Two other films landed a pair of songs on the shortlist, with “Flora and Son” making the list with “High Life” and “Meet in the Middle” (the latter song co-written by actors Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and “The Color Purple” making it with “Keep It Movin'” and “Superpower (I).”

Honorary Oscar-winner Diane Warren remains in the running for her 15th nomination as a songwriter, making the shortlist with “The Fire Inside,” her contribution to the film “Flamin’ Hot.” She was also eligible for her song “Gonna Be You” from “80 for Brady,” but it was not shortlisted.

John Williams received a nomination for scoring “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which if nominated, would give the veteran composer his 54th Oscar nod. He is already the most-nominated living person.

Netflix’s “American Symphony” is the only documentary to end up in both score and song shortlist categories, in a rare showing for a nonfiction film (though several have earned Best Original Song nods and even wins, notably Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” from “An Inconvenient Truth”.)

The films that ended up slotted in both music categories include “Barbie,” “The Color Purple,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and most surprisingly, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which not only recognized the late Robbie Robertson but also the original song “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)”, the moving, hopeful rallying cry heard in the conclusion of the picture.

Some notable omissions in the duo categories included Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and “Wish” (recognized in neither category), and “Peaches,” from the “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Oscar-winner Bruce Springsteen was eligible for a new song from “She Came to Me,” but that film received little attention and the song didn’t make the shortlist.

Below are the final score/song shortlists under consideration:

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Fifteen scores will advance in the Original Score category for the 96th Academy Awards.  One hundred forty-eight scores were eligible in the category.  Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The scores, listed in alphabetical order by film title, are:

“American Fiction”
“American Symphony”
“Barbie”
“The Boy and the Heron”
“The Color Purple”
“Elemental”
“The Holdovers”
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
“Killers of the Flower Moon”
“Oppenheimer”
“Poor Things”
“Saltburn”
“Society of the Snow”
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
“The Zone of Interest”

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Fifteen songs will advance in the Original Song category for the 96th Academy Awards.  Ninety-four songs were eligible in the category.  Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:

“It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”
“Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)” from “Asteroid City”
“Dance The Night” from “Barbie”
“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
“Keep It Movin’” from “The Color Purple”
“Superpower (I)” from “The Color Purple”
“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”
“High Life” from “Flora and Son”
“Meet in The Middle” from “Flora and Son”
“Can’t Catch Me Now” from “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”
“Quiet Eyes” from “Past Lives”
“Road To Freedom” from “Rustin”
“Am I Dreaming” from “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Steve Pond contributed to this report.

See the other shortlists here:

Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short

Best International Feature Film

Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound

Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short

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The recipients for the special honors of the Academy this year are actor Angela Bassett, writer-director-actor Mel Brooks, film editor Carol Littleton and the Sundance Institute’s Michelle Satter, who will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

“Producing the Academy’s Governors Awards for the fifth time and helping kick off another Oscar season is an absolute honor,” Fox said. “I’m looking forward to a memorable night paying tribute to this year’s exceptional honorees.”

“We are delighted to welcome Jennifer back as our producer for the Governors Awards,” Academy president Janet Yang said. “With her experience and profound knowledge of this annual event, there is no doubt we’re in for a special celebration to honor the careers of Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks, Carol Littleton and Michelle Satter.”

The producer has worked on many film titles that have taken the Oscar stage, including “Michael Clayton,” “Syriana,” “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

The Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 10, with an earlier start time than usual — 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific, with a pre-show 30 minutes prior.

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The films nominated for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures are listed below in alphabetical order:

• “20 Days in Mariupol” 
• “American Symphony“
• “Beyond Utopia” 
• “The Disappearance of Shere Hite” 
• “The Mother of All Lies” 
• “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” 
• “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)” 

Several of these have been tapped for awards potential throughout the year, especially for the Best Documentary Feature shortlists for the Oscars, taking place on Dec. 21. 15 documentary features and 15 doc shorts will be announced on this date, with a narrowing-down occurring in January.

