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The Insider’s Guide to All Things Oscars FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES /ANIMATION | FEBRUARY 4, 2015

CHRIS ROCK, A GUIDE TO THE NOMINATIONS AND A LOOK AT THAT DIVERSITY PROBLEM

SPECIAL SECTIONS ANIMATION, DOCUMENTARIES AND FOREIGN-LANGUAGE

PHOTO PORTFOLIO EDDIE REDMAYNE DAVID OYELOWO MICHAEL KEATON J.K. SIMMONS ROSAMUND PIKE FELICITY JONES BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH REESE WITHERSPOON ALEJANDRO INARRITU RICHARD LINKLATER

AND MORE FACES LOSS... AND

JULIANNE MOOREFINDS TRIUMPH Consider EVERYTHING

“Eddie Redmayne delivers a fearless, flawless performance as Stephen Hawking.” CHRIS NASHAWATY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

WINNER® SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARD BEST ACTOR • Eddie Redmayne * DRAMA

WINNER® GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD BEST ACTOR • Eddie Redmayne * BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Jóhann Jóhannsson the THEORY of EVERYTHING

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING - THE WRAP - Final January 26, 2015 4:06 PM PST FOREIGN/DOC/ANIMATION/SHORTS TOE_Wrap_2_4_SP_3_Fnl FULL PAGE, 4C STREET: 2/4/15 DUE: 1/26/15 BLEED: 10.5" X 12.5" • TRIM: 10" X 12" • SAFETY: .25" FROM TRIM Consider EVERYTHING Contents TheWrap / Foreign / Documentaries / Animation / February 4, 2015

FEATURES

16 DESERT STARS: THE PALM SPRINGS PORTFOLIO TheWrap spotlights the talents who brought us the year’s top movies

Special sections: 28 ANIMATED FEATURES Disney vs. DreamWorks vs. Laika, two foreign upstarts and Chris Buck’s Oscar memories

32 DOCUMENTARIES Conflicts and art in this year’s nominees, plus Morgan Neville on making real movies

“Eddie Redmayne delivers a 35 FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILMS fearless, flawless performance Five countries, four continents and Mark Johnson as Stephen Hawking.” on the Oscar race heard round the world CHRIS NASHAWATY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY DEPARTMENTS

6 Awards Beat: Steve Pond on a deliciously messy Oscar race

© 1995 SAG- AFTRA 8 By the Numbers: Inside this WINNER® SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARD year’s nominees BEST ACTOR • Eddie Redmayne 12 Guest Columnist: Sasha Stone tries to fix Oscar’s diversity problem * DRAMA 13 Right or Wrong? TheWrap WINNER® GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD picks the year’s worst snubs and best surprises BEST ACTOR • Eddie Redmayne * BEST ORIGINAL SCORE 14 Shindigs & Soirees: Jóhann Jóhannsson Phase two kicks off with a bang 38 Oscar’s Back Pages: the When Chris Rocked the Oscars THEORY of

16Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike photographed by EVERYTHING Jeff Vespa

ARTWORK: ©2014 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 3 For more on this extraordinary film, go to www.FocusGuilds2014.com FILM: ©2014 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

sets were

THE WRAP MAGAZINE “A Marvel Of Craft.” made for A. O. SCOTT / THE NEW YORK TIMES 79 this movie. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sharon Waxman Ada Guerin “The Best Animated EDITOR VP, SALES Film Of 2014. A Total Steve Pond Caren Gibbens Delight.” ASSOCIATE EDITOR DIRECTOR OF SALES NIGEL SMITH / indieWIRE Diane Garrett Nicole Winters ON A COLD DESERT NIGHT... “A Triumph Of THEWRAP Design And Animation.” BOSTON GLOBE n a nomination season full of delightful surprises and mysterious twists, who would’ve guessed that EXECUTIVE EDITOR Joseph Kapsch one of the most fun places to hang out and compare notes would be Palm Springs? Turns out that it is, in our annual photo studio at the end of the red carpet at the Palm Springs Intl. SENIOR EDITOR FILM Anita Bennett Jeff Sneider Film Festival’s annual Awards Gala. It’s the moment just before the nominations land, a spot where the Todd Cunningham Iseason’s contenders finally meet face to face, cross paths and share their excitement for one another’s work. NEWS EDITORS Linda Ge Deborah Day In one dark corner of the studio, the young filmmakers behind the The Imitation Game worried about Debbie Emery Matt Donnelly how to afford evening wear for the Academy Awards, while screenwriter Graham Moore asked for advice about how not to obsess over the awards. (Answer: don’t even bother.) Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern REVIEWS EDITOR BLOGGER/ and Julianne Moore chatted excitedly in another nook while Benedict Cumberbatch was busy mugging on Alonso Duralde REPORTERS Greg Gilman the seamless with his director, Morten Tyldum. It got a little giddy. TELEVISION Travis Reilly Michael Keaton charged in, grateful for a quick drink before heading back into the fray. (But not before Jethro Nededog an intense tete-a-tete with Steve Carell.) Eddie Redmayne was virtually glowing with his new bride Tim Kenneally SOCIAL MEDIA/ Tony Maglio Hannah Bagshawe in tow, fresh off the plane from England but no worse for the wear. VIDEO Itay Hod Lia Haberman The legendary Shirley MacLaine glided in elegantly and gave a hug to her friend Richard Linklater, with MEDIA Rebecca Rosenberg whom she made Bernie. (Bernie 2, please, we asked.) And after the gala started, Selma’s David Oyelowo Jordan Chariton Sydney Papenhausen snuck out of the Convention Center hall and back into our studio with his heavy Palm Springs statue in hand, ready to strike a contemplative pose. MARKETING At the very last and after everyone else had gone, a china-doll Rosamund Pike teetered in on sky-high Michelle Lee heels to delicately pose in the quiet. Her newborn slept back at the hotel, and soon the new mom (and AD OPERATIONS convincing sociopath of Gone Girl) would have to rush there to nurse. Alix Khoury • Mick Kupan We’re delighted to bring you our annual Palm TheWrap News is the leading digital news organization Springs portrait gallery by photographer Jeff Vespa, a covering the business of entertainment and media. It includes TheWrap.com the award-winning, industry-lead- treasure-trove of portraiture so rich that for the first ing outlet for high-profile newsbreaks, investigative sto- time we couldn’t decide on one cover, so we created ries and authoritative analysis; PowerGridPro, the most current, relevant film development database; ThePower- three. And now we head into the final stretch of an Grid, an algorithmic, data-driven ranking system for every awards season that seems destined to hold still more person, project and company in the film business; and TheGrill, an executive leadership conference centered on surprises on Oscar night. the convergence of entertainment, media and technology.

