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This Sunday, the Academy Awards will take place at LA’s Dolby Theater. With so many amazing performances this year, it’s bound to be a historic night for Hollywood and USC.
Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” could be the first Indigenous woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
Colman Domingo stars as Bayard Rustin in “Rustin,” and could become the first Afro-Latino to win best actor.
“Oppenheimer” is nominated in 13 categories, including Best Picture. It could break the record for most Oscar wins by a single film.
Three multilingual films are also up for best picture: Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest.
Closer to home, Trojans also have the potential to make history on Sunday night - Among the nominees are 10 USC alumni.
They include America Ferrera for best supporting actress in Barbie, Ludwig Goransson for best original score in Oppenheimer, and Erik Aadahl for best sound in The Creator.
Among these Trojan nominations is the documentary Nai Nai and Wài Pó in the Best Documentary Short category. The short film, which is spoken in Mandarin, follows the lives of the two grandmothers of director Sean Wang.
Wang graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts just seven years ago. While there, he met Sam Davis, who is the cinematographer of Nai Nai and Wài Pó. Davis says the idea for the film originated while they were at USC.
Davis: It was basically this little skit where his grandmas offer him blueberries, and he refuses, and then they look at each other and basically, telepathically decided to kill him. So, they murder him, and then they tie him up and murder him. And they bury him in the backyard. And then it says, “Happy Holidays.” And that was the skit. And it sort of went viral within our USC film school friend group.
As the pair developed Nai Nai and Wài Pó, the film transformed into an inspiring story about his two grandmothers’ special bond.
Davis: Because one of the sort of early inspirations for the project was just the idea of making a film about old age or end of life but one that feels very youthful. Because we saw that Nai Nai and Wài Pó, we saw this childlike spirit in them.
In a fun turn of events, three out of five nominees in the Best Documentary Short category are SCA alums, including Nai Nai and Wài Pó, The Last Repair Shop, and Island in Between. Davis reflects on the impact that SCA had on him and his peers as they made their way into the film industry.
Davis: Making movies is really hard. And doing it with your friends, I think is crucial. And it’s just made the entire process so much more rewarding to be able to be on this crazy, crazy adventure with one of my best friends and his family, and our competition being some of my other best friends who also went to USC.
Davis says the Oscar nominations have sparked friendly competition between him and his former classmates!
Davis: It’s a good reflection, obviously on our program and it’s just fun to be competing against each other and still be able to be friends but, but want to obviously, take each other down.
Hopefully the winner will bring their Oscar to campus! Tune in to the Academy Awards this Sunday to see who takes the win.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Alia Noll.