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Director Nanette Burstein is known for bringing bold, intimate portraits of iconic figures to life, and her latest work, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, is no exception. The HBO documentary takes audiences on a revealing journey through the life of one of Hollywood’s most iconic actresses, using never-before-heard audio tapes recorded with journalist Richard Meryman, alongside personal footage from Taylor’s archive.

Burstein’s involvement in the documentary was serendipitous. When asked how she was chosen for this ambitious project, Burstein explains, “Originally the tapes themselves were found by Richard Meryman's estate — his wife found them. A producer had approached me about making this film, and I was very interested because I've always been an Elizabeth Taylor fan, and I thought, 'What a treasure trove of potential, very confessional recordings that she had.'”

Separately, Taylor’s estate realized the tapes existed and approached Burstein to create the documentary...

At the 97th Academy Awards this past Sunday, Mikey Madison won Best Actress in a Leading Role for her eponymous role in Sean Baker's Anora. Anoratook home five other Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It follows the titular character as she embarks on a whirlwind romance and eventual "fraud marriage" with the son of a Russian Oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). In her victory speech, the 25-year-old Madison(who also made history by becoming the first Gen Z actor to win an Oscar) proudly thanked and honored the sex worker community.

While Anora and Mikey Madison's win is one of the most overt examples of the Oscars recognizing sex work in recent memory, it has happened more times than many people may realize. 14 different women have taken home Academy Awards for portraying sex workers. In fact, Emma Stone also won in 2024 for portraying Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lantimos' Poor Things.

Did Mikey Madison win an Oscar for portraying a prostitute in Anora? (Photo Credit – AnoraFilm Instagram)

The 2025 Academy Awards came and went in a whirlwind, forging legacies for a slew of talents, though it’s the newcomers who galvanize the most intrigue with their ties to the golden statuette. Amid the night’s fervor, one victory stood out — a triumph that spotlights both a fresh face and a storied trope.

Mikey Madison, the 25-year-old dynamo from Anora, seized her first Oscar for Best Actress, outpacing The Substance’s Demi Moore in a twist few had prognosticated. The win, flanked by Anora’s haul of Best Picture, Director, and more, incentivized a floodlight on her nascent Hollywood path.

Maddison’s raw and unapologetic portrayal of the titular sex worker elucidated a character far from cliché, cementing her ascent with a cataclysmic bang. That win didn’t transpire without etching new stats...

Winning an Oscar is supposed to be the pinnacle, right? The ultimate stamp of approval, the golden ticket to prestige projects and paychecks. But how could it ever be that simple? There’s a long history of actors who, after basking in the glow of their Academy Award moment, have suddenly found themselves struggling to land roles, battling weird industry backlash, or – if they happen to be a woman – being deemed “too difficult” overnight.

Some just call it the Oscar curse, because Hollywood loves to anoint a star, but it also loves to tear one down. Having said that, there’s a rare breed of actors who not only win an Oscar but do it again. And again. So who are these titans of the Academy, the actors who didn’t just win but kept winning?

Robert De Niro in a still from Taxi Driver | Credits: Columbia Pictures 25. Elizabeth Taylor...

Elizabeth Taylor was the glamorous Hollywood icon who starred in dozens of movies throughout her career, collecting two Best Actress trophies at the Oscars and three additional nominations. But how many of those titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.

She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had more to do with an emergency tracheotomy she underwent right before the ceremony than the performance, but either way, Taylor was...

She despised hypocrisy and was fiercely loyal to her friends, while navigating the pressures and pleasures of being the world’s biggest star. Chris Wilding discusses the legend and legacy of the mother he loved

Chris Wilding is a shy man approaching 70. As a little boy, he was also shy. He used to get embarrassed when his mother turned up at school for parents’ day. Everybody made such a hoo-ha about it. There she would be, in her furs and finery, done up to the nines. She was so famous and infamous, sexy and scandalous, and he would never hear the end of it. And yet to him she was just Mom.

Elizabeth Taylor was the world’s best-known actress, becoming a global celebrity at 12 after starring in National Velvet. By the age of 35, she had won two Oscars, first for playing sex worker Gloria Wandrous in the 1960 film BUtterfield 8,...

The HBO Original documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, debuted on Saturday, August 3rd on HBO and streaming on Max. An official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, the film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes allows Elizabeth Taylor’s own voice to narrate her story, inviting audiences to rediscover not just a mega star of Hollywood’s Golden Age but a complex woman who navigated lifelong fame, personal identity, and public scrutiny on a global stage from early childhood. Through newly recovered interviews with Taylor and unprecedented access to the movie star’s personal archive, the film reveals the complex inner life and vulnerability of the Hollywood legend while also challenging audiences to recontextualize her achievements and her legacy.

