Well, that was weird. 

Oscar night felt a bit like an off-brand version of an Oscar night – and not in a bad way (at least until the end). But there were times when the rehearsal-dinner vibe was impossible to ignore, especially at the end when it felt like ringmaster Steven Soderbergh handed the reins to Luis Buñuel, everyone was getting a little tetchy and impatient, the cake course was served before the entree and when it was time for Gramps’ speech he’d already gone to bed – possibly embarrassed by Mamaw’s twerking.

Continue reading The Snubs And Surprises Of The 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.

Even though many folks still think of him as the guy who directed films like “Step Brothers” and “Anchorman,” Adam McKay has found a second life as a filmmaker, directing features that are overtly political, such as “Vice” and “The Big Short.” He’s gone from being the guy that makes Will Ferrell comedies to the man that is clearly not afraid to share his liberal ideology and does so in a thoughtful, still humorous way.

Continue reading Adam McKay Calls Aaron Sorkin His “Right-Wing” Counterpart at The Playlist.

If Netflix was going to have a golden night this award season it was going to be at the SAG Awards and, surprise, the actors came through. The streaming service took major honors including the Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture for “Trial of the Chicago 7” and “The Crown” won for Drama Series ensemble for the second year in a row. Overall, Netflix won 7 SAG Awards categories announced during the pre-tapped ceremony.

Continue reading ‘Trial Of The Chicago 7,’ ‘Schitt’s Creek’ & ‘The Crown’ Top Historic 2021 SAG Awards 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.

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.

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.

The last guild awards announcement for 2021 was reserved for the American Society of Cinematographers which, in truth, isn’t a guild, but represents the most important creative aspect of a movie, the image itself. More than any other guild honor, the Oscar for Best Cinematography rarely deviates from the Feature Film nominees from the ASC Awards. So, that should make the Directors of Photography behind “Mank,” “Nomadland,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “News of the World” and “Cherry” quite happy today.

Continue reading ‘Mank,’ ‘Nomadland’ & ‘The Great’ Among 2021 ASC Awards Nominees at The Playlist.

The Directors Guild of America Awards were first held in 1949. The first woman to be nominated in the Feature Film category was Lina Wertmüller in 1977. Another woman, Barbra Streisand, wasn’t nominated until 1992. Only four other women have been nominated since with Kathryn Bigelow winning for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010. Over four decades after Wertmüller crashed the party the DGA finally showed a sliver of equity as “Nomadland’s” Chloe Zhao and “Promising Young Woman’s” Emerald Fennell were both nominated in the same year.

Continue reading Chloe Zhao & Emerald Fennell Land Historic DGA Awards Nominations 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.

Over the weekend, Aaron Sorkin landed a Golden Globe trophy for his screenplay for his recent Netflix feature, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The award is just one of many the filmmaker has been collecting over this awards season, culminating in what many believe to be some Oscar gold later this spring. And if you listen to the cast he put together for his period legal drama, all of this acclaim and recognition is well-deserved.

Continue reading ‘The Trial Of The Chicago 7’ Exclusive Featurette: The Ensemble Cast Talks The Brilliance Of Aaron Sorkin at The Playlist.

As Academy members drive through Los Angeles under an onslaught of FYC banners they are only days away from voting on the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards. And while the Golden Globes delivered the lowest-rated telecast in 13 years, they did provide something of a public relations boost to a number of contenders. Moreover, if you believe the mantra “you win Best Picture in phase one,” no positive publicity is bad publicity (even when it’s coming from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association).

Continue reading ‘Nomadland’ & ‘Minari’ Get Globes PR Boost In Best Picture Race [Contender Countdown] 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.

When you think of some of the most iconic moments in an Aaron Sorkin-written film or TV show, they all likely take place indoors. Whether it’s a boardroom in “Social Network” or a courtroom in films such as “The Trial of the Chicago 7” or even “A Few Good Men,” many of the most memorable lines of dialogue from Sorkin’s past take place in the confines of four walls and a roof.

Continue reading Aaron Sorkin Explains Why Most Of His Films Take Place Indoors: “I Need Four Walls Very Badly” at The Playlist.

There are now less than three weeks left until voting for the 93rd Academy Awards is completed. And as the date grows closer, more members and consultants are expressing their belief there will be fewer Best Picture nominees than “normal.” Granted, we’ve heard this scuttlebutt before only to see the membership magically work the math to still land at least eight nominees. But could this be the year voters break that streak?

READ MORE: “Mank” and “The Crown” lead 2021 Golden Globe Awards nominations

Since the Academy went to a statistical formula to determine the Best Picture nominees for the 84th Oscars, there have been just three years where only eight nominees were selected (2015, 2016, 2019).

Continue reading Just How Many Best Picture Nominees In 2021? [Contender Countdown] 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 have followed The Playlist for even a brief period, you will quickly realize that most of the staff here adores David Fincher and his filmography. Hell, that’s not unique, as a ton of film fans absolutely love the work the filmmaker does. And we have to assume that there are a large number of actors in Hollywood that feel the same way. So, it must be nice, if you’re Sacha Baron Cohen, to hear David Fincher rave on and on about how great you are during a conversation with a fellow filmmaker, Aaron Sorkin.

Continue reading David Fincher Says Make-Up Tests For Sacha Baron Cohen As Freddie Mercury Are “Spectacular” at The Playlist.

As awards season settles into its extended 2021 schedule the one organization there is no cure for, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are ready for their spotlight. Yes, the Golden Globe Awards will reveal their nominees on Wednesday morning and, as usual, every studio, network, and streamer is quaking in their boots. Pandemic, shandemic, it’s the same old racket.

READ MORE: “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Nomadland” and “I May Destroy You” top 2021 Independent Spirit Awards nominations

Every year, Hollywood spends thousands of dollars with consultants who quiz the HFPA members about what they like and what they don’t for months on end.

Continue reading Golden Globes Nominations Predictions 2021: ‘Trial Of The Chicago 7,’ Zendaya, ‘Hamilton’ at The Playlist.

On this episode of the Deep Focus Podcast, my guest is writer/director Aaron Sorkin known for writing “The Social Network,” “Moneyball,” “A Few Good Men,” “The West Wing,” and dozens of more screenwriting classics. The legendary screenwriter has shifted his focus to directing and returns with his second feature-length film following “Molly’s Game,” the politically charged and now-hyper-relevant “The Trial of The Chicago 7,” which is now on Netflix.  

Continue reading Aaron Sorkin Talks The ‘Trial Of The Chicago 7,’ Democratic Party Splintering & His Ideas For A ‘Social Network’ Sequel [Interview] 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.