What’s Hot, What’s Not In A Tight Best Picture Race [Contender Countdown]

Paramount’s newly minted Oscar Best Picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick won Best Picture at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, held Saturday at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

It’s probably impossible to rank Donald Trump scandals. We’d be here all day! But this is definitely one of the biggest from a rule of law perspective. It’s just, you know, a bit late to the game. But you know what? We know about it now!

It’s been a little over 48 hours since the Oscar nominations have been announced and we’re sort of wondering, is anyone outside of the nominees themselves actually excited about this year’s ceremony? Sure, hardcore fans of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” are thrilled the critically acclaimed indie hit is on the cusp of winning Best Picture (we’ll get to that in a minute), but the buzz overall seems, tepid? Maybe it was because everyone was still getting vaxed and semi-stuck at home in 2021, but even the “Nomadland”/“Mank”/“Promising Young Woman”/“Minari” year had more heat? Continue reading ‘Everything Everywhere’ Takes Best Picture Lead But Where’s The Oscars Excitement? at The Playlist.

It is difficult to imagine the scale of atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine without the benefit of video evidence. Fortunately, some documentary filmmakers are bringing those images to the world so that the brutal reality of the unprovoked assault cannot be ignored.

You can’t really talk about the history of blockbuster filmmaking without mentioning Steven Spielberg. You could argue the summer blockbuster was created by his film, “Jaws,” decades ago.

The Oscar nominations revealed Tuesday lay out a Best Picture race that encompasses a broad range of films, from box office blockbusters like Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick to a movie that made its debut at a non-traditional awards-launching festival (Everything Everywhere All at Once, at SXSW), a Cannes Palme d’Or winner (Triangle of Sadness) and from fall festival faves like Venice (The Banshees of Inisherin, Tár), Toronto (The Fabelmans, All Quiet on the Western Front) and Telluride (Women Talking). The king has also entered the building with Elvis.

With the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences having expanded its shortlist for the Best International Feature Film Oscar to 15 in recent years, it’s inevitable that some deserving titles miss the nominations cut. However, several of the perceived frontrunners are in the mix after today’s announcement, including Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front which has nine nominations in total, including Best Picture, and is yet another sign of how foreign-language films are crossing over into other main categories. 

Top Gun: Maverick scored six Oscar nominations this morning including best picture, along with adapted screenplay by Ehren Kruger & Eric Warren Singer, sound, film editing, visual effects and original song for the Lady Gaga tune Hold My Hand. The film’s emergence as a best picture threat might have seemed an impossible mission, in that a summer movie that grosses nearly $1.5 billion worldwide moves popcorn, not Oscar voters. This Paramount Pictures film has proven to be the exception and one big reason is this: if Tom Cruise didn’t rescue the theatrical box office business following the Covid pandemic, he certainly pulled it out of a nosedive. While Cruise did not get nominated for best actor, he is squarely in the mix as producer, alongside first time Oscar nominee and hitmaking stalwart Jerry Bruckheimer, Christopher McQuarrie (a double nominee counting the adapted screenplay category) and Skydance principal David Ellison.

The Berlinale staunchly condemns Russia’s ongoing war of aggression, which violates international law, and expresses its solidarity with the people in Ukraine and all those who are campaigning against this war. The festival also stands with the courageous protesters in Iran as they defend themselves against a violent, undemocratic regime.In expressing this solidarity, the festival will not exclude filmmakers, artists, industry representatives or journalists because of their Russian or Iranian nationality.

Working on their fitness! Gisele Bündchen and Joaquim Valente were once again spotted together in Costa Rica two months after their initial outing.

Mhairi Black has told Douglas Ross he "should be ashamed" after he backed the UK Government's decision to block gender recognition reforms passed by the Scottish Parliament.

The award-winning documentary Navalny could be crowned with an Oscar nomination later this month, but the man whose story is told in it has never seen the film. Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, remains behind bars under a lengthy sentence after daring to criticize President Vladimir Putin.

EXCLUSIVE: Berlin-based documentary sales specialist Rise and Shine has boarded Ukrainian director Roman Liubyi’s work Iron Butterflies ahead of its world debut in Sundance (Jan 19-29), followed by its European premiere in Berlin.

The SNP’s longest-serving MP has said plans to turn the general election into a de facto referendum on independence are a “massive gamble”.

It’s not often that Cecil B. DeMille award recipients come backstage at the Golden Globes, but Eddie Murphy did for a brief three minutes.

The Oscars declined to give a platform to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year, but the Golden Globes made up for it tonight, offering him an opportunity to speak directly to an American and world audience.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its list of 301 movies that are eligible for the 2023 Best Picture Oscar.

Slowly but surely, theatrical releases are bouncing back, as the Academy has named 301 feature films eligible for Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards. This is a rebound from last year when 276 films qualified, after 366 films were in competition for the 2020 Academy Awards. All 301 films are listed in alphabetical order on the Academy’s website, from “After Yang” and “Aftersun” to “The Woman King” and “Women Talking” and beyond.In order to be eligible for consideration for the 95th Academy Awards, films needed to be in compliance with several Academy rules, opening in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six major metropolitan areas in the United States, including Los Angeles, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta, between Jan.