MARCH 9 • 2023 | 47

ARTS&LIFE
FILM

T

he Academy Awards 
will be presented on 
Sunday, March 12, at 8 
p.m. (ABC). Jimmy Kimmel 
will host. The ceremony is 
produced by Glenn Weiss, 
61, and his professional 
partner, Ricky Kirshner, 60. 
Rihanna will sing at the 
ceremony, as will Dianne 
Warren, 66. Warren and 
Sofia Carson will perform 
“Applause,” a song Warren 
wrote. It’s up for the best 
song Oscar this year. Warren 
has previously been 
nominated 13 times for this 
Oscar and has never won. 
She was given an Honorary 
Oscar last November. At the 
ceremony, Warren exclaimed 
from the stage, “I’ve waited 
34 years to say this. I’d like to 
thank the academy!”
Here are the “verified” 
Jewish nominees and one 
“honorable mention.”

ACTING CATEGORIES 
Michelle Williams (honorable 
mention) is nominated 
(lead actress) for playing 
Mitzi Fabelman, a Jewish 
woman, in The Fabelmans, a 
semi-autobiographical film 
directed and co-written by 
Steven Spielberg, 76.
In a recent interview, 
Williams said that her two 
young children with theater 
director Thomas Kail, 45, 
would be raised Jewish 

and that she was studying 
Judaism herself. Williams 
added that Jewish families 
lived on both sides of her 
childhood home, and she 
“adored being in their homes 
… the discourse at the 
tables and the deep sense 
of belonging that tradition 
fosters.”
In the same article, 
Spielberg praised Williams.
[He] “sensed a soul in 
her that connected to his 
childhood memories … She 
felt more like my mom than I 
could have imagined.”
I had a similar emotion 
when I saw Me Without 
You (2001), a film directed 
by and written by Sandra 
Goldbacher, an English 
Jew. Williams played (age 
16-24) an English Jewish 
girl from a warm, observant 
Jewish home. I didn’t know if 
Williams was Jewish in 2001. 
But I knew she was “spot-on” 

in this role. 
Jamie Lee Curtis, 62, 
is nominated for best 
supporting actress for 
Everything Everywhere All 
at Once. This interesting 
sci-fi film posited that 
a person could exist in 
different universes and have 
differing personalities in 
each universe. So, Curtis’ 
character varied greatly 
depending on the universe 
she came from. 

The Most 
Complete 
Guide to Jewish

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

Oscar Nominees

SPOTIFY

Dianne Warren

GAGE SKIDMORE

Steven 
Spielberg

continued on page 48

