‘Barbenheimer’ Duo and ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Lead Australia’s AACTA International Awards Nominations

Alliance of Women Film Journalists have announced the winners of the annual AWFJ EDA awards. “Barbie” took home multiple awards in the “Best Of” category, including Best Director for Greta Gerwig, Original Screenplay for Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, and the film’s casting directors Lucy Brava and Allison Jones also took home an award.

The Mandalorian has been named as the most streamed original television series in 2023.The third season of the Star Wars spinoff series wound up on Disney+ in April, with a finale that left some fans divided over its surprisingly optimistic conclusion.In a new list compiled by the data analysts Whip Media (via Yahoo News), which established the dominance of shows based on the share of viewers in the US from January to November, there are three more Disney+ shows in the top ten.Marvel series Loki comes in at Number Two, while Secret Invasion and Ahsoka land the seventh and ninth spots respectively.Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso takes the third spot, while the highest Netflix placing is You in fourth place, followed by Black Mirror at Number Six.Netflix do, however, take the largest share of the Top 30 in total, with a total of 11 contributions.In December, Netflix announced that they would be publishing a report twice a year to show what subscribers were watching over a six month period.The first report, which covered the months from January to June 2023, revealed that according to their data, The Night Agent was the most viewed product, racking up over 812 million hours globally.Created by Shawn Ryan, The Night Agent follows FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) who is thrown into a desperate hunt for a traitor at the highest levels of the US government.

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) has announced the nominees for the 2024 SCL Awards, including songwriters Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lenny Kravitz, Diane Warren, and Jon Batiste, all who earned spots on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Original Song.

Before Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon debuted at Cannes, audiences had a preview of what his leading lady Lily Gladstone could do in the Sundance title Fancy Dance, in which she played a Native American aunt who would do anything to keep her family together. Family plays a big part in Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 bestseller too; in his telling of the horrific true crimes committed against the oil-rich Osage people of Oklahoma. Gladstone’s real-life character, Mollie, marries Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and stumbles on a plot devised by her husband’s duplicitous uncle William King Hale (Robert De Niro) to kill her kinfolk for their money. Here, Gladstone discusses what it meant to tell Mollie’s story.

EXCLUSIVE: Streamers are slowly coming around in supplying viewing results, especially when the news is good. Apple has some good news.  

Andrew Haigh’s drama All of Us Strangers has landed nine London Critics’ Circle Awards nominations, ahead of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which has scored seven.

a lot of shows out there — but these are the series that managed to hit a home run week after week without any letdowns in their story arcs or performances.A serial killer, a mysterious writer (played by “The Crown’s” Emma Corrin), a sinister billionaire (Clive Owen), the unique setting of a luxury hotel in Iceland and a multi-layered mystery: this Hulu show was full of juicy ingredients, and it used them well. It also mixed prescient big-picture topics (AI, the climate crisis) with more intimate relatable character drama (Corrin’s character, Darcy, having unresolved feelings for her ex-boyfriend, played by rising star Harris Dickinson).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Production is underway on “Kangaroo Island,” the feature film debut from Australian director Tim Piper and screenwriter Sally Gifford. The family relationship drama-comedy centers around a struggling Hollywood actress forced to reunite with her sister as part of her father’s last wishes. It stars Rebecca Breeds (“Clarice,” “CAUGH*T”), Erik Thomson (“Aftertaste,” “Black Snow”), Adelaide Clemens (“Justified: City Primeval,” “Under The Banner of Heaven”) and Joel Jackson (“Mystery Road,” “Safe Harbour”).

It's been over three decades since Home Alone became a beloved holiday classic, capturing the hearts of audiences around the world. The family classic was released in 1990 and follows eight year old Kevin McCallister who is accidentally left behind when his family take a trip to France for the holidays. At first, he's happy he has the house to himself.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The first and second seasons of the hit thriller series “The Tourist,” starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, will shift to Netflix starting next February. The first season originally saw Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max as a co-producer and local streaming partner.

EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio was in a playful mood when he and Lily Gladstone, his co-star in Martin Scorsese’s disturbingly thrilling American history lesson Killers of the Flower Moon, were at the center of a small gathering at the Odeon Luxe in London’s Leicester Square.

