a young sex worker to one about an aging star, another about a transgender drug lord and another about a troubled immigrant and brilliant architect, this year's Academy Award nominees for best picture tell stories that are both epic and intimate.

Today's guest walks us through those nominees and what to watch for on Hollywood's night of nights.

He's Pete Hammond, this week on "Story in the Public Square."

(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) Hello and welcome to "Story in the Public Square," where storytelling meets public affairs.

I'm Jim Ludes from the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.

- And I'm G. Wayne Miller, also with Salve's Pell Center.

- And our guest this week is an old friend of the show.

Pete Hammond is the awards columnist and chief film critic for "Deadline."

He joins us today from his home in California.

Pete, it's so great to be with you again.

- Great to see you.

It's a annual tradition now.

(hosts laughing) - It's a tradition, and it's truthfully one of our favorite shows to produce each year.

There's a ton of great films that we wanna talk about, but we wanna start first with a check-in on the state of the industry and really the state of the city and the people of Los Angeles in the aftermath of these fires.

How are folks doing?

- Oh.

You know what?

They're resilient.

It was really horrible, obviously, and in Pacific Palisades and Altadena and all over, just a horrendous thing that really also impacted every aspect of the industry.

So many people, some very famous, lost their homes in a moment, and many others working all across the industry as well.

And that obviously has impacted the award season that we're talking about here today.

The nominations were delayed, the voting period was delayed, and many awards shows that happened were also postponed.

They're all now back on track and taking place this weekend and then beyond, all the way up to the Oscars on March 2nd.

So, people are getting back, but all of these shows, if you may have seen the Grammys and others, are raising money for the fire cause here and the victims and everything of the fires, and raising quite a bit of money.

So they're using these shows for good as well as getting the town back to work and not forgetting we've got all these people whose lives depend on these shows and making money.

This is a big time of year for them.

- So we're gonna get into the films that characterized 2024.

Before we get into them, we're gonna go individually through the best picture nominees, but any surprises this year?

- I didn't think there were a whole lot of surprises.

It pretty much is the list that I would expect.

I would say there was one, and we'll talk about it, which is the Brazilian film "I'm Still Here" making the best picture list.

It made international and even actress, but for it to make best picture was quite a surprise.

And it shows the international reach of the Oscars and the Academy membership now in doing that, and I think it also showed what was going on with the fires that I was just talking about, that many people were preoccupied, where the majority of voters live in Los Angeles and New York, but particularly Los Angeles, and that the international membership was further away from it and more engaged, and you'll see this reflected in nominations here with a kind of international field.

That was one surprise to me.

- Interesting.

So, Pete, you mentioned international, and this has been a trend for a while now, what is behind that trend?

Can you break that down a little bit for us, please?

- Yeah, a few years ago, the Academy decided to dramatically expand the numbers of members.

There was at one time, I mean, maybe about 6,000.

It's now over 10,000, and that was a result of going more global and trying to bring in filmmakers from around the world to represent, really, the world.

The Academy believes Oscar is not just a local award, that it has significance everywhere.

And they wanted the voices of, you know, celebrated filmmakers and people who work in this everywhere around the world.

So, that has been reflected now in more and more international kinds of films getting significant recognition.

Last year you saw "The Zone of Interest" and "Anatomy of a Fall" both in the best picture race as well.

This year you have "Emilia Perez" and you have "I'm Still Here," as I mentioned with the Brazilian film, in the best picture race.

This is a direct result of having more voters who are around the globe.

- So, quick question.

I'm guessing that international audiences will be paying very careful attention to the Oscars, not just the American audience.

- That's always been the case.

It's been a very popular show.

- Oh.

- In fact, they take it for many countries and edit it after it goes live here and send it around the world as well.

Our people now, in the age of social media and everything, can watch it (chuckles) in real time where they are.

You know, and streaming, this year for the first time, the Oscars are going to be streamed on Hulu, day and date, as they say, at the same time as the ABC broadcast.

