The Holdovers Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

The most fun awards show of all returned to the giant tent on Santa Monica Beach as the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards crowned “Past Lives” as Best Feature, and Celine Song won Best Director. Hosted by Aidy Bryant, the almost always irreverent ceremony also saw one “Free Gaza” protester scream on a megaphone about a third of the way into the ceremony.  READ MORE: “Oppenheimer” wins Best Film and Best Actor and Dominates The 2024 BAFTA Awards After taking a SAG Award last night, Da’Vine Joy Randolph took yet another Supporting Performance for “The Holdovers.” The Focus Features release also took Best Cinematography, while Dominic Sessa took Best Breakthrough Performance.

Just when you thought it was safe, they suck you back in. Yes, on April 14, 2024, the final guild award ceremony was held for programs, films, and content released in 2023.

After a long awards season, thankfully without much of an Oscar villain to speak of, the 96th Academy Awards were held last night, and Academy trophies were bestowed on all the winners. Those victories obviously came with a fleet of emotional and earnest acceptance speeches (see below).

That’s a sweep for Da’Vine Joy Randolph. “The Holdovers” star won her first Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress.

2023 was a transformative year for Dominic Sessa. Sure, he filmed his first big break, Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” almost two years ago while still in High School, but over the past four months he’s seen that movie become a critical and audience darling all while attending Carnegie Mellon University as an everyday theater major.

Every year, former President Barack Obama drops his list of the best movies of the year, always showing a man of interesting taste and, at the very least, a prominent, globally renowned figure who puts a big spotlight on underseen movies.

“Discomfort and joy,” what a tremendously fitting tagline for “The Holdovers,” the new Alexander Payne film that takes place over the holidays. We haven’t updated our Best Christmas Movies of All Time list in a while—it was created years ago—but Payne’s “The Holdovers” would be a fitting addition to it.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph is having a moment. Over the past few weeks, she’s won Supporting Actress honors for her performance in Alexander Payne‘s “The Holdovers” from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, and five other regional critics’ groups (and that’s just so far).

In case you were wondering, there was no beef between Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne. The actor and filmmaker collaborated on 2004’s “Sideways,” an art-house breakout that earned over $100 million worldwide and five Oscar nominations including Best Picture (Payne and Jim Taylor won for Adapted Screenplay).

As is often the case, November is a packed month for the film release schedule. There are plenty of festival favorites that made the rounds and are now getting their mainstream release.

In celebration of “The Holdovers” hitting theaters this weekend, filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) has teamed up with Alamo Drafthouse for a special “Guest Selects” conversation. In the video (which you can watch below), Payne gives five film recommendations when people ask him what they should watch.

After 25 years of writing in Hollywood, David Hemingson is having a moment. A writer and producer on television shows such as “Just Shoot Me!,” “American Dad,” the cult favorite “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt.

Regarding movie runtimes, Alexander Payne apparently likes short and lean and “sharklike” in their efficiency. IndieWire reports that the director of “The Holdovers” had some choice words about inflated runtimes of recent film releases at the Middleburg Film Festival last weekend.

Filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Descendants,”) recently held a Q&A session during the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France (via Variety), with Los Angeles-based French film journalist Didier Allouch overseeing that conversation. Payne gave the French audience a big tease about what he’s currently working on, which could allow him to tackle a dream film genre.

Usually, it’s the Adapted Screenplay category that is super-competitive and the Original category that’s completely wide open.

October is a gift to cinephiles. It’s home to a barrage of critically acclaimed prestige films beginning their rollout following festival runs and a time to immerse oneself in the horror genre.

After a disappointing 2022 edition, the Telluride Film Festival had a major comeback for its 50th Anniversary. Sure, there were only a few actors on hand (including one who was rumored as not supposed to be there), but there was hardly a bad film on the screening slate and a number of world premieres that will dominate critic’s year-end top 10 lists.

TELLURIDE – Considering the success and adoration of the “Sideways,” it’s sort of surprising it took Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti this long to find another film to make together. Almost 20 years later, the director and actor have reteamed for “The Holdovers,” which debuted at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

Not only a beautiful destination, the Telluride Film Festival is a cinephile’s paradise; a secluded city in the Colorado mountains that’s hard to get to and then rather exclusive, which is probably partly the draw and the reason so many filmmakers and actors adore Telluride. But it’s also a cinephile’s haven in terms of community, there’s a knowing togetherness, lack of hierarchy and you can easily be in line for a film with a random science teacher from Albuquerque who is also a massive film nerd as you could be next to legendary director Werner Herzog.

The 2023 Telluride Film Festival will celebrate its 50th Anniversary with an extra day of screenings and an impressive 20 world premieres. Notable films making their debuts in the mountains include Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” follow-up, “Saltburn”; Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” with Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell; Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders” starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy; and Ethan Hawke‘s latest directorial effort, “Wildcat,” co-starring Telluride resident Laura Linney.

You gotta love when a studio decides to take a bit of a risk when it comes to marketing a film. It’s always fun when you watch a trailer and realize that a marketing team has really felt inspired when they worked on something.