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Regional Mexican music superstar Alejandro Fernández beamed into the Latin Grammy Awards Thursday via virtual performance from Guadalajara. Rising Mexican acts Christian Nodal and band Calibre 50 joined the singer.

Fernández and Calibre 50 first performed a rousing rendition of their hit “Decepciones” backed by a full mariachi band. The camera then panned away to Nodal, who was on his own modest stage to sing the stinging cut “Ayayay!” The 21-year-old singer then joined the elder statesman Fernández for their duet “Más No Puedo” before capping off their proudly Mexican performance with the hearty grito: “Viva México!

With his latest feature Genus Pan, the king of slow cinema Lav Diaz proves that even his fleet-footed efforts can be an unrelenting experience. Clocking in at a smooth 157 minutes, this blistering allegory takes place almost entirely on the ghostly terrain of Hugaw Island. The poverty-stricken Filipino enclave is populated with superstitious citizens who often confront the misery and unfairness of modern life by embracing legends and mythologies of old.

A purposefully bleak exploration of moral rot, Genus Pan‘s stark black-and-white photography amplifies the contrasting shades between shifting natural light and our own self-destructive impulses. It feels stylistically connected to some of Diaz’s recent epics Norte, the End of History and The Woman Who Left specifically, but is far angrier in tone, presenting in potent detail the small acts of jealousy and greed that eventually lead to violence.

Much of the film’s scathing historical subtext gets referenced...

No one has ever mistaken Elijah Wood for a tough beefcake. Standing just 5’6’’ and probably weighing little more than a wet blanket, the veteran performer has made quite the career out of playing fragile, shy, broken, or insecure young men, then turning those expectations upside down to dizzying effect. Even at 39 years of age he still looks the part of an awkward teenager trying to carve out a safe space in an unwelcome world.

Believe it or not, Wood has now entered his fifth decade of working as a professional actor. Throughout that time he’s evolved from wide-eyed child star to wide-eyed savior (Lord of the Rings trilogy) to wide-eyed psychopath (Maniac) with many variations of the like in between.

Ant Timpson’s Come to Daddy seems to understand these chameleon-like tendencies exist but doesn’t always know what to do with them. In the opening sequence of this nasty thriller,...

Sf Studios International will close this week.

Leading Nordic independent studio Sf Studios has expanded its sales deal with Rikke Ennis’ REinvent Studios, to also include Sf’s new Nordic feature films and its huge library of more than 1,000 films.

For the past year, REinvent had handled Sf’s Nordic TV series.

The exclusive, multi-year deal means that Sf will this week shut down its in-house sales department, Sf Studios International, which had included a team of four people led by head of international sales Anita Simovic.

“This is a new approach for how we conduct international sales going forward,...

Exclusive: Children’s entertainment studio Splash Entertainment has promoted Pete Young to Director of Development.

In his new role, Young will oversee the company’s growing development slate which includes Woody Woodpecker, a reimagining of the classic cartoon, as well as R. L. Stine’s The Little Shop of Monsters and Rotten School, inspired by the author’s award-winning book series. In addition, he is guiding the development of upcoming animated series, including NitWitz and The Legend of Hairy Butter and The Tremendous Tales of Talking Trash, Liberandum 7, and Ballerz Bunch along with feature film Littlest Robot. Young will report to Co-CEOs Mike Young and Steven Rosen.

“Pete is a true creative force and we’re very excited he will be expanding his position at Splash and helping to set the stage for the company’s continued success for years to come,” said Rosen. “He’s very much in-tune with...

Oscar winners Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Renée Zellweger all earned additional Oscar nominations this week to add to their growing list of accolades.

Theron, nominated for Bombshell, won a best actress Oscar for Monster and has since been nominated for North County. DiCaprio won his first Oscar for his lead role in The Revenant after four previous acting noms (and one producing) for The Wolf of Wall Street, Blood Diamond, The Aviator and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, making his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood nom for best actor his latest. Zellweger won her supporting actress Oscar for Cold Mountain, with two previous noms for Chicago and Bridget Jones'...

Oscar winners Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Renée Zellweger all earned additional Oscar nominations this week to add to their growing list of accolades.

Theron, nominated for Bombshell, won a best actress Oscar for Monster and has since been nominated for North County. DiCaprio won his first Oscar for his lead role in The Revenant after four previous acting noms (and one producing) for The Wolf of Wall Street, Blood Diamond, The Aviator and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, making his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood nom for best actor his latest. Zellweger won her supporting actress Oscar for Cold Mountain, with two previous noms for Chicago and Bridget Jones'...

