Oscars 2025: Brazil’s ‘I’m Still Here’ wins best international film

• March 3, 2025

“I’m Still Here,” the Brazilian film based on the true story of an ordinary woman who found herself fighting her nation’s military dictatorship, won the Oscar for best international film at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

Director Walter Salles thanked the other creators of films, which included the French nominee “Emilia Perez” and from Germany “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” and then paid tribute to the women who inspired and created the lead character in “I’m Still Here.”

“This goes to a woman who after a loss suffered during an authoritarian regime decided to resist,” Salles said. “Her name in Eunice Paiva. And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her, Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro.” (Torres plays Paiva for the bulk of the film, and Montenegro, her mother, plays Paiva late in life.)

The death of Gene Hackman at 95, discovered just days before the Academy Awards, led the annual In Memorium segment of the Oscars, with his friend and two-time costar Morgan Freeman delivering a movie eulogy before the traditional slideshow of those who died in the year since the last Oscars were held.

“This week our community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend,” Freeman said. “I had the pleasure of working alongside Gene on two films, ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘Under Suspicion.’ And like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work.

“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy, I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work,’” he continued. “So I think I speak for us all when I say, ‘Gene, you’ll be remembered for that and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.”

As the orchestra played a somber melody, the faces of big stars such as Maggie Smith, James Earl Jones, and Shelley Duval, as well as behind-the-camera luminaries such as director David Lynch, producer Jon Landau, songwriter Richard M. Sherman, and cinema operator Robert Laemmle flashed across the screen.

“The Brutalist,” meanwhile, picked up its first two Oscars with wins for best cinematography for Lol Crawley and best original score for Daniel Blumberg.

In one of the fun twists to this year’s show, stars from several of the craft categories, including cinematography and costume design, announced the nominees, with actor Joe Alwyn announcing “The Brutalist” and greeting Crawley with a hug when he reached the stage.

​ Orange County Register 

‘I’m Still Here’ win best international film in Brazil’s first Oscar in the category

• March 3, 2025

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr., Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “I’m Still Here,” a film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, gave Brazil’s first Oscars win on Sunday in the best international film category.

The Walter Salles film stars Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva, the wife of Rubens Paiva, a former leftist Brazilian congressman who, at the height of the country’s military dictatorship in 1971, was taken from his family’s Rio de Janeiro home and never returned.

Salles paid homage to Paiva’s bravery, and Torres for portraying her along with Fernanda Montenegro, the daughter of one of the country’s greatest stars. She appears late in the film as the older Eunice.

“This goes to a woman who after a loss suffered during a authoritarian regime decided not to bend and resist. This prize goes to her,” Salles said during his acceptance speech, as the audience gave a standing ovation. “And it goes to the two extraordinary women who gave life to her.”

“Today is the day to feel even prouder of being Brazilian,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on X, “Pride for our cinema, for our artists and, primarily, pride for our democracy.”

The focus of “I’m Still Here,” based on the memoir by Paiva’s son Marcelo, is Eunice, the mother of five left to remake their family’s life with neither her husband nor any answers for his disappearance. It unfolds as a portrait of a different kind of political resistance — one of steadfast endurance.

Eunice refuses the military dictatorship’s attempt to break her and her family. When, in one scene, Eunice and her children — by then long without their disappeared father — pose for a newspaper photograph, she tells them to smile.

“The smile is a kind of resistance,” Torres told The Associated Press. “It’s not that they’re living happily. It’s a tragedy. Marcelo recently said something that Eunice said that I had never heard: ‘We are not a victim. The victim is the country.’”

“I’m Still Here” is a deeply Brazilian story, made by one of the country’s most acclaimed directors (Salles’ films include “Central Station” and “Motorcycle Diaries”) and Montenegro.

Also nominated for best international film were Denmark’s “The Girl with the Needle,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Latvia’s “Flow” and France’s “Emilia Pérez,” a onetime Oscars favorite marred by controversy.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ split-squad teams beat White Sox, A’s

• March 3, 2025

THE GAME: The Dodgers split-squad teams beat the Chicago White Sox 6-3 at Camelback Ranch and the A’s 8-4 in Mesa on Sunday afternoon.

HITTING REPORT: The first nine Dodgers batters went down in order against the White Sox. Shohei Ohtani led off the fourth inning with a single, breaking up the perfect game. … Freddie Freeman hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, his second game in a row with a homer. … Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo home run in the seventh to give the Dodgers the lead. … Will Smith, Josue DePaula and Joe Vetrano had doubles. … Against the A’s, James Outman and David Bote each went 2 for 3. Outman had a triple and Bote a two-run homer. … Michael Conforto doubled and drew a walk and Alex Freeland hit a solo home run.

