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“Anora,” the free-wheeling tale of a sex worker who becomes entangled with the family of a Russian oligarch, and “I Saw the TV Glow,” a horror film about two teenagers whose obsession with a show causes them to lose grip on reality, dominated the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Wednesday, picking up six nods apiece. Both movies are up for best feature, competing against the body horror film, “The Substance,” as well as “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing,” dramas that deal with different aspects of the criminal justice system.

This year the Spirit Awards Film nominating committees said the movies it considered ranged in budget from $112,000 to $28 million. Those budgetary caps don’t apply to the shows that the Spirits recognized, such as “Shōgun,” a lavish historical epic that topped all series with five nominations, including one for best new scripted series. To be eligible, TV shows only have to...

The 40th Annual Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced live on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern on Film Independent’s YouTube channel. Scroll down for the full list of contenders, and find out who wins during a ceremony hosted by comedian Aidy Bryant on Feb. 22, 2025.

The Spirit Awards honor the best achievements in low-budget American filmmaking and and now breakthrough TV programs as well, as decided by the members of Film Independent. The nominating committees comprised writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, actors, critics, casting directors, film festival programmers and other working film professionals. Winners are chosen by film industry insiders as well as everyday film lovers who pay their yearly dues to be part of Film Independent. Members have access to Film Independent’s exclusive nominee screening room online, as well as a number of awards season experiences including special screenings and Q&As.

Film Independent...

Mark your calendars, Oscars fans, because the 97th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 2, 2025 on ABC. The annual star-studded ceremony will honor movies released in theaters within the 2024 calendar year of eligibility. AMPAS members will vote on the Oscar winners in 23 categories, including Best Actress. But who will win? Here at Gold Derby, thousands of users have been making and updating their 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Actress, so let’s take a look at all of the top contenders in our photo gallery below.

These 25 Best Actress hopefuls are listed in order of their racetrack odds, which are derived from the combined forecasts of four unique groups: experts we’ve polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, top 24 users who had the best accuracy scores last year, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc.

The five most recent...

“A Different Man” was named the best independent film of the year at the 2024 Gotham Awards, which took place on Monday night in New York City.

The win for the drama starring Sebastian Stan came as a surprise at the end of a show in which “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” had been the big winners, and in which “Anora” came in with the most nominations but left empty-handed.

In the gender-neutral acting categories, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin won the lead and supporting awards for “Sing Sing.” Domingo’s category also included Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl,” Nicole Kidman for “Babygirl,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths” and Mikey Madison for “Anora,” while Maclin’s included Yura Borisov for “Anora,” Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain” and Danielle Deadwyler for “Nickel Boys.”

“Nickel Boys” star Brandon Wilson won the award for breakthrough actor, while that film’s director,...

Denzel Washington is on his way to making Oscar history for his performance as a former slave who plots to be the emperor of Rome in Paramount Pictures’ “Gladiator II,” the latest from director Ridley Scott. Right now, he has two Academy Awards to his name for “Glory” (1989) in Best Supporting Actor and “Training Day” (2001) in Best Actor. If he were to prevail for “Gladiator II” in early 2025, he would join an exclusive list of seven other people to win at least three times in the acting categories.

Here are the actors who have achieved this important Oscars milestone:

Katharine Hepburn (4)

Won Best Actress for “Morning Glory” (1933), “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967), “The Lion in Winter” (1968), and “On Golden Pond” (1981)

Frances McDormand (3*)

Won Best Actress for “Fargo” (1996), “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017), and “Nomadland” (2020). *She also has a fourth Oscar for producing “Nomadland.”

Meryl Streep (3)

Won Best Actress for “Sophie’s Choice...

When The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King dominated the 2004 Academy Awards, winning all 11 of its categories including best picture, it made history. Yes, it was the biggest Oscars sweep ever. But it also was probably the first best picture winner with its own toy line.

Until then, well-regarded blockbusters like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark weren’t able to win the big one. And it hasn’t happened since Lotr, despite worthy efforts from Black Panther, both Avatars and Barbie (the only best picture nominee actually based on a toy line).

But this year’s best picture winner could finally herald the resurgence of commercial-juggernaut cinema.

No, not Dune: Part Two, though it could earn a picture nomination. In terms of going all the way, it’s Wicked of which I speak, that Jon M. Chu movie musical about misunderstood witches and talking animals.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film in the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery above features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

The worst among 96 Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film on the bottom of the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery below features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

How do the 2025 Oscars Best Picture contenders stack up on Rotten Tomatoes? And does the film with the highest freshness rating have a better shot at winning the big prize?