Welcome to this week’s Nxt review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and I was helping this lady with the blinkers on her car. She asked me to check if they were working and I said “yes, no, yes, no, yes, no…”. My dad told me that tonight. Yeah, there you go. Any-way, let’s see if Nxt can manage to do a whole show without WWE promos. I have my doubts/it can’t.

Match #1: Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm and Candice LeRae def. Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair and Io Shirai The following is courtesy of wwe.com:

The piecemeal teams ultimately broke down in favor of Ripley, Storm and LeRae. The Evil Genius of the Sky and The Est of Nxt were unable to stay on the same page, and the Nxt Women’s Champion took advantage, taking Belair down with The Riptide for the victory.

“Hitchcock And Humor: Modes Of Comedy In Twelve Defining Films” by Wes D. Gehring

(McFarland; Isbn 978-1-4766-7356-1 print; 978-1-4766-3621-4 e-book; $39.95 retail)

“The Master Of Dark Comedy”

By Raymond Benson

Just about anything with film historian and media writer Wes D. Gehring’s name on it will be of quality. A professor of telecommunications at Ball State University in Indiana and author of the regular column “The Reel World” in USA Today magazine, Gehring has distinguished himself as an expert on comedy—especially as it has been utilized in the cinema.

Among Gehring’s several books that explore humor in film are tomes on Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Leo McCarey, Laurel and Hardy, Carole Lombard, W. C. Fields, and Frank Capra, as well as topical studies on dark comedy and screwball comedy.

Now comes Hitchcock and Humor, which evaluates the notion that the filmmaker who...

Writer-director Justin Kurzel and his Snowtown Murders and The True History Of The Kelly Gang writer collaborator Shaun Grant have boarded Fremantle’s series adaption of Richard Flanagan’s acclaimed novel The Narrow Road To The Deep North.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, set against the backdrop of the horrific Burma Railway in 1943 and across the Pacific during World War II, charts the cruelty of war, the tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love, as seen through the eyes of an Australian doctor and prisoner of war. Fremantle’s Director of Scripted Jo Porter will produce the limited series.

Fremantle, Asia Pacific, CEO, Chris Oliver-Taylor and Fremantle’s Director of Scripted, Jo Porter said, “Richard Flanagan’s novel has been hailed as a masterpiece around the world. It had an immensely powerful impact on readers in Australia and was a bestseller globally. We needed a screenwriter and...

In the decades since Danny Huston made his feature directing debut with “Mr. North,” his 1988 film adaptation of the Thornton Wilder novel “Theophilus North,” he has kept busy in front of the cameras as one of film and television’s most versatile and sophisticated character players. In just the past year, small-screen viewers have been treated to his essential work on “Yellowstone” and “Succession,” and big-screen aficionados have watched him move deftly from intimate Guillermo Arriaga’s “No One Left Behind” to the blockbuster hit “Angel Has Fallen.” Perhaps closest to his heart is the recently released film “The Last Photograph,” which he directed and stars in.

You have something from the film to show us.

Yes, it’s “The Last Photograph” of the title. It’s the center of the story because it represents something that means something significant to one person unlike its meaning for anyone else. We all have something like that,...

Shoring up artistic director Orwa Nyrabia’s commitment to showcasing more women’s stories and platforming more women’s voices, Idfa has announced that this year’s festival features the highest percentage of female filmmakers in the event’s 31-year history: 64% of competition titles and 47% of the total program.

“Reaching a fairer representation was much easier than it seemed to be,” noted Nyrabia. “We only had to keep our goal in mind. The outstanding films that found their way to us this year was a humble reminder that we are in the presence of exceptional female filmmakers.”

The festival opens with the world premiere of Mehrdad Oskouei’s “Sunless Shadows,” which depicts five young Iranian women complicit in the murders of abusive husbands, fathers, or brothers-in-law. Oskouei’s film competes in the Feature-Length Documentary Competition alongside Jørgen Leth’s “I Walk”; Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández’s “In a...

Marvel’s Avengers isn’t just going to star some of the most famous comic book characters of all time but voice actors, too. As far as video games are concerned, the likes of Nolan North and Troy Baker are top of the pile when it comes to considering the industry’s greatest. With hundreds of credits between the two of them – and many of those critically acclaimed, to boot – it’s hardly surprising that their talents were sought after to help bring Marvel’s Avengers to life.

