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Venice is the latest event to respond to the war in Ukraine.

Venice Film Festival will welcome Russian filmmakers “who oppose the current regime in Russia”, according to a statement issued by La Biennale di Venezia, which runs the event.

“La Biennale di Venezia intends to manifest its full support to the Ukrainian people and to its artists, and express its firm condemnation of the unacceptable military aggression by Russia,” read the statement, issued this afternoon (Wednesday March 2).

“La Biennale is also close to all those in Russia who are courageously protesting against the war. Among them, artists and authors in every discipline,...

After launching last year’s edition as a two-pronged event held last March and June, this year’s Berlin Film Festival is attempting to return to (relative) normalcy, complete with an enviable lineup of new films. While the Berlinale’s European Film Market has moved online, this year’s Berlin Film Festival is sticking to an in-person event with limited capacity, mandatory vaccines, and no parties.

But although moviegoers might not be literally partying it up during the course of the 10-day festival, there will still be plenty to celebrate, including new films from beloved auteurs like Claire Denis, Dario Argento, Quentin Dupieux, Ursula Meier, and Peter Strickland, plus new works from rising stars on the international circuit like Kivu Ruhorahoza, Ashley McKenzie, and Li Ruijun. There are Covid-made features and murderous revenge thrillers, small-scale romances and real-life twins making their debut, and at least one film that just might...

The start date has been pushed back from August 18 to November 3, 2021.

The Sydney Film Festival will now take place from November 3-14, after the government of New South Wales announced a lockdown extension.

It’s the second date change this year for the 68th edition of the festival, which was was initially scheduled to take place from June 9-20 before postponing in February to August 18-29. This latest postponement comes in the wake of the extension of Sydney’s lockdown until at least August 28.

The extension of the stay-at-home direction is to help combat rising cases caused by the highly...

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the 395 artists and executives that have been invited to join this year — about half the number of last year’s class. The 2021 class is comprised of 46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and 53% international from 49 countries outside the United States. Of the 395 invitees, 89 are former Oscar nominees, including 25 winners.

Eight individuals have been invited to join by multiple branches and must select one branch upon acceptance. They include Leslie Odom Jr, Kaouther Ben Hania, Craig Brewer, Lee Isaac Chung, Emerald Fennell, Shaka King, Alexander Nanau, Florian Zeller.

Other big names among the newly invited include Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek, “Promising Young Woman” original screenplay winner Emerald Fennell and “Minari” stars Steven Yeun, Ye-ri Han and recently crowned supporting actress Yuh-Jung Youn.

In the directing category, new invitees include Janicza Bravo, Nia DaCosta, Cathy Yan, Darius Marder, Michael Almereyda, Lizzie Borden,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has extended invitations for 395 artists and executives working in film to join the ranks of a growing membership of more than 9,000 film industry figures. Per AMPAS, “membership selection decisions are based on professional qualifications, with representation, inclusion and equity remaining a priority of Academy Aperture 2025.”

Statistically, the 2021 class is comprised of 46 percent women, 39 percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53 international members from 49 countries outside of the United States. Among the new class are 89 Oscar nominees and 25 winners, including “Minari” Best Supporting Actress winner Yuh-jung Youn, Best Actor nominee Steven Yeun, multi-nominated director/writer Lee Isaac Chung, and co-star Ye-ri Han, plus “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” Best Actress nominee Andra Day, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” Supporting Actress nominee Maria Bakalova, “Pieces of a Woman” Best Actress nominee Vanessa Kirby, and Supporting Actor nominees Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”) and Paul Raci...

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) promises the Australian premieres of highly anticipated local features such as Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson and Justin Kurzel’s Nitram.

Miff unveiled the first slate of projects for its 69th iteration today, which sees it return to cinemas, with the full line-up to be announced July 13.

Purcell’s debut feature, which premiered at SXSW, will form the Opening Night Gala – marking the first time a film from an Indigenous female director has opened the event in its history.

“Leah Purcell’s monumental feature The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson will not just open Miff this year – it will kick the doors in,” said Miff artistic director Al Cossar.

“This is a film made for Miff’s return to cinema – an outback western of grand vision; a resonant, revisionist force of filmmaking that...