In anticipation, TheWrap was nominated as the Best Entertainment website in 2012 and named the best online news site in both 2012 and 2009 at the National Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club

CHECK OUT THEWRAP ONLINE For more of our award-winning coverage of the Oscars and all other facets of the entertainment industry visit BAFTA AWARD NOMINEE ON THE COVER us at TheWrap.com. For advertising Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and David inquiries, contact [email protected] Oyelowo photographed by Jeff Vespa in Palm or call (424) 248-0662 Springs, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2015.

4 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 For more on this extraordinary film, go to www.FocusGuilds2014.com

sets were “A Marvel Of Craft.” made for A. O. SCOTT / THE NEW YORK TIMES 79 this movie. “The Best Animated Film Of 2014. A Total Delight.” NIGEL SMITH / indieWIRE “A Triumph Of Design And Animation.” BOSTON GLOBE

BAFTA AWARD NOMINEE

For more on this extraordinary film, go to www.FocusGuilds2014.com

THE BOXTROLLS - THE WRAP - Final January 26, 2015 4:01 PM PST FOREIGN/DOC/ANIMATION/SHORTS BT_Wrap_2_4_SP_2_Fnl FULL PAGE, 4C STREET: 2/4/15 DUE: 1/26/15 BLEED: 10.5" X 12.5" • TRIM: 10" X 12" • SAFETY: .25" FROM TRIM FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Awards Beat OFFICIAL ENTRY • POLAND ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE This Year’s Oscar Race: What a Mess, BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY and What Fun “Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Ida’ is by far » The most confounding race in years just keeps getting messier THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. Startling; then fascinating; then awe-inducing.” BY STEVE POND  DAVID DENBY, THE NEW YORKER “BREATHTAKING. Mr. Pawlikowski penetrates the darkest, thorniest he weekend of Jan. 24 and also a small-scale story that plays 25 was supposed to clear out over a leisurely two hours thickets of Polish history, reckoning with the things up in the Oscar race. and 45 minutes, and the buildup crimes of Stalinism and the Holocaust.” Instead, it threw the race calling it the frontrunner can  A.O. SCOTT, THE NEW YORK TIMES Tinto disarray, sending one contender lead to late-coming viewers being soaring and another faltering. underwhelmed. What happened? Among other contenders, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, The Imitation Game is the most WINNER which was considered the leader conventional of the top contenders, BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM of the race mostly by default even the one that looks the most like a NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE though it didn’t look anything like typical Oscar movie, and it’s got LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION a typical Best Picture winner, had a Harvey Weinstein campaigning SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE chance to seal the deal but turned out for it. But it hasn’t won a single to be a shaky frontrunner instead. major award, with only the Writers Despite winning the Golden Globe Guild a real possibility. The Theory WINNER and the Critics’ Choice Movie Award of Everything could win for acting FIVE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS and more critics’ prizes than any and music, but in the Best Picture • other film, it lost to Alejandro G. category it’s seen as the lesser of BEST FILM BEST DIRECTOR Inarritu’s Birdman for the Producers the two Brit biopics. The Grand BEST SCREENPLAY • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER Guild Award, which in recent years Budapest Hotel is tied with Birdman EFA PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD has been the single best indicator for the most Oscar nominations, of what will win Best Picture. Then and it’s been consistently at the SAG Awards the next night, underestimated for all of awards BAFTA FILM AWARD NOMINEE Birdman won again, claiming the key season. But it’s a comedy from Wes BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ensemble-cast award that is SAG’s de Anderson, and with rare exceptions, facto best-picture award. comedies don’t win. ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST FILMS Two nights, one upset and a new American Sniper and Selma The New York Times • The New Yorker • Los Angeles Times • The Associated Press • The Atlantic frontrunner: If you’re looking for could well have been hurt by Artforum • BBC • The Boston Globe • Boston Herald • BuzzFeed • The Daily Beast • The Denver Post closure or certainty, this year’s the controversies they stirred The Globe & Mail • The Guardian • The Hollywood Reporter • Indiewire • The Miami Herald The Philadelphia Inquirer • Slate • The Star-Ledger • Sight and Sound • Time Out London race will give you nothing of the up, though the former will be The Village Voice • Toronto Star • The Wall Street Journal sort. After all, if Birdman was now helped by its record box office. invincible, wouldn’t its star Michael But more to the point, neither Keaton have been able to claim Clint Eastwood nor Ava DuVernay the SAG Award for best actor over were nominated for Best Director,

