Oscar-nominated films with Long Island connections

"Strong Island" (2017)

In this documentary, filmmaker Yance Ford of Central Islip tells the story of a Long Island tragedy: In 1992, his brother, William Ford Jr., was shot to death during an argument stemming from a car repair. William, who was black, was unarmed; the shooter was white; and the case never went to trial. Yance Ford is also the first transgender director to earn an Oscar nod. Oscars: One nomination for best documentary feature.

Actor-director James Franco earned glowing reviews for this comedy-drama about an eccentric filmmaker whose debut project is hailed as the worst movie ever made -- but that was before several women accused him of sexual misconduct. Oscars: Franco subsequently got snubbed after the allegations came to light, but screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Great Neck native Michael H. Weber (both of "The Fault in Our Stars") earned the film one Oscar nod, for adapted screenplay.

Few films have looked as gorgeous as Paul Thomas Anderson's drama about a high-society dressmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis, in what is purportedly his final performance). One of the people behind the film is costume designer Mark Bridges, a Stony Brook graduate who earned an Oscar nod for his work and previously won the award for 2011's "The Artist," which also won best picture. Oscars: Nominated for six Oscars in all.

Long Island native Natalie Portman played a grieving Jacqueline Kennedy in the days immediately following her husband's assassination. Oscars: Three nominations, including a best-actress nomination for Portman's portrayal of the former first lady.

The titular character and her story are based loosely on real-life Long Islander Joy Mangano, who became a home shopping network sensation after inventing the Miracle Mop. Oscars: Jennifer Lawrence nabbed a best-actress Oscar nomination for her performance.

Long Island native Alexander Dinelaris co-wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed comedy-drama. Oscars: Nine nominations and four wins, including best original screenplay and best picture.

David O. Russell's caper comedy inspired by the FBI's so-called Abscam operation, which was based out of Hauppauge in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Oscars: Ten nominations, including a supporting actress nod for Jennifer Lawrence as a volatile Long Island housewife who nearly gets her con-man husband (Christian Bale) killed by mobsters.

Martin Scorsese's tale of debauchery and deception was filmed in various Long Island locales, and for good reason: It's based on the memoir of stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who lived in Old Brookville while running a fraudulent firm out of Lake Success in the 1990s. Oscars: Five nominations, including one for Leonardo DiCaprio as best actor.

What does a French-made silent film have to do with Long Island? It turns out costume designer Mark Bridges, who won the Oscar for his elegant work, graduated from Stony Brook University. Bridges also earned a nomination on David O. Russell's "Inherent Vice." Oscars: Ten nominations and five wins, including best picture.

Michel Gondry's surreal sci-fi romance starred Jim Carrey as a Rockville Centre man who pays to have his memories of an ex-girlfriend (Kate Winslet) erased. The toughest memory to forget, however, is of her whispering, "Meet me in Montauk" -- where, indeed, parts of this wistful movie were filmed. Oscars: Winslet earned her fourth nomination, for best actress; Gondry and co-writers Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth won for original screenplay.

Ed Harris, directing himself as the painter Jackson Pollock, filmed as much as possible at the painter's studio (now called the Pollock-Krasner House) in East Hampton. Its landmark status, however, limited him to exteriors. The large concrete pad where Pollock did his outdoor work was also off-limits, due to fears that Harris might accidentally paint over Pollock's leftover splashes, so the crew built a duplicate nearby. Oscars: Harris was nominated for best actor; Marcia Gay Harden, as Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, won for supporting actress.

Jeremy Irons plays the real-life European aristocrat Klaus von Bulow, accused of attempting to murder his diabetic wife, Sunny (Glenn Close). To capture the couple's opulent, soulless existence, director Barbet Schroeder shot much of the movie in Rhode Island (where they actually lived) but some interior scenes were filmed in Old Westbury's Knole house, built in 1903 by racehorse mogul Herman L. B. Duryea. Oscars: Three nominations, including for director and adapted screenplay by Nicholas Kazan. Irons won for best actor.

Though specifics are hard to pin down, one of this movie's most memorable scenes -- in which Woody Allen and Diane Keaton go to the Hamptons and attempt to boil some uncooperative lobsters -- was filmed on the South Shore. It's proof that even before his European phase, Allen was willing to venture at least a little ways outside of Manhattan. Oscars: The film won four awards, for best picture, director, actress (for Keaton) and screenplay. It also earned Allen his only acting nomination, in a leading role.

We at Newsday have a special love for this movie, partly because its legendary horse-head scene was shot at Falaise mansion on Sands Point Preserve, former home of the paper's founder, Alicia Patterson. What's more, the billion-bullet death scene of Sonny Corleone (James Caan) was filmed at Mitchel Field. Oscars: Ten official nominations and three wins, including best picture. Marlon Brando won for best actor, an offer he famously refused.

The blockbuster tear-jerker starred Ryan O'Neal as Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy Harvard scholar who crosses class lines by dating Jenny Cavalleri (Ali MacGraw), a student at -- egads! -- Radcliffe. To show us that the Barretts speak only to the Lodges, the filmmakers spoke to the Phippses and ended up filming at their Old Westbury estate. Oscars: Seven nominations, including for O'Neal; composer Francis Lai won for best original score.

In Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, Cary Grant is on the run from spies and assassins -- on Long Island? That's right: When Grant is kidnapped and taken to a sprawling mansion, he spots the Glen Cove mailing address on an envelope, just a few minutes before he's nearly killed. The actual filming location, however, was the Phipps estate, now known as Old Westbury Gardens. Oscars: Three nominations, including original screenplay.

Richard Brooks' adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play remains a classic of the hell-is-other-people genre, in which Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives verbally rip one another to shreds in a Mississippi mansion. Some of the catfights were filmed not in the Deep South but on the North Shore, at the Coleman Estate in Muttontown. Oscars: Six nominations, including actor, actress and best picture. Oddly, Ives won supporting actor that year, but for a whole other movie, "The Big Country."

"Once upon a time, on the North Shore of Long Island, some 30 miles from New York, there lived a small girl on a large estate." So begins Billy Wilder's classic love triangle, in which a chauffeur's daughter (Audrey Hepburn) is caught between the wealthy Larrabee brothers (William Holden and Humphrey Bogart). They apparently all live in or near Glen Cove, since that's her stop on the Long Island Rail Road. Oscars: Five nominations, including for Hepburn as best actress, with a win for costume designer Edith Head.

The magnificent Xanadu estate of Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), seen in the film's opening sequence, is actually Oheka Castle in Huntington. But look closely: Those are actually still photographs of the grandiose structure. Most of the filming took place on the Paramount lot in Hollywood. Oscars: Nine nominations, including best picture, though it won only for best original screenplay by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz.