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
FACEBOOK
Lalo Schifrin
FACEBOOK
Mark Ronson
FACEBOOK
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