Kieran Culkin on Sunday capped a remarkable year by winning the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in “A Real Pain,” a bittersweet look at family, friendships and Jewish loss stemming from the Holocaust.The 42-year-old Culkin — the frontrunner throughout Hollywood’s awards season — bested Yura Borisov (“Anora”), Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”), Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”) and Jeremy Strong (“The Apprentice”).Since January 2024, Culkin has won an Emmy for the final season of HBO’s media family drama “Succession” — on which he starred with Strong — and a pile of trophies for this film role including a Golden Globe, Critics Choice award and Screen Actors Guild Award.”I have no idea how I got here. I’ve just been acting my whole life. It’s just been a part of what I do,” Culkin told the audience, thanking his director, writer and co-star Jesse Eisenberg. “Thank you for this movie. You’re a genius. I would never say that to your face. I’m never saying it again,” Culkin said.”A Real Pain” follows estranged cousins Benji (Culkin) and Dave (Eisenberg) as they go on a so-called heritage tour of Poland to learn more about the early life of their grandmother, who survived the Holocaust.Free-spirited Benji has been somewhat lost since the grandmother died, and is hoping to rekindle his childhood friendship with David, a neurotic New Yorker with a partner, a child and 1,000 worries. Culkin’s performance is both subtle and showy, as Benji swings from sentimental and considerate to explosive and unhinged. The pair’s relationship plays out against the backdrop of a concentration camp and outings with their fellow tour takers.”I connected with the character immediately, which almost never happens,” Culkin told AFP at the film’s premiere at Sundance in early 2024.”I think it’s happened three times ever in my life,” including his beloved role on “Succession” as Roman Roy, he added.In December, Culkin told The New York Times: “I just wanted to show up and not rehearse and not think about it because the character’s spontaneous and surprising.”Eisenberg told USA Today that he cast Culkin — who is not Jewish — after his sister read the script and suggested the actor was the right fit.Culkin brought his “unusual energy” and “great sense of timing and intelligence” to filming, Eisenberg told AFP last month in an interview in Paris.- ‘Whole point of life’ -Born on September 30, 1982 in New York into a family of seven siblings, Culkin started acting as a child and made his film debut as the cousin of Kevin (played by his brother Macaulay) in the 1990 Christmas classic “Home Alone.”After turns in “Father of the Bride” (1991) and the less-well-received “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” the following year, the diminutive, dark-haired actor took a variety of film, television and stage roles.His critical breakthrough would come in 2002 with coming-of-age flick “Igby Goes Down” opposite Claire Danes, Bill Pullman and Susan Sarandon. The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination, but also sent him running from Hollywood.Culkin took roles on the stages of London’s West End and Broadway, including in two plays by Kenneth Lonergan. Eisenberg has said that pedigree is in part what led him to call about “A Real Pain.”A series of small parts followed, including a memorable one in “Scott Pilgrim vs the World” (2010) — and several forgettable ones.All that changed when he was cast as Roman Roy in “Succession,” a saga charting the back-stabbing dynastic squabbles of an ultra-wealthy family that debuted in 2018 to popular and critical acclaim. The series wrapped in 2023.Culkin earned an Emmy, two Critics Choice Awards and a Golden Globe for the role.The actor, who is married with two children, will next be the voice of Squealer in Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” expected to be released this year, according to IMDb.Despite all the accolades of the past year, he told The New York Times that he acted to live, and not the reverse.”That stuff is nice, but the real stuff is me being home with my kids, when I’m reading them books and singing them songs until they go to sleep. That’s the whole point of life. The rest of it I’m doing so I can get back to that,” he said.