And that's a first.

It has been on Hulu before the next day, but now it's gonna be on at the same time streaming, and that means much more worldwide consumption live too.

- So let's take the films, the nominees, in alphabetical order.

And so we'll start with "Anora."

Tell us about the film and your thoughts on it.

- "Anora" I saw at the Cannes Film Festival way back in May, where it won the Palme d'Or, and it is a wild comedy about a sex worker who gets involved with a crazy-wild and crazy son of Russian oligarchs and winds up in a quickie marriage and then pursued by all of, his parents, the people they hire, and everybody to try to stop this.

And it is crazy.

It goes all over the place.

It's a comedy, but it's also got real heart, and it's a very interesting film from director Sean Baker, who has done more independent movies in his career in the past, like "The Florida Project" and many others, "Red Rocket," like those kind of movies, offbeat.

Well, this one really started at Cannes, winning the Palme d'Or, that was a huge deal, and now it's nominated in every awards show, it's up for six Oscars, and four of them, four of those nominations, all belong to Sean Baker.

He is the writer, he's the director, he's the producer, and he's also the film editor, and he got nominations for all of those.

And then it's got a couple of acting, including, I should say, not only Mikey Madison, who's wonderful, if you ever saw "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," she was one of the Manson girls at the end of the movie, and she was in "Scream," the more recent "Scream" movie, that's how he found her.

He went to see "Scream" and goes, "Oh my God, she's perfect," and he wound up writing the role for her.

But also nominated for Supporting Actor is Yura Borisov, who is the first Russian actor to be nominated for an Oscar in, oh, what, let's see, since Mikhail Baryshnikov- - Wow.

- In 1977.

So, it's got a heavy kind of a supporting cast of Russian actors and people around the globe, but it is really entertaining.

- Well, Pete, you know, we could spend time on all of these, but we're gonna rifle through these in sort of rapid succession here.

- Yeah.

- The next on the list is "The Brutalist," which is a tremendous film.

And, well, let's hear what you had to say about it.

- Yeah, you got three and a half hours?

- Yeah, exactly.

(everyone laughing) Four with the intermission.

(everyone laughing) - [G.] Four and a half when we add in getting the popcorn.

(chuckles) - But yeah, it is a return to the kind of, like, epic movies in length and in ambition that Hollywood used to make regularly.

And here it comes from Brady Corbet, who is an actor-turned-filmmaker, and made for, they claim, $10 million.

But it's got a lot of scope, and it's about an immigrant coming to America during the World War II and after the Holocaust, and coming, and an architect, a celebrated architect, played by Adrien Brody, who comes to build this kind of dream place by this industrialist, played wonderfully by Guy Pearce, they're both nominated for Oscars.

And the film has got 10 nominations, and it's probably the bigger surprise of the year that a movie like this could catch on and gain traction, but it has, and it's actually doing well at the box office too.

People are sitting for it and it's developed its own audience.

So that's one of the surprises of this season, that started at the Venice Film Festival, by the way, where Brady Corbet won best director, and we'll see what happens, but it also is nominated for everything this year.

- Am I right in thinking too that they filmed it in VistaVision?

- Yes, and they tout that.

Not that a lot of people know what the hell that means, (people laughing) but I, I do, and film fans.

And if you watch particularly Paramount films of the '50s- - Yeah.

- It always starts with VistaVision, you know, "Vertigo," Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is a prime example of that.

And it was the answer to CinemaScope, you know?

When television was threatening movies, they created these big formats, and VistaVision is these giant cameras, think IMAX but an earlier version and more lumbering kind of thing.

This is the first movie actually shot, feature film, shot in VistaVision with VistaVision, and it's something that Brady Corbet, the director, had wanted to do to give it even more scope and more of a throwback to those kind of epic movies that used to regularly run three and a half hours.

- So a lot of films this year had music as a theme, and one of them, of course, was the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown."

