February 12, 2020

On Sunday, February 9, the 92nd Academy Awards—commonly known as the Oscars—were held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Oscars celebrate the past year’s achievements in filmmaking. As happened in 2019, the award ceremony went without a host. Instead, the comedians Steve Martin and Chris Rock opened the show, and a variety of celebrities introduced and handed out the awards.

Parasite, which won best picture at the 2020 Academy Awards, stars (from left) Choi Woo Shik, Song Kang Ho, Chang Hyae Jin, and Park So Dam. Credit: CJ Entertainment

The biggest headline on Oscars night was the naming of the South Korean black comedy Parasite as best picture. Black comedy is characterized by bizarrely or morbidly humorous plots and situations. Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Parasite is the first movie in a language other than English to win best picture. Parasite also won best original screenplay and best international film. Bong too made history as the first South Korean to win best director. The World War I drama 1917—the favorite to win best picture before the ceremony—missed out on the top award but took home the best cinematography, best sound mixing, and best visual effects Oscars.

Renée Zellweger won the best actress award for her portrayal of the former Hollywood star Judy Garland in the biopic Judy. Joaquin Phoenix earned best actor for his leading role in the origin story of the Batman villain Joker. Brad Pitt won best supporting actor for his stuntman sidekick role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Laura Dern was named best supporting actress as a divorce lawyer in Marriage Story. Toy Story 4 won best animated feature, and American Factory won best documentary. American Factory, the story of a Chinese-run glass factory in Ohio, was the first film made by Higher Ground Productions, a company run by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. The World War II satire Jojo Rabbit earned the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

Each trophy given out at the ceremony (there were a total of 24 this year) is officially called an Academy Award of Merit, but the small golden statues have been known as “Oscars” since the 1930′s. The origin of the nickname is uncertain, but most histories center on Margaret Herrick, a former director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Apparently, upon seeing the statuettes for the first time in 1931, Herrick remarked that they looked a lot like her Uncle Oscar. Oscar came into common usage for the award soon after.

February 27, 2019

On Sunday, February 24, the 91st Academy Awards—commonly known as the Oscars—were held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Oscars celebrate the past year’s achievements in filmmaking. For the first time since 1989, the award ceremony went without a host. Instead, a variety of celebrities introduced and handed out the awards. The comedy drama Green Book took home the coveted best picture award, and Alfonso Cuarón won best director for his film Roma.

Viggo Mortensen (left) and Mahershala Ali starred in Green Book, the best picture winner at the 2019 Academy Awards in Hollywood. Credit: © Universal Pictures

Hollywood’s biggest night began with a rousing performance by the rock group Queen, the subject of the best picture-nominated film Bohemian Rhapsody. Later in the ceremony, that film’s star, Rami Malek, became the first Arab American to win best actor for his charismatic portrayal of former Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury. British star Olivia Colman won best actress for her role as Queen Anne in the period dark comedy The Favourite. Anne was the first queen of Great Britain, which was formed when the Kingdom of Scotland united with the Kingdom of England and Wales in 1707.

Roma, a Mexican film that follows the life of an indigenous domestic worker, lost out on the best picture award, but it did top the best foreign language film category. Green Book told the story of a black musician and his white driver and bodyguard on a tour of the American south in 1962. The film’s title was taken from the The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guidebook that once helped African American travelers navigate dangerous racial discrimination in the southern United States. African American actor Mahershala Ali won the best supporting actor award for his role in the film, which also won best original screenplay.

As for the other top awards on Sunday, Regina King won  best supporting actress for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk, a movie based on a 1974 novel by African American author James Baldwin. Director Spike Lee’s  BlacKkKlansman earned the best adapted screenplay award. That film told the story of a black detective who investigated the Ku Klux Klan hate group in the 1970′s. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won best animated feature film, and Free Solo won best documentary.

Each trophy given out at the ceremony (there were a total of 24 this year) is officially called an Academy Award of Merit, but the small golden statues have been known as “Oscars” since the 1930′s. The origin of the nickname is uncertain, but most histories center on Margaret Herrick, a former director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Apparently, upon seeing the statuettes for the first time in 1931, Herrick remarked that they looked a lot like her Uncle Oscar. Oscar became common usage for the award soon after.

