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For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

'Hillbilly Elegy' Nominated For Two Academy Awards

Lacey Terrell
/
Netflix
'Hillbilly Elegy' received two Academy Award nominations, for actress Glenn Close and best makeup and hair styling.

Glenn Close received her eighth Academy Award nomination Monday, for best supporting actress as Mamaw Vance, the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking Middletown grandmother of Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance. She has never won an Oscar.

Director Ron Howard's Netflix film about "hillbilly" Appalachians in Middletown also was nominated for best makeup and hair styling, which contributed to Close's performance. 

Credit Lacey Terrell / Netflix
/
Netflix
Glenn Close as Mawmaw and Amy Adams as Bev, Vance's drug-addicted mother, in a scene from Ron Howard's 'Hillbilly Elegy.'

Mank, Netflix's black and white 1930s Hollywood film about writer Herman Mankiewicz developing Citizen Kane, led all films with 10 nominations.

And it was a great year for women, with a record 76 total nominations, including two women for directing - Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman).

Up for best picture are: The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

This was thethird supporting actress nod for Close for Hillbilly Elegythis year. She didn't win a Golden Globe Award, or the Screen Actors Guild award. Amy Adams (pictured above with Close), who played Vance's mother and Mamaw's daughter, was nominated for best actress by the Screen Actors Guild, but did not win.

Also nominated for best supporting actress were Amanda Seyfried (Mank), Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Olivia Colman (The Father) and Youn Yuh-jung (Minari).

See all nominations here.

Only one week of Hillbilly Elegy was filmed in Middletown, where Vance grew up and graduated from Middletown High School in 2003. Most of the $45-million film was shot in Georgia, which had unlimited tax credits for filmmakers. Ohio didn't have any tax credits available when Netflix applied for them in spring 2019.

Gabrielle Basso, Haley Bennett, Freida Pinto, Bo Hopkins, Owen Asztalos and Jesse C. Boyd also starred in the film which opened in theaters Nov. 10. The film received very mixed reviews, including mine.

The 93rd Academy Awards will be presented Sunday, April 25, on ABC.

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.