STARRY EYED

After winning the Oscar for Best Actress, Anora star Mikey Madison is looking forward to the next intriguing role she can sink her teeth into.

“It’s just incredibly surreal,” she acknowledged in the Oscars pressroom. “I never thought anything like this would happen in my life. I love making movies, and I’ve dreamed of being an actress that would be able to be in a film like Anora for my entire career. So it’s a huge honor, one that I think will soak in later down the line. I really did not expect it at all!” The soon-to-be 26-year-old is trying her best to adjust to fame.

“I don’t know if it’s something that I am able to recognize or process necessarily,” she told INDUSTRY. “I never thought it would be a part of my life, so I don’t know…I just take everything day by day. I’m really grateful to be in the position that I’m in, and I love making movies. I love cinema and hope to continue on this journey. I’m excited for what’s to come, and I’m very hopeful about the kind of work I might be able to do.”

AN ARTIST’S SONG

While he didn’t win the Oscar, Colman Domingo is still riding a career high, with back-to-back Academy Award nominations for Best Actor last year, playing Bayard Rustin, the gay advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and starring and executive producing Greg Kwedar’s mesmerizing film, Sing Sing

In each entry of Domingo’s vast canon of film and TV projects (Selma, The Color Purple, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and HBO’s Euphoria), the actor gives his heart and soul to every character. The charismatic performer recently received the Montecito Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival

During a Q&A, Domingo referred to Sing Sing as a “quiet act of revolution” because of its poignant depiction of tenderness and compassion between Black men.

“It’s about putting myself on the line in every single way as an artist,” he said. “If I’m going to have an impact, if I’m going to do this work that I think is meaningful and can really change lives, I have to give everything. I think a film like Sing Sing is changing lives. It’s actually doing work.”

NO SLOWING DOWN

There was never a time when June Squibb wasn’t fascinated by the world of Hollywood. When anyone asks her when she knew she wanted to be an actress, she always answers, “Coming out of the womb!”

At 95 years old, the spunky actress is still one of the hardest working entertainers in Hollywood, recently nabbing a nomination for Best Lead Performance for her starring role in Thelma at the 2025 Film Independent Awards.

“It’s a nice recognition that people like your work,” she told INDUSTRY on the red carpet. Squibb’s iconic role in Thelma, a refreshingly honest comedy about a badass Jewish grandma who, after getting phone-scammed out of $10,000, sets out to retrieve her money back, is worth the watch. The film was inspired by a real-life experience of writer/ director Josh Margolin’s own living grandmother, who is 104 years old.

“When you look now at the films and the leading ladies who might be nominated during awards season, they’re in their 50s and 60s that’s wonderful,” said Squibb.

RISE OF A LEGEND

Fans of the Oscar-nominated Bob Dylan biography, A Complete Unknown, are thrilled that the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 1. Director James Mangold hopes that people will continue to enjoy the film, which tells the story of Dylan’s early days, just before he reached stardom.

The talented Mangold is a fan of telling origin stories; his work includes Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ford vs. Ferrari, and the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. “Every movie should be an origin story,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it has to start with a character in childhood, but, regarding the subject, how did it begin? And to me, there was a beauty to the simplicity of Bob arriving in New York with five dollars and a guitar and a little notebook full of songs.”

Being a mega Dylan fan himself, Mangold was greatly impacted by the film.

“There was something deeply affecting about this portrait…I was interested in trying to bring a new energy and not just more of the same.”

ROAD TO GOLD

Backstage in the Oscars pressroom, Kieran Culkin was still in shock after winning Best Supporting Actor for his comedic role in A Real Pain, which he described as a unique experience.

“It felt different; the script was incredibly tight…I didn’t want to rehearse it or talk about it,” he told journalists. “It was the first time I had ever read something and thought, ‘I fully understand this guy. I don’t even want to read it again.’ I want to show up on the day and go, ‘What scene are we doing? Oh yes, this one.’”

Because the words were “so well written,” it was an invigorating new approach for Culkin. “It felt like I knew who this guy was, but I couldn’t identify it and I didn’t want to analyze it because upon reading the script, I immediately thought, ‘I’m just gonna leave it and do it.’ It wasn’t until almost a year later when I watched it that I realized, ‘Oh my God, I know someone exactly like this.’ At that moment, my wife leaned over and said his name in my ear. And I was like, ‘You’re right; I’m totally doing him and I didn’t even know.’”