In 1964, at the height of her fame, Elizabeth Taylor sat down with journalist Richard Meryman for a candid,...

Hollywood will get to hear Elizabeth Taylor’s voice once more in the newly-released HBO documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes. Nanette Burstein helms the project that relies on 40 hours of lost interviews of the actress throughout 1984. One of the most devastating topics covered in the documentary is the death of her third husband Mike Todd.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra | 20th Century Fox

The death of the producer came at a time when Taylor was acting in the 1958 film, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production of the film was already going through several troubles and Taylor’s husband’s death halted it for a month. She was allegedly forced to return to the film by MGM, the studio behind the film.

Elizabeth Taylor Was Forced To Film One Of Her Most Prominent Films Amidst A Personal Tragedy Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | MGM

Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times,...

In 1964, at the height of her career, megastar Elizabeth Taylor sat down with journalist Richard Meryman for a combined 40 hours of audio interviews discussing the highs and lows of her work and life. Now, 60 years later, award-winning “Hillary” filmmaker Nanette Burstein offers “the most intimate portrait of the actress to date” with a new feature-length documentary with Taylor in her own words, in addition to personal photos, home movies, news footage, film clips, and more. “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” premieres on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. Et on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. You can watch with Subscription to Max.

How to Watch “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” When: Saturday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. Et Where: HBO, Max Stream: Watch with a Subscription to Max. Sign Up $9.99+ / month Max.com About “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes”

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes...

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes director Nanette Burstein on Eddie Fisher and Susan Oliver with Elizabeth Taylor in Daniel Mann’s BUtterfield 8: “They cast Eddie Fisher in the film and his love interest looks exactly like Debbie Reynolds.”

In Nanette Burstein’s Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (Cannes Film Festival world première and a Spotlight Documentary selection of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival), written and edited by Tal Ben-David, we hear, through the audio tapes of journalist Richard Meryman, Elizabeth Taylor in her own words as she discusses her career and life, including her first five husbands, Conrad Hilton Jr. (Nick), Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton.

Oscar nominees Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer

The tapes start in 1964. Elizabeth Taylor offers her interviewer a drink. “I’m not illicit, not immoral,” she...

Netflix Announces “Bridgerton” Season 4

The most eligible Bridgerton bachelor is set to become the beau of the ball! Netflix and Shondaland have officially announced the fourth season of its beloved regency series “Bridgerton.” Season 4 will focus on the love story of Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson), the bohemian second son of the title Bridgerton family. Despite witnessing his brothers’ happy marriages, Benedict is loath to settle down… until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.

Watch the announcement video for “Bridgerton” Season 4 below:

“Bridgerton” wrapped up its third season on June 13 with the second of its two batch drops. The season centered on the friends-to-lovers arc of Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) opposite other returning cast members Claudia Jessie, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Lorraine Ashbourne, Hannah Dodd, and more. A Season 4 premiere date has yet to be announced.

Netflix Announces “Bridgerton” Season 4

The most eligible Bridgerton bachelor is set to become the beau of the ball! Netflix and Shondaland have officially announced the fourth season of its beloved regency series “Bridgerton.” Season 4 will focus on the love story of Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson), the bohemian second son of the title Bridgerton family. Despite witnessing his brothers’ happy marriages, Benedict is loath to settle down… until he meets a captivating Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball.

Watch the announcement video for “Bridgerton” Season 4 below:

“Bridgerton” wrapped up its third season on June 13 with the second of its two batch drops. The season centered on the friends-to-lovers arc of Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) opposite other returning cast members Claudia Jessie, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Lorraine Ashbourne, Hannah Dodd, and more. A Season 4 premiere date has yet to be announced.

Elizabeth Taylor’s iconography as a Hollywood starlet, activist, and sex symbol is narrated by the late, legendary actress herself in documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes.”

The HBO original film is directed by Nanette Burstein. The feature had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and screened at Tribeca 2024.

Taylor’s 1964 interview with journalist Richard Meryman is the crux of the documentary. The film uses 40 hours of the newly unearthed audio and has access to personal photos, home movies, archival interviews, and news footage. “The Lost Tapes” is billed as the “most intimate portrait of the actress to date,” as Taylor charts her own filmography from her debut in 1943’s “Lassie Come Home” to “Giant,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” and “Cleopatra.”

Taylor’s personal life is also discussed, with her fifth marriage to Richard Burton a centerpiece of the documentary.

The synopsis reads: “The...