While critics’ scores don’t determine the Best Picture lineup (there are thousands of highly-rated movies each year), once the lineup is selected by AMPAS, there are at least a few tea leaves worth noting. For instance, the only film to win Best Picture in the last 10 years with a freshness rating lower than 90% is “Green Book,” which has a Tomatometer score of just 77%.

Last year’s winner, “Oppenheimer,” holds a formidable 93%, but it didn’t rank first among it’s competitors. That distinction went to “The Holdovers,” which has a rating of 97%. So, a movie doesn’t have to have the highest score, but it certainly helps its chances. And falling below 90% would put any movie at an extreme disadvantage,...

Exclusive: Academy Award-winning producer Dan Janvey (Nomadland) has joined Ventureland, the studio behind the Emmy and PGA Award-winning docuseries Beckham and the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Bobi Wine: The People’s President, as Head of Film.

Based in New York City, Janvey joins from the Brooklyn-based Present Company, where he was a producer. His appointment follows news over the summer that Jesse Uram joined as vice president of strategic partnerships, where he is focused on expanding the company’s relationships with partners across the financial, creative, brand and distribution communities. Kerstin Emhoff, John Battsek, Ali Brown launched the studio, specializing in the development of original entertainment across all media platforms, alongside Paul Hunter in 2018.

Producing credits for Janvey include the Best Picture Oscar-winning Nomadland, as well as the Oscar-nominated Time and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Additionally, he has produced Janet Planet, A Love Song, Heart of a Dog, and Patti Cake...

“Anora” has remained Gold Derby’s predictions front-runner to win Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars for several months now, but the runner-up position has kept our awards pundits on their toes. In fact, there is now a three-way tie for second place, as “Emilia Perez,” “The Brutalist,” and “Conclave” all have the same odds of 17/2, compared to “Anora’s” leading 15/2 odds. Note that the Oscar odds will continue to change as our Experts from major media outlets, our website staff Editors, and our Users keep making or updating their predictions.

Sean Baker‘s “Anora” stars Mikey Madison as the titular Brooklyn stripper who gets married to a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Its Oscar chances received a major boost earlier this year when it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The dramedy has the support of these 14 Oscar Experts: Anne Thompson (Indiewire), Cole Jaeger (The Oscar Expert...

Mikey Madison has the potential to make history at the 2025 Oscars in Best Actress with Neon’s “Anora.” At the age of 25, she is receiving universal praise for her portrayal of the title character, a Brooklyn stripper who gets into a whirlwind, impetuous marriage. Sean Baker‘s wild romantic dramedy is continuing to gain massive buzz since winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Madison is currently headlined at the top of the combined odds at Gold Derby to win Best Actress. Should it occur, she would be the ninth youngest Best Actress Oscar winner and the first since over a decade ago.

Let’s take a look at each of the first eight ingenues ahead who achieved this milestone:

Marlee Matlin

Won at age 21 years and 218 days for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986) on March 30, 1987.

Jennifer Lawrence

Won at age 22 years and 193 days for “Silver Linings Playbook...

Put filmmaker Hannah Peterson on a film set, and she’ll know how to do most jobs. Director, writer, editor? Check, check, check. Actor? She did a tiny role for Sean Baker. Dp, costume designer, line producer? Check, check, check. Casting? For Baker’s “The Florida Project,” she “would go into Targets and Wal-Marts and approach people.” For Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” she was “finding real people, and then watching how that becomes imbricated into the script and how those people become a part of this bigger movie engine.”

So when it came time to make her feature film debut, “The Graduates,” Peterson had her skills locked and her inclinations set. The film, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, feels like a spiritual companion to Baker and Zhao’s early work, a finely told story about real human drama.

“Anora,” “Babygirl,” “Challengers,” “A Different Man” and “Nickel Boys” have been nominated as the best films of 2024 by the 2024 Gotham Awards, the Gotham Film & Media Institute announced on Tuesday.

Sean Baker’s “Anora” led all films with four nominations, including Best Feature, Best Director and Outstanding Lead and Supporting Performances for Mikey Madison and Yuri Borisov.

In the gender-neutral Gotham acting categories, other nominees included Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl,” Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Nicole Kidman for “Babygirl,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths,” Demi Moore for “The Substance” and Saoirse Ronan for “The Outrun.”