“Mank” cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt upset “Nomadland” Dp Joshua James Richards, the Oscar favorite, at the 35th annual American Society of Cinematographers Awards on Sunday. The win for David Fincher’s monochromatic biopic, with Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) struggling to churn out a first draft of “Citizen Kane,” was a surprise, given the momentum that has been with Richards since he won Camerimage’s prestigious Golden Frog last year. However, Richards (previously nominated for the Spotlight Award for “The Rider” but is not a current ASC member) still remains the Oscar favorite for shooting Chloé Zhao’s Best Picture frontrunner (she is also the favorite to take Best Director).

Yet it is a breakthrough achievement for Fincher’s go-to cinematographer from “Mindhunter.” Messerschmidt recreated a Golden Age of Hollywood in black-and-white, shooting with the Red Ranger Helium Monochrome, and bolstered by the Cinefade variable depth of field tool to emulate...

The American Society of Cinematographers is announcing its winners today for the 35th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards this afternoon in the feature film, documentary and television cinematography categories.

They represent the organization’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past 14 months.

The Society is bestowing the ASC Board of Governors Award to filmmaker Sophia Coppola for her contributions to cinema through her body of work. It is the only ASC Award not given to a cinematographer and is reserved for industry stalwarts who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form.

The Michael Chapman & Allen Daviau Student Heritage Award is being awarded to Ai Chung for A Young Tough in the Michael Chapman Graduate Category and Elias Ginsberg for Milk Teeth in the Allen Daviau Undergraduate Category.

The virtual ceremony is being streamed live via American Cinematographer’s Facebook page from the historic ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood.

The second night of Ee British Academy Film Awards followed a Saturday showing that revealed the Brit voting body’s picks for crafts prizes and other below-the-line honors. Sunday night’s show was hosted by Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary. See the full list of winners below.

Big winners on Sunday include Best Picture “Nomadland” and Best Actress Frances McDormand, Best Actor Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Best Director Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland,” Daniel Kaluuya for Best Supporting Actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Yuh-Jung Youn for Best Supporting Actress for “Minari,” “My Octopus Teacher” for Best Documentary, “Another Round” for Best Film Not in the English Language, “Soul” for Best Animated Film, and “Promising Young Woman” and “The Father” for screenplay prizes.

On Sunday, Hugh Grant presented the BAFTA Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest honor, to Ang Lee in a moving and witty tribute.

The first night...

Today’s show is being broadcast with a time delay on BBC One at 19:00 UK time.

The Bafta Film Awards 2021 main show is taking place today (April 11) from London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Scroll down for latest winners

An audience will not be present and winners will receive their awards virtually due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

For the first time, the awards are being handed out across two nights. Saturday’s ceremony (April 10) focused on the craft awards.

Today’s show started at 16:15pm UK time, and is being broadcast with a time delay on BBC One starting...

The Russian director is back in the spotlight with the Bafta-nominated Dear Comrades! Now 83, Konchalovsky raises a cocktail glass and celebrates his freedom to call the shots

It’s night-time in Moscow, and as Andrei Konchalovsky is settling on the sofa in his apartment, an unearthly howling fills the air. Could this be the wailing of some Russian banshee arisen to stalk the earth for all eternity? Actually, it’s the protests of Konchalovsky’s dog, a West Highland terrier, annoyed at not being allowed into the room. As it scurries into view, it turns out its name is Krug – “like the champagne”; evidence that Konchalovsky, at 83, has not lost his taste for the finer things in life.

These days Konchalovsky is looking back at a film-making career that is well into its third act, or possibly its fourth or even fifth. Improbably, after a decade or two of senior-auteur status,...

Andrey Konchalovsky has requested his historical drama be withdrawn from national awards.

Russian director Andrey Konchalovsky has requested his film Dear Comrades! be pulled from the country’s White Elephant Awards over its nomination of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

The Russian Guild of Film Critics, which organises the awards, has nominated jailed Kremlin critic Navalny and his filmmaking team in the Event of the Year category for their video documentaries, which have generated millions of views on YouTube.

But in a statement on his Facebook page, veteran filmmaker Konchalovsky said the decision was a “political act” and “can in no...

For BAFTA voters, Q1 is normally a blur of screenings in plush hotels, drinks receptions, DVD screeners and the occasional posh hamper as distributors try to steal a march on their rivals as we reach crunch time in awards season.

Everything has changed this year, of course. Lockdowns still being in place has scuppered the vast majority of traditional campaigning, and while many of us have had a little more time for those bottomless screeners (nowadays largely online), physical events have been for the most part non-existent.