The HBO Original documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, directed by award-winning filmmaker Nanette Burstein, debuts Saturday, August 3 (8:00 p.m.–9:45 p.m. Et/Pt) on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. An official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, the film had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes allows Elizabeth Taylor’s own voice to narrate her story, inviting audiences to rediscover not just a megastar of Hollywood’s Golden Age but a complex woman who navigated lifelong fame, personal identity, and public scrutiny on a global stage from early childhood.

Photo Courtesy of HBO

Through newly recovered interviews with Taylor and unprecedented access to the movie star’s personal archive, the film reveals the complex inner life and vulnerability of the Hollywood legend while also challenging audiences to recontextualize her achievements and her legacy.

In 1964, at the height of her fame,...

Max has shared a curated list of films available to stream on the service in Summer 2024. Max is home to Warner Bros. Pictures films, classics and new favorites from A24, the Studio Ghibli library, and award-winning films spanning multiple genres.

The platform is showcasing its vast film library with curated summer watch lists of blockbusters, horror, family-friendly films, and more.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Dune: Part Two, the groundbreaking sequel to Dune, is now available to stream on the platform along with recent hits like Wonka and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which also has an American Sign Language (Asl) version of the film available to stream.

Viewers can also find summer favorites like Mamma Mia!, Meg 2: The Trench, A Night at the Roxbury, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Dune: Part Two

Horror fans can look to Max for their summer scares and favorite films from franchises,...

"The Simpsons" gets a lot of mileage out of its voice actors. Seriously, it feels like half of Springfield is voiced by Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, or Tress MacNeille. Despite the numerous cases of voice actors doubling up, each character in the cast sounds unique and immediately recognizable. Even Maggie Simpson, the perennial infant who never says a word, has her distinctive pacifier sound.

Most of Maggie's baby sounds are provided by Nancy Cartwright (whose primary "Simpsons" is playing Maggie's older brother Bart). On the rare occasions where Maggie does do more than squeal or suck on her binky, the show has brought out some big acting guns.

In season 2's "Bart vs Thanksgiving," Bart imagines his family being angry with him; Maggie declares, "It's your fault I can't talk!" That one line was provided by none other than an uncredited Carol Kane (who these days is rocking it as...

Joan Benedict, who starred on the original Steve Allen Show and Candid Camera and portrayed the tyrannical hotel queen Leona Helmsley in a one-woman stage show, has died. She was 96.

Benedict died June 24 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke, a family spokesperson announced.

Benedict was married to actor John Myhers, who played personnel man Bert Bratt in the 1967 film adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, from 1962 until his 1992 death and to Oscar-winning actor Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, In the Heat of the Night) from 2000 until his death in 2002.

She then had a relationship with actor Jeremy Slate (Hell’s Angels ’69, One Life to Live) until he died in 2006 from esophageal cancer at 80.

“Both of my husbands, and my lifetime partner, Jeremy, were wonderful men who respected me as an actress,” she said in 2016. “They all died from different forms of cancer,...

Hell yeah! HBO and Max’s new releases for July include the two-episode debut of Harley Quinn spinoff series Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (July 18) that follows the titular villain and his girlfriend the Golden Glider as they take their relationship to the next logical step – opening a bar for supervillains together. Hilarious hijinks are bound to ensue as Gotham’s hottest new bar takes off.

Football fans will get to follow the New York Giants in this season of Hard Knocks: Offseason starting July 2. This non-scripted series will follow the team as they prepare for their highly anticipated 100th season.

Notable movie releases this month include Love Lies Bleeding (July 19), the Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart-starring feature about the love affair between a reclusive gym owner Lou (Stewart) and bodybuilder Jackie (O’Brian). Anyone wanting to rewatch the original Twister before its sequel premieres in theaters this month are in luck,...

Exclusive: Elizabeth Taylor’s son will be interviewed on TV for the first time about his mother in the upcoming Kim Kardashian-produced doc about one of Hollywood’s ultimate leading ladies.

Kari Lia, one of the EPs behind Passion Pictures’ Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar [working title] for the BBC, revealed to Deadline that Chris Wilding, Taylor’s son with her second husband Michael Wilding, will speak after many decades.

Former film editor Wilding will feature in the upcoming doc series alongside Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher’s brother, and Aileen Getty, Taylor’s daughter-in-law who campaigned alongside her to help those with HIV/Aids. The new interviewees will contribute alongside the likes of Kardashian, Joan Collins and Margaret O’Brien, all of whom knew Taylor personally.

Lia said Wilding had been “shy” in the past to discuss his mother’s legacy but, as what would have been her 92nd birthday approaches, he felt...