PITCHING REPORT: Tyler Glasnow retired the first six batters in order against the White Sox, two on strikeouts. He gave up a leadoff double in the third inning and was done for the day. … Tanner Scott retired the side in order in his inning against the White Sox. Blake Treinen did the same in his inning, striking out the side. But neither Kirby Yates nor Alex Vesia could finish their innings. Yates gave up a run on two hits and a walk and hit a batter. … Against the A’s, Justin Wrobleski retired all nine batters he faced in his three innings. … Anthony Banda and Ben Casparius each pitched a scoreless inning.

UP NEXT: The Dodgers are off Monday.

Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto) vs. Reds (TBA), Tuesday, 5:05 p.m. PT at Camelback Ranch, SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market only), 570 AM

​ Orange County Register 

José Soriano has short outing in Angels’ loss to Giants

• March 3, 2025

THE GAME: The Angels gave up eight runs in the first three innings on their way to a 9-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants in a Cactus League game on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz.

PITCHING REPORT: Right-hander José Soriano needed 43 pitches to get four outs, which ended his day early. In the first inning, Soriano faced only four hitters, issuing a walk and allowing two hits. He was then pulled. He ended up being charged with three runs, two of which scored with right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks on the mound. Soriano returned to the mound to pitch a perfect second, with two strikeouts. He didn’t come back for the third because of his pitch-count, which was inflated by a 10-pitch strikeout to Willy Adames in the second. Soriano, who touched 100 mph, said he felt good about his stuff. “I was just working on executing my pitches, and I felt like I was doing it, but they were swinging the bat pretty well,” Soriano said through an interpreter. Manager Ron Washington didn’t feel the same about the outing. “He wasn’t very good today,” Washington said. “Couldn’t get the sinker in the zone to get swings at it. A couple good breaking balls. He was just scattered.” … Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn pitched a perfect inning. He has worked two scoreless innings this spring. … Shaun Anderson struck out six hitters in two innings. He allowed one run, on a Luis Matos homer. Anderson, a non-roster invitee, has pitched in the majors for seven teams over parts of five seasons.

HITTING REPORT: Logan O’Hoppe had two hits, including an RBI single. O’Hoppe is 5 for 9 this spring. … Christian Moore had an RBI single among his two hits, snapping an 0-for-8 slump. Moore is 5 for 16 this spring. … Tim Anderson led off the game with a single. He then stole second. Anderson is 2 for 14 this spring. … Jorge Soler had two singles, improving to 7 for 13 this spring. … The Angels struck out in 6 of their 10 at-bats against Giants starter Robbie Ray.

DEFENSE REPORT: Center fielder Jo Adell allowed a blooper to drop just in front of him, allowing a run to score in the first inning. “He didn’t get a good jump on it,” Washington said. “But from where I am, I don’t know. It’s a big ol’ outfield. Maybe he couldn’t get to it.” Adell has been adjusting to center because the Angels are moving Mike Trout to right field. … Pitcher José Fermin was late covering first on a routine grounder that would have ended the third inning. Two runs ended up scoring on the play, completing a four-run inning.

UP NEXT: Angels (LHP Tyler Anderson) vs. Colorado Rockies (RHP Ryan Feltner), Monday, 12:10 p.m. PT, at Tempe Diablo Stadium, FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Kings land in Chicago looking to snap three-game losing skid

• March 3, 2025

The Kings blew into the Windy City looking for a pair of broad shoulders to help snap their three-game winless streak against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday.

It’ll be the Kings’ third game in four nights after they bounced off Wednesday’s overtime loss to Vancouver at home and straight into a couple of lopsided defeats in Dallas on Friday and St. Louis on Saturday, which came by a 10-3 aggregate score. The mini-funk marked just the third time this season that the Kings have lost three or more games consecutively.

“It’s a season where it goes up and down but when it goes down for a couple games, you’ve got to pull yourself out in a hurry,” Coach Jim Hiller told reporters in St. Louis.

Drew Doughty returned to action after missing the Vancouver game with a nebulous lower-body injury, picking up an assist in St. Louis to mitigate his -4 rating over the weekend. With their most experienced defender back in the mix, Brandt Clarke was relegated to being the seventh defensemen one night and a healthy scratch the following evening.

The results were less than desirable at both ends, just as they were when Clarke was scratched during a back-to-back set in Florida in late January. In the three games he has taken in as a spectator, the Kings have gone 0-3-0 and mustered a measly goal while allowing 10.

