When “The Dark Knight” failed to secured a best picture Oscar nomination, the snub was said to have prompted the Academy to expand the category from five nominees to as many as 10. A decade later, maybe out of fear that something similar might happen again to the immensely popular “Black Panther,” the Academy announced

A year after Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg locked the series finale of “The Americans,” the showrunners’ farewell tour comes to an end this Sunday. The FX show is among the nominees for best drama series at the Writers Guild of America Awards, which reps the last in a string of major kudos for the

The annals of film history are littered with far more movies that went unrecognized with a best picture nomination than those that are, but few made more of an impression on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences than “The Dark Knight.” Ten years ago Christopher Nolan’s film received eight nominations and won two

Production designer Nathan Crowley was strolling through the Brooklyn Navy Yard during the shoot for “The Greatest Showman” in fall 2016 when he passed a building with a 3D printer printing a chair. “The lady inside told me it was a machine from BigRep,” recalls Crowley. “I said, ‘When’s the last time you had a

February 15, 2019 9:59AM PT W.K. Stratton’s new book, “‘The Wild Bunch’: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film” (Bloomsbury) makes the case for the 1969 Western about American outlaws who died bloody deaths in Mexico. Peckinpah’s masterpiece became a favorite of the Weather Underground and assorted cineastes and

A broken skateboard forms a heart on the poster for “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu’s documentary about three young men, including himself, who used skating as an escape from their own broken childhoods in Rockford, Ill. Nominated at the 91st Academy Awards, the film is far more than a tribute to the healing powers of

Even for the most experienced filmmaker, every movie offers challenges and surprises that can alter a production’s trajectory and change the director’s approach to his film in unexpected ways. We asked this year’s Oscar directing nominees about the obstacles that cropped up while getting their films across the finish line. Biggest challenge as a director

The last time two directors whose films weren’t in English got nominated for an Academy Award in the same year, Jimmy Carter was president. It was 1977, and the directing nominations went to both Ingmar Bergman (“Face to Face”) and Lina Wertmuller (“Seven Beauties”), along with Alan Pakula (“All the President’s Men”) and Sidney Lumet

Directors of this year’s foreign-language Oscar nominees felt compelled to tell tales of universal themes. Capernaum LebanonThe Oscar race has fueled the ongoing protest against the industry’s sidelining of woman directors, serving up no female-helmed films in the best picture or director categories. That leaves Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki as the only distaff director nominated for

I recently received an invitation to a Jan. 5 wedding, and my first thought was “Are they insane? Why are they getting married on Golden Globes weekend?” Then I realized that not everyone in the world centers their lives around awards season. I slowly came to a more shocking realization: Maybe I’ve gotten a little

You know the annual Oscar nominations announcement is going to be a lively one when things begin to enter a lull just before they drop, and that’s what it felt like ahead of Tuesday morning’s reveal. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ever evolving and growing as a voting body, was sure to

While Tuesday brought a fresh pack of Oscar nominees, we are no closer to understanding what’s in store when the golden statues are handed out on live television come Feb. 24. The point of the dramatic nominees announcement each year is to drum up excitement for the telecast — but this morning, the announcement didn’t feature

With the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards in the books, there’s an urge to sift through the tea leaves and decipher what it all means, not just for the Oscars, mere weeks away, but also for the Emmys, as the TV awards apparatus begins churning to life this month on its march to midsummer nominations.

Dec. 6 felt a bit like déjà-vu for one director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose German film “Never Look Away” landed just one of five berths in the Golden Globes foreign-language film category, along with fellow nominees “Shoplifters” (Japan), “Capernaum” (Lebanon), “Girl” (Belgium) and “Roma” (Mexico). “We’re not even five hours from the announcement, and

Visual-effects artists battle to conquer many challenges on each project that comes their way. As the onslaught of superhero films continues, vfx teams must find ways to combine the intricate, organic work of actors with the enhancements of CG and vfx without landing somewhere that no one wants to go: the “uncanny valley” where things

