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In a tantalising combination, Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment are reportedly negotiating for an Alejandro G. Iñárritu project to star Tom Cruise.

The untitled project would mark the first under Cruise’s non-exclusive pact with Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) announced last month, and would be Mexican filmmaker Iñárritu’s first return to English-language filmmaking since Oscar-nominated The Revenant nearly a decade ago.

No details plot details are available on the feature, which Iñárritu co-wrote with Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone.

The latter two co-wrote 2015 best picture Oscar winner Birdman with Iñárritu, and Giacobone co-wrote 2022 comedy drama Bardo and...

"Charlie Work" is easily one of the most memorable episodes in the 16 seasons and counting of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Some of the episodes are best remembered for their off-color jokes, like "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6," but other times, it's the scope of the episode that garners attention, like the ambitious musical episode "The Nightman Cometh," or the unforgettable holiday special "A Very Sunny Christmas." Even so, perhaps the most impressive technical feat of all is the one-shot wonder that is "Charlie Work."

The season 10 episode follows Paddy's Pub's resident ghoul fan Charlie Kelly as he tries to pass the bar's health inspection while the other members of the gang get up to no good, wrapped up in a scheme involving steaks, airline miles, and live chickens. The episode presented lots of technical challenges at every turn, the first of which was writing an episode that unfolds in...

The fall season has typically been the time of year that Oscar favors when selecting its Best Picture winners. Even in the age of streaming, the Academy suffers from “recency bias,” the phenomenon that favors recent movies over ones released earlier in the year.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” has broken that spell, in addition to several other Oscar accomplishments. The fantasy-comedy is the first film since 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs” to win Best Picture nearly a full year after premiering in theaters. “Eeaao” was released by distributor A24 on March 25, 2022, eleven-and-a-half months before this year’s Oscar ceremony.

And we are talking about when it was released for the public to see, not its film festival premiere, which the error-prone IMDb often lists as a film’s official release date. Incidentally, “Eeaao” debuted at the South By Southwest Film Fest on March 11, 2022, making it the first SXSW...

Since the Oscars have adopted the preferential ballot, voters have been spreading the wealth. A Best Picture champ hasn’t taken home more than four awards in 11 years. Sometimes they might carry an acting award with the top prize, but definitely not two. But that might all change on Sunday. With “Everything Everywhere All at Once” poised for a big sweep, it could be the first Best Picture winner in the expanded era and the first in 18 years to win more than one acting award.

In the 13 years with the preferential ballot, there have been seven Best Picture winners that also nabbed an acting trophy. They are 2010’s “The King’s Speech”, 2011’s “The Artist”, 2013’s “12 Years a Slave”, 2016’s “Moonlight”, 2018’s “Green Book”, 2020’s “Nomadland” and 2021’s “Coda”.

The six Best Picture winners that were blanked in acting are “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Argo” (2012), “Birdman” (2014), “Spotlight” (2015), “The Shape of Water...

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Beetlejuice by Mark Bell

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) by Andrei Captan

Cocaine Bear by Joseph Roman

Creed III by Mickaël Journou

The Last of Us by Samer Alkaabi...

The 2023 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Todd Field (“Tar”), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”), and Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”). Our odds currently show that Kwan and Scheinert – aka the Daniels – are most likely to win (16/5), followed in order by Spielberg (19/5), McDonagh (9/2), Field (9/2), and Östlund (9/2).

Spielberg is the only returning directing contender in the bunch, with eight past bids under his belt for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Schindler’s List” (1994), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), “Munich” (2006), “Lincoln” (2013), and “West Side Story” (2022). He prevailed on both his fourth and fifth outings and shared in a Best Picture win as a producer of “Schindler’s List.” This new notice makes him the first back-to-back directing nominee since 2015 and 2016 champion Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman” and “The Revenant”).

For the first time in Oscars history,...

This year, the Academy Awards will honor outstanding achievement in film for the 95th year. Directors, actors, production designers, editors, costume designers, writers, composers and more will be celebrated for their artistic vision, yet one of the greatest visionary roles in film — that of location scouts — will once again go unrecognized.

From the fictional Irish island of Inisherin to the front lines of World War I to the homes that shaped the lives of music and film icons, this year’s top films feature a host of locations intrinsic to their creative DNA. This has been the way for the near-century’s worth of films honored at the Academy Awards, from the scenes shot in the Sierra Nevada mountains for Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush to Michael Corleone’s pilgrimage to Sicily in The Godfather. A film’s locations are among the most essential creative building blocks of film,...

