With just days to go before Hollywood’s glittering awards night of the year, North East film fans have extra reason to join in the excitement and buzz.
Not only is local writer Peter Straughan tipped for success at the Academy Awards in the category of best adapted screenplay for papal thriller Conclave – on the back of his winning both a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA – but there is also another Oscar contender with North East connections who may have fallen under the local radar.
Northumbria University shared news that a former student is also among the nominees – and it will have eager eyes on the March 3 awards night. Lol Crawley, who also just celebrated success at the BAFTA Film Awards where he won Best Cinematography for his work on epic drama The Brutalist, is now up for an Oscar in the same category.
When his BAFTA was announced, the 50-year-old was hugged by the film’s star Adrien Brody who himself won Best Actor for his starring role as Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth. Making his acceptance speech Crawley said he was on “quite a rollercoaster trip”.
He has worked for years with the film’s director Brady Corbet – who took the best director BAFTA – and called him a “fabulous filmmaker”. He also praised The Brutalist’s “Incredible cast”, adding: “It was an absolute pleasure to film”.
The Northumbria University Alumni Association congratulated Crawley alongside what it called a “huge weekend of successes for film, TV and media graduates of Northumbria University”, which included another BAFTA success. Jack Tarling – owner of award-winning Newcastle-based Shudder Films – is also a graduate of its Film and TV Production course, which has since become the BA (Hons) Film degree course, and he is the producer of the film Kneecap which won the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut for its writer-director Rich Peppiatt.
(Image: Getty Images for BAFTA)
There were also four recent Northumbria graduates also among the winners at February’s Royal Television Society Awards, who took the best student drama award for short film Husk which was produced in their final university year. The Association added: “What excellent examples of the powerful impact our experiential learning can have on our graduates’ careers!”
Comments following its post included: “Fantastic”; “Amazing” and “Congratulations! Northumbria is always producing amazing creative talent and is one of the best!” The Association said of Crawley’s Oscar bid: “We wish him the very best of luck and we’ll be watching on the night!”
It also shared the word on X saying: “Huge congrats to our talented Film & TV Production grad Lol Crawley on his well-deserved Academy Award nomination – Best Cinematography for The Brutalist! We couldn’t be more proud of Lol for this incredible achievement and we wish you all the best as you head to the Oscars.”
While the film of his fellow Northumbria graduate Tarling may have missed out on the Oscar nominations, it has already proved a hit. The comedy drama about a rap trio in Belfast won the Audience Award at its premiere last year at the Sundance Film Festival.
Both The Brutalist and Conclave were big winners on BAFTA night, with the former picking up four awards in total, including best score, and a similar number went to the latter which saw BAFTAs wins for best film; outstanding British film and editing alongside Straughan’s screenplay. As previously reported, the writer, who is originally from Gateshead, was back in the region at the start of February and attended a special Newcastle screening of Conclave, which stars Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini, before jetting off to the US.
Conclave has eight Oscar nominations in total while The Brutalist has 10 nods. Winners will be announced at the 97th Academy Awards which will take place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles in the early hours of March 3 UK-time which will be the evening of March 2 in the US.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/oscar-hopes-former-newcastle-student-31031049
