Great news for those who loved Ana de Armas as Paloma, the bright-eyed yet deadly CIA agent who helped Daniel Craig’s Bond out of a jam in Cuba in last year’s “No Time To Die.” De Armas plays a similar character in “Ballerina,” an upcoming “John Wick” spin-off that features the Cuban actress as a female assassin. The movie features a generic logline: a trained killer is out for blood against those who killed her family.

Continue reading ‘Ballerina’: Ana De Armas Called In ‘Promising Young Woman’ Filmmaker To Punch Up Script Of Upcoming Actioner at The Playlist.

Virtual awards ceremonies will soon (we hope) be a thing of the past, but, sadly, the 2021 Independent Spirit Awards are still firmly in the pandemic era. The traditional Saturday afternoon pre-Oscar day drinking telecast moved to a Thursday night Prime Time slot on IFC with Melissa Villaseñor admirably taking the reigns. And, perhaps forecasting a big win on Sunday, Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” took four Spirit Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Cinemtography (Joshua James Richards).

Continue reading Spirit Awards 2021 Full Winners List: ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Sound Of Metal,’ ‘I May Destroy You’ & More at The Playlist.

People are getting vaccinated, movie theaters are reopening and Oscar season is almost mercifully over. Yes, it’s time for the MTV Movie and TV Awards to return. After a 2020 pandemic-affected hiatus, Viacom’s own version of a synergistic people’s choice awards have announced their nominations and…wait, a minute. Some of these are actually…inspired?

READ MORE: Lady Gaga rains down on the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards

Sure, the event has gone a little too crazy with a slew of new reality-focused honors, and partially mixing the television and movie categories is a mess, but “The Boys” with 4 nominations?

Continue reading ‘WandaVision,’ ‘The Boys’ & ‘Drag Race’ Lead Reality Heavy MTV Movie & TV Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

Another day in April means another virtual awards show keeping zoom cameras busy. Monday evening was left for the Costume Designer Guild who, as expected, brought the looks for their ceremony even if it was in their own living rooms. The big news, however, was Oscar frontrunner Ann Roth duplicating her BAFTA Award win with a CDG Awards win in Period Costume for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

READ MORE: “Nomadland” wins Best Film and Anthony Hopkins surprises at 2021 BAFTA Awards

In other film categories, Nancy Steiner took the Contemporary Film category for “Promising Young Woman” and Bina Daigeler won Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film for “Mulan.”

Debra Hanson won for Contemporary Television for “Schitt’s Creek” and Gabriele Binder took the honor in Period Television for “The Queens’ Gambit.” Paul Tazewell won the Variety, Reality or Live Television category for “Hamilton.” Work that also won him a Tony Award way back in 2016.

Continue reading ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Sew Up Costume Designers Guild Awards at The Playlist.

Is there room for upsets at the Oscars? That depends on how you categorize an upset. In theory, Chadwick Boseman is still the locked frontrunner to take the Best Actor prize at the Academy Awards in two weeks, but Anthony Hopkins pulled off something of a surprise winning the equivalent honor at the 2021 BAFTA Awards. Does that put Boseman’s posthumous honor from the Oscars in doubt? Unlikely.

READ MORE: “Black is King,” “Mank,” “Soul” and “Tenet” triumph at 2021 Art Directors Guild Awards

Among the other awards, “Nomadland” took four honors including Best Film, Best Director (Chloe Zhao), Leading Actress (Frances McDormand), and Cinematography (Joshua James Richards).

Continue reading ‘Nomadland’ Wins Best Film As Anthony Hopkins Surprises At 2021 BAFTA Awards at The Playlist.

If it’s a Sunday evening in March 2021 it must be time for the guild award honors to begin. On this day, the Writer’s Guild of America handed out their annual WGA Awards winners and the two biggest awards gave only a hint of what might happen on Oscar night. In the Original Category, Emerald Fennell won for “Promising Young Woman” while Sacha Baron Cohen and nine other writers were honored in Adapted Screenplay for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Both are nominated for Academy Awards to be handed out next month.

Continue reading ‘Promising Young Woman’ & ‘Ted Lasso’ Among 2021 WGA Awards Winners at The Playlist.

And then there were eight. The Best Picture nominees have been widdled down to a chosen few and from a layman’s perspective, it might appear that the race to take Oscar’s most prestigious prize is surprisingly wide open. “Mank” led all films, including Best Picture nominees, with ten nods, but there were six films with six nods and one, “Promising Young Woman,” with five. But upon closer inspection, things are slightly more complicated.

Continue reading ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Promising Young Woman’ Or ‘Minari’ For The Win? [Contender Countdown] 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.

Your latest new release round-up includes a big winner at yesterday’s Oscar nominations, a 4K upgrade for a dopey ‘80s favorite [Editor’s note: How dare you, Jason Bailey?

Continue reading The 12 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘The Inheritance,’ ‘Rad’ & More at The Playlist.