March 2, 2018

On March 2, 1933—85 years ago today—the cinematic heavyweight King Kong premiered at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. One of the most famous monster movies in film history, King Kong then opened to much fanfare three weeks later at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. King Kong the giant ape—billed as the “eighth wonder of the world”—then proceeded to climb cinema screens across the country and around the world. The movie has captured audiences’ imaginations ever since, and it remains a classic adventure story and a masterpiece of animation and trick photography. King Kong was re-released numerous times, inspired a few sequels, and was remade in 1976 and 2005.

King Kong looms over the Manhattan skyline while holding tight to lead actress Fay Wray in the classic monster movie King Kong. The film premiered 85 years ago today on March 2, 1933. Credit: Radio Pictures

The title of the film is the name given to a giant ape called Kong who lives on remote Skull Island. An American film producer leads an expedition to capture the animal and return it to New York City to be put on exhibition. After violent confrontations on the island between the ape and the film crew, the Americans capture Kong and transport him to New York City. There he escapes and goes on a destructive rampage through the city.

King Kong (1933) theatrical release poster. Credit: Radio Pictures

King Kong is actually a variation of the fairy tale about Beauty and the Beast. The ape falls in love with a young woman who accompanies the expedition to Skull Island. On the island, Kong saves the woman from attacks by prehistoric animals. In New York, he kidnaps her and carries her to the top of the Empire State Building, where he is killed by fighter airplanes. The film producer in the movie observes, “It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.”

In King Kong, Fay Wray played the young woman, and Robert Armstrong played the film producer. The co-directors were Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. Willis H. O’Brien supervised the film’s highly praised special effects. King Kong was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 1991.

A sequel to King Kong, called Son of Kong, appeared in December 1993, and a similar motion picture, Mighty Joe Young, came out in 1949. Kong crossed the Pacific to Japan to take on another popular movie monster in 1962′s King Kong vs. Godzilla. Kong battled a robot giant ape and other monsters in the 1967 Japanese film King Kong Escapes. Returning to Hollywood, Kong rattled turnstiles again in the 1976 remake, King Kong, a film that featured the World Trade Center towers in place of the Empire State Building in the film’s climactic end scene. Few people remember the 1986 sequel, King Kong Lives, but 2005′s King Kong remake was another smash at the box office. Another sequel, Kong: Skull Island, appeared in 2017. A Godzilla vs. King Kong remake is in the works for 2020.

May 25, 2017

Forty years ago today, on May 25, 1977, an exhilarating sci-fi space Western called Star Wars was released for the first time in 43 locations across the United States. Star Wars, made for a modest $11 million, dazzled audiences, and the film soon gained wide release as the story that took place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” captured the country’s—and the world’s—collective imagination. The film rocketed to cinema phenomenon status, vaporizing box office records and netting a remarkable $197 million (just in the United States) by the end of 1977.

People dressed as stormtroopers–a favorite costume among Star Wars enthusiasts–take part in a Star Wars-themed parade in Malaga, Spain, in 2015. Credit: © Antonio Martin, Shutterstock

Initially retitled in foreign cinemas as La guerre des étoiles, La guerra de las galaxias, or Gwiezdne wojny, Star and Wars are now two of the best-known English-language words in the galaxy. (As sequels and prequels began piling up, this first film of the “Star Wars” franchise was renamed Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope). Star Wars characters—most notably Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and the evil Darth Vader (the voice of James Earl Jones)—are also famous throughout the solar system, and the sun never sets on the Star Wars empire of action figures, books, clothing, lunch boxes, video games, and other merchandise. The movie even has its own press service, Jedi News, and its own holiday: May 4 is Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth be with you”).