Because the season has been pushed back in 2021, we are now in the midst of fever pitch on the final stretch of the campaign trail. BAFTA’s third and final round of voting closes today ahead of the dual ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday (April 10 and 11), followed by the Oscars on April 25.

Despite the challenges, awards consultants campaigning on behalf of the studios...

Ayo Kepher-Maat has been hired as SVP Acquisitions at Decal, the home entertainment joint venture of Neon and Bleecker Street. The former Neon director of acquisitions will now oversee day-to-day operations of the newly launched label alongside former SVP Marketing and Distribution Sara Castillo, who hails from Bleecker Street.

The full-service home entertainment distributor of Neon and Bleecker fare also said Thursday that it has appointed Lilly Stuecklen as Distribution Manager as it continues its ramp-up.

Kepher-Maat, who at Neon recently oversaw the acquisitions of Sundance breakout documentaries Ailey and All Light Everywhere, also helped in deals for Dear Comrades! and Killing of Two Lovers. She previously worked at Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, The Film Arcade and CAA.

Stuecklen has worked as Post-Production/Delivery and Exhibition Marketing Coordinator at Bleecker Street since 2018.

“Ayo is a leader in her field, and we can’t wait to see what exciting films she...

Group recognises cinematography on Mank, Nomadland, News Of The World and other awards contenders.

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has announced the nominees for its feature film and Spotlight awards.

In the feature category, Erik Messerschmidt is nominated for Mank; Phedon Papamichael for The Trial of the Chicago 7; Joshua James Richards for Nomadland; Newton Thomas Sigel for Cherry; and Dariusz Wolski for News of the World.

Nominated for the Spotlight award, which recognises cinematography in independent, foreign or art-house films, are Katelin Arizmendi for Swallow, Aurélien Marra for Two Of Us and Andrey Naydenov for Dear Comrades!

Last year,...

“Cherry,” “Mank,” “News of the World,” “Nomadland” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” are among the films nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) in the feature film category.

The Asc nominees for feature film, documentary and television cinematography represent the organization’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past 14 months. Last year’s Asc feature film winner was Roger Deakins for “1917,” who went on to win an Oscar for best achievement in cinematography.

Winners will be named during the 35th Asc Outstanding Achievement Awards on April 18.

The virtual ceremony will be live streamed via American Cinematographer’s Facebook page at 12:30 p.m. Pt from the historic Asc Clubhouse in Hollywood.

The complete list of this year’s nominees are:

Feature Film

Erik Messerschmidt, Asc (“Mank”)

Phedon Papamichael, Asc, Gsc (“The Trial of the Chicago 7″)

Joshua James Richards (” Nomadland”)

Newton Thomas Sigel, Asc (“Cherry”)

Dariusz Wolski,...

The cinematography for “Mank,” “Nomadland,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “News of the World” and “Cherry” has been nominated as the best film work of 2020 by the American Society of Cinematographers, the Asc announced on Wednesday.

The first four of those films were expected to be recognized by the Asc and are thought to be strong contenders for the Oscar for Best Cinematography, but “Cherry” came as a surprise. The Russo brothers film came out in February to withering reviews and had not been considered an awards contender until the Asc included its cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel, in its list of nominees.

“Cherry” landed that nomination over a group of films that included “Tenet,” “Minari,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” — and “Da 5 Bloods,” a more high-profile film that was also shot by Sigel.

In the Spotlight category, which singles out cinematographers from films that...

The American Society of Cinematographers (Asc) has weighed in with picks for the best cinematography in film and television over the last year. Like other major guild ceremonies including the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, the Asc nominees are looked at closely by Oscar pundits considering the overlap between guild members and the Academy. Over the last decade, the eventual Oscar winner for Best Cinematography has at least been nominated for the Asc prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases.

Last year’s ASC winner was Roger Deakins for “1917.” Deakins also won the ASC prize for “Blade Runner 2049.” In both cases, the legendary Dp went on to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Wally Pfister for “Inception” and Emmanuel Lubezki for “Gravity,” “Birdman,” and “The Revenant” are other recent examples of Asc winners who also prevailed at the Academy Awards. The Asc...

Oscar voting is wrapping on Wednesday, but it ain’t over ’til it’s over. Film distributor Neon, the reigning champion at the Academy Awards for best picture with “Parasite,” has another stack of contenders this year, all unique in awards discussions. CEO and co-founder Tom Quinn has always pushed the boundaries of cinema, and deeply believes in cultural representation in front and behind the camera, and the way consumers and Academy voters accept the film medium.

