The New York Film Critics Circle has named The Brutalist as its pick for the best film of 2024.

Adrien Brody, who stars in the Brady Corbet-directed film, also won best actor for his performance as a Hungarian Jewish architect who immigrates to the U.S. after World War II to build a new life.

Nickel Boys also won two awards, for best director (RaMell Ross) and cinematography (Jomo Fray).

Best actress went to Hard Truths‘ Marianne Jean-Baptiste, while A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin was named best supporting actor and Between the Temples‘ Carol Kane won best supporting actress.

Sean Baker won best screenplay for Anora, while best animated film went to the animal-centric Flow.

All We Imagine as Light was named best international film, and No Other Land was named best nonfiction film. Best first film went to Janet Planet.

Last year, the NYFCC selected Killers of the Flower Moon...

Disney’s “Moana 2” dominated the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £12 million ($15.2 million) debut, according to numbers from Comscore, marking a strong start for the animated sequel.

The film led a robust weekend that saw Universal’s “Wicked” holding strong in its second frame with £8.3 million, bringing its cumulative total to £28.5 million.

Paramount’s “Gladiator II” continued to perform in its third week, adding £2.5 million for a total of £23.5 million. Studiocanal’s “Paddington In Peru” demonstrated staying power in its fourth week, collecting £1.8 million and pushing its total to £27.3 million.

Black Bear’s new entry “Conclave” opened with £1.1 million, while Warner Bros.’ “Red One” rounded out its fourth week with £425,853, bringing its cume to £6.6 million.

BFI Distribution’s “All We Imagine As Light” debuted with £111,033, while Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Heretic” added £96,583 in its fifth week for a £5.7 million total. Park Circus’s 20th Anniversary 4K restoration of...

Robert Pattinson might be hanging up his hat after being the Caped Crusader.

The actor/producer told The New York Times Style magazine that Matt Reeves’ planned trilogy for “The Batman” might bookend his decades-spanning career. “The Batman” was released in 2022, with its sequel expected in theaters in late 2026. Reeves’ iteration of the comic book superhero also has expanded into Max series “The Penguin.”

“I could genuinely be retiring by the end of them,” Pattinson said of the state of his career after three Reeves films, adding of acting as a whole, “Not in a million years did I think I’d still be doing this when I got my first job. I can’t believe this is still going.”

Pattinson, whose breakout turn at age 17 in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005) led to his five viral “Twilight” films, explained that acting is all about balance.

“The main...

Indonesian film industry leaders outlined frameworks for effective brand partnerships during a panel at the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival’s Jaff Market, pointing to the sector’s development as a commercial platform.

Veteran producer Mira Lesmana emphasized a comprehensive approach to brand integration. “Brand activations can [easily] be built into the film’s ecosystem,” said Lesmana. “Be it on the social media assets, product placement, logo placements; brand engagement is meant to tie in with the film’s personality.”

Visinema Pictures chief Angga Dwimas Sasongko advised brands to consider the full scope of film production opportunities. “Film can be a marketing solution for the change of behavior of sales,” said Sasongko. “There’s pre and post production, then there’s also marketing and activations.”

Bank Central Asia’s vice president and head of digital marketing, Rendy Alimudin, stressed the long-term value proposition. “When collaborating with a film production, brands should look...

Documentary “Sampai Mati” (Until Death), which explores the aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings through the perspectives of Australian survivors and Balinese locals, is being presented at the inaugural Jaff Market in Yogyakarta.

The project, helmed by Australian director Ben Golotta and produced by Morgan Wright, brings a personal connection to the tragic events, as Golotta lost his cousin Angela in the attacks that claimed 202 lives.

“The story of the Bali Bombings is an incredibly significant part of my family’s past,” says Golotta. “This film will attempt to unravel the complex tapestry of emotions, memories and transformations that have shaped Bali and Australia in the aftermath of the 2002 tragedy.” The director aims to create a memorial to his cousin Angela and the other victims while ensuring the next generation understands the tragedy’s impact on both nations.

The documentary, currently in early development at Repeater Productions (Australia), pairs Golotta with...

Film distribution strategies are changing with the times, according to panelists at Indonesia’s inaugural Jaff Market, with experts presenting contrasting approaches to reaching audiences.

Alternativa Film Projects, which launched in September 2023, approaches distribution through community screenings and discussions. “Film is a good starting point for change,” said Masha Shcherbakova, impact and community manager of the international non-profit organization. Their goal is to provide international recognition for filmmakers whose work can inspire social change.

