MARCH 7 • 2024 | 45

I don’t think he will ever be a
practicing Jew. But I suspect he
wouldn’t mind a bit if his chil-
dren are bar/bat mitzvah.
Best Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall (a French
language legal mystery film),
was co-written by nominee
Arthur Harari. 42. Harari’s
paternal Sephardi grandfather
was born in Egypt and became
a well-known French actor.
With help, I found out that
Arthur Harari’s parents are
Jewish, too.
Harari also directs and some-
times acts. Justine Triet, Harari’s
life partner, is nominated as
the co-writer of Anatomy. She
directed Anatomy and is nomi-
nated for the directing Oscar.
Also in the original screen-
play category are Josh Singer,
52, the co-writer of Maestro,
and (Ms.) Samy Burch, 36,
for co-writing May December.
Burch’s mother is Jewish.
Best adapted screenplay:
Noah Baumbach, 54, is nomi-
nated for co-writing Barbie. His
father is Jewish. The “official”
Oscar nomination citation
notes Barbie was based on char-
acters created by the late Ruth
Handler, the co-founder of
Mattel Toys. Handler, played by
Rhea Perlman, briefly appears
in Barbie.
Also, in the adapted category
is Oppenheimer. While the writ-
ers are not Jewish, the official

citation for the screenplay nom-
ination notes it was based on a
historic study co-written by the
late Martin J. Sherwin.
Also in the adapted screen-
play category is Jonathan
Glazer, 58, a British Jew, for
The Zone of Interest, a film
about the Holocaust (loosely
based on a novel). Glazer also
directed Zone and he’s the only
Jew to be nominated, this year,
for the best director Oscar.
Glazer’s great-grandparents
fled Eastern Europe persecu-
tion and settled in the U.K.
over a century ago. His Reform
Jewish parents were not very
observant, but they did send
Jonathan to a famous Jewish
school in London and, as a
teen, he spent five months on
an Israeli kibbutz.
His best-known films are
Sexy Beast (starring Ben
Kingsley), Birth (co-starring
Lauren Bacall) and Under
My Skin (starring Scarlett
Johansson).
The Oscar for best non-En-
glish language film goes to
the film’s director. Zone is a
non-English nominee and if it
wins, Glazer, who also directed
Zone, gets the Oscar. (Zone
largely takes place in Auschwitz.
Its characters, like the “real”
persons at Auschwitz, speak in
German, Polish or Yiddish).
Best Score: Laura Karpman,
64, for American Fiction and

Robbie Robertson, who died
last August, for Killers of the
Flower Moon. Robertson was
famous as the lead guy and
chief songwriter for The Band,
a top ’70s band. Robertson’s
mother was a member of the
Cayuga and Mohawk tribes.
He was 12 when he found out
that his father, who died before
his birth, was Jewish. (Scorsese,
the director of Killer, filmed the
last performance of The Band
[1976] and it’s a great rock and
roll film).
Best Original Song: Diane
Warren, 67, for “The Fire
Inside” from Flamin’ Hot.
Warren has been nominated
15 times for an Oscar, and
has never won — and Mark
Ronson, 48, the co-writer of
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie.
He won (2019) the original
song Oscar as the co-writer of
“Shallow” from A Star is Born.
The nominees for best ani-
mated (feature) films are a
hodgepodge of animators and
producers. Amy Pascal, 65, a
top veteran producer, is up for
Spiderman — Across the Spider-
Verse. She shares the film’s
nomination with four others.
Letter of a Pig is nominated
in the short (length) animated
film category. It begins with
a Holocaust survivor telling a
group of teen students how a
pig saved his life. It then shows
the story’s profound effect on

one student.
The film was directed and
written by Tal Kantor, 35,
an Israeli. Her co-nominee is
Israeli Amit Russell Gicelter,
42, the film’s producer.
Sheila Nevins, 84, is one of
the two nominated directors
of The ABC’s of Book Banning.
It’s a short documentary Oscar
nominee. It follows the banning
of books in schools (especially
Florida). Nevins was the head
of HBO Documentary Films.
Edward Lachman, 76, is
nominated for the Oscar for
cinematography (El Conde, a
black comedy/horror film). He
was previously nominated for
his work on Carol and Far from
Heaven. These two films were
directed by Todd Haynes, 63,
as was May December.
The best film Oscar goes to a
nominated film’s principal pro-
ducers. There are 10 nominated
films and a lot of producers.
My practice is not to work very
hard to verify producers almost
no one outside Hollywood
has heard of and probably
won’t win. Here are the pro-
ducer nominees I am sure of:
Fred Berner, 70, and Steven
Spielberg, 77, Maestro; David
Heyman, 62 (Jewish father),
Barbie; and Charles Roven, 74,
Oppenheimer.
Two more notes and an
Honorable Mention: Zone of
Interest is a best film nominee,
too. But Jonathan Glazer was
not a Zone producer —and
— Killers of the Flower Moon
is a best film nominee, but its
screenplay wasn’t nominated.
The Killers screenplay was
based on a nonfiction study
of the same name by David
Grann, 56. Paul Giamatti,
a best actor nominee (The
Holdovers), isn’t Jewish. But his
former wife is, and their only
child was raised Jewish.

JENNIFER SU, WIKIPEDIA

Mark Ronson

BY RAPH_PH, ZONEINTREST

Jonathan Glazer

BY COSCOSCOS4 - OWN WORK

Diane
Warren