Hollywood
India’s The Good Road out of the Oscar race
MUMBAI: Gyan Correa’s much publicised The Good Road is out of the race for the Foreign Language Oscars. Nine features will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 86th Academy Awards. Seventy-six films had originally been considered in the category.
Even earlier, The Good Road, Correa’s directorial debut that intertwines three stories in the hostile and remote Kutch in Gujarat, had a bumpy ride – when it invited the wrath of The Lunch Box team, which felt that Correa’s work stood little chance at the Oscars.
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The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are: Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown, Felix van Groeningen, director; Bosnia and Herzegovina, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanovic, director; Cambodia, The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, director; Denmark, The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, director; Germany, Two Lives, Georg Maas, director; Hong Kong, The Grandmaster, Wong Kar-wai, director; Hungary, The Notebook, Janos Szasz, director; Italy, The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, director; Palestine, Omar, Hany Abu-Assad, director.
Foreign Language Film nominations for 2013 are being determined in two phases. The Phase I committee, consisting of several hundred Los Angeles-based Academy members, screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 16. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist. The shortlist will be winnowed down to the five nominees by specially invited committees in New York and Los Angeles. They will spend 10 January to 12 January viewing three films each day and then casting their ballots.
The 86th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on16 January, 2014, Thursday in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Hollywood
Disney chair confident CEO Josh D’Amaro will ‘rise to the occasion’ in Trump–Kimmel row
Board backs new chief as ABC controversy tests leadership early on
NEW YORK: The Walt Disney Company has placed the responsibility of handling the escalating dispute between Donald Trump and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel squarely on its new chief executive, Josh D’Amaro.
Speaking at a business conference in Oslo, Disney chair James Gorman said it would be up to the CEO and his team to determine the company’s response to the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He noted that such challenges are not uncommon for large corporations and require careful handling at the leadership level.
The row intensified after both Donald Trump and Melania Trump publicly called for Kimmel’s dismissal following remarks made on his show. The comments, which referenced the First Lady, sparked backlash in the days leading up to a security incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Kimmel addressed the issue on-air, clarifying that his joke was intended as a reference to the couple’s age difference and not an incitement to violence. He also expressed sympathy for those affected by the incident and reiterated his stance against violent rhetoric.
Despite mounting pressure, Gorman refrained from offering specific guidance on the future of the show or the host. Instead, he voiced confidence in D’Amaro’s leadership, describing him as “world class” and capable of navigating the situation effectively.
The episode presents an early and high-profile test for D’Amaro, who stepped into the top role just last month. How Disney balances editorial independence, public sentiment and political pressure will likely shape not just the outcome of this controversy, but also the tone of its leadership in the months ahead.
