Notizie

Filmmaker Sean Baker says fans of Anora and his other films can expect “more of the same” from his upcoming output — and puts to rest any worries he might show up with a bullhorn on the set of a future Avengers installment.

While appearing on The Hollywood Reporter‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast, Baker confessed he was taking his time choosing a follow-up project to 2024’s Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes before going on to win five Academy Awards — including four for Baker himself, an Oscars record. Among them were best picture, best director, best actress for Mikey Madison and best original screenplay.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said in response to a question about his next film. “I’m still exploring some ideas.”

“Don’t expect a Marvel film,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. I’m intentionally going to stay...

Hollywood Insider - How Hollywood Is Finally Taking Notice: Women Reshaping Hollywood’s Narrative

Women Are Redefining Cinema– And the World is Taking Notice

Since the beginning of time, Hollywood’s narrative was largely led by the perceptions of males, with women limited to their work. However, times have changed– a seismic shift has taken place, and now women are at the core of this revolution. These trailblazing voices are much more than just proving their work in front of the camera but also behind the scenes, shaping the future of film. Whether through producing, directing, or starring in blockbuster franchises, women are resetting the rules of Hollywood, and the world is starting to notice.

With Greta Gerwig at the helm, 'Barbie' defied all expectations, breaking the billion-dollar barrier at the box office. But the film wasn’t just a commercial success; it struck a chord with audiences through its visionary,...

Ever since the epic Avengers: Doomsday cast was announced back in March 2025, it became clear that Marvel Studios had no interest in following up with Eternals anytime soon. However, as Captain America: Brave New World brought back plot developments from The Incredible Hulk after seventeen years along with several points from Eternals, it is clear that no character or concept is entirely off the table for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the Eternals might not have a role in the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga, Marvel might have plans for the team in what comes after Avengers: Secret Wars.

During a Q&a with The Cosmic Circus' Alex Perez, the scooper hinted that he had heard rumors that Marvel Studios would revisit the Eternals following Avengers: Secret Wars. When asked if the Eternals were done in the MCU, Perez said, "The Eternals are not done for. There’ll be more...

Paradise City, the production company run by Emilie Georges and Naima Abed, is set to make an animated documentary about the life of Fredy Hirsch, the German Jewish and gay prisoner who led children’s programming in Terezin and Auschwitz. BIFA-nominee Tom C J Brown (“Christopher at Sea”) will direct the feature.

Paradise City, which is based in London and Paris, will produce “The Fredy Hirsch Story” (working title), alongside “Nomadland”‘s Oscar-winning producer Peter Spears through his company Cor Cordium, and Emmy-nominee Maor Azran (“Buried”).

The project marks Paradise City’s first foray into the animation space, and a reunion for producers Spears, Georges, Abed who previously collaborated on Luca Guadagnino’s Oscar-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” and most recently on Anthony Chen’s “Drift,” starring Cynthia Erivo.

The doc will feature original research conducted by Jody Becker, a New York Times editor who first uncovered Hirsch’s...

There’s no word that Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans are more familiar with than “no.” For years, the Chosen One herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, turned down request after request and hope after hope that she would pick up her stake and snap back into action as the titular vampire slayer for a follow-up series. So, imagine our delight and surprise when the actress finally said “yes,” and announced that a sequel project was in development. Since the news officially broke earlier this year, the fandom has been trying to get their heads around what made this iteration not just stick but also get both the stamp of approval and the involvement of Gellar herself.

While recently speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the Dexter: Original Sin star revealed that it really came down to the blood, sweat, and tears that pilot director, Chloé Zhao, poured into the project long before it came across Gellar’s desk.

Buffy Summers is all set for a big comeback! Yep, after more than two decades since she roamed the halls of Sunnydale High—stake in hand and saving the world before curfew—the iconic Buffy the Vampire Slayer is coming back with a full reboot. The original show, which aired from 1997 to 2003, wasn’t your average teen drama sprinkled with horror. It quickly became a fan favorite.

But her story was always about more than just taking down vampires. She was learning, growing, and healing through every fight. Behind all the fangs and fists was a young woman figuring out life, one apocalypse at a time.

And now, the Buffyverse is preparing for a new era, possibly with a fresh face ready to carry the slayer legacy forward. While the reboot’s details are still under wraps, one thing’s for sure—Buffy’s world is about to open up once again,...

