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Oscars 2025: The ANORA director advocates for movie theaters, and the Academy honors Robert Laemmle. Plus: Oscar Contest winners.

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The 2025 Oscars are in the history books. It was a good night, with a funny, skilled host in Conan O’Brien and a fairly equitable distribution of statuettes for some terrific movies. It was also a good night for theatrical exhibition, better known as good, old-fashioned moviegoing. As he did during his speech accepting the Palme d’Or last year in Cannes, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker gave a passionate, trenchant speech in favor of seeing movies as filmmakers have always intended them to be seen, in theaters. After accepting the Oscar for Best Director from filmmaker (and movie theater owner) Quentin Tarantino, Baker said the following to almost 20 million Americans watching live and far more people worldwide:
“I’m going to take this time up here really quick to read something I’m very passionate about…so we’re all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater. Watching a film …in the theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. And in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home, and right now the theatergoing experience is under threat. Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters, are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic we lost nearly 1000 screens in the U.S., and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry. Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen. I know I will. Distributors…please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your films. Neon did that for me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Parents…introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters, and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and filmmakers. And for all of us, when we can, please watch movies in the theater, and let’s keep the great tradition of the moviegoing experience alive and well.”
The always moving In Memoriam section of the Oscars broadcast was especially powerful this year. This may have been because the losses of huge talents seemed particularly heavy this year. For us at Laemmle Theatres, of course, we are still grieving the loss of Robert Laemmle, our former president and Greg Laemmle’s father. What an honor for Bob to be the first exhibitor included in the in Memoriam montage.
Finally, we are pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest.
FIRST PLACE: Stefan with 18 correct answers.
SECOND PLACE: Joel with 18 correct answers.
TIE for THIRD PLACE: Kelly & Cole with 17 correct answers (plus closest run-time to actual runtime broadcast).
Check out our nifty pie charts to see how our savvy customers divined the Academy members’ choices. Last year our winner correctly guessed 21 categories, so this was a tough year. As predicted, the Best Actress category was one of the trickiest; only 10.7% guessed that Mikey Madison would win for her turn in Anora, defying the conventional wisdom that Demi Moore would win for The Substance, and that Fernanda Torres was the true dark horse for her performance in I’m Still Here. Half of our contestants thought The Wild Robot would take the Best Animated Feature prize, but the acclaimed little Latvian film Flow came out on top. Almost 25% of contestants thought Timothée Chalamet would win for Best Actor for A Complete Unknown, no doubt misled by his Screen Actors Guild Awards victory.
Winners, we will be in touch to get you your movie pass prizes. Congratulations!

35th Anniversary WILD AT HEART in memoriam screening for David Lynch February 19 at the NoHo.

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The news of David Lynch‘s death hit like David Bowie’s. Here were two sui generis, irreplaceable artists so original their names became adjectives, and they were gone. There will never be another David Lynch movie, but we can watch Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, Lost Highway and the extravagantly violent and sexy romantic comedy Wild at Heart — February 19 at the NoHo — on the big screen as the auteur intended. The 1990 Palme d’Or winner stars Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage as Lula and Sailor, roadtripping lovers plagued by Lula’s crazed mother (Diane Ladd, Oscar nominated for this performance). Willem Dafoe’s frightening turn as the creepy Bobby Peru earned him a Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Robert Laemmle: 1935-2025

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Robert Laemmle, former president of Laemmle Theatres, passed away on Thursday, January 9 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 89. He is survived by his wife Michelle Laemmle and ex-wife Raquel Shantal, their children Yvonne Ascher & Leonard Laub, Michael & Haidee Ascher, David & Tammy Ascher, Greg & Tish Laemmle, Jessica Laemmle, Carri and Charlie Bisbee, Mitch & Debbie Needelman, Maitland Finley, and Robert Finley, and his sister Mimi Reisbaum and nephews Mark & Jay Reisbaum.

Bob was a kind, generous, happy person who adored his large family. He was also an entrepreneur and film industry trailblazer who lived a classic American immigrant success story. He was born on September 5, 1935 in Paris, France, to Max and Bertha Laemmle. Fleeing the Nazis, they brought him to the United States in 1938, and he lived in the Los Angeles area for the rest of his life. He was a gifted basketball player as a young man, earning All City honors out of Marshall High School during his senior year. He played college basketball at USC, L.A. City College and Cal State L.A. He graduated from Cal State Los Angeles in 1958, later receiving an MBA from UCLA in 1961.