James Sanders with Matt Ducharme (of Woods Bagot) at the Rizzoli book launch in New York of Renewing The Dream: The Mobility Revolution And The Future Of Los Angeles Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

In the second instalment with architect, author, filmmaker James Sanders (co-writer with Ric Burns on the PBS series New York: A Documentary Film), we discuss the Billy Wilder connection to producer Jeremy Thomas and Jonathan Coe’s Mr. Wilder And Me; Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch and The Apartment (co-written with I.A.L. Diamond and starring Jack Lemmon); Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Mariel Hemingway, and apartment sounds; Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and the stoop; the office building and Jean Negulesco’s The Best of Everything; Daniel Mann’s Butterfield 8 and and the canopy; Blake Edwards’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s, and how certain stories can...

The Oscar race is coming into focus with the Golden Globes nominations.

Four clear candidates have emerged in the race for best picture – Apple Original “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer” from drama and “Barbie” and “Poor Things” from comedy. Those four movies also received the most nominations of the day.

Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie,” which tied “Cabaret” (1972) for the second-most noms in Globes history with nine, is showing it’s not only the highest-grossing movie of the year, it’s also viable to take home the Academy’s most coveted prize, despite being an unconventional candidate. It’s noteworthy that the three song noms for “Barbie” – “Dance the Night,” “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” – can’t repeat at the Oscars since there’s a cap of two songs nominated from a single movie. The Warner Bros. blockbuster also had a notable nominations miss,...

Emma Stone won the Best Actress Oscar in 2017 for her role as an actress trying to make it big in Damien Chazelle‘s “La La Land.” Stone has also earned two Best Supporting Actress bids, the first in 2015 for “Birdman” and the second for “The Favourite” in 2019. She reteams with the latter’s director, Yorgos Lanthimos, for Searchlight Pictures’ “Poor Things.” The film, which is out in US theaters on Dec. 8, follows Stone as Bella Baxter — a woman brought back to life by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) and subsequently goes on a journey of self-discovery, meeting a variety of people along the way including a lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) and a potential suitor (Ramy Youssef).

Stone’s performance is remarkable here, as many critics have noted.

Nick Schager (The Daily Beast) declared that Stone will “blow your mind” in the movie, writing: “Nothing overshadows Stone’s odd, amusing and affecting performance as Bella,...

The joint strikes by SAG-AFTRA and WGA have halted all current productions since July 14, 2023, impacting everyone in the industry from big-name actors to background performers. The strikes aim to fight against executives using AI technology in future films and TV series, as well as address concerns about working conditions, compensation, and unauthorized use of digital likenesses. The last joint strike between the two unions in the 1960s led to major disruptions in the industry, halting production on eight major movies. The resolution was achieved with the help of negotiations led by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, benefiting both writers and actors.

The WGA and SAG-AFTRA are striking together again since their first joint strike in 1960. The Writers Guild of America is protesting against major Hollywood studios like Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros., which will in turn impact most streaming services. SAG-AFTRA has now begun their strike within the last...

History repeated itself last week when actors went on strike at the same time as writers, who have been picketing for more than two months. This is only the second time in the history of the industry that both guilds have halted work simultaneously, with advancements in technology at the root of their cause, and it’s been 63 year since that event shook Hollywood. Today, writers and performers are fighting for their fair share of residuals in a world that has now largely turned to streaming services, and to protect their work from being taken over by AI, whereas in 1960, they were fighting for residuals from reruns and theatrical films being shown on a relatively new medium — television. Let’s turn back time and flashback to life during that history-making time of the 1960 strikes.

The WGA began their strike on January 16, 1960, followed by the actors strike on March 7. Future United...

The 2023 SAG & WGA dual strike marks the first time that the two Hollywood unions have protested simultaneously in over six decades. The Writers Guild of America is being joined in protest against major Hollywood studios such as Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. as well as tech streaming giants Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. SAG-AFTRA begins their strike more than two months after the WGA started theirs, which will prohibit all 160,000 members from participating in new productions or promoting upcoming television and movie releases. The SAG-AFTRA strike affects everyone from Hollywood's biggest celebrity actors to lesser-known background actors.

The combined SAG and WGA strike will force all current productions to halt as of July 14, 2023 as writers and actors alike combat executive efforts to increasingly rely on AI technology for future films and television series. Writers who have been weary about the threat of AI-generated screenplays are joined in solidarity by actors who...

It’s a hot soap from ’65, when movies promised raging passion but delivered cheap teases and hypocritical judgments. It’s Suzanne Pleshette’s only starring role, but it doesn’t exploit her bright personality, her sense of humor. John O’Hara’s tale hasn’t much pity for a promiscuous young wife who breaks the rules. Does nymphomania make her a social menace, or is she victimized by a script determined to put the blame on Mame? Costarring Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves.

