News

Fans are excited to see the Oscars ceremony unfold this year. After seeing Jimmy Kimmel for the last two years at the center stage, fans look forward to seeing a new host. Conan O’Brien will be hosting the 97th Academy Awards on March 2nd at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Besides its ABC broadcast, this year’s event will stream on Hulu, a first in the history of the Oscars.

From actors to performers to comedy greats, the Oscars have seen several celebrities take over the hosting duties over the years. The first-ever Academy Awards took place as a private dinner, without a formal host. Douglas Fairbanks, Academy President at the time, hosted the dinner alongside Vice-President William C. deMille.

Conan O’Brien is the host for the upcoming Oscars ceremony | Credits: Conan/TBS

Bob Hope holds the record for hosting the most number of ceremonies. He hosted the Oscars...

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson have renewed their commitment to Turner Classic Movies, and George Stevens Jr. and Michael Schultz will be honored at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April, it was announced Saturday.

TCM also noted that new episodes of Two for One will return to the channel in April, with filmmakers and Ben Mankiewicz co-hosting a double feature on Saturday nights. Joe Dante, Kathy Bates and Jamie Lee Curtis will be among the guests.

TCM will continue to celebrate a different star every month, like Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday; Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would have been their 100th birthdays; and Dick Van Dyke on his 100th birthday in December.

George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck, Red Skelton, Mae West, Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon will also be featured throughout 2025.

During its 31st year,...

The most bizarre Oscars race has now happened 94 years ago, with the fallout surrounding the race leading to the Academy Awards officially changing their rules. The Academy Awards have been going for nearly 100 years now, with the first Oscars event being hosted all the way back in 1929. In the Academy Awards' 96-year history, there have been a lot of changes to the ceremony, with one of the most significant Oscars alterations happening as a result of the 3rd annual Academy Awards that were held in 1930.

Fans of the Academy Awards are often incredibly interested in Oscars history, with one of the most interesting aspects of the awards show being actors who have won or were nominated for multiple awards. Things like different actors being nominated for the same character and other Oscars oddities are always of note when discussing how the Academy Awards have operated throughout the years. The list...

The pre-Code era of Hollywood filmmaking ran from 1930 to 1934. During these years, Hollywood films contained increasing levels of violence, sexuality, drug use, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Although officially created in 1930, the Production Code did not begin strict enforcement until the middle of 1934.

While many have preconceived notions of Golden Era Hollywood films being sterile, that belief certainly does not apply to pre-Code films. The reality is, many pre-Code movies feature outrageous content that, even by today's standards, remains shocking and taboo. Countless pre-Code classics still account for some of cinema's most controversial movies.

This article was updated on October 6, 2024, by Christopher Raley: The era before the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code or the Hays Code offers a look into the kind of films that Hollywood made before the time in which the code was enforced. While the display of nudity was not as frank, some of these films...

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill...

If Hollywood truly suffers from a leadership malaise, as some charge, would the return of Monroe Stahr resuscitate the system? Filmmakers respect his judgment, stars his panache and investors his discipline, so Stahr’s return may ignite a new Irving Thalberg-like era.

Whoops — he’s not available.

The manic and manipulative hero of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon ruled MGM in its ‘30s heyday, but Stahr’s fictional reign was short-lived. So was Fitzgerald’s brilliant but never completed 1939 novel, which modeled Stahr after Thalberg.

Having achieved literary stardom with The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s decision to write a Hollywood novel, while simultaneously working as a script doctor, plunged the novelist into alcoholic paralysis. He never managed to finish his book and even his screenplays were unrealized.

The Last Tycoon briefly flickered back to life as a movie thanks to the great Elia Kazan, who cast Robert De Niro,...

Among the myriad reasons we could call the Criterion Channel the single greatest streaming service is its leveling of cinematic snobbery. Where a new World Cinema Project restoration plays, so too does Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. I think about this looking at November’s lineup and being happiest about two new additions: a nine-film Robert Bresson retro including L’argent and The Devil, Probably; and a one-film Hype Williams retro including Belly and only Belly, but bringing as a bonus the direct-to-video Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club. Until recently such curation seemed impossible.