Eddie Redmayne from The Theory of BOYLE/GETTYTIM IMAGES and only four movies have ever Everything? won the big award without their Boyhood and Birdman are two directors being nominated. (One visionary movies in dramatically different ways, and both would be was Argo two years ago, but the outcry over Ben Affleck not being thoroughly unconventional Oscar winners. A victory by either one at THERE ARE GOOD nominated was louder than the complaints about Eastwood or the PGA would have made it the favorite, since that award is the only even DuVernay.) And Whiplash is in the same situation as Beasts other honor to use the Academy’s unusual way of counting votes—but REASONS WHY of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right in both movies seem like shaky favorites, and that will continue unless NONE OF THE recent years—those movies are feel-good stories because they get Inarritu also wins the Directors Guild Award on Feb. 7. nominated, but they don’t win. Until then, we’ve got a Best Picture race full of movies with real NOMINEES CAN So that’s where we stand: There are good reasons why none strengths and significant weaknesses. of the nominees can win. But one of them is going to win. So in Birdman won the PGA and SAG, but it wasn’t even nominated CAN WIN. BUT the aftermath of Birdman’s big weekend, I’ll give that film the for the film-editing Oscar. The last Best Picture winner not to be narrowest of edges over Boyhood, subject to reappraisal if Linklater nominated in that category was Ordinary People, in 1981. Boyhood ONE OF THEM IS wins the Directors Guild, which he may well do. is a landmark accomplishment filmed over 12 years by a visionary Make no mistake, we have ourselves a confusing mess of an director who has never gotten his due from the Academy, but it’s GOING TO WIN. Oscar race. Let’s try to enjoy it, shall we? a ﬁ lm by PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI MUSICBOXFILMS.COM/IDA FACEBOOK.COM/MUSICBOXFILMS 6 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 © SOUTHPORT MUSIC BOX CORPORATION

THE WRAP: February 4, 2015 Version 1 - FINAL 4C - Full Page (10" x 12" Trim + .25 Bleed) Agency: Callan Advertising Client: Music Box Films FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION OFFICIAL ENTRY • POLAND ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Ida’ is by far THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. Startling; then fascinating; then awe-inducing.”  DAVID DENBY, THE NEW YORKER “BREATHTAKING. Mr. Pawlikowski penetrates the darkest, thorniest thickets of Polish history, reckoning with the crimes of Stalinism and the Holocaust.”  A.O. SCOTT, THE NEW YORK TIMES

WINNER BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER FIVE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS BEST FILM • BEST DIRECTOR BEST SCREENPLAY • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER EFA PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD BAFTA FILM AWARD NOMINEE BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE • BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST FILMS The New York Times • The New Yorker • Los Angeles Times • The Associated Press • The Atlantic Artforum • BBC • The Boston Globe • Boston Herald • BuzzFeed • The Daily Beast • The Denver Post The Globe & Mail • The Guardian • The Hollywood Reporter • Indiewire • The Miami Herald The Philadelphia Inquirer • Slate • The Star-Ledger • Sight and Sound • Time Out London The Village Voice • Toronto Star • The Wall Street Journal

a ﬁ lm by PAWEL PAWLIKOWSKI MUSICBOXFILMS.COM/IDA FACEBOOK.COM/MUSICBOXFILMS

THE WRAP: February 4, 2015 Version 1 - FINAL 4C - Full Page (10" x 12" Trim + .25 Bleed) Agency: Callan Advertising Client: Music Box Films Front & Center Oscar Nominations By the Numbers 8 Number of Best Picture nominees 165 Time in minutes of longest 1 Best Picture nominee, Number of previous Boyhood years with 8 best-pic nominees: 1931-32 100 Time in minutes of shortest nominee, The Grand 6 Budapest Hotel Total nominations for 20th Century Fox, Sony $3.3 MILLION Pictures and Universal Reported budget of least Pictures expensive nominee, Whiplash 44 Total nominations for $56 MILLION Fox Searchlight, Sony Reported budget of most Pictures Classics and expensive nominee, (Universal-distributed) American Sniper Focus Features

$25.9 MILLION Average gross of the Best Picture nominees at the time of nomination $244.1 1 MILLION Number of Best Picture 3 Average gross of the nominees that were Consecutive acting nomi- Best Visual Effects released between January nations for Bradley Cooper: nominees and June: The Grand Silver Linings Playbook, Budapest Hotel 2012; American Hustle, 2013; $3.4 1 American Sniper, 2014 MILLION Number released in July: Boyhood Gross of American 19 Number of nominations for Sniper at the time of 2 Meryl Streep, a record for nomination Released in October: Whip- actors or actresses lash, Birdman $108.7 MILLION 2 2 Released in November: The Number of Best Actor Gross of American Theory of Everything, The nominees who have played Sniper four days later Imitation Game Stephen Hawking: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of 2 Everything; Benedict Released on Dec. 24: Cumberbatch, Hawking American Sniper, Selma (2004 TV movie)

8 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 26

First-time female acting nominees: Age of the youngest acting nominee, Emma Stone Felicity Jones, Rosamund Pike, 4 84 Patricia Arquette, Emma Stone

Age of the oldest acting BEST ACTOR nominee, Robert Duvall Michael Keaton, Birdman Eddie Redmayne, 1 The Theory of Everything Previous winners among Benedict Cumberbatch, male acting nominees: The Imitation Game Robert Duvall Steve Carell, Foxcatcher David Oyelowo, Selma

Bubbling under: Bradley Cooper, American Sniper Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler

12 2 Nominations for Roger Nominations for Alexandre Desplat in the Deakins (the most Best Original Score category among living cinematographers) 12 Previous times a composer has had two 0 nominations in the original-score category Number of wins for 8 Roger Deakins (tied Number of times that composer has been for the least among John Williams living cinematographers)

4 Oscar-nominated films that screened at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival 10 Number that screened at the Cannes Film Festival 3 5 9 Previous winners among Number that screened at the Telluride Film Festival First-time male acting female acting nominees: nominees: Steve Carell, Marion Cotillard, Reese Benedict Cumberbatch, 13 Witherspoon, Meryl Streep Number that screened at the Toronto International Film Festival Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, J.K. Simmons FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 9 TCF1382_DOTPOTA_WRAP_DT_FINAL_REV_3.indd 1 1/27/15 10:06 AM

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DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES THE WRAP - DT ISSUE DATE: FEBRUARY 4, 2015 TCF1382 ART DUE: JANUARY 26, 2015 FINAL REV 3 MECHANICAL SIZE 1/27/15 9:00AM AA BLEED: 20.5"W x 12.5"H TRIM: 20"W x 12"H LIVE: 19.5”W x 11.5”H Front & Center How to Fix the Oscars’ Diversity Problem In the wake of controversial nominations, our Ya damn guest columnist has two suggestions right!

