The contentiously-received 2019 Best Picture Oscar-winner “Green Book” had its fair share of dispiriting controversies and embarrassing dramas surrounding its release, including claims of historical accuracy, and various, deeply tone-deaf and insensitive gaffes from those involved in the film. However, it doesn’t sound like Viggo Mortensen — who offended his co-star Mahershala Ali during the promotion of the film and shocked many by using the N-word in a public Q&A — and earned an Oscar nomination for his performance, is worried about how the film will be remembered in cinematic history.

Continue reading Viggo Mortensen ‘Green Book’ Will “Stand The Test of Time” & Chides Universal For Not Backing It During Controversies at The Playlist.

TORONTO – “A Star is Born” is one of the major hits of early festival season and the film’s two leads, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, met with the North American press for the first time on Sunday morning to discuss the already buzzed about Best Picture contender.

The movie is Cooper’s directorial debut and the fourth incarnation of this specific story, but he says he first had the idea for a film in the specific vein of “Star” at a Metallica concert six years ago.

Continue reading ‘A Star is Born’: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Talk Metallica, Drag & Crashing Concerts [TIFF] at The Playlist.

While still saying they remain “committed to celebrating a wide spectrum of movies,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences put the controversial Popular Film category on hold announcing today it will not be part of the upcoming 91st Academy Awards.   The Academy added they recognized what everyone else did, that adding such a major new category just nine months into the Oscar season made little sense.  And, of course, the membership wasn’t thrilled about it either.

Continue reading Oscars Popular Film Category Smartly Put On Hold By Academy at The Playlist.

TELLURIDE – If “The Old Man & The Gun” really is Robert Redford’s swan song than the iconic actor could not have asked for a better way to end a venerable acting career that has spanned almost 60 years. The David Lowery-directed drama debuted at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival Friday afternoon and will have many wondering if Redford should reconsider his recent retirement announcement.

Continue reading ‘The Old Man & The Gun’ Is A Breezy & Moving Goodbye For Robert Redford [Telluride Review] at The Playlist.

It’s been almost a week since the 71st Festival de Cannes came to a close and the festival bubble is starting to dissipate. That means the realization of what we assumed before it all began comes into clearer focus: the 2019 Oscar season really isn’t starting until the Venice, Telluride and Toronto trifecta. Foreign Language Film category notwithstanding, of course.

Outside of “Black Panther” not one legit Best Picture contender that has screened publicly up to this point.

Continue reading Oscar Still On Hold After Foreign Language Focused Cannes at The Playlist.

CANNES – The news at the end of “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler‘s 90 minute Q&A at the 71st Festival de Cannes was good for Marvel Studios on two fronts.  First, moderator Elvis Mitchell never asked about Black Panther’s “death” in “Avengers: Infinity War” or whether Coogler would be directing a “Black Panther” sequel let alone any potential details about said movie.   Second, the packed event was a coup for Coogler, the festival and a studio that is serious about kicking off a true Oscar campaign for the the soon to be $700 million domestic blockbuster.

Continue reading Ryan Coogler Has His Cannes Moment And Talks All-Female Wakanda Movie at The Playlist.

We’re going to guess Jim Gianopulos knew he’d have a rocky slate on his hands when he agreed to take over Paramount Pictures as Chairman and CEO almost a year ago, but he couldn’t have imagined it would be as dire as it actually turned out to be.  The former Chairman of 20th Century Fox found a studio that had arguably just two real tentpoles set for the next 18 months (“Transformers: The Last Knight,” “Mission: Impossible-Fallout”), a rare Dwayne Johnson comedy that no one would be interested in (“Baywatch”), a terrible horror sequel that had been on the shelf forever (“Rings”), a comedy sequel with the still-problematic Mel Gibson (the barely profitable “Daddy’s Home 2”) and three prestige flicks from acclaimed directors that shockingly had no real potential to break out (“Downsizing,” “Suburbicon” and “Mother!

Continue reading Did ‘A Quiet Place’ Just Save Paramount Pictures’ Year? at The Playlist.

If you watched this year’s Oscars ceremony, you may have noticed a film kept getting mentioned that wasn’t part of the festivities – “Black Panther.” The Marvel Studios film is blowing up the box office, with over $900 million worldwide, as of this writing, and doesn’t look to be stopping anytime soon. While the money has been a huge story, the near unanimous critical-acclaim and fan reaction has a lot of people talking about potential Oscar noms in the future.

Continue reading Christopher Nolan Believes ‘Black Panther’ Will Get A Best Picture Oscar Nom at The Playlist.

This year.  Just when you thought Hollywood and award season will take a breather after two years of dramatic twists and turns an earthquake hits the industry that has caused global aftershocks that aren’t going to subside anytime soon.  The #MeToo movement saw prominent Oscar figures such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Brett Ratner (remember almost-Oscar producer Brett Ratner?) banished and framed a season where women said “Time’s Up” using red carpets everywhere as a means to turn the conversation from “What are you wearing?” to substantive issues that made many in corporate executive suites unusually nervous. 