“Sometimes the impact [they choose to take] after would be the reason they decide to watch a film,” Shcherbakova said, emphasizing community power in developing local film industries. She noted that viewers often find personal connections with films they watch, adding “There’s always still time […] to make the issues relevant.”

However, John Badalu, programming team member at Busan International Film Festival and producer of “Ave Maryam” and “What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love,” presented...

Indonesian production “The Light of Fire” (Tinju Api), a coming-of-age action drama from director-writer Sesarini, is being presented at the inaugural Jaff Market, running alongside the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival.

The project, produced by Lyza Anggraheni and Ismail Basbeth under their banner Ruang Basbeth Bercerita, follows 17-year-old Yuda, whose father is killed in an underground boxing match. The story tracks his journey into illegal boxing as he seeks vengeance, ultimately discovering that healing comes not through revenge but through embracing his father’s legacy.

The film has already gained attention on the development circuit, securing second place at the 2023 Indonesiana script lab program after being selected for the Producer Lab at Jakarta Film Week 2022.

“The story takes place in Malang,” says producer Anggraheni. “As Sesarini’s father is originally from Malang, she wanted to utilize this opportunity to connect with her father’s hometown.”

Sesarini’s personal connection to the material extends beyond location.

Former table tennis champion turned match-fixer finds redemption through the sport in family drama from emerging filmmaker Najam Yardo, being presented at the inaugural Jaff Market.

The project, produced by Hannan Cinthya under the Kreasi Angkasa Semesta – Arungi Films banner, follows 50-year-old Emma, who faces mounting medical bills for her son’s lymph node tuberculosis treatment while caring for her Alzheimer’s-afflicted father. After pawning her father’s house and turning to illegal gambling matches, Emma finds herself serving jail time, only to receive a shot at redemption through an official table tennis tournament.

For Yardo, the story stems from personal experience. “This story reflects my memories and journey in understanding and reconciling with my mother,” says the director. “It portrays a mother who must take on multiple roles in her life and a family surviving in unconventional ways.”

Producer Cinthya connected with the material through her own background. “When...

There’s no shortage of movies to stream on Netflix. Any subscriber that logs onto the platform these days will likely see a bunch of new releases, gruesome horror films, and sweet rom-coms. But with so many big, flashy studio films and Netflix originals to choose from, it can be difficult for the indie films that flood the streamer to stand out.

For sure, a place in Netflix’s library can be a great opportunity for independent cinema to find an audience it otherwise wouldn’t reach in theaters or on television. But for all the big starry auteur films that Netflix picks up and turns into major awards contenders (see “Marriage Story” or “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”), there’s an under-the-radar, overlooked pick that doesn’t have the names or prestige attached to it, and feels destined to serve as mere library filler as people look for the films they do know.

A new documentary project, “Me, My Mother’s Favorite Monkey”, helmed by director Ivonne Kani, examines Chinese-Indonesian identity through the lens of intergenerational family dynamics at the inaugural Jaff Market in Yogyakarta.

The film follows Kani’s year-long journey exploring her cultural heritage through traditional Chinese rituals including Chinese New Year, Tomb Sweeping Day (Qing Ming), and the Winter Solstice Festival (Dongzhi). Drawing parallels to the Monkey King from “Journey to the West,” Kani documents her relationship with her mother while addressing the complexities of being ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.

“Through this film, I aim to confront the tension between my personal choices and my family’s cultural expectations,” says Kani, who positions herself both behind and in front of the camera wearing a golden headpiece inspired by Sun Wukong (the Monkey King). Her journey is particularly influenced by observing her mother’s experience with menopause, prompting reflections on societal expectations for women.

Apparently, "Harry Potter" media will continue no matter what, despite nearly two decades of the franchise's dominance over pop culture and the fantasy/adventure genres in particular. If a new "Potter" TV series must be made, as corporate interests deem it so, then the least that can happen is that some talented, creative people can try to elevate the material and make it their own.

That's just what seems to be happening with the news that actor Paapa Essiedu is in talks to portray Severus Snape in HBO's re-adaptation of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" saga. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ink is not yet dry on Essiedu's deal, with the trade publication stating that "Sources say the actor has been offered the part although it is not clear if negotiations have begun in earnest." This tracks, given that no actors have officially signed on to the series yet,...

Singapore’s Silver Media Group is teaming with U.S. companies Ford Studios and Ark Entertainment on “Samurai Saint,” an animated feature chronicling the true story of Takayama Ukon, a 16th-century samurai who chose exile over renouncing his Christian faith.

