The Academy Awards are Sunday, and the 2014 season has been a landmark year for film. Many of the potential award winners have come through the KCRW studios. We’ve compiled the full list of nominated filmmakers who have appeared on The Business with Kim Masters and Elvis Mitchell’s The Treatment.
More Oscar coverage here
Here are some highlights:
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen told The Business contributor John Horn about the challenges of directing his latest movie, 12 Years a Slave, which has been nominated for 10 awards. The challenging subject matter took an emotional toll on McQueen, but he dismisses the notion that the movie is “too tough to watch.”
He told The Business: “I think people are interested in viewing challenging movies. I think people are interested in engaging in narratives which reflect them and their past and the history and has a possible effect on their future… People are in tears, people are hugging each other, people are affected by it in a way, which is sort of, yes at first I thought strange, but on my second thought I thought well I understand because to visualize this time in history is very different from reading about it in some textbook.”
Gravity
Gravity also has 10 Oscar nominations despite never having been officially greenlit by Warner Brothers. Between developing the technology, and going through Hollywood’s entire A-list before offering Sandra Bullock the lead role, Gravity was far from a sure bet. Alfonso Cuaron directed the film, and his son co-wrote the screenplay. In his nterview with Kim Masters, he explains how working with his son turned the typical father-son relationship on it’s head.
Cuaron: “When we started working together he was teaching me how to write. You know, your sons and daughters tend to be better teachers to us than us to them. They are not as impatient as we are… Usually when you have a writing partner there’s a tendency that one tends to be the wise one and the other one is the stubborn one, and yea, Jonas [Cuaron] has to take the role of the wise one.”
Frozen
When it comes to the subject of family, no movie surpassed Pixar’s latest hit, Frozen, which tells the story of two young sisters trying to find a place in each other’s lives. One of the surprises from the film was the success of the marquee song, “Let it Go.” Kristen Anderson-Lopez, one of the songwriters, told Kim Masters about the moment she and her husband decided to work on the film.
Anderson-Lopez: “We saw this one piece of visual development art of the two sisters. One was young, the older one was sort of throwing snow up in the air and the younger one was looking up at her like she was a superhero. And both Bobby and I got chills and said, ‘That’s our kids, that’s sisterhood right there, we have to do this.’… They looked like our children, the dynamic was what we were dealing with, and it just felt like we had something to say about that dynamic.”
Below, is the full list of Oscar nominees who came through KCRW. These all make great rainy day listening.
12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen on The Business and The Treatment
Gravity Alfonso Cuaron on The Business and The Treatment
Gravity David Heyman on The Business
Before Midnight Julie Delpy on The Business and The Treatment
Philomena Steve Coogan on The Business
The Square Jehane Noujaim on The Business
The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer on The Business
Frozen Jennifer Lee & Kristen Anderson-Lopez on The Business
Despicable Me 2 Chris Meleadandri on The Business
20 Feet from Stardom Morgan Neville on The Treatment
The Wolf of Wall Street Leonardo DiCaprio on The Treatment
American Hustle David O. Russell on The Treatment
Nebraska Bruce Dern on The Treatment