Tell us about that.

- That movie was the last one to be released.

It was really released around Christmas Day and it didn't play the festival circuit.

And it comes from James Mangold, this is a terrific director who does all kinds of different films.

"Ford v Ferrari," a recent one of his, he also did the last "Indiana Jones" movie.

He did "Walk the Line," which was about Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, won some Oscars there.

And this is a Bob Dylan origin picture, his early days, coming to New York from Minnesota and finding his way as an artist.

And, of course, Timothee Chalamet is brilliant playing Dylan, he's worked on it for years preparing for this role and really got the essence of the young Bob Dylan.

But it is kind of a traditional musical biopic in many ways, but it really focuses on those early days.

Had a wonderful cast in addition to Chalamet, you know, and many of them are nominated as well, Monica Barbaro for playing Joan Baez and Edward Norton for playing Pete Seeger.

And so it's a throwback, and those baby boomers who grew up in this era, many of them are in the Academy.

This is a sleeper, this is one to look for.

I don't know anybody who doesn't like this movie.

- Hey, there's a nostalgic quality to it, and the music is tremendous.

"Conclave" reminded me just how taut a psychological thriller could be.

- Yeah, I agree.

I saw that at Telluride Film Festival first and I was riveted.

You know, it could have turned into a pulpy kind of movie that we've seen a lot, but it is so stylishly made in every way, from the crafts to the acting to the writing by Peter Straughan, who adapted this book, and Edward Berger, who directed it.

And it is so well made.

This election that takes place, you know, for the new pope, we really see the intrigue of it, and the acting is exceptional.

Ralph Fiennes is the cardinal running the election basically, but John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini, like Ralph Fiennes, nominated for her performance.

I think she's in the movie for like seven minutes.

(Jim chuckles) But, you know, she is so powerful in those minutes that she wound up getting a nomination.

It's interesting.

Anyway, the movie is great.

And I think, you know, maybe my favorite among all of this list, just in terms of pure filmmaking.

I really liked it.

- Mm.

- So, "Dune: Part Two" picks up literally where "Dune" left off.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah.

Well, continuing our Timothee Chalamet, (everyone laughing) he of course is in it, Zendaya, the wonderful cast from "Dune."

You know, Denis Villeneuve, who's the director, had a vision.

Always liked the book, Frank Herbert's books, and never felt it got its due.

The late great David Lynch attempted a version of "Dune" in the '80s, and even David Lynch would tell you it was not successful.

But Denis Villeneuve, when he brought "Dune" to the screen a few years ago, it won six Academy Awards, it was nominated for 10 and best picture.

He really, you know, wanted the essence of the book and the way he saw it.

And then when he made that, he said, you know, "There's more, and now I'm gonna get the money and I'm gonna do 'Dune: Part Two.'"

And that is what we have now nominated this year for six Oscars, including, again, best picture.

And he has now said he sees a third part!

And so there will be a third part most likely coming on as well.

But it's spectacular!

It's, you know, the crafts of it, the cinematography, everything.

This is a big movie, but it's got a lot to say too.

- You know, if we had more time, I'd wanna dwell a little bit on sort of the prevalence of science fiction in this category over the last few years.

But we've gotta move on.

"Emilia Perez," I had not actually heard about this film until its success at the Golden Globes.

And then I watched it, and the surprises, the twists, this is a heck of a movie.

- Yes, this is a heck of a movie.

It also started at the Cannes Film Festival, which has had a very good year considering it was back in May.

It's got all these movies that it launched that are in the Oscar race right now, "Emilia Perez" being one of 'em with 13 nominations, which is almost as high as you can go, it's just one short of tying the all-time record.

And it comes from a French director, Jacques Audiard, although it's all in Spanish and takes place in Mexico.

But nevertheless, it is a truly international production.

It's also the official entry in the international film race from France.

But when you look at the movie, the only thing French about it, really, is its director (Jim chuckles) and maybe the crew.

