Academy Award

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin), reviewing the new film “My Octopus Teacher.” The film just won Best Documentary feature at the 2021 Oscars, and is currently streaming on Netflix.

CHICAGO – I will never forget meeting Olympia Dukakis. It was in Chicago in 2009, and among all the pomp and sequins of a Greek American awards night. it was Dukakis who was, by her natural presence, the movie star. Oh yeah, and she was slightly tipsy. Ms. Dukakis passed away in New York City on May 1st, 2021, age 89.

CHICAGO – The great Gary Oldman is a veteran actor who has created so many memorable roles that he’s his own Hall of Fame. His surprising turn as Herman Mankiewicz, the co-screenwriter with Orson Welles on “Citizen Kane” in “Mank,” is being honored by yet another Best Actor nomination in 2021 (his third with one win).

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Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) in Chicago, 1998.

CHICAGO – Roll out the red carpet on Oscar Day 2021! Throughout the years, Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago has had close encounters with many of this year’s nominees and had captured them with his intrepid camera eye. Presenting a slideshow of the 93rd Academy Awards Best Acting nominations.

CHICAGO – Predicting the Oscars is like going on a blind date. You really don’t know what’s going to happen, and often you’re humiliated to boot. But here goes Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, along with one million other online prognosticators. The 93rd Academy Awards are Sunday, April 25th, 2021, in Hollywood.

CHICAGO – Making an impact has pretty much defined the career of Carey Mulligan. Her film characters have had a depth and energy to them that only she can deliver. 11 years after her first Best Actress Oscar nomination (“An Education”), Mulligan is nominated in 2021 for her searing portrayal in “Promising Young Woman.”

CHICAGO – Building a career role by role, Viola Davis has emerged at the top of her profession as an actress, with four Oscar nominations in her journey – and one win for “Fences” (2016) – including this 2021’s nod for her shape shifting performance as a real-life 1920s Blues Singer in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

CHICAGO – In one of the crueler events during the cruel year of 2020, the actor Chadwick Boseman died from cancer at age 43. But he left us two prominent roles in 2020, as a pivotal character in Spike Lee’s “Da Five Bloods” and in his 2021 Oscar nominated performance as Levee in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

CHICAGO – My portrait of Liza Minnelli is one of my favorites not just for what appears in frame, but equally for the story of what happened after the shutter was clicked. This was back in 1992, when my focus was on Rock and Roll photojournalism, and I had been granted access to Liza through Tower Records in Chicago. She was promoting her “Live From Radio City Music Hall” release.

CHICAGO – The great advantage of film festivals this year, if we’re to see a silver lining, is that most of the offerings are available to a wider audience via online virtual screenings. The 37th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival will be virtual/online and available to children of all ages from November 13th-22nd, 2020.