Wes Anderson won his first Oscar for the short film «The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar», an adaptation of the Roald Dahl story starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Previously he obtained eight nominations for feature films that have remained in the history of cinema such as Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and The Royal Tenenbaums. But after 22 years, the American director, originally from Houston, has finally managed to take home the long-awaited golden statuette. Already with the last Asteroid City, Anderson had demonstrated that he was once again less in love with himself and his techniques. This is demonstrated by the recent short films made for Netflix and based on the stories of Roald Dahl (a writer who had already been a source of inspiration and point of reference for him for Fantastic Mr. Fox), who had found a key to harmonizing form and content. A return to the past that did not escape the Academy. So far, during his career Wes Anderson had received seven Oscar nominations: in 2002 for the screenplay of The Royal Family, in 2010 as best animated film for Fantastic Mr. Fox, in 2015 a triple nomination - film, screenplay and direction - for Grand Budapest Hotel, and in 2019 again in the animation category for Isle of Dogs. At the 2024 Oscars, Anderson received an eighth nomination, this time in the short film category, and specifically with The Marvelous Story of Henry Sugar, which of the four shorts based on Dahl available on Netflix is the longest and most daring, as well as the one that was presented as a world premiere at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, on the occasion of the awarding of the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award to its author.
Written by Guendalina Porta