For the second year in a row, multiple films have the potential to win Oscars for both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Of course, the nominees from “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” are looking to fare better than those from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog,” who all went home empty-handed last year. At this point, only eight of the previous 106 films that were nominated for both Oscars have pulled off dual wins. Based on their impressive precursor runs, the current hopefuls are uniquely well-positioned to join the club, but they do face a great challenge in overcoming one another.

Like “The Power of the Dog,” each of these two new films has a three-way stake in the supporting races. Those representing “The Banshees of Inisherin” are actress Kerry Condon and actors Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan, while those on the “Everything Everywhere All at Once...

Grab the popcorn and your Oscar-pool tally sheets, because the 95th Annual Academy Awards will emanate from Hollywood this Sunday, March 12, and will be broadcast on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. Et. ABC has been the broadcast home of the Oscars since 1976, but as we move more and more into the streaming age of television, we have seen an increasing number of awards shows become part of the plans for streaming platforms, and Disney+ is getting in on the game; at least internationally.

From this year's Golden Globes giving a bump to Peacock to the Screen Actors Guild Awards airing exclusively on Netflix beginning with the 2024 season, the live, water-cooler nature of awards shows provide streaming services with an opportunity to capture attention in ways that are normally reserved for live events on broadcast and cable outlets.

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Actress Rhea Seehorn discusses a few of her favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Swimmer (1968)

Linoleum (2023)

Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

Glengarry Glenn Ross (1992)

Short Cuts (1993)

Lars And The Real Girl (2007)

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Breaking The Waves (1996)

Sound Of Metal (2020)

Starman (1984)

The Worst Person In The World (2021)

Beatriz At Dinner (2017)

Frida (2002)

The Shape Of Water (2017)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

The Lobster (2015)

Delicatessen (1992)

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

The Favourite (2018)

World’s Greatest Dad (2009)

Birdman (2014)

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Triangle Of Sadness (2022)

Get Out (2017)

Nope (2022)

Brazil (1985)

Safe (1995)

Withnail & I (1987)

The Fisher King (1991)

Regarding Henry (1990)

Lost in La Mancha (2002)

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote...

“Elvis” lenser Mandy Walker became the first woman to take top honors from the American Society of Cinematographers on Sunday. She edged out two of her Oscar rivals for Best Cinematography — Roger Deakins (“Empire of Light”) who reaped his 17th bid, and Darius Khondji (“Bardo”) — plus last year’s winner with both the guild and the Oscars Greig Fraser (“The Batman”) and Claudio Miranda (“Top Gun: Maverick”). The other Oscar nominees are James Friend (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) and Florian Hoffmeister (“Tar”).

Over its 37-year history, the ASC has predicted 147 of the 185 Oscar nominees, including four in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and all five in both 2018 and 2017. However, the ASC choice for the best in the business has presaged the eventual winner at the Oscars only 17 times:

Dean Semler, “Dances with Wolves” (1991)

John Toll, “Braveheart” (1996)

John Seale, “The English Patient” (1997)

Russell Carpenter, “Titanic” (1998)

Conrad L. Hall, “American Beauty” (2000)

Conrad L. Hall,...

Where does it come from, that shiver of doubt about Everything Everywhere All at Once and its Best Picture prospects? (Almost) everyone says it’s the winner, far and away. The picture is unbeatable. The Directors Guild, the Producers Guild, and the Screen Actors Guild have crowned it already, and the Writers Guild is likely poised to do the same tonight. The Spirit Awards did it yesterday. The Critics Choice Awards had already gone thumbs up. As Deadline’s Pete Hammond points out, all six prognosticators on the Los Angeles Times “Buzzmeter” have Everything Everywhere in for the win.

But there’s still that spooky sense of unease. Maybe, as Hammond notes, the slight shadow is cast by Everything’s BAFTA loss to All Quiet on the Western Front, plus the sure knowledge that some older members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences aren’t charmed by the wildly off-center film,...

The sound mixing team from Top Gun: Maverick won the live-action feature competition at the 59th Cinema Audio Society Awards, Saturday night at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. The award went to production mixer Mark Weingarten, rerecording mixers Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, scoring mixers Al Clay and Stephen Lipson, and Foley mixer Blake Collins.

