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Joe Russo, one half of the famous Russo Brothers directing team, has sparked debate with his take on why big-budget movies rarely win major awards. Known for directing massive hits like Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, Russo points the finger at Harvey Weinstein. He claims Weinstein’s actions decades ago shifted how the film industry views blockbusters during awards season.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Russo explained his view. “This trend was started by Harvey Weinstein,” he said. “He vilified mainstream movies to champion the art films he pushed for Oscar campaigns. Popular films were winning Oscars before the mid-Nineties, then Weinstein started mudslinging campaigns.”

Russo believes this created a divide between popular films and the smaller, artsy movies that now dominate the Academy Awards. He added, “It affected how audiences view the Oscars because they’ve not seen most of the movies. We’re in a complicated place.

The hype for Sinners has officially increased tenfold, as an Academy Award-winning filmmaker has given the film a glowing endorsement. Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan in a vampire film, the third Warner Bros. movie of 2025, where an actor plays dual roles — following Mickey 17 and The Alto Knights. Sinners is directed by Ryan Coogler, who has just come off two back-to-back Black Panther films, meaning expectations are high. But movie fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as Spike Lee has given the film a glowing endorsement.

The legendary director behind classics like Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour, BlacKkKlansman, and Da 5 Bloods, had the chance to screen Sinners early, and has nothing but great things to say about the movie. Lee posted a photo with director Ryan Coogler on his Instagram in front of the poster for Sinners, revealing he got to see a film screening...

Quick LinksWhat is The Florida Project About?The Race For Sean Baker's BestThe Florida Project and Anora Have Different Oscars Stories

As exciting as the movie awards season is every year, it is undeniable that sometimes the Academy voters make mistakes. Whether it's in Best Picture, Acting, Director, or one of the below-the-line categories, sometimes the Academy hivemind rallies behind a completely wrong winner. A recent example can be found at the 2019 Oscars ceremony, when Peter Farrelly's Green Book ran away with the victory, leaving audiences everywhere confused. Aside from the long Adrien Brody speeches and general displeasure at Emilia Perez existing, fans can take solace in the fact that this year's Academy Awards got it right with Anora.

Anora stunned audiences with its comedy, romance, and genuinely heart-shattering fall to reality during the finale. The film balances tone like none other and flawlessly communicates a truly important message.

Exclusive: Veteran producer and film executive Jonathan King is joining Zhang Xin at Closer Media in the newly created role of president. With 25 years of experience developing and producing award-winning films, King brings a background shepherding narrative and documentary storytelling to the company’s portfolio.

Launched in 2021 by billionaire entrepreneur Zhang Xin and most recently run by William Horberg, the production and finance company has been growing quickly in the independent space and is leaning more into its narrative side. King’s resume included a slate of more than 50 films over his years at Concordia Studio, Participant, Focus Features and Miramax Films.

Coming in 2025 for Closer Media are Justin Lin’s Last Days, and Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s documentary Middletown, both of which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. New titles this year include Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Conner, recently...

For decades in Hollywood, keen-eyed movie fans could spot an Academy Awards hopeful from a mile away. Usually released in the few months leading up to the awards, the movies were highbrow, serious, often historical, aimed at a more "adult" audience, the kind that might fork over ticket money to catch a mid-afternoon matinée screening. They often had recognizable stars, but they were rarely the biggest releases of the year, nor were they the smallest. Several terms popped up to describe these kinds of movies, like "prestige pictures" or, more commonly, "Oscar bait."

While these kinds of movies do still occasionally break through, and last year's big wins for Oppenheimer show that Hollywood isn't giving up its historical epics any time soon, the idea of what a big Oscar night winner looks like has changed a lot in recent years. More offbeat, unconventional films have taken home top prizes in the last decade,...

Netflix announced 12 new titles for the first of the month and then added a dozen more to the mix. The stealth release slate was at least as good as the previously announced group. Happily, it included one of my favorite films ever. If you haven't seen it yet, this is your chance to add it to your list.

I saw this movie at the theater when it came out in 1989. It was astonishing, amazing, and absolutely brilliant. Sounds like an especially arrogant LLC, doesn't it? Well, it truly was and still is all of those things. From the opening frame to the last, I was riveted, as was the entire audience. As soon as it was available on DVD, I had my own copy. That was followed by the Blu-ray, then the digital version. And lucky you, you get to watch it now on Netflix.

When I say this is...

