If there is any “brand” under the Disney umbrella that has seemingly been hurt the most since COVID began in 2020, it’s Pixar. What was once the premier animation studio in the entire film industry has turned into a struggling branch of the Disney content factory, with three of its last five films being sent straight to Disney+. But now, with Disney looking for any sort of brightspot after a year of turmoil, those streaming films might be the answer. 

Continue reading Disney To Finally Release ‘Soul,’ ‘Luca’ & ‘Turning Red’ In Theaters Next Year at The Playlist.

Pixar’s critically acclaimed 23rd film, “Soul,” surprised no one by winning two Oscars at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday night. The critical and audience favorite not only won the Animated Feature Oscar but took the Original Score category as well. That made it a memorable night for director Pete Docter who just also happens to be the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar.

READ MORE: ‘Soul’: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers & Dana Murray On Telling An Authentic New York Story In Pixar’s Latest [The Fourth Wall]

This turned out to be Pixar’s 11th win in the Animated Feature category and Docter’s third individual win.

Continue reading ‘Soul’ Wins Animated Feature & Original Score At 2021 Oscars at The Playlist.

The Oscars may have combined the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories into one Best Sound award this year, but the industry honors are continuing to move forward separately. Over the past two days, the MPSE Golden Reel Awards (Sound Editing) and the Cinema Audio Society’s CAS Awards (Sound Mixing) announced their yearly honors. Films and programs that won honors from both organizations included “Soul,” “The Queen’s Gambit” and “The Mandalorian.”

READ MORE: “Trial of the Chicago 7,” “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Palm Springs” win key ACE Eddie Awards

“Sound of Metal” won the key CAS Award for a Motion Picture.

Continue reading ‘Queens Gambit’ & ‘Soul’ Win Key CAS Awards & Golden Reel Honors at The Playlist.

You can hire the best actors, the best screenwriter, and the most inspired director, but without top-tier editing, the result can be an embarrassing mess. The American Cinema Editors are the best of the best in keeping Hollywood moving, especially during a pandemic-effected era. The organization handed out their ACE Eddie Awards on Saturday with “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (in something of an upset), “The Queen’s Gambit,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Better Call Saul,” “Ozark,” “My Octopus Teacher” as the big winners.

Continue reading ‘Trial of the Chicago 7,’ ‘Palm Springs’ & ‘Queen’s Gambit’ Top ACE Eddie Awards Winners 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.

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.

Every column has felt overloaded as of late, as if home video distributors know we’re all planning on finally leaving the house soon, and want to sell us a few more things while they can.

Continue reading The 14 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘News Of The World,’ ‘Collective,’ ‘World Of Wong Kar-Wai’ & More 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.

Did we suggest there were no more guild honors to be handed out? Surprise! It’s not the ASC that has the last laugh before Oscar nominations, but the American Cinema Editors instead. The society revealed their nominees for the 71st Eddie Awards this morning which gave major Academy Award and Emmy boosts to “Sound of Metal,” “Minari,” “Ted Lasso,” and “The Queen’s Gambit.”

READ MORE: “Mank,” “Nomadland” and “The Great” among 2021 ASC Awards nominees [Full List]

The most prestigious category is Feature Film (Dramatic) where “Sound of Metal,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Mank,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” made the cut.

Continue reading ‘Sound Of Metal,’ ‘Nomadland’ & ‘Ted Lasso’ Earn 2021 ACE Eddie Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

It’s that time of year again—where the biggest names in Hollywood get all glammed up, gather in front of their webcams, and wait for their Zoom meeting to begin so they can find out who won this year’s Golden Globes. With COVID-19 still a major issue in the US and around the world, this year’s 78th Annual Golden Globes Awards did things a bit differently, as the ceremony was mostly a digital affair but with some familiar elements.

Continue reading Golden Globes 2021 Full Winners List: ‘Nomadland,’ ‘Queen’s Gambit,’ Chadwick Boseman & More at The Playlist.

Some years it’s great being a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press. Your organization gives millions of dollars away to charitable causes and everyone wants to come to your parties at the Beverly Hilton. Other years, journalists uncover some “unsavory” details about the group of just 80+ voting members and, well, all that public relations work goes down the drain. The 2021 Golden Globes, delayed because of the pandemic, are shaping up to land in the latter category.

Continue reading Golden Globes 2021 Predictions: ‘Trial Of The Chicago 7,’ ‘The Crown,’ ‘Hamilton’ & More 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.

Just 36 films were eligible for the Original Score Academy Award this year for a variety of reasons. That means your chances of landing on the shortlist were not so bad at almost 50/50. And for the composers of “Ammonite,” “The Invisible Man,” “Soul” and “The Little Things,” the odds were definitely in your favor.

READ MORE: “Minari” and “The Crown” rule 2021 SAG Awards nominations

There were few snubs among the selected scores although Hans Zimmer (“Wonder Woman 1984”), Mark Isham and Craig Harris (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), and Bruno Coulais (“Wolfwalkers”) might have a case.

Continue reading ‘Soul,’ ‘Minari’ & ‘Tenet’ Make The 2021 Original Score Oscars Shortlist at The Playlist.

