John Woo ‘Never Liked Watching’ Superhero Films and Prefers ‘Scorsese’s Movies’: I Like ‘Real Cinema. There Aren’t Many Movies Like That Lately’

It's December, which means the festive season is officially upon us. If you're on the hunt for some new Christmas films to watch, then Netflix has you sorted.

We're officially into December, the season of festive movies, hot chocolates and cosying up in front of the fireplace.

The New York Film Critics Circle kicked off the annual year-end deluge of critics’ honors by announcing their best of 2023 today and the big winner was Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of The Flower Moon” which took Best Film. Christopher Nolan won Best Director for “Oppenheimer” while Celine Song’s “Past Lives” won Best First Film.

Refresh for updates: The oldest critics group in the U.S. is voting on the year’s best film as well as several other categories Thursday in what is a very lengthy process that soaks up most of the morning. Check back here every now and then to see who has won.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar season begins this week in the Big Apple. The New York Film Critics Circle will be the first major group of film journalists to unveil its winners on Nov. 30.

Carrie Johnson has been getting into the Christmas spirit over at her family home, where she and husband Boris Johnson reside with their three young children. Carrie, 35, who married former Prime Minister Boris, 59, in 2021, has shared a glimpse of her festive preparations on Instagram, where she documents her family life with children Wilfred, three, Romy, one, and four month old Frank.

Kylie Jenner and Jordyn Woods’ public reunion earlier this year truly shocked us all — but it turns out it WASN’T the first time the ladies had connected since Tristan Thompson got in the way of their friendship!

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic If John Woo had permitted the characters in “Silent Night” to speak, chances are that audiences would laugh them off the screen. Instead, the director gets right down to business, opening with a wordless chase sequence in which a sad dad (Joel Kinnaman) in a corny Christmas sweater sprints after a pair of speeding cars.

It has been reported that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are eager to build bridges with King Charles III and the Royal Family, with them even happy to accept an invitation to Sandringham this Christmas, however, it has now been revealed that Meghan Markle has no desire to return to England - ever again.

Martin Scorsese has cancelled his trip to the Marrakech International Film Festival at the eleventh hour, which he was due to attend as the special honorary guest of its 20th edition.

Martin Scorsese has cancelled his trip to the Marrakech International Film Festival at the eleventh hour, which he was due to attend as the special honorary guest of its 20th edition.

K.J. Yossman John Travolta has revealed it was his own near-death experience while flying a plane on Thanksgiving that first drew him to “The Shepherd,” the new Alfonso Cuarón-produced short film set to premiere on Disney+ this winter. The film, which is based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella of the same name, tells the story of Freddie Hooke (played by Ben Radcliffe), a young Royal Air Force pilot flying home for Christmas across the North Sea.

Daryl Hall, one half of the most successful pop duo in U.S. chart history, Hall & Oates, is suing John Oates and has been granted a restraining order against his longtime bandmate.

Emerald Fennell’s dark comedy Saltburn takes a massive jump from to over 1,500 screens today as Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest The Boy and the Heron, animated They Shot The Piano Player and other festival favorites launch awards season runs this Thanksgiving specialty weekend.

J. Kim Murphy Cristiano Ronaldo has the most followers on Instagram. Elon Musk claims that title on his platform X (naturally).

John Woo is giving his take on superhero movies and making it clear he’s not in favor of the films coming out of Marvel and DC Studios.

Michaela Zee Suzanne Shepherd, an actor known for her roles in “The Sopranos” and “Goodfellas,” died Friday morning in her home in New York City, her agent confirmed to Variety. She was 89. Shepherd portrayed Mary DeAngelis, the mother of Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco), in HBO’s crime drama series “The Sopranos,” as well as the mother of Lorraine Bracco’s character Karen Hill in 1990’s “Goodfellas.” She also had roles in “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990), “Trees Lounge” (1996), “Lolita” (1997), “American Cuisine” (1998), “Living Out Loud” (1998), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), “A Dirty Shame” (2004), “Harold” (2008), “The Week Of” (2018) and “The Performance” (2023), among other films.

K.J. Yossman It sounds like the plot of a classic Hollywood disaster movie: a quiet fishing town on the coast of Iceland is threatened when a long-dormant volcano suddenly awakens, causing thousands of earth tremors that have ruptured roads and wrecked houses while residents attempt to flee the impending lava.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Is it real — or is it YouTube‘s robot singer copying a pop star’s vocal stylings? YouTube announced new AI music experiments it has been developing with Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab. The most interesting (and possibly most disorienting) of YouTube’s AI tests is Dream Track in YouTube Shorts.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor As part of this year’s industry program at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), producer Ted Hope sat down with the festival’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia for an in-depth conversation about his career in U.S. independent film, the future of the industry, and the ways in which filmmakers and audiences are “trained by major players to adapt and conform to a creative process that colors only between the lines.” Hope, who is at IDFA to support Vanessa Hope’s “Invisible Nation,” has navigated the independent filmmaking scene since the late 80s.