With its near sweep at the Oscars on Sunday night, five-time Academy Award winner Anora entered the history books as one of the last decade’s most decorated Best Picture winners. In hindsight, the result seemed obvious: Of course, the Best Picture winner would also take every other category in which it was win-competitive. However, there are always several lessons to take away from each awards season, and this one — mainly because of its unpredictability — was no different. Ahead are the five lessons to remember when predicting next year’s awards season.

It’s Always Oscar Season

Last year, the famously cantankerous actor Brian Cox lambasted Hollywood because of its focus on what he deemed “Oscar season” while lamenting the fact that his 2017 biopic Churchill (released in June) was overtaken in the conversation by the Oscar-winning Darkest Hour (released in November) that same year.

“Our film came out in the summer,...

This is clearly not your parents' Motion Picture Academy. Anora won Best Picture at the Oscars on Sunday, one of five awards claimed by the indie film from director Sean Baker. It's an unconventional Oscar champ to say the least, but unconventional seems to be the new standard for voters, who have made a series of daring choices over the last decade. It appears as though the Academy's efforts to expand and diversify its ranks are paying off. While diversity in business and government faces a vicious backlash, Anora shows how Dei has transformed the Oscars.

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Anora is a frank, sexually explicit comedy about a Brooklyn sex worker (Best Actress winner Mikey Madison) who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn) much to the disapproval of his family. In addition to Best Picture and Best Actress it claimed Best Director,...

Earning his second Best Actor Oscar 22 years after his first, Adrien Brody entered the history books as the first leading actor to win two statuettes on his first two attempts on Sunday.

He won for his role as an ingenious, haunted architect in Brady Corbet’s epic, following his win in 2003 for Roman Polanski’s biographical World War II drama “The Pianist.”

And by wining Best Actor on Sunday, Brody not only made history but also preserved his place among Oscar milestones. Had 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet won in the category for “A Complete Unknown,” he would have become the youngest Best Actor victor ever, beating Brody’s own record from 2003.

Brody is the 11th leading actor to win twice in the top category.

“Acting is a very fragile profession,” Brody opened his acceptance speech. “It looks very glamorous, and certain moments it is, but the one thing that I’ve...

Adrien Brody took home his second Oscar on Sunday — Best Actor for The Brutalist — putting him in rarefied air: He is the eighth performer to boast a perfect 2-for-2 record at the Oscars.

The first seven to achieve this are:

1. Luise Rainer: Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937)

2. Vivien Leigh: Best Actress for Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

3. Helen Hayes: Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932) and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970)

4. Kevin Spacey: Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects (1995) and Best Actor for American Beauty (1999)

5. Hilary Swank: Best Actress for Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)

6. Christoph Waltz: Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012)

7. Mahershala Ali: Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018)

See The complete list of Oscar winners

Brody nabbed his first Best Actor Oscar for...

By the time Jack Nicholson came on stage to present Best Picture at the 2006 Academy Awards, most viewers were confident that Ang Lee's gay-themed Western romance Brokeback Mountain (2005) would take home the prize, having already won Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score (as well as the top awards at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs). Instead, upon opening the envelope, a visibly surprised Nicholson declared, "And the Oscar goes to...Crash!"

The victory of writer/director Paul Haggis' sprawling ensemble drama about racial tension in Los Angeles came as a major surprise to many critics, who widely criticized the film's shallow commentary, questionable character arcs, and disjointed narrative. Acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates even called it "The Worst Movie of the Decade."

However, both before and after the Oscars, Crash did have one notable advocate: eminent American film critic Roger Ebert. Ebert, who named Crash the best film of the year,...

Time to do your homework to get ready for the 97th annual Oscars. Records can be broken, anyone can win, frontrunners can be toppled, and Brazil and Latvia just might go crazy. Here are 15 moments to look for during the three-and-a-half-hour Oscar telecast, which begins at 4 p.m. Pt/7 p.m. Et on Sunday live on ABC and Hulu.

Best Picture: Front-runner Anora would become only the third film in history to win the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and also go on to win the Best Picture Oscar. Previously, Parasite in 2019 and Marty in 1955 did it. Before the fest’s top prize was called Palme d’Or, 1945’s Best Picture winner The Lost Weekend also won the top prize on the Croisette.

Mikey Madison in ‘Anora’

Best Picture: Emilia Pérez is not only the international film with the most Oscar nominations ever with 13, it is also in...