We are nearing the crescendo of a very long, very pandemic-y awards season, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, aka The Academy, released the 2021 Oscars nominations. And though plenty of folks predicted this year could be a historical one, in terms of diversity and inclusivity, those prognosticators were actually right. In terms of inclusivity and diversity, the 2021 Oscars are shaping up to be a historical ceremony for Hollywood, which comes just several years after the awards show was called out for its extreme lack of non-white male nominees.

Continue reading Oscars Diversity: Chloé Zhao, Steven Yeun, Riz Ahmed & More Score Historic Nominations at The Playlist.

Two months later than usual, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 93rd Oscars. The honorees were revealed by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas in a virtual broadcast which had actually become the norm for The Academy even before the pandemic began a little over a year ago. As always, AMPAS members provided a number of surprises for Oscar followers around the globe.

READ MORE: Best and Worst of the 2021 Grammy Awards

“Mank” led all films with 10 nominations.

Continue reading ‘Mank,’ ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Minari’ & ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’ Lead 2021 Oscars Nominations at The Playlist.

Is now when the fun begins? After a historic two-month pandemic-related postponement, the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards are about to be announced. It’s been a strange campaign with no official in-person screenings, virtual Q&As, and almost every major contender already available on streaming or PVOD. But, hey, it’s the Oscars! And a ceremony at the end of April means friends and family might be able to congregate (masked or vaccine confirmed, obviously) to watch outside.

Continue reading 2021 Oscar Nominations Predictions: ‘Sound Of Metal,’ Andra Day, Janelle Monae, ‘Minari’ & More at The Playlist.

There are four major bellwethers for the Academy Awards. The SAG Awards, the PGA Awards, the DGA Awards, and, increasingly, the BAFTA Awards. The Academy, which governs the Oscars, is made up primarily of the aforementioned guilds. Over the past decade, however, there has been more overlap in membership between AMPAS and its British counterpart than decades past. That’s why today’s announcement of the 2021 BAFTA Film Awards was so provocative.

READ MORE: “Nomadland,” “Minari” and “I May Destroy You” among 2021 PGA Awards nominees [Full List]

“Nomadland” and “Rocks” led all films with seven nominations.

Continue reading ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Rocks’ & ‘Promising Young Woman’ Lead 2021 BAFTA Nominations at The Playlist.

The Producers Guild of America announced the pandemic delayed nominees for the 2021 PGA Awards and the “surprises” in the film category were not that surprising. Best Picture frontrunners “Nomadland,” “Minari” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” all made the cut, along with other familiar titles. The “surprises” came with the inclusion of two Amazon Studios releases, “Sound of Metal” and “Borat Subsdquent Moviefilm.”

READ MORE: “Minari” and “The Crown” lead 2021 SAG Awards nominations [Complete List]

The other five nominees were “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Mank” and “One Night in Miami…” and “Promising Young Woman.

Continue reading ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Minari’ & ‘I May Destory You’ Among 2021 PGA Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

When it comes to screenwriting, there are few better and cheaper resources than the annual awards season. In a bid to get Oscar voters and film critics belonging to a critics group to consider their film in a certain script category, studios offer their screenplays for free. This means you can count exactly how many times the name Mank is uttered in David Fincher‘s “Mank” for yourself!

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020 You Didn’t See

If you want to see for yourself what changed from the page to the screen in “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” or whether the script for “Tenet” makes any more sense than the film, then this is a golden opportunity to take a peek behind the curtain and see how the best or biggest in the business hone their craft.

Continue reading Download The 2021 Awards Season Screenplays For Free at The Playlist.

The Writers Guild of America announced their film nominees for the delayed 2021 WGA Awards and, once again, the films that didn’t qualify shaped the list of honorees more than those who did. Awards season players “The Trial of the Chicago 7” and “Promising Young Woman” made the cut as expected in the Original Screenplay category. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “One Night in Miami” earned Adapted Screenplay nominations, also as expected.

Continue reading ‘Trial of the Chicago 7,’ ‘One Night In Miami’ Lead WGA Awards Film Noms at The Playlist.

If you haven’t seen or heard of the recent film “Apples,” you probably should seek it out. It’s the film by the first-time director, Christos Nikou, who is a sort of protege to Yorgos Lanthimos. And like his mentor, Nikou’s debut film is a strange, surreal trip that is easily one of the best films to debut on the festival circuit last year. And for Nikou’s follow-up, “Fingernails,” he’s been able to nab a star that is one of the best actors on the planet, Carey Mulligan, for what is sure to be yet another crazy feature.

Continue reading Carey Mulligan Joins ‘Fingernails’ From Producer Cate Blanchett & ‘Apples’ Filmmaker Christos Nikou at The Playlist.

As America deals with the aftermath of a mob insurrection at the capital and a record number of COVID cases, the world continues to move forward in the best way it can. And that means, yes, for whatever it’s worth the extended 2021 Oscar season continues. Over the next seven weeks, there will be six new Best Picture contenders that will attempt to sway the opinions of AMPAS members before the February 28th deadline. Assuming voters haven’t already settled on their favorites over the holiday break and what’s turning out to be an extended COVID shooting shut down in LA.