In director Karyn Kusama’s “destroyer,” Nicole Kidman plays Erin Bell, a detective and tortured soul who has spent nearly 20 years punishing herself for her role in an undercover operation gone wrong. Kidman delivers an intense, gripping performance, and a team of artisans were key in creating the highly distressed look that helped the Oscar-winning

It’s been less than four years since #OscarsSoWhite became a hot topic at the Academy Awards after 2015 films like “Creed” and “Straight Outta Compton” failed to land major nominations for people of color. (It actually began the year before but picked up steam when, for the second year in a row, no people of

This awards season, the Hollywood studios’ Golden Boy, Oscar, stars in The Return of the Prodigal Son. This year’s lineup of studio contenders has opened screen doors to the top award after Oscar’s long affair with those wild young things called “the indies.” As the blockbusters became the more and more favored means of recoupment

“Barry” and “The Kominsky Method” went all the way on their first SAG Awards ballot while “The Americans” joined the party at long last for its final season. SAG Awards voters cemented Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method” as a kudos season contender with comedy actor noms for stars Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, and a comedy

Fox Searchlight’s “The Favourite,” directed by rising art-house star Yorgos Lanthimos, led the field of film nominees for the 24th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. announced Monday. The period comedy, a biting send-up of the court of Queen Anne, received 14 nominations including best picture, director, actress (Olivia Colman), supporting actress

Star power and staying power were rewarded by Golden Globe voters this time around in the television nominations. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association put the spotlight on a number of new programs enhanced by mega stars: Julia Roberts’ “Homecoming,” Jim Carrey’s “Kidding,” Michael Douglas’ “The Kominsky Method” and Hugh Grant’s “A Very English Scandal.” FX’s

One of the main reasons movies resonate with us is that they make us think: about our own lives, our history or our appreciation for past pieces of art. So many of this year’s awards contenders do one or all of the above, be it a flashy musical that yanks at memories from our childhood

Hollywood has long excelled at telling stories that are cut from reality, featuring topical ingredients that tie escapism to the world we inhabit. Whether it’s true stories from the past or present that help to inform our current social landscape, or wholly creative pieces of fiction that oftentimes touch upon progressive collective change, filmmakers continue

Although it is expensive and time-consuming to enter the Oscar race, the value of a foreign-language film nomination proves tangible to the director and, by extension, to the country’s entire cinematic output. Here are some case studies of procedure and strategy from countries that have been included in previous shortlists, and have a strong chance

Former Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol reflects on special-needs sports and “Champions,” Spain’s Oscar entry, a blockbuster hit on home turf and sold almost worldwide. “Champions” turns on an off-the-rails Spanish coach sentenced to train a basketball team of special-needs players. Are such teams common in Spain? Fortunately, there are more and more initiatives.

No matter how much you loved “Crazy Rich Asians” — that glittering Singapore-set spin on the princess movie, which charmed audiences to the tune of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars earlier this year — don’t be surprised when the Academy fails to give it a single above-the-line Oscar nomination. When that happens, it

However you slice the foreign-language film Oscar, it remains bound by rules and regulations that ensure it can never be fully representative of world cinema: in 2018, as global film production grows ever more complex and multinational, the one-film-per-country submission system looks a little quaint, excluding numerous outstanding titles that fall both within and beyond

Women directors and producers are consistent winners and well-represented as nominees when it comes to documentaries in awards season. Barbara Kopple is a two-time Oscar-winning documentary director; Freida Lee Mock is an Oscar winner and was the Academy’s first documentary branch governor; Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”) and Zana Briski (“Born Into Brothels”) are the two women

Among the Middle East’s 10 submissions, three of which are helmed by women, are several titles that are likely to be competitive in the foreign-language category. These include the Cannes jury prize-winner “Capernaum,” from Lebanon’s helmer-actress Nadine Labaki, and “The Cakemaker” from Israel’s Ofir Raul Grazier. While the lineup includes some films that premiered at

Ever since 2009 when two Latin American films, Argentine winner “The Secret in Their Eyes” and Peru’s “The Milk of Sorrow,” were shortlisted for the foreign-language film Oscar, roughly every other year a Latino movie has secured a nom in that category. However, only three pics since the 1940s have brought home the top prize,