The Oscars has just announced its first winner of 2024. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her work in The Holdovers.
In Alexander Payne’s film The Holdovers, Randolph plays Mary Lamb, a school cafe manager working in a New England boarding school. Randolph’s performance has been praised for being a subtle yet powerful exploration of grief.
During Randolph’s acceptance speech, she thanked God, her mother, and her publicist.
“I didn’t think I was supposed to be doing this as a career,” Randolph began.
“I started off as a singer. But my Mother said to me, ‘Go across that street to that theatre department. There’s something for you there.’ And I thank my mother for doing that.
“I have to give a special shout-out to my publicist. And I know y’all said don’t, but you don’t have a publicist like I have a publicist.”
Randolph’s Best Supporting Actress win is rather impressive, as she was up against some incredibly talented competitors. The other actresses she was up against included Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt, The Color Purple’s Danielle Brooks, Barbie’s America Ferrera, and Nyad’s Jodie Foster.
However, Randolph’s win didn’t surprise too many Oscar-heads. In the lead-up to this ceremony, she won at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the Critics’ Choice awards, the Independent Spirit awards, and the Screen Actors Guild awards.
The Plot of The Holdovers
If you don’t know what The Holdovers is about, here’s a cheeky summary. In this movie, Paul Giamatti plays an uptight teacher who remains on campus during Christmas break. He does this to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. Does he form unlikely bonds with these students? Or does disaster strike New England?
The Controversy Haunting The Holdovers
On March 9, The Holders was launched into scandal. The UK screenwriter, Simon Stephenson, has alleged that The Holdovers ripped off a screenplay he wrote titled Frisco.
“I’ve been a working writer for 20 years – in my native UK before I came to the US – and so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes a few elements can be borrowed, etcetera,” Stephenson said.
“This just isn’t that situation. The two screenplays are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking guns throughout.”
Meanwhile, Stephenson is stating that there are only a few similarities between The Holdovers and Frisco.
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