The Best Picture race has been a wildcard all season long, with Anora dominating the guilds, Conclave winning at BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild, and The Brutalist claiming the top Golden Globe. But what will win at the Academy Awards? Five top Oscar experts — Gold Derby's Debra Birnbaum, Variety's Clayton Davis, The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg, Deadline's Pete Hammond, and Indiewire's Anne Thompson — got together to debate their predictions in the home stretch. Watch the Oscars slugfest video above.

"Before SAG took place, I was saying, Anora has one lock of its six categories and it's Best Picture, and it was the weirdest thing to ever say outside to myself," Davis begins. "I think that's still a possibility that happens. Conclave is firmly, I think, No. 2 [based on anonymous ballots]. The preferential ballot really is a thing that makes this so much harder. Because if it was a one or done, I...

For his completion of the trifecta of totemic mafia stories, Tony Lip will forever live in the annals of Italian-American history. Only one actor has appeared in The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos, and it's someone you only see in the background behind a crowd of other mobsters. It's no accident that Lip, whose early years as a bouncer and chauffeur were the subject of the Best Picture-winning Green Book, was continuously cast in stories about the New York gangland set in New York or the Tri-state area.

Exclusive: Public relations firm 42West has elevated five longtime publicity pros in its Entertainment Marketing Division to VP. The list includes Taylor James, Kate Lowell, Kabeer Malhotra, Stacey Tesser and Nesma Youssef.

42West’s Entertainment Marketing Division, headed by presidents Tom Piechura and Scott Feinstein in New York and Annalee Paulo in Los Angeles, develops and executes publicity campaigns for films, TV, podcasts, filmmakers, production companies, film festivals and more.

“Kabeer, Kate, Nesma, Stacey and Taylor are an integral part of our bicoastal team and have been the foundation of our success of 42West’s Entertainment Marketing Division for many years,” said Piechura, Feinstein and Paulo. “With their incredible expertise, solid industry relationships and never-ending commitment, they each excel at strategizing and driving first-rate campaigns for our clients. They are proven leaders and we are thrilled to launch this well-deserved new chapter in their careers.”

James joined 42West in September...

And now for the final word on who will win the gold Sunday at the 97th Oscars.

Since Cannes in May I have been reviewing the movies, assessing their awards potential, predicting the Oscar nominations, and now finally here is my best and Final guess as to who and what will emerge triumphant in all 23 categories for the 2025 Academy Awards. So much has been written, so much has been talked about, and actually overall for me it has been a swell year for movies, at least good ones, or at the very least enough good ones to make this lineup of nominees for Oscars a deserving one.

Let me caution these are my predictions, some still shaky, but not necessarily what I might have voted for. In other words, this is not a wish list but rather a reflection of where the long and ever-unwinding road stood as Oscar balloting ended on February 18 at 5 p.

The most Oscar-nominated film this season is Emilia Pérez, which is entirely in Spanish. It landed 13 noms — smashing the record for a non-English-language film (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma had 10 each) and just one shy of the record for any film — including best picture. And it’s not the only non-English-language film up for the top Oscar; so, too, is the Portuguese-language I’m Still Here. Until recently, such a scenario would have been unimaginable. Then came Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite. This is the inside story of how that off-the-wall Korean film made history at the Oscars five years ago.

Hello, World

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, founded in 1927, was originally called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But for most of its history, it wasn’t very worldly — the vast majority of its members were based in L.A., New York or London,...

Best Director used to be a can't-miss category at the Oscars. In the past, if a movie was not nominated for Best Director, it could kiss its chances of winning Best Picture goodbye. However, that changed once the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees in 2009. Now Conclave is trying to overcome its own Best Director snub with a win in the top category, and it could perform exactly as Argo did 12 years ago.

See'Anora' or 'Conclave'? Chalamet or Brody? Demi or Mikey? How the prediction markets have shifted ahead of Oscars

Only six films to date have won Best Picture without a corresponding nomination for Best Director: Wings (1927), Grand Hotel (1932), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Argo (2012), Green Book (2018), and Coda (2021). After only three examples in the first 62 years of Oscars history of a movie winning without its filmmaker nominated for directing, there have already been three more examples...

With just days to go before the 2025 Oscars air on March 2, Gold Derby editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum "gathered the brain trust for one final outing" to discuss this "incredible, crazy season with lots of plot twists." She's joined by four top Oscar experts — Variety's Clayton Davis, The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg, Deadline's Pete Hammond, and Indiewire's Anne Thompson — who debate all of the key races to watch out for in this year's below-the-line categories. Watch the Oscars slugfest video above.

