The behind-the-scenes creatives with a sixth sense about chemistry, star power and more are getting their own category at the 98th Academy Awards. Here’s to the casting directors who worked on some of the year’s best movies
By Casey Loving, Joe McGovern, Steve Pond and Missy Schwartz
Photography by Elizabeth Weinberg
“We are the first crew people on a film after the screenplay’s been written and the director is on board,” David Rubin said of the women and men (not the other way around) who have the job of casting director — and who now, for the first time, will be eligible for an Oscar for Best Casting. With the category debuting at the 98th Academy Awards in March, we wanted to add our own celebration of the position so crucial to the filmmaking process. We aimed at a list of about two dozen casting directors and teams who are responsible for some of the year’s most intriguing and exciting films, from blockbusters to indies to the kind of international films that have an increasing presence in the awards race. Their job was to find the right people and put them in their movies; our job was to find the right casting directors and put them on our list. Here they are. —Steve Pond
Sarah Halley Finn
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps,“ “Thunderbolts*,“ “Captain America: Brave New World“
The past 17 years of blockbusters have, in large part, been affected by the decisions of Sarah Halley Finn. Finn has been the casting director for nearly every MCU project, from 2008’s “Iron Man” to 2025’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” She has made a career of finding the right people for an ever-growing list of comic book icons: Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Panther and Ms. Marvel, to name a few.
Finn worked on three MCU movies that were released in 2025, one of which features an entirely new universe built upon the backs of Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four. In buzzy leading man Pedro Pascal, Finn found an anchor for the team simultaneously in line with the comic book source material and distinct from past portrayals. First Steps also tapped Ralph Ineson to play the long-awaited Marvel antagonist Galactus, using the actor’s sonorous, almost mythic voice to lend menace to a Jack Kirby-designed character that could easily fail to translate on-screen. —CL
Cassandra Kulukundis
“One Battle After Another“
The list of movies cast by Cassandra Kulukundis includes “The Brutalist,” “Her” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” but her career is in many ways defined by her relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson. PTA has made 10 movies and she has officially worked on nine of them — though in reality, she should also be credited for his first film, “Hard Eight,” in 1996. “I was an intern,” she said. “Apparently they never gave me any credit, probably because I didn’t make any money. No dollars, no payroll, no credit.”
Since then, though, Anderson has made up for the snub by making her one of his most valued collaborators. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have an understanding of taste level and what’s real,” she said. “We don’t always want the big names. You want somebody who keeps you in the film and doesn’t take you out. And what was great about “One Battle” was that we were able to put the elements we’d been working on for nine previous movies together. You’ve got over-the-top, crazy stars, arguably our biggest cast according to the Star Meter. But we also have lots of actors that nobody recognizes, and people you haven’t seen in ages mixed in with people we find on the streets who can give our actors a run for their money.”
We don’t always want the big names. You want somebody who keeps you in the film and doesn’t take you out.
Kulukundis and Anderson worked on “One Battle After Another” for almost 20 years. “If I told you the names we talked about early on, you’d laugh,” she said. “And I’m not gonna do that, because Paul would kill me, and he would be right to.” But even when it got closer to fruition, no actors were locked in. “It’s weird when you get a script and there’s nobody attached,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Go ahead: Figure it out, girl.’”
Actors included Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hill, Benicio del Toro and newcomer Chase Infiniti, who they found only after an eight-year search through “anyone who was remotely mixed-race, anyone who was fighting, dancing, doing gymnastics. I wasn’t sure if she was gonna come from the real world or the acting world, so we cast a wide, wide net.”