Eligibility for the Gotham Awards used to be restricted to films that came in under a $35 million budget cap, but the awards did away with that rule last year. Currently, the definition of a film eligible for the Gothams is “filmmaking with a point of view … where the vision of an individual director,...

The Camerimage Film Festival has added several high-profile films to its 2023 lineup that will compete for the Golden Frog, the festival’s prestigious award honoring cinematography excellence. Edward Berger’s Vatican thriller “Conclave” and Brady Corbet’s architectural epic “The Brutalist” both recently premiered at major film festivals and will screen at Camerimage next month. Also newly announced is Maura Delpero’s “Vermiglio,” recipient of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

“Conclave” had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. The film stars Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci as Cardinal Lawrence, whose new role overseeing the papal election is complicated by conspiracy. Co-stars include John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. Through Lawrence’s eyes, viewers explore intrigues that endanger the Roman Catholic Church’s foundation.

Fresh from debuting in Venice, “The Brutalist” chronicles Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth’s immigration to America in 1947. Adrien Brody takes the lead role,...

Edward Berger’s latest Conclave and Brady Corbet’s much-talked-about epic The Brutalist are among the titles that have been added to this year’s Camerimage Film Festival lineup.

Joining those titles is Vermiglio by Maura Delpero. Vermiglio debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The Brutalist also had its debut bow at the Italian festival while Conclave premiered at Telluride.

Conclave follows Cardinal Lawrence who is tasked with running the covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of The Church. Starring in the pic are Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Brían F. O’Byrne, Carlos Diehz, Merab Ninidze, Thomas Loibl with Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini.

For the first time in its history, the contest for the Audience Award at the Middleburg Film Festival has resulted in a tie. “Conclave” from Edward Berger and “September 5” from Tim Fehlbaum won top honors at the 12th edition of the Northern Virginia event.

“Conclave” centers on a cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) who is tasked with leading the secretive papal election after the sudden death of the Pope and finds himself in the middle of a battle for the direction of the Universal Church. It also stars Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Rossellini received the Agnès Varda Trailblazing Film Artist Award at this year’s festivities.

“September 5” chronicles the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis from the perspective of the ABC television crew that covered the Olympics outside the Olympic Village. It stars Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch.

The top honor for documentary filmmaking went to “Martha,...

Mikey Madison is the current Best Actress Oscar frontrunner for her heartbreaking performance in the title role of Sean Baker‘s “Anora.” Her likeliest competitors are two past Oscar winners — Nicole Kidman, 57, for “Babygirl” and Angelina Jolie, 49, for “Maria” — plus six-time nominee Amy Adams, 50, for “Nightbitch” and Karla Sofia Gascon, 52, for “Emilia Pérez.”

At age 25, Madison has one advantage over her main rivals for the award: her youth. Of the 97 winners of this race, almost one-third (32) were in their 20s.

Among those ingenues to take to the stage to collect this coveted prize was Emma Stone, who was 28 when she won for “La La Land” in 2017. Stone was 35 when she picked up a bookend Oscar earlier this year for “Poor Things,” which made her the 35th Best Actress winner in her thirties.

Bracketing Stone’s two wins were five women who defied this bias toward youth: 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once...

In 2010 the academy expanded the Best Picture field from just five nominees and reintroduced the preferential ballot to decide the winner. Over the ensuing 15 years, we’ve seen six splits between the winners of Best Picture and Best Director (which still has just five nominees). Prior to this such splits were fairly rare. Why the change? (Scroll down for our updated 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Director.)

At the Oscars, the winner of Best Picture is determined by a weighted ballot and the outcomes of the other 22 races, including Best Director, are decided by a popular vote. With two different voting systems, it’s easy to understand why there is often a disconnect between the winners of Best Picture and Best Director.

In 2022, Jane Campion won Best Director for “The Power of the Dog” but “Coda” was named Best Picture. In 2019 Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for “Roma” only to see...

That first-time feature filmmaker Hannah Peterson has been mentored by both Chloé Zhao and Sean Baker is readily apparent in her debut feature, “The Graduates,” a deep-feeling and enormously affecting look at life after terrible tragedy.

Per the film’s official synopsis, it “follows a young woman, Genevieve (breakout Mina Sundwall), as she prepares to graduate high school in the aftermath of a tragic event. As she navigates an uncertain future alongside a community that is also searching for ways to heal, they turn to each other to find hope and a way forward.” The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, where it scored strong critical reviews and won the Best Cinematography award on behalf of Dp, Carolina Costa.

