In the room, it felt like a skit at first. Late into the Oscars on Sunday night, Will Smith stormed the stage as Chris Rock was presenting best documentary feature, and slapped Rock in the face. The loud thud echoed through the top mezzanine floors of the Dolby Theatre, almost sounding like a sound effect
Movies
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has issued a statement on the Will Smith–Chris Rock slap that shocked the 94th Academy Awards. Smith took to the stage during the 2022 Oscars and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith while presenting the documentary feature category. The Academy said
“Dune” cinematographer Greig Fraser and editor Joe Walker were among those who spoke out about the Academy’s decision to cut eight categories from the live telecast at Sunday’s Oscars. Earlier this week, dozens of sound designers, engineers and mixers signed a petition challenging the move to award the sound Oscar during its pre-telecast hour on
In a moment that will forever define the 2022 Academy Awards, Will Smith walked onstage after Chris Rock improvised a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and smacked him in the face. While the joke — which poked fun at Jada’s shaved head, after the actress has been vocal about her alopecia diagnosis since
The Los Angeles Police Department confirms to Variety that Chris Rock has “declined to file a police report” following an altercation with Will Smith at the 94th Academy Awards. Smith took to the stage during the 2022 Oscars and slapped Rock after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. A full statement from
There are shocking moments at every Academy Awards ceremony, though no one could have predicted just how dramatic things would get this year after Will Smith took umbrage to a joke Chris Rock made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. But in the end, there were very few surprises throughout the night, with most of
Jessica Chastain won the best actress Oscar for her performance as televangelist and queer icon Tammy Faye Bakker in the biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” During her speech, Chastain addressed several issues plaguing the nation, including “discriminatory and bigoted legislation,” a nod to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. “We’re faced with discriminatory and bigoted
Sidney Poitier, Betty White and Ivan Reitman received heartfelt tributes on Oscar Sunday. Tyler Perry paid homage to Poitier before the opening of the annual In Memoriam segment. “He was the first, and for far too long, the only Black man to win an Oscar for best actor,” Perry said of Poitier, who made history
Seven weeks after the announcement of Oscar nominations, the 94th Academy Awards are finally here. The show will kick off at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Sunday on ABC, following a red carpet show hosted by actors Vanessa Hudgens and Terrence J, and fashion designer Brandon Maxwell. This year’s ceremony, held at the Dolby
No matter what your image of modern China, it’s nowhere near complete until you’ve seen it through New York-based, China-observing director Jessica Kingdon’s eyes. Working in the mold of photographers Lauren Greenfield (“Queen of Versailles”) and Edward Burtynsky (“Manufactured Landscapes”), the Tribeca Film Festival winner trains her camera on the impacts of China’s fast-exploding economy
The Academy Award telecast will acknowledge “the people of Ukraine,” producer Will Packer told Variety on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday. Packer was answering a question about whether Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will appear on the show, something co-host Amy Schumer said she’d advocated to happen. Two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn also vowed to “smelt”
Adam McKay revealed in a new interview with the Sunday Times that he regrets going soft on Democrats in “Vice,” his 2018 biographical satire about Dick Cheney. McKay’s film cast Christian Bale as the former Vice President and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director. The supporting cast included Amy Adams,
For 94 years, the Academy Awards have honored the best in filmmaking. They have also served as a time capsule reflecting what was going on in the world and/or in the entertainment industry each year. In the 21st century, Oscar has lost much of its TV audience, but the name recognition remains as strong as
Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s screwball romantic comedy “The Lost City” collected $31 million at North American theaters over the weekend, a promising sign that Netflix hasn’t completely seized on the meet-cute market. Of course, Paramount, which is behind “The Lost City,” did not rely only on positive reviews — or the tease of Tatum’s
Wrapping March 26, the 25th Malaga Festival and its Spanish Screenings delivered another confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a new platform era. Following, nine final takes on what may prove a historic edition. A Vibrant Spanish Screenings Málaga’s plus-size 2022 Spanish Screenings fairly rocked. Extra funding from Spain’s AVS Hub Plan,