“Neon’s entire mission is built around the power of cinema,” Quinn says. “Cinema for us starts in the theater, a collective body of strangers coming together to see a director’s vision — unedited, uninterrupted — and with that comes great power.”

In this bonus episode of the “Variety Awards Circuit Podcast,” Quinn talks about Neon’s robust slate, which includes the comedy “Palm Springs,” international features like “Night of the Kings,” and docs...

Altitude is in second place with 20 nominations across six titles.

Netflix has topped this year’s list of distributors nominated for Bafta film awards for the second year in a row with 34 nods.

Fifteen Netflix titles received nominations, with Mank leading the way with six, followed by The Dig (five), News Of The World (four), and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and His House (all three). It’s a significant uptick compared to last year, where the streaming giant scored 23 from six films.

‘Nomadland’, ‘Rocks’ lead Bafta 2021 film nominations

Altitude is in second place with 20 nominations across six titles,...

Nominations for the 2021 Ee British Academy Film Awards have been announced by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). This year’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony was set to take place February 14, but the organization pushed the awards to April 11 after the Academy announced it was delaying the Oscars telecast to the end of April. The BAFTAs were the first major awards ceremony to push back its 2021 ceremony date following the Oscars delay.

“This change from the previously announced date of Feb. 14 acknowledges the impact of the global pandemic and accommodates an extended eligibility period. Further details on the ceremony will be announced later in the year,” BAFTA said in a statement at the time. “The date for the 2022 Film Awards, announced last year as 13 February, is currently under consideration as part of the Awards Review, and any changes will be published once the Review has been completed,...

The 15 shortlisted films vying to become one of the five Best International Feature nominees at the 2021 Academy Awards are a surprising and creatively engaging bunch. Their stories often are drenched in history — much of it tragic and disturbing — and turbulent social and political currents course through any number of them. Just four of the 15 were directed by familiar names so, for the most part, the filmmakers behind these works are in the early stages of their careers, which can only create optimism and excitement about what these up-and-comers will do in the future.

Oscar nominations will be revealed on March 15.

I’ve now seen all of the contenders and must say that it was, for the most part, stimulating to encounter so many fresh voices from some often little-heard-from realms of the cinematic world. Fewer than half of the semi-finalists come from countries typically thought of as regularly representing the cinematic front-rank — France,...

Neon said Thursday that it is partnering with film-centric social media platform Letterboxd to make six of the distributor’s Oscar-shortlisted pics available exclusively on the service for a week beginning Monday. Those titles include Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary Gunda and Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida?, the official Oscar submission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It will mark the U.S. premiere dates for both titles, and the first time Letterboxd will be offering new films that have not streamed on any other platforms.

Those two, plus the documentaries Notturno and The Painter and the Thief along with Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades! and Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings, are involved in the deal. The will be available from March 8-14 as a package for $19.99.

Neon, which distributed last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite, made Gunda one of the first U.S. deals at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

Distributor Neon is partnering with Letterboxd, the fast-growing global social network for movie discussion and discovery, to give the platform’s users access to the studio’s slate of documentary and foreign films shortlisted for the 93rd Academy Awards. From March 8 through March 14, Letterboxd users can stream all of Neon’s six shortlisted titles for the discounted bundle price of $19.99 over at watch.neonrated.com. This news marks the first time Letterboxd will be offering new films that have not streamed on any other platforms directly to its member base.

The six films included in the bundle will be documentary contender “Gunda” directed by Victor Kossakovsky and executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix; Gianfranco Rosi’s “Notturno,” which is Italy’s submission for the Best International Feature Academy Award; “The Painter and the Thief,” directed by Benjamin Ree and shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar; Andrei Konchalovsky’s Best International Feature submission from Russia,...

Andrey Konchalovsky has been making movies in his native Russia for more than half a century and he occasionally works in English. His 1985 film “Runaway Train” earned Oscar bids for lead Jon Voight and featured player Eric Roberts but he was not nominated. But his new Russian-language feature “Dear Comrades” could well earn him that long overdue recognition from the Academy Awards.

This intense docudrama about the 1962 massacre of a workers demonstrating in Novocherkassk was feted at the Venice Film Festival with a special jury prize. And this Neon release just made the cut for Best International Feature at the Oscars and numbers among the 15 films vying for the five nominations.