Buffy Summers might be returning to our television screens in the near future and the planned Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot just got a big update.

In addition to Sarah Michelle Gellar joining the cast to reprise her role as Buffy Summers, the project has landed its first new slayer in actor Ryan Kiera Armstrong (via Deadline). Horror fans might recognize her from the 2022 Firestarter remake or from the tenth season of American Horror Story.

According to the outlet, the 15-year-old actor has been cast "as an introverted high-school student" in the latest Buffyverse project. Since she is also allegedly a slayer, we can assume she might be something of an outcast at school and then find her purpose when she's selected as the next generation's slayer. Buffy is likely to act as a mentor for her.

But keep in mind that, currently, the reboot is only in the pilot stage.

Hulu is rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We don't have a release date nor a trailer nor even a title, but we do have a star: according to Gizmodo, Ryan Kiera Armstrong — who you might remember as Fern from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew — will play a new Slayer chosen to stand against vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness.

The 15-year-old Armstrong will play "an introverted high-school student." Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy herself, will also star in the show as well as serve as an executive producer. There's a pretty adorable video where Gellar gives Armstrong the good news:

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A post shared by Sarah Michelle (@sarahmgellar)

Buffy show, but he's been exiled from show business so he will definitely not be involved in this reboot. Nora and Lilla Zuckerman are writing the scripts. The pilot will be directed by Chloé Zhao, who won an...

A Star Wars: Skeleton Crew alum has a real stake in Hulu’s potential Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot.

Ryan Kiera Armstrong will play the new slayer in the pilot, our sister site Deadline reports, opposite original series star Sarah Michelle Gellar.

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You can watch Gellar notify Armstrong she got the part in the video below,...

Exploring How Leonardo DiCaprio Stayed Away From Superhero Roles! ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Leonardo DiCaprio has never been the type to chase trends or fall into the safety net of franchise films. From the start of his career, he stood apart, not just as another child actor trying to survive in the industry, but as someone with an almost obsessive commitment to understanding cinema. While most kids his age were busy with simpler things, he was digging into performances, studying the work of greats, and already showing the kind of intensity that would become his trademark.

Leonardo DiCaprio: A Career Defined By Taste

DiCaprio’s early roles in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Basketball Diaries were impressive. They were indicators of a career that would only rise. The Oscar winner’s filmography reads like a highlight reel of modern cinema, with names like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and...

“Into every generation a slayer is born.” A certain fandom will forever recognize those words. And, for a long time, we thought the story of the slayer ended when Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to an explosive conclusion in 2003. But now, more than 20 years later, it seems that the slayer will be born yet again, with Hulu bringing the series back in the form of a reboot. With Sarah Michelle Gellar set to reprise her role as the titular demon hunter, audiences are stoked about what the project will shape up to be and where we’ll catch up with Buffy after all these years. Recently chatting with Deadline, Disney TV Studios chief, Eric Schrier, opened up about how the off-shoot came to be and just how long its star has been involved.

As it would turn out, the Buffy reboot started on the creative side, with Schrier revealing,

“It...

Focus Features has scheduled a US limited release on November 27 prior to wide expansion on December 12 for Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, and Joe Alwyn.

Zhao, who won best picture and directing Oscars for Nomadland in 2021, directs and co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell, based on O’Farrell’s 2020 bestseller of the same name.

Hamnet is set against the backdrop of the creation of William Shakespeare’s celebrated play Hamlet, as his wife Agnes struggles to come to terms with the death of her only son.

Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nic Gonda, Sam Mendes,...

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

This famous line from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” rings particularly apt now that Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” has been slated for an awards-friendly November release. This adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s own award-winning historical novel stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes. Focus Features has set a limited theatrical release for the Elizabethan-era drama on November 27, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 12.

In addition to landing within the window for an awards season play, the film also seems to be setting itself up as an “adult option” for moviegoers during the holiday season. It hits select theaters the same time as “Zootopia 2” and expands right as “Avatar: Fire & Ash” and “Spongebob: Search for Square Pants” begin their rollouts. It also marks a return for Zhao to independent filmmaking after helming...

Chloe Zhao’s next film “Hamnet” has secured a prime awards season release date.

Focus Features, which is backing the Shakespeare-era historical drama, will open in limited release on Nov. 27 before expanding nationwide on Dec. 12. “Hamnet” lands in select theaters on the same day as Pixar’s “Zootopia 2” and hopes to serve as counterprogramming when the film widens its footprint in mid December, a week before James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and Paramount’s “SpongeBob: Search for SquarePants.”

Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, “Hamnet” fictionalizes the life of the Bard’s son who died at a young age and recounts the powerful love story that inspired the creation of “Hamlet.” Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley will star in the film as William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes alongside Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet.

Zhao wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell, whose book...

The Current Debate connects the dots around a topic of the critical conversation.Anora.Remember Cord Jefferson’s plea at last year’s Oscars? Picking up his Best Adapted Screenplay award for American Fiction (2023), the director chided the industry for being “risk-averse,” and suggested that, “instead of making one $200 million movie,” producers should spread those resources to make room for more diverse and bolder voices. “Try making twenty $10 million movies,” he said, “or fifty $4 million movies.” Jefferson was of course alluding to Oppenheimer (2023), Christopher Nolan’s thunderous portrait of “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer, a $100-million Best Picture winner that racked up seven statuettes and nearly a billion dollars at the box office. A year later, a cursory glance at the list of 2025 Oscar winners might make you think the industry did, in fact, heed the call. It’s not that there were no big-budget films among...

New York University has revealed its 2025 picks for its Black List-inspired Purple List of the best production-ready screenplays from Tisch School of the Arts graduate film students and recent alumni.

The four screenplays, selected via a blind reading process by industry insiders, are How I Learned to Die by Manya Glassman, Mandingo by Terrance Daye, Punter by Jason Adam Maselle and Sweetwater by Cassidy Batiz.

Prominent filmmakers whose work was included on past editions of the Purple List, now in its 14th year, include Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals), Judas and the Black Messiah‘s Shaka King, Cathy Yan (Succession, Dead Pigs, Birds of Prey), Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior, The Miseducation of Cameron Post) and The Starling Girl’s Laurel Parmet.

Nineteen of the 58 scripts showcased in past editions of the list, founded by alumni Ashim Bhalla and Shandor Garrison and faculty member John Tintori in 2012, have been turned into finished feature films.

A new Buffy the Vampire Slayerseries was confirmed earlier this year with Sarah Michelle Gellar attached, but the actress, who is also featured as a recurring character in Dexter: Original Sin, will be featured in a big role in a new TV series that’s being compared to The White Lotus.Per Deadline, Gellar, who starred as the titular vampire slayer on Buffy from 1997 until 2003, has been tapped to star in and executive produce Bad Summer People.

Bad Summer People is based on the 2023 bestselling novel of the same name by Emma Rosenblum. So far, Cara Dipaolo (No Good Deed)has been tapped to write and executive produce the series, which will be produced by Linden Productions (Family Switch), and A+E Studios (The Lincoln Lawyer). A+E Studios will develop the Bad Summer People series in-house before taking it to buyers. Riva Marker and Deanna Barillari with Linden Productions and...

The Rick and Morty Season Eight episode titles are out, and the Central Finite Curve isn’t ready to see what “Morty Daddy” has in store.

This May 25th, Rick and Morty will return to Adult Swim after an uncharacteristically quiet 17-month hiatus that included no behind-the-scenes drama or high-profile firings. The most recent Rick and Morty episode, the Season Seven finale “Fear No Mort,” didn’t leave the titular duo in the middle of a cliffhanger or trapped in a prison cell, a collapsing citadel or an indefinite time freeze, and with the show’s most speculated-upon plot thread finally wrapped up, Rick and Morty Season Eight will have as close to a clean slate to explore new plotlines as any season has had since the show’s start.

As such, Rick and Morty fans should be pumped to see what Dan Harmon has in store for the show’s next step,...

Exclusive: Sunrise Films has set a May 9 theatrical release for the Freddy Macdonald thriller Sew Torn starring Eve Connolly, John Lynch and Calum Worthy. The movie made its world premiere at SXSW last year. A New York City and Los Angeles launch is planned, followed by a nationwide release.

In Sew Torn, Barbara Duggen, “The Mobile Seamstress,” is struggling to keep her fabric shop alive. After a botched sewing appointment sets her on a quest to replace her client’s lost button, she unexpectedly stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad. Faced with two downed motorcyclists, guns, and a briefcase, Barbara is completely torn. She is forced to pick between three choices: commit the perfect crime, call the police, or drive away. The narrative presents the repercussions of all three decisions, and the deadly confrontations that result from each as she gets entangled with the case’s owner. Using thread to free herself,...