On the set, though Kulukundis has learned not to hang out with this grandly disparate group of people she and Anderson cast. “You never really want to mess with anyone’s process, so I try to stay out of the way,” she said, and then reconsidered. “But, you know, when Benicio came around, it was fiesta time. I was like, ‘Now the good times are rolling again!’” —SP
Kim Coleman
“Highest 2 Lowest“
When Spike Lee reunited with Denzel Washington for “Highest 2 Lowest,” he made sure that his longtime casting director Kim Coleman came with them. Coleman has been Lee’s go-to since the duo first teamed up on 2004’s “She Hate Me.” Since then, Coleman has served as casting director on a majority of Lee’s movies, including “Inside Man,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods.” This Akira Kurosawa revamp required casting a mix of movie stars and musicians, balancing seasoned actors like Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera (previously in “Chi-Raq” and “Oldboy”) and Jeffrey Wright against the likes of A$AP Rocky and the young soul singer Aiyana-Lee (who features prominently in the film’s final scene). —CL
Avy Kaufman and Yngvill Kolset Haga
“Sentimental Value“
Yngvill Kolset Haga, who previously worked with Joachim Trier on “The Worst Person in the World” and “Thelma,” handled the Norwegian casting for the director’s drama about art healing emotional wounds. She knew that he’d written the lead role of Nora for Renate Reinsve and that Stellan Skarsgård was at the top of his list for her estranged filmmaker father, Gustav. The wild card was Nora’s soft-spoken sister, Agnes. After auditioning more than 120 actresses, Haga and Trier offered the part to Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — whom Haga had cast in her first film in 2015 and had in mind for Agnes from the get-go.
On the U.S. side, Kaufman — the three-time Emmy winner whose long list of movies nominated for acting Oscars includes “The Sixth Sense,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Capote,” “Tár” and “Rustin” — landed on Elle Fanning for Rachel, the American movie star Gustav hires for his film’s lead role when Nora turns it down. Casting, then, is at the heart of Sentimental Value’s story. “Elle is a big name from the U.S., like Rachel in the script,” Haga said. “So rehearsing a rehearsal scene, with a U.S. star — it was very meta.” —MS
Bret Howe and Mary Vernieu
“Wake Up Dead Man“
Mary Vernieu’s resume lists more than 500 credits, back to her early experiences as an assistant on Oliver Stone’s uber-ensembles “JFK” and “The Doors.” Bret Howe’s early jobs in the industry include “The Last Jedi,” Rian Johnson’s middle chapter entry in the most recent “Star Wars” trilogy. And the two have worked on every Johnson project since then: “Knives Out,” its sequel “Glass Onion,” two seasons of Peacock’s guest-star-filled “Poker Face” and the newest KO entry, “Wake Up Dead Man,” which drops Daniel Craig’s detective into a church-bound mystery. The whodunit features authentically all-American turns by Irish and British stars John O’Connor, Daryl McCormack and Andrew Scott. —JM
Bonnie Timmerman
“Roofman“
Bonnie Timmerman made a career of casting crime stories. Around the time she was casting “Trading Places” and “The Karate Kid,” she fell in with Michael Mann, serving as casting director for the “Miami Vice” TV series and his later films: “Manhunter,” “Heat” and “The Insider.” Now, she has cast another crime story — albeit a much zanier one — in “Roofman,” about a real-life man who robbed a series of McDonald’s by cutting holes in the their roofs and hid from the authorities by living in a Toys “R” Us. The cast mixes A-listers like Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst with a handful of real people Jeffrey Manchester encountered on his stranger-than-fiction crime spree. This approach at times lends “Roofman” a documentary-like feeling — and Timmerman knows from documentaries, considering the 2022 doc Bonnie is about her. —CL
Jennifer Venditti
“Bugonia,” “Marty Supreme,” “The Smashing Machine,” “Preparation for the Next Life“
When asked what most people may not consider about casting directors, Jennifer Venditti’s answer was simple: “It’s creative.” She also called it a craft, and added that most of the people who ply that craft “have a signature.”
Venditti’s own signature can be seen across numerous projects, including her 2025 trio of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” and Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme.” She shines at discovering new talent, having a particular penchant for taking non-actors and individuals from underrepresented communities and plugging them into films with big-name talent.
This was Lanthimos’ hope for “Bugonia,” which features a central trio of two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone as CEO Michelle Fuller, Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons as conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz and newcomer Aidan Delbis as Teddy’s autistic cousin Don.
As a kid, I never watched movies or TV, I people watched.
“Yorgos always had the vision of Don being someone who wasn’t a professional actor mixed with these master actors,” she said. Venditti searched far and wide for someone to play Don, looking at colleges, concerts, anime conventions… When Delbis, a young man on the autism spectrum, submitted a self-tape, Venditti brought him in for early conversations, paying attention to key details that let her know he could comfortably perform in the film: Delbis loved horror, he was at ease on camera and had recently gone on a college trip abroad, which could have prepared him for an international shoot.