But it is a fascinating story about a cartel, Mexican cartel drug dealer leader who decides to change genders, maybe this is go really hide in plain sight, but completely changed his gender.

And so he becomes, she becomes the title character, Emilia Perez, played by Karla Sofia Gascon, who is the subject of much controversy in this year's Oscar race right now for past tweets.

This is why Pete don't tweet, (hosts laughing) that, you know, they are always, (laughs) always going to catch up with you, whether in politics or anything or in Hollywood, you know.

And so she said some outrageous things and now is a target of the social media and everything else.

And it's quite the scandal, but doesn't take away from the achievements of everyone else in this movie.

Zoe Saldana is terrific in it, everything about it technically, "Emilia Perez" is one to check out.

- Do you think that'll affect the, do you think that scandal will affect the voting?

- That's a $20,000 question right now.

We don't know.

It has become so widespread and so written about, as we're speaking here, every day there's new stories.

And Netflix, which has got the movie, is basically not dealing with her now at all, not paying for her.

They're sort of erasing her from their campaign and trying to emphasize the others to make sure that the movie isn't hurt.

This was a front runner- - Yeah.

- Until about a week ago.

And now it's all up in the air.

- [Jim] Wow.

- [G.] So "I'm Still Here" is another international film.

Tell us about that one.

- That one, I briefly mentioned at the top when you were asking about any big surprises.

A Brazilian film, this is from the great director Walter Salles, is hardly the kind of movie that would get a best picture nomination, and yet it did.

And that showed, one, that the members, the voters, are actually seeing the film in bigger numbers than the normal for international entries.

And this is the official entry from Brazil too.

So it's nominated not just for international film but best picture, and that's a bit of an unusual situation.

Not unprecedented, of course, it's happened a few times, but this year there's two of them, "Emilia Perez" being the other one.

And this is a very strong politically-tinged movie.

It's about basically the government, the military in the early '70s in Brazil coming and taking people out of their homes and making them political prisoners, and that's what it's about.

And it's about this man's wife who is determined to find him and to uncover this, and she's played by Fernanda Torres, and she's nominated for best actress, incredible performance.

This movie is incredible.

Walter Salles, who did "Motorcycle Diaries" and "Central Station," which starred Fernanda Torres's mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated for best actress all those years ago, so it's a family affair.

And Fernanda, now 95, she has a little bit role in the movie as well.

- Pete, we gotta talk about "Nickel Boys."

- Yeah.

- When I left that movie theater, I felt like I had just been to a funeral.

(Pete laughs) - For the movie or just- - No, no.

(Pete laughs) The movie was incredible, but I felt gutted.

It was emotionally gutting.

- Yeah, it is.

It's, well, first of all, it's based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which is inspired by these true life stories that happened at this academy in Florida.

And this one tells the story of two boys who attended and what happened there, just horrendous things they uncovered later.

Oh, a hundred bodies of these young men who were buried there, and that part of it is true.

The movie then uses archival footage and past movies, like Stanley Kramer's "The Defiant Ones," to tell its story and, of course, with these young actors that are in it, and it's shot from POV, point of view, it's very unusual.

So the camera is basically a character there.

And so you'll see one actor almost embracing the camera, talking to others offscreen.

And for some people, that was little off-putting, I mean, it's hard to get used to, but it is designed to put yourself, the audience, in the heads of these two kids and see what they're experiencing, and it can be very effective.

And that has put it in the best picture race and also nominated for its screenplay adaptation from RaMell Ross.

This is his very first film, narrative film, as a director.

He had done the Oscar-nominated documentary called "Hale County This Morning, This Evening," but this is the first time he's done this kind of film, and he's been, you know, it's turned out really magnificently.

- [Jim] It's tremendous.

- Yeah.

- [G.] So "The Substance" had a tremendous performance by Demi Moore.

- Yeah.

- Let's hear about that, Pete.