Female directors have gained significant ground in the U.S., U.K. and France since 2015, according to an Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study that was unveiled at an event hosted by Kering to highlight the achievements of its pioneering Women in Motion program.

Francois-Henri Pinault’s luxury group Kering — which will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its Women in Motion program at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — brought together leading industry figures for a roundtable at its Paris headquarters, notably Cannes president Iris Knobloch, who sat beside Kering’s group chief brand officer Laurent Claquin.

Since its inception, Kering’s Women in Motion program has championed and given a voice to female talent, filmmakers and executives in front and behind the camera, honoring Universal Studios’ Donna Langley, Michelle Yeoh, Salma Hayek, Jane Fonda and Viola Davis, among others.

The study, presented by Annenberg’s Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Katherine Pieper,...

The long wait for another Black female actor to win the Best Actress Academy Award goes on as Halle Berry remains the only one to take home Hollywood's biggest honor. Frustrated with that wait, Berry advises Black women in the film industry to stop "coveting" Oscars because they aren't "designed" for women who look like her to win them.

Speaking on the newly-released Apple TV+ documentary, Number One on the Call Sheet (via The Guardian), which chronicles the influence and plights of iconic Black actors in the movie industry, Berry addressed the fact she remains the lone Black Best Actress Oscar winner 23 years after her historic triumph. As groundbreaking as her achievement is, Berry thinks it's lost some meaning given that no other Black woman has succeeded since her win, claiming the long wait has “forced me to ask myself, did it matter? Did it really change anything for women of color?...

Halle Berry is opening up about being the first — and only — Black woman to have won the Oscar for best actress in the nearly 100-year history of the Academy Awards.

In the Apple TV+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, Berry reflects on what has happened since she won the Oscar in 2002, for her role in Monster’s Ball. In that time, no other Black actress has taken home the award.

“It’s forced me to ask myself, did it matter?” Berry asks. “Did it really change anything for women of color? For my sisters? For our journey?”

The documentary shows a montage of Black actresses losing out to white women at the Oscars. Overall, 13 Black actresses have been nominated for the honor, including, most recently, Cynthia Erivo, who’s been nominated twice. This year, Erivo was nominated for her role in Wicked but lost to Anora star Mikey Madison.

Filmmakers and studio executives, be warned: a long-suspected Oscars curse may in fact be real.

Over the past 13 years, the vast majority of best director winners have followed up their wins with disastrous films that tanked at the box office or alienated viewers. These films ultimately brought the highs of a career-defining moment crashing down to the reality of the fickle and unpredictable tastes of modern audiences.

Take a look and a pattern becomes clear: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012) follow-up Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) was a box office disaster. Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) follow-up First Man (2018) failed to connect. Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (2021) didn’t come close to making back its budget after The Shape of Water (2018) dazzled the Academy. Chloé Zhao followed up the gorgeous Nomadland (2020) with the would-be superhero franchise starter, Eternals (2021). That one landed with a thud.

The heretofore...

Into every generation a Slayer is born… and we’ve got major scoop on the new one.

As a Buffy the Vampire Slayer sequel series inches closer to getting a pilot order at Hulu, the continuation is starting to gather its cast. The potential reboot, which likely will find original series lead Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her titular role as a recurring guest star, is said to be focused on a new Slayer and “the next chapter in the Buffyverse.”

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A conversation about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has been in the works for years. It wasn't until early this year that Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed the project is in its early stages.

Gellar had previously shut down the idea of coming back to her iconic role of Buffy Summers, but she came around when she revealed her new dream team: two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao as director, and Poker Face's Nora and Zila Zuckerman as writers, showrunners, and executive producers. Aside from Gellar, no other original character has been confirmed to return, but Charisma Carpenter told Collider she hopes she'll return.

Carpenter played Cordelia Chase in the first three seasons of the beloved fantasy series, marking Buffy's enemy, and later Xander's love interest. However, she switched to the spin-off Angel after Season 3, where she became one of the main cast members, alongside Angel, the vampire with a soul,...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Charisma Carpenter shares her candid thoughts about returning as Cordelia after the character's controversial death. It was confirmed in early February that Hulu greenlit a pilot order for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot. Sarah Michelle Gellar will recur, reprising her iconic role as Buffy Summers, though the focus will turn to a new slayer. Oscar-winning Nomadland director Chloé Zhao will direct the pilot, with Poker Face showrunners Lilla and Nora Zuckerman writing the script. The project has not been picked up yet, although audiences are wondering which original cast members might return.

