Awards

The Oscars could have some interesting surprises pop up at the ceremony on April 25, even in the best picture race. Given the unprecedented nature of the season and the assumption that many AMPAS voters sat out the nomination phase of voting, a couple of upsets may await. One of which could be “The Trial

This past weekend, singer, songwriter and actor Leslie Odom Jr. performed “Speak Now” at the BAFTA Awards as part of its opening night ceremony. The evening was hosted by radio and TV presenter Clara Amfo in a virtual ceremony. Speaking at the Variety Artisans Awards last week, the double Oscar nominee said he and fellow

The Oscars have announced an “ensemble cast” to present at the 93rd ceremony along with the first television promo. The first round of presenters includes a list of 15 former Academy Award winners and nominees, save for one: Angela Bassett (nominee for 1993’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It”), Halle Berry (actress winner for

Dazzling duds dominate the Oscar race for costume design this year. Ann Roth landed her fifth nomination and potential second win for “Ma Rainey’s BlackBottom”; the costume designing legend only had a few scarce pictures of the real-life Rainey to use as research but she managed to bring the Godmother of Blues to life.As Rainey,

The beauty of “Nomadland” rests in the hands of its direction by Chloe Zhao and its gorgeous camera work by Joshua James Richards. Some of the best work in 2021 has been delivered by young, consummate professionals, who are speaking volumes to the future of cinema and where it’s heading. From vibrant colors to emotional

Four of the five contenders in the editing race this year are newcomers, with only Alan Baumgarten (“The Trial of Chicago 7”), who snared an Oscar nom for 2013’s “American Hustle,” being recognized previously by the Academy. “The Father” might have landed six nominations including best picture, but to land a win here it would

The lead actress Oscar race is competitive, so there’s no guarantee that Andra Day will win for her socko performance in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” But Day has the kind of backstory that Oscar voters love: She (and the movie) appeared with little advance fanfare, and she makes a huge impact in only

The 2021 BAFTA nominations turned more than a few heads when they were announced in early March. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has approximately 9,000 voting members, nearly identical to AMPAS at 10,000. With “Nomadland” leading the field with seven noms and having the prestige of wins from the Golden Globes and

Anyone who says they “know” who will win the Oscar for best actress is not living in reality. It’s a rarity to use a term such as, “any of the five can win it” without making it sound cliché in awards prognostication lingo. But that’s where we are as we head into the final stretch.

Rosie Perez hasn’t been invited back to the Oscars since she attended the ceremony as a nominee in 1994 for “Fearless,” where she played a plane crash survivor crippled by grief. “Not even to sit in the audience, not to present, nothing—and I’m a member,” Perez says. “I love the Academy Awards. I cheer on

Awards season can often feel like a months-long echo chamber in which the same handful of films and names are discussed to death. So when BAFTA threw in a number of left-field contenders who had hitherto been largely absent from the conversation, it was both a refreshing change of pace for jaded awards pundits —

It’s been 20 years since the BAFTA film awards shifted their place in the awards calendar, preceding the Academy Awards rather than following them a few months later. It’s a change that has significantly altered how the British ceremony is perceived within the industry. What was once viewed as an isolated event, marked by particular,

Pixar’s “Soul,” George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky” and “The Mandalorian” led the winners at the 19th annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards. Comedian Patton Oswalt served as host for the 10th time for the virtual ceremony which celebrated the art of visual effects across 25 categories. “Soul” was named top animated film, winning five awards.

Double Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr. was among the craftsmen and craftswomen at Variety‘s Artisans Awards offering advice on how to get into the field they work in. Odom Jr. said, “Starting with the education is key, and starting in the theater is key for me.” The “One Night in Miami” actor, songwriter and theater performer

Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous SAG Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” His widow Taylor Simone Ledward accepted the award and gave an emotional speech on his behalf during the virtual ceremony, which aired on Sunday night on TNT. Ledward thanked the cast and

There’s a double-edged sword to being singled out as an awards frontrunner. Yes, it’s a positive sign when pundits consider you the top contender to score a top prize. But be identified as the top of the pack too early, and you’ve immediately been handed a target on your back as the one to beat.

The SAG Awards have weighed in with their winners and have set in motion on what could be the most diverse slate of major Oscar winners in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards. The celebration of the 27th annual ceremony, which is voted on by the approximate 160,000-person membership of actors, was revealed during

The Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild (MUAHS, IATSE Local 706) held its eighth annual MUAHS Awards Saturday night in a virtual ceremony. Oscar frontrunner in the make-up and hair category “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” took home the feature-length motion picture awards for best period and/or character make-up and best period hairstyling and/or character hairstyling,

Though it’s set 50 years ago, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is contemporary and important. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin tells Variety, “Even from the beginning, I didn’t want the film to be about 1968, I wanted it to be about today. None of us realized how much about today it would end up being.” Sorkin

Searchlight Pictures’ “Nomadland” has shown it has the ability to pass one of the thorniest tests in the Oscar season canon: the preferential ballot. That’s the method used for selecting a winner at the Producers Guild Awards, which is also used by the Academy Awards for choosing its top prize. On March 24, the film

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are always a unique one to predict, given the sheer size of the voting body. There are usually around 120,000 eligible voters every year, and they are spread out across the country. Often, the safe bet is to go with popular choices or names, given the broad SAG-AFTRA membership. This

“Promising Young Woman” producers Margot Robbie and Josey McNamara believe that writer and director Emerald Fennell “can do it all.” “The great thing about Emerald as a filmmaker [is] from that very first moment she pitched us when she delivered the script, she knew the movie in her head instantly,” McNamara tells Variety’s Awards Circuit

SAG Awards executive producer Kathy Connell likes to refer to the annual ceremony as “the actors’ party in the actors’ house.” But in 2021, she means it literally: “This year, it’s really in their house!” That’s because the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Screen Actors Guild Awards (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT April 4 on

Lady Gaga is insurmountable in the entertainment business. The multi-platinum and global award-winning actress, singer, songwriter and superstar is celebrating her birthday today. With it, we are ranking the best performances from female musicians turned actresses in the last 35 years (post-1986), our Mother Monster’s age. The ability to artistically explore both music and acting

Listen, it’s time for all the awards gurus, publicists and industry people to take a breath. For a little over a year, the four walls surrounding us, the multiple Zoom boxes in front of us and the spewing of hatred on our television screens have divided us. The past 15 months of awards season speculations

Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” fulfills an idea that was nearly 40 years in the making: a film version of August Wilson’s play. In October 1984, Variety’s Richard Hummler reviewed its Broadway debut, praising Wilson as “a new writer of talent and power.” He added “The play will likely have a healthy production life elsewhere

George Clooney is the definition of timeless, which is why it’s hard to believe the Hollywood superstar will be turning 60 in May. But before that, on March 28, Clooney will receive the AARP Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award at a virtual ceremony to be broadcast on PBS. Clooney is an ideal fit for

Nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards are a reminder that Oscar is like a Rorschach test: It means different things to different people. And in the 21st century, there is a growing gap between awards and the public. For decades, Oscar’s best picture winner was often the year’s top box office hit, including “Gone With

The Producers Guild of America Awards awarded Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” with their top prize, one of the key indicators for the Academy Awards, particularly the best picture category. Edging out its closest competitors including Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman,” Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” this might just

Oscar producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh have announced 14 key members of the production team for the 93rd Academy Awards. Rob Paine (“A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote”) will serve as supervising producer, while co-producer Raj Kapoor (“Grammy Awards”) joins the Oscars for the fifth consecutive year, overseeing