"If Anora wins editing, that is a sign that it's going to be Anora all the way," declares Thompson. "There are two scenarios for Anora: picture and not a whole lot of other things, or sweep. It could go either way, we don't know. And that's why editing will be quite key." She then counters, "It might be Conclave ... I think it's between those two for editing."

See 2025 Oscars calendar update

Feinberg notes,...

The show will go on for Karla Sofía Gascón. The titular star of Emilia Pérez has faced a lot of fallout from her controversial tweets resurfacing, but in spite of it all, she will attend this year's Academy Awards ceremony. And after dropping their support for her Oscar bid amid the scandal, studio and streamer Netflix changed course a bit, agreeing to pay for her travel (as is customary) to Los Angeles for the March 2 show.

How others will react to it remains to be seen, but have no fear: react they will, as people do tend to have big feelings about these sorts of things — in both the positive and negative sense. Gascón was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in Emilia Pérez, one of thirteen nominations the film received this year, the most of any film. It was a surprise to many that the film garnered so much,...

Best Director gets more attention at the Oscars, but this millennium has shown the writing categories are potentially more important. In the past 15 years Argo (2012), Green Book (2018), and Coda (2021) won Best Picture without directing noms — but no film since Titanic (1997) has won without a writing nom. That could be good news for many of this year's nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay. Four of the five are also up for the top prize. Here is our breakdown of the race as it stands today.

SEEHow Kieran Culkin could end this 12-year Oscar streak Frontrunner: Conclave, by Peter Straughan

Only one film in this category earned writing nominations from the BAFTAs, Critics Choice Awards, USC Scripter Awards, and Golden Globes, and Conclave is it. The screenplay also managed to win all of those awards, including the Golden Globe, which was a shared category with original screenplay contenders. That means Conclave not only...

Well, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.

Not sure who said that, or just who will be singing after this long and winding road to Oscar is over, but we will have to wait another week after a later-than-ever SAG Awards ceremony just said “Not so fast, Anora.”

A week after losing the Best Film BAFTA to Conclave, Sean Baker’s DGA-, PGA-, WGA-, Critics Choice- and Palme d’Or-winning comedy lost again in the sometimes Oscar-predictive Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Cast Award race to — you guessed it — Conclave, winning the same award it took at Critics Choice two weeks ago for a movie that, with Pope Francis in critical condition, is becoming more timely by the day.

This would be equivalent to a nuclear bomb going off if only SAG had been earlier, or Oscar had extended its voting period. But the fact is Academy...

Quick LinksThe Coen Brothers Were on a Cold StreakWhat is The Ladykillers About?The Ladykillers Was a Critical Failure

With the 97th Academy Awards on the horizon, many fans are revisiting Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning classic movies to see if they hold up. From recent winners like Green Book and Crash, already aging interestingly, to old-school classics like Casablanca and The Apartment, proving their timelessness. The same everlasting question is dredged up every single year: Decades before the release of the Oscar-winning film No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers were raking in awards nominations left and right for Fargo, Barton Fink, and more.

However, it cannot be ignored that in the years immediately preceding their Oscar-winning year with the hit Western, the brotherly duo was experiencing something of a critical cold streak. 2004 saw the release of The Ladykillers, the lowest rated film in the Coen brothers catalog by a wide margin.

The last time Hong Sangsoo failed to feature in a Berlinale program, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” was in the charts and Green Book was on its way to beating Roma at the Oscars. In just those six years, the festival has witnessed three different creative directors, weathered a global pandemic, and buckled under the weight of its own political fealty. Which is to say: some things change, but the Hong remains the same. He is still tiring to his detractors. He is still a reassuring ever-presence to his devotees. If, like I, you happen to be one of the latter, you’ll probably find much to enjoy in What Does that Nature Say to You, the director’s latest comic melodrama and the closest he has yet come to remaking Meet the Parents.

As low-key and delightful as last year’s A Travelers Needs, but without Isabelle Huppert to steal the show,...

Well, this is a big, fat bummer you can bet on: After two short seasons on Max, the streamer announced it has canceled Bookie, a sitcom nestled in the world of sports betting. Why? While your guess is as good as mine (because the show is rife with great characters and plenty of humor), it’s likely due to poor ratings, despite the warm critical reception and acclaim it has received since its premiere in November 2023.

This reception, combined with a 90% Tomatometer and 86% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes, is why Max absolutely made the wrong decision in cancelling Bookie. Audiences clearly loved the show, which brought us some big laugh-out-loud moments during its run.