A Rage to Live

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 197

1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / aud 34.98

Starring: Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara, Peter Graves, Bethel Leslie, Carmen Mathews, Linden Chiles, James Gregory, Ruth White, Mark Goddard, Sarah Marshall, George Furth, Virginia Christine, Aneta Corsaut, Frank Maxwell, Almira Sessions.

Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.

Costume Designer: Howard Shoup

Art Director: James Sullivan

Film Editor: Stuart Gilmore...

In 1972, the ads for the late Peter Bogdanovich’s hilarious throwback “What’s Up, Doc?” promised, “It’s a screwball comedy. Remember those?” If Disney weren’t consigning “Deep Water” to its Hulu streaming service — the fate for most upcoming titles from the 20th Century and Searchlight shingles — they might well have posters that tease, “It’s an erotic thriller. Remember them?”

And who better to save Hollywood cinema from chaste franchises, stolid superheroes, and a general lack of horniness than director Adrian Lyne, returned from a two-decade hiatus to bring heavy breathing back to mainstream movies.

“Deep Water,” a Patricia Highsmith adaptation starring couple-at-the-time Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, doesn’t invoke the beads of sweat that the genre’s best can manage, but it’s a pleasurably trashy reminder of the flashy fun that Lyne and his many imitators once regularly brought to the screen.

Adapted by the...

Showbiz in Soho is artificial, gaudy and vulgar, but Laurence Harvey’s slick promoter-con man thinks he can cheat at the pop music game. Cliff Richard is his new discovery, a teen crooner who digs the bongo drums. Wolf Mankowitz’s portrait of talent, glitz, and double-dealing in music and TV showbiz also stars Sylvia Syms as a Soho stripper and Yolande Donlan as a singing star trying to make a comeback. The disc contains director Val Guest’s uncut original version.

Expresso Bongo

Blu-ray

Cohen / Kino Lorber

1959 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 111 106 min. / Street Date January 18, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Cliff Richard, Meier Tzelniker, Ambrosine Phillpotts, Eric Pohlmann, Gilbert Harding, Hermione Baddeley, Reginald Beckwith, Avis Bunnage, Sally Geeson, Kenneth Griffith, Burt Kwouk, Wilfrid Lawson, Patricia Lewis, Barry Lowe, Martin Miller, Susan Hampshire, Peter Myers, Lisa Peake, The Shadows.

Cinematography: John Wilcox

Art Director:...

Olivia Colman plays Leda in “The Lost Daughter” like a consummate pro, and her portrayal of a college professor on holiday in Greece, who reveals herself to be “an unnatural mother,” is among the most critically acclaimed performances of the year. With a deceivingly open and unpredictable best actress race ahead of us, the Oscar-winner who surprised awards watchers by defeating Glenn Close could add her second lead statuette to her mantle for her complex portrayal.

This year’s race for best actress has taken twists and turns. With nomination voting set to open on Thursday, Jan. 27, any number of the presumed frontrunners could drop out, leaving an opening for Colman to pick up her second Oscar in four years.

Twelve actresses have won two lead actress statuettes: Ingrid Bergman (“Gaslight” and “Anastasia”), Bette Davis (“Jezebel” and “Dangerous”), Sally Field (“Norma Rae” and “Places in the Heart”), Jane Fonda (“Klute...

As the director and producer of both “House of Gucci” and “The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott is poised to score big when the 2022 Oscar nominations are announced three months from now. Reaping double Best Picture or Best Director bids would make the 83-year-old the first to pull off either feat since Steven Soderbergh did so in 2001. Even if he ends up being left out of both lineups, he could still make history if academy voters decide to recognize the work of his two leading ladies. If Jodie Comer (“The Last Duel”) and Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) are both chosen to compete for Best Actress, Scott will become the fifth person to direct female leads from different films to nominations in a single year.

The first of these rare occurrences dates back to the third Oscars ceremony in 1930 when Nancy Carroll (“The Devil’s Holiday”) and Gloria Swanson (“The Trespasser...

Fast emerging as a go-to company for high-profile Chilean and women director titles, Buenos Aires boutique agency Meikincine has swooped on “My Brothers Dream Awake,” ahead of its world premiere at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival on Saturday.

Competing in Cineasti del Presente, a section reserved for emerging filmmakers from around the world, “My Brothers Dream Awake” marks the second feature outing for young Chilean Mapuche cineaste Claudia Huaiquimilla, who burst onto the scene with 2016’s “Bad Influence,” establishing herself as a voice of abused minorities.

Written by Huaiquimilla and Pablo Greene, the film shares this sensibility. Dedicated – at least in a rough cut seen at Ventana Sur – to the 1,313 inmates who have died at youth detention centers in Chile, the film earliest stretches turn on Angel and younger brother Franco, incarcerated in a youth penitentiary for a year, pending trial. They now have friends, Angel even a puppy love attachment to a girl inmate,...

