Kartiki Gonsalves: Last News

Zack Sharf Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise reunited at this year’s Oscar nominees luncheon, where the blockbuster filmmaker praised his “Minority Report” and “War of the Worlds” actor for saving the theatrical movie business with “Top Gun: Maverick.” Both Spielberg and Cruise are in the running for best picture this year thanks to “The Fabelmans” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” respectively. “You saved Hollywood’s ass and you might have saved theatrical distribution,” Spielberg said to Cruise in a video originally shared on Instagram by director Kartiki Gonsalves, whose film “Who Can Say No to Baby Elephants!” is nominated for best documentary short film. Cruise was left blushing.

Naman Ramachandran The cream of the southern Indian film industry was present in force at the just concluded Dakshin South India Media and Entertainment Summit in Chennai. Organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), southern region, the event kicked off with recent south Indian Oscar winners, Kartiki Gonsalves, director of winning documentary short “The Elephant Whisperers” and Prem Rakshit, choreographer of winning original song “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” being felicitated. The stage was then set for a heavyweight filmmakers panel moderated by former Variety correspondent Anupama Chopra, with Mani Ratnam, director of Tamil-language blockbuster “Ponniyin Selvan: 1”; Vetrimaaran, whose acclaimed Tamil-language “Viduthalai Part 1” is currently on release; Rishab Shetty, star and director of Kannada-language smash hit “Kantara”; and Basil Joseph, director of Malayalam-language Netflix superhero film “Minnal Murali” participating.

Naman Ramachandran Superstar Rajinikanth, Bollywood star Ajay Devgn, Telugu cinema star Mahesh Babu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those celebrating India’s double win at the Oscars. “Naatu Naatu” by composer M.M. Keeravaani and lyricist Chandrabose from S.S. Rajamouli’s “RRR” won best original song, while director Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga’s “The Elephant Whisperers” won best documentary short subject. “My hearty congratulations to Shri. Keeravani, Shri. Rajamouli and Shri. Kartiki Gonsalves for getting the prestigious Oscar Award. I salute to the proud Indians,” Rajinikanth tweeted.

Director Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga became the first Indian filmmakers to claim competitive Oscars after their short documentary The Elephant Whisperers won the Academy Award tonight.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix picked up big wins at the 95th Academy Awards, including the international feature film Oscar for “All Quiet on the Western Front” and its first animated feature film Oscar for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” Overall, Netflix won six Oscars on Sunday, after receiving 16 total nominations this year. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” directed by Edward Berger, won four Oscars (on nine nominations), picking up the trophies for international feature, cinematography (James Friend), original score (Volker Bertelmann) and production design (Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper). The film — a grim, disquieting adaptation of the famous World War I novel — had dominated the U.K.’s BAFTA Awards with a record-breaking seven wins, including best film, director (Berger), adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound, original score and non-English language film.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic How long does a documentary need to be? Frederick Wiseman frequently goes long, and Oscar-winning “OJ: Made in America” ran nearly eight hours. Lately, with “Bill Russell: Legend” and “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker,” streamers have embraced the so-called “two-part documentary” — a fancy term for what used to be called a miniseries. So, while there are no limits on how much longer docs can get, it’s refreshing to see a compelling subject covered in 40 minutes or less, and doubly rewarding to realize that four of the five packaged in ShortsTV’s “2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary” found audiences on their own merits, even without theatrical distribution.

Naman Ramachandran “The Elephant Whisperers,” the Indian film nominated in the Oscars’ documentary short film category, has received an outpouring of love globally with young fans sending their fan art and appreciation in hundreds of emails to the filmmakers. The film follows a couple, Bomman and Bellie, who devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu. Director Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga, along with the film’s team in India and the U.S., have been receiving fan art depicting their love for the orphaned babies and the caring couple from the film. They have also received testimonials from many parents and some fans who sent video clips of their own animal companions watching the film at home.

For India’s Oscar nominees, awards season has brought excitement, triumph and no doubt regular bouts of jet lag as they hop from one distant time zone to another. The South Asian country has seen three of its films earn Academy recognition — All That Breathes (Best Documentary Feature), The Elephant Whisperers (Best Documentary Short), and RRR (Best Original Song for “Naatu Naatu”). First-time nominees involved in those projects have found themselves on a road trip adventure split between luncheons, screenings, Q&As and more screenings.

Steven Spielberg is seemingly crediting Tom Cruise for “saving Hollywood” with the theatrical release of Top Gun: Maverick.

Bomman and Belli, the human stars of The Elephant Whisperers, are not your typical parents. Then again, their “children” aren’t typical either—weighing in at roughly 300 lbs. by the time they turn three months old.