At Rotten Tomatoes, “Dearest Comrades!” earned a jaw-dropping score of 96. The critical consensus described the film as “a sharp, commanding look at a dark chapter in Soviet history made even more effective by its director’s cold fury.” Among...

From Oscar winners such as “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” and “Son of Saul” to this year’s international feature entries “The Auschwitz Report” and “Dara From Jasenovac,” the horrors of the Holocaust have been repeatedly explored by international filmmakers, but genocide and mass deaths in other countries are not given so much attention.

“The Promise” (2016), starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, centered on the Armenian genocide, but it was a rarity. However, this year there are several films that deal with global atrocities, including four on Oscar’s international film shortlist: Bosnia and Hezegovina’s “Quo Vadis, Aida?” Guatemala’s “La Llarona,” Romania’s “Collective” and Russia’s “Dear Comrades!”

Beyond the shortlist are Kazakhistan’s “The Crying Steppe” (directed by Marina Kunarova and Canada’s “Funny Boy” (Deepa Mehta), which was disqualified after being submitted for the international film category. The films respectively center on genocide in Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 366 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 93rd Oscars, which are set to air April 25 live on ABC.

The total number of films is up from last year’s 344 films in contention.

This year’s list was compiled based on tweaked eligibility rules implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the ceremony to its latest date ever. For this year, feature films had to open by February 28 in a commercial motion picture theater for a seven-day qualifying run in at least one of six metro areas: Los Angeles County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta. Drive-in theaters open nightly were included as qualifying venues, as were films intended for theatrical release but because of the lockdown made available first via streaming, VOD service or other broadcast.

Today’s news comes...

I first met Tom Quinn, the film distributor Neon’s co-founder, at a party at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2019. With his film talent in attendance, including “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” star Adèle Haenel, a 10-minute side conversation with the CEO has remained prevalent in my mind. At the time, I conveyed to him my thoughts that Bong’s film from South Korea had a real chance to win best picture at the Oscars later in the year. I probably wasn’t the first person to make such a declaration, as the film had premiered at Cannes months earlier, and the buzz was palpable, even though it probably wasn’t believed by the masses as of yet. Without skipping a beat, Quinn almost ignored the comment, quickly stating, “That’s great, but do you know what I really want? I want...

Arriving in the U.S. almost simultaneously with his raved-about release Dear Comrades!, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Sin centers on another artist whose grand projects often competed with each other: Michelangelo, whose talents were demanded by one pope even as he had years to go on a job for that man’s predecessor.

A beautiful but decidedly unromantic look at artistic drive, the Italian/Russian production zeroes in on the great man’s demons without, as art-biographical cliches usually have it, crediting them for his genius. A captivating lead performance and a truly massive central metaphor make it a memorable arthouse film, even if ...

Arriving in the U.S. almost simultaneously with his raved-about release Dear Comrades!, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Sin centers on another artist whose grand projects often competed with each other: Michelangelo, whose talents were demanded by one pope even as he had years to go on a job for that man’s predecessor.

A beautiful but decidedly unromantic look at artistic drive, the Italian/Russian production zeroes in on the great man’s demons without, as art-biographical cliches usually have it, crediting them for his genius. A captivating lead performance and a truly massive central metaphor make it a memorable arthouse film, even if ...

Another Round, Quo Vadis, Aïda?, Two of Us, Charlatan, Hope, Collective and Dear Comrades are vying for a nomination. This year’s Oscar shortlists, unveiled yesterday, feature a bunch of European titles across every category – and, as expected, the International Feature Film selection is spearheaded by them. In a line-up that has been expanded to 15 titles this year, Academy voters have picked seven submissions from European countries, as well as four European co-productions submitted by non-European countries. The frontrunner, Another Round, Thomas Vinterberg’s European Film Award-winning Danish submission, is found on the shortlist, alongside France’s Two of Us, the first feature by Filippo Meneghetti (also nominated for a Golden Globe), Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Quo Vadis, Aïda?, the latest film by Jasmila Žbanić (also in the mix for the Spirit Award), Norway’s Hope by Maria Sødahl, Romania’s documentary Collective by Alexander Nanau and the latest efforts by two veteran filmmakers.

Predicting the eventual five Oscar nominees for Best International Feature is made difficult by the three-step process that begins after the December 1 deadline for countries to submit entries. To be part of the selection process for this category, which was called Best Foreign Language Film before 2020, requires a great deal of dedication. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2021 Oscar predictions for Best International Feature.)

