‘American Fiction,’ ‘Poor Things’ and ‘Zone of Interest’ Flex at BAFTAs, While ‘Barbie’ and ‘Maestro’ Get Oscar Campaign Blows

The 2024 Oscars may be this weekend, but there are still plenty of ways to stream all of the Best Picture nominees from Hollywood’s biggest night right from the comfort of your own home. This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated 10 films — including Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” the Christopher Nolan epic “Oppenheimer” and the Emma Stone-led “Poor Things.”Other nominees for the award include “American Fiction,” “The Zone of Interest,” “Anatomy of the Fall,” the Bradley Cooper-led “Maestro,” “Past Lives,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Holdovers.” The official ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be held at the Dolby Theatre in LA on Sunday, March 10.

Julio Torres’s directorial debut Problemista from A24 posted the highest per-screen average of the weekend with a solid limited opening, grossing $140.9k on five screens in New York and LA with multiple sold out Q&As.

The 36th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards on Saturday named Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction its outstanding film adaptations, giving the Oscar-nominated script a boost leading into next weekend’s Academy Awards.

Adam Sandler is set to remind us he's more than an esteemed comedy performer with his latest Netflix offering. The actor has produced and starred in a number of films on the streaming giant, including the Murder Mystery duology featuring Jennifer Aniston.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor All five of this year’s Academy Award-nominated original songs will be performed on the Dolby Theatre stage at the 96th Oscars. Jon Batiste, Becky G, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Scott George and the Osage Singers, and as Variety previously reported, Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson will perform the memorable numbers.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer and Oscar winners Nicolas Cage and Al Pacino are among the first group of presenters for this year’s 96th Oscars ceremony. Also presenting are last year’s four acting winners — Brendan Fraser from “The Whale” and Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis from the best picture winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Oscar winners Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight” and “Green Book”), Jessica Lange (“Tootsie” and “Blue Sky”), Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) and Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) also are set to take the stage. Raj Kapoor serves as the Oscars’ executive producer and showrunner, alongside executive producers Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea. Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga.

the 2024 SAG Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Saturday night.Pity the doll. “Barbie” lost everything: actress (Robbie), supporting actor (Ryan Gosling) and ensemble — SAG’s best picture equivalent, which many predicted it would eek out.Nope. Its Malibu dreams have been crushed.“Oppenheimer” emerged victorious — again — and will almost definitely win best picture in two weeks.“Poor Things”? Poor movie.

SAG Awards, which celebrates the incredible talent of actors and actresses in film and television, went down Saturday night at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in LA.Summer blockbusters such as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” led the film division with a whopping four nominations, while HBO’s “Succession” dominated the television side with a massive five nominations.Barbra Streisand is also set to be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s show.The award show, which has not had a solo host since 2021, had “Ted Lasso” star Phil Dunster and “Red, White and Royal Blue” actor Taylor Zakhar Perez tapped to serve as “ambassadors.” According to a press release obtained by People, Dunster, 31, and Perez, 32, will “provide viewers with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the ceremony and participate in various SAG Awards pre-show events.”Scroll below for the winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. This story will be updated as the night goes on.“American Fiction” “Barbie” “The Color Purple”“Killers of the Flower Moon”“Oppenheimer” Annette Bening — “Nyad” Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Carey Mulligan — “Maestro” Margot Robbie — “Barbie” Emma Stone — “Poor Things”Bradley Cooper — “Maestro” Colman Domingo — “Rustin” Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers” Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer” Jeffrey Wright — “American FictionEmily Blunt — “Oppenheimer” Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple” Penelope Cruz — “Ferrari” Jodi Foster — “Nyad” WINNER: Da’vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers” Sterling K.

The AAFCA Awards had a lot of Oscar nominees in attendance!

Gregg Goldstein When film and TV talents collide on the Santa Monica beach at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, anything can happen. Just ask “American Fiction” nominee Jeffrey Wright.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor After a year hit with Hollywood strikes and an early buzz positioning Christopher Nolan’s drama about the creation of the atomic bomb as a frontrunner, sentiments from more than a dozen Oscar voters on the first day of final voting revealed a strong backing for Nolan. “Nolan fucking deserves it,” an anonymous voter emphasizes to Variety, highlighting the widespread acclaim for Nolan’s direction and billion-dollar blockbuster.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Everyone could use a good cry now and again. And what better way to get those tears flowing than watching a movie? Variety caught up with this year’s Oscar nominees at the Academy’s annual nominees luncheon at the Beverly Hilton to find out the last time they cried at the movies. “I cried at ‘Parallel Mothers,’” said “Oppenheimer” star Emily Blunt.

Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Aniston are among 30 presenters announced today for the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards set for Saturday in Los Angeles.

I share my colleague Pete Hammond’s fascination with Cord Jefferson’s BAFTA win for his screenplay adaptation, American Fiction. It is no small thing for a self-consciously American story to win a very British award against competition as formidable as Christopher Nolan, especially for a debut film.

After eight straight years of the BAFTA and Oscars failing to match on their choice for Best Picture, you can probably take it to the bank that this year that streak will be broken as Oppenheimer continues its flawless roll toward the Academy Awards and now adding seven wins at BAFTA including the big prize to its previous triumphs at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and DGA awards. It is all going according to plan.

K.J. Yossman Emma Stone thanked her mother for giving her life and her “Poor Things” screenwriter Tony McNamara for the line “I must go punch that baby” when she accepted her leading actress BAFTA award on Sunday evening. “Tony, thank you for the line ‘I must go punch that baby.’ It was life-changing for me,” Stone said on stage, while also thanking director Yorgos Lanthimos, her fellow cast and crew and her dialect coach Neil Swain.

The Bafta Film Awards celebrates some of the best British and international films released over the past year.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor In the history of Black leading actresses at prestigious award shows, Halle Berry’s triumph for “Monster’s Ball” at the Oscars stands prominently, while the BAFTAs lack a similar honoree, and the upcoming Sunday ceremony seems unlikely to change that. This year’s roster of lead actress nominees boasts a diverse array of talents.

Christopher Vourlias Abel Ferrara is set to begin production on his latest feature, “American Nails,” a modern gangster story inspired by ancient tragedy that stars Asia Argento and Willem Dafoe, Variety has learned. According to the producers, “American Nails” charts “the rise and fall of this modern Phaedra, in a tale set in the gangster world of primal violence, power and revenge.