The weekend’s Academy Awards saw film take us around the world (and back again). From Emilia Pérez in Mexico City and I’m Still Here in Rio de Janeiro to The Brutalist in Eastern Europe, film allows us to travel in many ways.
But, have you ever curated your next trip around award-winning cinema? Including Las Vegas, Budapest and Rio De Janeiro, read on for travel ideas inspired by this year’s Oscar-winning films.
Anora
If you loved Anora, go to Las Vegas, USA
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing
Going for an almost full-house, independent film Anora swept up five awards out of their six nominations at Sunday night’s award ceremony, including a record-breaking four awards for American director and filmmaker, Sean Baker. Best Actress went to the film’s titular lead, Anora, performed by 25-year-old actress Mikey Madison, beating Demi Moore for The Substance. Anora follows protagonist Ani (Anora) who, while working in a strip club in Midtown New York (and living in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach), meets a wealthy Russian student – Vanya – who pays her to stay with him for the week.
For cosplaying as a Russian oligarch’s heir – as Mark Eydelshteyn brilliantly displays as love interest Vanya – there’s no better place to head to than Las Vegas. Despite the slim production budget of $6 million, it’s here that the young duo enjoy the high life, lounging in a penthouse suite of the 42-storey Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas; splashing cash in the casino before marrying in the Little White Wedding Chapel – a Las Vegas right of passage, pathed by A-listers including Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Britney Spears, and more. You won’t find a more “Vegas” way to stay.
I’m Still Here
If you loved I’m Still Here go to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Academy Award: Best International Film (Brazil)
Based on the memoir Ainda Estou Aqui by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, I’m Still Here paints a poignant, vivid, and raw picture of a family’s life, living under Brazil’s strict dictatorship in the 1970s. The film (and novel) narrates the true story of Marcelo’s parents, his ex-Politician and deputy of the Brazilian Labour Party father who vanishes under Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971, and his mother Eunice Paiva, who spends her life searching for answers. The Paiva family live in a beautiful Spanish-style villa in the tree-lined historic neighbourhood of Urca (Rua Roquete Pinto 7, Urca) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the five children regularly run from their home to the beach as the film flits between the present moment and video montage memories. Flashbacks to 1970s fashion and the vibrant colours of Rio de Janeiro sing throughout the movie, including the elongated white sands, colourful parasols and staggering rock formations found along both Leblon and Ipanema beaches.
For sweeping vistas across Leblon Beach and Sugarloaf Mountain, stay at Hotel Fasano, designed by acclaimed architect Philippe Stark, it features a stylish rooftop and pool bar on the eighth floor, with an indoor-outdoor focus. Or, boutique Vila Santa Teresa, in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood, overlooks Ipanema beach and Guanabara Bay and has a beautiful home-like lounge area. While in Rio de Janeiro, visit the Jardim Botanico – where the Paiva family dreamed of building a family home before the devastation of the dictatorship hit – as well as the traditional art-deco styled ice-cream shop, Confeitaria Manon, where Eunice Paiva takes her children to distract them from the news that their father may never return. The film received the Best International Film award, and is deserving of many, many more.
Emilia Pérez
If you loved Emilia Pérez go to Mexico City, Mexico
Academy Awards: Best Original Song, Best Supporting Actress
Whilst Emilia Pérez was almost entirely filmed in a studio on the outskirts of Paris, the set and CGI replicates the bustling streets of Mexico’s capital, Mexico City, throughout the film. The musical crime comedy by director Jacques Audiard takes its name from Audiard’s opera libretto, and follows four women in Mexico – each pursuing their own happiness in a dynamic and dangerous world. Emilia Pérez is a Mexican cartel leader who transitions into a woman in order to retire, with the help of a lawyer played by Zoe Saldaña. Snippets of the protagonist’s previous life shows a beautiful hilltop villa that overlooks the city.
For similar views, stay at The Ritz-Carlton Mexico City which towers over Chapultepec Park and comes with an unobscured look onto the twinkling streets below, while giving a taste of the city’s luxury lifestyle. For traditional architecture, Four Seasons Mexico City is built within a Spanish revival courtyard building. In Mexico City, visit Mercado La Merced for one of the biggest street food markets – a spot that, among others, inspired the streets and food markets featured in the movie. Zoe Saldaña (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress) has named her favourite spot for tacos in Mexico City as Tacos Hola El Güero.
The Brutalist
If you loved The Brutalist go to Budapest, Hungary
Academy Awards: Best Actor, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography
At three-hours long, The Brutalist paints such a vivid depiction of Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth that it’s hard to imagine that neither the man nor the exact story ever existed. Rather, the epic period drama merges the stories and work of several real architects, from Marcel Breuer to Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, who migrated from Eastern Europe across the early-to-mid 20th century and helped to popularise Brutalist architecture across the pond. The film follows the fictional protagonist as they arrive in Philadelphia and are commissioned to construct the brutalist-style Van Buren Institute – in stark contrast to the grand Georgian architecture and art-deco fused with art-nouveau styles prevalent in Philadelphia in the US at the time.
In Budapest, Hungry, where this avant-garde architectural movement began, is the home to the József Gruber Water Reservoir by József Gruber, which inspired the movie’s AI-constructed Van Buren Institute, as well as the Mahart Gabonatárház industrial site where Tóth worked. An hour outside of the city, find the town of Salgótarján, packed with social modernist housing built of this style. For an architecturally spectacular stay, try the Art Nouveau Párisi Udvar Hotel Budapest, housed in Hungary’s first modern shopping mall which, constructed in 1817, echoes the grand styles of László Tóth’s earlier work in the film.
Conclave
If you loved Conclave go to The Vatican City and Rome, Italy
Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay
Conclave is one of the most visually striking pieces of cinema you will see. Catholic Cardinals, in their scarlet choir cassock attire, flood ancient monastic courtyards, while ornate liturgical rooms house intense voting sessions amongst the College of Cardinals. While no one except the Swiss Guards (the country’s defence) and select members of the Catholic Church are permitted to reside inside the Vatican City, there are plenty of spots just on the border that afford the regal and liturgical glamour the film quietly upholds.
In fact, Conclave was not filmed in the Sistine Chapel either, due to strict rules against filming. Instead, Rome’s Villa Medici held a starring role, alongside the Royal Palace of Caserta, closer to Naples. Tour the now art gallery space of Villa Medici, which was once the Renaissance villa of Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici and houses grand frescoes and objects dating back to the 17th century. To stay, Donna Camilla Savelli hotel is hidden in the trendy neighbourhood of Trastevere, housed in an old monastery, while Hotel de Russie designed by Giuseppe Valadier – the man behind Rome’s Piazza del Popolo – is also an important part of the city’s history.
The Substance
If you loved The Substance go to Los Angeles, USA
Academy Awards: Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Although Director Coralie Fargeat emphasised that The Substance is based around the concept of Hollywood, rather than any specific place in Los Angeles – highlighted by the fact that, like Emilia Pérez, the entire film was shot in a French studio – the film was very much based around a Los Angeles way of life, and the city’s incessant quest for perfection, plastic surgery included. To capture quintessential Hollywood, stay at Sunset Tower, which was once frequented by the figures that gave Hollywood its name – from Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe to Frank Sinatra – and is as much a tourist attraction as it is a hotel. Or, book in at The Beverly Hills Hotel and stop by nearby health-food shop, Erewhon.
A Complete Unknown
If you loved A Complete Unknown stay at Hotel Chelsea in New York City, USA
Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound, Best Director, Best Costume Design
A Complete Unknown may have been slightly snubbed at this year’s Academy Awards, arriving with eight nominations and leaving with no wins, but the film’s depiction of New York City in the 1960s is too good not to include. Perhaps unsurprisingly The Hotel Chelsea made a cameo; its 1880s 12-storey red brick façade became home to some of the 20th century’s biggest artists from Patti Smith to Arthur Miller, and of course, A Complete Unknown’s Bob Dylan. Production designer Francois Adoury was tasked with reawakening the creative buzz of Greenwich Village in the 1960s, which included everything from the streets to the city’s famous folk venues and the dive bars that made up its vibrant music scene (where Bob Dylan quickly rose to fame). To tune in to the city’s scene – as well as spots where the biopic was filmed – head to the 1950s-founded Kettle of Fish that is still running today, as well as El Quijote at The Hotel Chelsea, Figaro Café and French restaurant Minetta Tavern. Hang out here and perhaps you’ll find the next Bob Dylan…
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