Founded in 1938 by Robert’s father Max and his uncle Kurt, Laemmle Theatres is a storied exhibitor of foreign and art films in Los Angeles. Bob began working for Laemmle Theatres in 1963 and was instrumental in the rapid expansion of the chain, which he ran until 2004, and ever since has been led by his son Greg. Bob helped redefine the image of an “art house,” programming and innovatively marketing films from around the world while creating brand-new venues for L.A. cinephiles, including the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood, the Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, the NoHo 7, and the Laemmle Glendale.

Bob was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, a distinction his father also earned. The highest arts-specific honor conferred by the French government, it is reserved for artists and people who have contributed to the influence of arts in France and throughout the world. It was a testament to the Laemmles’ commitment to and passion for showcasing the best films from around the globe.

In 2000, the family established the Laemmle Charitable Foundation to give back to the community that has sustained the family business over the decades. Since then, the foundation has awarded over $2.3 million to locally based nonprofits with a focus on social and environmental giving. Past award recipients include Tree People, SOVA, L.A. Family Housing and Food Forward, along with many others.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, January 13 at 10:00 AM at Mount Sinai Memorial Park, located at 5950 Forest Lawn Drive. The family will be receiving visitors at their home in Santa Monica following the burial and will also have open hours in the days to follow.

Donations can be made to the Laemmle Charitable Foundation at www.laemmlefoundation.org or by check mailed to 11523 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Donations should also be made to local charities supporting fire relief efforts.

Recollections regarding Bob Laemmle and Laemmle Theatres are being collected and members of the public are invited to send comments below.

May his memory be for a blessing.

In memory of Maggie Smith – THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE screening November 13.

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THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1969)
55th Anniversary Screening
Tribute to Oscar Winner Maggie Smith
Wednesday, November 13, at 7 PM
Laemmle Royal Theatre

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late, great Maggie Smith with a screening of her first Oscar-winning movie, ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.’ Smith had impressive competition in 1969, including Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Genevieve Bujold, and Jean Simmons, but she prevailed. The film also earned an Oscar nomination for the theme song, “Jean,” written by Rod McKuen.

Jay Presson Allen adapted the highly acclaimed novel by Muriel Spark about an eccentric but popular teacher at a girls’ school in Edinburgh during the 1930s. Ronald Neame (‘The Horse’s Mouth,’ ‘Tunes of Glory,’ ‘The Poseidon Adventure’) directed. The cast includes Robert Stephens (Smith’s husband at the time), Pamela Franklin, Jane Carr, Gordon Jackson, and Celia Johnson, an Oscar nominee two decades earlier for her role in the romantic classic, ‘Brief Encounter.’

Allen had also written the successful play adapted from Spark’s novel; it starred Vanessa Redgrave in London and Zoe Caldwell on Broadway. But most critics agreed that Smith’s portrayal was definitive. She caught the charisma and eccentricity as well as the sometimes dangerous egotism of a revered teacher who steers some of her impressionable students in the wrong direction, even leading one of her charges to volunteer to fight for Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Variety had high praise for “Maggie Smith’s tour-de-force performance.” Leonard Maltin called the film a “remarkable character study.” In the most detailed review, Pauline Kael wrote, “Maggie Smith, with her gift for mimicry and her talent for mannered comedy, makes Jean Brodie very funny—absurdly haughty, full of affectations, and with a jumble shop of a mind… a bit of an Auntie Mame.” Kael also had praise for the other performances, writing “The casting in general is superb,” and she singled out one supporting performance in particular: “Celia Johnson has a genuine triumph as Miss Mackay, who in the film becomes Miss Brodie’s true adversary.”

Maggie Smith earned a total of six Academy Award nominations over the course of her long career, winning a second Oscar in the supporting actress category for her performance in 1978’s ‘California Suite.’ She won a Tony award for her performance in Peter Shaffer’s ‘Lettice and Lovage’ on Broadway, and she snagged three Emmys for her role in the beloved ‘Downton Abbey.’

 

The “tender and eye-opening tribute” REMEMBERING GENE WILDER opens Friday at the Royal and Town Center with multiple Q&As.

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This Friday we’re so pleased to open Remembering Gene Wilder at the Royal in West L.A. and the Town Center in Encino. A loving tribute that celebrates the life and legacy of the comic genius behind an extraordinary string of film roles, from his first collaboration with Mel Brooks in The Producers, to the enigmatic title role in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to his inspired on-screen partnership with Richard Pryor in movies like Silver Streak. It is illustrated by a bevy of touching and hilarious clips and outtakes, never-before-seen home movies, narration from Wilder’s audiobook memoir, and interviews with a roster of brilliant friends and collaborators like Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, and Carol Kane. Remembering Gene Wilder shines a light on an essential performer, writer, director, and all-around mensch.

We have several introductions and Q&As scheduled with executive producer Julie Nimoy, writer Glenn Kirschbaum, and Mr. Wilder’s widow Karen Wilder.

“A hugely enjoyable walk through Gene Wilder’s entire life” – The Broad Street Review

“Tender and eye-opening tribute.” – Jewish Film Institute

Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER and the 35th Anniversary of the Mighty Zeitgeist Films.

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 After a couple disappointing features, it was great to see Todd Haynes, one of our finest filmmakers, return to his indie roots with the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  And now with May December — which we open May 17 at the Glendale, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center — we have another feature that can stand alongside his masterpieces like Safe, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Carol.  This is also a moment to remember his first feature, Poison, and the use this as an opportunity to honor New York-based boutique distributor Zeitgeist Films (the distributor of Poison) on their 35th anniversary. Long and successful careers require talent, to be sure.  But the role of early supporters is also key. And from Todd Haynes to Atom Egoyan and Francois Ozo to Christopher Nolan, Zeitgeist has championed so many amazing talents.  ~ Greg Laemmle
Stephen Saito of The Movable Fest recently spoke with Zeitgeist founders Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo about their company, the ingenuity and drive it took to make it a success, their favorite films, and much more. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the changing world of independent film distribution from two experts. Saito introducers the interview like this:

For much of cinema history, the sight of a big Z slashing across the screen promised the fictional adventures of a sword-wielding caped crusader, but starting in 1988, that big red Z started to stand for something else amongst discerning cinephiles, as real life heroes Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo believed there was a better way forward for the films they loved. Starting Zeitgeist Films out of a small West Village apartment after working a variety of jobs in film distribution, the two have played an outsized role in shaping film culture in the decades since, taking a quality over quantity approach to making room in a crowded American theatrical marketplace for some of the most daring work from around the world. Limiting their acquisitions to a manageable slate of four to five releases a year where each one would receive their undivided attention, a necessity when championing artists such as Bruce Weber (“Let’s Get Lost”), Peter Greenaway (“The Draughtman’s Contract”), Derek Jarman (“Blue”) and Guy Maddin (“Cowards Bend at the Knee”) without deep pockets, the duo has not only had the foresight to see the enduring nature of the films themselves that they release, but the value of time in how much they put into each film and how it has afforded them the sustainability to keep going.

“We noticed that there were companies that started that spent a lot of money on films and would acquire a lot and those companies went out of business extremely quickly,” Gerstman said recently on the occasion of the company’s 35th anniversary. “And we wanted to stay in business and we were able to.”

Their latest milestone has led the Metrograph in New York to pay Zeitgeist a much-deserved month-long tribute with an in-theater 13-film retrospective, kicking off this Friday with Gerstman and Russo introducing a newly spiffed up 4K restoration of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” Marc Rohemund’s unfortunately all-too-relevant WWII tale of the Munich University student who stood up against the infiltration of Nazi thought at school, and an additional 20 films being made available on the theater’s streaming service Metrograph-At-Home, tilting towards the visionary meta-fiction works from Yvonne Rainer, Atom Egoyan and Jennifer Baichwal that the distributor pushed long before such playful documentaries were in fashion. Guests of the series such as Raoul Peck (“Lumumba”), Christine Vachon (“Poison”) and Astra Taylor (“Examined Life”) reflect the range of Gerstman and Russo’s belief in taking advantage of the big screen’s ability to hold a variety of perspectives, yielding a catalog deep with films where the ordinary becomes extraordinary simply by telling stories that have been overlooked, particularly when it comes to the hidden histories of women and gay life in the 20th century.

With the machinery they’ve built over the years, Gerstman and Russo have celebrated the careers of free-thinking artists and activists as a home to documentary profiles of filmmakers such as Maya Deren (“In the Mirror of Maya Deren”) and Alice Guy Blache (“Be Natural”), photographers Cecil Beaton (“Love Cecil”) and Bill Cunningham (“Bill Cunningham: New York”) and intellectuals Noam Chomsky (“Manufacturing Consent”), Hannah Arendt (“Vita Activa”) and Slavoj Zizek (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) while helping launch so many others, picking up on the early promise in the work of Todd Haynes (“Dottie Got Spanked”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”), Chaitanya Tamhane (“Court”), Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation”), and Andrey Zvyagintsev (“Elena”). (Only they could arrange for a documentary to be made about the stop-motion animation maestros the Brothers Quay made by Christopher Nolan, whose first film “Following” they shepherded to theaters.)

