Oscar Shortlist Voting Closes: Will ‘Barbie,’ ‘Society of the Snow’ and ‘Godzilla: Minus One’ Move One Step Closer to Nominations?

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, has become a crucial indicator on which films and performances could garner support for the Academy Awards due to the huge overlap of voting members. Over the years, its influence on the Oscars has been undeniable, with many of its winners often helping to shape a narrative. After getting ignored by all the major guilds, last year’s German-language film “All Quiet on the Western Front” made a big showing before going on to nab nine Oscar nominations and winning four.

Thania Garcia Britney Spears has shut down the rumor that she is working on a new album in a candid Instagram post where she declares she will “never return to the music industry.” The pop singer was seemingly responding to reports that surfaced early Wednesday morning on Page Six about Spears potentially tapping Charli XCX and writer Julia Michaels for an unannounced record — what would be her first in nearly a decade. The report claimed Spears had not recorded any new material yet, “as the project is only starting to take shape.” “They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry,” Spears wrote in the caption to an Instagram post of the Italian Renaissance painting “Salome Bearing the Head of St.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Greta Gerwig‘s blockbuster comedy “Barbie” has been deemed an adapted screenplay by the Writers Branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, despite campaigning for original screenplay, Variety has exclusively learned. When official Oscar nomination voting opens Thursday, Jan. 11, eligible voting members of the branch will only be able to cast votes for the script written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach in adapted screenplay.

The list of feature documentaries still in contention for the Oscars has been cut to 15 finalists, a brutal culling from a contingent of 167 qualifiers. The annual shortlist announcement leaves a handful of filmmakers celebrating, many more disappointed, and documentary watchers with much to debate. 

Where to watch: Jan. 7, 8 p.m. on Fox.The anthology HBO drama returns for the first time since 2019.

HMRC is introducing a crackdown on popular websites including eBay and Airbnb and the people who make money on them.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's hopes of a Christmas reunion in the UK have been dashed due to fresh drama. Fans were hoping that 2023 might be the year the couple would patch things up with the rest of the Royal Family and spend Christmas at Sandringham. In recent months, there have been whispers from sources close to Harry and Meghan suggesting they were keen on spending the festive season with their extended family in Britain.

Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.

It’s been over 20 years since Two And a Half Men first debuted on CBS!

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar voters tend to be big-screen enthusiasts. But the reality is that not every awards contender will be seen in the cinema — and that’s especially true during the holiday season, when all the family commitments, shopping and big meals can turn even a movie theater evangelist like Christopher Nolan into a couch potato. The allure of a theater’s dim, cool ambience and sharing the experience with strangers is what many filmmakers envision for their creations.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Who says you can’t laugh and win Oscars, too? In a stunning year for cinema, the candidates for the coveted best picture category are overflowing with prime comedic endeavors that surpass their dramatic counterparts. From a toy doll to an author with a triumphant “Black book” to a reverse Frankenstein tale that shows a whole lot of sex, the Academy has an opportunity to invite the softer side of cinema to its ceremony.

The shortlist of 15 films set to vie for a Best International Feature FiOscar nomination has now been revealed, with only a few surprises in the mix. 

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

Today is not just significant for the solstice and the passing of fall into winter, it also is the first bell ringing in the race for Oscar as the Academy has just announced semi-finalists in 10 categories.

for Sydney Sweeney, as her rom-com, Anyone But You, finally hits theaters on Friday. The film has made headlines all year (which you can read about that ), but the trailer is hysterical, and Sweeney and co-star Glen Powell are perfect sparring partners. It also stars rom-com royalty Dermott Mulroney (My Best Friend's Wedding), who plays Sweeney's dad.Meanwhile, Mandy Moore returns to television this week as investigative journalist Benita Alexander in Peacock's Dr.

Sigh, just when you thought there was another project that might top our next Most Anticipated Films Of The Year list, in this case, 2025? Maybe it’s not going to happen at all? In late fall of 2022, an incredible project was announced. Renowned Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski, known for critically acclaimed and celebrated dramas like “Ida” and “Cold War” was teaming up with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara for a movie titled, “The Island.” READ MORE: Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara Join Pawel Pawlikowski’s New Drama ‘The Island’ A period film and dramatic thriller that Pawlikowski would write, “The Island,” would be loosely based on real events and will focus on an attractive American couple in the 1930s who escaped to their own private paradise on a deserted island and lived off the land.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences branches began voting today to determine the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Academy Awards. These categories, along with the number of films to be named, are: documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (10), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), sound (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (10), live action short film (10), and visual effects (10). The shortlist voting period runs from Dec.

Kate Middleton and Prince William always eat separately on Christmas Day due to a long-standing royal tradition.

The Royal Family appears to have subtly hit back at one of Omid Scobie's accusations in his new controversial royal book, Endgame.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It didn’t take long for America Ferrera to find the personal connection in the speech she delivers as Gloria in the box-office smash “Barbie.” “I think when we’re not historically meant to be in a room, it’s very difficult to show up in those spaces as your whole self,” she says on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Because you are taught to be grateful, you’re in the room.