Sir Richard Branson’s new short film production, Sides of a Horn, is looking to shed light on the rhino poaching crisis that exists in South Africa. The goal is the same as the 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio movie Blood Diamond, which opened the world’s eyes to the underbelly of the diamond trade.
In fact, the 17 minute-plus…
"We have two living Popes for the first time in 500 years, and they don't agree on anything and both are meant to be infallible, and I thought, that's an interesting kind of situation," said screenwriter Anthony McCarten of the inspiration behind The Two Popes, a behind-the-scenes imagined drama about the now resigned…
In his early 20s Michael Apted began assisting on a film called Seven Up!, little realizing it would turn into the most ambitious documentary project ever undertaken. It focused on a group of seven-year-old British schoolchildren from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and became such a sensation on British television…
A column chronicling events and conversations on the awards circuit.
OK, the fun of November when everyone still has high hopes of Oscar glory has now turned to the chill of December as reality starts to cloud the picture. The week kicked off Sunday with the announcement of winners of the British Independent Film…
When it came to discussing the making of one of the year’s biggest sleeper prestige-film hits The Peanut Butter Falcon, writer-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, and star Shia LaBeouf couldn’t help but focus on Zack Gottsagen.
The young actor, who has Down syndrome, plays the centerpiece role of Zak, a…
After appearing in Leave No Trace to much critical acclaim last year, Thomasin McKenzie came to Jojo Rabbit excited by the notion of learning from one of the industry's most unconventional voices. In Taika Waititi's World War II drama, centered on an avid member of the Hitler Youth (Roman Griffin Davis), McKenzie…
The evocative power of music is considered essential across the breadth of contemporary Hollywood filmmaking, but it may be most vital and potent in animation. The challenges of composing for the medium was front and center during the DreamWorks Animation panel at the recent The Contenders Los Angeles, which…
UPDATED, 9:09 AM: The SAG Awards producers said today that Leonardo DiCaprio will present the SAG Life Achievement Award to Robert De Niro at the 26th annual ceremony next month. The actors first starred together in 1993’s This Boy’s Life, when DiCaprio was a teenager, and later both appeared in films including Marvin…
Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen are the duo at the heart of Lulu Wang's The Farewell. Awkwafina is Billi, an Asian-American New Yorker returning to China for one last chance to see Nai Nai, her terminally-ill grandmother, played by Shuzhen. But there's a catch: the family have decided Nai Nai must not be told her diagnosis…
Earlier this week we duked it out over which movies stand the best chance at this point of nabbing Best Picture Oscar nominations. Now Part 2 of our session finds Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Indiewire’s Anne Thompson, Variety’s Tim Gray, and our moderator and host Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil giving the 411 on who is out in…
For anyone who has gone through the pain of a family member who has weathered substance or alcohol abuse, or even the roller-coaster ride of being a child actor, Alma Har’el’s feature take on Shia LaBeouf’s childhood, Honey Boy, is a cathartic experience.
LaBeouf was spurred to write the story when he was in…