Portugal’s cash rebate scheme, introduced in 2018, is attracting major international productions and new production outfits and facilities, and providing significant leverage for domestic film and TV productions.

Shoots slowed during the pandemic, with several projects lensed in bubbles, but production is expected to surge in the second half of 2021.

The current cash rebate is tabbed at 25/30% of eligible production spend and may be upwardly revised in the near future.

€22.5 million ($27.5 million) in total cash rebate has been disbursed since 2018, roughly equally split between international shoots and 100% Portuguese productions and co-productions.

High-profile projects include Ira Sachs’ “Frankie,” with Isabelle Huppert, Richard Stanley’s “The Color Out of Space,” starring Nicolas Cage, Marco Pontecorvo’s “Fatima,” with Harvey Keitel, and three Bollywood pics. These projects have accessed cash rebate per pic varying between €631,000 and €1.9 million ($2.4 million) Portugal is also shaking up its production eco-system. Pubcaster Rtp has shifted from telenovelas to...

Funded by Turismo de Portugal, the country’s shoot cash rebate aims to increase Portugal’s international visibility. Secretary of State for Tourism Rita Marques stresses that tourism is a key driver of sustainable growth, job creation and foreign investment, as well as promoting Portuguese and European cultural values: “That’s why we have created one of the most competitive film production incentive systems in Europe, especially oriented to those projects that can bring economic social, and environment value and positive impact to the world.”

Portugal boasts the highest number of sunny days in Europe and greener landscapes than much of Southern Europe. Crews are skilled, multi-lingual and offer highly competitive rates.

The major diversity of natural and cultural heritage within a relatively small country means that shoots can access a wide variety of locales within relatively short distances.

The Portugal Film Commission (Pfc) is complemented by 12 film commissions and offices,...

Writer, producer, director Lee Daniels discusses some of his favorite films with Josh & Joe.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Infested (2002)

Shadowboxer (2005)

The United States Vs. Billie Holiday (2021)

A Star Is Born (1937)

Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Lady Sings The Blues (1972)

Island In The Sun (1957)

Carmen Jones (1954)

Claudine (1974)

Mandingo (1975)

Drum (1976)

Caligula (1979)

Gloria (1980)

The Exorcist (1973)

Abby (1974)

Blacula (1972)

Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Cabaret (1972)

Lenny (1974)

Sounder (1972)

All That Jazz (1979)

I Am A Camera (1955)

Travels With My Aunt (1972)

The Emigrants (1971)

Star 80 (1983)

Harold And Maude (1971)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

In The Mood For Love (2000)

Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

Laura (1944)

Dragonwyck (1946)

The Baron of Arizona (1950)

His Kind of Woman (1951)

Explorers (1985)

Innerspace (1987)

Jack Reacher (2012)

Them (1954)

Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Tarantula! (1955)

Coogan’s Bluff (1968)

Going In Style (1979)

Going In Style (2017)

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Stroszek (1977)

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams...

Elizabeth Taylor, who would have turned 89 on Feb. 27, lived multiple lives. She was a movie mega-star, a tabloid mega-celebrity (which are not always the same thing), an innovator in creating herself as a brand — and a tireless and effective philanthropist and activist.

She was adored, admired, denounced, scandal-ridden and unpredictable, and the public couldn’t get enough of her.

On screen, she was at her most breathtakingly beautiful in such 1950s and ‘60s films as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Cleopatra” and “The Taming of the Shrew.” And in the 1966 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” at age 34, she frumped herself up and gave a great performance, winning the second of two Oscars (after the 1960 “Butterfield 8”).

She also excelled in a wide array of films, like “Giant” (1956), “Raintree Country” (1958), “X, Y and Z” (1972), “Ash Wednesday”, and “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980), her last leading role on the big screen.

Looking for a film of gigantic proportions? Debuting in theaters and on HBO Max March 31, Godzilla vs. Kong shows legends colliding as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The film will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from its theatrical release in the U.S. included at no additional cost to subscribers.

March also brings a spectacular line-up of original programming, kicking-off with the long awaited release of Zack Snyder's Justice League on March 18. Dramedy series Generation joins the platform on March 11, following a diverse group of high school students whose exploration of modern sexuality (devices and all) tests deeply entrenched beliefs about life, love and the nature of family in their conservative community. Also new this month are the documentary debuts of Tina, CV Diaries NYC and Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests.

As August winds down, it’s time to look ahead to everything that’s hitting the major streaming services in September. As always, there’s an enormous haul of originals and newly licensed titles going up across Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video over the month, including content from every genre out there.

