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Academy Awards 2024: Wes Anderson Bags First Ever Oscar With Live Action Short Film The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar
Renowned director Wes Anderson has finally clinched his first Oscar after receiving eight nominations throughout his career.
Over the past 22 years, Wes Anderson has been nominated for eight Oscars and he finally won his first Oscar today in the 96th Academy Awards for the 39-minute live-action short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Wes Anderson wins his first Oscar
Wes Anderson, known for directing films like Asteroid City, has been awarded the Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short for his adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, an unusual honor for an award category typically recognizing emerging filmmakers.
His win was over fellow nominees The After, from director Misan Harriman, Invincible, from director Vincent René-Lortie, Knight of Fortune, from director Lasse Lyskjær Noer, and Red, White and Blue from director Nazrin Choudhury.
Anderson gained acclaim for his early films Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998). He often collaborated with brothers Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson during that time and founded his production company American Empirical Pictures, which he runs. He then received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
His next films included The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), and his first stop-motion film, Fantastic Mr Fox (2009), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature nomination, and then Moonrise Kingdom (2012), earning his second Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination.
For his film The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), he received his first Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. Later works include his second stop-motion film, Isle of Dogs (2018), earning him the Silver Bear for Best Director,[5] followed by The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023). In 2023, Anderson made four short films based on stories by Roald Dahl that were released on Netflix.
About The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a 2023 American fantasy short film written, co-produced, and directed by Wes Anderson, based on the 1977 short story The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl. It is the second film adaptation of a Dahl work directed by Anderson, following Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular character alongside Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade. The story sees a rich man learning about a clairvoyant guru who could see without using his eyes through the power of a particular form of Yoga, then setting out to master the skill of cheating at gambling.
The film is the first of a four-part series of shorts adapted from Dahl's short stories, including The Swan, The Rat Catcher and Poison. Development on the project began in January 2022, with most of the cast signed on. Principal photography took place in London that month. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was originally reported to be a feature film until Anderson clarified in June 2023 that it would be one of a collection of short films.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2023, and received a limited theatrical release on September 20, 2023, followed by being released on Netflix on September 27, 2023. The other three Anderson shorts based on Dahl stories premiered on Netflix on succeeding days: The Swan on September 28, The Rat Catcher on September 29, and Poison on September 30.
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