Moviefone Editorial

Tag: the-hunting-ground

  • Oscars 2016: Watch Lady Gaga’s Powerful Performance Honoring Abuse Survivors

    US-OSCARS-SHOWLady Gaga may not have taken home a trophy during the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday, but the songstress certainly won Oscar night with her beautiful, powerful performance of “Til It Happens to You,” a song written about and in honor of survivors of sexual abuse.

    Gaga — who was nominated for Best Original Song alongside Diane Warren for the theme from campus sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Ground” — was introduced by none other than Vice President Joe Biden, who was there to promote the White House’s It’s On Us campaign against sexual assault. The singer is an abuse survivor herself, and took her platform during Sunday’s program seriously, putting on a heartwrenching performance of “Til It Happens to You” that was brimming with emotion.

    The moment was made even more powerful by the appearance of approximately 50 other abuse survivors, who joined Gaga onstage. The men and women sported messages of hope scrawled on their arms, including “Unbreakable” and “Not Your Fault,” and ended the performance with their arms raised in triumph.

    Warren said in a statement released after the ceremony that that moving display was an intentional message.

    “Tonight’s performance is about giving a voice to the many victims of sexual assault and their families around the world,” Warren’s statement said. “We are honored to represent so many survivors and hope. ‘Til It Happens To You’ empowers those watching to get involved and become part of a solution.”

    [via: The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times]

    Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

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  • What Doesn’t a Producer Do?

    What Doesn’t a Producer Do?

    What does a producer do?

    We asked a crop of Hollywood heavy hitters to demystify their jobs while at the 27th annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 23 in Los Angeles.

    But the answer–even for them–isn’t so simple. Or as Amy Ziering puts it: “What doesn’t a producer do?”

    Ziering, the producer of “The Hunting Ground,” likens being a producer to “sort of like a jack of all trades.” “They oversee all facets,” she explains, “from budget to crew to cast.”

    Producers are some of the most important players who work behind the scenes in television and movies.

    “Sicario” producer Basil Iwanyk says that they often absorb the burden of success and failure. “You’re not the boss,” he says, “but you’re on the line for everything, both creatively and financially.”

    “Back on Board: Greg Louganis” producer Will Sweeney compares his duties to “being a parent.”

    “You’re there from the very beginning to the very end,” he explains. “We raise all the money, we come up with the ideas.”

    As disciplined organizers of show business projects, being popular isn’t easy for a producer.

    In fact, “Parks and Recreation’s” Tom Ragazzo shares that “trying to fit in without being a pain in the butt” is also one of the challenges of his job.

    Watch Amy Ziering’s “The Hunting Ground” trailer below:

    Watch Basil Iwanyk’s “Sicario” trailer below:

    Watch Will Sweeney’s “Back on Board: Greg Louganis” trailer below:

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  • Linda Perry Apologizes for Lady Gaga Oscars Accusation

    Songwriters Hall Of Fame 46th Annual Induction And Awards - BackstageLess than 24 hours after she accused Lady Gaga of not genuinely earning an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, musician Linda Perry has apologized for her remarks.

    Perry, who caused a Twitter firestorm early Monday morning with her insistence that Gaga had little to no hand in writing the song, “Til It Happens to You,” later deleted the string of tweets (which you can still read in our original story) that claimed that co-writer Diane Warren was the sole songwriter, and perhaps gave Gaga a co-writing credit to get the tune more attention — and an Oscar nomination. But Perry was widely criticized on the social media site, and by late Monday had taken down her posts, and replaced them with an apology.

    “I made a mistake to comment,” Perry tweeted. “I wasn’t in the room when the [song] was being written.”

    She went on to say that she wanted “the focus to remain on the great importance of the song and the message of the film.” “Til It Happens to You” was featured in the documentary “The Hunting Ground,” which explores rampant sexual assault on college campuses.

    Warren had denied and denounced Perry’s remarks in a series of posts on Twitter on Monday, which Gaga retweeted in solidarity. Neither woman provided further comment after Perry posted her apology.

    Perry herself had submitted a song for Oscar consideration (“Hands of Love” from the film “Freeheld”), which failed to garner a nomination.

    [via: Linda Perry]

    Photo credit: Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame

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  • Linda Perry Says Lady Gaga Didn’t Write Oscar-Nominated Song

    Fox And FX's 2016 Golden Globe Awards Party - ArrivalsLady Gaga became a first-time Oscar nominee (and possible EGOT contender) last week for co-writing the song “Til It Happens to You,” from the documentary “The Hunting Ground.” But according to another singer-songwriter, Gaga doesn’t deserve the nomination.