The project was unveiled on the sidelines of the inaugural Jaff Market that takes place alongside the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff) in Yogyakarta (Jogja) from Dec. 3-5.

The feature, set during Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku period, follows Ukon’s rise through feudal Japan’s military ranks and his eventual exile alongside 350 other Christians after refusing to abandon his faith under pressure from the Imperial Regent. Beatified by the Catholic Church in 2017, Ukon’s story bridges historical drama with spiritual journey.

“I first learnt about Ukon’s story early this year, and it thoroughly captivated me,” said Chan Gin Kai, CEO of Silver Media Group. “‘Samurai Saint’ is more than...

[Editor’s note: This guide was published in fall 2021 and has been updated multiple times since.]

As Netflix’s library of films ebbs and flows, finding the right movie to watch can feel like bailing out an ocean with a spoon. And if you’re looking for a quality horror movie in particular, the search only gets harder. With the reality that Horror is one of the cheapest genres to produce, streamers like Netflix are cluttered with a veritable tsunami of bloody titles that sometimes seem indistinguishable from one another. Curating the 25 scariest movies on Netflix is then quite a process of selection and reduction.

If you’re looking for a good horror movie to watch on Netflix that will truly scare you, picking a final selection can prove a more daunting task than sitting through yet another “Haunting of Hill House” rewatch; with or without its beloved “Bly Manor” chaser. But while the streamer’s priorities seem to shift as quickly as its content selection grows,...

Make no mistake about it, “Moana 2” is a hit.

The Disney sequel set a Thanksgiving box office record with $225 million over the five-day holiday frame. While audiences have flocked to movie theaters, fans haven’t been so kind to the film’s music and its songwriters. The main criticism is that the songs don’t have that Disney hook, with some even saying it needed better songs. Or that the songs just don’t live up to those composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda for the 2016 original.

Songwriter Abigail Barlow responds with a smile, “Give it a month, all the kids will be singing it, and you’ll be tired of it.”

Barlow is one half of Barlow and Bear (Emily Bear), the songwriting team behind the new songs featured in Disney’s “Moana 2.”

Bear chimes in, “I would say that everyone has an opinion.” She adds, “Writing a sequel is really difficult because obviously,...

Indonesia’s Base Entertainment and Netherlands-based New Amsterdam have partnered on two projects, the companies revealed at the inaugural Jaff Market that takes place alongside the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff) in Yogyakarta (Jogja) from Dec. 3-5.

The collaboration includes “Hemelrijk,” a limited series from writer-director Jim Taihuttu, who previously worked with both companies on “De Oost” (“The East”). The second project is a feature adaptation of Indonesian author Leila Chudori’s novel “Pulang” (Home).

Production on “Hemelrijk” is set to begin in late 2025, while development on “Pulang” will start in early 2025.

The announcement came during a Jaff Market session focused on the recently signed co-production treaty between Indonesia and The Netherlands.

“We are thrilled to collaborate again with Jim Taihuttu on the series ‘Hemelrijk,’ which he has written and will direct, and with New Amsterdam on these two projects, including the adaptation of Leila Chudori’s novel ‘Pulang (Home...

The newly signed co-production treaty between the Netherlands and Indonesia aims to strengthen bilateral film collaboration, providing filmmakers from both countries access to national funding schemes and production incentives, industry leaders revealed at the inaugural Jaff Market in Jogja, Indonesia during a panel.

The inaugural Jaff Market takes place alongside the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff) in Yogyakarta from Dec. 3-5. The panel was moderated by producer Lorna Tee of An Original Picture Nl, who also serves as Jaff Market advisor.

Sandra den Hamer, CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund, highlighted that the treaty emerged from grassroots interest rather than top-down policy. “It comes from the filmmakers and producers. There’s a lot of interest to make films together, or to make films in Indonesia, to retell our history,” she said.

The treaty follows successful agreements the Netherlands has established with Canada, China, France, Germany, Norway and South Africa. With South Africa,...

Marvin Laird, the award-winning Broadway and film composer who also conducted concerts for big stars like Diana Ross and Bernadette Peters, died Monday in Connecticut from natural causes. He was 85.

Laird participated in various hits on stage and the big screen. Among the most notable Broadway shows he conducted are “Annie,” “Get Your Gun,” “Gipsy” and “Follies.” His stage presence went beyond Broadway, conducting concerts for like Joel Grey, Cass Elliot, Dusty Springfield, and Goldie Hawn. He also composed the dance music for the ballet “Smile with My Heart” and the score for “Ruthless! The Musical” alongside Joel Paley who wrote the book and lyrics. Laird and Paley later went on to become partners in marriage.

