Oscars 2021: Best Picture Contenders & Predictions

Rebecca Davis editorFox Entertainment streaming service Tubi announced a partnership with China’s Wanda Pictures on Monday, saying it will now stream at least two of the latter’s films in both Chinese-language and English-dubbed versions.The headlining film in the deal is Wanda’s “Detective Chinatown 2,” which currently reigns as China’s sixth-highest grossing movie of all time thanks to $541 million in local receipts. The title grossed a mere $2 million in North America.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorTubi has begun a content relationship with Chinese film and television studio Wanda Pictures, with two titles coming to the Fox-owned free streaming outlet.Original and exclusive English-dubbed versions of Detective Chinatown 2, which is No. 6 on China’s all-time box office chart, will be on Tubi soon in the U.S.

On May 29, as the nation rioted and marched and demanded justice for George Floyd after his death at police hands, Donald Trump tweeted a callback to the segregationist and Alabama governor George Wallace: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Two days later the president sought to clear peaceful protesters from the path between the White House and St. John’s Church for a photo opportunity.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorEXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Peter Safran’s The Safran Company and Temple producer Hera Pictures have taken the film and TV rights to a book about a notorious gang of female thieves, who plied their trade on the streets of south London.The production companies will adapt Brian Macdonald’s true crime story Alice Diamond And The Forty Elephants, which examines the travails of Diamond’s all-female crime syndicate, based in the Elephant and Castle region

Scientists will back me up with this assertion—aliens exist. Okay, maybe not the little green men and maybe not Xenomorphs or Predators, but there is alien life in the universe.

Bruce Haring pmc-editorial-managerWilliam “Bill” Bernstein, who spent six decades in the motion picture business, died today at age 87, according to this longtime friend, Jeff Frankel.In 1978, Bernstein, along with four other executives from United Artists, including Arthur Krim, Eric Pleskow, Mike Medavoy and Robert Benjamin, departed  United Artists to found Orion Pictures. Mr. Bernstein conceived of the name of the studio.

Sundance title in the mix, too.)For the 2021 Oscars, however, the enthusiasm is muted — COVID, election — and that 7/9 proportion will likely skew lower. After Sundance, the last carefree, business-as-usual festival, big titles a la “Joker” and “1917” have been in relatively short supply because studios want traditional theatrical releases after premieres.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the class of Adapted Screenplay contenders is how wonderfully diverse it is. In theory, this category could have four women nominees and four PoCs in a very competitive year.

Outside of Aaron Sorkin‘s “just give him the nomination now” script for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” the Original Screenplay category feels more wide-open than it has in years. And that means there could be some underdog nominees who make the cut such as Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), Andy Sara (“Palm Springs”), Judd Apatow, Pete Davidson and Dave Sirus (“The King of Staten Island”), and even Eliza Hittman (“Never Really Sometimes Always”).

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentLos Angeles-based U.S.

Peter White Television EditorWaleed Zuaiter, who has starred in Netflix’s The Spy and Hulu and Channel 4 drama Baghdad Central, has launched his own production company to tackle diversity in TV and film.Zuaiter, who produced Omar, the Palestinian feature that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, has established FlipNarrative, which will be based in LA, London and Beirut.

Dave McNary Film ReporterThe Writers Guild of America West is demanding that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expand its new best picture rules to include mandates against age discrimination.In an open letter posted on the WGA West site, the guild’s Career Longevity Committee urged the Academy to revise the new rules, which were issued Sept. 8 to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.

A funny thing happened on the way to a COVID-delayed Oscar qualification deadline. Real Best Picture contenders showed up.

There’s a lot of good news in the Best Director race for the Academy as the 2021 Oscars begins to take shape. First off, there is a ton of diversity with Lee Issac Chung (“Minari”), George C.

Is 2021 the year another legendary actor adds a second or third Academy Award to their trophy case? Or will a first-timer make their case? In either scenario, the Oscars won’t necessarily be rewarded with star power from the Best Actor category. Although, there are some outside contenders for ratings ravished ABC.

There’s always one. There’s always one major Oscars category that makes everyone in the awards game scratch their head and think, “Well, that’s wide open.” A category that might not be as deep as previous years or be rampant with over the moon worthy nominees.

In the year 2021, just how many actors from one film can land a nomination in an Oscars category? The last time it occurred in the Best Supporting Actor race was in 1975 when Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo, and Lee Strasberg were all nominated for “The Godfather, Pt.

With five months to go before the Feb. 28 qualifying deadline, the Best Actress race is already extremely competitive.

Justin Kroll Senior Film ReporterEXCLUSIVE: The classic spaghetti western that helped launch Clint Eastwood’s career looks to be getting the TV treatment as We are hearing Mark Gordon Pictures is developing A Fistful of DollarsTV series. The company has acquired the rights to the film as well as the Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai epic, Yojimbo, which the Eastwood film was based on.