Venditti’s approach is informed by her history as a documentary filmmaker. “My background is in observing people, in watching real people,” she said. “As a kid, I never watched movies or TV, I people watched. I loved to go into airports and train stations. I saw the cinema of real life.” It was this documentary work that first drew the Safdie brothers to Venditti. She worked with them on several of their projects, such as “Heaven Knows What,” “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems.” Since then, the Safdies have split to pursue their own careers — and both took Venditti with them. The two films may be vastly different (one a Dwayne Johnson-starring MMA biopic, the other a fictional Timothée Chalamet ping pong epic), yet Venditti still finds the same beating heart at the center of each.
“The thing we all have in common is that we love humanity,” she said of her experience with the Safdies. “Any project I start with them is based on that: a world they’re obsessed with, and we go deep dive into the research. They’re very in-depth researchers. That doesn’t change.” —CL
Robin D. Cook
“Frankenstein“
Robin D. Cook helps bring Guillermo del Toro’s monster-filled imagination to life. The casting director served alongside del Toro on such films as “Nightmare Alley,” “Crimson Peak,” “Pacific Rim” and his Best Picture winner “The Shape of Water.” Now, del Toro has tapped Cook to tackle the story that’s loomed over his whole career: Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”
This film brought a new challenge to the team, as they this time had to cast characters firmly embedded in both literature and cinema. One can imagine the hardest part of casting a “Frankenstein” feature would be finding an actor capable of selling the complexity and tragedy of the central Creature, especially under makeup and effects. It was a task Cook had to go through twice, as Garfield eventually had to be replaced by Jacob Elordi — an actor who has been lauded for his performance in the role. —CL
Nina Gold and Douglas Aibel
“Hamnet,” “Jay Kelly,“ “Ballad of a Small Player,“ “The Phoenician Scheme“
Nina Gold and Douglas Aibel had a full schedule as casting directors in 2025, both together and apart. Gold cast a number of star-studded films for the year, including Jay Roach’s “The Roses,” Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player” (working with Martin Ware) and Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet.” Aibel, meanwhile, served as casting director for Celine Song’s “Materialists” and continued his partnership with Wes Anderson on “The Phoenician Scheme.”
The two also teamed up on one of the year’s buzziest, movie star-filled projects: “Jay Kelly,” starring George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern on a soul-baring trip through Europe. Though director Noah Baumbach had worked with these three actors in the past (with Dern getting her Oscar for her part in “Marriage Story”), Gold said that “Jay Kelly” was much more than a showcase for these stars.
“There are so many parts, and some of them, even though they’re quite small, each one has its own identity because there’s such a journey of ‘Jay Kelly,’” she said. “The script was so fantastic, and Noah is such a fantastic director, that people would like that, but people also kind of did like the idea of doing with George Clooney. Because, you know, what’s not to like?”
You’re thinking, ‘God, I’ve got to put these kids through this incredibly grueling, emotional experience.’
Nina Gold on casting child actors for “Hamnet”
“Hamnet,” on the other hand, tells the story of a tragedy faced by William (Pual Mescal) and Agnes (Jessie Buckley) Shakespeare that later inspired the famed play “Hamlet.” Though the casting of Buckley as Agnes was part of a “long process in conversation,” Gold noted that she and Zhao “really did have Jessie in our hearts and minds from the beginning.”
“In every single thing she’s done, she’s so completely truthful and has such full connection to the reality of everything,” Gold said.
Yet around these two established actors, Gold said the most “terrifying challenge” of the process was finding Shakespeares’ children. For the titular child Hamnet, the casting director tapped Jacobi Jupe, the little brother of established young actor Noah Jupe (who plays a key role himself in the film). Gold had actually pegged Jacobi as a strong actor when casting a different project before “Hamnet,” but felt he was too young at the time for the part. When she circled back to him for “Hamnet,” the casting process — a mix of scripted and improvised audition — further confirmed Jacobi to be “incredibly truthful and non-actory.”