November will also feature a 20-film noir series boasting the obvious and the not. Maybe the single tightest collection is “Women of the West,” with Johnny Guitar and The Beguiled and Rancho Notorious and The Furies only half of it. Lynch/Oz, Irradiated, and My Two Voices make streaming premieres; Drylongso gets a Criterion Edition; and joining...

If Jane Austen were alive today, and if for some baffling reason she wrote film criticism instead of brilliant novels, she'd probably say it is a truth universally acknowledged that a film that makes a fortune must be in want of a sequel.

Sure enough, no matter how much the industry changes, the desire to capitalize on a hit film by making another one just like it, rubber-stamped for audience familiarity, must be overwhelming. The history of cinema is littered with sequels and for each one that audiences remember — for better or worse — there's at least one that's almost completely forgotten, even if they're the sequel to a film that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Indeed, there are more forgotten Best Picture sequels than you might expect. George C. Scott reprised his Oscar-winning role as General George S. Patton 16 years later, in the TV movie "The Last Days of Patton.

Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences gets together to single out the best movies, performances and craftsmanship, and sometimes they actually get it right. Sure, sometimes it goes the other way, but throughout the history of the Oscars, there are many excellent examples of actors who gave astounding performances for the ages. The types of roles may change, and the acting styles may evolve, but these Oscar-winning actors of yesteryear absolutely deserved their gold statues and remain some of the gold standards for screen acting.

Norma Shearer, “The Divorcee” (1930)

Norma Shearer gives an astoundingly multifaceted performance in Robert Z. Leonard’s “The Divorcee,” as a woman whose husband is unfaithful and decides turnabout is fair play, only to see her role in polite society shift dramatically. What could have been a tawdry and finger-wagging cautionary tale lights up because Shearer explores all the emotional complexity of her...

Two years ago, siblings Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell shared in four Grammy wins for the album “When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Album) and its single “Bad Guy” (Record of the Year; Song of the Year). Now, they have concurrently earned their first Oscar nominations for co-writing the song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name. If they prevail later this month, they will become the fourth brother-sister pair to both be honored by the academy and the first to win for the same film.

The first brother-sister Oscar champs and first sibling winners overall were Douglas Shearer and Norma Shearer. In 1930, he triumphed in the Best Sound category for “The Big House” while she took the Best Actress prize for “The Divorcee.” They were followed by Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore, who respectively...

Who is your favourite from each year in the 1930s? My current votes go like so though there are always more films to see so one must always reserve the right to change one's mind.

1930 Norma Shearer, The Divorcee 1931 Marie Dressler, Min & Bill 1932 Marlene Dietrich, Blonde Venus 1933 Greta Garbo, Queen Christina 1934 Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night 1935 Katharine Hepburn, Alice Adams 1936 Carole Lombard, My Man Godfrey 1937 Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth 1938 Bette Davis, Jezebel 1939 Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind (though I'll admit to being somewhat torn because Dark Victory is my favourite pre 1950s Bette Davis performance)...

With her Best Actress nomination for “Marriage Story” and her Best Supporting Actress bid for “Jojo Rabbit,” Scarlett Johansson joined an elite group of performers to score multiple Oscar noms in the same year. It’s of special note in Johansson’s case, considering both are her career-first citations from the academy.

Who are the other actors and actresses to pull off this neat trick? Tour our photo gallery to see all 10 people, with each person listed from most recent to furthest back. By the way, only two of this nominees went home on Oscar night without a trophy for either category, which could be good news for ScarJo.

SEEScarlett Johansson movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best

In the early years of the Oscars, there were no rules preventing performers for competing multiple times in the same category. As a result, the 1929/1930 ceremony found George Arliss (“Disraeli” and...

What do Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Robert De Niro, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson, Timothee Chalamet, Ian McKellen and Elisabeth Moss have in common in this year’s Oscar race? All these actors could pull off a stunt that hasn’t been achieved in 12 years — scoring both a lead and a supporting nomination in the same year.

