The film industry is full of sharks, but also full of Bruins. Though the road to making it big in Hollywood may be treacherous, UCLA alumni have a long streak of success in the film and television industry. Read more...
Photo: Alumnus Max Wiederholt recently founded the talent agency, Mischief Ventured LLC, where writers without agents can submit their work directly to movie producers. (Efren Piñon/Daily Bruin)
UCLA professor Chon Noriega smoothed the front page of the Los Angeles Times out on the table in front of him. Twenty white faces and one headline glared back: “Oscars 2016: Here’s why the nominees are so white – again.” In response Noriega, the director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, contacted Los Angeles artist Linda Vallejo and proposed she expand her “Make ‘Em All Mexican” series, in which she reimagines images of American culture as Mexican by painting directly on antiques. Read more...
Photo: One of Vallejo’s images reimagined Academy Award winners Ben Affleck (left) as Bernardo and Matt Damon (right) as Mateo. (Courtesy of Linda Vallejo)
The Oscars typically leave me in a seething, pointless rage. I have never been able to accurately predict the winners of all 24 categories in a single year; I usually miss a few left-field choices for categories like Best Animated Short Film or Best Costume Design. Read more...
In “Only Yesterday,” 27-year-old Taeko Okajima reflected on her fifth-grade self, unable to grasp the concept of dividing simple fractions. “People who understand fractions right away understand life right away,” she says. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of Studio Ghibli)
Movie trailers are like free samples at Costco: The good ones excite you and leave you wanting more, while the bad ones make you cringe. Each week, A&E columnist Matthew Fernandez will dissect movie trailers and analyze the Hollywood fare to come. Read more...
Photo: The trailer for the April film “Kill Your Friends” looks like a mix of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “American Psycho” and “House of Cards.” (Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment)
The delicate art of drawing is not a simple task for Chau. Within the confines of a small wheelchair, his limbs barely allow him to pick up a marker from the jumble of coloring supplies in front of him, let alone create an entire picture. Read more...
Photo: UCLA alumna Courtney Marsh directed “Chau, Beyond the Lines,” a documentary nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short this year. Marsh worked on the film for eight years, filming the artistic pursuits of Agent Orange victim, Chau, in Vietnam. Marsh will be in attendance for Sunday’s award ceremony at the Dolby Theater. (Anisha Joshi/Daily Bruin)
Will “The Revenant” sweep the board at this year’s Academy Awards, or will Leonardo DiCaprio fall prey to another snub? Will Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander emerge victorious from hotly contested Actress categories? Read more...