Lily Gladstone, the breakout star of Martin Scorsese’s Western crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon, made history at the Golden Globes on Monday, becoming the ceremony’s first Indigenous nominee in the category of Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian streamer Stan has acquired rights to both seasons, totaling 20 episodes, of the Malaysian adaptation of Scandinavian crime series “The Bridge.” The agreement, brokered by Lyle Bettson-Barker, SVP Australia and New Zealand from Banijay Rights, represents the first time that Stan has acquired a Malaysian drama series. The Asian version of “The Bridge” was initially commissioned by Viu and HBO Asia in 2018, after Double Vision, part of the Vision New Media group, introduced Viu to the format. It broadcast to across 23 territories in the combined footprints of Viu and HBO Asia and was also shown on Viu in South Africa.The title has garnered more than 20 regional awards and nominations across its two seasons, making it the most awarded drama in Malaysian history. Season one faithfully follows the original show, and sees a dead body found on the border between Malaysia and Singapore, necessitating an investigator from each country to work together to solve the crime.

For Iranian-Australian filmmaker Noora Niasari, her debut feature Shayda has served as an authentic and honest exploration into her own personal childhood trauma. The film, which is being released by Sony Pictures Classics and won the World Cinema Dramatic Competition Audience Award in Sundance earlier this year, is Australia’s Oscar submission for the Best International Feature Oscar.

The American Film Institute has announced their annual year-end top 10 lists and, as always, it was filled with several awards contenders. This year’s crop of film honorees includes “American Fiction,” “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “May December,” “Oppenheimer,” “Past Lives,” “Poor Things” and “Spider-Man: Across the Universe.” The television selections are “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear,” “Beef,” “Jury Duty,” “The Last of Us,” “The Morning Show,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Poker Face,” “Reservation Dogs” and “Succession.” READ MORE: “American Fiction,” “May December” and “Past Lives” top 2024 Spirit Awards Nominations It should be noted, that the AFI committee is not always the best predictor for a Best Picture nomination.

The list of the 10 films chosen for the prestigious AFI Awards is out, and it is good news for Barbenheimer.

Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay during Variety’s A Night With Artisans. The creatives who helped build the Los Alamos set for “Oppenheimer” or acquired 1,000 blankets for “Killers of the Flower Moon” shared their creative processes and stories from set. In six separate conversations, Tangcay spoke with the teams behind “Oppenheimer,” “Saltburn,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction” and “The Color Purple.” See the full Variety A Night With Artisans recap below.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wang Jianlin, the Chinese billionaire who previously sought to buy a controlling position in Hollywood, is preparing to complete his imminent exit from the film industry. The troubled conglomerate is facing debt repayment pressure.Wanda Film, which remains China’s largest cinema operator, Wednesday said in a regulatory filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that Wang and his Wanda Investment vehicle expect to sell their remaining stake 51% in the company to China Ruyi Holdings. Ruyi, which operates across film, TV and online games, counts games, social media and streaming giant Tencent among its largest shareholders.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Something Special, the Seoul-based international format agency founded by format specialists Jin Woo Hwang (president and executive producer) and Kim In Soon (EVP & head of content) announce that ITV Studios has optioned the hit Korean celebrity format “Battle in the Box” for France, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The deal was unveiled on Wednewday, the first full day of the Asia Television Forum and Market (ATF) in Singapore. “Battle in the Box,” created by Korea’s NMedia and represented globally by Something Special, has previously seen deals announced with Fremantle for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Universal Music Greater China has signed a strategic partnership with Mandarin-language music superstar Jay Chou and his record label JVR Music. The agreement secures global marketing and distribution rights for Chou’s extensive music catalogue and for future projects. It also supports rising talent from his label, including artists Patrick Brasca and Young (aka Cao Yang) through JVR. Nicknamed the ‘King of Mandopop’ Chou has a two decade career that spans 15 studio albums, eight world tours and 378 concerts in Asia, America, Europe, and Australia.