As for film credits, Laird wrote the dance music for “Hello, Dolly!” starring Barbra Streisand, “New York, New York,” starring Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro, and Robert Altman’s “The Company.” He scored popular TV shows including,...

The last month of 2024 started with glitz and glam in London at The Fashion Awards, where Rihanna, Julia Fox and Nicola Coughlan were just some of the bold-faced names who stunned on the red carpet. Meanwhile, Jude Law and his “Skeleton Crew” co-stars launched the new “Star Wars” series at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. and Kerry Washington was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Check out the best celebrity party and red carpet photos from December 2024 below.

Keep coming back throughout the month for more.

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Netflix is building on its 2023 Series Pitch Lab success by conducting the Reel Life Film Camp in partnership with the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival (Jaff). The initiative, backed by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, marks an expansion into Indonesia following its earlier run in Thailand.

The program selected 75 participants from over 600 applicants across Indonesia for online training in various film industry roles, including production assistance, accounting, post-production, sound design, special effects, and acting. Among these, 24 participants advanced to in-person sessions in Yogyakarta from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 during Jaff, followed by networking opportunities at the Jaff Market’s Talent Day.

“The goal of Reel Life Film Camp is to drive the development of high-quality talent in the Indonesian film industry,” said Ruben Hattari, Netflix’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia. Top performers in production, accounting, and post-production assistance roles will gain work experience on Netflix Indonesia productions.

Program...

It can be tricky keeping track of which movies release each week, especially with the holiday season ushering in a tidal wave of awards films and four-quadrant blockbusters. With a few big titles still left for the year, check out what is coming to theaters in December.

After “Moana 2” made a splash over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of the biggest wide releases this week is “Y2K,” A24’s newest horror comedy. Kyle Mooney’s follow-up to “Unfrosted” takes place on New Year’s Eve in 1999 when two high school students crash a party and find technology coming to life. The cast includes Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, Daniel Zolghadri, Lachlan Watson and Fred Durst.

There are also plenty of independent films to finally catch after their fall festivals runs, including Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch.” Based on the book by Rachel Yoder, this dark comedy stars Amy Adams...

Mike Myers recently joined Vulture for a career-spanning interview in which he hilariously recounted how he was first pitched “Shrek” immediately after walking out of the the world premiere screening of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” But that didn’t stop DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg from pitching him the chance to voice a a big green ogre.

“I went to the premiere of ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ and Jeffrey Katzenberg comes up to me afterward in the lobby and brings his daughters, who then do the dance sequence from ‘Austin Powers,'” Myers said. “This was after such a heavy movie, and I was in tears because my parents were in World War II. I was shell-shocked and then they’re doing the dance, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great. Read a room!'”

Katzenberg asked Myers if he would ever consider doing an animated movie, to which Myers said,...

The classic sitcom series "M*A*S*H" had a pretty expansive cast of characters as it followed the servicemembers assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and the main crew had some major changes over the years. In fact, only Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda) appeared in every episode. Both Wayne Rogers, who played Hawkeye's roommate and Bff Trapper John, and McLean Stevenson, who played camp commander Colonel Henry Blake, left the series after the third season in large part because they felt like they were playing second fiddle to Alda, and that meant replacing their characters in some way. Both Trapper and Col. Blake were sent home by the army, and that meant the 4077th needed two new surgeons.

Enter Captain B.J. Hunnicutt, a good-natured Californian wife guy who becomes Hawkeye's new roommate and soon his soulmate new best friend, played by Mike Farrell. It had to be...

Starting today, Max subscribers can watch HBO on Max. Ok, so they pretty much always could, but this is a bit different.

Max began to roll out “Channels” in the U.S. on Wednesday. The new in-app feature allows subscribers to “stream a live feed of HBO programming directly from the Max app through simulcasts,” in the words of the press release. In other words, it means you can randomly catch the final 20 minutes of a “Game of Thrones” re-run on a Saturday morning — just like the pre-streaming days. Pre-Channels, Max was strictly an on-demand streaming platform.

Channels is not exactly a novel concept — and not just because it is literally the old way of programming television. Warner Bros. Discovery already offers a number of Fast channels outside of Max, and Disney+ is adding its own live, curated channels.

Channels can serve as a way to put the “HBO” back...

The Animation Guild has unveiled the full terms of its new contract with the major studios, along with a candid explanation as to why it could not do more to protect against artificial intelligence.