First, the several hundred academy members of the International Feature screening committee are divided into groups and required to watch a number of the submissions over a two-month period that ends in early February. They will rate them from 6 to 10 and their top 15 vote-getters make it to the next round. This list of semi-finalists will be revealed on February 9, 2021.

Those 15 films will be available to the entire academy membership who can cast ballots for the final five nominees provided they attest to having watched all the entries.

The shortlist for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film is long on expected contenders, from Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round to Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades! The Academy’s expanded 15-strong list unveiled Tuesday has essentially made for few snubs while also noting a group of films from far and wide that highlight the power of cinema in all its forms and provenance.

Also on the shortlist, culled from submissions representing 93 countries, are notably two documentaries: The Mole Agent out of Chile and Alexander Nanau’s Collective from Romania.

Beyond those, there are some familiar faces including Agnieszka Holland with Charlatan; but there are a number of newcomers as well. First-time feature director Filippo Meneghetti just last week got nominated for a Golden Globe for France’s Two of Us, as did Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante with La Llorona. There is also heat on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Quo Vadis,...

The academy released the 2021 Oscars shortlists in nine categories on Tuesday, February 9. The hopefuls in a wide range of races found out if they are remain in contention for the 93rd annual Academy Awards. Among these are the marquee categories for Best International Feature Film (which was pared down to 10 films from the 93 submitted) and Best Documentary Feature (which went from 238 to 15).

Both music awards – Best Original Song and Best Original Score — were winnowed down to just 15 contenders from upwards of 100 submissions apiece. The Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Visual Effects races as well as the three awards for shorts – animated, documentary and live-action — were culled from dozens of entries to 10 apiece.

Documentary Feature

Two hundred and thirty-eight films were eligible for consideration; there are 15 on the shortlist. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The films, listed in alphabetical order by title,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists for nine categories for the upcoming Oscars. The categories and number of films include documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (10), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (10), live action short film (10) and visual effects (10).

The shortlist voting concluded on Feb. 5, and the remaining will move on to the official phase one voting, which will take place on March 5-9. The Oscar nominations will be announced on March 15, with the show scheduled to take place on April 25.

The full lists are below with snubs and surprises:

Documentary Feature

Fifteen films will advance in the documentary feature category out of 238 films eligible films. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

“76 Days” (MTV Documentary Films) – directed by Weixi Chen, Hao Wu, Anonymous “All In: The Fight for Democracy” (Amazon Studios) – directed by Lisa Cortes,...

The Oscar shortlists are out in nine categories including International Film, Documentary Feature, Music Score and Song, Makeup & Hairstyling, Visual Effects and Shorts. These are the first indicator of strength in the race for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards and, though the lists contain few real surprises, is especially good news for those films that are mentioned more than once.

Leading the pack with three mentions apiece are Netflix’s holiday film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, David Fincher’s Mank and Disney’s Mulan.

Films receiving two mentions each are The Little Things, One Night in Miami, Birds of Prey, The Life Ahead, The Midnight Sky, Minari, Soul, The One and Only Ivan, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Tenet. Also doubling up in both the Documentary Feature and International Feature Film categories...

The road to the 2021 Academy Awards hit an important marker today with the announcement of nine shortlists for the following categories: International Feature Film, Documentary, Original Score, Original Song, Makeup and Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Live-Action Short Film, Documentary Short Subject, and Animated Short Film. Just as in previous years, members of the Academy will select from these reduced lists of contenders in each category the nominees for the 2021 Oscars. This year marked the third year in a row the Academy released nine of its shortlists on the same day.

The nominations for the 2021 Oscars will be announced Monday, March 15, ahead of the 93rd Academy Awards telecast on Sunday, April 25. The Academy pushed back the ceremony this year in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Films that were set for a theatrical release but headed to streaming and/or PVOD instead are eligible for Oscar consideration. The Oscar cutoff date for...

The last time the Oscars let its general voters determine the entire shortlist in the Best International Feature Film category, it was 2007 and so many quality films were snubbed that the Academy changed the rules in what was then called Best Foreign Language Film.

But this year, with the shortlist expanded to 15 entries and entrusted to the general body of voters for the first time since then, the usual suspects all made it to the shortlist and the outcry over what didn’t make the cut is likely to be muted though not entirely absent.