In IndieWire’s review of the film from last year’s Tribeca, this critic wrote, “Peterson’s film is about the world that exists after a terrible crime,...

Since we opened predictions for the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards for film here in our predictions center, the Netflix musical crime drama “Emilia Perez” has taken the lead in the race for best cast. But this wouldn’t be the first time the women of the film won as a team. What might that mean for the Oscars?

“Emilia Perez” is the story of the title character (Karla Sofia Gascon), a former drug kingpin who starts a new life in her true gender with the help of a lawyer (Zoe Saldana). Selena Gomez plays Jessi, Emilia’s wife from before her transition. Adriana Paz is Epifania, a woman who comes into Emilia’s life. At the Cannes Film Festival, where “Perez” had its world premiere this past May, those four were jointly awarded Best Actress. Pedro Almodovar‘s film “Volver” (2006) previously achieved the same feat for its female ensemble, with...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a lousy track record when it comes to getting its awards to the most deserving nominees. There are myriad examples of injustices, and, when it comes to Best Picture, a history of settling on a movie that most people at least really like, even if few outright love it. In recent years, we've had the perfectly fine "Spotlight," "Argo," Nomadland," and "Coda" take home the top prize. They weren't the best movies of their respective years, not even close, but they were proficiently directed movies buoyed by excellent performances and accomplished (if somewhat formulaic) screenplays.

The Academy has had a decent five year Best Picture run, but in 2018 there was a galling regression to the bad ol' days when white Hollywood phonies made bogus can't-we-all-just-can't-get-along bromides congratulating themselves for viewing people of different colors and ethnicities as actual human beings. That...

Neon has given life to “Chuck.”

On Thursday, the indie distributor announced it had acquired Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck” with plans to debut it in theaters next summer.

The film, which is based on the novella by Stephen King, won this year’s People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival

Variety first reported Neon’s acquisition plans, with Deadline quick to follow.

Welcome home, Chuck.⁰Mike Flanagan’s incredible adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life Of Chuck will be in theaters everywhere next Summer. pic.twitter.com/js87FURO14

— Neon (@neonrated) September 26, 2024

“The Life of Chuck” is told in three parts, with an ensemble cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill. Further plot details were provided by Deadline: “It begins with a world in freefall: the internet has failed, and...

Ahead of the film's streaming debut this Friday, Apple TV+ has released the final trailer for Wolfs, their upcoming action comedy from Spider-Man: No Way Home directory Jon Watts, which stars Academy Award-winners George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the lead roles as a pair of fixers that are forced to work together on a mundane evening that somehow turns into the wildest night of their careers.

As per the synopsis, "Clooney plays a professional fixer hired to cover up a high profile crime. But when a second fixer (Pitt) shows up and the two “lone wolves” are forced to work together, they find their night spiraling out of control in ways that neither one of them expected."

The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival earlier this month and received a limited theatrical release last weekend. It's currently boasting a 73% approval rating on review aggregator RottenTomatoes and a 63% on the Popcornmeter.

Ahead of the film's streaming debut this Friday, Apple TV+ has released the final trailer for Wolfs, their upcoming action comedy from Spider-Man: No Way Home directory Jon Watts, which stars Academy Award-winners George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the lead roles as a pair of fixers that are forced to work together on a mundane evening that somehow turns into the wildest night of their careers.

As per the synopsis, "Clooney plays a professional fixer hired to cover up a high profile crime. But when a second fixer (Pitt) shows up and the two “lone wolves” are forced to work together, they find their night spiraling out of control in ways that neither one of them expected."

The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival earlier this month and received a limited theatrical release last weekend. It's currently boasting a 73% approval rating on review aggregator RottenTomatoes and a 63% on the Popcornmeter.

Searchlight Pictures is celebrating a milestone anniversary with … T-shirts!

The studio, which is marking the moment with a variety of initiatives and partners from Ore-Ida and Warby Parker to Hitching Post Winery, has teamed up once again with buzzy Los Angeles brand Hiro Clark to honor its 30th year in business. (The two previously partnered on “Hello Stranger” shirts after the success of the critically acclaimed All of Us Strangers from Andrew Haigh.)