The heroes of Star Wars—Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)—first appeared in American cinemas 40 years ago today on May 25, 1977. Credit: © Lucasfilm Ltd

Star Wars 40^th anniversary celebrations are being held throughout 2017 in cities around the world. Last month, thousands of fans found the droids they were looking for at the massive Star Wars Celebration Orlando in Florida; this month, cinemas have been packed with stormtroopers of all sizes for rowdy reruns of the film; British Jedi knights can attend Star Wars Identities at London’s O2 Arena into September; and nearly every baseball park in North America will have Chewbaccas, C-3PO’s, and R2-D2’s in the stands for galactic Star Wars nights throughout the season. Rather than looking dated or “over the hill” at 40, the film is as popular as ever, and Star Wars remains as energetic as young Luke Skywalker on the desert planet Tatooine, pining for adventure and awaiting his destiny.

December 30, 2016

On Tuesday, December 27, American actress, author, and screenwriter Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) died at age 60. She had been hospitalized since suffering a cardiac arrest last Friday. Fisher appeared in numerous films, plays, and television shows, but she was best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise. On December 28, the day after Fisher’s death, her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016), also passed away. Reynolds starred in numerous Hollywood films in the 1950′s and 1960′s, including such classic musicals as Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Reynolds was 84.

Carrie Fisher played Princess Leia, seen here between the characters Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), left, and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), in the popular Star Wars film franchise. Credit: © Lucasfilm Ltd

Fisher was born on Oct. 21, 1956, in Beverly Hills, California. She was the daughter of famous parents, Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher. She first appeared on stage in the 1973 musical (alongside her mother) Irene. In 1975, her first film appearance came in the comedy Shampoo.

Fisher’s enduring fame, however, began in 1977 when she first portrayed Princess Leia Organa in the blockbuster film Star Wars. The role, reprised in the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), raised her to cultural icon status. In 2015, she returned to the role (the princess was now a general) in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The film franchise’s millions of fans will see Fisher one last time as Leia in Star Wars: Episode VIII—a working title—scheduled for release in December 2017.

Fisher also had memorable roles in the popular films The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally, and Hannah and Her Sisters. Fisher’s better-known television roles included stints on the comedies “Family Guy,” “Sex and the City,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and, most recently, “Catastrophe.”

Fisher was known for her writing too, working on dozens of Hollywood scripts and penning the semi-autobiographical novel Postcards from the Edge (1987) and the one-person play, Wishful Drinking (2006). These works describe life growing up in a famous Hollywood family and the oddness of the entertainment industry, as well as her personal battles with depression, drug addiction, and bipolar disorder. Fisher released a memoir, The Princess Diarist, in November 2016.

Debbie Reynolds starred with Frank Sinatra in the 1955 musical The Tender Trap. Credit: © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Mary Frances (Debbie) Reynolds was born on April 1, 1932, in El Paso, Texas. She signed a movie contract after winning a beauty contest in 1948. During the 1950′s, she was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, appearing in such films as Three Little Words (1950), Skirts Ahoy (1952), The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Hit the Deck (1955), The Tender Trap (1955), The Catered Affair (1956), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), and This Happy Feeling (1958). Her major films of the 1960′s include The Pleasure of His Company (1961), Goodbye Charlie (1964), The Singing Nun (1966), and Divorce American Style (1967). In addition to singing in musicals, Reynolds recorded several songs, including the hits “Abba Daba Honeymoon” (1951), from the film Two Weeks with Love, and “Tammy,” the theme song from Tammy and the Bachelor. In 2013, she acted in the HBO cable television movie Behind the Candelabra (2013).

Reynolds married singer Eddie Fisher in 1955. Their daughter, Carrie Fisher, became a well-known actress and author. Their son, Todd Fisher, is a television director. In 1959, Fisher left Reynolds for actress Elizabeth Taylor, which made national headlines.

With her film career in decline, Reynolds turned to the stage in the 1970′s. She made her Broadway debut (with her daughter, Carrie) in the 1973 musical  Irene. She also toured as the singing and dancing star of a revue. In 1993, Reynolds opened the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. She performed there until it closed in 1997. She wrote an autobiography, Debbie: My Life (1989), and two memoirs, Unsinkable (with Dorian Hannaway, 2013) and Make ‘Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends (also with Hannaway, 2015).