Columbians Are Among the 2023 Oscar Nominees
Tony Kushner and Dede Gardner are up for Academy Awards this year.
The nominations for the 95th annual Academy Awards were recently announced, and a few projects from Columbia filmmakers are among the nominees: Women Talking, co-produced by Dede Gardner (CC'90), and The Fabelmans, co-written and co-produced by Tony Kushner (CC'78).
Nominated for both Best Picture and Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Women Talking follows the women of an isolated religious community in 2010, as they grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith. Together they must decide if they will do nothing, stay in the community and fight, or leave. Gardner produced the film alongside Frances McDormand and Jeremy Kleiner. The stellar cast includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Frances McDormand, and several rising stars.
Written by Kushner and Director Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans scored nominations across several categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Supporting Actor (Judd Hirsch), Best Original Screenplay (Kushner and Spielberg), Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. The Fabelmans is Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical ode to filmmaking, which follows a young movie-maker from his first experience in a movie theater to his first job in cinema.
Another Columbia-connected Oscar nominee is National Arts Journalism Fellow Joshua Seftel (JRN/SOA'03), whose film Stranger at the Gate, about a planned terrorist attack on a mosque in Indiana, was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film.
The Academy Awards will be broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at 8 PM ET and 5 PM PT on ABC.
Angeline Joelle Dimambro is a screenwriting/directing film MFA student at the School of the Arts. She will graduate in 2023.