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
The University of Manchester asked him to leave after UK Lawyers for Israel complained about his statements in support of Palestinians and "suggested that the university should take appropriate disciplinary action." Twenty-three artists have pulled out of the show. - The Guardian (UK)
Science says it's a good idea. "Audience members, whether they know each other or not, will synchronize their heartbeats while watching a live theater performance" - and that works in a natural history museum as well as a proscenium theatre. - American Alliance of Museums
Verdi tinkered with Don Carlos for years, making a variety of (all French) versions. And "the opera is better overall in French — but it is a subtle superiority." So has it been saddled with a florid Italian translation for so long? - The New York Times
Says one, "So much of the photography we have seen of the lives of Black and brown people is in black and white, which to me can sometimes give this sense of fungible devastation." She would rather show people "in all their vibrant, living colors." - Wired
Ke Huy Quan was a child star in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, but a lack of roles led him to drop out of acting entirely - until the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018. - Entertainment Weekly
