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Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7 p.m. Et/ 4 p.m. Pt. We update our picks throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

This season, the Academy shortlist for Best Original Score has expanded from 15 to 20 titles, and now up to three composers will be allowed to receive the Oscar. In terms of the race, “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) was ruled ineligible because composer Hans Zimmer used more than the allotted 20 percent of the pre-existing themes and music from his Oscar-winning “Dune” score. However, Zimmer is still very much in the race with his score for “Blitz” (Apple TV+).

Other fall/holiday contenders include “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), “Gladiator II” (Paramount...

Predicting Best Original Song at the Oscars is made more difficult by the three-stage process. In years past, many seemingly sure-fire contenders were deemed to be ineligible. Even those ditties that clear this hurdle then have to pass muster with the 400 plus members of the music branch of the academy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Original Song.)

To be eligible for consideration, a tune must meet these criteria:

It must be an original song with words and music, both of which were original and written specifically for the film;

It must be the result of a creative interaction between the filmmaker(s) and the songwriter(s) who have been engaged to work directly on the film; and

There must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody used in the body of the movie or as the...

In the absence of a phenomenon like “Barbenheimer,” which dominated the Grammys’ visual-media categories last year, the outlook for 2025 is considerably more complicated and, some might say, more interesting.

Look for the summer’s biggest movie hits, “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” to land spots in the score and compilation soundtrack categories when the Grammy nominees are announced Nov. 8. But everything else is up in the air until then.

The compilation soundtrack category is the toughest to read, as there have been few films with breakout hits. “Twisters” is the summer’s biggest soundtrack, hitting No. 7 on the Billboard charts, so look for the tornado movie to score as an album and potentially in the song category for a pair of original country tunes: Luke Combs’ “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” and Lainey Wilson’s “Out of Oklahoma.”

The eclectic “Deadpool & Wolverine” soundtrack — a wild collection...

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

While there have not been any Best Original Song contenders this year to enter the cultural zeitgeist the same way a few songs from the “Barbie” soundtrack did last year, there are plenty of notable artists putting their hat in the ring for a music Oscar.

We would be remiss to not mention Lady Gaga, a previous winner in the category, who is back with “Folie à Deux” from her film “Joker: Folie à Deux,” a jukebox musical that sees the performer run through various standards as Harley Quinn.

The Oscars race is wide open this year, and so is the question of which film will win the coveted TIFF Audience Award.

With A-listers like Selena Gomez and Angelina Jolie and breakout stars like Mikey Madison and Gabriel Labelle, the 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival concludes on Sunday after screening 278 films over its 10-day run. Following Pedro Almodóvar’s stunning melodrama, “The Room Next Door,” taking the Golden Lion at Venice, attention shifts to the Canadian festival to see which film will get a significant boost in the early days of the best picture race.

While some films here scream awards potential, others are destined only for commercial success, while others are just blips in the massive lineup. Below are potential awards contenders from other films screened at the festival and Variety’s predictions on which film will win the TIFF Audience Award on Sunday, Sept. 15.

Read: You...

A gorgeous computer-generated cartoon with a human heart beating beneath its sleek, state-of-the-art surface, DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” arrives at a time when the public seems more concerned than ever about being outsmarted by artificial intelligence. It’s somewhat ironic then that the movie, a lovely chosen-family fable adapted from the first book in Peter Brown’s open-ended series, features no human characters of consequence.

Instead, “The Wild Robot” concerns an overzealous automaton named Rozzum 7134 (or simply “Roz” for short), whose personality comes partly from Lupita Nyong’o and the rest from the artists at Dwa. Together with “How to Train Your Dragon” co-director Chris Sanders, they imbue this bot — basically, two spheres, four limbs and more tools than a Swiss Army knife — with maternal instincts and something that could pass for a soul.

In the world of the film, however, the emotional independence that makes Roz unique will...

Exclusive: Passing the time between Oppenheimer takes in a New Mexico bunker one morning at about 4 a.m., Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon sowed the seeds of a future collaboration. Fast-forward to today, and Small Things Like These is opening the Berlin Film Festival.