As Gerstman and Russo readily acknowledge, the work has only gotten more difficult as time has gone on, but leaning on good taste and institutional knowledge, they have beaten the odds to become a pillar of arthouse cinema and in having such a hand in bringing important voices into those sacred spaces, it was truly an honor to get to speak to them on the eve of their retrospective at the Metrograph, which may be a short distance from their offices, but involves a journey that cuts across multiple countries and decades as they’ve brought global cinema to the city and beyond.

Click here to read the interview.

Farewell, Chaim Topol.

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The brilliant actor Topol, who so completely embodied the character of Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof that he went on to play him literally thousands of times – passed away last week in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Sir, for bringing so much joy to the world, for your humanitarian work, and for making our many Christmas Eve Fiddler Sing-Along screenings such memorable and meaningful experiences.
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Margalit Fox ended her New York Times obituary by sharing this 2009 Topol quote about the meaning he got in return from playing the role: “I did Fiddler a long time thinking that this was a story about the Jewish people. But now I’ve been performing all over the world. And the fantastic thing is wherever I’ve been — India, Japan, England, Greece, Egypt — people come up to me after the show and say, ‘This is our story as well.’”
Last year’s fine documentary ‘Fiddler’s’ Journey to the Big Screen is an excellent place to learn more about Topol’s masterpiece. (Did you know Frank Sinatra was considered for the lead role?!)

Halle Berry on Sidney Poitier: “A performer whose enormous talents were eclipsed only by his kindness. I will recall him as my first mirror, and the true measure of a man.”

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The passing of Sidney Poitier, regal, graceful giant of American cinema, rightly sparked a great deal of focus on the powerful pair of Poitier films released in 1967, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (which we’ll be screening in October). Greg Laemmle wanted to put in a plug for his personal Poitier favorite, the film for which he won his first Oscar, LILIES OF THE FIELD, which Greg called “a beautiful meditation on what can happen when religion moves us toward a place of love and compassion and away from division.” People everywhere, including world leaders, were moved to pay tribute to Poitier, including Oscar-winning actress-filmmaker Halle Berry. She wrote a terrific remembrance in Variety, which we’ll excerpt and link to:

“I grew up idolizing Sidney Poitier.

“I was around 9 when he flickered into my world on a television replay of GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER. I was a latchkey kid in Cleveland, daughter of a white, single mother and a Black father — whose union their parents had frowned upon. In the film, Sidney and his co-star, Katharine Houghton, play an interracial couple whose parents also struggle with their children’s relationship. There I sat in front of my mom’s old console, mesmerized, as I watched my family’s dynamic play out. For the first time in my childhood, I felt seen. Understood. Validated. The world already knew Sidney, who died last week at 94, as a formidable performer. But I first experienced him as a mirror.

“I watched that film over and over again, through my middle-school years and beyond. By then, my mother had moved our family from a Black enclave in Cleveland’s inner city to the suburbs, where I became one of a few Black students in a sea of Caucasian faces. I was a child who, like my parents’ interracial relationship, never quite fit in. In those years, it was rare to see Blacks in leading roles, much less have our narratives celebrated or even acknowledged. Cicely Tyson and Diana Ross were on the scene, as was the fresh memory of Dorothy Dandridge, the Black actress I idolized as much as I did Sidney. Back then, their mere presence was itself a form of protest. A challenge to the notion of whiteness as humanity’s high-water mark. Still, those images were scarce. As a child born to a white woman and a Black man, I felt alone and misunderstood. GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, as great art does, was an affirmation that I mattered. Also, it gave others a window into my reality, of what it felt like to navigate the world with both Black and white parents.

“Sidney’s impact on me did not end there. Over the years, I looked to him as a sterling example, as a template of manhood and all that is honorable. I was just 4 when my parents separated, when my father’s alcoholism upended our family. As imperfect as my dad was, as deep of a wedge as his fury drove between us, I loved him, missed him, longed to have him close. In my mind’s eye, and in my father’s absence, Sidney epitomized what a man should be: unflappable and courageous, eloquent and proud, charming and handsome. He even physically resembled my father. I wasn’t yet born in 1964 when Sidney became the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor for his role in “Lilies of the Field.” But years later, when I witnessed the moment in a Black History class, I could not look away. Sidney’s grace and poise, the intention with which he spoke, the dignified way he carried himself — all of it resonated with me. Though I hadn’t met him, and did not dream that I ever would, I felt strongly connected to him.”

Click here to read the full piece in Variety.