According to Collider, while speaking at the Indiana Comic-Con over the weekend, Carpenter touched on the possibility of returning as Cordelia. The actor, an original cast member for the first three seasons of Buffy, before moving on to the spinoff Angel, acknowledged that the Hulu pilot is still in its early stages.

The directors that popular culture considers to be the greatest of all time — Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, for example — are almost always men. While female directors have spearheaded successful films across genres like superhero, action, and horror, it is men who typically receive the funding, global attention, and prestige projects that cement their legacy in film history.

There have only been 10 women nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and it wasn't until 2021 that more than one woman was nominated in the category: Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" and Emerald Fennell for "Promising Young Woman." In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, only three women have won the Best Director prize: Chloé Zhao, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow.

There are so many incredible films made by visionary female directors, even ones that haven't received Oscar attention. Many of these films appear on Metacritic's highest-rated list. Metacritic celebrates...

A Buffy Summers comeback is on the horizon, and it may be happening sooner than anticipated. Sarah Michelle Gellar is set to return for the as-yet-untitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival series, which is nearing a pilot order at Hulu. Gellar will reprise her role and executive produce. And in a recent interview, she gave fans many reasons to be excited.

And while Gellar won't lead the upcoming series — the show is set to follow a new slayer, after all — it remains a mystery if any of the other original cast members will return to reprise their roles. Sadly, we know that we won't see an on-screen family reunion between Buffy and her sister Dawn, as Michelle Trachtenberg, who depicted the younger Summers sister, passed away last month. While speaking with People, Gellar delivered the good news, as well as a call for patience from fans who are eagerly awaiting...

Hollywood has always been a tough industry to crack, but women are proving time and again that they belong behind the camera just as much as anyone else. From science to business to filmmaking, women have been making history for centuries, pushing boundaries and leaving their mark. In Hollywood, female directors are doing just that—reshaping the industry, one film at a time.

Back in the early days of cinema, trailblazers like Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber took the director’s chair, paving the way for future generations. Their work inspired legends like Ida Lupino, Madeline Anderson, Agnès Varda, and Penny Marshall—women who brought fresh perspectives and unforgettable storytelling to the big screen. Today, female directors continue to break barriers, bringing their creativity and unique vision to audiences worldwide.

Whether they’re redefining genres, telling bold new stories, or giving underrepresented voices a platform, these women are changing the game.

Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” the first of Warner Bros.’ eclectic, pricey 2025 slate of original films from name-brand directors like Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson, isn’t getting the warmest arrival at the box office. The sci-fi comedy, starring Robert Pattinson as a pair of interstellar doppelgangers, earned $7.7 million across Friday and preview screenings from 3,807 locations.

That kick-off puts “Mickey 17” on pace to land within projections for an opening weekend north of $18 million. Whether or not it can fulfill that forecast though, it’s going to be a slow start for a film sporting a $118 million production budget. Add in marketing and distribution costs and the Warner Bros. release will likely struggle to enter profitability in theaters, which could take more than $275 million in global admissions.

Playing in Imax and other premium large-format auditoriums, “Mickey 17” will easily top domestic charts. But the film won’t open...

Turns out, when you’ve won Best Picture, most of the time, the only place you can go after that high is down.

Opening this weekend at the box office is “Mickey 17,” the first film from director Bong Joon Ho since his film won Best Picture for “Parasite” back in 2019. “Parasite” was something of a unicorn, an international film that crossed all borders and became a $259 million global commercial hit and an awards circuit sensation. Even with Robert Pattinson helping his cause, that’s going to be a tough benchmark to surpass. Warner Bros. is projecting a $40-50 million global opening weekend.

The difference this time is director Bong is working with a major studio, Warner Bros., rather than indie distributor Neon, and “Mickey 17” will open wide on 3,400 screens domestically, whereas “Parasite” at its peak only hit 2,000.

But when a director’s movie wins Best Picture, does their next one perform better?...

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 reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Explore Awards Circuit Predictions Pages

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

With the feather in the cap of this past Oscar season, it’s time to look ahead to the next.