BY SASHA STONE

he maleness and the whiteness are overwhelming. We've all seen the statistics that the Academy is 93 percent white and 70 percent male—and despite its concerted efforts to diversify its membership with more women and voters of color, you can see how narrow members are in their nominations. This year's writing nominees are mostly white dudes except the Birdman writers. TDirectors: four white guys and one Hispanic director. There are women in the producing category, one in editing and two women directors in the documentary race, but the power seat remains white males. Something has to change. Yes, the Academy is an exclusive club designed to represent the cream of an industry that isn't nearly diverse enough. But as the industry struggles to change—just look at the vibrant female and minority voices on display in Sundance this year—the organization that is supposed to represent the best and brightest must improvise, adapt, overcome. Oscar voters are not uncaring people. They are not racists, sexists or misogynists. They vote for the films they think are best. But the Academy's annual telecast, the entertainment industry's Super Bowl, should be an all-inclusive event like that big game, a contest between teams that have emerged on top through head-to-head competition. So why do the Oscars feel not like a battle of the best, but a contest between the narrow and singular choices of a pampered, privileged ruling class? When Selma makes Best Picture but doesn’t earn actor or director or writer, it isn’t a bad thing for Ava DuVernay. It’s a bad thing for the Academy. Too often, Oscar voters' choices seem to represent a sampling of what the studios have pre-selected for them. They were given films publicists knew they would like and so they did. They were given films the pundits knew they would vote for and so they did. The people spend their hard earned money on movies like Gone Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie, and the Academy still asks them to care about its TV show. How can they change? Two ways.

1 2 SHIFT THE VOTING EXPAND THE BEST DEADLINE PICTURE SLATE BACK TO One way to help Oscar voters out of their rut is to make their nomination ballot come much later, so 10 NOMINATION SLOTS that they can get a read on the public’s choices, the The idea is to break that self-inflicted cancer zeitgeist films, the history-making movies like Selma known as the “Oscar movie.” You do that that come out late in the game. by giving voters a range of options. Back The film critics aren’t much help. Their idea of when they had 10 nomination slots to fill, activism this year was to rally support for Marion instead of a variable amount between five Cotillard, and it worked. Good for them, good for her, and 10, they were awarding movies like good for the Academy. But remember, neither New Winter’s Bone, District 9, Toy Story 3, York nor Los Angeles nor the National Society of Film Inception and more. The Oscars used to be Critics honored 12 Years a Slave as their best picture about relevant zeitgeist movies as opposed to last year. Oscar voters, though, HAD to pay attention a representation of singular preferences. because the chatter forced them to. However they get With 10 you can honor the best of the there, it’s better than the alternative: not getting there. independent film scene and the best of big If the Academy shifts its voting deadline much box office. That makes your award show later, after the DGA, after the Golden Globes, after the relevant, exciting, modern. Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, it will have a chance to Where will the Academy be in 10 be part of a larger conversation. years if they don’t figure out how to honor the way Hollywood is changing? Just as Sasha Stone is the founder and editor of marginalized as the Tony Awards. It’s AwardsDaily.com. already almost there.

12 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 SNUBS & SURPRISES

Regrets? We Have a Few Best Actor: David Oyelowo, Selma Whatever Selma’s faults, few could argue with Oyelowo’s stirring performance as Martin Luther King Jr.–except, apparently, voters in the Academy’s Actors Branch. But Then Again… Best Adapted Screenplay: Gillian Best Foreign Language Film: Timbuktu Flynn, Gone Girl Abderrahmane Sissako, the gifted director of the harrowing for- It’s hard to imagine a screenwriter more deserving eign nominee Timbuktu, made a little history as the third African of a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination than director to be nominated, but the first who is black. Gillian Flynn, who adapted her own bestselling novel Gone Girl masterfully. Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice Best Documentary Feature: Life Itself Gillian Flynn’s omission made room for Anderson to get a wonder- Maybe some creaky old documentarians are still ful surprise nomination for his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s mad at Steve James over the deafening AMPAS- loopy novel. shaming that took place when they snubbed Hoop Dreams, but that’s no excuse for continuing to give Best Documentary Feature: Virunga and Last him the cold shoulder. Days in Vietnam We loved the inclusion of two of the most year’s eye-opening Best Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal, docs, neither of which a sure thing when we saw them in early Nightcrawler 2014. We nearly filed a police report when Gyllenhaal’s name wasn’t called, because clearly a crime was Best Director: Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher committed. Though his movie inexplicably failed to make the cut in Best Pic- ture, we were thrilled that Miller was recognized by the Directors Best Foreign Language Film: Two Branch. Days, One Night The Dardenne brothers’ understated gem was Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One better than most of the films that kept it from even Night making the foreign-language shortlist. Props to the Actors Branch for actually watching the movie and recognizing Cotillard’s quietly devastating performance. Best Original Song: “Mercy Is” from Noah Best Original Song: “Everything Is Awesome” Complain all you want about Golden Globe voters, from The Lego Movie but at least they were cool enough to recognize this Music Branch voters got the joke and nominated what just might haunting lullaby from the onetime punk princess have been the year’s most annoying movie song, which was the Patti Smith. whole point.

Best Animated Feature: Paddington Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best We wish Paddington had gotten as much love from Production Design and Best Costume Design: voters as the British-made film gave to viewers who Mr. Turner found that the witty script, warm performances Mike Leigh’s tough, lyrical and unconventional biopic picked up and surprisingly uncreepy CGI creation voiced by a surprising four nominations after being overlooked for most of Ben Whinshaw were like getting a cozy bear hug. awards season.

