Deadline’s Reviews Of The Oscar Best Picture Nominees

The surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough’s performance in the drama “To Leslie” is still causing some angst in Hollywood, given the project had little-to-no money and no traditional Oscar campaign behind it, shocking the industry in the process. Instead, a last-minute grassroots campaign to get the actress a nomination was fueled by peers like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Sarah Paulson, Edward Norton, and others.

While studios took advantage of expanding their Oscar nominated Best Pictures this weekend — it’s truly a post-apocalyptic, err, post-pandemic marketplace when it comes to reaping any huge box office afterglow from this year’s crop. And the irony is that there’s only one streaming title among the top 10 Best Picture bunch, that being Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front, OTT services never disclosing grosses.

Paramount’s newly minted Oscar Best Picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick won Best Picture at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, held Saturday at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Earlier this week, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water became the No. 5 highest-grossing movie ever worldwide, and, as expected, has now surfed to the No. 4 position on the all-time chart. In so doing, it leaves Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its wake with nearly $2.075B globally. 

Three. Frustrating. Years. That’s how much time has passed since the Sundance Film Festival last held an in-person edition in Park City, Utah. (Put it this way: The opening night selection was the Taylor Swift documentary, Miss Americana, which chronicled the making of her 2018 album of Reputation. So, like, ancient history.) Blame the pandemic, of course. Because of safety fears, attendees couldn’t be in the room for the premiere of the eventual Oscar Best Picture winner, Coda, or cheer along for Questlove and the first screening of his own future Oscar pic, Summer of Soul. No sightings of a random Real Housewives star on the bustling Main Street. No napping during 8:30 AM screenings. No huffing and puffing walking in the snow in the frigid weather at high altitudes. No nothing.

It’s been a little over 48 hours since the Oscar nominations have been announced and we’re sort of wondering, is anyone outside of the nominees themselves actually excited about this year’s ceremony? Sure, hardcore fans of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” are thrilled the critically acclaimed indie hit is on the cusp of winning Best Picture (we’ll get to that in a minute), but the buzz overall seems, tepid? Maybe it was because everyone was still getting vaxed and semi-stuck at home in 2021, but even the “Nomadland”/“Mank”/“Promising Young Woman”/“Minari” year had more heat? Continue reading ‘Everything Everywhere’ Takes Best Picture Lead But Where’s The Oscars Excitement? at The Playlist.

EXCLUSIVE: As Warner Bros Pictures continues to find its footing under new management, the studio on Thursday secured the services of a cornerstone filmmaker, signing a first-look deal with its Elvis director-writer-producer Baz Luhrmann. 

You can’t really talk about the history of blockbuster filmmaking without mentioning Steven Spielberg. You could argue the summer blockbuster was created by his film, “Jaws,” decades ago.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio received an Oscar nomination today, marking the first Oscar nom for animation studio ShadowMachine. Producers Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley spoke to Deadline with their reactions.

A commenter named Brad replied to an Oscar predictions piece I put up over the weekend and said: “There used to be a time when I anticipated the Oscar Nominations. But I feel that time has not been good to the Academy Awards and with so many awards ceremonies these days, the Oscars do not seem special like they once did.”

After her animated film received an Oscar nomination today, Jenny Slate said she is completely overwhelmed.

A24’s multiverse-spanning Everything Everywhere All at Once scored a leading 11 Oscar nominations Tuesday, helping the indie to 17 noms, the most of any individual distributor this year. Netflix, behind its nine-nom juggernaut All Quiet on the Western Front, had a total of 14 in the feature-length categories and 16 overall.

also include some history-making firsts worthy of celebration. While Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett are breaking ground in the acting categories, RRR is bringing Indian representation to a stacked list of contenders for best original song.Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian-identifying woman to be nominated in the best actress category for her starring role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

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. 

When 11 Oscar nominations came in for Everything Everywhere All at Once on Tuesday morning, putting it at the head of the pack, the film’s lead, Michelle Yeoh, was on a Zoom watching together with directors The Daniels and her co-star Ke Huy Quan.

Andrea Riseborough’s late blooming word-of-mouth awards campaign for her title role in To Leslie has resulted in the British star’s first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, upending received wisdom about the direction of travel for this year’s race. Riseborough now joins Cate Blanchett, Ana de Armas, Michelle Williams and Michelle Yeoh to make up this year’s Oscar Best Actress list.

Top Gun: Maverick scored six Oscar nominations this morning including best picture, along with adapted screenplay by Ehren Kruger & Eric Warren Singer, sound, film editing, visual effects and original song for the Lady Gaga tune Hold My Hand. The film’s emergence as a best picture threat might have seemed an impossible mission, in that a summer movie that grosses nearly $1.5 billion worldwide moves popcorn, not Oscar voters. This Paramount Pictures film has proven to be the exception and one big reason is this: if Tom Cruise didn’t rescue the theatrical box office business following the Covid pandemic, he certainly pulled it out of a nosedive. While Cruise did not get nominated for best actor, he is squarely in the mix as producer, alongside first time Oscar nominee and hitmaking stalwart Jerry Bruckheimer, Christopher McQuarrie (a double nominee counting the adapted screenplay category) and Skydance principal David Ellison.

The Oscar Best Original Song nominees list is packed with a powerhouse roster of talent, including Rihanna, Lady Gaga, David Byrne. That sets up a collision of current musical giants come Oscar night. Of course, there’s Diane Warren, the recipient of an Honorary Oscar last month and a musical giant in her own right. She’s garnered a 14th nomination in the category with “Applause,” from the little-seen doc Tell It Like a Woman.