This annual Variety tradition of blindly forecasting awards season is meant to be fun and expectation-free. Last year’s edition correctly predicted three of the 10 best picture nominees — “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two” and “Nickel Boys” — but the actual winner,...

People like to say, “It’s never too early” to do something, but that’s not always true. For example, it’s too early to predict next year’s Academy Awards before this year’s Academy Awards. But the 2025 Oscars are over, so now it’s time to start making predictions about what films will contend for the Oscars next year.

It’s already looking like the 98th Academy Awards will have a stronger field than the 97th. Blue chip filmmakers are returning from long breaks with exciting casts in tow. Each Safdie brother has their own A24 sports drama. There’s a new Avatar movie. It’s going to be an exciting, unpredictable year.

Here are 25 films likely to contend for 2026 Academy Award nominations in many different categories, not just Best Picture. Some of them are locks, some are long shots, and some will peter out entirely, replaced in...

The final Oscars viewing figures for 2025 are in, and it turns out about the same number of people watched as last year.

Report’s of the Oscars’ death have been greatly exaggerated.

Nielsen has updated its post-Oscars viewing figures, presumably as some kind of revenge against entertainment journalism’s headline writers. While initial estimates reported a 7% drop in the ceremony’s TV audience compared to the previous year’s 19.5m, the figure has since been revised to 19.7m – a 1% increase (ish). Cinema is saved!

According to ABC (via Variety), the discrepancy comes from “a significant portion of younger viewers tuning in via mobile devices and personal computers, which were not represented in Nielsen’s fast national data”.

This makes the 2025 ceremony the most-watched Oscars since 2019, when 23.64m people tuned in to see Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite win Best Picture (other awards are available). Bong has a new film out this weekend,...

For decades in Hollywood, keen-eyed movie fans could spot an Academy Awards hopeful from a mile away. Usually released in the few months leading up to the awards, the movies were highbrow, serious, often historical, aimed at a more "adult" audience, the kind that might fork over ticket money to catch a mid-afternoon matinée screening. They often had recognizable stars, but they were rarely the biggest releases of the year, nor were they the smallest. Several terms popped up to describe these kinds of movies, like "prestige pictures" or, more commonly, "Oscar bait."

While these kinds of movies do still occasionally break through, and last year's big wins for Oppenheimer show that Hollywood isn't giving up its historical epics any time soon, the idea of what a big Oscar night winner looks like has changed a lot in recent years. More offbeat, unconventional films have taken home top prizes in the last decade,...

On Sunday night, “Anora” director Sean Baker made Academy Awards history by winning four Oscars in the same year for the same film, collecting gold statues for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.

How did Baker do what other legendary directors, whose films have won twice as many Oscars, could not? How unique is it that he wears so many hats? And is there anything to be gleaned from his four wins as the Oscars continue the trend of increasing the premium on auteur-driven filmmaking?

A director winning Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay is not unusual. If Baker didn’t win Best Original Screenplay category this year, another director would have: Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”), Jesse Eisenberg (“A Real Pain”), Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”), and Tim Fehlbaum (“September 5”).

A director winning Best Picture has also become common. Of the 10 nominated films for Best Picture this year,...

One year after Oppenheimer became one of the highest-grossing Best Picture of all time, the Academy bestowed its top prize on Anora, one of the lowest-grossing winners in the modern era.

With $15.6 million in domestic ticket sales and just over $40 million worldwide, Anora is the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner since The Hurt Lucker, except the pandemic-impacted Nomadland ($39 million) and the streaming film Coda.

The only Best Picture winners to gross less than $50 million worldwide since 1990 are The Hurt Locker, Nomadland, Coda, and Anora.

However, despite the low gross, Anora was an unqualified success for filmmaker Sean Baker and distributor Neon even before it won five Oscars on Sunday night, including a record four individual awards for Baker (he’s the first person to ever win four Oscars for the same film in one night).

Anora was reportedly produced for roughly $6 million and funded independently, as Baker has said several times...

Anora scored five Oscars on Sunday, but one of its wins took many, including Jack Antonoff, by surprise. Demi Moore was the odds-on favorite to win Best Actress, but The Substance star fell to Anora star Mikey Madison. But Madison's victory is not very surprising when you get down to it. Here's how she pulled off the win.

1. The stronger movie prevails over narrative

Anora won five Oscars from six nominations, with four wins for Sean Baker: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. The Palme d'Or champ was the Oscar frontrunner for most of the season, with just a short blip after its Golden Globe shutout before it claimed the Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America Awards to reassert itself. The Substance had five nominations, a great haul for a body-horror film, and won one, Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It...