DIETMAR HÖPFL/DREAMSTIME —DEBBIE EMERY, LINDA GE, STEVE POND, JEFF SNEIDER and SHARON WAXMAN

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 13 Party Report

THE END IS NEAR Phase two of awards season begins with Globes and guilds

1. Julianne Moore and Jennifer Aniston take different paths in bodice- 2 baring at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. 2. Boyhood’s son and mom, Ellar Coltrane and Patricia Arquette, both won at Critics’ Choice. 3. Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts fete the Golden Globes at Cecconi’s. 4. Team Birdman at the Globes: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Naomi Watts, Michael Keaton and Edward 1 3 Norton. 5. Robert Duvall and Miles Teller celebrate 4 their 57-year age difference at the Chateau Marmont. 6. The AFI Awards host Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey. 7. The fun kids backstage at the Critics’ Choice: Leslie Mann, Judd Apatow and Amy Adams. 8. Grand Budapest Hotel’s Adrien Brody, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson at Fox’s © Golden Globes party. GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEE 5 BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM, ESTONIA

7 8

6 GETTY (1,2,3,4,5,6); KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGE(7); INVISION FOR FOX SEARCHLIGHT(8) FOX FOR INVISION MAZUR/WIREIMAGE(7); KEVIN GETTY (1,2,3,4,5,6);

14 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 GOLDEN GLOBE© NOMINEE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM, ESTONIA IT HAPPENED

“THIRTY MINUTES AGO, MY PERSONAL BIRDMAN INSIDE WAS TELLING ME, ‘YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT!’ AND I BELIEVED HIM. BUT FIVE MINUTES LATER HE SAID, ‘YOU ARE THE BEST!’” — ALEJANDRO INARRITU, BIRDMAN

16 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 ONE PHOTOGRAPHED BY JEFF VESPA NIGHT

THEY CAME TOGETHER ON a cold night in the desert just after New Year’s Day—10 honorees, just as many presenters, a handful of past Oscar winners and more than a dozen who would become nominees. The Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual Awards Gala brought together a ballroom full of talents whose films would receive 40 nominations less than two weeks later. TheWrap was there to serve as an interlude between the red carpet and the ballroom, and to turn our cameras on Palm Springs’ honorees.

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 17 “I GOT TO PLAY EVERY PART OF BEING A WOMAN: THE SEXY AND FUN-LOVING SIDE, THE NURTURING AND KIND SIDE, EVEN IF IT WAS AN ACT, THE ANGRY SIDE, THE VULNERABLE SIDE, THE TRULY DIABOLICAL SIDE. IT WAS EVERYTHING, AND IT WAS THRILLING.”

— ROSAMUND PIKE, GONE GIRL

18 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 “DAY ONE, I’LL NEVER FORGET, WE WERE SHOOTING IN CAMBRIDGE. IT WAS MY FIRST SCENE PLAYING YOUNG STEPHEN, AND JANE CAME RUNNING UP AND SAID, ‘NO, ED, HIS HAIR WOULD BE MUCH MESSIER!’ WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY THING TO HAVE JANE HAWKING DOING MY HAIR.” — EDDIE REDMAYNE (WITH FELICITY JONES AND JAMES MARSH), THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 19 TCF1383_XMEN_WRAP_DT_FINAL4.indd 1 1/27/15 10:22 AM

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XMEN - DAYS OF FUTURE PAST THE WRAP - DT ISSUE DATE: FEBRUARY 4, 2015 TCF1383 ART DUE: JANUARY 26, 2015 FINAL4 MECHANICAL SIZE 1/27/15 9:15AM AA BLEED: 20.5"W x 12.5"H TRIM: 20"W x 12"H LIVE: 19.5”W x 11.5”H “WE WALKED, WE SHARED THE STORIES OF OUR LIVES, AND WE PUT THE FILM TOGETHER FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER

FELT LOST IN THEIR LIFE.”

— REESE WITHERSPOON (WITH LAURA DERN), WILD

22 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 “IT’S AN AMAZING THING WHEN A ROLE IN A FILM COMES ALONG THAT YOU KNOW IS GOING TO BE ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS YOU WILL EVER DO IN YOUR LIFE.” — DAVID OYELOWO, SELMA

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 23 “OBVIOUSLY IT WAS A VERY EMOTIONAL ROLE, BUT I BROUGHT HOME THE JOYFUL PARTS, THE APPRECIATION OF LIFE AND OF MY OWN FAMILY. THIS WAS A STORY ABOUT FACING LOSS, BUT ALSO ABOUT ACKNOWLEDGING THOSE THINGS.”

— JULIANNE MOORE, STILL ALICE

24 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 “WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, THE ONLY THING I KNEW ABOUT DRAMA WAS COWBOYS AND INDIANS. I SAID, ‘I WANT TO BE AN INDIAN.’ I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT YOU HAVE TO BE BORN AN INDIAN. SO I SAID, ‘OK, I’LL BE A COWBOY.’” — ROBERT DUVALL, THE JUDGE

“THERE’S SOMETHING SO UNIVERSAL ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION OF GROWING UP WITH SIBLINGS AND PARENTS, WITH HOW WE MANEUVER THROUGH THE WORLD OVER TIME—YOU CAN’T NOT RELATE TO IT ON SOME LEVEL, WHICH MEANS THE RESPONSE TO THIS FILM HAS BEEN FUN AND HEARTFELT AND KIND OF BEAUTIFUL.”

— RICHARD LINKLATER (WITH SHIRLEY MACLAINE), BOYHOOD

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 25 “I LIKE BEING THE SUPPORTING GUY. AND THAT WAS OBVIOUSLY PART OF THE JOY OF DOING WHIPLASH, BECAUSE THIS IS JUST A BIGGER SUPPORTING PART THAN USUAL. BUT I HAVE NO ILLUSIONS ABOUT BEING A MOVIE STAR. I’M JUST GLAD TO BE ABLE TO WORK.”