Murphy stars in and produced Small Things Like These alongside his Big Things Films partner Alan Moloney. Damon is also a producer — his and Ben Affleck’s Artists Equity financed the film that’s based on Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novel and was adapted for the screen by Enda Walsh. Tim Mielants directs.

Though it deals with a serious subject matter, the road to making the movie was “blissful,” and married “kismet” with “serendipity,” Damon and Murphy told me recently in a conversation that also touched on how Artists Equity acts as “facilitator” and not “babysitter”, the...

In the latest season of Queer Eye, which dropped on Netflix yesterday, Wednesday, January 24, one particularly emotional episode featured Tim Keel, a Kiss superfan who was primary caregiver to his brother, Tommy “Doody” Keel. Tim appeared in Season 8’s second episode, titled “Kiss the Sky,” which featured the Fab Five tasked with transforming his life. It was one of Tim’s daughters, Melody, who nominated her father for the show, saying he needs to learn there is more to him than just being a Kiss superfan and Doody’s carer. In the episode, it’s revealed that Doody was left paralyzed after a car accident. “They didn’t think he was gonna live,” Tim told the Fab Five, per Entertainment Weekly. “He was in a coma for three months.” Tim, whose house is decorated top to bottom in Kiss memorabilia, has been caring for his older brother since 1986. ...

Fitz and the Tantrums have announced a new album, All the Feels, scheduled for release September 20th.

“So many highs and lows this last year but we’ll make it through together,” said lead vocalist Michael Fitzpatrick. “We are so excited to finally share what we’ve been working so hard on. ‘All The Feels’ has all the emotions. We hope you love it as much as we do.”

To celebrate the announcement, they’ve released a video for the title track, featuring Fitzpatrick suffering an unusual heart attack. A...

If you’re not already excited for an animated adventure about a stork’s quest to deliver a baby, perhaps the promise of a new song by Jason Derulo can entice you. Warner Bros. has released the new trailer for Storks, featuring Derulo’s new song “Kiss the Sky.” Will it prove as ubiquitous as Despicable Me 2‘s “Happy” or as frustratingly […]

The post Latest ‘Storks’ Trailer Gets an Assist From Jason Derulo’s New Single appeared first on /Film.

Your family is your flock and your flock is your family. Warner Bros has debuted another new trailer for the animated Storks movie, co-directed by Nicholas Stoller & Doug Sweetland. The story follows a young human girl named Tulip who works in the stork delivery company, which has become a .com delivery giant after moving on from delivering babies. Until one shows up and they have to figure out how to get it back to its family. The voice cast features Andy Samberg as the voice of Junior, as well as Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell, Key and Peele, plus Katie Crown as Tulip. This new trailer also features the song "Kiss the Sky" by Jason Derulo, which is thematically connected to the film. I'm not sure if this will be any good, but hopefully it will have some funny moments and that might make it enjoyable. Have a look.

For this year's Teen Choice Awards, young people gathered and made their voices heard in the midst of one of the more socially and politically fraught years in America in recent memory. As surfboards were handed out for "Choice Movie Actor" and "Choice Movie Hissy Fit," a few winners and presenters took the time to address the pressing issues facing the country. From Justin Timberlake to Jessica Alba, those topics were honored and addressed as fans took notice.

When presented with the Decade Award by retired NBA star Kobe Bryant,...

The Black Box – ABC’s “The Black Box” stars Ditch Davey as Dr. Ian Bickman, Kelly Reilly as Catherine Black and David Ajala as Will Van Renseller. (ABC/Andrew Eccles)

Black Box, ABC‘s latest drama, feels a lot like a show created by committee, and constructed largely by piecing together ratings research of plot and character points. A little bit House, a hint of Grey’s Anatomy, and a heaping dose of the hokey, “we’re calling you stupid,” plot construction of Scandal… et voilà. Of course, if those last two are among your favorite shows, welcome to your new obsession.

Dr. Catherine Black (Kelly Reilly) is the world’s most impressive and important neurologist… or whatever. She’s so cool that she has her own facility in New York City. Known as “The Cube,” it’s all neurology, all the time, and Dr. Black runs the show. But,...