Maverick topped a field that included the sound mixing teams on All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Batman and Elvis — a field that mirrors the Oscar nominations in sound, an award that combines sound editing and mixing.

Last weekend, the Motion Picture Sound Editors honored a trio of Oscar nominees in its live action feature categories At the org’s 70th Golden Reel Awards, Top Gun: Maverick won the prize for effect/Foley, Elvis claimed the trophy for music editing, and All Quiet on the Western Front picked up...

Should we care about an awards show whose host tells us at the beginning of the show that awards shows are dead and nobody watched the nominated films?

That was the gauntlet thrown down by Hasan Minhaj at the beginning of Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards in a monologue that did not pull punches in its acerbic look at Hollywood. But voters did their best to say “not so fast, buddy” by giving a slew of awards to the film that was watched by more people than any other nominee, “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

The film has made more than $100 million at the box office and seems to be on an unstoppable roll through next weekend’s Oscar ceremony. That made it a clear leader going into an afternoon ceremony that has developed a taste for the most high-profile and most Oscar-likely nominees.

Also Read:

Indie Spirit Awards:...

The Film Independent Spirit Awards took place on Saturday afternoon, March 4, during a ceremony that streamed live at 2:00 pm Pt/5:00 pm Et on IMDb’s YouTube channel and Film Independent’s YouTube channel and Twitter page. Comedian Hasan Minhaj took on hosting duties. But who were the big winners? And were there many surprises? Scroll down for our live blog with all the winners and developments.

SEEWhen are the 2023 Oscars? Date, time, and everything to know

For these awards honoring the best in low-budget filmmaking, nominees are decided by committees made up of critics, programmers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, and actors, along with Film Independent’s board of directors. But the winners are determined by the entire membership of Film Independent. Membership is open to the public, so anyone who pays the organization’s yearly dues can make their voice heard.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” came...

The 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards are being handed out Saturday, March 4, from Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA in a show hosted by comedian Hasan Minhaj. Much as it paced the Oscar nominations, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” leads the way among all film nominees with eight Independent Spirit noms, including Best Feature and honors for director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), lead performance (Michelle Yeoh), supporting performance (Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan) and breakthrough performance (Stephanie Hsu). Todd Field’s “TÁR” earned seven nominations, including director and screenplay (Field), lead performance (Cate Blanchett) and supporting (Nina Hoss). “Aftersun” scored five bids.

Scroll down to see the Indie Spirit Awards winners list live as it happens today. We’ve also included the complete roster of nominees in every category.

Besides “Everything Everywhere” and “TÁR,” the film competing for top feature are “Our Father, the Devil,” “”Bones and All” and “Women Talking.

This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels, Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner).

This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.

The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.

So here’s Film History 101.

In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.

In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.

However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.

Best Editing has always been one of those crucial categories for the Oscar race due to how its nominees almost always happen to include whatever ends up taking home Best Picture. In fact, “Coda” and “Birdman” are the only films since 1981 to win the top prize without a Best Editing nomination. The correlation for winning isn’t so strong; no film has won both picture and editing since 2012’s “Argo”. However, there is indeed a correlation between the editing winner and another category: Best Sound.

This year, there are two Best Editing contenders that seem to stand far above the rest in our Gold Derby odds: “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” Though “Top Gun” is currently on top, many suspect “Everything Everywhere” to be the spoiler. It makes sense; a common way of predicting this category is to think about which film has the “most editing.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” made history at the SAG Awards by winning in all four categories it was nominated in, making it the most awarded film in the history of those awards. Well, if our predictions hold true, the film will do exactly the same thing at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 4. Scroll down to see our predictions in the 11 categories we’re handicapping, organized by film.

The sci-fi film goes into these awards with a leading eight nominations across seven categories, making it the most nominated film of the year. And based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users it will win every single one of those awards, setting a new record for the most victories in history. The only nominee from the film who won’t win according to our forecasts is Jamie Lee Curtis, who is expected to lose to her...

The 2023 Independent Spirit Awards are being held on Saturday afternoon, March 4, streamed live on IMDb’s YouTube channel, as well as Film Independent’s YouTube and Twitter accounts. The event will be hosted by comedian Hasan Minhaj, but who will win when prizes are handed out? Thousands of Gold Derby users have placed their bets here in our predictions center. Those predictions were combined to generate our official racetrack odds. Scroll down to see the odds below, with our projected winners highlighted in gold.

