‘Birdman’: Mike Nichols Tried Warn Alejandro G. Iñárritu That His One-Shot Comedy Would Be A “Disaster”

“I may look like I was born in a library, but there’s something you should know: Merrick Garland don’t play,” Saturday Night Live’s Mikey Day declared as the almost SCOTUS Justice.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. It’s Oscar noms week, and we’d be rude not to bring you the latest headlines and analysis from the Academy and beyond. Read on.

With the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences having expanded its shortlist for the Best International Feature Film Oscar to 15 in recent years, it’s inevitable that some deserving titles miss the nominations cut. However, several of the perceived frontrunners are in the mix after today’s announcement, including Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front which has nine nominations in total, including Best Picture, and is yet another sign of how foreign-language films are crossing over into other main categories. 

EXCLUSIVE: Prime Video UK and Ireland had boarded feature documentary Confessions of a Psycho Killer.

Some big-name directors, like James Cameron, have been vocal recently about their antipathy for the streaming experience. But for others, like Alejandro González Iñárritu, the power of cinema still manifests on small screens, too.

From fixer-uppers to falling in love! Celebrity couples are a staple on home renovation shows, from Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines to Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young).

For the last three years, the winner of the International Oscar has pretty much been a given: First came Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, then Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, and then Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car — all anointed by Cannes and eased to the finish line after prominent festival play in the usual cosmopolitan areas.

The last time Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu released three new movies in the space of the same year was 2006. By then, their reputations at home had been established by early successes like Y tu mamá también (Cuarón), The Devil’s Backbone (del Toro) and Amores Perros (Iñárritu) and they had each worked in the U.S., with del Toro and Cuarón stepping into blockbuster cinema with Hellboy and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban respectively, and Iñárritu directing Sean Penn and Naomi Watts to Oscar nominations with 21 Grams.

Hear that? It’s the Cinema Audio Society’s nominations for its 2023 CAS Awards, which celebrate excellence in sound mixing for film and TV. See the list below.

Elon Musk wants to move a shareholder class action lawsuit from San Francisco to West Texas, claiming a lack of unbiased jurors in the Bay Area.