A Max spokesperson said in a statement:

“For two seasons creators Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay and their hilarious cast, led by Sebastian Maniscalco, made us laugh while pulling back the curtain on the world of sports betting.

The Blade reboot's development remains in the balance following behind-the-scenes issues and the departure of multiple directors. As star Mahershala Ali hopes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Blade remake to get off the ground, he's reunited with one of the departed directors for an upcoming project.

According to Deadline, Ali has signed on for the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which has been written and will be directed by former Blade reboot helmer Bassam Tariq. Details about Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother are being kept under wraps, with Tariq producting the movie alongside Two & Two Pictures' Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari.

Related'i Hope It Gets Together: MCU Star Michael B. Jordan Addresses Blade Reboot's Struggles

Black Panther franchise star Michael B. Jordan has his say on the many delays affecting the Blade remake.

A two-time Oscar winner for his performances in Moonlight and Green Book,...

Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali is teaming up with filmmaker Bassam Tariq for a new movie titled Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. The film, produced by Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures, is written and directed by Tariq, who won critical acclaim for Mogul Mowgli.

Plot details are still under wraps, but this marks a reunion for Ali and Tariq. The two were originally set to work together on Marvel’s Blade reboot, but Tariq left the project before production began.

Ali, best known for Moonlight and Green Book, recently starred in the hit Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind, which became one of the platform’s most-streamed films. Up next, he’ll appear alongside Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World Rebirth, hitting theaters on July 2.

Tariq made a name for himself with Mogul Mowgli, a drama starring Riz Ahmed, which won the Critics Award at the Berlin Film Festival. He...

Sturdy, classic storytelling and a peerless cast led by Ralph Fiennes’s anxious cardinal make this drama of Vatican intrigue a solid bet

Could it? Would it? Until it picked up best film at the Bafta awards, no one had really been taking this papal intrigue drama all that seriously – all the smart money was on one of two very American films: Anora and The Brutalist. (Even more so after Emilia Pérez’s spectacular Karla Sofía Gascón-related blow-out.) But could Conclave pull off a Green Book-style surge to the line, getting past more fashionable and/or artsy efforts through the virtues of sturdy, muscular storytelling?

For this is surely the basis of Conclave’s appeal to Oscar voters. Although blessed by brilliant, subtle performances, and handsomely mounted design and camerawork, Conclave’s great strength is its narrative furniture, a build-out of the microcosm that is the papal court.

Everyone's favorite canoe-paddler and gigglepuss extraordinaire, Nick Offerman, has been confirmed as the official Show Announcer for this year's Academy Awards ceremony. The Parks and Recreation funnyman will join host Conan O'Brien in show duties that are sure to bring the funny to this year's Oscars. And he's not the only famous face (or voice) to be newly confirmed to present or join the broadcast of the 97th installment of cinematic accolades.

The news was confirmed on Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter while speaking with executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan. The event will be the first time the Emmy Award-winning performer has attended the ceremony.

Also planning to work that night are Oprah Winfrey, Selena Gomez, Ben Stiller, Willem Dafoe, Goldie Hawn, Sterling K. Brown, Joe Alwyn, Lily-Rose Depp, Ana de Armas, and Connie Nielsen — all of whom have been confirmed as presenters at the awards.

All bets are off.

“Bookie” has been canceled by Max after two seasons, Variety has learned exclusively.

The comedy series starred Sebastian Maniscalco as a veteran bookmaker in Los Angeles who must fight to survive the legalization of sports gambling while navigating unstable clients. Created by Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay, the show premiered on the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer in November 2023 and debuted its second season in December 2024.

“For two seasons creators Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay and their hilarious cast, led by Sebastian Maniscalco, made us laugh while pulling back the curtain on the world of sports betting,” a Max spokesperson said in a statement. “We won’t be moving forward with a third season, but we are grateful to have worked with such a brilliant team on this laugh out loud comedy.”

“Bookie” also starred Omar Dorsey as Rayfield “Ray” Ballard, Andrea Anders as Sandra, Vanessa Ferlito as Lorraine Colavito,...

For those with Hollywood dreams, whether it's acting in films or directing them, their biggest aspiration may be to win an Oscar. "Academy Award winner" would be forever attached to their name, and presumably, doors would open in their careers that had never opened before.

While the Oscars certainly recognize performers and filmmakers for their exceptional talents and place them in a class above the rest, they also bring high expectations. After winning, there will always be pressure to live up to that title, which may be impossible to achieve again. This is part of the dreaded "Oscar curse." What happens after you've achieved the biggest honor in Hollywood?

