Every year, former President Barack Obama drops his list of the best movies of the year, always showing a man of interesting taste and, at the very least, a prominent, globally renowned figure who puts a big spotlight on underseen movies.

READ MORE: The 21 Best Films Of 2023

This year, Obama divided his list into two parts: the top three best films of the year that his production company happened to produce and the rest. 

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Fave Movies Of 2023 List Includes ‘Rustin,’ ‘The Holdovers’ & More at The Playlist.

We say this every year when we talk about Barack Obama’s annual list of his favorite films, but the former President of the United States actually has pretty great taste in cinema. Sure, you could argue that maybe this is a cultivated list pulled from the minds of various people in his orbit, but regardless, Obama is still highlighting some of the best films of the year and giving some deserving artists a bit of a push. 

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2022

For 2022, Barack Obama, once again, delivers a list with some of the best films of the year.

Continue reading Barack Obama Names ‘Aftersun,’ ‘Top Gun 2,’ ‘Emily The Criminal’ & More As His Favorite Films Of 2022 at The Playlist.

Two programs dominated the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards: the CBS special “Adele: One Night Only” and the Disney+ docuseries “The Beatles: Get Back.” Each nominee won five Emmy Awards. They were followed by Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum (U.S.)” and the “Super Bowl Halftime Show” which took home three Emmys each.

READ MORE: Keenan Thompson to host the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards

History was made in a number of categories.

Continue reading Adele, Barack Obama, and Chadwick Boseman Big Winners At Creative Arts Emmys Night One [Winners List] at The Playlist.

It’s been a tradition for years now and it continues in 2021—former President of the United States, Barack Obama, has released his top films of the year. And as with previous years, it’s a healthy mix of high-profile gems and things that may have fallen under the radar that he clearly wants to put some extra shine on. 

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2021

One thing you have to understand is that Obama never ranks the movies, he just presents a list of his “favorite” films.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films Of 2021 List Includes ‘Drive My Car,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Card Counter’ & More at The Playlist.

Leave it to former President of the United States, Barack Obama, to create a “Schoolhouse Rock” for a new generation, with the upcoming Netflix series, “We the People.”

READ MORE: ‘Mary J. Blige’s My Life’ Trailer Pulls Back the Curtain on a Superstar

As seen in the new trailer for “We the People,” the animated musical series aims to educate young folks about the ways in which the American government operates.

Continue reading ‘We The People’ Trailer: The Obamas Team With Netflix On A ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ For A New Generation at The Playlist.

It’s the time of Top 10s. Every December, critics, publications, celebrities, and basically anyone with social media reveal their favorite films and TV series of the year. Some people tend to go more mainstream with their picks, while others love to showcase how deep their love of cinema goes. But every year, it seems that one of the most reasonable people who share their Best of 2020 list is none other than Former POTUS, Barack Obama.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films Of 2020 List Includes ‘Mank,’ ‘Soul,’ ‘Selah & The Spades’ & More at The Playlist.

What more needs to be said about the legend that remains former United States President Barack Obama? In addition to still-hilarious interactions with Zack Galifianakis on Between Two Ferns, meetings with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl over the history of American rock music or a sincere discussion with Leonardo DiCaprio regarding our planet’s decaying environment, it would seem the 44th Commander-in-Chief is a fan of Amazon Prime’s current hit series “The Boys,” as well as HBO’s 2019 critical smash adaptation of “Watchmen,” both of which served as a necessary reprieve during writing sessions for his new book “A Promised Land.”

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

As mentioned in Entertainment Weekly, not only did both shows resonate with Obama as containing far more substance than your average superhero property, he also considers AMC’s “Better Call Saul” and NBC’s “The Good Place” in the same category of incredible TV, citing the outstanding characters and larger meanings present within both.

Continue reading Barack Obama Helped Unwind From Writing His Memoir With The Help Of ‘The Boys,’ ‘Watchmen’ & More at The Playlist.

“Making your mark on the world is hard,” said Barack Obama in a 2006 speech, long before he became President or even the executive producer of the Netflix documentary “Crip Camp.” He continued, “It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.”

While the first documentary that he and wife Michelle lent their name to on the streaming giant, Oscar-winning “American Factory,” cast an uncertain but clear-eyed look into the future of America’s global ties, the executive producers’ second title captures something more akin to the 2008 magic.

Continue reading ‘Crip Camp’: A Hopeful, Joyous Documentary With An Activist Spirit [Review] at The Playlist.

PARK CITY – The first thing you need to know about “Hillary,” Nanette Burstein’s new documentary series about Hillary Clinton, is that it would be surprising if it changed your opinion about a public figure who one of the most admired and vilified women in the world.  Whether you were one of the 65.8 million people who voted for her in the 2016 election or a member of the other camp who believed the numerous charges made against her (all debunked by the way), there is no smoking gun or unexpected revelation in this production.  Instead, what “Hillary” does best is cast a rich portrait of one of the most influential women of the past 50 years.

Continue reading ‘Hillary’: ‘Radical Feminist’ Hillary Clinton Is Chronicled For History’s Sake In Hulu Doc Series [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

It goes without saying that when you have former President Barack Obama, along with his wife Michelle Obama, sign an exclusive deal with Netflix, the expectation is that this partnership will result in some special projects. Well, the first of those projects, an Obama-produced documentary, “American Factory,” arrived in 2019 and this morning landed a Best Documentary nomination from the Academy. So, yeah, we’d say that so far, the deal is working out pretty well.

Continue reading Barack Obama Talks ‘American Factory’ Oscar Nomination: “It’s The Kind Of Story We Don’t Seen Often Enough” at The Playlist.