Last year’s winner for the PGA was Daniel Roher’s “Navalny,” about the poisoned Russian opposition journalist Alexei Navalny, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Winners will be honored during the 35th Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024.

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The “12 Years a Slave” and “Hunger” director turns his camera to modern-day Amsterdam to recount the Nazi occupation of the region during World War II. It’s told exclusively in captured footage of modern everyday Amsterdammers— largely seen during the early COVID pandemic — as a narrator (Melanie Hyams) recounts the fates of dozens of inhabitants whose lives were destroyed by barbarism in the exact spots the stories depict.

The duo joined TheWrap over Zoom to discuss the impulse to create this massive tone poem.

You both work within many different art forms, but Steve, what about the documentary format appealed to you especially for “Occupied City”?

STEVE McQUEEN: I didn’t even know I was making a documentary, to be quite honest. I was just sort of working with a camera, working with the tools of filmmaking, to look at a particular time in history. So, I didn’t worry about what it could be. I’m more interested in what one can do with the tools of film, which is much more exciting for me.

Let’s talk about how you decided on Melanie Hyams to narrate. It was extremely effective to have a rather even-keel, soothing voice that you don’t quite recognize taking you through these harrowing experiences.

BIANCA STIGTER: I wrote the book, and we wrote a text for the film, but we very much let the facts speak for themselves, and then anything the viewer wants to do with that is up to them. So, we made it as open and transparent as possible. And I think you need a voice that doesn’t speak from a position of authority. You don’t want to give your audience the feeling of, “Hey, you should know this.”

McQUEEN: Melanie delivers it as she discovers it, which is key. And also, there are stories and tales which are extremely tragic, but at the same time are delivered with a voice which is of the now, of the future, so there is an optimism to it as well.

The film is four-and-a-half hours and excitingly will get a theatrical release. It absolutely had to be this length to absorb its cumulative effect. And I love that it has an intermission, which highlights that unique group-felt experience.

STIGTER: It needs these kinds of legs because of the subject matter. You couldn’t deal with it in one-and-a-half hours, that would just be impossible. And if anything, being within it needs to be an experience instead of a history lesson. The film also makes you very aware that, even though you kept all this information, this is not the end. That this is not enough, it could go on and on and on.

McQUEEN: We embraced that as part of the work. You step out, go to the bathroom or you have a coffee or whatever, and then you’re back in, so that even becomes part of the experience of the film. I liked very much what Bianca said — that this is not a history lesson, this is a meditation. So, to come out of it and to come back in is part of the experience of the film, which I love.

There is evidently a 36-hour cut of this film, as you filmed every part of the book. How and where will people be able to see this version?

McQUEEN: It’s going to be much more structural, but you’ll see why I can’t really talk about it until it’s done.

This story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentary issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. 

Read more from that issue here.

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The “Killers of the Flower Moon” helmer is on a major tear this awards season already, having just picked up both the Best Picture and Director prizes from the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics’ Circle’s Best Picture prize, an AFI Top 10 distinction, a Historical Icon & Creator Tribute from the Gothams and the Vanguard Award for the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival, the latter to be shared with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone.

Gladstone is also racking up the wins, having already won Best Actress from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics (not to mention an Outstanding Leading Performance win from the Gothams for another 2023 release, “The Unknown Country.”)

“Marty’s trailblazing career as a producer, marked by decades of bold, breakthrough projects, demands to be celebrated,” expressed PGA Presidents  Donald De Line and  Stephanie Allain. “His mastery and unwavering commitment to the craft are truly unparalleled. We are proud to honor him and his many filmmaking achievements this year at the PGA Awards.”

Said Scorsese, “In March 1965, I was flown out to Los Angeles by the PGA to receive an award for my student film ‘It’s Not Just You, Murray!’ I was 22 at the time. At the same event, a much older filmmaker was also being honored. His name was Alfred Hitchcock. 58 years later, I’m proud to say that I am now the much older filmmaker. And I’m touched and extremely honored to be receiving an award named after a true legend among producers, David O. Selznick. It makes me feel like I’ve come full circle.”