Oscar campaigns and wins can be just as much of a story as the movies themselves. Hollywood's publicity machine spins a specific narrative to help an artist win the coveted award — the higher the stakes or the more cultural impact, the better.

The crime genre has been home to many notable actors throughout the years - Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta to name a few. However, one of the most underrated gangster actors remains relatively unknown, despite appearing in some of the biggest gangster films of all time.

Even if audiences never fully recognized his contributions to cinema, Tony Lip remains a legend among fans of gangster films and TV. From his early, uncredited role in The Godfather to his unforgettable turn as Carmine Lupertazzi in The Sopranos, Lip was one of the most authentic character actors in crime cinema. While he may not have received the widespread recognition he deserved in his lifetime, his legacy lives on through the films and shows he featured in, along with his incredible biographical film Green Book.

Tony Lip in The Godfather, The Sopranos & Goodfellas Image via HBO

Tony Lip’s film...

The following article is an excerpt from the new edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

As someone who’s always taken great pride in pretending that I don’t give a shit about the Oscars, and great pleasure in rolling my eyes throughout awards season as movies like “Jojo Rabbit” and “Don’t Look Up” are exalted as supreme examples of the form, I find myself in the increasingly uncomfortable position of … being pretty at peace with the Academy’s choices over the last few years?

Of course, that’s more than a little nauseating in and of itself; a film critic expressing any degree of approval for the...

On Halloween of 2022, it was announced that original Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller – fresh off winning the U.S. copyright to the 1980 film after a lawsuit that stretched on for years – was teaming up with his lawyer Marc Toberoff, franchise rights holder Rob Barsamian, production company A24, the Peacock streaming service, and showrunner Bryan Fuller (whose credits include Hannibal and Pushing Daisies) to develop a new Friday the 13th streaming series called Crystal Lake. Things were moving ahead at a good pace, filming was expected to begin this July, but then the project hit a speed bump at the end of April with the firing of Fuller and his frequent collaborator Jim Danger Gray. Things got back on track in late August with the hiring of a new showrunner – and that person is Brad Caleb Kane, who also serves as co-showrunner and executive producer of It: Welcome to Derry,...

Nominations voting was from January 8-17, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

The back and forth on which nominee will win the Academy Award for Best Picture has been so drawn out, so contentious, that the surge of support “Anora” got last weekend has been a breath of fresh air. After major wins for Sean Baker and his film at the Critics Choice Awards, the PGA Awards, and the DGA Awards, we finally have some consensus as final Oscars voting opens up.

While Baker’s sex worker dramedy has been a formidable contender since last spring, when it...

In a perfect world, the Oscars would be a true celebration of everything cinema accomplished the previous year. No one should listen to the naysayers who say that cinema is filled with nothing but remakes and sequels. Anyone who says that isn't a serious person and probably only goes to the theater twice a year anyway. If you look closely enough, you'll find plenty of amazing films that speak to the human condition or comment on modern societal ills in an entertaining way. There are always movies to celebrate, and the Academy Awards should ideally honor all those.

Sadly, the Oscars are often their own worst enemy. Cinephiles just want to have fun during this event, but the ceremony frequently shoots itself in the foot by pandering to people who don't even like movies and eliminating movie clips even though We All Want To See The Performances That Were Nominated.

If you want to get a feel for what cinema was like in a given year, looking at that year's best picture nominees would seem to be a good place to start. After all, only between five and 10 movies have received such a distinction annually, and since people voting work in the entertainment industry themselves, it's understandable they'd choose the cream of the crop, right?

Wrong!

It shouldn't be hard to find at least five amazing films each year, yet every so often, the Academy honors something that wasn't a hit with critics or audiences. People are quick to point out the worst Oscar best picture winners ever, like "Crash" and "Green Book," but when you expand that to nominees, you really wind up with some dreck (with a couple even taking home the big prize). For this list, we took the worst 10 films ever nominated based on their critics' Rotten Tomatoes scores.

Quick LinksHow Does the 'Emilia Pérez' Controversy Compare to Past Contenders?Does 'Emilia Pérez' Still Have a Shot at Oscar Glory?

Depending on who you ask, the controversy surrounding Emilia Pérezis either the worst-timed bad luck imaginable or a welcome dose of karma. The last week has clearly been a nightmare for the film’s cast and crew, and especially for the Netflix campaign team, who’ve been aggressively pushing for the company’s first Best Picture win. What should’ve been a cause for celebration, as Karla Sofía Gascón became the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Oscar, has tragically been overshadowed by her problematic past.