In doing so, Hiro Clark is offering a limited-edition collection of tees, five in total, that retail for $98 apiece in multiple color options. Here’s the part cinephiles need to know: The line of five honors Searchlight’s beloved films including Tamara Jenkins’ 1998 movie Slums of Beverly Hills, Kimberly Peirce’s 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, Jared Hess’s 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, and Scott Cooper’s 2009 film Crazy Heart.

Back in 2018, while presenting Best Director alongside Ron Howard at the Golden Globe Awards, Natalie Portman created a meme: “And here are the all-male nominees,” Portman said, pointedly underlining the omission of presumed contenders like Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird” and Patty Jenkins for “Wonder Woman.”

Speaking a month after the ceremony, Portman said she wanted to bring attention to the disparity in the directors’ field without throwing the male nominees under the bus. “It’s not their fault, and they all made great work. You don’t want to not recognize them,” she said to BuzzFeed. “It’s just, why aren’t we recognizing the people who aren’t part of this exclusive club?”

But, Portman added, her goal was to make clear the obvious. “We have to make it weird for people to walk in a room where everyone’s not in the room,” she said. “If you...

The modern workplace is the focus of Laura Carreira’s hypnotic debut On Falling, a sobering study of a woman’s attempt to stay afloat in contemporary Glasgow. Produced by Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films production company, it has plenty in common with the British social realist’s output and specifically his more recent films, notably his state-of-the-nation trilogy (2016-23) that comprised I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You and The Old Oak. Carreira, however, brings a subtle but assured lyricism to the subject that has already caught the attention of festival programmers worldwide: after debuting in the Discovery strand at the Toronto Film Festival, her film On Falling now competes in the official selection at San Sebastian and will soon enter the First Feature Competition at the London Film Festival.

Like Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, the subject is the gig economy, but this time from the point...

Meryl Streep is lending her voice to the climate change crisis — literally.

The Oscar-winning icon narrates “Want to Tell a Great Story,” a new PSA that debuted today from the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance made in partnership with the Nrdc’s Rewrite the Future.

“Hey, want to see a story about climate change?” Streep asks in the opening seconds before a series of clips from Get Out, The Lego Movie and Anchorman show characters saying “no” in quick succession. “We get it, we really do. Climate change is scary. It can make us feel, well, a little anxious. And we turn to movies and TV to escape. But what if we changed the question?”

Streep does just that and alters the query: “Want to see a great story? Stories can engage with the climate even as they entertain. Whether they are dramatic or funny or stories of courage, stories about protecting what you love,...

Saoirse Ronan is gearing up for a fierce Oscar season, with two performances poised to battle for the industry’s top honors.

Variety confirms Ronan will compete in both the lead actress race for the Sundance hit “The Outrun” and supporting actress for her upcoming work in the World War II epic “Blitz” — potentially setting her up as a double acting nominee this awards season. If double-nominated, which is currently projected on Variety Awards Circuit’s predictions, she would be the 13th person and youngest actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year. Seven of the 12 previous actors went on to win for one of their nominated works.

Read: You can see all Academy Award predictions in all 23 categories on one page on the Variety Awards Circuit: Oscars.

Blitz

In “Blitz,” which is set to debut as the opening film at the BFI London Film Festival, Ronan plays Rita,...

It’s an often-touted cliche that a great way to win an Oscar is for a performer to portray a real-life person. Cillian Murphy won Best Actor earlier this year for playing J. Robert Oppenheimer in “Oppenheimer,” Jessica Chastain took home Best Actress in 2022 for her portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and Rami Malek won Best Actor in 2019 for his depiction of Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

It’s curious, then, that Best Actress has often been rewarded to performers playing fictional characters rather than real people. Over the past decade, 28 of the 50 nominations have been for original turns, with a whopping seven of those winning out of 10. Here’s the complete breakdown.

Two out of 2024’s Best Actress nominees were nominated for playing fictional people. The others were Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), and Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”). However,...

While Stephen King is known as the King of Horror, he has produced masterpieces when he deviated from his usual genre. Examples of such works include The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. Now, King’s sci-fi novella, The Life of Chuck, from his collection If It Bleeds is adapted into a film, that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.

A still from The Life of Chuck | Credit: Intrepid Pictures

The film, helmed by Mike Flanagan, was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the TIFF. The recognition has great significance for the film as fifteen of the last sixteen winners have been nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Life of Chuck will probably follow suit and earn a Best Picture nod at the Oscars.

Stephen King’s Adaptation, The Life Of Chuck, Now Has A Greater Chance At Oscars Tom Hiddleston in the film adaptation...