SEE2023 Gold Derby Film Awards ceremony: Watch 20 exciting acceptance speeches by Michelle Yeoh, Colin Farrell, Austin Butler …

The nominees for the Spirit Awards are chosen by committees of film industry insiders, including critics, programmers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, and actors, past Spirit Award nominees and winners, and members of Film Independent’s board of directors. But winners are decided by Film Independent members at large.

With today’s “urgent reminder” directed to its membership, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences again is doing its damnedest to get out the vote. The Oscar event is still a battlefield of “gold, sweat and tears” as portrayed in Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman’s new book, despite the ominous industry challenges.

Indeed this year’s Oscars already have conveyed a surreal energy – witness Jamie Lee Curtis’ renewed stardom at age 65. Yet, having collected its formidable array of honors, even the cast of Everything, Everywhere All at Once may feel gratitude depletion by March 12

Related Story Final Oscar Voting Begins; Ariana DeBose, Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson Among First Announced Presenters Related Story 'The Whale' Star Brendan Fraser On Why His Oscar-Nominated Role Was Worth The Wait: "I Didn't Have The Life Experience" Related Story On My Screen: 'Banshees Of Inisherin' Star Kerry Condon Reveals Her Best Career Advice,...

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has had a great couple of days. The Oscar frontrunner won the top prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday, proving that it can conquer the preferential ballot. The next day, it pulled off a historic sweep at Screen Actors Guild Awards with a record four wins for ensemble, lead actress for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan and supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis. The triple individual wins — also a first for a film in SAG Awards history — were unexpected as Curtis upset odds-on favorite Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), but they just speak to the movie’s strength. They also tee it up for a never-before-seen above-the-line sweep at the Oscars: “Everything Everywhere” can be the first film to win Best Picture, Best Director, a screenplay award and three acting prizes.

The multiversal hit is the runaway...

Since the Oscars expanded the Best Picture lineup from five films to 10, sweeps by Best Picture winners are getting harder and harder to come by. That may be due in part to the preferential ballot that decides Best Picture now, which emphasizes consensus over passion, while the rest of the categories still operate by plurality vote. In fact, no Best Picture winner has won more than four Oscars since “The Artist” (2011), which eked past that number by winning five. Could this year’s Best Picture front-runner, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” achieve at least that many wins?

After “The Artist” claimed its five trophies, the win totals for Best Pictures went down. “Argo” (2012) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013) won three apiece. “Birdman” (2014) won four. “Spotlight” (2015) only managed two. “Moonlight” (2016) won three. “The Shape of Water” (2017) won four. “Green Book” (2018) won three. “Parasite” (2019) won four. And “Nomadland” (2020) and “Coda” (2021) won three apiece.

Exclusive: Julie Walters has pulled out of Clarke Peters-starring Channel 4 drama Truelove due to ill health and is being replaced by Lindsay Duncan.

Truelove creators Charlie Covell (The End of The F***ing World) and Iain Weatherby (Humans), who spoke to Deadline at length about the upcoming BBC Studios-distributed show from The End of The F***ing World producer Clerkenwell Films, said they were “saddened” by the loss of Walters but “with her blessing, Lindsay has joined and we are both huge admirers.”

Filming will recommence in Bristol later this year, around nine months after the drama was put on ice due to Walters suffering from severe back pain. All cast members, including Peters, have agreed to return.

“Last year, filming on Truelove was paused while Julie Walters sought medical advice and attention for severe back pain,” said a Clerkenwell Films statement.

“Subsequently, Julie has decided to step back...

In what has been shaping up to be one of the closest Oscar races of the year, the lead has changed hands again in our odds for Best Original Screenplay. After its victory at the BAFTA Awards, “The Banshees of Inisherin” has taken a very narrow lead against “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Click on the graph below to see how this tight race has shifted since nominations were announced on January 24.

Written by Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin” tells the original story of two Irishmen whose friendship abruptly ends. The dialogue- and character-driven script now gets leading odds of 69/20 based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. It’s backed by 14 out of 23 Expert journalists we’ve surveyed from major media outlets, seven out of 13 Gold Derby Editors, 11 of our Top 24 Users, and 13 of our All-Star Top 24. Of those groups, only the Top 24 have a...

Best Cinematography at the Oscars will be a particularly interesting category this year, since two of the nominees are the only nominations received by their respective films.

