Capping a remarkable comeback following a six-year hiatus, Renee Zellweger won her second Academy Award for portraying the iconic Judy Garland in “Judy.” In an Oscar race that barely featured even a hint of competition, Zellweger won the Best Actress Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA Award and Spirit Award for her performance.

READ MORE: Liza Minnelli says she has no interest in seeing Renee Zellweger play her mom in “Judy”

Zellweger previously won an Oscar in the Supporting Actress category for “Cold Mountain” in 2004.

Continue reading Renee Zellweger’s Comeback Peaks With Second Best Actress Win [Oscars 2020] at The Playlist.

There are typically two types of biopics. One is the type that enjoys the full cooperation and support from the real-life subject of the feature. And the other is the type of film that is made based on a third party account of events, and it isn’t endorsed by the subject and/or family. The Oscar-nominated film, “Judy,” appears to be in that latter category, as is evidenced by a new interview with Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli.

Continue reading Liza Minnelli Says She Has No Interest Watching Her Mom’s Life Story In ‘Judy’ As Renee Zellweger Defends The Film at The Playlist.

The nominations are in for the 92nd annual Academy Awards, and if you’ve been waiting to see what was actually getting nominated before plunking down your hard-earned cash and growling—“One for ‘Bombshell,’ please!”— well, the wait is over. And the catch-up countdown clock is already ticking due to this year’s (thankfully) abbreviated awards season, the ceremony is less than four weeks away.

READ MORE: Oscars 2020 – Joker Leads The Pack With 11 Nominations

But hey, no need to panic.

Continue reading Where To Stream/Watch/Buy All The 2020 Oscar-Nominated Films at The Playlist.

In a night where three awards resulted in ties and a ton of winners didn’t show up, the Critics Choice Association handed out the 2020 Critics Choice Awards top honor, Best Picture, to “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.”  “Joker’s” Joaquin Phoenix took Best Actor while Renee Zellweger won Best Actress for “Judy.”  Bong Joon Ho and Sam Mendes tied for Best Director for “Parasite” and “1917” respectfully.

Continue reading “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” Wins Best Picture At Critics Choice Awards at The Playlist.

Along with eight other categories, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlist for the Hairstyling and Makeup Oscar this afternoon.  As expected nominees included films such as “Bombshell,” “Joker,” “Judy” and “Rocketman.” For the first time ever, there will be five nomineees in this category when the Oscar nominations are announced next month.

Snubbed films included “Jojo Rabbit,” “Harriet,” “Us,” “Marriage Story” and “The Irishman.”

READ MORE: Renee Zellwegger captures the final days of Judy Garland in “Judy” [Review]

This year’s potential nominees are as follows:

“Bombshell”
“Dolemite Is My Name”
“Downton Abbey”
“Joker”
“Judy”
“Little Women”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
“1917”
“Once upon a Time…in Hollywood”
“Rocketman”

All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Jan.

Continue reading ‘Bombshell,’ ‘Joker’ & ‘Judy’ Make 2020 Hairstyling & Makeup Oscar Shortlist at The Playlist.

It’s only October 10th and if you’re anyone at Warner Bros. associated with the awards season campaign for “Joker” you probably are ready for a vacation.  The journey of Todd Phillips‘ vision for the longtime DC comics character has already had some massive highs and some head-scratching lows.  Will the hot button takes on the film itself finally settle now that it’s in theatres? For some more context, let’s review the past eight weeks (yes, just eight weeks), shall we?

Continue reading So Let’s Really Talk About ‘Joker’ In The Best Picture Race [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

When you have a powerhouse comic book film coming in a week, studios normally don’t even bother releasing other major films to compete in the week prior. And that’s exactly what happened this week, as most major studios are giving Warner Bros. a clear runway for next weekend’s “Joker.” The only studio to provide any sort of excitement this weekend was Universal, who released “Abominable,” which ended up winning the weekend with a less than stellar total.

Continue reading Dreamworks’ ‘Abominable’ Leads Quiet Box Office As The World Awaits ‘Joker’ at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Despite the advent of an expanded Hollywood Film Awards-esque fake awards show (yeah, it’s a fundraiser, we get it) and the bragging points of hosting the world premiere of the last Best Picture winner, “Green Book,” it’s still very hard to take the Toronto International Film Festival seriously as an Oscars launchpad.  It’s an acquisition market, a popular screening event for locals and one of the largest festivals in terms of individual films screened, 333 this year alone, in the world.  

Continue reading Oscars: ‘Hustlers,’ ‘Knives Out’ & Joaquin Phoenix Unexpectedly Pop At TIFF at The Playlist.

While the festival season has really only just begun—Telluride is over, we’re in the middle of Venice, and the Toronto International Film Festival just beginning—there are plenty of films being released in September that have already earned some well-deserved buzz or promise to entice audiences based on the trailers alone. And with all due respect to titles like “Blinded by the Light,” “The Farewell,” and “Ready or Not,” things are certainly looking up from the rather abysmal last two months.

Continue reading 10 Films To See In September: ‘Goldfinch,’ ‘Ad Astra,’ ‘Dick Long’ & More at The Playlist.

TELLURIDE – For those who have not trekked to the Telluride Film Festival it may sound like an annoyingly repetitive mantra, but this annual Labor Day fest is pretty much where Oscar dreams are born. Granted, “Green Book’s” Best Picture win in February gave TIFF a much-needed pr boost as an awards season stop (something they cling to publicly a bit too much for a tier A festival), but it still cannot match the number of Academy members annually on hand in this picturesque Colorado town.