Hiller has steered nearly every positive development and modicum of praise for Clarke toward a discussion of what he could do better. That stood in stark contrast to the adulation, sometimes entirely unprompted, he’s heaped upon veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson. Last season, waiver loss Andreas Englund played in all 87 games for the Kings in the regular season and playoffs, despite being a career part-time player with obvious limitations along with the “unmeasurables” Hiller lauded.

Clarke was the eighth overall pick in 2021, a draft about which Kings scouting guru Mark Yannetti was effusively enthusiastic about when discussing the team’s overall haul and their selection of Clarke in particular. They had, Yannetti said, two opportunities to move up from No. 8 but opted to stay put and take Clarke, a reflection of how much they valued his combination of skill and confidence.

Yet his game-breaking setup ability and uncommon swagger have not been as well-received of late, despite reciprocally positive results for both team and player with him in the lineup.

For instance, when Clarke registers at least one point, the Kings are 15-4-1, good for a .775 points percentage.

After Clarke played just over five minutes in a win against Utah, Hiller pondered aloud what the ideal amount of ice for him might be.

The Kings have lost eight of nine games in which he played 19 minutes or more, but also all three in which he has been scratched. Removing the outliers on either end, they’ve gone 28-8-7 in games in which Clarke has played between 12:56 and 18:52, giving them a .733 points percentage.

Narrowing that range a bit to between 14:40 and 18:25, their record rises further to 16-1-4, good for an .857 points percentage. That success has even been transferable to the road, where the Kings have struggled, as those 21 games included an 8-1-3 away record, a .791 points percentage. Otherwise on the road, they’re 4-15-2, representing a .239 points percentage.

Despite a reduction in minutes, power-play time and even games played, Clarke still leads the Kings in scoring by a defenseman. He’s tied for fourth on the team, regardless of position, in assists per 60 minutes on a roster that desperately needs both power-play production and overall scoring.

While the Kings may not appear to have a spot for Clarke for whatever reason, Chicago certainly would, in theory, after trading veteran right defenseman Seth Jones to the defending champion Florida Panthers on Saturday.

That same evening, they cooled off the surging Ducks, 6-3, at Honda Center in a game in which Ryan Donato and Teuvo Teräväinen had three points apiece as the ‘Hawks won for the first time in six chances. Leading scorer Connor Bedard will limp into Monday’s match with no points and a -8 rating in his past five outings.

​ Orange County Register 

Oscars 2025: Partial list of Academy Award winners

• March 3, 2025

Winners announced at the 97th Academy Awards, held Sunday, March 2 at Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood:

Actor in a supporting role: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”

Animated feature film: “Flow”

Animated short film: “In the Shadow of the Cypress”

Writing (original screenplay): Sean Baker, “Anora”

Costume design: Paul Tazewell, “Wicked”

Oscars by film:

“Anora”: 1

“Flow”: 1

“In the Shadow of the Cypress”: 1

“A Real Pain”: 1

“Wicked”: 1

​ Orange County Register 

Oscars photos: See reunions, props and more candid moments from the red carpet

• March 3, 2025

By JOHN LOCHER and ELISE RYAN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stars are having fun on their way into the Oscars.

Best supporting actress nominee Ariana Grande, dressed in a baby pink gown with a tulle skirt, and Elle Fanning, in lacy white, held hands and laughed as they arrived.

Grande’s “Wicked” castmate Bowen Yang and his “Las Culturistas” podcast co-host Matt Rogers were all smiles, posing with lucky fans who secured seats in bleachers through lotteries. Dressed in florals, Jeff Goldblum — the Wizard of Oz himself — and his wife Emilie Livingston stopped to pose with U.S. Army members there to celebrate their 250th anniversary.

It wasn’t just human stars making their way through the sea of celebrities and photographers on the carpet: Filmmakers Nick Park, Richard Beek and Merlin Crossingham carried the Claymation stars of “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” nominated for best animated feature. Animation director Nicolas Keppens wore a figurine of the character Bart from his nominated short “Beautiful Men” in a pink baby carrier on his chest.

Diane Warren, nominated for her 16th Oscar for her song “The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight” wore a jacket adorned with glittery music notes. She lifted up her collar to reveal a phrase printed on the inside: “Make it (expletive) Happen.”

AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers’ relievers Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott took time reaching elite status

• March 3, 2025

GLENDALE, Ariz. – For Kirby Yates, it was a pitch. For Tanner Scott, it was a person.

When the Dodgers signed the two as free agents this winter, they added a pair of elite relievers to their bullpen. But both were late arrivals to that status.

For the first four years of his big-league career, Yates had posted a 4.78 ERA for four teams (the Yankees, Rays, Angels and Padres) with an unsightly 1.30 WHIP. He turned 30 in spring 2017 and things started to change.