SEEJohn Williams (‘The Fabelmans’): 5 reasons why we’re all underestimating him at Oscars

It’s also interesting because four movies that received quite a bit of below-the-line support from other academy branches –”Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Batman,” and even the presumptive Best Picture favorite, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” – were omitted from the category. In fact, none of the bigger theatrical releases were nominated in favor of two streaming movies, two movies that didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Also, only two of this year’s Cinematography-nominated films received a Production Design nomination (“Elvis” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”), whereas last year the two categories matched five-for-five.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the most-nominated film at this year’s Oscars, won the most SAG Awards ever Sunday night with four trophies. Final Oscars voting begins on Thursday, March 2, and it’s no longer a question about whether the A24 sci-fi comedy will win best picture, but how many statuettes it will take home. Probably a lot.

Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win a SAG lead actress film award. Seeing her emotion take hold of her was heartwarming and long overdue for an actress that should have already been nominated for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018). However, her speech may not have been as boisterous or memorable as we would like, especially for someone competing with Cate Blanchett, after winning BAFTA, Critics Choice and Globes for “Tár.” However, her co-star James Hong may have brought it home for Yeoh with his rousing...

On Saturday (February 25) “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won Best Picture at the PGA Awards, a leading bellwether for the Oscar. This victory came at the best possible moment, with voting for the Academy Awards getting underway in five days. It edged out six of its Oscars rivals — “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tar” and “Top Gun: Maverick” — plus “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and “The Whale.” Those last three PGA contenders were snubbed by academy voters in favor of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking.”

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a leading contender at Sunday’s SAG Awards. And it won with the DGA Awards last weekend. Last month, it was named Best Picture by the Critics Choice Awards. Prior to that it had racked up a slew of prizes...

Under the preferential ballot voting system now in place at the Oscars, a nominee doesn’t need the most #1 votes to win Best Picture anymore. It doesn’t need the most nominations either. “Coda” and “Green Book” are great examples of this. These two films had just eight bids between them, but reigned victorious in six of them. “Coda” had no editing nomination. “Green Book” had no directing nomination. They both were up against a frontrunner with the most nominations. How did they overcome these towering trends and win the top prize at the Academy Awards? Two factors play into this phenomena.

Audience Appeal

“Green Book” and “Coda” both had a 90+% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, an A or higher Cinemascore, and an 8+ rating on IMDb. These are three different measures of audience enjoyment. How this helped with the preferential ballot was that the broad likability led to an abundance...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Last Updated: Feb. 23, 2023

2023 Oscars Predictions: Best Actress Tar, Cate Blanchett, 2022. © Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

Category commentary: Are the SAG Awards Michelle Yeoh’s last stand in the battle for best actress Oscar?

Her role as Evelyn, a laundromat owner on a quest to save the multiverse, is among the 11 Oscar nominations for the sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Multiple pundits predict...

Bendita Film Sales has grown its slate acquiring Itsaso Arana’s directorial debut “The Girls Are Alright,” (“Las chicas están bien”).

The acquisition marks the latest pick up by the Tenerife based-outfit following recent announcements on Juan Sebastián Torales’ “Almamula,” and Lois Patiño’s “Samsara,” both featuring at the Berlinale. The film has already secured domestic distribution in Spain with Elástica Films.

“Itsaso gave us the chance to read one of the first versions of the script for ‘The Girls Are Alright.’ We immediately fell in love and realized that we were dealing with a singular talent, with a unique vision,” said Luis Renart, head of Bendita Film Sales. “It has been a pleasure to follow the evolution of this project and to finally discover this beautiful, festive and unique film, which we are thrilled to bring to audiences around the world,” he added.

Arana has built a strong reputation in film,...

Just last year, Michael Keaton’s Screen Actors Guild Award victory for “Dopesick” made him the fifth man to win the organization’s Best TV Movie/Miniseries Actor prize after losing on his first lead film bid (for 2014’s “Birdman”). Now, since Taron Egerton has earned guild recognition for Apple TV+’s “Black Bird” after coming up short on his nomination for the 2019 film “Rocketman,” the group is already on the verge of gaining its sixth member. If he triumphs on this outing, the 33-year-old will also follow comedy champ Sean Hayes and limited series victor Darren Criss as the third youngest man to ever win an individual SAG Award for TV acting.

