Oscar Voting Panic; Plus ‘Poor Things’ Tries To Defy Expectations; Annette Bening; ‘American Fiction’; & More Tales From The Trail – Notes On The Season

Alison Herman TV Critic The Australian author Liane Moriarty provided the source material for the first season of “Big Little Lies,” one of recent TV’s great success stories. Since that then-limited series exploded in 2017, dominating the discourse with a supernova of star power, conspicuous consumption and domestic strife, producers have continued to mine Moriarty’s catalog in search of more gold.

EXCLUSIVE: The Bear creator Christopher Storer is shooting Season 3 of the 10-time Emmy-winning show in Chicago, but he’s lined up a big feature project at Warner Bros: the big-screen take of Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway.

EXCLUSIVE: Melanie Marnich is a huge fan of Big Little Lies scribe Liane Moriarty‘s work, but when showrunning an adaptation of Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall, Marnich blocked the HBO hit from her consciousness almost entirely.

Annette Bening is stepping out for the premiere of her new Peacock series!

Lily Gladstone officially broke her silence after losing the highly coveted Oscar for Best Actress to “Poor Things” lead Emma Stone.“Feeling the love big time today, especially from Indian Country,” the “Killers of the Flower Moon” star posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. “Kittō”kuniikaakomimmō”po’waw — seriously, I love you all.” The actress — who made history by being the first Native American to be nominated in the Best Actress category — joked that she didn’t walk away totally empty-handed.

The Oscars took place on Sunday night, with the ceremony celebrating the very best talent in film, design and sound. A whole host of celebrities headed to the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the special event, which is celebrating its 96th year.The popular film Oppenheimer cleaned up nicely, taking home a grand total of seven awards including the highly-coveted Best Picture.The film's director Christopher Nolan also picked up the Best Director award, and its star Cillian Murphy was awarded the Best Leading Actor gong.

2024 Oscars were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday, March 10, airing on ABC (in the new earlier time slot of 7 p.m.). The Christopher Nolan flick starring Cillian Murphy was this year’s frontrunner, with a staggering 13 nominations — including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., respectively. The Best Actor race was a battle between Murphy, Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Fiction”).Murphy took home the expected win, and Nolan and Downey Jr.

Before the 96th Academy Awards 14 women had won the Best Actress Oscar more than once. That list has now expanded by one after Emma Stone won her second trophy in the category for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” She previously won in 2017 for “La La Land.” READ MORE: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are ready for you to experience the fantastical world of “Poor Things” [Interview] As Bella Baxter, Stone portrays a young woman coming to terms with misogyny in a fantastical version of late 1800s Europe.

Jodie Foster and her wife Alexandra Hedison walk the red carpet together at the 2024 Academy Awards on Sunday (March 10) at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

competed for the coveted Best Picture award.Hollywood’s elite were in good hands as late-night host Jimmy Kimmel returned as the show’s emcee for the fourth time, having hosted the event in 2017, 2018 and 2023. Kimmel, 56, joked that he “always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times.”Of course, no award ceremony would be complete without controversy.

The 2024 Academy Awards ceremony is happening tonight!

If Christopher Nolan’s brilliant story of the father of the atomic bomb loses, it’ll be the biggest upset since the surprise victory of “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan” in 1999. It’s won just about every other major award it’s been nominated for, and rightly so. “American Fiction”“Anatomy of a Fall”“Barbie”“The Holdovers”“Killers of the Flower Moon”“Maestro”“Past Lives”“Poor Things”“The Zone of Interest”The Battle of the Stones (Gladstone vs. Emma Stone) has raged all season long. But Gladstone’s triumph at the SAG Awards, for her role as a wronged Native American woman, should get her across the ultimate finish line.The German actress turned in a stunning duo of performances, in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” that made her a talked-about topic for months. I can almost see her pulling an Olivia Colman — split the love and slide in for the win.Annette Bening, “Nyad”Carey Mulligan, “Maestro”Emma Stone, “Poor Things”After Giamatti’s Golden Globe and Critics Choice victories, he looked like the guy to beat. But momentum has swung back to the fantastic Murphy, whose tortured face was just as invigorating on the IMAX screen as Nolan’s epic filmmaking.Bradley Cooper, “Maestro”Colman Domingo, “Rustin”Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”How bizarre to read names such as Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos and Jonathan Glazer and conclude they don’t have a shot. But they don’t. Not even remotely. Nolan’s already won.Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”Tony Stark is dead, long live Robert Downey Jr.’s acting career! The former MCU star proved he’s still got

