It's so intense right now that "Screen Ireland ... is to open five film academies, including one specialising in animation, to keep up with the demand for talent." - The Guardian (UK)
For instance, among the dozens of hard stories, "at the shutdown’s outset, Signature Theatre in Arlington had to scratch the world premiere of Camille Claudel, a decades-in-the-making musical by Frank Wildhorn and Nan Knighton that has not been rescheduled." - Washington Post
If you missed them yesterday, they're getting rebroadcast on HBO, but as usual, the Oscars discussion heats up as American awards start to roll in. - The Hollywood Reporter
A real shocker this year, leaving the way open for newbies like Paramount Plus and Showtime: "Like fellow top docu distributors including Amazon, National Geographic, Apple TV Plus and HBO, Netflix was left out of the race." - Variety
When the Academy snubs every actor, the director, and the movie - but just can't bring itself to leave the movie off the nominations list. "If you curated a film festival of 'lone screenplay' nominees, you’d have a program filled with crowd-pleasers." - The Atlantic
Start with cows: "Every cow has a passport and paperwork affiliated with it, and when it moves to a new spot it is required by law to stay there for at least seven days. The cows are transported two at a time, to ensure they have a companion." - Variety
Composer Fabian Almazan, who uses a sense of place to inspire his writing, started Biophilia Records as a way to get other enviro musicians together. He says his "Biopholios" are a green way to consume music as well. - Slate
Peter Gelb: "We believe strongly in the warm friendship and cultural exchange that has long existed between the artists and artistic institutions of Russia and the United States ... we can no longer engage with artists or institutions that support Putin or are supported by him." - The New York Times
Hey Oscar, why did you boot those categories? "What I'm doing, see, is making sure everyone who gets the spotlight at my party can really sell it! Can nail the precise acceptance-speech fuel mixture everyone is looking for – 12% disbelief, 15% modesty, 33% gratitude, 40% joy." - NPR
OK, sure, there might be better times, but The Drift has done pretty well for itself, oddly. With "a penchant for publishing lengthy essays that go through many rounds of editing, The Drift is a throwback in many ways" - a successful one. - The New York Times
Look, there's just no way Drive My Car, which had earned less than $1 million in the U.S. by the time of the nominations, would have earned its Oscar nods without critical support. - Variety
The director says he has no interest in making movies about the rich. "It is very valuable for me to always focus on ordinary people." Perhaps paradoxically, that has won him success and a following across the globe. - The New York Times
In the 1840s, before and during the Famine, William Fforde "undertook a gargantuan task of collecting over 2,000 airs from across the country." Now many of them are published with all of their bilingual glory, and with tons of variations. - Irish Times