The four actors who preceded Keaton in eventually spinning their initial lead film losses into TV movie or miniseries wins were Paul Newman, Kevin Kline, Paul Giamatti and Bryan Cranston. Keaton and Giamatti stand apart from the...

The winners of the 76th annual BAFTA Awards were revealed on February 19, which is just 11 days before Oscar voters begin weighing in with their choices for the winners of the 95th annual Academy Awards. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has approximately 10,000 voting members as does the motion picture academy.

The BAFTAs and Oscars have 19 categories in common. Last year, the two academies aligned on 15 winners. The exceptions were Best Picture (the Oscars went with the BAFTA-snubbed “Coda” while the Brits loved “The Power of the Dog”), Actress (the Oscars opted for another nominee snubbed by BAFTA – Jessica Chastain for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Original Screenplay (“Belfast” at the Oscars; “Licorice Pizza” at the BAFTAs); and Film Editing (“Dune” at the Oscars; “No Time to Die” at the BAFTAs).

In 2021, a whopping 18 of the BAFTA winners had a chance to practice their Oscar acceptance speeches, including all four of the acting champs.

Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” movie is beginning to shape up with the casting of Zach Galifianakis.

Galifianakis takes on an undisclosed role in the new movie, which is planned for release on Disney+. Dean Fleischer Camp — whose “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” is nominated for best animated feature at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards — is directing the adaptation, from a script by Chris Kekaniokalani Bright.

The live-action movie follows the hit 2002 animated family film, which grossed 273 million at the global box office. Written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, “Lilo & Stitch” centers on 6-year-old Lilo and her teenage sister Nani, who live in Hawaii and adopt an adorable — though sometimes a little destructive — blue extraterrestrial creature nicknamed Stitch. While the movie featured catchy songs, like “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” it also introduced audiences to the concept of ohana, which means family — and as Stitch instills in the group,...

Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover franchise) has signed on to star in the live-action Lilo & Stitch film from Marcell the Shell With Shoes On filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp, Deadline can confirm.

Details as to his role in the Disney+ pic are under wraps. But the original 2002 animated film examined the relationship between a lonely girl named Lilo and the alien, Stitch, engineered to be a force of destruction.

Chris Kekaniokalani Bright scripted the new film, from a previous draft by Mike Van Waes. Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich will produce for Rideback, with Ryan Halprin exec producing for the company.

Galifianakis is an Emmy-winning actor and comedian best known for roles in The Hangover franchise and FX’s acclaimed comedy series Baskets, as well as his short-form Funny or Die talk show, Between Two Ferns. He’s also previously appeared in films like A Wrinkle in Time, Birdman, The Campaign and Due Date,...

Exclusive: Michael Keaton’s “modern comedy” Goodrich is launching sales at the EFM for Black Bear International, we can reveal.

Fresh off Golden Globe, Emmy, Critics Choice and SAG wins for Hulu series Dopesick, Goodrich is set to return Oscar nominee Keaton to his more comedic roots.

Set in contemporary LA during the holidays, the film tells the story of art dealer Andy Goodrich (Keaton), a man whose life is upended when his younger second wife leaves him and enters a 90-day rehab program while also threatening divorce. Goodrich takes charge of their nine-year-old twins, thrusting him into the world of modern parenthood for which he is deeply unprepared. With his career falling by the wayside, he leans on his grown and pregnant daughter Grace for support, and ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had.

As we previously revealed, Hallie Meyers-Shyer (Home Again) is aboard as writer director. In the reconfigured package,...

Sure, the movie’s called The Flash, but as people watched the new trailer, the title character was upstaged by the return of Michael Keaton as Batman. It’s a surprising turn of events for Keaton, who played the character in 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns, then appeared to mock his involvement in the franchise while starring in the Oscar-winning film Birdman. Back in his mask and cape, Keaton believes the remarkable staying power of the Batman character comes from the idea that he’s actually a hero with no special powers at all. (Click on the media bar below to hear Michael Keaton) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Michael_Keaton_Batman-Relevant_.mp3

The Flash opens in theaters on June 16.

The post Michael Keaton’s Bat Is Back, And He Knows Why The Character Endures appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

Ninety-four films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture since the first Oscars ceremony was held in 1928. Thanks to the technological innovations of streaming, these winners – some all-time classics, some retroactive headscratchers – are all available to watch online. Last year’s winner, “Coda,” bypassed theaters almost entirely on its way to the streaming service Apple TV+. It’s never been easier to watch every single Best Picture Oscar winner, should you choose to do so.