With such a wide breadth of experience under their belts, both actors have been a party to some of the greatest games ever made, but even they were left floored by the sheer quality of Crystal Dynamics’ most ambitious project to date.

Speaking during a Q&a session at Manchester Comic-Con, North described an experience that many gamers will find all too...

Is Elijah Wood preparing for fatherhood?

The actor, 38, was photographed alongside his partner Mette-Marie Kongsved in Los Angeles on Monday shopping for furniture before visiting a Best Buy store.

Wood kept things casual in jeans, brown shoes and a button-down over a patterned white shirt.

Meanwhile Kongsved — a Danish movie producer — sported a noticeable baby bump under a burnt-orange-colored midi dress, as well as a ring on her left hand.

Usually private when it comes to his personal life, Wood — a former child actor who, aside from his role in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is known for films like North,...

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet almost had one of music’s biggest names starring alongside them in Titanic: Reba McEntire!

On Thursday’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the country crooner, 63, revealed that she was initially cast as the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown in James Cameron’s 1995 blockbuster, but had to turn down the memorable role due to scheduling conflicts.

“We were on tour and I had a lot of people on the payroll and we had these three months to do the movie. And then they got behind on scheduling and said, ‘No, we’re going to have...

Chicago – Before everything else happened, Jussie Smollett was an actor from the TV series “Empire” and portrayed Langston Hughes in the film “Marshall” … featuring Chadwick Boseman of “Black Panther” as young Thurgood Marshall. Smollett walked the Red Carpet for the film in 2017, at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival.

In this extraordinary Flashback interview, Jussie talks about “truth,” being a temporary child actor and connecting to Langston Hughes. Smollett was born in Santa Rosa, California, and began his career as a child actor, appearing in “The Mighty Ducks” (1992) and Rob Reiner’s notorious “North” (1994), and was in a TV series with his five siblings called “On Our Own” (1994-95).

Jussie Smollett in 2017, on the Red Carpet at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

He stopped acting to focus on music, but he was able to combine acting and his new...

Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas unveiled a thunderous, life-affirming new song, “One Less Day (Dying Young),” from his forthcoming solo record, Chip Tooth Smile, out April 26th.

“One Less Day” was produced by Butch Walker and boasts a steady gallop of drums and chugging guitars, over which Thomas delivers an impassioned vocal performance with lyrics like, “All my life I have been wandering/Burning up my candle like my time just won’t end/And I’ll keep burning until there’s nothing left/Praying that tomorrow I can do it all again.

“Empire” star Jussie Smollett has been hospitalized early Tuesday morning in Chicago after an assault by two men, Variety reports. Chicago Police are investigating the attack as a potential hate crime.

According to a statement released by the Chicago Police Department, Smollett was approached by two “unknown offenders, who “yelled racial and homophobic” slurs at the actor. The attackers then began to “batter the victim with their hands about the face and poured an unknown chemical substance on him.” Later, one of the assailants “wrapped a rope around the victim’s neck.”

Smollett is currently at Northwestern Hospital having checked himself in and is reportedly in good condition.

GLAAD, the world’s leading Lgbtq media organization, released a statement on the incident, saying, “GLAAD reached out to Fox and Jussie’s team today to offer assistance as well as support for him. Jussie is a true champion for Lgbtq people...

To many, he will always be Frodo Baggins, the brave little furry-footed hobbit who volunteers to bear the burden of carrying the dreaded One Ring as he leaves his bucolic existence behind while sacrificing himself to save Middle-earth in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

But Elijah Wood, who turns 38 on January 28, has had quite a varied career beyond the Shire ever since he made his film debut at 8-years-old with a small part as Video Game Boy #2 in 1989’s “Back to the Future Part II.” He would go on to land the coveted central role in the epic fantasy franchise based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s enduring classic when he was 18. But his early output on the big screen consisted of a string of so-so ‘90s titles such as “Radio Flyer,” “Paradise” and “Forever Young.” However, he often earned praise for his part in even mediocre projects.

SEEOscar Best Picture...

Lend your voice to an upcoming independent animated film, recording soon in Los Angeles. A Japanese filmmaker is currently seeking voice talent for “North,” an indie animated film about human rights in political prison camps. Young talent, aged 6–10, is sought for several supporting roles in which talent will be voicing the younger versions of lead characters. There is also the lead role of Insu available for a male actor, aged 18–27. No prior experience is necessary for any of the available roles. “North” will record between May 10–15, exact dates Tbd, in L.A. All actors will be paid $100 per day. Apply directly at Backstage here! Check out Backstage’s kids auditions!