OSCAR Nomination Reaction Statements from Michael Shannon, Ruth Negga, and The Directing Team of Kubo and The Two Strings

  • Print
Details
Category: Celebrity News, Interviews, Pictures
Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2017 07:19
Written by Janet Walker

The 89th Academy Awards nominations are always met with varied reactions and in a year like 2016, when it seemed everyone moved the bar up to single out only five performances and less in some categories as excellent or stronger is simply excruciating.

Below are reactions from Ruth Negga, Michael Shannon and the directing team for Kubo and The Two Strings.  


"KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS" (Focus Features) – Nominee, Best Animated Feature Film – Academy Awards
"I'm over the moon!  An Academy Award nomination is an extraordinary and cherished gift.  Two nominations is more than anyone could hope for.  Every filmmaker dreams of a moment like this.  But the truth is, I already lived my dream by making this film. Movies have always given me great joy. They enriched my life.  They inspired me to dream.  That's the kind of film our team at LAIKA sought to make with KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS.  A film is a slice of a hundred souls.  In this case many more.  An incredible, immense community of artists gave ceaselessly and selflessly to breathe life into this story.  I'm so thankful for their talents and efforts and so proud of what we've done together.  I'm profoundly grateful to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who somehow saw fit to include us among the finest storytellers in film.  It is a tremendous honor to stand alongside them." – Travis Knight, Academy Award nominee as director and producer of KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, Best Animated Feature Film 
 
STEVE EMERSON, OLIVER JONES, BRIAN MCLEAN & BRAD SCHIFF – "KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS" (Focus Features) - Nominees, Achievement in Visual Effects – Academy Awards 
"As much as Kubo and the Two Strings is an homage to Japanese culture and to woodblock artists including Kiyoshi Saito, it is also a tribute to special effects pioneers Ray Harryhausen, Willis O'Brien, Jim Danforth, and the many innovative FX artists who tell stories using in-camera effects, puppets, and human hands. We're thrilled for the artists at LAIKA who put years into realizing Kubo. For all of us at the studio, being recognized alongside such distinguished and talented members of the VFX community is truly an honor." – Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean & Brad Schiff, Academy Award nominees for Achievement in Visual Effects (KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS)
 
Kubo and The Two Strings is only the second Animated film in the history of the academy to be nominated in the visual effects category. The 1994 Tim Burton classic, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS was the first.

MICHAEL SHANNON – "NOCTURNAL ANIMALS" (Focus Features) – Nominee, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Academy Awards
"I am thrilled! Loved making this film. I would work with Tom Ford anytime, anywhere. Jake Gyllenhaal and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Karl Glusman made it easy for me. Nice to get some good news in the midst of all the carnage, so to speak." – Michael Shannon, Academy Award nominee for Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (NOCTURNAL ANIMALS)
 

RUTH NEGGA – "LOVING" (Focus Features) – Nominee, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role – Academy Awards 
"I am truly humbled by the news this morning, and I thank the Academy for this recognition, which I share with my co-collaborators Jeff Nichols and Joel Edgerton. It has been such an honor to have been given the opportunity to tell the incredible story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who serve as an inspiration that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. The Lovings fought quietly yet tirelessly, and changed the course of American legal history. Today, to be among such extraordinary women - my fellow nominees, my peers with films this year, and the legendary performers whose work of years past has long inspired me...this means a great deal to me." – Ruth Negga, Academy Award nominee for Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (LOVING)

The 89th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

Haute News

Haute Tease

  • TRUMBO Review - Magnificent, Inspired, Four Stars

    TRUMBO, from Groundswell Productions and Bleecker Street Media, presents the story of blacklisted Hollywood Ten writer Dalton Trumbo bringing to life the dark season in the Golden Era of Hollywood when the world divided between good Americans and communists.

     

  • Tina Brown Exits The Daily Beast

    Uber editor Tina Brown is exiting Barry Diller’s The Daily Beast, the online magazine she helped create with the IAC/InterActiveCorp founder, when her current contract expires in January, she recently told staffers.

     

  • London Town Review - Charming Coming of Age Film

    London Town, Dutch Tilt Film, Killer Films and Culmination Productions, presents a delightful coming of age story just as London is entering into the Margaret Thatcher Conservative Revolution and punk rock inspired by The Clash is rising.

     

  • Isle Of Dogs Review – Magical; Heartwarming; Stunning Animation

    Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs, from Fox Searchlight Pictures and Indian Paintbrush, presents a heartwarming tale of a boy and his dog after a disease causes all dogs to be banished to Trash Island off the coast of Japan.

     

  • Inside Out Review – A Fun Filled Neon Trip Down Memory Lane

    Inside Out, from Walt Disney Pictures and PIXAR, brings to life the team of emotions inside the mind of an adolescent tween as they help her cope with the cross country move as her family begins a new life from her Minnesota roots.

     

  • Money News: The Bear Returns To DOW, World Markets

    The DOW Jones Industrial along with the NASDAQ and S&P 500, fell as the bear returned, mauling the markets from Wall Street to Shanghai, with a vengeance upending the majority of global markets leaving few unaffected as nervous investors fueled the volatile market.