Conventional wisdom suggests that studios should not open their newest movies or tentpoles on Oscars weekend. Wouldn’t you rather wait until the weekend after the industry has finished celebrating the year’s best movies before promoting a new one?

But historically, that hasn’t necessarily been the case, especially when compared to something like Super Bowl weekend. So, with studios largely avoiding major new releases, this weekend had the unfortunate effect of being the lowest weekend at the overall domestic box office during the Oscars in at least 15 years.

Seems like the real winners were onstage on Sunday. The widest release from a major distributor this week was “Last Breath,” the deep-sea diver thriller starring Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu. It opened on over 3,000 theaters and pulled in $7.8 million, finishing No. 2 in the domestic top 10 behind “Captain America: Brave New World” in its third week of release. It made...

Sean Baker became the first filmmaker to win four Academy Awards for the same movie, achieving victories in directing, producing, writing, and editing for Anora. No director before him had accomplished this in a single night, placing him in a category all his own at the 97th Academy Awards.

Previous filmmakers had come close but fell short of reaching the four-award mark for one film. Francis Ford Coppola won three Oscars in 1974 for The Godfather: Part II, while Alfonso Cuarón and Chloé Zhao each took home two for Roma and Nomadland, respectively. Bong Joon-ho claimed four trophies for Parasite in 2020, but one was awarded to South Korea rather than him directly. Walt Disney won four Oscars in 1954, though for separate projects.

Baker’s success with Anora reflected a broader trend in the Academy recognizing independent filmmakers who take on multiple roles in their projects. Jacques Audiard, the director of Emilia Pérez,...

The Academy Awards have been handing out a Best Actress trophy since the very first ceremony in 1928. Janet Gaynor for a combo of 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was the first recipient for his leading roles.

Since then, only one woman has won the category four times: Katharine Hepburn for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond. Next with three is Frances McDormand. The ladies with two lead wins have included Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Glenda Jackson, Vivien Leigh, Luise Rainer, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Hilary Swank. Streep holds the record of most lead nominations at 17.

The oldest winner was Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) at age 80. The oldest nominee was Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) at age 85. The youngest winner was Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser...

At one time, the Oscars were April Reign’s Super Bowl. She watched the annual nominations and awards ceremony religiously for decades. So, in January 2015, she tuned in as usual to see Chris Pine and Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first Black female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announce that year’s nominees. And after noticing that not one of the 20 acting nominations included a person of color, she took to Twitter to give the Academy Awards a piece of her mind: “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.

Oscars 2025 (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

The 97th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 2, 2025. It will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The event will be live-streamed in India on Monday in the wee hours of 5 A.M. on March 3, 2025. There are only a few hours left, so the red carpet has been rolled out, champagnes have been kept on ice, celebs are getting ready to turn heads with their glamorous looks, and we are waiting for the new batch of Oscar winners.

Conan O’Brien is going to host the event this year. Everyone is anticipating the big night to celebrate the huge wins. Before the celebration for this year begins, here’s a list of actresses, from Meryl Streep and Jane Fonda to Katharine Hepburn and others, who have won the maximum number of Oscars over the years. Scroll ahead.

Katharine Hepburn (4 wins out of 12 nominations...

1998 was a titanic year for the Oscars, in more ways than one. James Cameron's Titanic took home Best Picture, as well as 10 other Oscars, tying the record set by Ben-Hur and, later The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Not only that, but the ceremony's broadcast amassed 57 million viewers. 1998 became the most watched Academy Awards ever and still is to this day.

2024's ceremony, however, secured only 19.5 million viewers, which was, believe it or not, an improvement on 2023's numbers (18.7 million). This is nothing compared to the Academy Awards' dismal performance during the height of the pandemic, which saw the show's lowest numbers ever, 10 million in 2021. In fact, the Oscars have not been able to boast numbers above 40 million since 2014.

What could possibly be responsible for this significant decrease in Oscars spectatorship? Movie lovers, critics, and sociologistsalike have theorized for some time now about the various phenomena...

Here at Gold Derby, we traffic in data. We use numbers, odds, and statistics to predict awards. But when it comes to the Oscars, some statistics matter more.

Famously, the rates of milk consumption and divorce in Colorado have been shown to correlate closely in the past few years. But how much are they influencing each other? Probably not a whole lot.

