Oscar Voting Closes: Seven Questions and Seven Anonymous Ballots Point to Shockers Brewing

A former beauty queen left for dead by her violent ex has spoken of her relief after hearing that Spanish authorities rejected his bid to be repatriated to Scotland.William McDonald, from Rutherglen, Glasgow, was convicted of trying to kill one-time Miss Scotland finalist Mhairi Campbell after he stabbed her three times at his holiday home in Alicante in July 2017.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor As a director, Ben Affleck has proven himself to be a versatile, compelling talent, moving seamlessly from the morally complex “Gone Baby Gone” to the stark crime drama “The Town” to the tense and thrilling best picture winner “Argo.” Even Affleck’s one directorial misstep, the critically panned box office bomb “Live by Night,” has an intriguing gloss and conviction. That’s why it’s so difficult for many viewers to answer: “Which Affleck-directed joint is your favorite?” Well, that decision may get even harder with the arrival of “Air,” Affleck’s latest feature which premiered as the Closing Night film at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this month. 

Tatiana Siegel On a chilly Oscars eve, Donnie Yen has just returned from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where he was rehearsing for the Academy Awards along with a slew of fellow global superstar presenters like Spain’s Antonio Banderas and India’s Deepika Padukone. The “John Wick: Chapter 4” scene-stealer, who hails from southern China, feels good about how the following night might unfold, namely for his friend and Hong Kong neighbor Michelle Yeoh. Her victory and that of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would be a landmark moment for Asian representation, he says.  “I’ve known her for more than 20 years, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here — to support her and share in a possible historical moment,” he says of his “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” co-star. “And ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ has a lot of Chinese language and it talks about the Chinese heritage, which I find out has been so accepted and embraced here. So, that really warmed my heart. I’m sure hoping for Michelle.” 

Savannah Chrisley has a newfound respect for single parents as she rejoins the dating scene while taking care of her younger siblings after her parents, Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley, were sentenced to prison.

Holly Jones Oscar award-winning veteran producer Gerardo Herrero, (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) returns to the director’s chair with “Under Therapy,” his stark and unnerving big screen rendition of playwright Matías Del Federico’s theatrical production. The project bowed in competition at the Málaga Film festival earlier this week and is set for broader theatrical release in Spanish cinemas on Friday. Latido Films handles international sales.  Enamored with the staged rendition, Herrero was inspired to add a distinctly cinematic touch to the script, honoring its darker underpinnings amidst the narratives’ anxious banter.

Holly Jones Drawing from personal experience and driven by the lack of real talk around sexuality, Spanish author Beatriz de Silva dove into filmmaking with her debut “Tula,” which bowed globally at the Houston International Film Festival, winning Gold for Best Comedy Short.  The project has since garnered large festival buzz, stacked awards and was among contenders placed on the Oscars shortlist from 200 entries. Shot in the Basque Country and taking advantage of the region’s robust creative initiatives, the film offers a humorous take on sexual miseducation and those that step in to enlighten our adolescence when parents, teachers and peers fail miserably.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The victory of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” at the 95th Oscars on Sunday is a milestone for Asian talent in front of and behind the camera. It’s also a sign that the Academy Awards is unafraid to make bold, unconventional bets and to embrace a movie that, on paper, could not be farther removed from typical Oscar bait. And yet the A24 film walked away with the most Oscars with seven, including statues for best picture, director and original screenplay for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, actress for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis and supporting actor Ke Huy Quan. This marked A24’s second best picture win since the stunning upset of “Moonlight” (2016) over “La La Land,” also known as “envelope gate.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar voting is kicking off, and 366 films are vying for the Academy’s attention for best picture, in addition to their selections in their respective branches. One important note to Academy members: Fill out your ballots in full. Every Academy member votes for best picture, outside of their respective branch association. For best picture, the member is invited to list up to five films in preferential order. In the days of paper ballots, there were horror stories of voters writing the same film five times on their entries, but those days are gone with electronic voting. However, listing five films is crucially important based on the Academy tabulation methods, which involves a lot of math. As we remain in the final year of the “sliding scale,” where the results can produce any number of nominees between five and 10, simply put, all lines matter.

