The USC Libraries announced the nominees for the 34th USC Scripter Awards this morning and it was perhaps the most genre-based group of honorees ever. “Dune,” “Station Eleven” and “WandaVision” earned nominations in both the film and television categories. The Scripter is given to the best adapted screenplays in said fields and, unlike other awards, honors the author of the original material as well.

READ MORE: 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations [Complete List]

Somewhat of a precursor to the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, this year’s other film nominees are “The Lost Daughter,” “Passing,” “The Power of the Dog” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” The rest of the recognized television projects are “Dopesick,” “Maid,” and “The Underground Railroad.”

The Libraries also announced that Barry Jenkins will receive the USC Libraries Literary Achievement Award for his contributions to cinematic storytelling, including his work adapting the 2017 Scripter winner “Moonlight” and the 2019 finalist “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

It should be noted that only English-language adaptations are eligible for the Scripter.

Continue reading ‘Dune,’ ‘Lost Daugther’ & ‘WandaVision’ Among 2022 USC Scripter Awards Nominees at The Playlist.

The adulation for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” continues. After winning Best Film from both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle, Japan’s submission for the International Film Oscar dominated the winner’s list from the National Society of Critics. “Drive My Car” took Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe), and Best Actor (Hidetoshi Nishijima).

READ MORE: LA Film Critics select “Drive My Car” as Best Film of 2021

Outside of Best Actress, which went to “Parallel Mothers'” Penelope Cruz, most of the organization’s other winners were somewhat surprising.

Continue reading ‘Drive My Car’ Takes Best Picture From National Society Of Film Critics at The Playlist.

If you haven’t already seen it, Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, “Passing” on Netflix, is one of the most nuanced, layered, and engrossing portraits of identity of the year. Based on the book of the same name and set in 1920s New York City, “Passing” centers on a Black woman (Tessa Thompson) in Harlem who finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend (Ruth Negga) who’s passing as white.

Continue reading ‘Passing’ Exclusive Featurette: Ruth Negga On The Complexities & Mysteries Of Her Character Claire at The Playlist.

We celebrate the movies at this time of year, and in the wild rush to praise directors and actors for all that nifty directing and acting they did over the last 365 days, we all tend to forget that cinema is about more than just two sets of people. Just read Twitter. Who’s naming anyone other than auteurs and stars? How many times has Steven Spielberg’s name come up? How many times has Janusz Kamiński’s?

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2021 at The Playlist.

In our annual aggregation of some of the most respected Best Films of the Year lists, we like to highlight folks that offer unique opinions regarding cinema. We’ve already seen John Waters offer up a pretty offbeat Top 10 this year. And now, The New Yorker offers its Top 35 Best Films of 2021, with a healthy number of picks that will likely surprise people.

READ MORE: The Best Film Posters Of 2021

Sure, The New Yorker lists plenty of high-profile films in the Top 35.

Continue reading The New Yorker’s Best Films Of 2021 Include ‘Zola,’ ‘Passing’ & Quite A Few Docs at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s new streaming and disc guide (okay, it’s mostly a disc guide) is a back-breaker – which is unsurprising, with the holidays approaching, and the hunt for gift ideas already heating up.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Passing,’ ‘Scream,’ ‘The Eyes Of Tammy Faye’ & More at The Playlist.

There is a common refrain being heard around Hollywood these days and it’s not one that will make the Academy happy (and, no, it’s not about an Academy Museum which has only three floors of exhibits). As more and more AMPAS members screen this year’s crop of Best Picture contenders – and, granted, they are barely getting started – many are verbalizing their concern over the Academy’s decision to stick with 10 nominees this year.

Continue reading The Great Hunt For 10 Best Picture Nominees Continues [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

The current lowdown on the Adapted Screenplay category will sound very familiar to a number of other races this awards season. There are just three or four likely locks for a nomination, Jane Campion‘s adaptation of Thomas Savage‘s novel, “The Power of the Dog,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter,” Tony Kushner’s adaptation of the original stage play for “West Side Story” and, maybe, Sian Heder’s English adaptation of the French film “La Famille Bélier” for “CODA.

