The Academy Award season is upon us! – With films such as Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and The Banshees of Inisherin nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Fans annually appreciate the art of filmmaking by watching this great event from home. In the weeks leading up to this event, it is exciting to learn more about the Oscar nominees and their accomplishments. Make sure to watch on March 12th at 5 pm!

At the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival, The Forge had the privilege of intimately interviewing multiple nominees from different nomination categories about their movies, accompanied by some profound advice.

Best Supporting Actress Nominee, Jamie Lee Curtis, plays Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Best Picture nominated, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Curtis summarized the film as a “multiverse movie (…) about love, family, reunification, and failure.” Curtis recently won a SAG Award for best supporting actress for the role, which could foreshadow a potential win for her at the Oscars. Jamie Lee brings honesty to her roles, a visible pride that translates into Dierdre. Best Supporting Actor nominee and co-star of Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, movingly plays Waymond Wang, in Everything Everywhere All At Once. When asked about how his early work translates into his role, he said, “If you look at Waymond, I pull my entire life into these three different versions (you know) of Waymond, I could not have played him had I not had all of those life experiences, (…) being an assistant action choreographer and struggling as an actor when I was much younger.” Ke Huy Quan has a personableness about him that is shown in how much heart is in his performance. Everything Everywhere All at Once has a total of 11 Oscar Nominations- make sure to be on the lookout for their wins!

Another film that’s nominated for best picture is Tár, directed by Todd Field. Todd Field is nominated as best director and has gained experience and creative vision over the past years “through repetition, and I’ve been directing a lot (…) doing advertising so technically I feel like a much stronger filmmaker.” The film is a story about a multifaceted conductor, Lydia Tár, who abuses power in the name of fame and fortune. The film showcases Cate Blanchett’s raw, striking, and groundbreaking acting, scoring her a Best Actress Nomination. Blanchett has won Best Actress before for her role in Blue Jasmine (2013) and has won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Aviator (2004). Tár has a total of six Academy Award nominations and both Blanchett and Field have a good shot at winning.

Wakanda Forever has four nominations and one of which includes Best Supporting Actress for Angela Bassett’s performance as Queen Ramonda. This is Marvel’s first-ever acting nomination, which is monumental! This is Angela’s second nomination at the academy awards, formally being nominated for Best Actress in 1994. Angela Bassett is an inspiration to many women and specifically women of color who are working in the film industry. She says she is proud of “any woman in this industry because it’s difficult, it can be difficult, it has been difficult. It can be difficult if you’re African American or Latina or Asian, you know it can be very difficult to find those roles that you can express yourself, your creativity, your art, your art form, you know, as we see this season. But you hang in, you hold on and you persevere and you draw it to you, your intention will draw what you need to you. (…) say you can. Say you will. Say it will be. And it will be.” Bassett’s strength and power shown here are brought forth in her performance and career.

This year’s nominees show true artistic passion. You see their love of stories of strength and emotion shine through in their work. These past few years in filmmaking have highlighted more sentimentality or vulnerability. Many people relate or have formed a connection with these films this year.  Make sure to look up the complete list of nominations and take a guess at who will win for each category or root for your favorites. You never know what each Academy Awards show has in store!