The David O. Selznick Achievement Award has been honored to many of the most heralded Hollywood figures in film history, including Steven Spielberg, Barbara Broccoli, Mary Parent, Tom Cruise, Brian Grazer, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, and George Lucas. 

Martin Scorsese is a nine-time nominee for Best Director at the Oscars, having won once for 2006’s “The Departed.” He has a total of 14 career nominations to his credit as a director, producer and writer on other films such as “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “GoodFellas,” “The Age of Innocence,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “Hugo,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “The Irishman.”

Documentary, sports, children’s programming and short-form nominations will be announced this month, with film and TV noms following on Jan. 12.

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The Palm Springs International Film Festival will honor Brooks with the Spotlight Award, Actress, for her stirring work in the classic tearjerker on Jan. 4.

“In ‘The Color Purple,’ Danielle Brooks revisits her Tony-nominated portrayal of Sofia, a force to be reckoned with who challenges traditional female roles and stands for what she believes in,” festival chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi said. “For her exceptional work and a scene-stealing performance, it is our honor to present the Spotlight Award, Actress to Danielle Brooks.”

Brooks starred in the Tony-winning 2015 Broadway revival of the play, opposote Cynthia Erivo and Jennifer Hudson, and is best known for her work in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” and Max’s “Peacemaker.” She returned to Broadway in the Tony-nominated revival of “August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson” in 2022, where she received Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, and starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington.

Brooks, who is the latest digital cover subject for TheWrap, joins a distinguished list of films, actors and directors being honored in Palm Springs including Carey Mulligan (International Star Award, Actress), Cillian Murphy (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Colman Domingo (Spotlight Award, Actor), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Breakthrough Performance Award), Emma Stone (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Greta Gerwig (Director of the Year), Jeffrey Wright (Career Achievement Award) and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Vanguard Award).

The Film Awards will take place on Jan. 4, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running through Jan. 15.

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The topical drama tells a few parallel stories concerning a rural schoolteacher who becomes embroiled in a school scandal that also involves his fellow teacher and roommate. Both are entranced by an educator and activist who has become an amputee after a terrorist invasion. TheWrap spoke to Ceylan about his latest epic.

“About Dry Grasses” contains many of your strongest concerns: environment, politics and the depiction of complex relationships punctuated by key silences.
What people don’t say is more important most of the time, right? I mean, we should be able to get used to that. Even in the movies, you shouldn’t believe what a character says all the time, just like in life. Because the reality is from every detail—a smile, what people hide, what they prefer to say.

You’re notable for working with new actors and letting them luxuriate in a setting. This movie notably has a 30-minute dinner date scene with actors Merve Dizdar and Deniz Celiloğlu essentially in real time.
I like to push the borders of cinema. I wanted to keep it quite long since the beginning of the script stage. I put such a scene in my movies, as it forces the audience to go to the limit. Some of them it bores, some hate it, some really like it. So, the challenge motivates me a lot. In the editing, I had the possibility to cut it shorter, but just the opposite, I wanted to push it more.

Have you ever been offered major films from Hollywood studios?
Oh yeah. I might [do that] one day, but I do whatever I like. I didn’t ask for any money from anywhere on my early films. But if I can’t find some money, I can easily go back to my low budget. I think a good film doesn’t need the luxury.

Despite the long run time (“Grasses” runs 197 minutes), your movies are always critically acclaimed. So why do you think Turkey has never been nominated for an Oscar?
I’m an Academy member and there are a lot of movies, and it’s hard to watch them, you know? I couldn’t vote last year because I couldn’t watch enough movies, for instance. And this year, I think if you don’t watch 12 movies, at least in the screening room, you cannot vote. And people who watch 12 movies sometimes just look at the countries and may watch the French movie, or “I hear this movie is in a competing festival, let me watch this.” It’s not completely fair, but it’s still fair as much as possible. But often people don’t have an opportunity to watch all the movies. And still they vote, so advertising becomes more important. I mean, sometimes very good movies can be neglected in this system. But this is the way it is.