— J.K. SIMMONS, WHIPLASH

26 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 “ALAN TURING WASN’T JUST A LONE, TROUBLED GENIUS WHO WAS AWKWARD AND DIFFICULT AND DIFFERENT. HE PERHAPS BECAME LIKE THAT OVER TIME, BUT I THINK THAT WAS VERY MUCH FROM LOSING HIS FIRST LOVE, BEING A HOMOSEXUAL MAN AT A TIME OF INTOLERANCE, WORKING IN A VERY SECRET ENVIRONMENT. THE SCRIPT SHOWED US THAT COMPLEX, VERY EMPATHIZABLE AND HUMAN MAN.”

— BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH (WITH MORTEN TYLDUM), THE IMITATION GAME

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 27 Special Animation Section

The only thing missing for me was a category for animated features. Animated shorts were being honored on Hollywood’s FINALLY READY biggest night, so where were the features? As disappointed as I was on those nights, it still didn’t stop me from pursuing a career in animation. My love for animation was FOR PRIME TIME born the day I saw a theatrical re-release of Pinocchio. I loved the story, characters, songs, environments—everything about it. As a kid, I really identified with the Disney characters and I loved that the main characters always overcame some insurmountable obstacle, finding their own “happily ever after." BY CHRIS BUCK I followed my passion and over the years was lucky enough to work on many wonderful animated features. When I heard the Academy MY PARENTS LOVED THE ACADEMY AWARDS. On a was starting a category honoring animated features, the kid inside me special Monday every year, my whole family would get together and was thrilled! And just a few years later, I found myself at the Academy watch Johnny Carson host Hollywood’s biggest night. It was also a big Awards nominated for Frozen. I was nervous, but mainly feeling an night for me because I got to stay up late and watch TV. I usually drew immense amount of pressure. Pressure from the kids that had begged cartoons while watching TV, so this was a bonus: I got to draw for their parents to stay up late to watch Idina Menzel sing “Let It Go” live over three hours straight! and hopefully see one of their favorite films win an Oscar. Luckily, we Most of the nominated films I hadn’t seen and most of the actors didn’t let those kids down. Chris Buck won I didn’t know. But I was still intrigued by every moment of the show, Never in a million years would I have guessed that the kid who the 2013 Best Animated some of my favorites being the naked streaker running behind David grew up drawing cartoons would be on stage accepting an Oscar. It Feature Oscar for Niven and the Planet of the Apes characters doing interpretive dance was an overwhelming experience. But there was one thing that made co-directing Froze and while showing off their nominated costumes. Every winner was so me even happier and more thankful than the winners I’d watched was nominated for happy and so thankful. It was the most wonderful and weirdest night all those years. I was on the Academy Awards—my parents’ favorite 2007's Surf's Up. of television each year. show of the year.

← BIG HERO 6 (Walt Disney Animation Studio) Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli

Inspired by an obscure series of Japanese comic books put out by Marvel, Disney’s latest adventure puts an intrepid band of nerds-turned-superheroes together with the cuddliest robot ever.

ROY CONLI: “The biggest challenge was to tackle all the themes in the story but also find the heart, and our biggest revelation came when we realized that the robot Baymax was the center of our film.

WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIO ANIMATION DISNEY WALT Through him, we could explore the great themes of loss, family and forgiveness vs. revenge.”

→ THE BOXTROLLS (Laika/Focus Features) Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight

Laika’s stop-motion animation, augmented with CG, is used to tell the story of the fromage-craving denizens of Cheesebridge, who live in fear of the strange (but actually harmless) creatures who live in elaborate caves beneath them.

KNIGHT: “Since Coraline, we’ve had this big swirling gumbo of techniques. There are things that go back 100 years, and things that we’re inventing. CG technology, hand- crafted stuff, hand-drawn animation, it’s all

been part of our tool-kit from the start.” LAIKA/FOCUS FEATURES

28 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 ↑ HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (DreamWorks Animation) Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold

The lavishly-scaled sequel to DWA’s 2010 hit finds the dragon-riding boy Hiccup fighting to save his village from a dragon army, while also facing personal loss and learning long-buried family secrets.

DEBLOIS: “The idea was to have battle scenes as big as The Lord of the Rings, with tens of thousands of human soldiers on the beach and just as many dragons in the air—but then to bring it down to some really tearful, resonant spots.” DREAMWORKS ANIMATION DREAMWORKS

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 29 DamKeeper_AD.pdf 1 1/26/15 4:24 PM

Special Animation Section

→ SONG OF THE SEA (Cartoon Saloon/GKIDS) Tomm Moore and Paul Young

Like Moore’s surprise 2011 nominee The Secret of Kells, this is a hand-drawn, defiantly 2D story that draws on an old Celtic legend—in this case, the myth of the selkies, who live as humans on land and seals in the water.

MOORE: “As a kid, Irish folklore seemed old- fashioned, and I looked totally toward pop culture. But when I look back on it, the stuff I absorbed by osmosis was some of the richest stuff, so I wanted to take what I

learned and present it to kids now so they can digest it.” CARTOON SALOON/GKIDS

← THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA (Studio Ghibli/GKIDS) Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Using a hand-drawn mixture of charcoal and watercolor that often omits details but casts a visual spell, Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata tells the story of a tiny Japanese girl found inside a stalk of bamboo, who grows up to attract wealthy suitors but also summons a powerful and threatening supernatural force. C

M TAKAHATA: “Rather than drawing in every detail and depicting Y something as if the real thing were there, paintings inherently have the great power to stir up the viewer's vivid imagination and CM memory when the brush is used sparingly to give an impression MY

of the real thing.” — STEVE POND CY

CMY

K STUDIO GHIBLI/GKIDS STUDIO

30 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 DamKeeper_AD.pdf 1 1/26/15 4:24 PM

