siblings to be Oscar winners. Five of 
the previous nine are/were Jewish.
Documentary Short: Black Sheep 
is a film about the effects of racism on 
a young black man in England. It was 
produced by Jonathan Chinn, 50ish. 
End Game, a film about end-of-life care 

co-directed and co-produced by Rob 
Epstein, 63, and Jeffrey Friedman, 67. 
Live Action Short Film: Skin, 
co-produced by West Bloomfield 
native actress Jamie Ray Newman, 40, 
and her Israeli husband, Guy Nattiv, 
45, who also directed. 
Best Film: The best film Oscar goes 
to the film’
s principal producers. The 
only nominated producer this year 
I’
m sure is Jewish is Jason Blum, 49, 
(BlacKkKlansman).
Honorable mention: Marshall 
Curry, 48, directed a best short doc-
umentary nominee, A Night at the 
Garden. He hunted for and found all 
the available footage of a notorious 
1938 Madison Square Garden rally put 
on by the pro-Nazi German-American 
Bund. ■

The Tribe Goes
The Tribe Goes

2019 Edition

to the Oscars: 
to the Oscars: 

Joel and Ethan Coen

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Lalo Schifrin

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Mark Ronson

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