Continue reading New Year, New Best Picture Players In 2021 Oscar Race [Contender Countdown] at The Playlist.

How talented is Emerald Fennell? So much so that in the span of two months she went tete-a-tete with Princess Diana as the indomitable Camilla Parker Bowles in Season 4 of “The Crown” and won the prestigious Best Screenplay honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for her feature directorial debut, “Promising Young Woman.” And before the pandemic hit? Oh, she was just prepping a new “Cinderella” musical for the West End with some composer name Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Continue reading ‘Promising Young Woman’s’ Emerald Fennell On “The Only Ending That Made Sense” & The Gag Reel You’ll Never See [Interview] at The Playlist.

Carey Mulligan’s latest film, the provocatively dark and twisted comedic thriller, “Promising Young Woman” — about a young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, who seeks out vengeance against those who cross her path — has certainly sparked conversation on social media and within the film community. The actress recently sat down with the New York Times and, during her interview, vented about a deeply tone-deaf Variety review that seemingly attempted to critique her performance in the film based on her looks and suggesting that producer Margot Robbie should have been placed in the role instead for hardly substantive reasons (and is a superficial reading of the film that of course, entirely misses the point of the film).

Continue reading Carey Mulligan Slams A ‘Promising Young Woman’ Review That Complained She Wasn’t “Hot Enough” at The Playlist.

I think we can all agree that Carey Mulligan should have more than one Oscar nomination to her name. Yes, her nod for a decade ago for “An Education” was well deserved, but in the years following she’s been overlooked far too often for incredible performances in “Shame,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Wildlife,” among others. That may change after her LA Film Critics’ Best Actress win for “Promising Young Woman.”

READ MORE: Gregory Ellwood’s top 10 films of 2020: “Nomadland,” “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman”

The directorial debut of Emerald Ferrell, who also took LAFCA’s Best Screenplay honor, “Promising” finds Mulligan portraying Cassie, an almost 30-year-old medical school dropout who is admittedly wasting her talents away working at a coffee shop.

Continue reading Carey Mulligan’s Revisits Her 23-Day ‘Promising Young Woman’ Shoot & The Joy Of Dancing To ‘Stars Are Blind’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

If it’s a Sunday in December it means it’s time for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association to hand out their year-end honors. The big winner was Steve McQueen’s film anthology commissioned for the BBC and Amazon Prime Video, “Small Axe.” It took Best Film, Best Cinematography and McQueen was runner up for Best Director.

READ MORE: “First Cow” chosen as Best Film of 2020 by NYFCC

Chloe Zhao won Best Director for “Nomadland” which also was runner up for Cinematography.

Continue reading LA Film Critics Select Steve McQueen’s ‘Small Axe’ As Best Film at The Playlist.

Reflecting on the best trailers released in 2020 feels at once vital and torturous – would we have reacted differently upon first viewing, had we known we might not actually see these films for months, or even years in some cases? The film industry soldiers on and rides with the blows, so we sit tight at home while we wait to enjoy so many movies on the big screen. Then, all we have are the morsels of footage strung together to whet our appetites months and months ago. 

READ MORE: The Best Horror Films Of 2020 (So Far)

In some instances, these are mini-masterpieces in themselves, a showcase of all the dizzying talent sure to expand and bloom across 90 minutes or more.

Continue reading The Best Trailers Of 2020 at The Playlist.

We’re living in the middle of a pandemic, nearly every theatrical release has vacated the 2020 hellscape, but somehow, as the year comes to a close, we’re offered, an overwhelming number of films worth exploring (isn’t film over?). Some have been celebrated since January of this year at Sundance, while others made their festival arrivals later but stunned nonetheless. Others, such as “Soul” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” will experiment with just how much success a typical tentpole film can have at home.

Continue reading 16 Films To See In December: ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Pieces Of A Woman,’ ‘Mank’ & More at The Playlist.

Over the course of her career, Carey Mulligan has shown her prowess at playing some of the most interesting female characters to grace the big screen, in features such as “Drive,” “Shame,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Mudbound,” and “Wildlife.” However, according to the actress, not all of the female characters she has had the pleasure of bringing to life survive the editing room unscathed, which she feels is a serious problem in Hollywood.

Continue reading Carey Mulligan Doesn’t Think Hollywood “Represents Women Honestly In Film” at The Playlist.

The #MeToo movement has been incredibly powerful and emotional for a whole generation of victims of sexual assault and abuse. However, that doesn’t mean the sweeping movement that has seen the voices of victims being supported and promoted is perfect. Things are still not great. And that’s where “Promising Young Woman” comes in.

READ MORE: ‘Promising Young Woman’: A Darkly Funny & Wildly Provocative Revenge Thriller [Sundance Review]

As seen in the trailer for the film, “Promising Young Woman” follows the story of a former med school student who leaves her classes after making a sexual assault allegation against a male classmate.

Continue reading ‘Promising Young Woman’ Trailer: Carey Mulligan Stars In A Revenge Thriller Now Scheduled For Christmas at The Playlist.