Although Michael Bay’s “Ambulance” is only weeks away from a stateside release, the director has admitted that he isn’t completely satisfied with the final product. The blockbuster director, celebrated for his elaborate action sequences and practical pyrotechnics, has stated that he isn’t content with how every visual effects shot looks in the movie. Speaking in
Sean Penn has taken a hard stance against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, vowing to publicly “smelt” his statuettes from the awards body if the organization elects against asking Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to speak during the live telecast of Sunday evening’s ceremony. In a broadcast interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta, Penn argued
Lin-Manuel Miranda will not be present at the Academy Awards on Sunday evening. The creative composer has elected against attending the Oscars ceremony at the Dolby Theater “out of caution” after learning that his wife, Vanessa Nadal, has recently tested positive for COVID-19. Miranda revealed his decision through Twitter on Saturday afternoon, adding that he
Two hotly-favored competition frontrunners, Spain’s motherhood-focused “Lullaby” and “Utama,” shot on an awe-inspiring Bolivian Altiplano, swept the board at a historic, 25th Málaga Film Festival which said a lot about the current state of the Spanish film industry. Running March 18-26, the Festival proved a vibrant affair, galvanised by renewed interest in the Spanish cinema
Saint Laurent has entered the Oscar party race. The legendary French fashion house held its first pre-Oscar soiree on Friday night. Hosted by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, the evening began with a VIP dinner for about 50 people at the Harvey house, a John Lautner-designed architectural gem in Los Feliz owned by Mitch
People make documentaries about all kinds of things: some slight and silly, others educational or emotional. But if you want to be nominated for an Oscar in the doc short category, it’s best to zero in on an issue the Academy can get behind, like homelessness, bullying and confronting prejudice. Just imagine if any other
From the moment it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” has been a divisive film. Yet the divisiveness has had an element of being foggy and vague, hard to get a fix on. In part, that’s because those who command the media megaphone, and are loudest
The year’s achievements in film will have to wait one more day for the Academy Awards, but the medium’s lows were dishonored on Saturday morning at the 42nd Golden Raspberry awards. Netflix’s “Diana the Musical,” a filmed performance of the much-derided new Broadway musical based on the life of Princess Diana, had a clean sweep
After three weeks of “The Batman,” the domestic box office has a new leader. “The Lost City,” starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, looks to claim the weekend’s top spot with a projected $30 million opening weekend. Paramount’s adventure rom-com blasted off to $11.5 million from 4,253 locations on its opening day, after grossing $2.5
Paris-based Italian director Gianluca Matarrese took a deep dive into the world of fashion for his latest documentary feature, “Fashion Babylon,” which world premieres on Saturday at CPH:DOX film festival in Copenhagen. Ahead of the premiere, he spoke to Variety about the film and upcoming projects. The idea for “Fashion Babylon” came to Matarrese after
For an actor, there’s an obvious showboat appeal to playing a serious out-of-control drunk. You can fight, you can rage, you can tap your inner party animal, you can rotate through emotions like a human mood ring, you can descend into the kind of degraded dishevelment that’s the lower-depths version of an awards-bait transformation. Yet
The Governors Awards, an annual event that presents Hollywood luminaries with honorary Oscar statuettes, is a reprieve, of sorts, from the awards season grind. Sure, there’s plenty of small talk and crudités to go around. But unlike most shows, which announce the winners in real time, this stop on the Oscar trail is void of
Annapurna’s chief content officer Sue Naegle is stepping down from her post, Variety has confirmed. The show business veteran had served as Annapurna CEO Megan Ellison’s top content executive for nearly six years, and helped buttress the indie company through the pandemic and other periods of great uncertainty. Naegle is said to be focusing on
“The Batman” broke the internet this week by releasing a deleted scene featuring Robert Pattinson’s Batman and Barry Keoghan’s Joker. Although Keoghan’s Joker had a brief appearance in “The Batman” theatrical release, it wasn’t until the five-minute deleted scene that fans got an extended look at this new iteration of the character. This Joker is
The Málaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) wrapped Thursday, March 25 with a slew of awards parceled out to productions from across Spain and Latin America. Several projects by women filmmakers dominated the event, which kicked off on March 21. Spanish documentarian Carla Subirana’s fiction feature debut, “Sica” made off with three private-sector plaudits, including the