This year, a number of Best Picture nominees are already streaming – including the favorite, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which is available on Showtime. But before the 95th Best Picture winner is crowned on March 12, you could choose some past winners to catch up with from our list of where to watch every Best Picture Oscar winner – from “Wings” to “Coda” and everything in between. If you start now and watch at least three a day until the ceremony,...

Residente is continuing his foray into filmmaking and will help tell the story of his native Puerto Rico.

The Calle 13 star is teaming up with Birdman screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris to write a new film titled Porto Rico about the life of Puerto Rican revolutionary José Maldonado Román.

“It has been amazing to work with Alex,” Residente told Deadline, who first shared news of the new film. “It took me a while to find a great writer because I was looking for someone who not only is talented but also connects with the subject matter.

At six of the last 10 Oscars, Best Cinematography has gone hand-in-hand with Best Director: Claudio Miranda and Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” (2013); Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity” (2014); Lubezki and Alejandro G. Inarritu for both “Birdman” (2015) and “The Revenant” (2016); Linus Sandgren and Damien Chazelle for “La La Land” (2017); and Cuaron doing double duty on “Roma” (2019). Will that trend hold true this year? (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2023 Oscars Best Cinematography predictions.)

The academy usually regards award-winning cinematography as pretty pictures within an epic technical feat of filmmaking. While great lighting and framing are laudable on their own, having a movie that looks like it was difficult to shoot goes a long way to snagging an Oscar. Recent lensing winners “Avatar” (2009), “Inception” (2010), “Hugo” (2011), “Life of Pi” (2012), “Gravity” (2013), “Blade Runner 2049” (2018) and “1917” (2020) also took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

While the lensers of “Inception” and “Gravity...

Since the academy expanded the Best Picture category at the Oscars in 2010, Best Original Screenplay has gone to writers of a wide-range of genres: dramas; comedies (“Midnight in Paris”); biopics; true-life stories (“Spotlight”); memoirs (“Belfast”); period pictures (“Django Unchained”); war movies (“The Hurt Locker”); sci-fi (“Her”), thrillers and horror (“Get Out”). (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2023 Oscars Best Original Screenplay predictions.)

Regardless of the type of film, a nominee needs broad academy support to win this race. Indeed, all 13 of the most recent Best Original Screenplay winners were, at the least, Best Picture nominees. And six of them won the big prize, bringing the total number of Best Picture champs with Oscar-winning original screenplays to 18. By comparison, 42 films have done this on the adapted side including the 2022 double dipper “Coda.”

In 2022 three nominees for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards were crafted by writer/directors; the previous year it had been all five.

In 2010 the academy reintroduced the preferential ballot to decide the Best Picture winner. Over the ensuing 13 years, there has been a difference between the winners of that award and Best Director at six Academy Awards ceremonies. Prior to this such splits were fairly rare. Why the change? (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2023 Oscars Best Director predictions.)

The winner of Best Picture is now determined by a weighted ballot while the other 22 races, including Best Director, are decided by a popular vote. While voters simply check one nominee in those other races, when it comes to Best Picture they are asked to rank all the nominees. If one contender garners more than 50 of the first-place votes, it wins. If, however, no nominee crosses that threshold, the film with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated, with its ballots being reapportioned to the second-place pick. This process continues until one nominee reaches 50 plus one vote.

The nominations for Baftas 2023 are here – and they have arrived with some notable absences.

Netflix’s German-language All Quiet on the Western Front surpassed favourites The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once to lead the pack with 14 nominations, equalling a record held by Ang Lee’s 2001 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Both Banshees and Everything Everywhere received 10 nominations each, with Elvis, Tár and British film Aftersun following close behind. Find the full list here.

But, of course, there have been snubs. While these ommissions might be less surprising considering Bafta released a whittled-down longlist compiling the films in contention to be named today, some key films might feel their Oscar chances are minimised following the announcement.

The most notable snub in the top categories is The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s biographical film that won the top prize at the Golden Globes earlier this month. It received just...

The 76th annual BAFTA Awards nominations were revealed on January 19, just two days after the deadline for Oscar voters to weigh in with their choices for nominations. The BAFTAs will be handed out in London on Feb. 19. That is 11 days before academy members start casting their final ballots. The 95th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 12.