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival was a success on many fronts, launching many titles into the marketplace looking for buyers, and others into the fall season, including the usual spate of Oscar contenders. But the festival continues to contract, with empty seats in the largest houses.

Many sales titles weren’t scooped up quickly. According to buyers, many were demanding too much money, which should eventually shake out. David Gordon Green’s opening night family movie “Nutcrackers,” starring Ben Stiller, found a home at Hulu, and Paramount just picked up Munich Olympic Games thriller “September 5” for November release, promising an Oscar campaign.

Surprisingly, “The Life of Chuck,” without a distributor, won the People’s Choice Award that usually leads to a Best Picture Oscar nomination and occasionally an actual win. The likelihood that the film will instantly become an Oscar contender the way “American Fiction” did last year remains slim.

La película, basada en la novela de Stephen King, se une a la carrera por los Oscars. © TIFF

Ayer tuvo lugar la ceremonia de entrega de premios del Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, donde se anunció la película ganadora del codiciadísimo Premio del Público: The Life of Chuck, dirigida por Mike Flanagan.

En cuanto a las finalistas, Emilia Pérez, de Jacques Audiard, y Anora, de Sean Baker, quedaron en segundo y tercer lugar respectivamente. Ambas películas, que ya destacaron en Cannes, siguen dando guerra con vistas a la temporada de premios.

Pero ahora a la temporada de premios se une The Life of Chuck porque en los últimos 12 años todas las películas que se alzaron con el Premio del Público en Toronto fueron nominadas al Oscar a Mejor Película, con tres de ellas llevándose el galardón: Nomadland, Green Book y La La Land. Un buen histórico que catapulta a...

Another Toronto International Film Festival has arrived, and the People’s Choice Award winner might dictate a certain film’s Oscar chances come 2025.

Over the past 25 years since 1999, six films that won the TIFF People’s Choice Award went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture: American Beauty (1999), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), The King’s Speech (2010), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Green Book (2018) and Nomadland (2020).

Read on for the past 25 TIFF People’s Choice Award winners.

Related: TIFF 2024: Laura Carreira’s ‘On Falling’ & ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ Starring Chloë Sevigny Among Titles Set For Discovery Sidebar...

The winners for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival have been announced, with Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck taking home the People’s Choice Award.

Check out the full list of winners below:

People’s Choice Award: The Life of Chuck, dir. Mike Flanagan

People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: The Substance, dir. Coralie Fargeat

People’s Choice Documentary Award: The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, dir. Mike Downie

Short Cuts Award for Best International Film: Deck 5B, dir. Malin Ingrid Johansson

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film: Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail?, dir. Bec Pecaut

Fipresci Award: Mother Mother, dir. K’naan Warsame

Netpac Award: The Last of the Sea Women, dir. Sue Kim

Best Canadian Discovery Award: Universal Language, dir. Matthew Rankin

Best Canadian Feature Film Award: Shepherds, dir. Sophie Deraspe

Platform Award: They Will Be Dust,...

Überraschung: Keiner der vermeintlichen großem Favoriten konnte den renommierten Publikumspreis des 49. Toronto International Film Festival gewinnen. Vielmehr ging er an die von der Kritik eher kontrovers besprochene Stephen-King-Adaption „The Life of Chuck“ von Mike Flanagan.

„The Life of Chuck“ von Mike Flanagan (Credit: Courtesy of TIFF)

Gemeinhin gilt der TIFF People’s Choice Award des Toronto International Film Festival als probater Gradmesser für kommende Oscarsaison: Wiederholt konnten die Gewinner später auch als bester Film bei den Oscars abräumen, nur in Ausnahmefällen wird der Gewinner später nicht zumindest als bester Film nominiert. Weshalb man zum Ende des 49. Toronto International Film Festival als Favoriten für den Publikumspreis durchaus die Filme gesehen hatte, die man auch große Chancen bei den kommenden Academy Awards einräumt, sprich die beiden Cannes-Abräumer „Anora“ und „Emilia Pérez“ sowie vielleicht noch Edward Bergers hochgeschätzten „Konklave“ und „Saturday Night“ von dem Lokalmatadoren Jason Reitman.

Zoe Saldaña in Jacques Audiards „Emilia Pérez...

“The Life of Chuck,” a feel-good apocalyptic story starring Tom Hiddleston and directed by Mike Flanagan, took home the Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award.

