Michael Ordoña

2 months ago | latimes.com | Michael Ordoña |Michael Ordoña

This year’s Oscar-nominated animated shorts tell compact tales about first kisses, sweets and an old-fashioned children’s TV show, along with more adult topics such as PTSD and hair transplants. Nicolas Keppens’ “Beautiful Men” uses deadpan humor to poke at a vulnerable side of masculinity: hair loss. Keppens went to Istanbul for work and found himself at a hotel breakfast in the presence of men in Turkey to get hair transplants.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Michael Ordoña |Michael Ordoña

The five films nominated for the documentary short subject Oscar, in the words of the poet, hit you hard and soft. They delve into crimes and their aftermaths, celebrate a trailblazer and delicately touch on the hopes of one young schoolgirl. Though its central event is the sentencing of the Parkland school shooter, “Death by Numbers” is really about how such stories don’t end when the news coverage does. The film follows Parkland survivor Samantha Fuentes.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Michael Ordoña |Michael Ordoña

The five Oscar-nominated live-action short films each tackle urgent sociopolitical issues. By placing us in the shoes of people on the front lines of them — even in a sci-fi pseudo-comedy — they promise to shake viewers. Sophie and Oscar have been together for years. They’re married, they have a young daughter.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Michael Ordoña |Michael Ordoña

When multiple Oscar nominee Chris Sanders took on adapting Peter Brown’s beloved children’s book, “The Wild Robot,” he wanted to do something different visually than what he was seeing in other movies. The reigning 3D computer animation style, with its smooth surfaces, often bright, even lighting and familiar character designs wasn’t right for the feeling he wanted to foster. “You’ve got these cute animals, and you’ve got a forest, and you’ve got this robot, all these adorable elements.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Michael Ordoña |Michael Ordoña

So Bob Dylan looks you in the eye and says, “I never intended to become a folk singer.”James Mangold, director, co-writer and co-producer of “A Complete Unknown,” had several lengthy meetings with the musical icon as he worked on the script for the film about him. Mangold hoped to confirm some things (yes, “Masters of War” was written in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis), but mostly to understand the Hall of Fame songwriter in a deeper way than standard research could yield.