Denmark’s “Another Round,” Romania’s “Collective,” Mexico’s “I’m No Longer Here,” the Ivory Coast’s “Night of the Kings” and Taiwan’s “A Sun” were among the critical favorites from the record 93 films that qualified in the category, along with crowd-pleasing films like Chile’s “The Mole Agent,” the Czech Republic’s “Charlatan...

Music, score, visual effects, make-up and hairstyling, short film shortlists also unveiled.

The Academy has announced the 15 international and 15 documentary features that have made the cut as it unveiled nine Oscar shortlists on Tuesday (February 9).

Switzerland’s My Little Sister, Greece’s Apples and Poland’s Never Gonna Snow Again are notable absentees from an international list dominated by Europe with seven contenders, followed by Latin America on three, Africa and Asia on two apiece, and the Middle East with one.

In January the Academy expanded the international shortlist from 10 to 15, ruling that the international feature film preliminary committee would vote on the entire shortlist.

Music, score, visual effects, make-up and hairstyling, short film shortlists also unveiled.

The Academy has announced the 15 international and 15 documentary features that have made the cut as it unveiled nine Oscar shortlists on Tuesday (February 9).

Switzerland’s My Little Sister, Greece’s Apples and Poland’s Never Gonna Snow Again are notable absentees from an international list dominated by Europe with seven contenders, followed by Latin America on three, Africa and Asia on two apiece, and the Middle East with one.

In January the Academy expanded the international shortlist from 10 to 15, ruling that the international feature film preliminary committee would vote on the entire shortlist.

Music, score, visual effects, make-up and hairstyling, short film shortlists also unveiled.

The Academy has announced the 15 international features and 15 documentary shortlists that have made the cut as it unveiled nine Oscar shortlists on Tuesday (February 9).

Switzerland’s My Little Sister and Greece’s Apples are notable absentees from an international list dominated by Europe with seven contenders, followed by Latin America on three, Africa and Asia on two apiece, and the Middle East with one.

All shortlisted films proceed to the phase one voting stage that runs from March 5-9 prior to the nominations announcement on March 15. The 93rd...

In 1962, a group of striking factory workers was massacred in the industrial Russian town of Novocherkassk. The shocking event, and the ensuing cover-up, is explored in intimate and meticulous detail by veteran filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky in Dear Comrades!, this year’s submission from Russia to the International Feature Oscar race.

With DoP Andrey Naidenov, Konchalovsky uses his trademark multi-camera shooting method and opts for a bleak look: black and white, with a 1:33 aspect ratio that suits the 60s period. The story centers on Lyuda (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a Communist party official who’s having a joyless affair with a married colleague and living with her teenage daughter Svetka (Yuliya Burova) and elderly father (Sergei Erlish). A dutiful employee, Lyuda speaks up in crisis meetings with the authorities, suggesting harsh penalties for the rebellious workers, who are complaining about lower pay and a rise in food prices. She may live to...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Dear Comrades! (Andrei Konchalovsky)

The gears of oppressive government bureaucracy are designed to crush homegrown opposition before it becomes too threatening. In that sense, institutions and policies put in place by Hitler’s Third Reich and Trump’s Maga cult have a lot in common with those of 20th century Communist Russia, an ideological rope-a-dope that publically posited figureheads like Stalin and later Khrushchev as warriors of the people while privately undermining any citizen-led resistance with brutal force. Andrei Konchalovsky’s great new film Dear Comrades! depicts such a response with the sobering understanding that historical events of any magnitude can be easily manipulated to match the motivations of those in power.

“What am I supposed to believe in if not communism?” Lyudmila stutters, drunk and disheveled, toward the end of Andrei Konchalovsky’s Dear Comrades!. A Stalin devotee and World War II veteran, she serves as a Communist Party official in her native Novocherkassk, a town in southern Ussr. But her unquestioning ideology suddenly wavers after a strike at the local factory is quelled with deadly force by the Kgb and Red Army forces. Seldom known outside Russia, the real-life massacre shook Novocherkassk on June 2, 1962, claiming the lives of 26 unarmed civilians. Dear Comrades! is a faithful and impeccably crafted exhumation of the tragedy—an event the Soviet Union kept secret until its dissolution in the early nineties. Konchalovsky has cited films such as Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1957 The Cranes Are Flying and Grigori Chukhray’s 1959 Ballad of a Soldier as stylistic reference points, and indeed—shot by Andrey Naidenov in stark, gorgeous...

Monday is the start of five days of voting to determine shortlists in the nine Oscar categories that narrow down the field before the start of nomination balloting. In the Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film categories, 238 and 93 films, respectively, will be reduced to 15 semifinalists.