This prize has historically been a reliable predictors of eventual Oscar success. In past years, winners such as “Green Book” and “Nomadland” went on to capture the best picture prize at the Academy Awards. Last year’s honor went to Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” while 2022’s award was bestowed to Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” both of which were best picture nominees and major forces during awards season.

It’s unclear if that’ll be the case this year, though “The Life of Chuck” has received largely positive reviews. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha praised the film’s “wild tonal shifts between horror and naked sentimentality that work with surprising precision, to a litany of fun supporting characters played by Flanagan regulars,...

Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck picked up the top People’s Choice honor Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival as its 2024 edition wrapped with renewed celebrity heat but still in the shadow of Venice and Cannes.

The Stephen King novella adaptation stars Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan and Chiwetel Ejiofor in a genre-tripping film about embracing hope in the face of tragedy and had a world premiere in Toronto. Flanagan in a statement thanked TIFF for the top audience award prize: “I’m absolutely overwhelmed. We’re so grateful that The Life of Chuck connected with audiences in such a powerful way, but never expected this.”

The second runner up for the People’s Choice Award was Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a queer crime musical headed to Netflix that earned the jury prize in Cannes for the director, while the titular lead Karla Sofía Gascón became...

“The Life of Chuck,” director Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation starring Tom Hiddleston, has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards ceremony on Sunday.

In TheWrap’s review of the film, Chase Hutchinson called it “less of a horror film than it is an existential grappling with the end — while also being a jubilant celebration of the moments that make life worth living along the way. It’s Flanagan’s vibrant equivalent of Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’ that finds hope and meaning in his own way just as it is one of the best modern Stephen King adaptations one could hope for.”

Unlike festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and Venice, Toronto does not give out a jury award to the festival’s top film. Instead, viewers at all public screenings are invited to vote for their...

The People’s Choice Award from the just-wrapped 2024 Toronto Film Festival has gone to The Life of Chuck, first runner-up is Emilia Pérez, and second runner-up is Anora. The Documentary Award goes to The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, and the Midnight Madness winner is The Substance.

Both runners-up Emilia Pérez and Anora were big winners at Cannes in May (the latter taking the Palme d’Or), but Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck was a TIFF world premiere and a surprise winner of this award.

Tom Hiddleston stars in the film based on King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz. It is an unusual winner here for this award as it currently is looking for distribution and has no set release date, which means it could be the first People’s Choice winner in recent memory...

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival has finally wrapped up, closing out a two-week frenzy of world premieres and screenings of highly anticipated offerings making their way across the international festival circuit. For many, TIFF (as well as the Venice and Telluride film festivals) marks the unofficial commencement of awards season, meaning the films that receive the People’s Choice Awards typically earn an early boost for their campaigns. Last year, the top prize went to Cord Jefferson’s publishing industry satire “American Fiction,” which would later earn the writer/director an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a nomination for Best Picture. This year’s winner was Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation “The Life of Chuck,” starring Tom Hiddleston.

12 of the last 14 People’s Choice Award winners at TIFF went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and four of them actually won the award.

Mike Flanagan‘s “The Life of Chuck” just bagged the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Since 2008, 15 of the 16 winners of the Toronto audience award have gone on to reap Best Picture bids at the Oscars. And five of those — “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book,” and “Nomadland” — won the top prize at the Academy Awards. (The exception to the rule: 2011’s “Where Do We Go Now?” from Lebanon.)

That stat certainly buoys the awards hopes of this film that is still without a distribution deal. Flanagan adapted the Stephen King novella about the life of a seemingly ordinary man, Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Jacob Tremblay plays a younger version of the character with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Mark Hamill in supporting roles.

While “The Life of Chuck” finished first in the poll of festival goers, two other strong...

This year’s 2024 TIFF Tribute Award honorees addressed a packed black-tie Fairmont Royal York Ballroom. Sometimes the tributees go on to Oscar glory. For example, after his 2019 tribute, Joaquin Phoenix went on to win Best Actor for “Joker,” Variety Artisan Award winner Roger Deakins landed a cinematography win for “1917,” and after his 2020 tribute, Anthony Hopkins grabbed an Oscar for Best Actor for “The Father” and TIFF tributee Chloé Zhao won Best Director for her movie “Nomadland.” The list goes on. Eventual Best Actress Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain was tributed at TIFF for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” as was Brendan Fraser for his work as an actor on the movie “The Whale.” And tributee Michelle Yeoh went on to win Best Actress for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Many on this year’s list harbor similar hopes. Here are the award winners:

Angelina Jolie, TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media,...