Continue reading New Oscar Rules For 2019: Lessons From ‘Shape Of Water’s’ Triumph And A Tumultuous Season at The Playlist.

The overnight ratings are in for the 90th Academy Awards are in and, as expected, they weren’t good. ABC had lowered expectations for this year’s Oscar telecast because of the lack of “big hits” among the Best Picture nominees (ridiculous, but more on that later) and the show currently sits with a Nielsen low 26.5 million viewers. That’s a huge drop from even last year’s disconcerting 32.9 million, the smallest audience since 2008.  For comparison’ sake, just four years ago the Ellen DeGeneres hosted 86th Oscars had 43.7 million viewers, the most watched Oscars since 2000 so this isn’t a decade long trend. 

Continue reading Same Old Story: The Academy Needs To Make The Oscars Fun(ny) Again at The Playlist.

Standing on a magnificently vajazzled stage last night, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway read out the name of this year’s Best Picture winner: “The Shape of Water.” And, it being the two of them, desperately atoning for the previous year’s envelope fracas, we can be absolutely, 100%, rock-solid certain that “The Shape of Water” did actually win. So how did the 2018 Best Picture race, which in Oscar-chat circles at least, was dubbed the most difficult to call in recent memory (remember, everyone was fine with calling 2017’s Best Picture, just everyone, even the presenters, called it wrong), end up with ‘Shape’ taking the ribbon?

Continue reading Analyze This: Why ‘The Shape Of Water’ Won The 2018 Best Picture Oscar at The Playlist.

Coming into the 2018 Oscars, the Academy and the ABC Network had every reason to believe that this year would be a huge success. After the Best Picture fiasco from 2017, the buzz around the 2018 ceremony was greater than it had been in previous years. Also, on top of last year’s controversy, there was a returning host, Jimmy Kimmel, that’s generally popular, and a list of nominated films that were arguably the strongest in years.

Continue reading Why The 2018 Oscars Received The Lowest Ratings Of Any Academy Awards Ever at The Playlist.

Click here for more from our Oscars 2018 coverage, including the Best & Worst of the ceremony, all the speeches, and the Snubs & Surprises.

It was inevitable that this year’s Oscar ceremony would be one driven by The Issues. After all, it came after of a tumultuous few years, begun by the #OscarsSoWhite controversy (which led to an attempt to diversify the Academy membership), continued with the victory of “Moonlight” last year in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump, and mostly recently in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, those that followed after, the subsequent #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, and increasing talk about mainstream representation of minority filmmakers following the success of “Wonder Woman” and “Black Panther,” among others.

Continue reading Why Frances McDormand & The Inclusion Rider Was The Biggest Moment Of The 2018 Oscars at The Playlist.

Click here for more from our Oscars 2018 coverage, including the Best & Worst of the ceremony, all the speeches, and the Snubs & Surprises.

Now that the quartz miners of the planet Christophsis have been sent in to dismantle the blingiest Oscar stage ever, now that they’re rolling up the Red Carpet where Taraji P Henson MAYBE shaded Ryan Seacrest (she’s subsequently denied it but tea sure looked piping hot to me), now that the glamor has dissipated, Spanx have been un-Spanked, tit-tape removed and all over L.A.

Continue reading The 2018 Oscars By The Numbers at The Playlist.

Going into this year’s Oscars, everyone was wondering how the Academy would handle the recent controversies surrounding some of the biggest male names in Hollywood and the lack of representation seen in front of the camera and behind the scenes. While acceptance speeches made mention of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements, the Oscars went a bit further, with one segment devoted to the progress made recently regarding these issues.

Presented by Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek, and Annabella Sciorra, a three-minute video segment was shown, featuring filmmakers such as Dee Rees, Lee Daniels, Ava DuVernay, and Greta Gerwig.

Continue reading Oscars 2018: Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek Talk Time’s Up And #MeToo at The Playlist.

One of the more moving segments of any Oscars ceremony is the “In Memoriam.” This year’s was no exception. With a great performance of the Tom Petty song, “Room at the Top,” Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder honored some of the prominent Hollywood figures that passed over the last year. Unfortunately, some names were left off the list.

While the video montage gave mention to Hollywood greats like Jerry Lewis, George Romero, Roger Moore, Harry Dean Stanton, and Don Rickles, among many others, there were some big stars that didn’t make the cut.

Continue reading Oscars 2018: The ‘In Memoriam’ Presentation Forgot A Few Names at The Playlist.

While many Oscars viewers were greatly anticipating who would win the coveted trophies, over here, we were excited for the musical performances. Okay, and we were excited about the awards too, but seriously, this year was a stacked list of performers that got us hyped.