Steven Soderbergh retired from filmmaking, but maybe that wasn't the death knell for breezy, adult-oriented cinema that everyone had feared. Not, at least, with George Clooney around. Hollywood's most well-liked actor assembled an all-star cast for his upcoming true-life caper film "Monuments Men" (among them: Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman and Bob Balaban), which looks like an amalgam of "Ocean's 11," "Inglourious Basterds" and "Argo." Clooney directed and co-wrote "Monuments Men," making him a prime contender to become the Ben Affleck of the 2014 Oscar season. Watch the "Monuments Men" trailer above. Your new favorite movie is out on Dec. 18.

(The song used in the "Monuments Men" trailer is "Kiss The Sky" from Shawn Lee.)...

Steven C. Miller’s Under the Bed will start its limited theatrical release this Friday and we have a number of special features coming up. The first is an exclusive Q&A with costume designer Ambre Wrigley, thanks to FancyDressCostumes.co.uk. In this feature, Ambre talks about her fear of monsters as a child, taking inspiration from music, and modifying costumes for horror movies.

How did you get involved with Under The Bed?

Ambre Wrigley: I responded to an ad looking for a costume designer. I met with Steven Miller (Director), Will Clevinger (Producer), and Ben Rabbers (Upm). We interviewed for about 15 minutes until they said they’d get back to me and about 20 minutes into my drive home I got a call offering me the gig. I was so excited about it I couldn’t stop grinning for days. I’d just landed my first full feature as a costume designer.

Well, Kenny fucking Powers will be pitching his last innings in "Eastbound & Down" as the show winds up its third and final season with a only a few more episodes to go. But you'll still have the opportunity to keep that good time feeling going all summer long.

Fat Possum Records is set to drop a nice two-disc soundtrack to the series, featuring a handful of songs played through the show's twenty-one episodes. No surprise, this one is heavy on the rock 'n roll with tracks from folks like The Black Keys, The Stooges, MC5, The Animals, Ram Jam and more. There is a bit of country lovin' with Kenny Rogers and Lee Hazelwood, some hip hop with Too Short and 'Lil Wyte and even an obscure R&B tune by Brenton Wood.

Finer retails will carry the collection on April 24th. Full tracklist below. [Prefix]

"Eastbound & Down" Soundtrack Tracklist

Disc...

DVD Release Date: April 24, 2012

Price: DVD $24.95

Studio: Hen’s Tooth

Tom Selleck goes black tie in 1984's Lassiter.

Tom Selleck (TV’s Blue Bloods) is a suave, debonair man-about-town…and a notorious thief—in the 1984 action adventure crime film Lassiter.

Whether he’s charming high society’s elite at a black-tie dinner or emptying their safes in the dead of night, Nick Lassiter certainly excels at what he does. On the eve of World War II, Lassiter finds himself in London, where local authorities are well aware of his history as a notorious cat burglar. When word leaks out that a cache of uncut diamonds is to be smuggled through the German embassy, Lassiter is coerced by police and the FBI to perform one last heist on their behalf.

Directed by Roger Young (Kiss the Sky), Lassiter also stars Jane Seymour (TV’s Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), Lauren Hutton (The Joneses...

The U.K. company PizzaExpress recently held a competition inviting aspiring musician-pizzamakers (we don’t have a single word for this profession yet? Get with it, English) to recreate their favorite album covers in the form of pizza. Here are the 5 Notable Pizza Album Covers — it’s an interesting hodgepodge of Pizza Top 40 meets pizzafied dorm room walls — but the results look delicious. Though people just don’t pay as much attention to pizza album art ever since the rise of iPizzas (or pPods? Whatever, you know the joke.) Click any of the pics for full size: 1. Madonna – True Blue 2. Jimi Hendrix – Kiss The Sky 3. Rihanna – Loud 4. Jeff Buckley – Grace 5. Bob Marley – Legend Although, can any of them truly hold a candle to the Royal Wedding Pizza? Answer: Pizzas cannot hold candles. (pics via Splash News)...