Every year, I have a ton of Top 10s that fly across my desk. Many of our writers love to share their opinions on the greatest films of the past year. And yes, we publish quite a few, even if many of them share the same basic choices. We even share some lists from other publications that we feel are well-thought-out and interesting. But coming in right in the nick of time, former leader of the free world, Barack Obama, has turned in his list of the best TV and Movies of 2019 and shockingly, his might be the most well-rounded of them all.

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Films & TV Of 2019 Includes Some Sleeper Picks Like ‘Ash Is Purest White,’ ‘Diane,’ ‘Transit’ & More at The Playlist.

Former President Barack Obama has been known to share his favorite books, films, and songs throughout the years. And in 2018, Obama has done it again, and with his film list, in particular, he’s put together one of the most solid Best of 2018 groups we’ve seen so far.

LISTEN: The 20 Breakthrough Directors of 2018 [Podcast]

While he doesn’t rank the films in any specific order (other than alphabetical), the films that Obama has listed for his favorites of 2018 is full of some of the year’s most high-profile (“Black Panther” and “BlacKkKlansman”) as well as some indie favorites that have shamefully been left out of much of the awards season discussion (“Leave No Trace,” “The Rider,” and “Support the Girls”).

Continue reading Barack Obama’s Best Of 2018 Proves He’s Got A Finger On The Pulse Of Film Twitter at The Playlist.

If there’s one rule at the dinner table we can all agree on at Thanksgiving, it’s that politics are a verboten topic of discussion. However, Donald Trump makes it almost impossible to avoid the subject, and has made many long for the calm steady hand of Barack Obama in the White House. Well, an upcoming documentary will take you back to those more level-headed days.

Greg Barker‘s documentary “The Final Year” does exactly what the title implies, taking audiences inside the Obama administration during the final twelve months of his time in the Oval Office.

Continue reading ‘The Final Year’ Trailer: Explore The Inner Workings Of The Obama Administration at The Playlist.

On his first date with Michelle Robinson, who would eventually take his surname, Barack Obama took her to see Spike Lee‘s “Do The Right Thing.” And so began a relationship that would span decades, lead to the White House, and many more movie dates to come, including an evening with “Monster Trucks.”

THR has dug up some of the movie requests the White House sent out during the Obama years, and apparently, he loved watching pretty much anything and everything Hollywood had to offer.

Continue reading President Barack Obama Watched ‘Monster Trucks’ at The Playlist.

With each new revelation this election cycle is bringing, you probably couldn’t blame President Barack Obama for wanting to ride out his remaining days in the White House watching movies, and letting everyone else sort out the current political nightmare. And while his schedule is no doubt busy until the New Year, when he’ll finally have to get his boxes packed and move, he’s taken some time to sit down to create an essential list of sci-fi viewing.

Continue reading President Barack Obama Nerds Out, List His Must-Watch Sci-Fi Movies & TV Shows at The Playlist.

Watch: President Barack Obama Visits 'Between Two Ferns' With Zach Galifianakis

Continue reading Watch: President Barack Obama Visits ‘Between Two Ferns’ With Zach Galifianakis at The Playlist.

Continue reading Charles Burnett To Make Documentary About Obama’s Late Mother; Dueling Delorean Biopics Square Up at The Playlist.

A little toothless and dull for a two hour documentary that had too few rousing moments (though there were a few that brought an inspirational tear to the eye). Jeff Wells saw it this weekend and essentially agrees with us too. “I’m sorry to say it’s a fairly bloodless portrait of one of the most fascinating, breathtaking, sometimes ugly, occasionally transcendent, up-and-down racial-tinderbox elections in our nation’s history.

Continue reading Ex-Shudder To Think Frontman Scores Ed Norton’s Obama Doc ‘By The People’ at The Playlist.

After signing on to scribe the next the Bond film, Peter Morgan has left his post as director of “The Special Relationship.” The film, which would have marked Morgan’s directorial debut, is the third part of his Tony Blair trilogy and follows Blair’s relationship with U.S.

Continue reading First Look: Jim Cameron’s ‘Avatar,’ Peter Morgan Leaves Director’s Chair Of ‘The Special Relationship,’ ‘Up In The Air’ Teaser Poster at The Playlist.

Chances are, Lee was responding more to the unimaginative idea that he’d be the right man to tackle this prospective movie that no one has written, greenlit, or even pitched.

Continue reading Spike Lee Turns Down Bad-Idea Will Smith-Starring Barack Obama Biopic at The Playlist.

They obviously took an enormous risk allocating such a massive amount of time on a candidate who at first looked like an extreme long shot.

Continue reading Edward Norton’s Obama Documentary Sells To HBO: Michael Moore Works Himself Into A Frenzy Over Obama at The Playlist.

Much love,
The Playlist.

Update: What a night, huh? We gotta say, it was great to see McCain stop being a politician and return to his civility of yore. What a classy, gracious speech he gave on unity blind to party lines. Obama, naturally delivered in his rousing allocution and today feels like a new day.

Continue reading Hell, Yes! at The Playlist.

Let’s hope you voted today, let’s hope you had no trouble doing so and let’s hope that if you did encounter some kind of interference or meddling that you recorded it with video and or are writing about it right now.

Continue reading Everbody Chill: We Hopefully Got This at The Playlist.

Continue reading Get Hype! Get Pumped!: “We Have A Lot Of Work To Do!” Obama Video at The Playlist.

Continue reading Obama Throws ScoJo Under The Bus at The Playlist.