Continue reading Adapted Screenplay Oscars 2022 Predictions & Contenders at The Playlist.

Would someone hide in plain sight to live a better life? The answers are not so easy, especially when it comes to how society perceives status and race. Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut “Passing,” acclaimed upon its premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, seeks to create a conversation about racism’s impact on personal and public identity. The story of two friends trying to succeed in a world that doesn’t value their presence is an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novel (read our review here).

Continue reading ‘Passing’ Trailer: Nothing Is Black & White For Tessa Thompson In Director Rebecca Hall’s Acclaimed Debut at The Playlist.

One of the few positive things the pandemic has done for movie buffs is left us with an onslaught of leftover 2020 titles held for this year’s fall festival circuit. Case in point: the 59th Annual New York Film Festival. 

READ MORE: NYFF 2021 Exclusive Trailer: Take A Peek At The Acclaimed Films Coming To The Upcoming Event

Most all of the major works by revered world cinema directors—many of which have premiered at other fests already— have some kind of presence at NYFF.

Continue reading New York Film Festival 2021: The 17 Most Anticipated Films at The Playlist.

Trust us when we say we hope there’s a day when the words pandemic and COVID-19 are never written on the pages of this website again, specifically in any intros to any features. However, the reality is that the collective disruption of 2020 was difficult, and it made 2021’s release schedule something of a log-jammed shitshow. That Delta variant could play havoc with things too, but we’re all starting to learn to live with a world that’s in flux. 

READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2021, So Far

All that said, the delays of 2021 have had their pluses.

Continue reading Fall 2021 Movie Preview: 60+ Must-See Films at The Playlist.

Yes, it’s that time again. Before you can even take a moment (or two months) to smell the roses, it’s Oscar season again and the race for that elusive Best Picture win. Granted, in a “traditional” year we’d be in a post-Cannes period looking forward to the deluge of fall festival world premieres. However, this year the pandemic pushed the annual French cinematic lovefest to July. With the Venice, Telluride, and TIFF trifecta beginning just six weeks later, the 2022 season is in for a fast and furious start.

Continue reading Ultimate 2022 Oscars Best Picture Contenders Guide at The Playlist.

As she explained to us in an interview of the Deep Focus podcast, Rebecca Hall has been working a long time bringing her directorial debut, “Passing,” to life. Even though the debut was delayed due to the pandemic, the period drama finally premiered as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. And after receiving great reviews, it appears Hall has found a distributor for her black and white feature.

Continue reading Rebecca Hall’s Sundance Film ‘Passing’ Lands Massive Netflix Deal at The Playlist.

Irene (Tessa Thompson) rarely passes for white. She fears for her safety too much to do so. When she does, white people, from cab drivers to store clerks, treat her with deference. See, passing is an act by which a person assumes the racial (or sexual) identity of the dominant culture so they might garner that identity’s advantages. For instance, in the opening scene, Irene wants to buy a toy for her sons in a white-owned shop; using her sun hat to obscure her eyes and face partially, she purchases the trinket under the allusion of whiteness.

Continue reading ‘Passing’: Rebecca Hall’s Debut Is A Delicate, Tension-Filled Acting Showcase [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

You know Rebecca Hall from her celebrated acting career, Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “Frost/Nixon,” Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give,” Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” Joel Edgerton’s “The Gift,” Antonio Campos’ striking indie “Christine,” Amazon’s “Tales From The Loop” and many more.

Continue reading Rebecca Hall Talks Her Sundance Directorial Debut ‘Passing,’ Her Family’s Bi-Racial Ancestry, Questions Of Identity & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

Every year is a good year to stan female directors, but 2021 has cooked us up a real feast. Acting veterans like Rebecca Hall, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, and Halle Berry are finally claiming their director’s chairs on feature films, while arthouse icon Jane Campion is returning to hers after 12 years. Foreign language directors like Lucile Hadžihalilović and Ildikó Enyedi are making their English-language debuts, and French juggernaut Mélanie Laurent is working on two releases back to back.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2021 at The Playlist.

