This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on February 28, 2025. To receive Leslie Dinaberg's arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters .
ON the Oscar Beat
This year’s SBIFF festivities felt like we got our own personal peek into Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony. Best actor nominees Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) were all honored with SBIFF tributes. And the best director nominees — Sean Baker (Anora), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), James Mangold (A Complete Unknown), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), and Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) — also all appeared on the Arlington stage for multiple panels and tributes , along with a slew of other big name nominees ( Demi Moore , Selena Gomez , Zoe Saldaña , and Ariana Grande , to name a few). (Click on links on their names for our coverage.)