In each of those categories, voters must see a minimum number of entries, drawn from a “required viewing” list sent to each member, in order to vote. Documentary voters must see more than 30 films, international voters must see 12. Shortlists in all categories will be announced on Feb. 9.

Here are our thoughts on these contests; on Tuesday, we’ll look at the below-the-line categories that also use shortlists.

‘Time’ / Amazon Studios

Best Documentary Feature

Ever since the Documentary Branch rules were changed to do away with the small committees that previously viewed films in the preliminary round of voting, the documentary shortlists have invariably...

Audiences who feel like their movie options have been a little light on actual movie stars this past month get a boost of A-list energy this weekend, between the Justin Timberblake small-town ex-con drama “Palmer” on Apple TV Plus and Netflix’s feel-good “Penguin Bloom,” in which a disabled woman played by Naomi Watts bonds with a baby magpie.

But the really starry option is Warner Bros.’ “The Little Things,” a big-budget serial-killer thriller starring three Oscar winners: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto. With many theaters still shut, the studio release will debut simultaneously via streaming on HBO Max.

Those who appreciate such intensity (and don’t mind risking a drive-in or megaplex visit) may also want to consider A24’s buzzy midnight movie “Saint Maud.” Meanwhile, the home-bound crowd can find their frights on demand in Iranian chiller “The Night.”

Smaller distributors continue to push international Oscar submissions,...

Shortlists to be announced on February 9.

The Academy on Thursday (January 28) published a list of 93 films eligible for international feature film Oscar category.

Algeria’s Heliopolis, about the brutal suppression by French colonial authorities of an uprising in 1945, is omitted from the list. Screen understands the national selection committee withdrew the submission.

There were also a record number of documentary submissions – 238 compared to the previous high of 170 – in light of amended eligibility rules this season due to the pandemic, and a reduced field of 27 animation contenders.

The shortlists will be announced on February 9. The 93rd annual Academy Awards are scheduled...

Clint Bentley’s feature debut “Jockey,” set to world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition in Sundance, has been acquired by Berlin-based Films Boutique for international sales.

Written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar (“Transpecos”), “Jockey” stars Clifton Collins Jr. as Jackson, a seasoned jockey who has weathered decades of races on the riding circuit, and now finds himself facing what could be his last season due to his deteriorating health. With the help of Ruth (Molly Parker) and a promising new horse, Jackson starts to prepare for the upcoming championship, while reflecting on his legacy.

The film shot at a live racetrack and is inspired by Bentley’s own experiences, which give the film its authenticity and naturalism. Moises Arias also stars in the film.

“We discovered the work of Clint with his short ‘9 Races’ and we have been very impressed and touched by ‘Jockey,'” said Jean-Christophe Simon,...

The number of films available to Oscar voters in a screening room devoted to the Best Picture category hit the 200 mark on Wednesday, which means that $2.5 million has entered the Academy coffers from films paying $12,500 each to be represented in the screening room.

The members-only Academy Screening Room hit the milestone with the addition of more than a dozen movies this week, including Fisher Stevens’ “Palmer,” Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” John Lee Hancock’s “The Little Things,” the Russo brothers’ “Cherry,” Josh Trank’s “Capone,” the documentary “Coup 53,” the Studio Ghibli animated film “Earwig and the Witch,” the international films “Funny Boy” and “Bacarau” (neither eligible in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category) and some off-the-wall selections, including “Snake White – Love Endures” and “Soorarai Pottru.”

Other late additions to the screening room have included “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “The White Tiger” and “Cherry,” which were not added until January.

For the past two years, the Oscar race for international feature hasn’t been a race at all. With Mexico’s “Roma” and South Korea’s “Parasite” heavyweight contenders for best picture, the lower-profile award became a done deal. Disappointingly, early buzz doesn’t point to any equivalent crossover between the two categories this year. The flip side of that, however, is as excitingly competitive an international field as the Oscars have seen in years, while a pandemic-disrupted festival and arthouse scene has made for fewer advance-hyped contenders than usual.

In these topsy-turvy circumstances then, it remains to be seen whether members of the Academy’s international feature branch cleave to the familiar, or delve into the relatively unknown. If old habits prevail, look for Europe to dominate the field: the continent accounted for eight of last year’s 10 shortlisted titles. Over a third of this year’s 93 submissions, meanwhile,...