As I say in my video review above, who knew the feel good movie of 2015 would turn out to be a documentary about a 5-year-old boy suffering from leukemia? But that’s exactly what happens in Batkid Begins, which you have to see to really believe it could – and did – happen. It is simply a heartwarming, inspiring and…

With a $32 million domestic gross – and still counting – before its upcoming July 7 DVD release, The Weinstein Company’s sleeper specialty hit, Woman In Gold is currently the top ranking independent release of 2015.  And now, as everyone else seems to be knee deep in Emmy <img class="alignleft wp-image-1201437676"…

This review originally was published from Cannes in May. Pixar may have taken off a rare year with no feature film releases in 2014,<img class="alignright wp-image-1201429349" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.gif" alt="deadline-review-badge-pete-hammond" width="126"…

Summer doesn’t officially start until Sunday, but the all-important fall festival season looks like it already has kicked off. The Telluride crowd was out in force Wednesday night on the Hampton roof of the London Hotel in West Hollywood for their annual Hollywood meet and greet. <img class="alignleft size-full…

Emmy officially says “hello digital age” and “goodbye paper ballots” as the Television Academy jumps fully into the online voting pool with the launch today <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1201437676" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.gif" alt="Pete Hammond…

“I’m not sure why we don’t try to use this festival to kick off Oscar season in a bigger way,” Sony Pictures Classics’ co-President Tom Bernard observed at last night’s opening party for the Los Angeles Film Festival, which launched with SPC’s  upcoming August 21st release, Grandma. Since it is <img class="alignleft…

One of the more talked-about and higher-profile movies that played the 2014 fall festival trifecta of Venice/Telluride/Toronto was director Ramin Bahrani’s intensely riveting 99 Homes. More that one year later, it finally is going to be released into theaters through new distributor Broad Green Pictures, and the…

Talk about timing! Monday’s big reveal of Vanity Fair‘s Annie Leibovitz-shot cover and photo <img class="alignleft wp-image-1201414673" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.gif" alt="pete hammond badge" width="250" height="167"…

As I have slowly emerged during the past week from my French fog into the harsher realities of Hollywood, the likely effect of the 68th Cannes Film Festival on this year’s Oscar race has come more into focus. I consider Cannes a “soft start” to the awards season, not as key obviously as the fall <img class="alignleft …

There can be no question that Emmy season is upon us and going into high gear, at least judging by the near-daily barrage of invitations to For Your Consideration events. I don’t know if there is a clearing house for these things, but if you are an ATAS member (as I am), you could spend every ni<img class="alignleft si…

Ah, the awards gods. They giveth and then they taketh away, even in the same weekend.

In<img class=" size-full wp-image-175422 alignright" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.gif" alt="pete_hammond_300x100" width="300" height="100" data-lazy-src="https://pmcdeadline2.file…

Yes, Birdman is for real. If there was any lingering doubt that industry awards voters are dead serious about honoring a movie that is about a lot of th<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-175422" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.gif" alt="pete_hammond_300x100"…