The first day of September brings the usual lengthy list of movies arriving on most of the sites. Just a few of the highlights include all three Back to the Future films returning to Netflix, every entry in the Twilight saga arriving on Hulu and countless iconic movies going up on HBO Max, including Grease, Miss Congeniality and V for Vendetta. Also, Doctor Who fans will want to take note, as the most recent season of the show lands on HBO Max the same day.

Feel free to inspect the full list of everything...

Elizabeth Taylor is among the most famous, talented, and glamorous screen idols in the history of cinema. As one of the last movie stars to emerge from the golden era of Hollywood filmmaking, Taylor's career spanned six decades from 1942 to 2002. During her highly decorated career, Taylor earned two Academy Awards for Best Leading Actress, one for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and another for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.

Related: The 5 Best & 5 Worst Movies With The Longest Runtimes

In addition to her personal accolades, Taylor worked with some of the most talented directors and actors during her career. For a clearer picture, here are Elizabeth Taylor's best movies, based on Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

On March 19, SAG-aftra president Gabrielle Carteris notified the union’s 160,000 members that the national headquarters in Los Angeles was closed to members, with the staff working remotely to minimize risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

Since then, about 60 SAG-aftra staff members of the performers union have continued to show up daily to the headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard to keep residual checks going out to members during the pandemic. They are processing about 146,000 checks per week, a rate of about 8 million checks on an annualized basis.

It’s a job that’s performed partly by massive equipment — machines that were originally nicknamed Boris and Natasha after the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” characters — which open and scan the residuals checks, then insert them into envelopes for remailing.

Valery Kotik, national director of residuals processing, trusts and estates, told Variety that the requirements of getting that many checks physically into the mail makes it...

Like nearly everyone who has an informed thought about this, I have consistently had Renee Zellweger in the first position for best actress for her portrayal of a fast-fading Judy Garland in “Judy,” and there are no overt signs that she herself is fading. She was named best actress by the National Board of Review to get the award season off to a good start and has since received nominations for Golden Globe and SAG awards.

But I haven’t for a second thought it was the year’s best female lead performance, or even the best portrayal of a singer using her own voice. I’d give that specific award to Jessie Buckley from “Wild Rose,” in which she plays a Scottish single mom hellbent on singing her way from Glasgow to Nashville. It’s a small film that won’t get any love from Oscar, but it’s a full,...

Rachel Weisz is set to play legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming movie from See-Saw Films called A Special Relationship. The film will explore Taylor’s journey from actress to activist.

According to Variety, the story will be told through the “lens of Taylor’s friendship with her assistant Roger Wall. The script for the film was written by Academy Award-winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and it will be helmed by the female directing duo Bert & Bertie (Troop Zero).

Taylor was nominated for a total of five Oscars over the course of her career and she won two for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Butterfield 8. “Though famous for her glamorous lifestyle and multiple marriages, she also took a crusading role in the fight against AIDS, which stemmed from her hiring of Walls, a gay man who grew up in poverty in the homophobic Deep South, in the mid-1980s.

David Crow Oct 28, 2019

Rachel Weisz will play Elizabeth Taylor in A Special Relationship, detailing her crusading activism to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic.

Elizabeth Taylor became a movie icon in the 20th century like few others due to her glamour, her penchant for starring in grandiose, and often lusty, productions, and her string of husbands. However, she also became one of the most visible activists and proponents for AIDS research during the height of the virus’ epidemic in the 1980s. And it is that specific period in Taylor’s life that Rachel Weisz will seek to portray when she dons the violet hued contact lenses in A Special Relationship.

The project was announced Monday by See-Saw Films which will produce the film. The movie will specifically unpack these crucial years in Taylor’s life by studying her relationship with Roger Wall, a gay man she hired as her personal assistant in the 1980s.

Rachel Weisz is set to star as Elizabeth Taylor in See-Saw Films’ “A Special Relationship,” exploring Taylor’s journey from actress to activist.

The story will be told through the lens of Taylor’s friendship with her assistant Roger Wall. Based on the screenplay written by Academy Award-winner Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”), the upcoming production will be helmed by the female directing duo Bert&Bertie (“Troop Zero”).

The feature is produced by See-Saw Films’ Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (“The King’s Speech”). Simon Gillis, See-Saw’s chief operating officer of film, and former Studiocanal exec Danny Perkins are executive producing along with Barbara Berkowitz and Tim Mendelson, who are trustees of the Elizabeth Taylor Estate/House of Taylor Trust.

Taylor won Oscars for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Butterfield 8″ and was nominated a total of five times. Though famous for her glamorous lifestyle and multiple marriages,...

