AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE OSCAR-NOMINATED GUESTS OF 2017

With awards season now behind us, we take a look back at the many Oscar-nominated guests that have joined us in person in the past year. We are fortunate to have been joined by all of the 2018 Oscar-nominated directors, all the nominated Art Directors, Set Decorators, and Film Editors, as well as several eventual Oscar winners! Below, enjoy a selection of photographs taken in-house at our Egyptian and Aero Theatres accompanied by words of wisdom they so graciously shared with our audience members. 

2018 Oscar Nominees and Winners 

BEST LEAD ACTOR, Gary Oldman. 
Winner, THE DARKEST HOUR

"To be Churchill was such a joy - to be in this movie. He had a great sense of humor...a sparkle in his eye, he was boyish, cherubic.” Mr. Oldman went on an absolute winning streak having accumulated a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, a BAFTA Award and an Academy Awards for his leading role in THE DARKEST HOUR. 

Photographed on February 8th, 2018 at our Aero Theatre in Santa Monica by Andrea Macias-Jimenez. 







BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, Willem Dafoe.
Nominee, THE FLORIDA PROJECT 

"Look for people with distinct vision. People who see beauty where others see nothing. If you really believe what they’re doing; you go towards their vision & start to learn things. You have a shift in how you see and with that shift- you become a different person.”

Photographed on January 13th, 2018 at our Egyptian Theatre in Andrea Macias-Jimenez. 

BEST DIRECTOR, Christopher Nolan. 
Nominee, DUNKIRK

“Every film should have its own world, a logic and feel to it that expands beyond the exact image that the audience is seeing.”

Photographed on February 13th, 2018 at our Aero Theatre in Santa Monica by Silvia Schablowski. 

BEST DIRECTOR, Jordan Peele. 
Nominee, GET OUT
Winner, Best Original Screenplay for GET OUT

"When the nominations came out, I had this amazing feeling of looking at the 12 year old that had this burning in my guts for this type of validation, and I instantly realized that an award like this is much bigger than me."

Photographed on February 13th, 2018 at our Aero Theatre in Santa Monica by Silvia Schablowski. Joran Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for GET OUT at the 2018 ceremony. 

BEST DIRECTOR, Greta Gerwig
Nominee, LADY BIRD 

“It’s a really interesting journey; I wouldn’t trade it for anything. You don’t need to have a death grip on your passion. Your passion will find you.”

Photographed on February 10th, 2018 at our Aero Theatre in Santa Monica by Silvia Schablowski. 

BEST DIRECTOR, Paul Thomas Anderson.
Nominee, PHANTOM THREAD

"I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film’s abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y’know, that’s great. But I hope it involves an audience.” 

Photographed on February 13th, 2018 at our Aero Theatre in Santa Monica by Sean Byron. 

BEST DIRECTOR, Guillermo del Toro. 
Winner, THE SHAPE OF WATER

“My movies are mostly graveyard poetry. [The Shape of Water] is different from what I’ve been making in the past 25 years.”

Photographed on January 20th, 2018 at our Egyptian Theatre by Mario Jennings. 

BEST FOREIGN FILM, “A Fantastic Woman” (Chile), “Loveless” (Russia), “The Square” (Sweden). 
Winner, A FANTASTIC WOMAN

Four out of five nominated directors for Best Foreign Film joined us for a live symposium on January 6th. Sebastian Leilo, Oscar-winning director of A FANTASTIC WOMAN, poses with his leading lady, Daniela Vega. Throughout the year, the American Cinematheque shows a generous sampling of new films from around the world – some that go on to become Oscar nominees. New films from Canada and from the European Union will be shown in April 2018. Re-watch the symposium here and check out photos of fellow nominees here. 


 Photographed on January 6th by Jared Cowan. 

BEST EDITING, Lee Smith. 
Winner, DUNKIRK

Mr. Lee Smith, Academy Award-winning editor of DUNKIRK, joined us on March 3rd, 2018 at our Egyptian Theatre for our annual " Invisible Art, Visible Artists" seminar hosting all of the year's Oscar-Nominated editors. Fun fact: The nominees mentioned that they are generally happy not to edit on film stock anymore, but some have nostalgia for having to be more decisive before they touched the work print. Music, cooking, painting were named by these editors as inspiration for practicing their art!

 Photograph: Jenny Oetzell/SilverHub/Rex/Shutterstock

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN,  Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau and Jeffrey A. Melvin. 
Winners, THE SHAPE OF WATER

Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau, and Jeffrey A. Melvin, who took home the Oscar for their work on THE SHAPE OF WATER, joined us on March 3rd, 2018 at our Egyptian Theatre for our annual "Art of Production Design" panel, featuring all of this year's nominees. 

 Photograph courtesy of ABC's Academy Awards telecast. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY,  Rachel Morrison. 
Nominee, MUDBOUND

Cinematographer Rachel Morrison joined us at our Aero Theatre on February 12th for our screening of MUDBOUND. Ms. Morrison has made Oscar history as she is the first woman to be nominated for a Cinematography Academy Award.

 Photograph courtesy of ABC News. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, Agnes Varda. 
Nominee, FACES PLACES

We were honored to host Agnes Varda on October 21st, 2017 for a special screening of THE GLEANERS AND I / VAGABOND. Once she took the Egyptian Theatre stage and her standing ovation finally quieted down, she remarked how coming into our theatre felt like coming home.

Photographed by Mario Jennings. 

With that, we close awards season and say congratulations to all the nominees and Oscar winners! We are honored to host the leading figures in our industry and look forward to the many more guests to come in the following year.