On the other hand, it’s been clear since at least the Golden Globes that outside of the industry, few people seem to actually like Emilia Pérez. Even putting aside Gascón, the movie has been criticized by Mexican...

Updated with PGA win: Sean Baker won both the PGA Awards‘ and DGA Awards‘ top prizes for Neon’s Anora — on the same night. And if past statistics are a signifier of what’s to come, it is a major indicator for both the Oscars’ Best Director category as well as Best Picture.

Baker’s wild night started at the Beverly Hilton, where he won the Directors Guild’s top prize, the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. He then raced to the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, where he picked up the PGA’s top trophy, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, alongside his fellow producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan.

Deadline confirmed that the PGA ceremony delayed its start to accommodate the Anora team, which was coming off taking the Best Picture prize Friday evening at the Critics Choice Awards.

“Anora” director Sean Baker has won the DGA Award for Theatrical Feature, gaining significant Oscar momentum ahead of final voting.

With its surprising best picture win at the Critics Choice Awards — its only prize of the night — the $6 million dramedy, which claimed the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, has solidified itself as a major contender in an unpredictable awards season.

“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do thing I knew I wanted to do since I was 5 years old,” Baker told the crowd Saturday at the conclusion of the 77th annual DGA Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton.

A wide-open year has unfolded with plenty of twists and turns, including campaign controversies and surprising Oscar snubs like DGA nominee Edward Berger and recent Critics Choice shocking victor Jon M. Chu for “Wicked.”

Legendary filmmaker Ang Lee, a two-time Oscar-winning director...

Sony's Spider-Man Villain's Universe wasn't just the worst-named cinematic franchise of the 21st century; it was also one of the worst reviewed. The franchise includes Tom Hardy's Venom trilogy, as well as Morbius, the recently released Kraven the Hunter, and the infamous Madame Web. The franchise has received its fair share of hate online, with everyone from esteemed journalists to your grandpa asking what went wrong with Madame Web. Now, The Boys star Jack Quaid is piling onto the discourse in a hilarious new skit.

Most cinephiles know the Criterion Closet, the online video series where filmmakers and actors pick their favorite movies from the Criterion's esteemed Blu-ray and 4k collection. But have you heard of The Movie Cabinet? Jack Quaid was the first guest in the new, totally not a knock-off interview series by Josh Horowitz, and his time in the cabinet just got weirder and weirder.

The gold-plated meltdown that has followed the revelation of Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón’s past anti-Muslim and racist tweets — with anti-George Floyd and pro-Hitler sentiments thrown in — has now required numerous apologies/explanations from the Best Actress Oscar nominee. Gascón’s previous online remarks have seriously cratered the odds for her and her film, which is nominated for 13 Oscars. The journalist and podcaster who uncovered Gascón’s troubling social media posts insists it was good old-fashioned reporting and she was not a “studio plant” fueling a smear campaign underwritten by a rival nominee.

In any case Gascón’s self-inflicted mess is the latest example of an internet-powered scandal that has threatened to derail an Oscar campaign. Here’s a look at the four most notable examples this century and how they played out.

Green Book (2018)

As this fact-based drama — about a blue-collar bouncer who chauffeured a Black...

When a film makes it all the way to the Academy Awards and takes home the top prize of best picture, a safe assumption to be made is that said movie is probably pretty good. Right? Well, that should be the case, but whatever reason, every once in a while a film sneaks through that just isn't up to snuff and leads future audiences to wonder exactly what the Academy was thinking.

That's the exception, not the rule, however. Most best picture winners are worthy of their title, even if some fans may quibble over what the actual best film of the year was. But even amongst this lofty category, there are films that stand out as the best of the best. If there was to be an Academy Awards: All Stars Edition, these 15 would be the ones that would make the cut. No matter how long ago they were released,...

The annual Oscar race, which spans about 10 months, from the Cannes Film Festival in May through the Academy Awards ceremony in March, is like a political contest. It starts with the candidates throwing their hats into the ring (at film festivals and premieres). Then, the backers of candidates that show potential (based on reactions and reviews) begin finessing their pitches (emphasizing narratives that present them in the best possible light) and courting voters (at screenings and receptions, and through Q&As and interviews). Some advance to the primaries and caucuses (the many other awards shows that precede the Oscars). And then comes Election Day (Oscar night itself).

