King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green, writer Zach Baylin, star Aunjanue Ellis and film editor Pamela Martin joined Warner Bros’ panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event.
19.02.2022 - 00:43 / deadline.com
As Oscar nominees circulate in theaters, exhibitors are studying where and when to play Best Picture contenders during the long run-up from nominations February 8 through the awards March 27, juggling holdovers and new releases. (See this weekend’s specialty box office offerings below).
In an interview with Deadline, Zach Nix, senior film buyer at Alamo Drafthouse, talks programming at the expanding chain, the state of specialty film and a brighter industry outlook after a tough road through Covid. Nix, previously Alamo’s director of content licensing, was promoted in late January after head film buyer Kevin Holloway moved to Landmark Theatres as president.
DEADLINE: How are you approaching programming Oscar Best Picture nominees ahead of the awards given the lead time?
ZACH NIX: Yes, there’s a bit of a longer road map from nominations to Oscars this year. I kind of think of it as two categories. The films that already had their first runs that got nominated, like a Dune or King Richard. For those movies, it’s all about identifying a strategic weekend where we see the opportunity to bring a certain title back and look to do it across various markets. We brought back West Side Story in some markets this week.
The other half is some of the Best Picture nominees that are still very much in their first-run release, like Licorice Pizza or Drive My Car. For those, the core runs have hung in, and we will look at where else to play them, maybe adding smaller markets. (We’ve been playing Licorice Pizza in Brooklyn since Thanksgiving and that theater is also No. 1 with Drive My Car.)
We’ll play the Oscar-nominated shorts next week in a handful of theaters.
DEADLINE: Drive My Car is having a great run for a three-hour foreign-language
King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green, writer Zach Baylin, star Aunjanue Ellis and film editor Pamela Martin joined Warner Bros’ panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees event.
Alamo Drafthouse is partnering with distributor FilmRise to bring Prince’s concert film Sign O’ The Times back to the big screen for its 35th anniversary.
Clayton Davis The SAG Awards may have signaled a shift in the Oscar season and the switch of support for the streamers.After landing 12 Oscar nominations, Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” looked to be the odds-on favorite to win best picture, a prize the streamer has coveted since its historic run for “Roma” (2018). However, the streaming giant went home empty-handed on the film side of the house, just one year after becoming the second studio to garner the most nominations for ensemble with three.Apple Original Films’ “CODA” had a momentous evening, winning cast ensemble and supporting actor for Troy Kotsur, who’s the first deaf actor ever to be nominated and win.
From kid to costar! Candace Cameron Bure had a great time working with her daughter, Natasha, on the latest Aurora Teagarden Mysteries movie.
Zack Sharf If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.With Oscar nominations announced (see the full list of nominees here) and the 94th Academy Awards set for Sunday, March 27 at 8pm ET on ABC, the race is on to catch up on every nominated film over the next few weeks. Fortunately, Variety is here to make that mission easier with a complete guide to streaming all 38 feature film nominees at the 2022 Oscars.
Clayton Davis The most shocking snub of the Oscar noms was Denis Villeneuve’s omission from the best directing category for his science-fiction epic “Dune.”The film’s 10-nomination haul includes best picture and adapted screenplay, the latter perceived to be its most difficult to attain. Yet, Villeneuve’s lack of recognition for directing could rally widespread support from Academy voters and result in the film tying or surpassing a 50-year record held by “Cabaret” (1972).Bob Fosse’s classic adaptation of the Broadway stage musical set a record at the 45th Academy Awards for the most Oscars received without winning best picture.
Todd Gilchrist The push-pull relationship between an individual developing his or her sense of self and the external forces trying to steer them — be they parental, professional, political or cultural — creates a tension that is common, and formative, to many people’s lives. Despite the wildly different stories that they tell, many of this year’s best picture nominees vividly illustrate this universal conflict, examining the challenge of retaining or asserting one’s identity while the world around them attempts to impose pressure or exert its influence.As perhaps the most fantastical of the nominees, “Dune” sends young Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet) on a journey that owes no small debt to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, but director and co-writer Denis Villenueve weaves a complex tapestry between the lineage into which the character was born, the overlapping but sometimes dueling ambitions of his mother and father, the feudal aristocracy of the film’s futuristic setting, and the almost primal sense of home and harmony that Paul feels once he arrives on the desert planet of Arrakis.
Melbourne Film Festival Launches $100K Best Film Prize; Southern Hemisphere’s “Richest” Feature CompetitionThe Melbourne International Film Festival is introducing a feature film competition ahead of its 70th anniversary edition.
Weekend grosses popped higher for Oscar Best Picture nominees led by Licorice Pizza, Belfast and Drive My Car.
No Spide-Man? No Peace! At least according to director Kevin Smith, who has xpressed his vehement displeasure about the Oscar snub of Spider-Man: No Way Home from the Best Picture Oscar nominees.
here. Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, “Drive My Car” revolves around Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a recently widowed theater artist who is offered to direct a production of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” at a theater festival.
Clayton Davis After years of trying, does Netflix finally have the suitable film, at the right time, to win the coveted top category at the Academy Awards — and become the first streamer to do so?Based on the showing for “The Power of the Dog” at the Feb. 8 nominations announcement — it leads the field with 12 — it sure looks like it might.Netflix received its first feature film Oscar nominations for “Mudbound,” a groundbreaking 2017 release recognized in four categories, including Rachel Morrison for cinematography.
EXCLUSIVE: Veteran producer and executive Michael De Luca was named Chairman of the Film Group at MGM in early 2020, and hired veteran producer and executive Pam Abdy as MGM Motion Picture Group President just a few months later. The iconic studio, which includes Annapurna joint venture United Artists Releasing and a rebooted Orion, on Tuesday scored eight Oscar nominations across such films as No Time To Die, House Of Gucci, Cyrano and Licorice Pizza. The latter nabbed three mentions and also brought the studio its first Best Picture nod for a fully produced, marketed and distributed MGM title since 1988’s Rain Man.
Perhaps the Best Picture race is truly over. When the 2022 Oscar nominations were announced Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” landed 12 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, four acting nominations, and Editing.
Those theatrical motion picture studios earning Oscar Best Picture nominations today will put their best foot forward at the box office, and increase the cinema footprint of their contenders in an effort to capitalize on their success and raise the pics’ profiles.
Beginning with our review coverage all the way back to the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, through Cannes in July, Venice and Telluride in the late summer, and finally to late-breaking holiday-season releases that qualified just under the gun for Oscar eligibility, Deadline has been on the front lines of opinion for this year’s eventual 10 nominees for Oscar Best Picture.
As the Oscars wrestle with grabbing a larger millennial audience, the dissing of tentpoles in the Best Picture category continues this year. In addition to AMPAS voters overlooking the sixth highest grossing movie ever at the global box office, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.77 billion) for Best Picture, they also snubbed Daniel Craig’s swan song as James Bond in MGM/UAR/Eon’s No Time to Die in that slot as well.
While it’s always best to see a film in a movie theater — especially one that’s singled out as one of the year’s best pictures — that may prove difficult this year given pandemic restrictions and precautions. Some are available in theaters, and some of those are only in theaters, but many are available on streaming services you likely already have.