Elizabeth Taylor defined classic Hollywood with Oscar-nominated performances in Butterfield 8, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and more. But the actress found her true passion in advocating for HIV/AIDS.

“She spoke of it as being something that finally gave her a sense of purpose,” Taylor’s granddaughter Naomi deLuce Wilding tells People. “She spoke of being relatively ambivalent about her fame and her acting career. She loved it, but when she found activism, it really made sense of her passion.”

On Monday, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation will support AIDSWatch 2019, marking the...

Elizabeth Taylor would’ve celebrated her 87th birthday on February 27, 2019. The glamorous Hollywood icon starred in dozens of movies throughout her career, collecting two Best Actress trophies at the Oscars and three additional nominations. But how many of those titles remain classics? In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1932, Taylor began her career as a child actress, landing her first leading role when she was just 12-years-old with “National Velvet” (1944). She quickly transitioned into adult stardom, earning her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress for “Raintree County” (1957). Subsequent bids for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959) quickly followed.

SEEOscar Best Actress Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

She collected her first statuette playing a prostitute with man troubles in “Butterfield 8” (1960), a film she openly hated. Her win probably had...

Olivia Colman pulled off a surprise victory in Best Actress for playing a frail Queen Anne in “The Favourite.” She became the 92nd person in history to clinch that prize, beating out Yalitza Aparicio (“Roma”), Glenn Close (“The Wife”), Lady Gaga (“A Star is Born”), and Melissa McCarthy (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”). Tour our photo gallery above of every Academy Award winner for Best Actress, from the most recent winner to the very first one. And find out when there was a tie in the 91-year history of this Oscar.

SEE2019 Oscars: Full list of winners (and losers) at the 91st Academy Awards

Since 1927, only 14 actresses have won this prize more than once. Katharine Hepburn holds the record for most victories amongst all performers with four: “Morning Glory” (1933), “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” (1967), “The Lion in Winter” (1968), and “On Golden Pond” (1981). 13 other actresses have received two Best Actress...

“I’ve wondered for 26 years what this would feel like. Thank you for ending the suspense.” Shirley MacLaine made that declaration 35 years ago upon finally winning her well-deserved Academy Award for 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” (watch the video above with Rock Hudson and Liza Minnelli presenting). She finished up with a saucy admission of, “I deserve this!” And now, all these years later, not one but two actresses can relate to the anticipation captured in that acceptance speech.

There is much ado about Glenn Close’s seventh acting nomination this month, but Amy Adams is also attempting a victory on her sixth bid, placing her only one notch behind Close. Will this finally be the triumphant year for either close as Best Actress for “The Wife” or Adams in Best Supporting Actress for “Vice”? Why does it sometimes take Oscar voters so long to recognize some of its most talented members?...

Bradley Cooper was undoubtedly hoping for a Best Director nomination for his feature film debut “A Star Is Born” to go along with the ones he received for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. While the directing snub no doubt hurts, it is possible it could help his chances in other categories, especially Best Actor. Cooper’s situation has even prompted Sean Penn to write a special op-ed for Deadline encouraging people to recognize Cooper.m(See the film-by-film breakdown of 2019 Oscar nominations.)

See‘A Star is Born’ got 8 Oscar nominations, but how many Academy Awards will it win?

In the film “California Suite,” written by Neil Simon based on his Broadway play, Maggie Smith portrays an acclaimed British stage actress who has flown to Los Angeles to attend the Oscars. Smith actually won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress of 1978 for the film while her character in...

There are two ways to win an acting Oscar. One is to deliver the best performance of the year that is so undeniable that the critics, guilds and Academy rally behind it. The other is to be so overdue for an Oscar that voters realize that your time for a career statue has finally come. Elizabeth Taylor lost three times and then won statuettes for both of her next two nominations, for “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” After seven nominations and an Honorary Oscar, Paul Newman finally took home the win for “The Color of Money,” which was really for “The Verdict” and all the other great performances before.

This year, after seven nominations and no wins, Best Actress is Glenn Close’s to lose. But it wasn’t always in the bag. Many things had to go right. Sony Pictures Classics carefully timed the August...

There are two ways to win an acting Oscar. One is to deliver the best performance of the year that is so undeniable that the critics, guilds and Academy rally behind it. The other is to be so overdue for an Oscar that voters realize that your time for a career statue has finally come. Elizabeth Taylor lost three times and then won statuettes for both of her next two nominations, for “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” After seven nominations and an Honorary Oscar, Paul Newman finally took home the win for “The Color of Money,” which was really for “The Verdict” and all the other great performances before.

This year, after seven nominations and no wins, Best Actress is Glenn Close’s to lose. But it wasn’t always in the bag. Many things had to go right. Sony Pictures Classics carefully timed the August...