Slightly delayed due to the pandemic, the American Film Institute announced their annual top 10 lists for 2020, and, as always, there were numerous surprises. Long hyped Oscar contenders such as “Nomadland,” “Minari” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” made the list, but so did underdogs such as “Sound of Metal” and “Da 5 Bloods.” On the television side, it was more predictable with only recent seasons of “Ramy” and “What We Do In Shadows” and newcomers such as “The Undoing,” “Never Have I Ever” and “P Valley” among the snubs.

Continue reading ‘Sound of Metal’ & ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’ Make AFI’s Top 10 Lists 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.

If you thought Pixar’s resume couldn’t get any more impressive, “Soul“—the studio’s upcoming release about passion, music, and a soul-in-training—will prove you wrong. That’s no small task. After all, Pixar already boasts a repertoire of celebrated works. “Toy Story,” “Monster’s Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Coco,” and the list goes on.

Continue reading ‘Soul’: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers & Dana Murray On Telling An Authentic New York Story In Pixar’s Latest [The Fourth Wall] 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.

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.

In spite of the general state of the world, 2020 ended up being a pretty great year for films – expectations for long-awaited auteur projects that were supposed to come out this year obviously being exempt from that conversation – and what’s more, it was a great year for film scores and soundtracks.

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

All of the films featured on this list are films that have drastically less of an impact without music, and there is a wide, rather dizzying array of talent here: seasoned professionals who’ve been doing this a long while, young up-and-comers who are interested in muddying the definition of what a traditional movie soundtrack is supposed to sound like, plus that dude from Phoenix writing new music for his wife’s movie (which is really just another way of saying if you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “On The Rocks” yet, do so immediately). 

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021

At times, 2020 seemed like it had made time for every obscure musical subgenre under the sun: dancehall (“Lover’s Rock”), noise-metal (“Sound of Metal”), reggaeton (“Ema”), and Baltimore hip-hop (“Charm City Kings”).

Continue reading The 20 Best Soundtracks & Scores Of 2020 at The Playlist.

Today at Walt Disney‘s Investors Day call, Pixar Animation Studios’ Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter shared details about the Northern California studio’s upcoming slate of original series for Disney+ and feature films. “Today, I’m excited to introduce you to a bunch of fresh, new filmmakers,” Docter said. “Getting their voices on the screen is our key focus right now – while at the same time allowing our veteran filmmakers to continue to do their great work.

Continue reading Pixar Reveals New Slate: A Buzz ‘Lightyear’ Prequel Voiced By Chris Evans, An ‘Up’ Series Spin-Off & More at The Playlist.

Greetings, fellow exhausteds, and welcome to The Best Films of 2020, a year that, despite being less than 365 days old, has aged so rapidly that Gary Oldman is circling the biopic. Some, uh, unusual stuff happened this year – I don’t know if you noticed – and it made compiling this collective list even more interesting than usual. A record-breaking 34 regular Playlist contributors submitted top tens (you can find the complete list of those to blame/praise for this ranking at the end of the feature).

Continue reading The 25 Best Films 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.

In the age of Covid-19, release dates, might be fluid, but release dates and trailers essentially have symbiotic relationships. New date? A new trailer, especially when that date is fixed and no longer beholden to the vagaries of Covid-19 susceptible theaters. Now that Disney’s Pixar movie “Soul” is no longer a theatrical release, it now premieres on Disney+ beginning Dec. 25, 2020—Disney has released a new trailer for the film update all the parents who will surely be letting their kids be aware.

Continue reading ‘Soul’ Trailer: Pixar Wants Everyone To Know Their Animated Hit Is Moving To Disney+ at The Playlist.

Once upon a time, you were guaranteed flawlessness from a Pixar production, aside from the odd “Cars” flick here and there. The studio has, however, become something of a sequel mill over the past decade, boasting only a few masterworks since the halcyon days of “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E” and “Up”; the five years since they released what was arguably their greatest work, “Inside Out,” stands out as something of a creative no man’s land.

Continue reading ‘Soul’ Vividly Recaptures Joy & Is A Mesmerizing Return To Form For Pixar [Review] at The Playlist.

The dominos of departing theatrical releases from the 2020 calendar continue as theater chains face hurdles opening in the United States due to a continuing widespread COVID-19 pandemic and closures loom as Europe finds itself on the verge of a second wave. Expected blockbusters such as “Dune” and “No Time To Die” have already pushed to 2021 and now one of Disney’s expected crown jewels has joined their ranks. The Walt Disney Company announced today that Pixar’s “Soul,“ the Oscar frontrunner for Best Animated Feature, will debut on Disney+ on Christmas Day instead of in theaters.

Continue reading Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Moves To Disney+ On Christmas Day at The Playlist.

It finally happened. After more than a week of being “semi-official,” it appears that Disney has pulled the trigger and reshuffled its entire film slate yet again, in the wake of recent theatrical developments. Now, it appears that “Black Widow” is finally confirmed for 2021, but not February, as many predicted. No, we’re going to have to wait a full year after its original release date to see Scarlett Johansson’s MCU swansong.

Continue reading Disney Pushes ‘Black Widow’ & ‘West Side Story’ To 2021 As Studio Reshuffles Rest Of 2020 Slate at The Playlist.