The union, which represents about 5,000 animators, technicians and writers, reached a tentative agreement on Nov. 23, after three months of bargaining. The deal includes certain guardrails around AI, but does not allow animators to opt out of using it if their job requires it, nor can they prevent their work from being used to “train” AI models.

After the memorandum of agreement was published Tuesday night, some members expressed discontent with the deal. Shion Takeuchi, creator of the Netflix show “Inside Job,” argued there are “no substantive protections” against AI.

“In this Moa there is nothing to stop the studios from gutting the staff,” she said via text. “We are chattel to them.”

The agreement also does...

Anyone who watched the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight would be forgiven for questioning whether Netflix is equipped to broadcast live combat sports without technical glitches. But on Monday, January 6, the streaming service will broadcast another fight-filled evening that’s even more important to its future in the live entertainment space. And then it will do it again every Monday for the next 10 years.

When “Monday Night Raw,” WWE’s flagship wrestling program and America’s longest-running weekly episodic TV show, streams live from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, Netflix’s $10 billion partnership with WWE will officially be underway. Interest in the broadcast is likely to be high, and the prospect of more technical difficulties loomed over a private kick-off event hosted by the two companies in Los Angeles on Tuesday. But while Netflix and WWE executives acknowledged that the service is still working out the kinks of live broadcasting,...

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In Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” many of the most formative moments are wordless. Although expat William Lee (Daniel Craig) is more free in Mexico City to drink around the clock, shoot heroin and indulge in his gay desires than in America, there still remains a secretive slyness required in expressing his queerness — even in the slovenly cantinas south of the border.

Thus, much of the communication throughout the film falls largely on the clothes. Achieving this subtlety is “sometimes the hardest thing to do in film,” says Jonathan Anderson, the British-Irish fashion designer who oversaw the costume design on “Queer” and last collaborated with Guadagnino on”Challengers.” He turned to the Silent Film Era to help him master this wordless communication. “You have to be able to read character...

Over 50 years ago, Sidney Lumet released "Serpico," a powerful indictment of NYPD police corruption that was based on a true story. Decades later, New York's "boys in blue" are still being consistently called out for corruption, but at the time of the film's release in 1973, "Serpico" felt like it might just cause a sea change in the way America — or at least Hollywood — saw its law enforcement systems. "Sidney Lumet's 'Serpico,' the first in what threatens to be an avalanche of movies about policemen, picks up the old cop film and brings it with lights flashing and sirens blaring into the middle of the Watergate era," Vincent Canby wrote in his original review for the New York Times.

"Serpico" may not have ended up changing the world, but the movie based on the book of the same name by Peter Maas was a box office and critical hit,...

Robert Pattinson is well known for messing around with the press and telling lies in his interviews, but even he was caught off guard recently while rewatching a television interview from 2011. That was the year “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1” opened in theaters, meaning Pattinson was on a particularly grueling global publicity tour. He lied during the interview by saying he saw a clown die in a little-car explosion when he was a child.

“There was absolutely no hesitation at all [in my voice],” Pattinson told The New York Times Style Magazine. “I’m like, ‘What on earth? Are you possessed?’”

The actor explained that he often made up stories in press interviews during this time in his career because “the only thing people would ever ask me about was being famous” and “you go into, like, a fugue state.” Other lies Pattinson told in interviews include being a women’s hand model,...

Robert Pattinson isn’t shying away from detailing just how different of an experience it was to work with director Bong Joon Ho.

Pattinson, who leads Bong’s oft-delayed “Mickey 17,” told The New York Times Style magazine that the filmmaker has a unique directing process. “Mickey 17” is Bong’s first film since his history-making Best Picture winner “Parasite,” which was released in 2019.

“He’s an unusual guy,” Pattinson said. For instance, Pattinson described to the Times that Bong would shoot the last line to a scene and then make script changes on the fly.

“Everyone on set was like, ‘What is happening?’” Pattinson said. “The movies you like most are the ones that feel so impossible at the beginning. It’s such a leap of faith — just sticking the landing is cool.”

To play Mickey, one of numerous “expendables” who are created just to perform dangerous jobs where...

Sky Ferreira is having her comeback, releasing her first new song in three years, “Leash,” for Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl.” Speaking to IndieWire, the 32-year-old pop star and actress reflected on her work with David Lynch. Ferreira cameo’d in the 2017 “Twin Peaks: The Return” revival as Ella — a woman with a terrible rash at the Roadhouse bar — and even covered “Blue Velvet” for him.

“There’s a lot of surprises, because you never know what you’re doing,” Ferreira told IndieWire. “It was funny, because you get the script maybe the day before. Like, I knew that I was doing ‘Twin Peaks,’ but I didn’t know what I was going to do. Literally the day before when I read it, I really didn’t know what I was going to do.

“But when I was doing it, it suddenly made sense when he [David Lynch] was directing me,” she said.

If you haven’t yet seen “Flow,” Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’ wordless, instant-classic animated film about a group of animals dealing with a world-changing flood, you haven’t seen the best animated film of the year — and one of the best movies of 2024, full-stop. This is a movie that transcends all language and cultural barriers in a uniquely universal way.

And now, in an exclusive video from distributors Sideshow and Janus available only on IndieWire, Zilbalodis talks through his vision and how it came to be, from the lush CGI virtual environments he created on his computer-created film sets to his “casting” process for the animals. Watch the video above.

“I just create these sets in 3D and take a virtual camera,” Zilbalodis said. “And almost like a live-action location scout, I discover ideas and I can place the camera while still adjusting the set. I do that instead of drawing storyboards.

The upcoming "The Hunt for Gollum" movie from Warner Bros. has been stirring up interest and intrigue from the moment it was announced earlier this year. Overall, the reaction has been positive, and there has been a general buzz as news leaked that the movie will be directed by Andy Serkis and have Peter Jackson and other Middle-earth alumni on board. British national treasure Ian McKellen also revealed that he had been approached to reprise his role as Gandalf, and John Rhy-Davies even expressed interest in a return (sans makeup).

Despite all of these fun developments, the most recent bit of news regarding potential casting takes the cake. The powers that be are talking with the man himself, Viggo Mortensen, to return as Aragorn. In an interview with The Playlist, writer Philippa Boyens said that she, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh (collectively referred to as the "brain trust" of the...

Timothée Chalamet just got Bob Dylan’s public stamp of approval for his turn as the crooner.

Chalamet portrays Dylan in upcoming biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Dylan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Chalamet is “completely believable” as a younger version of himself.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called ‘A Complete Unknown’ (what a title!),” Dylan wrote. “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

Dylan continued, “The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s ‘Dylan Goes Electric’ – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie, read the book.”

“A Complete Unknown” is directed by James Mangold,...

“There is nothing she can’t do,” said one veteran awards campaigner, praying that Amy Adams’ fearless performance in Marielle Heller’s adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel “Nightbitch” would not nab a Best Actress Oscar slot. Adams has lost at the Oscars six times now, from “Junebug” (2006) to “Vice” (2019), and many consider her long overdue. But it’s a fierce field of contenders this year, including Oscar-winners Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”) and Angelina Jolie (“Maria”), Oscar nominees Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Hard Truths”), never-nominated Demi Moore (“The Substance”), and newcomers Karla Sofia Gascón (“Emilia Pérez”) and Mikey Madison (“Anora”).

Never underestimate the actors-branch voters’ admiration for Adams, however, who walks a tightrope in “Nightbitch,” which debuted to mixed reaction at the Toronto International Film Festival but raves for her performance as an artist turned lonely suburban mother who is forced to find her feral self in order to reclaim her identity.

What a difference a decade makes. It’s been nearly 10 years since Brazil produced the dystopian “3%,” its first series for Netflix. Since then, the country has launched an average of two shows a month on the platform, said Elisabetta Zenatti, VP of content for Netflix in Brazil, who announced last year that the streaming giant was investing $165 million (1 billion Reales) in Brazilian productions thru 2023 and 2024.

On Nov. 29, Netflix’s most ambitious and expensive Brazilian series, “Senna,” launched worldwide. According to the Associated Press, the streamer spent over $170 million on production. Currently ranking number two in Brazil and number six globally in its first week, it’s likely to sit high in Netflix’s Top Ten charts in Brazil and other territories, given the fervent interest in motorsports around the world.

“Senna” chronicles the triumphs, setbacks and personal journey of Brazil’s three-time Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna, from his...

Have you seen "The Holiday?" If you are my wife, the answer to this question is, "Yes, probably about 423 times." I have seen "The Holiday" almost as much, simply as a result of living with a woman who turns this Christmas movie on whenever it gets a bit chilly outside. In that sense, the film is absolutely deserving of its spot on /Film's list of the most rewatchable Christmas movies, even while it manages to send a tinge of despair throughout my body as soon as I hear the opening credits.