The British Academy of Film and Television Academy has approximately 9,000 voting members as does the academy. Historically, about two-thirds of the contenders here also reap Oscar bids. Since the BAFTAs moved up in 2000 to take place before the Oscars, these kudos have foreseen nine of the 22 Best Picture Oscar winners including the 2021 double dipper “Nomadland.”

Discuss All the Oscar contenders with Hollywood insiders in our notorious forums

These precursor prizes also foresaw academy glory for “Gladiator” (2001), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009). And the BAFTAs got...

This review originally ran September 1, 2022, for the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Although seemingly fragmented in its structure, as dreams often play out in our subconscious, “Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths),” the new fable from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu premiering at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, reveals itself a circular narrative where the surreptitiously personal and the vehemently political become entangled to seismic effect.

Throughout the film’s warranted nearly-three-hour runtime, Iñárritu writes the cinematic verses of an oneiric love poem to an ever-incongruous homeland while simultaneously investigating his own perceived hubris, insecurities and fractured identity. On the other side of everything with which he grapples rests a transcendent masterpiece lucidly woven from honest contradictions, painful self-awareness, and hard-hitting historical observations.

Much like “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s own artistic pilgrimage back to his estranged origins, Iñárritu’s “Bardo” is an attempt at...

The upcoming Venice Film Festival is getting ready to unleash a robust roster of Oscar hopefuls promoted by boatloads of Hollywood stars, with Netflix spearheading the Lido landing in September.

As Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera begins to lock in his selection, Variety understands there are four Netflix original films in the Venice mix.

The streamer’s Venice titles include Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe drama “Blonde” starring Bond girl Ana de Armas (“No Time to Die”) as the Hollywood icon; Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” with Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver and Jodie Turner-Smith, which is based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo; “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” the new film from Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, which chronicles the story of a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker going through an existential crisis; and Romain Gavras’ modern tragedy “Athena,” co-written by the French...

When Alejandro González Iñárritu's film "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" won the Academy Award for Best Picture in February of 2015, it appeared to be a rebuke of modern blockbuster trends. In the film, a perfectly cast Michael Keaton played an actor named Riggan Thompson who, in the late '80s and early '90s, had risen to fame playing a silly superhero character called Birdman. Ever since, Riggan had been fighting to regain his credibility as a "serious actor," leading him to star in the high-profile Broadway play which serves as the centerpiece of the film. There is a lot of dialogue in "Birdman"...

The post Why Edward Norton Turned Down Starring in an Incredible Hulk Sequel appeared first on /Film.

I felt ill when the news broke May 11 that my go-to cinema, Landmark Theatres’ flagship Westside location on Pico Boulevard, was shutting down at the end of the month. I have been going to this complex religiously — call it my house of movie worship — ever since its founding 15 years ago. For at least the past decade, my partner and I would have date night there nearly every Saturday night after enjoying dinner downstairs from the theater at the now defunct Westside Tavern. It was a weekly ritual I always looked forward to, until the Covid pandemic kept us from going these past two years.

There is just so much I cherished about the theater. You could always catch the latest and greatest first run indie and foreign films there. The Landmark chain of cinemas was the first national art circuit in our country. The people who worked at the Pico...

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have linked up with celebrated drummer Antonio Sánchez — who helmed the acclaimed percussion-heavy score for Birdman — for a new song, “I Think We’re Past That Now.”

Sánchez’s drumming guides the multi-faceted track, beginning at an off kilter lurch. rising to a monumental arena-rock boom, then settling into an energetic shuffle before one last explosion. Reznor provides lead vocals on the song (and wrote the lyrics), bellowing over Sánchez’s dynamic drums and the song’s bruising blend of industrial synths.

“I Think We...

Lecturers include Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen, US producer Peter Spears.

US duo Frances McDormand and Joel Coen will be ‘masters’ for the second edition of Ponta Lopud Film Festival, on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, Croatia.

McDormand and Coen will give invite-only masterclasses to directors, actors and cinematographers from Southeast Europe, in the festival from June 22 to 27.

Ponta Lopud was started last year by Miro Purivatra, founder and long-time director of Sarajevo Film Festival; and Tilda Grossel Bogdanovic.

The festival will also host lectures from Juho Kuosmanen, Finnish director of Compartment No. 6; Peter Spears, US producer of titles including...