Oscars voters: new diversity rules for Best Picture ‘completely ridiculous’

a host of new theatrical release requirements for movies to qualify as best picture nominees for the 2025 Oscars. In addition to the standard one-week run in one of six U.S. markets, films released in 2024 will also require an expanded theatrical run of seven days, consecutive or non-consecutive, in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after its initial release.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vice News has released the trailer for its documentary “Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story,” which will be showing at Karlovy Vary Film Festival next week. The film had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier in June and Nate Pommer, who directed alongside Eric Weinrib, was awarded a special jury mention. The jury said the film was being recognized “for the enduring use of art as a weapon against cant and authoritarianism.” The jury added: “We are grateful to the director for translating Gogol Bordello’s rebellious joy and rage at remaining human and vibrant in the face of everything time has thrown in its path.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Austin Butler, Ke Huy Quan, Keke Palmer, NT Rama Rao Jr and music superstar Taylor Swift are among the 398 artists and executives invited to join the membership of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. If all of this year’s invitees accept membership, it will bring the total number of overall Academy members to 10,817 (up from 10,665 last year), with 9,375 eligible to vote (a decrease from 9,665 due to deaths, retirements and moving to emeritus status) for the 96th Oscars, set to take place on March 10, 2024. The 2023 class is 40% women. 34% belong to underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 52% hail from 51 countries and territories outside the United States. There are many recent Oscar nominees among the invitees, such as Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”), Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”). The list also includes many of the 95th ceremony’s winners, such as Ke Huy Quan (supporting actor for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”) cinematographer James Friend (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) and composer and songwriter M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose (“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”). Even the dynamic “RRR” lead acting duo of Ram Charan and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. have also been extended invitations, along with the film’s production designer Sabu Cyril and cinematographer K.K. Senthil Kumar.

California’s Legislature passed a bill today that extends the state’s film incentives program through 2030 and establishes the nation’s first safety protocols in law for television and film workers. The bill, AB/SB 132, now is headed to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Netflix is poised to score big from two tax incentives that are moving through the state legislatures in California and New Jersey this week. In California, the legislature is set to approve a five-year extension of the state’s $330 million incentive for film and TV production. For the first time, the tax credit will be refundable — meaning that companies like Netflix, which does not have California tax liability, will be able to benefit. And in New Jersey, the legislature is moving forward on a significant expansion of a state incentive for film and TV infrastructure. That expansion is designed in part to help Netflix redevelop Fort Monmouth, a former military base on the Jersey Shore, as a production facility.

announced as Pat Sajak’s replacement on “Wheel of Fortune” Tuesday following the veteran host’s announcement that he’ll exit the game show next year.However, it remains to be seen whether Sajak’s longtime letter-turning companion, Vanna White, 66, will be joining Seacrest on the revamped program. White, who has appeared on “Wheel” since 1982, has reportedly lawyered up in the wake of Sajak’s retirement amid claims she hasn’t had a pay rise in 18 years.

On the day before the cameras are set to start rolling, Raquel Leviss’ future on Vanderpump Rules still remains uncertain in the wake of her affair with costar Tom Sandoval.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that state courts had oversight over a legislature’s election laws, rejecting a controversial theory that state lawmakers had nearly unchecked authority over the rules for congressional and presidential races.

The theatrical requirements for movies vying for the Oscars top prize are getting a little tougher.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reached an agreement with banks and lenders to assist mortgage holders grappling with high interest rates, but has declined to provide government support.

John Wick director Chad Stahelski has been pushing for a Best Stunts category to be added to the Oscars.In a recent interview with ComicBookMovie.com, to mark the blu-Ray release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelksi said that conversations about a stunt Oscar had taken place “in the last couple of months” between the Academy and a group of stunt coordinators. “We’ve been meeting with members of the Academy and actually having these conversations, and, to be honest, it’s been nothing but incredibly positive, incredibly instructional,” Stahelski said.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The decision to realign “variety talk” and “variety sketch” this year into “talk” and “scripted variety” didn’t do much to change that. If anything, it further narrowed the field, as perennial variety talk winner “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” has now been kicked over to scripted variety. As a result, my colleague Clayton Davis counts only 14 series eligible for the outstanding talk nomination. And it’s not much better in scripted variety, where just 10 shows appear to be eligible.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has significantly raised the benchmarks a film must meet in order to be eligible for a Best Picture nomination, the organization behind the Oscars announced Wednesday.Under the new rules, which go into effect in 2024, a movie will need to have a one-week theatrical qualifying run in one of six U.S. cities, followed by additional seven-day runs in 10 of the top 50 U.S.

Long in the works, and indicating stronger support for theatrical exhibition in the increasing age of streamers, the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has approved a landmark change in eligibility rules for Best Picture.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy’s Board of Governors has approved new theatrical release requirements to be eligible for the best picture Oscar beginning at the 2025 ceremony. In addition to the one-week qualifying run in one of the six U.S. markets, beginning with movies released in 2024, a film must meet additional areas regarding its theatrical release to be nominated and win the highly coveted best picture statuette. They include: These standards resulted from numerous conversations with distributors of varying sizes, in addition to studying historical data. The Academy has been vocal about its belief that a healthy theatrical environment is vital to the success of Hollywood.

Maybe Tom Schwartz was serious about dropping his friendship with Tom Sandoval?

on hold amid the ongoing writers strike).It’s hard not to compare her to Jackson’s Nick Fury, who was also introduced in the MCU across a slew of projects, gathering a team. It’s even harder not to suspect that Val might show up again in Jackson’s new Disney+ series, “Secret Invasion.” But he won’t say anything about that possibility — in fact, he’s not ready to talk about Val at all yet.

The Academy Awards are facing much criticism after implementing new diversity and inclusion guidelines for 2024.  The guidelines must be adhered to by any film in the running for a "Best Picture" Oscar. Several voting members sounded the alarm after the Academy Awards released its Aperture 2025 initiative -- a sweeping set of regulations designed to make Hollywood more equitable and diverse.

Tom Hanks turned down the lead role in When Harry Met Sally, his wife Rita Wilson has revealed.The Oscar-winning actor was approached to play Harry by writer Nora Ephron but despite appearing in further rom-coms such as You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless In Seattle that she wrote, he snubbed the 1989 movie because he could not relate to the idea of the character being depressed after his divorce.He had recently divorced his first wife Samantha Lewes at the time.“People probably don’t know this, but Tom was offered when Harry Met Sally and he turned it down because he was going through a divorce and he was very happy to be not married,” Wilson said during an appearance on iHeartPodcast’s Table For Two With Bruce Bozzi.She continued, “And so he could not understand that a person going through a divorce would have anything other than just like, ‘I’m so happy’.

Jessie James Decker is getting a vasectomy!!