The Oscars are Sunday, and many of the nominees have strong New York City connections. We’ve examined the entire slate for some of the most interesting local ties:
Timothée Chalamet
Timothée Chalamet had a true breakout year in 2017 with a star turn in the acclaimed “Call Me by Your Name” and a supporting role in “Lady Bird,” which are both in the running for best picture.
The 22-year-old actor hails from Hell’s Kitchen and went to the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art. He said his time at the Manhattan school was transformative.
“I had some excellent teachers and really fell in love with it,” Chalamet said during a 2013 interview with Bwog, Columbia University’s student-run campus news site.
Chalamet attended Columbia University and New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Daniel-Day Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis is known for immersing himself in preparation for roles. Getting ready to play a couture designer (based on Cristóbal Balenciaga) in “Phantom Thread” was no different.
Day-Lewis spent months interning for Marc Happel, the director of costumes for the New York City Ballet. He studied drawing, sewing-by-hand and draping.
Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, “Get Out,” was one of the most talked-about films of 2017 with its subversive take on modern-day racism in America.
Peele grew up on the Upper West Side close to Central Park. He attended The Calhoun School on West End Avenue.
He starred in “MADtv” and then went on to the Emmy-winning sketch series “Key & Peele,” with friend and “MADtv” co-star Keegan-Michael Key.
Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez
The superstar married songwriting duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez already have one Oscar in their Park Slope town house for “Let it Go.” They are nominated again for “Remember Me” from the animated film “Coco.”
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Kristen talked about how she wrote the lyrics for “Remember Me” during a commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan on the F train.
The couple also penned new songs for the “Frozen” musical now in previews on Broadway.
‘My Nephew Emmett’
The Oscar-nominated short “My Nephew Emmett” started out as a class project for Kevin Wilson Jr., who is getting his master’s degree in fine arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program.
The gripping 19-minute film focuses on Aug. 28, 1955, the night 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered after allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The horrific incident helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement.
‘Abacus: Small Enough to Jail’
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” is a documentary focused on a family-owned community bank in Chinatown. It had the unfortunate distinction of being the only bank in the country criminally charged after the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
The bank was owned by the Sung family, who actually contacted authorities after they discovered one of their employees engaged in fraud. The film explores their prosecution, humiliating arrest and perp walk and efforts to defend themselves.
‘Lady Bird’
As the title character in “Lady Bird,” Saoirse Ronan dreams of moving to NYC to attend college and escape her dull suburban life.
Ronan herself was born in the Bronx, before moving with her family to Ireland as a young child.
The film closely mirrors the life of director Greta Gerwig, who grew up in Sacramento and attended Barnard College.
Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige has blazed a trail across the entertainment world as a singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She is nominated for two awards — best supporting actress for her role in “Mudbound,” and best original song for “Mighty River” from the same film. Born in the Bronx, Blige spent her childhood in Georgia and the Schlobohm housing projects in Yonkers.
Charles S. Cohen
New York City real estate magnate Charles S. Cohen has coproduced two Oscar-nominated films: “The Insult,” a Lebanese drama up for best foreign language film and “Faces Places,” a French film nominated in the feature-length documentary category.
Cohen owns the Quad Cinema on West 13th Street in Manhattan. During a recent interview with Crain’s, Cohen mused about creating his own film about a familiar topic — real estate in Manhattan.