Jordan Moreau Best picture nominee “Poor Things” is streaming on Hulu ahead of the Academy Awards. The film, a Frankenstein-esque tale directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe, arrived on Hulu on Thursday morning. It’s nominated for 11 Oscars, including best picture, lead actress and director.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor That’s all, Oscar folks! In just 12 days, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will crack open 23 illustrious envelopes to unveil the victors of this year’s 96th Oscars. It’s a night where predictability usually reigns supreme, but hey, there’s always room for a curveball or two. During the past six days of intense voting, Variety has been on the scene, chatting it up with over 50 AMPAS members to get the lowdown on which movies and performances have been getting the thumbs-up on their ballots.

If staging the SAG Awards, the PGA Awards, and the Film Independent Spirit Awards within 48 hours of each other was meant to influence Oscar voting in any way and not just some coincidence (cough), well, it may have worked. And that’s a big emphasis on “may.” Delightfully, the three events also reminded us of just how chaotic the actual awards ceremonies can be.

It was a night all about the actors at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards!

SAG Awards, which celebrates the incredible talent of actors and actresses in film and television, went down Saturday night at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in LA.Summer blockbusters such as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” led the film division with a whopping four nominations, while HBO’s “Succession” dominated the television side with a massive five nominations.Barbra Streisand is also set to be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s show.The award show, which has not had a solo host since 2021, had “Ted Lasso” star Phil Dunster and “Red, White and Royal Blue” actor Taylor Zakhar Perez tapped to serve as “ambassadors.” According to a press release obtained by People, Dunster, 31, and Perez, 32, will “provide viewers with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the ceremony and participate in various SAG Awards pre-show events.”Scroll below for the winners of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. This story will be updated as the night goes on.“American Fiction” “Barbie” “The Color Purple”“Killers of the Flower Moon”“Oppenheimer” Annette Bening — “Nyad” Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon” Carey Mulligan — “Maestro” Margot Robbie — “Barbie” Emma Stone — “Poor Things”Bradley Cooper — “Maestro” Colman Domingo — “Rustin” Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers” Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer” Jeffrey Wright — “American FictionEmily Blunt — “Oppenheimer” Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple” Penelope Cruz — “Ferrari” Jodi Foster — “Nyad” WINNER: Da’vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers” Sterling K.

It could be fifth time lucky for Annette Bening as she heads to this year’s Oscars with yet another nomination – this time for Best Actress for her role in Nyad.

Annette Bening still likes to swim, despite the brutal eight hours a day she spent in the water for her Netflix film Nyad. Bening stars as Diana Nyad, who, at 64, became the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. Bening trained for a year to perfect her stroke, and got to know Nyad herself, with Jodie Foster alongside her, starring as Nyad’s real-life friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll. “I swim all the time, it’s become part of my staying sane,” Bening says now, adding that she learned from Nyad that pushing oneself beyond what you thought you could do is “a way to know yourself, and that’s a way to expand your own idea about yourself in the world, and also increase your joy, and increase your appreciation.” Here, Bening looks back over some favorite moments in her career, from The Grifters, to American Beauty and beyond.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor After a year hit with Hollywood strikes and an early buzz positioning Christopher Nolan’s drama about the creation of the atomic bomb as a frontrunner, sentiments from more than a dozen Oscar voters on the first day of final voting revealed a strong backing for Nolan. “Nolan fucking deserves it,” an anonymous voter emphasizes to Variety, highlighting the widespread acclaim for Nolan’s direction and billion-dollar blockbuster.