The fact there are even 72 selections for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival is something of a miracle. The fall festivals had the benefit of movies that mostly shot before the pandemic hit in March. Outside of three selections originally set to debut at Cannes (a silver lining for Sundance), most of the narrative pictures premiering in January were shot at least partially after the virus hit North America. When there is a will, there is a way.

Continue reading 25 Most Anticipated 2021 Sundance Film Festival Premieres at The Playlist.

The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is going to be different than any other previous version of the event. Due to its winter schedule, this year, the American festival was able to come in right before COVID-19 took hold in the US and canceled a bunch of other film events in 2020. However, with the pandemic likely to remain with us through much of 2021, the event will have to undergo changes including screenings held digitally via Sundance-built online platform and in-person on Satellite Screens across the country (public health permitting).

Continue reading Sundance 2021 Film Festival Line-Up Includes New Films By Edgar Wright, Rebecca Hall, Robin Wright, Ben Wheatley & More at The Playlist.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Aside from the election result, Trashfire 2020™ was a shitty year. And a weird and disorienting year thanks to COVID-19 and having to shelter-in-place, quarantine, and social distance from one another blah, blah, blah coronavirus f*cked us hard. Movies certainly took it in the teeth this year, and especially the theatrical industrial complex, which feels like it’s on its last legs. But regardless of what happens next for theaters, people are going to continue making and releasing movies.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021 at The Playlist.

COVID-19 is over! Movies are back! And everything is… safe? Hardly. It’s been a weird 2020.5 (an adjunct year that started in March) and it’s been going on for about 2.5 years so far. Sundance and Berlin in the 1st half of 2020 were definitely a few years ago and the new normal is so normal… it’s ok to go back to theaters? We’re as dubious, nervous and hesitant as you. In fact, we’d given up on doing most kinds of film festival previews this year—we threw any ideas of a summer film preview out the window given that the summer schedule kept constantly changing and any predictions about reopening theaters turned out to be as premature and overly optimistic as we all thought.

Continue reading 2020 Fall Film Preview: 40 Most Anticipated Films To Watch at The Playlist.

Actor Rebecca Hall comes from a unique and interesting pedigree and lineage. There’s the surface element of that pedigree which could be seen as aristocratic privilege in the world of the arts. She is the daughter of the famous theatre director Sir Peter Hall (who passed away in 2017) and her mother is the legendary opera singer and stage actress Maria Ewing. Hall attended Cambridge University’s constitute school, St Catharine’s College, studied English, and eventually found her way back to acting after some time briefly spent as an actor during childhood.

Continue reading Rebecca Hall Talks Complicated Notions Of Bi-Racial Identity In Directorial Debut ‘Passing,’ ‘Tales From The Loop’ & More [Deep Focus Podcast] at The Playlist.

Academy snubs be damned, 2019 was a spectacular end to a decade of outstanding films directed by women. Joanna Hogg reinvented visual memoir with “The Souvenir,” Lulu Wang challenged American conceptions of family and death in “The Farewell,” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” adaptation upended one of the most iconic American novels by and about a woman.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2020 at The Playlist.

2018 may have revitalized the “Year of the Woman” in politics, but it was also an outstanding year for female filmmakers. Auteurs like Karyn Kusama (“Destroyer”), Debra Granik (“Leave No Trace”), and Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”) produced jaw-dropping independent dramas while smaller names like Jennifer Fox (“The Tale”), Chloe Zhao (“The Rider”), and Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”) pushed the boundaries of filmmaking to create challenging works of art.

Continue reading The Most Anticipated Films By Female Filmmakers In 2019 at The Playlist.

Golden Globe-nominated actress Rebecca Hall is adding the title of writer-director to her impressive IMDB. According to Deadline, Hall has signed on to write and direct an adaptation of the Nella Larsen novella “Passing.” And joining her are two incredible actresses.

“Passing” tells the story about the 1920s Harlem Renaissance and the practice of “racial passing.” Racial passing is the term used to describe a person of one racial group that seeks to be included in another racial group for acceptance.

Continue reading Tessa Thompson & Ruth Negga To Star In Rebecca Hall’s Directorial Debut ‘Passing’ at The Playlist.