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LOS ANGELES: The 97th Academy Awards are spreading the love around, dishing out awards to “Anora,” “Conclave,” “Wicked” and “The Substance” in the ceremony’s first half.
The two films seen as the most likely to win best picture, “Anora” and “Conclave,” each took an award for screenplay. “Conclave” scribe Peter Straughan won best adapted screenplay for his adaptation of Robert Harris’ novel. “Anora” filmmaker Sean Baker won best original screenplay — the first of what could be several awards for Baker.
“I want to thank the sex worker community,” said Baker, echoing comments he made when “Anora” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “They have shared their stories. They have shared life experiences with me over the years. My deepest respect. Thank you. I share this with you.”
The night’s first award, presented by Robert Downey Jr., went to Kieran Culkin for best supporting actor. Culkin has cruised through the season, picking up award after award, for his performance alongside Jesse Eisenberg in “A Real Pain.”

“I have no idea how I got here,” said Culkin, “I’ve just been acting my whole life.”
Culkin spent most of his speech recalling an earlier, hypothetical promise from his wife Jazz Charton, that they could have a fourth child if he won an Oscar. Culkin used the opportunity to take Charton — “love of my life, ye of little faith” — up on the offer.

The biggest upset early on came in the best animated feature category. “Flow,” the wordless Latvian film upset DreamWorks Animations’ “The Wild Robot.” The win for “Flow,” an ecological parable about a cat in a flooded world, was the first Oscar ever for a Latvian film.

“Flow” was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using computer generated animation. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The film has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.
It’s only Zilbalodis’ second animated film as a director.
Zilbalodis’ unexpected Oscar contender — and now winner — has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resume for the new director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
The success of the film is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for best international feature film, and is the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Academy Awards.

“Thank you to my cats and dogs,” director Gints Zilbalodis accepting the award.

Zoe Saldaña earned her first Academy Award for best supporting actress in “Emilia Pérez,” capping an already accomplished awards season Sunday.
“Mami! Mami!” a tearful Saldaña said. “My mom is here. My whole family is here. I am floored by this honor. Thank you to the academy for recognizing the quiet heroism and the power in a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women. My fellow nominees, the love and community that you have offered to me is a true gift, and I will pay it forward.”
Saldaña accepted the award from the reigning winner in the category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The win adds to a collection of successes for the star on the awards circuit: Saldaña won her first Golden Globe in January, and notched wins at the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo kicked off the ceremony with a tribute to Los Angeles following the wildfires that devastated the Southern California metropolis earlier this year. Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Erivo performed Diana Ross’ “Home” and the “Wicked” stars joined together for “Defying Gravity” from their blockbuster big-screen musical.
Later, “Wicked,” the biggest box-office hit among the best picture nominees, won the award for best costume design, by Paul Tazewell.
“I’m the first Black man to receive the costume design award,” said Tazewell, who couldn’t finish that sentence before the crowd began to rise in a standing ovation. “I’m so proud of this.”

It is his first win and second nomination. He was previously nominated in the category for his work on Steven Spielberg's “West Side Story.”
Before the Oscars, Tazewell won awards at BAFTA, Critics Choice and Costume Designers Guild awards. He's the second Black person to in the category after Ruth E. Carter made history for her work in 2018 for “Black Panther,” which made her the first African American to win in the category.

Best makeup and hairstyling went to “The Substance” for its gory creations of beauty and body horror.
Host Conan O’Brien, introduced as “four-time Oscar viewer,” opened the ceremony with genial ribbing of the nominees and the former talk-show host’s trademark self-deprecation.
“‘A Complete Unknown.’ ‘A Real Pain.’ ‘Nosferatu.’ These are just some of the names I was called on the red carpet,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien, hosting for the first time, avoided any political commentary in his opening remarks, but the monologue was a smash hit. O’Brien lent on the disappointed face of John Lithgow, a full-throated “Chalamet!” from Adam Sandler and a gag of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos being delivered to the red carpet in a cardboard box.
O’Brien’s most sincere comments were reserved for Los Angeles, itself, in speaking about the enduring “magic and grandeur” of film in wake of the wildfires. O’Brien, whose house in the Pacific Palisades was spared by the fires, then segued into a musical routine, singing: “I won’t waste time.”
An unpredictable Oscar year
After a topsy-turvy Oscar season in which frontrunners were constantly shuffled, old tweets hobbled a top contender and space was held for “Wicked,” Sunday’s Academy Awards brought to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.
Splashes of color decorated the red carpet — Timothée Chalamet in yellow, Ariana Grande in pink, Colman Domingo in red — as stars streamed into the Dolby Theatre. Some attendees sported pins for Ukraine. Guy Pearce, nominated for his performance in “The Brutalist,” wore a “Free Palestine” pin on his lapel.
For the first time, an actor is nominated for playing the sitting US president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for best actor for his performance as a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” as is his co-star, Jeremy Strong, for playing Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film “human scum.”
The political tenor of this year’s ceremony could be volatile, with the Oscars coming weeks into the second Trump administration and falling two days after the president’s dramatic rupture with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
This year’s Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3 percent from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.
Last year’s telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.
The ceremony will be taking place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home. Morgan Freeman is to honor him during the ceremony.
Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 11,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
 

DUBAI: Lebanese-helmed architecture firm Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture (LG-A) will redesign the British Museum’s Western Range galleries after winning the contract in a competition.

The Paris-based firm, founded by Beirut-born Ghotmeh, will transform the museum’s historic building the houses some of the world’s greatest antiquities.

The competition for the project ran for nine months and attracted more than 60 teams. Five were shortlisted, including Reem Koolhaas and David Chipperfield, and were invited to take part in a two-stage competition, from which LG-A emerged as the winner.

Gotmeh’s vision for the redesign for the galleries resonated with the judges due to its archaeological approach to the architectural design in what the museum is calling “one of the biggest cultural renovations undertaken anywhere in the world.”

“In Lina Ghotmeh we have an architect who combines a deep sensitivity to the history of our great collection while being a voice for the future,” said George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum and chair of the judging panel, in a statement. “We had many outstanding entries – and I thank the other practices for all their hard work – but I can say as chair of the judging panel, she was the standout winner.

“Her design ideas excited and enthused the trustees; when they become real buildings and galleries, we know they will excite and enthuse our millions of visitors,” added Osborne.

The judging panel comprised of experts in the field of architecture including Yvonne Farrell, Meneesha Kellay, Mahrukh Tarapor, and Sarah Younger. Alongside Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, were representatives from the British Museum’s Board of Trustees — artist Tracey Emin, Charlie Mayfield and Alejandro Santo Domingo.

Ghotmeh, who grew up in Beirut during the 1980s amid the Lebanese civil war, is known for her sensitivity when designing projects. In 2023, she designed the Serpentine Pavilion London, making her the second female architect to do so after Zaha Hadid. She has also been commissioned to design a contemporary art museum in AlUla, Saudi Arabia’s ancient desert region in the northwestern part of the country. In 2005, she won the international competition for the design of the Estonian National Museum while working in London and collaborating with Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Foster & Partners.

“The beauty of this project lies in how my work process is both confirmed and enriched by a project like the British Museum,” Ghotmeh told Arab News, adding how winning the project gave her “a feeling of sharing, of collective joy, an expression of deep humanity that arises from the connections and emotions these moments evoke.”

Ghotmeh’s team also features Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2022, who is known for his art exploring cultural heritage, particularly in Lebanon and the wider Mediterranean, and geopolitics.

While prestigious, the redesign will be challenging. The Western Galleries, which comprise a third of the museum’s overall gallery space, total 15,650 square meters. The complex area includes the original 1850s buildings that were designed by Robert Smirke and later additions — all of which need to be renovated to meet present building standards. Many of the galleries contain important “heritage building fabric” the museum has said.

Ghotmeh also notes the feeling of responsibility in redesigning such an important museum, stating how she feels “the responsibility to bring our visions to life and continue this path of striving for quality and beauty.”

“Each project, for me, is a historical, material, and creative journey — like ‘archaeology of the future.’

“I am thrilled to design with a deep understanding of this museum — its history, the possibilities of what a 21st-century museum could be, the collection, its provenance, and the stories it should tell,” added Ghotmeh. “It’s about finding ways to engage with it, creating dialogue, and turning spaces into vessels. This is an opportunity to create extraordinary places that inspire a deep connection with the world.”