This story first appeared in the International issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Read more from the International issue here.

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TheWrap digital cover Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin” and “The Color Purple”), America Ferrera (“Barbie”), and Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”) will be honored as Virtuosos Award winners for their performances in 2023.

The distinguished lineups joins previously announced Lily Gladstone for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Greta Lee for “Past Lives,” Charles Melton for “May December” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for “The Holdovers.”

“I’m thrilled to add Danielle, Colman, America, and Andrew to our already impressive lineup of Virtuosos. This group of eight artists is simply the most diverse of any class in the 14 years that I’ve been hosting the event” stated Dave Karger, the TCM host who will preside over the fete once again.

All eight actors have been warmly received in their respective film roles, and have been mentioned by Oscar prognosticators since the films opened. Gladstone and Melton were named Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle just last week, and with awards announced this week by the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association, expect to possibly see a few more of these individuals named.

Last year, the Santa Barbara festival had 52 world premieres and 78 U.S. premieres, with honorary awards given to Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Austin Butler, Kerry Cordon, Danielle Deadwyler, Nina Hoss, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Todd Field and Martin McDonagh. Ke Huy Quan and Curtis went on to win supporting acting Oscars for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Fraser netted a Best Actor trophy for “The Whale.”

The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Feb. 7–17. Official events include screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and celebrity tributes, and they will be held throughout the city. For passes and more info, visit sbiff.org. 

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ROCKY (1976)

The global sensation that launched the career of Sylvester Stallone was actually not the first time Winkler took the trip to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. “The first one is actually 1969’s ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ which got nine
nominations but didn’t get nominated for Best Picture!” he said. But his first Best Picture nominee went the full, marching-up-the-steps-to-victory mile, with wins for Best Picture (Winkler and Robert Chartoff), Best Director (John G. Avildsen) and Best Film Editing (Richard Halsey and Scott Conrad). Not to mention becoming a Library of Congress selection, spawning nine sequels and/or spinoffs, a Broadway musical and the reputation of being one of the benchmark sports pictures of all-time, with a legacy that has continued to this very year.

“When you’re sitting here, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Winkler said. “It doesn’t matter that you get the Golden Globe or you got a critics’ award or this or that. It’s either you get it, or you don’t.” And they got it, amid a stunning murderers’ row of contenders (which included “All the President’s Men,” “Bound for Glory,” “Network” and “Taxi Driver”). “We were kind of stunned to be in that company of great, great movies,” an obviously still-proud Winkler said.

RAGING BULL (1980)

Four years after the release of “Taxi Driver,” director Martin Scorsese released his bold, beautiful, black-and-white boxer elegy (the emotional inverse of Winkler’s last-produced film about a pugilist), netting Scorsese his first-ever nomination for directing. The result was one of the most acclaimed films of all-time, tops in prestige polls (including Sight & Sound) for decades to follow.

“I had no expectations going into it,” Winkler said. “But after we completed it, thought it was a great, groundbreaking movie. I thought Marty was at his absolute greatest.” Time has only been kind to this classic, and despite a bevy of Oscar nominations (including wins for star De Niro and legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker), a debut film by a great-looking actor (Robert Redford) delving into directing stole some of the “Raging” thunder.

“We were nervous about it. We didn’t think we’d be beaten by “Ordinary People,” Winkler said, noting that a similar theme would emerge a decade later. But it took some Rocky Balboa gumption to get the film off the ground to begin with. “The truth of the matter is that United Artists wanted “Rocky II” desperately and for good reason. And we held firm that we would make “Rocky II” but they also had to make “Raging Bull.”

THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)

Philip Kaufman’s seismic film adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s space-race novel is one of Winkler’s most cherished accomplishments. It also led to an Oscar ceremony that still stings for Winkler; the acclaimed film’s stumble at the box office (a $21.1 million domestic gross that didn’t even cover its $27 million budget) derailed much of its Oscar momentum. The film still won four of its eight Oscar nominations (including one for composer Bill Conti, also responsible for the rousing “Rocky” score), but “we lost to a kind of a nice Debra Winger dying-of-cancer-movie,” Winkler said. That film was James L. Brooks’ “Terms of Endearment,” another feature debut that scooped up most of the big awards, leaving Winkler a bit dejected.

“I was ready to shoot myself,” he said. “I was at the ceremony with my three boys, and we were so disappointed we wouldn’t go to the afterparty and instead we went to Fatburger.”

GOODFELLAS (1990)

It’s amazing to think of Martin Scorsese’s ultimate Mafia underworld drama as any kind of also-ran, given its deification in popular culture, but despite a win for Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci, the film followed in the footsteps of “Raging Bull” by losing Best Picture to another handsome leading man’s directorial debut: Kevin Costner’s “Dances with Wolves.”

And despite the sterling endurance of “GoodFellas,” this was decidedly not a film beloved by audiences in the testing phase. “That’s the understatement of the day!” Winkler said. “The last recruited screening we had was, I think, Thousand Oaks or someplace in the Valley, and we had 39 walkouts in the first half hour. I don’t remember that ceremony as well. I do remember Joe’s win. But the movie’s still selling through iTunes and the portals that sell films. And it did tremendous business in home video after its release.”

THE IRISHMAN (2019)

Reteaming with his lifelong collaborators Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci (with screen royalty Al Pacino also in the mix this time), Winkler and company pivoted to Netflix to produce this story of a crumbling East Coast crime syndicate. The budget ran to nine digits, largely because of the film’s extended use of de-aging technology for its principal cast.

“It was a movie that was costly, and Paramount, who owned the rights, didn’t want to make it at that price,” said Winkler, who was not an official Oscar nominee because of Academy rules limiting the number of nominated producers. “We felt that we needed a certain budget to make the film properly. And Netflix came through and they were really, really good partners, and had a really good promotion for the film.

“Unfortunately, the theaters wouldn’t take it in. And four years ago, it was quite different, whereas now a movie like ‘Maestro’ can have a longer theatrical window.” Sadly, it is the only Best Picture nominee of Winkler’s not to win
something on Oscar night, going 0-for-10 at the Dolby Theatre in February 2020. “I was surprised,” he said. “Frankly, I thought we had a good chance to win it.”

This story first appeared in the SAG Preview/Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.

Photo by Jeff Vespa for TheWrap

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The Philly native’s ultimate passion project, chronicling the life and work of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, has opened in cinemas to strong notices after a hearty film festival run (it will stream on Netflix starting on Dec. 20). He and costar Carey Mulligan (whom plays Bernstein’s wife, actress Felicia Montealegre) have appeared close to the top of nearly all prediction lists for acting nominations for the better part of 2023, with some heralding this as Cooper’s best work.

“Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper has proven to be an actor of incredible range and versatility,” says SBIFF executive director Roger Durling. “What has impressed me the most is that he has grown to be one of the most indelible directing voices.  He’s a renaissance man—an outstanding performer indeed!”

Cooper has been nominated a total of nine times for the Academy Award, wearing various hats for films such as “Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Sniper,” “American Hustle,” and his 2018 directorial debut “A Star is Born,” He is often cited as one of the most acclaimed performers to never have won an Oscar. Cooper has also won a Grammy Award for the “A Star is Born” soundtrack and has a Tony nomination for his performance as John Merrick in the 2013 Broadway revival of “The Elephant Man.”

The Outstanding Performer award at SBIFF has been awarded to actors such as Rami Malek in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine,” and Helen Mirren in “The Queen,” among many, all of whom claimed Oscar glory for those roles, so Cooper is definitely in good historical company.

Ryan Gosling has also been cited for excellence in Santa Barbara this year, as well as several others selected for the Virtuosos honors. Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo will also receive distinctions this season as well at SBIFF.

The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Feb. 7—17, 2024. For more information on passes, events and Q&As, visit sbiff.org. 

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