“I think the obvious answer would be the split, learning that,” Yates said, agreeing that his career could be divided into two chapters – before he added a split-fingered fastball and after.

“It just gave me something that complemented my fastball. Gave me a swing-and-miss pitch.”

Yates had picked up the pitch during his 2016 season with the Yankees. He brought it with him to spring training with the Angels in 2017 but didn’t pitch well, made just one regular-season appearance with the Angels and was waived.

The Padres claimed Yates and his turnaround began.

“I took that (splitter) into Anaheim that spring camp, I was throwing it and I felt confident about it. I felt it was going to work,” Yates said. “I didn’t have the best spring but when I went to Triple-A that year early, I started figuring it out a little bit – how to throw it and how to get consistent movement.

“When I ended up in San Diego, I got with (pitching coach) Darren Balsley. He really kind of taught me how to do it – where my hand should be at release and all of that. He just helped make it consistent and got it better and better. I think the more I threw it, the more comfortable I got, the more I could command it, the more I understood I could get a consistent break if I do these few things. It kind of took off from there.”

Yates has thrown his splitter more than 40 percent of the time since then. He missed the 2021 season following Tommy John surgery. But in six seasons armed with the splitter, he has been one of the most difficult relievers in baseball to face. His ERA since 2018 is 2.21 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP and 13 strikeouts per nine innings.

He made some other changes as he entered his 30s that were also factors.

On the 2016 Yankees team with veterans like CC Sabathia and Brian McCann, he had started to see what it took to be a successful major-leaguer over the long haul.

“Watching the way they prepared, the way they went about their business, it made me realize that I probably needed to make some changes,” said Yates, a native of Hawaii. “I moved away from Kauai and bought a house in Arizona so I could work out a lot more, be more dedicated and disciplined.”

He worked out with Alex Cobb who became a split-finger tutor. He became a father. And he became a more committed professional – studying hitters, building his own scouting reports and doing everything he could so that he could “go to sleep at night” knowing that he had given it his all.

“To abandon what you’ve been doing for six, seven years in pro ball and start a new pitch, you’ve got to believe that the other way doesn’t work anymore,” he recalled. “I was ‘Look, if I stay with the fastball-slider, I’m going to be average at best.’ That wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted more.”

Scott was also a fastball-slider pitcher as he fashioned a 4.61 ERA and robust 1.56 WHIP while walking 5.8 per nine innings over his first six big-league seasons with the Orioles and Marlins.

What changed in 2023? “Everything,” Scott said.

But not his pitch mix. Scott credits Marlins’ pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. and bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda with his makeover.

“They helped me become what I am now,” Scott said. “It made things a lot easier in a hard sport.”

Their advice to Scott was as basic as pitching advice can get – throw strikes.

“I guess throughout my years with Baltimore and then when I first got over to Miami everyone was telling me to do certain things instead of what I would say is ‘Keep it simple, stupid,’” Scott said. “It was always, ‘Hey, do this. Hey, try this. Hey, why not this? Hey, let’s try that.’

“I would try it and then I’d be, ‘What the heck am I doing?’ then toss it. Then when I got to Miami, they were, ‘What are you comfortable doing?’ and I would say, ‘This.’ And they would say, ‘Let’s run with it.’”

That simple change turned Scott into one of the best relievers in the game – still throwing just a fastball and a slider, but now throwing them for strikes. Over the past two seasons, he has a 2.02 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and 3.6 strikeouts per nine innings. That earned him a four-year, $72 million contract from the Dodgers this past winter.

It’s the pitcher he always thought he could be, Scott said.

“I mean, yeah,” he said. “Everyone that plays the game wants to be the best at what they do. Yeah, I always believed.”

FREEMAN FIRST

Freddie Freeman played first base in Sunday’s game against the Chicago White Sox, his first defensive action of the spring as he recovers from offseason ankle surgery.

“We’ve done every box (in workouts). It’s just now getting out there and having all the plays happen in a game situation,” Freeman said.

At the plate, Freeman has looked ready to go. He hit home runs in back-to-back games this weekend.

“My swing has felt good. Even when I got here and even when I was hitting before I got here, I felt good,” Freeman said. “I was replaying my fix that I did going into the World Series and made sure I thought about it and was able to carry it over. I’ve been hitting really good in the cages and been good in games so far.”

ALSO

The Dodgers made their first cuts of the spring on Sunday, sending pitchers Nick Frasso, Carlos Duran, Julian Fernandez and Justin Jarvis and outfielders Ryan Ward, Justin Dean, Zyhir Hope and Josue De Paula to minor-league camp.

​ Orange County Register