    Linda Perry, the former lead singer of ’90s band 4 Non Blondes, took to Twitter early Monday morning to allege that the tune, co-written by multi-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren, was in fact wholly written by Warren, who then gave Gaga co-writing credit in an effort to get the song more attention. Perry said that she heard Warren’s original demo of the tune, and it only featured one line that was different from the final, Gaga-performed product — a difference so minor that she doubts Gaga had much to do with writing the song at all.


    It’s unclear why Perry felt the need to publicly call out Gaga and Warren (she wrote on Twitter that she knew who was originally supposed to sing the song before it was offered to Gaga, though she didn’t name any names), but one possible explanation could be sour grapes: Perry had submitted a song she wrote for the movie “Freeheld,” called “Hands of Love,” for Oscar consideration, and the tune did not receive a nomination. She tweeted about her disappointment last week, and thanked singer Miley Cyrus for her performance of the song. Oddly, Perry also tweeted a special shout-out to both Warren and Gaga on their nomination, even retweeting an excited post from Warren.

    Warren struck back at Perry’s allegations on Monday with her own tweets, denying the artist’s claims (though she didn’t mention Perry specifically).

    “The song is the result of a special collaboration between myself and Lady Gaga. As Lady Gaga and I have [consistently] said,” Warren wrote.

    Warren and Gaga gave a joint interview to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, explaining how the song came about. Here’s how they described their songwriting process at the time:

    Warren, who writes songs but never sings them publicly, nevertheless gave Gaga a little vocal tease of her ideas. “It was just beautiful,” gushes Gaga, who says she cried upon hearing it. “Then we met and I started to play it and sing it and I would say, ‘Diane, what do you think of this?’ ” She continues, “She took what she already had, and then she gave it to me and she said, ‘Make it yours.’ ” One of Gaga’s major contributions, according to both women, was taking a song that was somber throughout and making it increasingly triumphant and defiant as it progressed. Warren was thrilled — “She had this whole vision for it,” she marvels now. And, in Gaga’s words, “It became two women together, standing strong.”

    Gaga has yet to comment on Perry’s claims, though her Little Monsters have already given Perry an earful on Twitter. The Oscars will be handed out on February 28 on ABC.

    [via: Linda Perry, Diane Warren, The Hollywood Reporter]

    Photo credit: Getty Images

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  • Oscars 2016: Lady Gaga on EGOT Track With Best Song Nomination

    73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Press RoomLady Gaga is having a great week: After earning a Golden Globe on Sunday for her acting debut in “American Horror Story: Hotel,” Gaga just nabbed her first Oscar nomination, earning a nod for Best Original Song. And you know what that means: Mother Monster is officially on EGOT watch.

    While some media outlets mistakenly reported this weekend that Gaga’s Globes win put her on the EGOT path (those misbegotten tweets were hastily deleted), Thursday’s nomination — for co-writing the tune “Til It Happens to You” from documentary “The Hunting Ground” — now confirms that the musician-turned-actress is indeed on her way to earning another component of the crowning four achievements in entertainment: An Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Gaga already has a whopping six Grammys on her shelf, with another nomination pending, also for “Til It Happens to You.”

    So how likely is it that Gaga will actually walk away with an Academy Award next month? The Oscars usually favors flashy nominees (think Adele, who won in 2013 for the “Skyfall” theme, or last year’s winners, Common and John Legend, for their “Selma” anthem, “Glory”), and the music superstar is no slouch in that department. But this year’s field is pretty stacked, with other big names including Sam Smith (another Bond theme, “The Writing’s On the Wall,” from “Spectre”) and The Weeknd (“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Yes, “Fifty Shades” is officially an Oscar nominee. We can’t believe it, either).

    Gaga is arguably a bigger star than either of those artists, and her co-writer, Diane Warren, is an Oscar favorite, with seven previous nominations under her belt (though no wins). So a triumph on Oscar night is certainly possible, but not necessarily a given. (That falls in line with this awards season being one of the hardest to predict in recent memory.)

    We’ll be watching with bated breath on Oscar Sunday. The Academy Awards ceremony airs on ABC on February 28.

    Photo credit: Getty Images

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