Hollywood’s A-listers on Sunday hit the red carpet at the Oscars, with joint favorites “Anora” and “Conclave” seemingly poised for a showdown for the best picture prize.A twisty awards season rocked by Los Angeles wildfires and a racist tweet scandal reaches its climax with the 97th Academy Awards gala, hosted by Conan O’Brien, kicking off at 4:00 pm (0000 GMT Monday).As stars make the final adjustments to their gowns and tuxedos, the race for Hollywood’s grandest prize is too close to call, with two wildly different films seen as frontrunners for best picture.”There will be real tension,” said Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley. “I would say if ‘Conclave’ doesn’t win, it’s definitely going to be ‘Anora.'””Both sides are feeling more nervous than confident… that should be an indicator that this is really a nail-biter,” The Hollywood Reporter’s awards expert Scott Feinberg told AFP.Sean Baker’s “Anora” — about a New York stripper and escort who weds a wealthy Russian playboy, only to learn that her dream marriage is a nightmare illusion — won the Cannes festival’s Palme d’Or last May.The low-budget indie has accrued top prizes from Hollywood directors, producers, writers and critics.But, Coley says, “it is a little bit polarizing because of the sex worker aspect.””Conclave” — a film about the secretive and cutthroat election of a new Catholic leader, lent an uncanny timeliness by the real-life Pope Francis’s health woes — appears to have won over many late voters.The film starring Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini earned top honors from Britain’s BAFTAs, and the Hollywood actors’ SAG Award for best cast.”It is an old-school thriller with an all-star cast,” said Coley.One Oscars voter told AFP they had voted for “Conclave” because “it’s just more of a traditional, classic ‘best picture’ film.”- Oscar records -The voter, anonymous because Academy members cannot reveal their picks, also expressed admiration for “The Brutalist,” a potential dark horse about a Hungarian Jewish architect making a new life in the United States after World War II.Adrien Brody, who plays the titular gifted architect and Holocaust survivor, has been the presumed favorite to win the best actor Oscar for months. Brody has won the prize previously, for 2002’s “The Pianist.” If he prevails again, he’d join an elite club of double winners including Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.But Timothee Chalamet — who earned wide admiration for his pitch-perfect performance as a sardonic young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” — won the Screen Actors Guild Award over Brody, and could prove a spoiler.At just 29, he arguably has the most star power of any of this year’s nominees, and would beat Brody’s record as the category’s youngest-ever winner.Brody is “still the safer pick,” said Feinberg — assuming enough Academy voters made it through his film’s three-and-a-half-hour runtime.- ‘Comeback story’ -There could be an even younger winner on the actress side, if a groundswell of support for “Anora” carries its star Mikey Madison, 25, to the Oscars stage.But she will have to get past Demi Moore, the 1990s megastar who has enjoyed a sparkling career renaissance thanks to gory body horror flick “The Substance.””Hollywood loves a comeback story,” said the Oscars voter.If the vote is split, Brazil’s Fernanda Torres could spring a surprise with “I’m Still Here,” about a family ripped apart by her country’s military dictatorship.But the Academy Award hopes of fellow nominee Karla Sofia Gascon, of musical narco-thriller “Emilia Perez,” appear to have collapsed. Gascon, the first openly trans acting nominee, saw her campaign implode after years-old racist tweets about Islam, China and American George Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of US police in 2020, went viral.The controversy also sunk Netflix’s chance of its first best picture win, though co-star Zoe Saldana remains the favorite to win for best supporting actress.Best supporting actor appears to be similarly locked. Kieran Culkin has won almost everything going this year for his portrayal of a charismatic but troubled cousin on an ancestral road trip through Poland in “A Real Pain.”- ‘Wicked’ stars -The ceremony itself is expected to be an emotional affair.It will honor firefighters who battled blazes that killed at least 29 people and devastated Los Angeles in January.Hoping to capitalize on a recent ratings uptick — last year’s gala featured a memorable “Barbie”-themed musical showstopper — producers have enlisted “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo to perform.Doja Cat and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink will also take the stage.For the first time, the gala will stream live on Hulu, as well as on US network ABC, and in more than 200 territories worldwide.