- I love it.

I saw this at Cannes too.

(everyone laughing) We called it, you could have, we could've done this thing in May!

(everyone laughing) - [Jim] Hey, if you invited us to Cannes, we're coming!

(everyone laughing) - This was in Cannes, and it blew me away.

It is, you know, well, it won Demi Moore her very first show business award, really, at the Golden Globes this year in the comedy category, best comedy or musical performance, and it was nominated there.

It is Grand Guignol horror.

Yes, it's comedy too, but it's also a cautionary tale about the, you know, endless quest for youth.

And it's about a woman who's aging, she's a influencer, she does all this exercise stuff, she's well known, but she feels she's being aged out by a younger woman.

And so she takes it into her own hands and finds this thing called The Substance.

I call it "Ozempic: The Movie."

(everyone laughing) It's sort of that, and you have to make sure you take the shot every day or things are gonna happen.

And that is where the horror element of this comes in.

It's also kind of "Frankenstein" meets "All About Eve," except in this case, "All About Eve," she's competing against her own younger self, who she develops and comes out of her own body to be that new person there.

This has taken the search for the Fountain of Youth to new extremes.

Demi Moore, great, and finally got an Oscar nomination for this, well deserved.

- It was, it was...

I found that there were elements of it that also harkened back to the classic monster movies of decades ago.

- Yeah, like "Frankenstein."

- Exactly.

- You know?

- Yeah.

- Be careful what you create, you know, Frankenstein's monster.

- Right.

- And here she's created literally her own monster.

(laughs) - So, Pete, we're gonna round out the 10 best picture nominees with "Wicked," another musical and an incredible retelling of The Land of Oz.

- Yeah, well, this was of course a huge hit on Broadway and around the globe and stage productions of "Wicked" for the last 20-some years, maybe more.

Still the number one show on Broadway right now.

The film has only helped the grosses of the Broadway show, people are going to see it.

But this is from Jon M. Chu, who did "In the Heights" and many movies, and really knows musicals.

And he came up with the idea of turning it into two parts.

So this is "Wicked: Part I," although Universal, which is releasing it, sort of took the Part I off of it, (chuckles) so they just think it's "Wicked," and it plays on its own.

It's brilliantly done, and wonderful performances.

Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba, and, of course, her friend in it, Glinda or Galinda, the Good Witch, versus what we know as the Bad Witch, Wicked Witch, is Ariana Grande, and she's terrific.

She's very funny, she's got a real talent for comedy too.

And it's big, it really captures the musical.

He didn't wanna cut anything, he wanted to make this thing work.

So, this is something you'll hear about next year too because Part II's coming out in November.

- You know, it's an incredible body of film.

Are there any others that you thought should have been at least in the consideration for best picture?

- You know, you can always say what happened to this movie or what happened to that movie, but, you know, again, I wasn't surprised that they didn't get in.

I loved a little movie.

If you're looking for something I think should have been in there, it's called "A Real Pain."

And it did get nominated for screenplay for Jesse Eisenberg, the actor who wrote it and directed it, and for supporting actor, where I think it's the front runner, for Kieran Culkin.

It's these two cousins that go from America and they go on a journey back to Poland, where their family history involved with the Holocaust and everything, and they discover that, and it's really balancing very heavyweight topics with comedy and all of this stuff that is done in this kind of buddy movie along the way.

I thought it was really well made.

It was from Searchlight, and I thought that should have been in the best picture race.

- We will add that to our list.

But Pete Hammond, you are always on our list!

Pete Hammond from "Deadline."

The Academy Awards broadcast, March 2nd at 7:00 PM Eastern.

That is all the time we have this week.

But if you wanna know more about "Story in the Public Square," you can find us on social media or visit pellcenter.org, where you can always catch up on previous episodes.

He's Wayne, I'm Jim, asking you to join us again next time for more "Story in the Public Square."

(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) (lighthearted music continues) (bright music)