First, we have to mention that the Oscar for Best Song went to “Remember Me” by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez from the film “Coco.” Performing that song live was Miguel, Natalia Lafourcade, and actor Gael García Bernal.

Continue reading Oscars 2018: Sufjan Stevens, Mary J. Blige Turn In Amazing Musical Performances at The Playlist.

Another year, another Academy Awards ceremony down, and it was one with plenty to be happy about: long-overdue recognition for tremendous actors like Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney, much-deserved writing prizes for Jordan Peele and James Ivory, a double victory for the beloved Guillermo Del Toro.

READ MORE: ‘The Shape of Water’ Wins Best Picture & Director: The Full List Of Oscar Winners Here

That said, while it was a solid ceremony (as we covered in our Best & Worst Of The 2018 Oscar Ceremony), it perhaps wasn’t the biggest shocker — even an awards idiot like this writer who hasn’t been paying that much attention only missed a few times on his ballot.

Continue reading The Snubs & Surprises Of The 2018 Oscars at The Playlist.

This year’s Oscars was round two for Jimmy Kimmel as host. While he did a fine job last year, I tend to enjoy the more biting comedy of Golden Globes ex-host Ricky Gervais, Kimmel’s first Oscar foray was overshadowed by the now-infamous Best Picture flub. So, with that in mind, you had to imagine that Kimmel would come out of the gates talking about last year’s show.

Right off the bat, Kimmel’s monologue discussed the “Moonlight”/”La La Land” mix-up, joking that he was offered an opportunity to include the accountants in a skit last year, but declined because he didn’t want them distracted.

Continue reading Oscars 2018: Kimmel Jokes About Harvey Weinstein, Representation, And A Jet Ski In Monologue at The Playlist.

In light of recent events, viewers were expecting this year’s Oscars acceptance speeches to not only feature the requisite thank you’s and emotion, but to also make mention of the political climate and the issues that are currently rocking Hollywood. While there maybe wasn’t an Oprah-like speech, that almost felt like a movement-in-the-making, there were plenty of inspiring words that very well might bring a tear to your eye.

Perhaps the most memorable moment is none other than “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri” Best Actress winner Frances McDormand’s speech about representation.

Continue reading Oscars 2018: Frances McDormand, Guillermo Del Toro, And Other Acceptance Speech Highlights at The Playlist.

This isn’t a joke.  Frances McDormand had her Best Actress Oscar for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” stolen from her while attending the Academy Awards’ Governors Ball.  Details are still sketchy, but eventually a photographer and security apprehended the person who took it and it was returned to Ms. McDormand.  Moreover, it’s not clear how that individual got a ticket or entered the post-Oscars ceremony in the first place (perhaps, a more serious concern). 

Continue reading Frances McDormand’s Academy Award Was Stolen And Fox Searchlight Celebrates Its Oscar Haul at The Playlist.

Happy Oscars! It was the best of times, it was the mostly okay of times, it was the 90th Academy Awards ceremony and they made sure we remembered that the Oscars are about movies. Literally, there was a movie montage celebrating movies brought to you by movies at the movie awards.

Continue reading Oscars! The Best And Worst Of The 2018 Academy Awards at The Playlist.

All hail Frances McDormand! The formidable actress has capped off her awards season by winning for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” with the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the film, McDormand plays Mildred, a grieving and steely mother who rents three billboards to incite the local police chief into restarting the investigation into her daughter’s brutal murder.

READ MORE: The 2018 Oscars By The Numbers

McDormand has been sweeping up awards left and right this whole season winning the Golden Globe, SAG Award, the BAFTA, as well as most of the critics’ groups.

Continue reading Frances McDormand Wins Best Actress For ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ at The Playlist.

Click here for more from our Oscars 2018 coverage, including the Best & Worst of the ceremony, all the speeches, and the Snubs & Surprises.

With his turn as Winston Churchill, weighed down by makeup, Gary Oldman‘s transformative performance has won him his very first Academy Award. Oldman was a previous nominee in this same category in 2012 for his performance in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” where the actor portrayed George Smiley, a veteran of espionage during the Cold War.

Continue reading Gary Oldman Wins Very First Best Actor Oscar For ‘Darkest Hour’ at The Playlist.

Click here for more from our Oscars 2018 coverage, including the Best & Worst of the ceremony, all the speeches, and the Snubs & Surprises.

One of the greatest cinematographers in the history of cinema finally has an Academy Award.  Roger Deakins took the Best Cinematography trophy Sunday night for his work on Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” and what was his 14th Oscar nomination.  The fact the 68-year-old visionary had lost 13 previous times was becoming something of an embarrassment for the Academy, but no more.

Continue reading Roger Deakins Finally Wins Cinematography Oscar On 14th Nomination at The Playlist.