But the similarities don’t end there. While it’s certainly true that the implications of winning a political election are more important and far-reaching than the implications of winning an Oscar, the potential rewards of winning an Oscar — reputational, monetary and otherwise — are significant enough that they,...

When the old offensive social media posts by Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón went viral on Thursday, one awards strategist thought of a past Oscar contender who was in a similar situation: Nick Vallelonga. “Did that teach us nothing?” asked the strategist, who spoke to Gold Derby on the condition of anonymity.

Vallelonga is the cowriter and producer of Green Book, which, like Emilia Pérez, was dogged by controversy during its Oscar campaign six years ago. The film — about the real-life story of pianist and composer Don Shirley and his driver Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga during a concert tour in the Deep South in the 1960s — was criticized for perpetuating the “white savior” stereotype. Shirley’s family condemned the musician’s portrayal in the film. Mortensen apologized for using the N-word during a Q&a. Director and cowriter Peter Farrelly apologized after the recirculation of a 1998 Newsweek interview, in...

The furor over racist and anti-Muslim tweets from Best Actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón has left the Oscar campaign for Gascón and her film, “Emilia Pérez,” badly damaged and may well be dead, but there it’s also possible that the film could take less of a hit than its star.

Given this year’s awards-season calendar, “Emilia Pérez” could conceivably weather the storm and do what it’s done so far this season: win awards despite the fact that it’s the lowest-rated of the Best Picture nominees on Metacritic, and despite months of social media attacks that find it lacking on a variety of fronts.

With a strategy of isolation and repudiation, which already began with co-star Zoe Saldaña’s comments that she “(doesn’t) have any tolerance for any negative rhetoric towards people of any group,” Netflix will have its job cut out for it to distance the film from its star,...

The Internet never forgets.

Apparently, Oscar strategists do.

Six years after “Green Book” writer-producer Nick Vallelonga’s old tweet that disparaged Muslims resurfaced in the thick of an awards-season campaign, threatening the film’s Academy Awards prospects, “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón is under fire for social media posts that took aim at everything from Islam to George Floyd to Oscars diversity. In an unexpected turn of events, Netflix did not vet Gascón’s social media history in advance — nor, it seems, had anyone else associated with the film or the actor — a decision that represents a critical lapse for a major Oscar campaign, according to eight awards veterans and communications executives who spoke with Variety on condition of anonymity.

“We all make mistakes, omissions, but when you know you have a loose cannon like her, you don’t take your eye off the ball especially since anyone in...

The Academy Awards have staged some iconic showdowns. Think of the tension around “La La Land” versus “Moonlight,” “12 Years a Slave” versus “Gravity” or “The Godfather” versus “Cabaret.” Each was a nail-biter that kept viewers on the edge of their seats. But what happens when six films — “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez” and “Wicked” — are all serious contenders for Hollywood’s most coveted prize? Enter “The Year Without the Frontrunner,” as Variety aptly dubbed it.

So, what is the pathway for each contender?

With 13 nominations, “Emilia Pérez” seems to have the logical edge (although recent controversies could derail that assertion). It has key guild nods and below-the-line Oscar mentions. But in this unpredictable year, historical trends are no guarantee. Major upcoming ceremonies like DGA, PGA and SAG may clarify the race — or make it even messier.

After winning big at the Golden Globes, “Emilia Pérez...

For the past dozen years, the eventual Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor has hailed from a Best Picture nominee. But that streak could finally end this year, based on Gold Derby’s predictions.

Kieran Culkin is the odds-on frontrunner to win Best Supporting Actor for his performance in A Real Pain. He plays Benjamin “Benji” Kaplan, who embarks on a roadtrip through Poland with his cousin, David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg), following the death of their grandmother. The Searchlight Pictures film also received a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Eisenberg, who directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the project, but it was snubbed in Best Picture.

Culkin has dominated the precursor awards and should he prevail at the Oscars, he would end a 12-year streak that began after Christopher Plummer won for Beginners (2011). Plummer notably claimed this award at age 82, making him the oldest acting winner at that time (an...

There’s a new entry in the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise heading our way, with Jurassic World Rebirth set to reach theatres on July 2, 2025 – and this one has a screenplay by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, returning to the franchise for the first time since The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Koepp has previously said that his goal with the script was to get the franchise back to the tone of the original Jurassic Park, and during a new interview with Variety, he revealed that he has even managed to work a sequence from Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel into the new movie!

News of the new Jurassic World movie first hit back in January of 2024, when it was revealed that the screenplay had already been written. The project was assembled in a mad scramble after that, with Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards...