Oscars 2021 Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Like many award ceremonies, 2021 Independent Spirit Awards are going virtual this year and they might have just found the perfect host to make it as entertaining as possible, Melissa Villaseñor. A cast member of “Saturday Night Live” since 1996, Villaseñor takes the reigns after two fantastic ceremonies hosted by Aubrey Plaza.

28 years. That’s how long it’s been since Michelle Pfeiffer was nominated for an Academy Award.

Golden Globe awards were announced Wednesday morning, and online buzz is already brewing about what many perceive to be egregious oversights — and, in some cases, downright boring retreads.Former “SNL” stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are back to host the broadcast on NBC. Typically the award ceremony is held on the first Sunday of the year but the broadcast was pushed back to Feb.

The New York Times Critic Circle selected “First Cow.” The Los Angeles Film Critics Association picked “Small Axe.” And now the National Board of Review has finally weighed in by announcing that Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” is their selection for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Ensemble of 2020.

For “White God” director Kornél Mundruczó and his wife, screenwriter Kata Wéber, their latest collaboration, “Pieces of a Woman,” has been more dramatic than your typical cinematic endeavor. Inspired by the couple’s own miscarriage, the story of a woman attempting to deal with her loss went from a play to a screenplay to a movie set in the United States starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Benny Safdie, Sarah Snook, and Molly Parker.

The stars of Regina King’s “One Night in Miami” have earned a ton of well-deserved acclaim since its world premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. Kingsley Ben-Adir has already won a Gotham Award for his portrayal of Malcolm X and both Eli Goree and Leslie Odom, Jr., who play Cassius Clay and Sam Cooke, respectively, have also earned raves.

There may not be a Governors Awards this Oscar cycle, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is still intent on handing out honors to those who have given back to the community. This year, the Board of Governors will bestow the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to both Tyler Perry and the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF).

Regina King has seen the discourse. She knows that some pundits, critics, and others have criticized her new Best Picture contender, “One Night in Miami,” for feeling at times like a “filmed play.” In reality, screenwriter Kemp Powers did adapt his own play for the screen, but in her view, it’s reductive.

The Sundance Film Festival announced two additional world premieres for its 2021 edition including one highly anticipated awards contender. Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” and Ali El Arabi‘s documentary “Captains of Zaatari” will increase Sundance’s slate to 73 films representing 30 nations and 39 first-time filmmakers.

One of the disappointing aspects of a pandemic-affected awards season is the lack of in-person events. Clearly, it’s absolutely necessary, but let us selfishly reflect on the joy we’ve all missed out on this particular season for just one fleeting moment.

Directors who have reached a certain stature always find a way to add a Western to their resume. Or, at least a Western of some ilk.

The New York, Los Angeles and Boston critics have had their say and now we begin the long, tedious rollout of other critics groups who insist their honors are not meant to have any influence on guild or Oscar voters. The Chicago Film Critics Association and Florida Film Critics Circle have now made their selections and anointed, respectfully, “Nomadland” and “First Cow” as Best Picture.

I think we can all agree that Carey Mulligan should have more than one Oscar nomination to her name. Yes, her nod for a decade ago for “An Education” was well deserved, but in the years following she’s been overlooked far too often for incredible performances in “Shame,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Wildlife,” among others.

In the category of “better safe than sorry” news, the Academy Museum has decided to push its opening once again. Instead of debuting around the 93rd Academy Awards in April, the museum will swing open its doors to the public on September 30, 2021.

In a tight Oscar race in the International Film category, Thomas Vinterberg‘s celebrated “Another Round” is increasingly looking like an easy bet for a nomination. The Venice Film Festival drama swept the major honors at the 2020 European Film Awards including European Film, Director (Vinterberg), Actor (Mads Mikkelsen) and Screenplay.

There are two massively acclaimed animated feature films arriving in viewers’ homes this month. One of them, Pixar’s “Soul,” premieres on Disney+ on Christmas Day.

The “first” awards show of what will be a very long Oscar season, the Gotham Awards, already announced their 2020 nominees last month. While “First Cow” and “I May Destroy You” topped the list of nominees, two tributes were also revealed for both Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis.

This year has been full of surprises and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences couldn’t let it end without one more. The already delayed 93rd Academy Awards will be produced by Jesse Collins, Stacy Sher and Steven Soderbergh.

An unexpected candidate may be making waves in 2020’s volatile Best Actor race. As potential nominees push out of the qualifying period or lose steam as a nominee, one contender is looking more and more worthy, “Sound of Metal’s” Riz Ahmed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many film festivals and awards events to either postpone or go virtual. However, the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards will have an in-person ceremony, confirmed a representative with a media outlet.

told Variety Tuesday, and will instead be a traditional in-person ceremony.“The Oscars in-person telecast will happen,” a rep for the Academy and ABC, which airs the show, said.The awards show was postponed and moved to April 25, 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic — mostly in the hopes that theaters would reopen so more films would be eligible. Instead, it amended rules, making streaming-only films eligible for the first time ever.

After a landmark Academy Awards where “Parasite” became the first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, the International Film category is at a pandemic induced crossroads. With film festivals forced to mostly adjust to virtual screenings and major bellwethers such as Cannes and Telluride scuttled, the Oscars are looking at the most wide-open race in at least a decade.

To many Oscar observers, there are already a ton of questions about this year’s Best Picture race. How many films will actually get nominated? Can Netflix actually land three Best Picture nominees? Will any films be seen in theaters before voting begins? But, one individual category that is even more wide open and puzzling for even the most veteran awards season strategist is the battle for the International Film, formerly Foreign Language Film, Oscar.

Vidya Balan starrer Natkhat, which released back in June 2020, is still in the race for Oscars 2021 despite rumour mills buzzing with the contrary. While recent reports suggest that the Writer-director Keith Gomes’ short film titled Shameless, is India's official entry in the 93rd Oscars in the Live Action Short Film category, the audience will find little truth in the premature news.

If you look at Metacritic’s top-rated films of 2020, you may be surprised at the no. 2 ranked film of the year.

Once again, let’s start with the necessary context for this article. This is not a review of George C.

“Here we go again,” Diane Warren says. The Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner has jumped on the phone to discuss “Io sì (Seen)” a beautiful ballad sung by Italian pop star Laura Pausini from Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead.” A song that also puts her right back in the middle of awards season.

When Jeremy Strong jumped on a zoom call two months ago it was primarily an interview centered on his Best Actor in a Drama Series Emmy nod for “Succession.” A nomination that turned into his first Emmy win a little over a month alter. But he also got a gleam in his eye when asked about his role in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” READ MORE: Aaron Sorkin’s “Trial of the Chicago 7” provokes outrage but often feels manufactured [Review] “I’ve been very lucky.

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.

We’ve seen the Best Picture race slowly come into view thanks to a pandemic delayed deadline, but other categories are also coming into play. Best Animated Feature film already has a number of contenders that found audiences on PVOD with “Onward,” “Trolls World Tour” and “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run” while “Over the Moon,” “The Willoughbys” and “Soul” still loom on the horizon.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made a historic modification with the assumption that movie theaters would eventually reopen in the fall. With theaters in the two biggest markets in the country, Los Angeles and New York, nowhere close to happening, the Board of Governors has updated and clarified how a film can qualify for Best Picture for the 93rd Oscars.

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”).

Deadline reports. The film is directed by the star’s son, Edoardo Ponti.“When my son proposed the role to me, it was a dream come true.

Even with the Telluride Film Festival canceled outside of one special LA Screening and both the Venice and Toronto operating a significantly reduced capacity, it’s still shocking how few Oscar contenders are in play as the New York Film Festival comes into view. At this time last year, “Jojo Rabbit,” “Hustlers,” “Knives Out,” “Ford v.

PASADENA – Sadly, the 2020 edition of the Telluride Film Festival was canceled in July, but a little slice of the annual cinephile retreat was brought back to life Friday night at the iconic Rose Bowl. The festival and Searchlight Pictures partnered for a drive-in screening of Chloe Zhao‘s acclaimed drama “Nomadland” which premiered earlier in the day at Venice and also screened virtually at the Toronto Film Festival.