Police arrested four supporters after trouble erupted at Manchester United's Europa League victory over Real Betis last night, with missiles from the away end raining down on the disabled section at Old Trafford.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large It all comes down to this weekend. Variety’s Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Jenelle Riley and Michael Schneider dissect the Oscar categories one last time and share final predictions on this week’s edition of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit podcast. It’s a Mega Roundtable of the podcast, as the team goes through every category and offers up their final thoughts. Will “Everything Everywhere All at Once” sweep the night? Or are some surprises in store? Listen along as you fill out your office Oscars pool: Here are some of the potential wins that the team is rooting for:

Luis Miguel. The seasoned and beloved singer is getting ready for his world tour and appears to be settling in in Madrid, where he spends most of his time. According to sources near to him, this willingness to spend time in Spain appears to be linked with his relationship with Paloma Cuevas.

K.J. Yossman Freida Pinto is lending her voice to a new animated film project in honor of International Women’s Day. She Creates Change is a new nonprofit-led animation and live action film project from global education organization Room to Read produced by Nexus Studios. The multi-media initiative, which spans a six-episode film series as well as books and audio stories, aims to promote gender equality through telling the stories of young women across the planet. It will initially be available in English, Hindi and Spanish with plans to translate it into dozens more languages and will be distributed across the world via Room to Read and educational partnerships. The project will also be released to general audiences in October.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Will Cate Blanchett fulfill the awards prophecy of winning an Academy Award every nine years? The two-time Academy Award winner of “The Aviator” (2004) and “Blue Jasmine” (2003) is a favorite to possibly win her third for Todd Field’s psychological drama “Tár,” in which she plays a lesbian conductor who begins to lose her grip on power and reality. On this week’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, we sit down with Blanchett to discuss her work stunning transformation into Lydia Tár. In addition, she talks about working with co-star Nina Hoss and more. Listen below: From Focus Features, “Tár” is set to a rhythmic beat of classical orchestration, marking writer and director Todd Field’s return to the director’s chair, 16 years after “Little Children” (2006) and 21 years after his debut “In the Bedroom” (2001).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Brendan Fraser’s massive popularity has revitalized the 54-year-old actor’s career. It has brought him to his first-ever Oscar nomination for best actor for his towering performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale.” For this week’s video episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, we sat down with Brendan Fraser to discuss the “The Brenaissance” and what the past year has meant to him. We also played a game called “Who’s Babe Is It Anyway?” — where Fraser guesses which of his former co-stars said a particular line. How well do you think he did? Watch the full video above. The podcast, with added guest Cate Blanchett, the Oscar-nominated actress of “Tár,” will be released on Friday.

the Academy moving to what they called preferential voting in the newly-expanded Best Picture category on my first day at TheWrap back in 2009.   I’ve written about it many, many times since then, and even made a video about it. But there are lots of new Academy members these days, and I’ve been getting some questions lately that make it clear how plenty of voters don’t understand that one of the strengths of ranked-choice is that you don’t have to try to get cute with your ballot.

Final Oscar balloting starts today. The 9,579 eligible Academy voters are now going to make their choices, and they have only until March 7 at 5 p.m. PT to do it. There is lots of speculation, but the only thing that really counts right now is what these AMPAS members check off on their digital ballots. Good luck, everyone.

Jet2 has warned holidaymakers travelling to two Spanish destinations that they may face some “disruption” due to walkouts by ground handling staff. Throughout March and into April staff with ground handler Swissport will go on strike several days a week at Barcelona and Lanzarote airports.

Brits usually head to Spain for sunshine and sandy beaches, yet the country has been hit by heavy snow showers as Storm Juliette batters parts o f the country. Temperatures have dropped to as low as -16C in Spain while the Balearic island of Majorca has been especially hard hit.

“Elvis” “I always thought, if you’re going to do a movie about a music icon, go big,” Luhrmann said when he first spoke to TheWrap about Elvis. And the film does indeed go big, even though the writer-director started with the idea of Elvis as canvas or Elvis as metaphor before realizing that the man was pretty interesting too – particularly when played by an actor as obsessive as Butler, who immersed himself in all things Elvis for years.

EXCLUSIVE: Following bidding wars in multiple territories, A24 has sold Past Lives, probably the year’s most critically acclaimed new film, to a raft of key territories.