But it turns out I am not the only long suffering husband to have been trapped in an endless time loop wherein Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz are seemingly doomed to swap lives and fall in love for eternity. "The Holiday" is currently dominating the Prime Video charts, as wives across the world plunge their husbands into this festive nightmare scape.

Even Philip Seymour Hoffman recognized how “hard” Mike Nichols was on Marcia Gay Harden during the famed “The Seagull” Broadway production in 2001.

More than 20 years later, Harden recalled during Sony Music Entertainment’s “Dinner’s On Me” podcast, hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, how director Nichols treated her like the “guinea pig” during the star-studded play. Years later, Nichols apologized to Harden for how he treated her — but only after Hoffman’s urging.

“I had won an Oscar for ‘Pollock’ and I got an offer, not even an audition, to play [character] Masha in ‘The Seagull’ in Central Park,” Harden said. “The cast of names was bonkers: It was Chris[topher] Walken, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stephen Spinella, Larry Pine, Deborah Monk, John Goodman. So of course I’m going to do it.”

Harden continued that she hoped Nichols would find her to be “the new Meryl Streep,...

For the first time, Bob Dylan has publicly acknowledged the upcoming biopic about his early years in New York, “A Complete Unknown,” which stars Timothée Chalamet as the young folk music legend.

“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!). Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me,” Dylan wrote on X, a platform on which he has recently become active.

He continued, “The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book.”

Dylan’s social media post implies that he has...

Is nature healing on television? The age of the #TooMuch Content streaming glut is mostly over, or at least normalized (normalizing?). The overcorrection made by most companies during the pandemic has thankfully retracted, and while TV is still fairly busy, the recession of volume is good for audience, critics, and especially creators who sometimes put their hearts and souls into a series that totally is overlooked because it was released in too crowded of a season (which often happens).

Continue reading The 75 Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2025 at The Playlist.

What’s going on with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise? That’s a big question in Hollywood. Is Disney moving ahead with a spinoff film said to star Margot Robbie? Or is the studio going to go with a more traditional sequel and maybe bring back Johnny Depp? As of now, no one knows. But producer Jerry Bruckheimer is planning for whatever outcome anyway.

Continue reading Jerry Bruckheimer Developing A ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ Script With Johnny Depp & One Without The Actor at The Playlist.

On Monday, the Gotham Awards shocked many by selecting “A Different Man” for its top prize. On Tuesday, the New York Film Critics Circle voted Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” as its Best Film of 2024. Thursday was the National Board of Review’s turn, and the mysterious group of “film enthusiasts, filmmakers, professionals, academics and students” have championed “Wicked” as Best Film.

Read More: Sign Up for Gregory Ellwood’s new twice-a-week newsletter The Breakdown and get Oscar predictions before they post online.

Continue reading ‘Wicked’ Wins Best Picture From National Board Of Review at The Playlist.

Today marks the 70th birthday of actor Tony Todd, who died on Nov. 8. A genre staple whose hundreds of credits included “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Platoon” and the “Final Destination” series, Todd was best known for his performance in writer-director Bernard Rose’s 1992 horror film “Candyman,” which he led as the eponymous hook-wielding ghost. Here, Todd is remembered by his co-star, Virginia Madsen, who recounts meeting the actor for the first time, their yearslong friendship and how they made the decision to return for director Nia DaCosta’s franchise revival in 2021.

My husband Nick worked with Tony on a movie in 2008 and I recently asked him what he remembered about Tony. He said Tony was so kind and generous, which is something you always hear about him. And one day he went up to Nick and said, “This is your first movie, isn’t it?” And Nick said, “Yes,...

Over the past 50-plus years, film historian Joseph McBride has been one of the great chroniclers and analyzers of American directors. His 1972 volume on Orson Welles was one of the first essential works on that great filmmaker, and in the years since, he has published the definitive biographies of John Ford, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, and Steven Spielberg — along with a couple more terrific books on Welles and one of the best tomes on screenwriting (“Writing in Pictures”) ever written.

McBride has always been expert at finding the intersection between biography and personal expression, as rigorous in his research as he is insightful in his visual and literary analysis. Now, he has turned his keen eye toward director George Cukor, and the result, “George Cukor’s People: Acting for a Master Director,” is one of McBride’s most innovative works to date and indispensable for anyone interested not...

While the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie franchise has given fans some pretty great examples of swashbuckling tentpole fantasy adventures, the property has also been yielding diminishing returns both critically and commercially for years. Perhaps because of this, rumors of Disney trying to once again recapture the lightning in the rum bottle are swirling once more.

