A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit
“This is absolutely the single worst weekend of the year,” one exasperated publicist told me last night after the AFI Fest closing-night screening of Mary Queen of Scots. What she said was an understatement as the Academy’s annual Governors Awards has become a full-weekend magnet for Oscar campaigning. This year promises to be the most hectic I have ever seen.
As fast as studios have been cancelling red… Read
The four network daytime dramas will not be boycotting next year’s Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony as they’d threatened to in July. In an unprecedented show of unity, after being dissatisfied with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' response to screw-ups during this year’s awards show, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and The Young and the Restless banded together this summer to present a list of complaints and demands for… Read
WHOThomasin McKenzie
Age: 18
Hometown: Wellington, New Zealand
WHAT
In Debra Granik's Leave No Trace, McKenzie is Tom, daughter to Ben Foster's PTSD-affected Will. Unable to cope with society, Will has carved out a subsistence off-grid life with Tom in wooded parkland outside of Portland, Oregon, until authorities intervene and threaten their isolated idyll. Those survival skills are also the real deal. "We learned about what things you can find in the forest to eat,"… Read
ATX Television Festival's seventh annual Pitch Competition has issued a call for submissions, and has a new wrinkle – sponsored transportation and accommodations for its Top 10 finalists.
The event, being held June 6-9 in Austin, Texas, provides an opportunity for undiscovered writers to showcase their talent, along with providing access to TV's top decision-makers. ATX's focus is the celebration of the television medium – looking back at its history, where it is now, and… Read
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” writer/director Milorad Krstić said, greeting an audience last night, following a screening of his first full-length animated film. “I do hope the movie wasn't boring.” To be sure, it wasn’t. For the entirety of the evening’s panel on Ruben Brandt, Collector—his Hungarian Oscar entry in the category of Best Animated Feature—this suggestion of candor and self-effacing humor proved defining, to the Landmark audience’s… Read
As one half of the Farrelly Brothers filmmaking team, Peter Farrelly has been responsible for the likes of such broadly entertaining comedies as There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Me Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal, Kingpin and many more. That makes it all the more surprising that his latest film is Green Book, a dramedy that is definitely sending him into unexpected directions — as well as into the heart of this awards season with a movie that is the toast of… Read
EXCLUSIVE: Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber announced today that it has acquired North American rights for Pamela B. Green's documentary, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.
Narrated by Jodie Foster, the film centers on the life and accomplishments of the world's first female filmmaker and had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Classics section, and also screened at the Telluride, New York, Deauville, BFI London film… Read
EXCLUSIVE: Rami Malek has been chosen for this year’s Breakthrough Performance Award at the 30th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival for his acclaimed performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. The honor will be presented at the Film Awards Gala on Thursday, January 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The festival runs January 3-14.
"In the film Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek fully brings to life and embodies musical legend Freddie Mercury, in what is truly an… Read
As the awards season picks up steam, stars and star filmmakers face a great opportunity to reach voters in the Q&A sessions, but also must tread a careful path because of heightened sensitivities. Some filmmakers already have run into problems with #MeToo and N-word issues.
This all comes as many industry jobs are in jeopardy as Disney implements its acquisition of Fox. It's the dawn of a new corporate giant, but also the demise of many Hollywood positions.
Listen to our… Read
For the third year in a row, New York-based distributor A24 led at the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations counting a total 12 noms versus last year’s 17. A24’s nom count this year doubled up on Amazon Studios, Netflix and The Orchard which all tied for six. Annapurna Pictures followed with five noms: Three for Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk(best feature, director, and supporting female Regina King and two for their Boots Riley Sundance pick-up Sorr…Read
As a producer-actor, giving carte blanche to an auteur can be a dangerous thing, as John C. Reilly found when he and his wife Alison Dickey began shopping their passion project, and Reilly's first producorial feature outing—an adaptation of Patrick DeWitt's 2012 novel The Sisters Brothers—to some of the world's most respected directors. Luckily, after bracing himself to give up on his dream of playing Eli Sisters, one of the film's two leads, Reilly found himself back on… Read
Reality TV is getting it’s own awards show, for real. The Broadcast Television Journalists Association and NPACT, the trade organization serving producers of nonfiction entertainment content, will spin off the “reality show” category of the Critics’ Choice Awards into its own standalone show, the groups announced today.
The inaugural Critics’ Choice Real TV Awards are set for Sunday, June 2, 2019 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Bob Bain and Joey Berlin will… Read
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