CMY

K Special Documentary Section

WHERE THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS ALL THE TIME

BY MORGAN NEVILLE

ALMOST EVERY DOCUMENTARY filmmaker I know has had someone come up to them at some point and say something along the lines of, “I love your documentaries, but do you think you’ll ever make a real movie?” Morgan Neville won One of the many ironies about this is that the 2014 Best more often than not, scripted movies seem Documentary Feature anything but real. Oscar for 20 Feet From Documentaries often succeed in capturing Stardom. His new this realness by the fact that they don’t have documentary, Best to adhere to what’s possible. In real life, the of Enemies, premiered impossible happens all the time. Scripts at the 2015 Sundance can’t play by those rules. Real people are the Film Festival. original three-dimensional characters, and they contain multitudes. It’s an exciting time to be a documentary filmmaker, but an even more exciting time to be a documentary fan. The genre as a whole

has never been more sophisticated, more FILMS/RADIUS PRAXIS challenging, more elucidating or more soul- searching than it is today. During the half century-plus in which the Academy has celebrated both long-form and short-form documentaries, non-fiction films have moved from the rear shelf of the public’s consciousness to mainstream fare. These movies now sit at that nexus of journalism, filmmaking and art as never before—changing minds and hearts in greater numbers. In 2014, there were 134 feature documentaries that screened theatrically and qualified for an Oscar. As a member of the Academy’s Documentary Branch, I watched more than 100 and was humbled again and again by the people I met and the stories I saw. Even using that single term documentary seems insufficient and dry, making it all sound like a tax audit. Instead, documentary films are chockablock with imagination. Last year David Edelstein, writing in New York magazine, celebrated this documentary renaissance and came up with a list of 17 documentary subgenres. What we get in the nominees is a group of films as diverse as the lives they document. How do you compare a film about a NSA whistleblower with a film about a street photographer disguised as a nanny? How do you compare an artist of the human condition with the story of the fall of Saigon? And what about the gorillas, the oilmen and the rangers of the Congo? These brilliant nominees are just the tip of the iceberg. Roger Ebert, the subject of Life Itself by Steve James (we love you, Steve!), once described movies as “a machine that generates empathy.” I would say movies do that exponentially more so when Citizenfour (top they're documentaries. For us as citizens of a society, empathy is the right) and Finding Vivian Maier (middle key—to walk in someone else’s shoes, to humanize the other, to see and bottom right) our own lives reflected in people we thought strangers. This is the are among this magic stuff. year's diverse documentary And it happens all the time in REAL movies. Documentaries. nominees.

RAVINE PICTURES/SUNDANCE SELECTS 32 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 PRAXIS FILMS/RADIUS PRAXIS MOXIE FIRECRACKER/AMERICAN EXPERIENCE FILMS EXPERIENCE FIRECRACKER/AMERICAN MOXIE

↖ CITIZENFOUR ↑ LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM (Praxis Films/RADiUS) (Moxie Firecracker/American Experience Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky Films) Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden emailed filmmaker Laura Poitras to say he wanted to spill the beans on illegal government spying, he was an anonymous source hiding behind the An event that many Americans thought they “citizenfour” pseudonym—and she had no idea that he would later reveal things in a Hong Kong knew—the spring, 1975 fall of Saigon to the hotel room would lead to international outrage and the year’s most acclaimed non-fiction film. Viet Cong and the evacuation of Americans and friendly Vietnamese from that city at POITRAS: “When I started hearing what he had to say, I thought, Wow, this is really the end of the Vietnam War—receives an staggering—and if this source is legitimate, this is dangerous and we are going to anger eye-opening reconsideration with startling people who are very powerful.” archival footage and interviews with those involved in a chaotic time of official ← FINDING VIVIAN MAIER ineptitude and unexpected heroism. (Ravine Pictures/Sundance Selects) John Maloof and Charlie Siskel KENNEDY: “Even though the film takes place exclusively 40 years ago, and it doesn’t The journey to this film started when Maloof bought boxes of undeveloped photographs at refer to what is happening now in Iraq and auction, and with detective work turned into the remarkable and strange story of a Chicago Afghanistan, it’s hard to watch it and not nanny who had a secret life as an extraordinary street photographer in the mid-20th century. make those connections.”

SISKEL: “It would be a great story even if her work was just OK, but it turned out that she was a great unknown artist—so we felt a responsibility to tell her story well, and not just be a conventional biopic.”

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 33 Special Documentary Section

→ THE SALT OF THE EARTH (Decia Films/Sony Pictures Classics) Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier

Wenders (Paris, Texas; Pina) helps Salgado pay tribute to his father, Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, with a look at both his dramatic and striking work and the wrenching conflicts and disasters he photographed.

WENDERS: “I first saw [Salgado’s work] in a gallery more than twenty years ago. I had no idea who took it. Whoever it was had to be both a great photographer and an adventurer, I thought.”

↓ VIRUNGA (Grain Media/Netflix) Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

Set in the eastern Congo, the film starts out documenting the lives of park rangers who protect endangered mountain gorillas, and ends up chronicling threats from an international oil company and a civil war.

VON EINSIEDEL: “One day someone was injured by gunfire, and I put my camera down because I didn’t want to film it. And one of the rangers said to me, ‘No, Orlando, you need to tell the story of what’s happening here.’”

—STEVE POND DECIA FILMS/SONY PICTURES CLASSICS GRAIN MEDIA/NETFLIX GRAIN

34 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 Special Foreign Language Section