So, when it comes to the Oscars, which stats are worth paying attention to? We will look at some common data points referenced by prognosticators and tell you which to consider when making your final Oscar picks.

To win Best Picture, you need a Best Director nomination

For a long time, a Best Director nomination was touted as a “must-have” for a film vying to win Best Picture. In the past few years, Best Picture contenders Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Trial of the Chicago 7 did not receive Best Director nominations,...

As we prepare for the 97th Academy Awards this weekend, here’s a reminder of the Oscars Cheer Moment, and the weirdest year in the body’s history.

On Valentine’s Day 2022, the American Academy of Motion Pictures unveiled a pair of awards so prestigious they could only be accurately communicated via hashtag.

#OscarsFanFavorite and #OscarsCheerMoment were the latest in a string of attempts from the world’s most famous awards body to stay popular and relevant. The last was in 2018 when, in an attempt to reverse the ratings freefall the ceremony had found itself in over the last decade, Film Academy president John Bailey proposed an official Popular Film category – the first new competition since Best Animated Film in 2001.

Months later, the award was slipped quietly into the organisation’s back pocket, after Academy members and the public at large united to declare the idea a silly one. Making a popular film,...

Without a doubt, this year's Best Actress race is a nail-biter. With frontrunners Demi Moore (The Substance) and Mikey Madison (Anora) having split the major precursor awards, prognosticators are divided between who will take home the top prize. Which leaves room for dark horse contender Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) to potentially pull off an upset.

Here are five reasons why the Brazilian actress could surprise everyone and take home the Oscar for Best Actress this Sunday.

See Video Interview: Fernanda Torres

1. She seized her momentum at a key time with the Golden Globe win

Torres solidified her status as a serious Oscar contender back in January when she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Actress. The winner of (either) Best Actress awards at the Globes has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Actress four times in the last six years. While there's no substantive overlap...

Consider Phlebas is the first sci-fi book written by author Iain M. Banks. It's the first book in his classic sci-fi series The Culture, about a post-scarcity civilization — called the Culture — controlled by powerful artificial intelligences. Consider Phlebas drills down on a war between the Culture and the Idiran Empire, an expansionist empire dominated by religion. When a Culture Mind — a powerful AI — takes refuge on a distant planet, agents from both the Culture and the Idiran empire are sent to retrieve it.

Per Deadline, Prime Video is now adapting Consider Phlebas — which gets its title from T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, if you're wondering — for TV. Author Charles Yu, who served as showrunner on the Hulu series Interior Chinatown in addition to writing on shows like Westworld, will be heading up the new series. Among the executive producers is Chloé Zhao, who won a Best Director Oscar for her film Nomadland.

We have ourselves a race! The Oscar contests for Best Actor and Best Actress got especially interesting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday because the winners disagreed with another industry peer group honor, the BAFTA Awards. But who tends to win the Oscar under those circumstances, the SAG winner, the BAFTA winner, or someone else entirely?

SEE2025 Oscars race scorecard: 'Conclave,' Timothée Chalamet pull off SAG Awards wins while Demi Moore rebounds

Let's start with Best Actress, where Demi Moore (The Substance) won the SAG Award while Mikey Madison (Anora) won BAFTA. This is the fifth year in a row that the two awards diverged. Let's break down all those disagreements year by year.

2023: Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) won SAG, Emma Stone (Poor Things) won BAFTA — Oscar went to the BAFTA winner.

2022: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) won SAG,...

Exclusive: Amazon MGM Studios is developing science fiction TV series Consider Phlebas. It is an adaptation of the novel by Iain M Banks, the first in the late Scottish author’s classic 10-book Culture book series about an interstellar post-scarcity society.

Interior Chinatown creator Charles Yu is writing and executive producing. The potential series also is executive produced by Nomadland Oscar winner Chloé Zhao through her production company Books of Shadows, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Entertainment as well as Adele Banks.

In Consider Phlebas, while war rages between the utopian Culture and the Idiran Empire, a Culture Ship AI “Mind” takes refuge on a forbidden planet. Both Horza, a shape-shifting mercenary working for the Idirans, and Balveda, a “Special Circumstances” Culture agent, have been tasked with retrieving it to tip the balance in a galaxy-spanning conflict. Consider Phlebas pits sentience against AI in an epic and bloody quest across the cosmos.