“Nomadland” Oscar-winning producer Peter Spears is winning 2024 with two films: Daniel Minahan’s “On Swift Horses” and Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.” For Guadagnino, Spears has also produced “Call Me By Your Name,” and made a cameo in it, as well as “Bones and All.”

“Well, I think that the more you work with someone, the more you just get a sort of muscle memory with somebody,” Spears tells IndieWire about his creative partnership with Guadagnino at the TIFF premiere of “On Swift Horses,” which he also produced. “The trust in each other goes deeper. “One of my favorite things I’ve done in my professional career is getting to work with [Guadagnino]. I say we’re brothers, we’re sisters. I feel really fortunate to have had the experience.”

Spears revealed that he is currently working on two new projects with Guadagnino. He confirmed that one of the projects, which was previously announced,...

Once the premier shared cinematic universe in Hollywood, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become something of a mixed bag with its recent projects. After reaching its impressive commercial pinnacle with 2019's "Avengers: Endgame," the MCU has struggled to find its way forward with both its television and film projects. From behind-the-scenes problems involving planned recurring characters to an overall lack of focus, the MCU has endured its fair share of setbacks. Critics and audiences have taken notice, with several MCU movies failing to break even at the box office, not to mention earning some of Marvel's lowest Rotten Tomatoes scores.

However, despite all the rocky returns and production issues, the MCU remains one of Hollywood's biggest powerhouse franchises, with some hits up its sleeve beyond "Endgame." In fact, some of the McU's most exciting, fan-favorite moments have surfaced in the Multiverse Saga storyline picking up after "Endgame." Here is every...

Se trata de la primera película española en ganar el León de Oro en toda la historia del Festival de Cine de Venecia. © Getty Images

La 81 edición del prestigioso Festival de Venecia ha llegado a su fin, marcando un hito en la historia del cine español. La película La habitación de al lado, dirigida por Pedro Almodóvar y protagonizada por Tilda Swinton y Julianne Moore, el que es su primer largometraje rodado íntegramente en inglés, se ha alzado con el codiciadísimo León de Oro, el máximo galardón de la Biennale. Y, decimos que es historia, porque se trata de la primera vez que una película española obtiene este galardón.

Históricamente, Venecia ha sido un trampolín para las películas que aspiran a la gloria en los Oscar. De las diez últimas ganadoras del León de Oro, cuatro han sido nominadas al Oscar a la mejor película, y dos de ellas (La forma del agua...

Pedro Almodovar‘s, “The Room Next Door,” just moved to the top tier of Oscar contenders with a big win at the Venice Film Festival. It picked up the top prize, the Golden Lion, on September 7. This recognition, from a jury headed up by French actress Isabelle Huppert, came just days after it debuted on the rialto to a rapturous reception.

The Oscar champ’s first English language feature tells the tale of Ingrid (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) and Martha (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton), who were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become a novelist while Martha was a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

This is the second English language film in a row to win this precursor prize.

People are falling in love with “Anora.”

Sean Baker has made his mark on indie cinema with notable features such as “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket.” His latest film, “Anora,” a reimagining of “Pretty Woman” that trades Richard Gere’s debonair corporate raider for Mark Eydelshteyn’s sex-crazed son of a Russian oligarch, is his most accessible project yet. And just as “Pretty Woman” launched Julia Roberts into the stratosphere, Mikey Madison’s turn as a less glamorous sex worker has made her the year’s breakout performer. Following its Palme d’Or win at Cannes in May, the film made its U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival to a sold-out crowd. Its subsequent screenings were turning away approximately 200 people at each, making it one of the hottest tickets at the festival alongside Sony’s “Saturday Night” and Netflix’s “Emilia Perez.”

The film follows Anora (Madison...

It’s late August. Do you know where (and what) your Oscar contenders are?

In the past, I would have answered that question by saying, “No, but in about three weeks I will.” That’s because the end of August brings the beginning of the three fall film festivals that for decades have been the most fruitful ground for premiering Academy Award winners and nominees.

For 14 years between 2007 and 2020, from “No Country for Old Men” to “Nomadland,” the Oscar Best Picture winner screened (and in all but three cases premiered) at the Venice International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival or the Toronto International Film Festival, and in many cases in more than one of those festivals. And for most of that time, the majority of Best Picture nominees came out of the Venice-Telluride-Toronto axis.

But then things changed. The 2021 winner, for the first time ever, was a Sundance movie,...