IT’S A MATTER OF NATIONAL PRIDE

BY MARK JOHNSON

I GREW UP IN EUROPE, AND FOREIGN-language films were always incredibly important ↑ IDA to me. I joke that in college in my 20s, they were a way of showing off—it made you look Country of origin: Poland smart if you said, “Let’s go see the Ingmar Bergman film.” You could go see a French or a Director: Pawel Pawlikowski Swedish film and it was fine, because it was art. In a perfect world, the foreign-language category wouldn’t exist, and all movies would Before taking her final vows, a nun be viewed on an equal basis. But we have the category, and I’ve often argued that the travels home to learn a secret with Foreign Language Oscar in many cases is more meaningful than the Best Picture Oscar. the potential to shake her faith in Not only is it incredibly meaningful to the filmmaker and his or her cast and crew, but also this elegant, austere black-and-white to the national cinema of the country that made it. It tells the world that their cinema can drama. compete on an international basis. Furthermore, an award or a nomination can help with Mark Johnson is the governmental support of their national cinema. PAWLIKOWSKI: “It was a film that Oscar- and Emmy- Juan Jose Campanella told me that when The Secret in Their Eyes won the Oscar in 2010, seemed to have no commercial winning producer there was a huge billboard in downtown Buenos Aires that said “Ganamos!,” “We won!” potential whatsoever, which was of Rain Man, The Gavin Hood told me that in Johannesburg they had a ticker-tape parade when Tsotsi won in fantastically liberating—I thought, Notebook, Galaxy 2006. And I know from the producer of The Great Beauty that the win for Italy last year was I can do exactly what I want to do. Quest and the TV huge. People had been feeling that Italian cinema was not at the level it had been at in the But that seems to have completely series Breaking past, and it made a big difference when it won the Oscar. backfired, because it’s done better than Bad. For 13 of the Now, it’s odd in today’s world to think of a film as coming from a single country. Even any of my other films.” last 14 years, he has with English-language films, the best movie may be American financed, directed by an served as chair of the Englishman and starring an Australian. And you have the same kind of thing with foreign- Academy’s Foreign language films. I love the idea that the U.K. submitted Metro Manila in 2013, because it was Language Film in every way a Philippine movie, other than the fact that it was written and directed by an Award Executive Englishman and his crew was mostly British. Committee. So lines are blurred, and that’s clearly part of the future of cinema. It’s always been hard to ascribe the nationality of a film—and yet The Great Beauty wins and suddenly everybody’s Italian.

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 35 Special Foreign Language Section

↑ TANGERINES Country of origin: Estonia Director: Zaza Urushadze

Two elderly farmers, who alone have remained in their village as war approaches, take in wounded combatants from different sides in a film that looks for the humanity in the worst of circumstances.

URUSHADZE: “The most important are the human values and relationships in the most intense and extreme situations, when the human instinct to survive comes to a foreground.”

→ LEVIATHAN Country of origin: Russia Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Partly inspired by the Book of Job, this is a dark tale of a man fighting vainly against corruption in the government and church in a small seaside town.

Zvyagintsev: “The major criticism in Russia is that the film does not leave any hope in your heart. But the movie is an impartial look at reality. To create a finale that would give you a breath of hope would be a trickery.”

36 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015 ↑ TIMBUKTU Country of origin: Mauritania Director: Abderrahmane Sissako

The first-ever submission from Mauritania is a harrowing chronicle of what besets a small African village when it is taken over by Islamic extremists.

SISSAKO: “When you’re an artist, you have to believe in humankind and life. The values of humanity are the same everywhere. A child who is hurting in Timbuktu is the same as a child suffering in New York or Jakarta or Senegal.”

→ WILD TALES Country of origin: Argentina Director: Damian Szifron

The only comedy in the category is a crowd-pleasing anthology film consisting of six stories that escalate into blackly comic absurdity.

SZIFRON: “I didn’t know what was going to happen when I started to write these stories—I let them go, and the ending of each story surprised me."

— STEVE POND

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARIES / ANIMATION / 37 Oscar's Back Pages The Greatest Oscar Host You Never Saw

ord that Neil Patrick Harris had been hired to host this year’s Academy Awards was quickly followed by a few media reports that the producers had first offered the gig to Chris Rock. Rock quickly told TheWrap that he Whad not been given an offer, and if he had, he would have accepted—which immediately struck me as a wasted opportunity, because Chris Rock was the funniest Oscar host I ever saw. Mind you, I’m not talking about the 77th Academy Awards show, hosted by Rock 10 years ago this month. I think he was pretty good on that show, with a sharp opening monologue that paved the way for ruder hosts like Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes several years later: You might remember his riff on how Jude Law was omnipresent that year (“even the [movies] he’s not in, if you look in the credits he made cupcakes or something”), which famously prompted a deadly earnest Sean Penn to answer Rock’s onstage query “Who is Jude Law?” with a dour, “He’s one of our finest actors.” But the jokes I remember from that year were the ones that didn’t make it on the air. They began in his first press conference when he replied to the question, “What are you bringing to the Oscars that other hosts might not?” with a succinct, “Weed.” I also sat in on all the rehearsals to that year’s show, and it was an unfettered, off-the- cuff Rock that prowled the stage before the cameras were turned on. “What’s up, you bitches?” was his opening line at rehearsal, and his completely inappropriate remarks kept the rehearsal audience in stitches as much as anything I saw in two-and-a-half decades of observing Oscar shows. Of course, you couldn’t have put any of it on the air. “We couldn’t get Daniel Day-Lewis,” Rock ad-libbed as he rehearsed one introduction. “So here’s Jeremy Irons!” A little while later: “A couple of years ago, she won an Oscar and was a big star. What the fuck happened? Ladies and gentlemen, Gwyneth Paltrow!” And when he spotted the seat card that marked where Orlando Bloom would be sitting, he wondered aloud who Bloom was. Told the actor was a star of the Lord of the Rings movies, Rock scoffed, “The star of that movie was the Lord and the ring—not you, Bloomie.” The presenters, to be sure, were not in the house when he did this, and Rock insisted, “I say this out of love—like Don Rickles.” He also threw in lines like “Catwoman’s so bad, it made me hate pussy,” so perhaps wasn’t surprising when the ABC staffer assigned to man the five-second-delay button complained of stomach pains and had to be taken to the hospital. (The network’s head of standards and practices took over, and never had to use the button.) Would that Rock ever host the Oscars? Of course not, but maybe a little bit of that Rock could sneak into his performance if he ever got another shot at the show. And anyway, even his harshest onstage critic forgave him that night: When Rock walked offstage at the end of the show, he immediately spotted Sean Penn standing in the doorway to the green room just across the hall. “Hey, Sean!” shouted Rock. “It was just a joke, man!” And immediately, Penn broke into a wide grin and wrapped the host in a big hug. — STEVE POND PHOTOS BY AMPAS 38 / THEWRAP / FEBRUARY 4, 2015