“It’s really hard,” Gold said of casting the Shakespeare children. “You’re thinking, ‘God, I’ve got to put these kids through this incredibly grueling, emotional experience,’ and so a lot of the casting process was also figuring out how to make sure the kids could be in an environment where they could really try and give everything they can to this difficult stuff, but also know that they could then not feel terribly emotional and upset for the rest of the week.” —CL
Gabriel Domingues
“The Secret Agent“
“It was a time of great mischief.” These words bring viewers into the world of “The Secret Agent,” a paranoid historical drama set in 1977 Brazil. The film sees writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho unite with longtime friend Wagner Moura for Moura’s first Brazilian film in more than a decade. Around Moura’s already-lauded central performance, “The Secret Agent” brims with life and texture, depicting a lived-in community of refugees and caretakers trying to survive in a “time of great mischief” — and the terrifying agents causing said mischief throughout Recife. This fleshed out world is a testament to Mendonça Filho’s writing/directing and cast, no doubt, but also to Gabriel Domingues’ ability to find perfect performers for parts big and small. —CL
Susanne Scheel
“A House of Dynamite“
Susanne Scheel faced a unique challenge with her work on Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller: Finding actors to authentically portray key figures within the US government and military who could make an impression with only a sliver of screentime. She looked to Great Britain for the president (Idris Elba), secretary of defense (Jared Harris) and keeper of the nuclear briefcase (Jonah Hauer-King), while also filling small showcase roles with American stage vets Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos and Renée Elise Goldsberry. The presence of Greta Lee in a memorable two-minute performance serves as a callback to Scheel’s great work on 2023 Best Picture nominee “Past Lives.” —JM
JAFAR PANAHI
“It Was Just an Accident“
How do you cast a film when the very act of filmmaking breaks the law? Jafar Panahi faced this question while making his Palme d’Or winner “It Was Just an Accident.”
The Iranian filmmaker wore many hats, including serving as his own casting director for the latest movie he wrote and directed. Panahi, a vocal critic of the Iranian regime, has faced repeated political punishment in his home country, including imprisonment and a ban on filmmaking. (Currently a resident of France, he was sentenced to a year in prison in absentia earlier this month for “propaganda activities” against Iran.)
Despite this, he has made his films in secret several times over the years, circumventing the bans and even traveling to Cannes Film Festival to collect the top prize in May. These restrictions meant Panahi had to be selective when casting his film, and that his actors had to be willing to face potential repercussions for taking part in the movie. —CL
Margery Simkin
“Avatar: Fire and Ash“
It took James Cameron a long time to return to Pandora; “Avatar: The Way of Water” came out 13 years after the original “Avatar,” the highest grossing film of all time. When he did eventually come back to his immersive world, Margery Simkin came with him. Simkin served as casting director for the first “Avatar” film, as she would for the next four (assuming 4 and 5 get made).
These auditions were completed seven years ago when “Fire and Ash” prepared to shoot back-to-back with “The Way of Water.” This forced Simkin to find actors — many of them only kids and teenagers at the time — who could be in it for the long haul, particularly if potential sequels happen. Simkin also searched for actors whose imagination and physicality bring these mo-cap characters to life and embody the intense physicality of the fictional Na’vi culture — a tall task that motion capture can’t just create out of thin air. —CL
David Rubin
“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues“
David Rubin is the only casting director to ever receive an Emmy nomination and be re-elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on the same day, a bit of synchronicity that happened in 2020 when he was nominated for Big Little Lies and elected to his second term at AMPAS. With a resume that includes The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley, he spent the last decade-plus lobbying for casting directors, helping lead to the creation of the Casting Branch of the Academy and then the addition of the casting Oscar.
This year, his day job included casting the rockumentary sequel “Spinal Tap II,” the latest of many projects he’s done with “Spinal Tap” star Christopher Guest. With Rob Reiner directing and Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer reprising their roles as the hapless wannabe rock gods, the improvised comedy required actors with a very particular skill set.
“The challenge was less about finding people who could play specific roles than about finding ones who could keep up with the Spinal Tap band members, because they’re the sharpest tools in the shed,” said Rubin, who sometimes improvised with auditioners himself. “It was really about who could play on that level.”
Our work happens behind closed doors in a very intimate conversation with a filmmaker and producers.
Those who could hold their own include a lot of experienced improv actors and a pair of moonlighting rock stars. “We can’t forget the remarkably improvisational Elton John and Paul McCartney, who really turn in what I would call seriously actor-intensive performances,” Rubin said. “They were fully in those scenes, and they really delivered. We should all keep our eyes on their next feature films.”