Continue reading ‘Judy,’ ‘Parasite’ & ‘Marriage Story’ Win Telluride’s Oscar Showcase at The Playlist.

“I was born at the age of twelve on the MGM lot,” Judy Garland once said. Adapted by Tom Edge from Peter Quilter’s stage play “End of the Rainbow,” director Rupert Goold’s big-hearted (yet semi-conventional) Garland biopic “Judy” follows the screen icon in the late-’60s through her final, troubled year of life, with a sensational Renée Zellweger in the lead. And yet, it starts with the very tearing of the cocoon Garland has famously spoken of. 

Continue reading ‘Judy’: Renee Zellweger Brings Triumph & Dignity To The Final Days Of Judy Garland [Telluride Review] at The Playlist.

It’s that time of year. The final dog days of summer are here and that means the Telluride Film Festival is about to kick off. The 46th Telluride Film Festival announced its program this morning. While the Venice Film Festival happens simultaneously in Italy, Telluride takes place in the mountains of Colorado and despite some of the film line-up overlap, it’s a totally different festival.

READ MORE: 2019 Fall Preview: The 45 Most Anticipated Films

For better or worse, the Telluride Film Festival marches to the beat of its own quirky drum, sometimes very much in step with movie culture and sometimes not (and sometimes, probably just having to deal with whatever films are promised elsewhere and just live with it).

Continue reading 2019 Telluride Film Festival Preview: 9 Most Anticipated Movies at The Playlist.

The 46th Telluride Film Festival announced its program this morning and for those sleuthing through TIFF’s announcements or lucky enough to have good sources, there were few surprises. That is if you consider the world premiere of the documentary Taghi Amirani’s “Coup 53” and Kitty Green’s “The Assistant” surprises. The major premieres, not so much.

The most anticipated narrative debuts at Telluride this year will be James Mangold’s “Ford v.

Continue reading Telluride 2019: ‘Ford v. Ferrari,’ ‘Judy’ & ‘Uncut Gems’ Are Official World Premieres at The Playlist.

It’s sad, but true: summer is coming to an end, school is gearing up (if you’re still of that age), and the fall film festival season is upon us. That means, it’s time to pack away the blockbusters—for the most part, anyhow—put away the superhero toys and get ready for the season of adult-centered dramas and awards-contending movies.

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2019… So Far

With the advent of the fall, we’re going to get a rush of new films, some of them from the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, that are finally hitting North American shores, but also major waves of new titles from the big five film festivals: Venice, Telluride, the Toronto International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, and the New York Film Festival.

Continue reading 2019 Fall Preview: The 45 Most Anticipated Films at The Playlist.

As always, the announcement of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival slate took a bite out of Venice’s thunder.  That festival’s designation of “World,” “Canadian,” “International” and “North American” premieres makes it somewhat easy to figure out what films are debuting at the competing Venice and Telluride Film Festivals.  That being said, the 2019 Venice International Film Festival had some surprises up its sleeve.

READ MORE: Nine Things We Learned From TIFF’s 2019 Slate: ‘Judy,’ ‘Marriage Story,’ Hustlers’ & More

The expected debuts in competition were James Gray’s “Ad Astra,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” Steven Soderbergh’s “The Laundrymart,” Todd Phillips’ “Joker” and Atom Egoyan’s “Guest of Honour.” New titles included Oliver Assayas’ “Wasp Network” with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramierez, Cico Guerra’s “Waiting for the Barbarians” with Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson, Pablo Larrain’s “Ema” with Gael Garcia Bernal, Lou Ye’s “Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan (Saturday Fiction)” starring Gong Li, Roman Polanski’s “J’Accuse” with Jean Dujardin and Emanuelle Singer, Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth” and Yonfan‘s animated “Ji Yuan Tai Qi Hao (No.

Continue reading ‘Ad Astra,’ ‘Joker,’ ‘Marriage Story,’ ‘The King’ Bowing At 2019 Venice Film Festival at The Playlist.

The Toronto International Film Festival should be riding high. The 2018 festival included world premieres of critically lauded films such as Claire Denis’ “High Life,” Matthew Heineman’s “A Private War,” Steve McQueen’s “Widows,” Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria Bell,” Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Alex Ross Perry’s “Her Smell.” And its audience winner, “Green Book,” became the first TIFF debut to win Best Picture since “The Hurt Locker” in 2010.

Continue reading Nine Things We Learned From TIFF’s 2019 Slate: ‘Judy,’ ‘Marriage Story,’ ‘Hustlers’ & More at The Playlist.

It’s hard to consider the history of music in cinema without mentioning the star power and gravitas of Miss Judy Garland. Her films with Vincente Minelli and her timeless roles in “A Star Is Born” and “The Wizard of Oz” still sparkle today due to her immense screen presence: a combination of innocence and glowing confidence. And like many emotionally captivating performers, she suffered off-screen in a life equally worthy of cinematic treatment.

Continue reading ‘Judy Trailer’: Renée Zellweger Plots A Big Comeback As The Iconic Judy Garland at The Playlist.

Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger has slowly found her way back into the spotlight. With a Netflix neo-noir on deck, the actress is about to take on, likely among her most challenging roles, playing one of the greatest stars Hollywood has ever seen. In the eponymous “Judy,” Zellweger will take on the part of Judy Garland.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019

While Zellweger is undoubtedly the draw for audiences of the picture, the film also stars Rufus Sewell and Michael Gambon, and is directed by Rupert Goold.

Continue reading ‘Judy’ Trailer: Oscar Winner Renée Zellweger Becomes The Legendary Judy Garland at The Playlist.