According to Variety, the House of Mouse is eyeing none other than Johnny Depp for one more swaying stroll in Captain Jack Sparrow's boots. Depp is far from a lock at the moment, though. Disney dropped the actor like a hot potato in 2018, in the wake of Amber Heard's domestic abuse allegations. However, the ensuing defamation trial ended in Depp's victory in 2022, which may have made him more presentable in Disney's eyes ... though not necessarily vice versa.

As it stands, it appears that the future of the "Pirates" franchise is at a Depp-themed crossroads.

Spoilers for "Superman & Lois" to follow.

With the end of "Superman & Lois," the last remnant of the old Arrowverse has been swept away, leaving The CW's multi-series TV franchise now just a notable blip in the long history of scripted television. To be fair, the Arrowverse officially came to a close with the series finale of "The Flash" back in 2023, due to some multiverse shenanigans. But parallel universes and time travel didn't stop shows from being connected under the franchise banner before, so for all intents and purposes, this is the real, final end, and it brings a surprisingly tender sendoff for one of the show's main villains -- Doomsday.

If you watch the show and know much about the Superman comics, you'll know that this particular version of the deadly beast is a good deal different from past incarnations. That's because "Superman & Lois" did something no previous...

Universal Pictures’ blockbuster musical “Wicked” has been named best picture by the National Board of Review, the organization announced on Wednesday, in addition to taking home the directing prize for Jon M. Chu and a special award for the collaboration of stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

Over the last 40 years, most of the winners of NBR’s best film has gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for best picture, with the exception of films like 1998’s “Gods and Monsters,” 2000’s “Quills” and 2014’s “A Most Violent Year.” In the 1980s, there were technically two misses with 1987’s “Empire of the Sun” and 1983’s “Betrayal,” the latter of which won in a tie with “Terms of Endearment.” So far this decade, Spike Lee’s war drama “Da 5 Bloods” (2020) is the only film to fail to achieve Oscar recognition. Notably, since the Academy expanded the best picture lineup from...

Is a new administration potentially about to roll back LGBTQ+ rights? Are we having flashbacks to 2017? We might be. And when that horror began, there was one show that none other than John Oliver admitted got him through that election, “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” And judging by the string of Emmy wins that began that year, he wasn’t the only one. Much has changed on the reality competition show in the eight years since, but the Paramount and, now, MTV staple is ready to once again be a much-needed distraction to those who need it.

Continue reading ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17 Cast Ruvealed And Emmy Winner Is Needed More Than Ever at The Playlist.

Ben Stiller knows that “Severance” Season 2 has taken much longer than fans hoped. Turns out, production began way back in 2022, but the world of Innies and Outies was put on pause due to a series of external factors.

Stiller, who directs five episodes of the second season and serves as an executive producer, told Vanity Fair that a majority of the season was completed before the strikes in 2023. Now, “Severance” Season 2 premieres January 17, 2025.

“It took a while to write Season 2,” Stiller said. “Then we started to shoot in October of 2022, and we got shut down by the strike in May [2023]. At that point, we had completed about seven of our 10 episodes, and then we had to regroup after the strike.”

Stiller continued, “It takes us a while to prep the show. And so, we didn’t start shooting until January [2024]. Then we shot from January to May to finish the last three episodes.

The National Board of Review has unveiled its 2024 awards winners list. The announcement comes amid the churn of a busy awards week — the New York Film Critics Circle shared their picks on Tuesday, while the Film Independent Spirit Awards rolled out its nominees Wednesday. The AFI Awards list of the 10 best films of the year also unveils Thursday. The Gotham Awards, meanwhile, took place Monday in New York, crowning “A Different Man” the best independent feature of the year.

The National Board of Review awards gala will take place on Tuesday, January 7, 2025 in New York. The splashy musical “Wicked” was the big winner, taking prizes for Best Film and Best Director for Jon M. Chu. On the acting side, Daniel Craig (“Queer”), Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”), Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”), and Elle Fanning (“A Complete Unknown”) took acting honors. The event will be hosted by MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-anchor Willie Geist.

Caroline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young factory worker living in abject poverty, serves as our window into the perilous post-war landscape of Copenhagen circa 1919 in The Girl with the Needle. Her dire situation is compounded by her social position as a working class woman, particularly since her husband, Peter (Besir Zeciri), has been out of the picture since he signed up to fight in the Great War (despite the country’s broader policy of neutrality). After she becomes pregnant by her wealthy boss, Jorgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), Caroline anticipates a new life of abundance and relative privilege. Of course, this inter-caste […]

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