Rubin was one of the first three governors in the Academy’s newly created Casting Branch in 2013, and six years later he became the first (and to date only) person from his branch elected Academy president. At that point, he said, “I knew I needed to look after all the categories and all the branches. Lobbying for a casting award was not at all on my agenda.”
But when he left office after his third term, it was. “Our work happens behind closed doors in a very intimate conversation with a filmmaker and producers,” he said. “Many other jobs on filmmaking are done on the soundstage in plain view of everybody, and everyone has a very specific notion of what those jobs are. So we had some educating to do even with tremendously experienced people in film-making just to fill them in on what the casting process entails.” —SP
Francine Maisler
“Sinners,“ “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,“” The Lost Bus“
2025 was a big year for Francine Maisler. She had a slew of cinematic projects released within the calendar year, including “Mickey 17,” Bong Joon Ho’s first film since winning Best Picture; “Mountainhead,” Jesse Armstrong’s “Succession” follow-up; and “Ella McCay,” the first James L. Brooks movie in 15 years. And these aren’t even the biggest awards contenders. In “Sinners,” Maisler filled out Ryan Coogler’s Mississippi Delta horror/musical, casting 20-year-old Miles Caton as a lead in his first film and enlisting real musicians to perform in on-screen parts big and small.
In “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” Maisler searched for an actor like Jeremy Allen White who could embody The Boss without simply doing a Bruce Springsteen impression — and a young boy, new to acting, who could effectively portray a young version of Springsteen and a young version of White. With “The Lost Bus,” Maisler tackled a real-life tragedy, surrounding Matthew McConaughey with his own mother and son to play those same roles in the film. Non-actors who were involved in the 2021 Camp Fire rescue effort also appear in the film as themselves, such as Paradise Fire Chief John Messina and dispatcher Beth Bowersox. —CL
Tiffany Little Canfield and Bernie Telsey
“Wicked: For Good,“ “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Snow White“
Tiffany Little Canfield and Bernie Telsey are go-to casting directors for musicals of both the stage and the screen. What sets the two disciplines apart? According to Canfield, it’s the volume.
This made things tricky for both “Wicked” and its follow-up, “Wicked: For Good.” Because the two films were shot back-to-back, Canfield and Telsey knew that they would need to ask for astounding schedule commitments from their eventual performers. Once Canfield and Telsey got main actors like Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey in place, they still had to manage getting an Oz worth of singers and dancers to be available for potential months of the filming process. “This person’s definitely Ozzian, but I’m not sure that they’re a Munchkin” became commonplace as she and Telsey tried to fill their fantasy world.
“They’re not extras,” Canfield noted. “That’s the thing. They’re actually a great deal of dancers, so those are all principals.”
“When we’re doing all those auditions, nobody has a schedule yet. Nobody knows that there’s 62 in this number and 23 in that number but oops those numbers are five months apart in shooting,” Telsey said. “We have all these charts: these are who can do A+ dancing, these are who can do A- dancing.”
“Right, tap specialist, whacking specialist, all kinds of strengths,” Canfield added.
Sometimes someone claims the part, and sometimes you just learn. You realize, ‘Oh gosh, we need something so specific here.’
As the film begins intersecting more with “The Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked: For Good” introduces audiences to new cast members playing familiar roles; though, Canfield noted that finding a big star to play Dorothy was never on the pair’s minds (“That’s so essential to ‘Wicked,’” Canfield said of the character’s obfuscation). One big-name addition was that of Colman Domingo, someone the directors said was not in place as the Cowardly Lion before the first film began shooting. Canfield joked that she wants “Always be casting Colman Domingo” to be her first tattoo — though she and Telsey went through a long process before they settled on the name for Dorothy’s companion.
“Sometimes someone claims the part, and sometimes you just learn,” Canfield said of the audition process. “You realize, ‘Oh gosh, we need something so specific here,’ because there’s not a lot of real estate in the historic “Wicked” to understand that part. Basically he has two big scenes.”
“I think people are like, ‘Oh, didn’t the studio just get that person to do that movie?’” Telsey later said of the casting process. “No, there was a casting director that was involved, and there was a process, and there might’ve been a list of 50 stars to get to that star. Just because someone’s a star doesn’t mean they just appeared.”
