The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), one of the most important critics groups in the awards season, is announcing their favorites films and performances, following Boston and New York last week. Notorious for embracing foreign films and performances, the west coast group chose Neon’s “Parasite” and its director Bong Joon-ho last year, which went
Play video content Verzuz / Apple Music Too Short and E-40 played their classic tracks, put down some classic dancing and told classic stories — so yeah, the last “Verzuz” of 2020 was a West Coast classic. The Bay Area rap legends acknowledged their longstanding friendship from “BR” — before rap, as 40 puts it
The final episode of “Saturday Night Live” for the tumultuous year that was 2020 started with both the hot topic of the day and the hot topic of the month: who would take over the role of President-Elect Joe Biden on the late-night sketch comedy series and the COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. The episode aired just
The U.K.’s insurance scheme for film and television has been extended until April. Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the groundbreaking £500 million ($676 million) fund assures productions that they’ll receive financial support in case of COVID-related losses. The program has so far accepted 100 qualifying productions. The initiative was first revealed
Amazon has renewed “The Wilds” for a second season. The show’s official Twitter account broke the news on Saturday with a video of the cast celebrating, captioned “did someone say season 2??” did someone say season 2?? #TheWilds pic.twitter.com/ZVDe1sFfx0 — The Wilds (@thewildsonprime) December 19, 2020 “The Wilds” follows a group of young girls who
Former President Barack Obama dropped a playlist of his favorite songs on Saturday morning, following his year-end movie, television and book recommendations. “Here are some of my favorite songs of the year,” he wrote on Twitter. “As usual, I had some valuable consultation from our family music guru, Sasha, to put this together. I hope
Check out the top new trailers released this week that you’ve gotta see! Let us know what you think in the comments below. ► Sign up for a Fandango FanAlert or Buy Movie Tickets: https://www.fandango.com?cmp=MCYT_YouTube_Desc Want to be notified of all the latest movie trailers? Subscribe to the channel and click the bell icon to
Eric Clapton and Van Morrison have released their anti-lockdown collaboration, “Stand and Deliver.” Written by Morrison and performed by Clapton, the four-and-a-half minute bluesy track expresses dissatisfaction with the government-ordered lockdowns spurred by rising cases of COVID-19. “Do you wanna be a free man/ Or do you wanna be a slave?/ Do you wanna wear
Twitter has added a new label on President Donald Trump’s tweets containing inaccurate information on the presidential election results. Trump’s tweets disputing Joe Biden’s election victory now include a label clarifying that “election officials have certified Joe Biden as winner of the U.S. Presidential election.” The bold text is linked to Twitter’s official election page,
The nation has a president-elect. But who will play him on “Saturday Night Live” as he prepares to be sworn into office? The question is open anew after actor Jim Carrey took to Twitter Saturday to tell fans he was leaving behind the impression of Joe Biden he has offered over the course of the
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” hair department head Mia Neal had never worked with horsehair before until she needed to create wigs for the new Netflix film starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. Few photographs existed of the real Ma Rainey, known as the “Mother of the Blues,” but costume designer Ann Roth pointed to reading
The day Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the company wasted no time making clear what it was buying for $4.05 billion, announcing three new Star Wars movies were already in the works. In a shareholder call the day the deal was announced, then-CEO Robert Iger laid out the company’s ambitions: “Our long-term plan is to
Jessica Chastain’s “Ava” has skipped a theatrical release in China, but is instead to get the widest possible online outing in the Middle Kingdom. From Saturday it is available on China’s four largest generalist streaming platforms: Tencent Video, Alibaba-owned Youku, iQIYI and Mango TV. The maneuver was piloted by Los Angeles and Beijing based Leeding
“Wonder Woman 1984” will get a premium VOD release in the U.K. a month after the film’s premiere, Warner Bros. has confirmed. As revealed exclusively by Variety earlier this month, the studio has taken advantage of a strict emergency COVID window agreed with exhibitors, which has drastically shortened the U.K. theatrical window. However, it appears the
Netflix is delaying the start of production of the Chris Evans–Ryan Gosling thriller “The Gray Man” — which had been scheduled for mid-January — amid concerns about the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in California. Netflix had no comment. Sources close to the production said Friday that the indefinite pause stems from an abundance of
Director Ric Roman Waugh’s “Greenland” was originally scheduled to be released in June, but the pandemic changed that — it’s now available on premium VOD. Waugh, who reunites with “Angel has Fallen” actor Gerard Butler, had not yet finished his post-production when the lockdown happened. Although he had locked picture, there was still a lot
Think what you will about “Music to Be Murdered By – Side B,” but you can’t say Eminem’s not having fun. This has hardly been a given on many of Marshall Mathers’ recent releases. Whether he was struggling to live up to his old bad boy image, publicly wrestling with criticism, performatively proving his chops
Who says women’s names never come up in the Grammys’ rock categories? Just look at the 2019 contest for rock album, when Greta Van Fleet prevailed over Alice in Chains. But if you mean actual females? Then yes, their near-complete absence has been staggering. In the 16-year time frame from 2005 through 2020, there was
Filmmaker Safyah Usmani documented Pakistan’s changing laws surrounding honor killings through the story of Pakistani celebrity Qandeel Baloch’s death in “A Life Too Short.” “The reason I chose to make this film, and when I started was right after her murder,” she said. “The reason behind that was … I was thinking about how the
Members of the U.S. Space Force will now be called “guardians” — and of course, the internet had a field day. Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement on Friday, and the United States Space Force tweeted that the name was settled on “by space professionals, for space professionals” after a yearlong research process. Today,
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix renewed “Virgin River” for season 3, and Fox announced the premiere date for “The Great North.” RENEWALS Netflix has renewed “Virgin River” for a 10-episode third season. The show follows a midwife and nurse (Alexandra Breckenridge) who relocates to a California town and becomes entrenched in the lives of
While Congress continues to let Americans starve and go bankrupt while playing politics with a stimulus bill, we’ll drink to this: Jägermeister and the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) have announced a long-term partnership, with the goal of helping to preserve independent live music venues across the United States through the Save Our Stages initiative,
UTA Music implemented several internal social justice initiatives to address systemic racism and social injustices throughout 2020. Through a four-pronged approach to making change, employees in the Justice Now task force work to dismantle boundaries or limitations based on social or racial identity. Organized by Aicha Forbes-Diaby, Zoe Williamson, Kiyomi Calloway, Christine Lee, Bowie Chen, Brian
As 2020 lurches to a close, Columbia Records has given Sarah Mary Cunningham and John Salcedo some well-earned reasons to end it with a toast: They have both been given vice-president stripes, of publicity and digital marketing, respectively. Since joining Columbia in July of 2014, Cunningham has worked closely with Rosalia, Leon Bridges, the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in
The news this week that HBO Max — finally — was coming to Roku was welcomed by millions of the device maker’s customers, eager to stream the WarnerMedia service on their TVs and catch “Wonder Woman 1984” when it premieres on Christmas Day. But there’s a wrinkle for some Roku users who want to get
As this trainwreck of a year trainwrecks itself to a close, we present the final Fri5 of 2020 — and as if on cue, it’s one of the more confusing batches of songs we’ve highlighted. We’re not even entirely sure who one of these artists is (see Rook Monroe). So along with new albums from
How do you choose the biggest movie misfires of the year? In a way, it’s easy. A movie that’s bad enough to earn a place on this scroll is, like a great movie, not one you really choose. It’s one that chooses you. It looks like a judgment, and a harsh one at that, but
Positive cases of COVID-19 have been recorded on the set of “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” prompting production to shut down. The results impacted those filming in Zone A, which includes cast and those on the crew who come into contact with the cast. The series is set to star Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Beanie
Now that the New York Times has revealed that it can no longer confirm the tales shared by Shehroze Chaudhry, the central figure in the 2018 podcast “Caliphate,” the newspaper has agreed to return the Peabody Award it had previously won for the series. The decision came following the newspaper’s internal investigation into the veracity
A24’s “First Cow” was the big winner at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, taking home best film. In predicting the Academy Awards, the top prize from NYFCC has an astounding correlation to the Oscars. Since 1935, the NYFCC winner for best film has never failed to receive any Oscar nominations in its respective