“They definitely did not just appear,” Canfield said with a laugh. —CL
Shayna Markowitz
“Is This Thing On? “
After casting “Joker,” which Bradley Cooper produced, and Cooper’s “Maestro,” Shayna Markowitz worked on the actor-director’s third feature, “Is This Thing On?” Rather than filling out the dreary city of Gotham or the musical world of Leonard Bernstein, Markowitz had to cast the environment of New York’s iconic Comedy Cellar. The film’s cast includes real-life comics like Reggie Conquest, Jordan Jensen and Chloe Radcliffe, as well as Cellar regulars such as Dave Attell and manager Liz Furiati. Markowitz also had to scout two adorable kids who, while playing Arnett’s children, could hold their own in cross-talking scenes against the likes of Laura Dern, Ciarán Hinds and Christine Ebersole. “The job is just endless,” Cooper said in a press packet, praising Markowitz. “We talk all the time at night, texting. It’s a 24/7 job as you’re leading up to the film.” —CL
Ellen Lewis and Kate Sprance
“Christy,“ “Eleanor the Great“
A longtime collaborator with Martin Scorsese, beginning 35 years ago with “Goodfellas”, Ellen Lewis cast Jim Jarmusch’s Venice Golden Lion-winning “Father Mother Sister Brother,” featuring an ensemble led by Charlotte Rampling and Cate Blanchett. Together with Kate Sprance, she worked on “Eleanor the Great,” the June Squibb-starrer with a breakout performance by Erin Kellyman, and the boxing biopic “Christy,” featuring unorthodox casting up and down its roster, from Chad L. Coleman (uncanny as Don King), a barely recognizable Ben Foster and fierce lead actress Sydney Sweeney. The duo are currently at work on a television remake of “Cape Fear,” partially inspired by Scorsese’s 1991 thriller (cast by Lewis), starring Javier Bardem and Amy Adams. —JM
Lucy Bevan
“F1,“ “How to Train Your Dragon“
Sometimes, films are cast around a guiding star. That was certainly the case of “F1: The Movie,” a Brad Pitt vehicle (no pun intended) with a strong supporting cast put in place by Lucy Bevan. In Bevan’s career, she has picked performers for superhero movies, live-action remakes and “Barbie,” among many others. For “F1,” Bevan needed to find an up-and-coming young actor who could square off against Pitt dramatically and meet the physical requirements of the hotshot racer role. This led her to Damson Idris, cited as a revelation by those unfamiliar with his work on the FX series “Snowfall.” Idris joins a cast with Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles and more. —CL
Allison Jones
“Weapons“
Hundreds of productions were affected by the 2023 guild strikes, but few had as many casting shuffles — and still emerged as a commercial and critical success—as “Weapons.” Credit belongs to the indefatigable Allison Jones, who had to cast several of the main roles twice, with Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich and Benedict Wong replacing Renate Reinsve, Pedro Pascal, Tom Burke and Brian Tyree Henry, respectively.
A three-time Emmy winner and renowned specialist in comedy casting (her hundreds of credits stretch back to “The Golden Girls” and include “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Veep” and “Arrested Development”), Jones has put her stamp on modern classics such as “Bridesmaids,” “Borat,” “Superbad,” “Lady Bird” and “Barbie.” —JM
John Papsidera
“Superman,” “Nuremberg“
John Papsidera had to wade through an array of self-tapes and chemistry reads to find the perfect Clark Kent, a highly coveted role that would anchor the future of a new DC franchise. Eventually, he and DCU architect James Gunn landed on David Corenswet, an actor whose Juilliard training echoed Christopher Reeve’s own, and whose “Aw, shucks” charisma matched that of his Kansas-raised protagonist. Papsidera’s 2025 also included “Nuremberg,” a WWII historical drama that he cast alongside Adél Csemez, Gréti Fellner, Anna Kennedy and Suse Marquardt. This film, which follows the Nuremberg Trials and Douglas Kelley’s psychiatric evaluation of Nazi leader Hermann Göring, featured a similarly massive cast, including Rami Malek, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Colin Hanks, Richard E. Grant and John Slatter. —CL