First, some history. Back when Oscar was just a baby, performers could be nominated multiple times in the same category. That is how George Arliss (“Disraeli” and “The Green Goddess”), Greta Garbo (“Anna Christie” and “Romance”) and Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee” and ‘Their Own Desire”) all received two berths during the 1929/30 race. Garbo would win for “The Divorcee” and Arliss was rewarded for “Disraeli,” but that all changed when the supporting actor and actress categories were added in 1936.

A glitch in the system was exposed, however, when Barry Fitzgerald‘s performance as...

Nicole Kidman and Steve Carell could join an elite group of performers who have received Oscars nominations in both acting categories in the same year. While Kidman may compete in lead for “Destroyer” and supporting for “Boy Erased,” Carell could contend as Best Actor for either “Beautiful Boy” or “Welcome to Marwen” and as Best Supporting Actor for “Vice.”

Who are the other actors and actresses pulling off this neat trick? Tour our photo gallery above to see all 10 people, with each person listed from most recent to furthest back. By the way, only two of this nominees went home on Oscar night without a trophy for either category.

SEENicole Kidman Interview: ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Boy Erased’

In the early years of the Oscars, there were no rules preventing performers for competing multiple times in the same category. As a result, the 1929/1930 ceremony found George Arliss (“Disraeli” and “The Green Goddess...

Nicole Kidman and Steve Carell could join an elite group of performers who have received Oscars nominations in both acting categories in the same year. While Kidman may compete in lead for “Destroyer” and supporting for “Boy Erased,” Carell could contend as Best Actor for either “Beautiful Boy” or “Welcome to Marwen” and as Best Supporting Actor for “Vice.”

Who are the other actors and actresses pulling off this neat trick? Tour our photo gallery above to see all 10 people, with each person listed from most recent to furthest back. By the way, only two of this nominees went home on Oscar night without a trophy for either category.

SEENicole Kidman Interview: ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Boy Erased’

In the early years of the Oscars, there were no rules preventing performers for competing multiple times in the same category. As a result, the 1929/1930 ceremony found George Arliss (“Disraeli” and “The Green Goddess...

29 is the number of the day. It's also the most common age for Best Actress winners. That's quite something if you consider that the youngest best actor winner of all time was 29 and just a month shy of his 30th (Adrien Brody, The Pianist). The gender bias that preferences young actresses and older men gets even worse when you realize that Half of all Best Actress winners won by the age of 33. Less than 10% of Best Actor winners were 33 and under. The eight women who won at 29 are...

Emma Stone is the youngest Best Actress nominee this year at 28 and expected to win by most pundits. Stone is the same age now as the following winners were: Norma Shearer in The Divorcee, Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve, Luise Rainer in The Good Earth and Charlize Theron in Monster.

Curiously there is no "most common age" for Best...

'The Merry Widow' with Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Minna Gombell under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch. Ernst Lubitsch movies: 'The Merry Widow,' 'Ninotchka' (See previous post: “Ernst Lubitsch Best Films: Passé Subtle 'Touch' in Age of Sledgehammer Filmmaking.”) Initially a project for Ramon Novarro – who for quite some time aspired to become an opera singer and who had a pleasant singing voice – The Merry Widow ultimately starred Maurice Chevalier, the hammiest film performer this side of Bob Hope, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler – the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, “hammy” isn't my idea of effective film acting. For that reason, I usually find Chevalier a major handicap to his movies, especially during the early talkie era; he upsets their dramatic (or comedic) balance much like Jack Nicholson in Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Jerry Lewis in anything (excepting Scorsese's The King of Comedy...

Hal Roach looks on as technicians install Vitaphone equipment in his studio screening room, ca. 1928. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) 'A Century of Sound': Q&A with former UCLA Preservation Officer Robert Gitt about the evolution of film sound technology Long before multi-track Dolby stereo and digital sound technology, there were the Kinetophone and the Vitaphone systems – not to mention organ and piano players at movie houses. Much of that is discussed in A Century of Sound, which chronicles the evolution of film sound from the late 19th century to the mid-1970s. A Century of Sound has been split into two parts, with a third installment currently in the planning stages. They are: Vol. 1, “The Beginning, 1876-1932,” which came out on DVD in 2007. Vol. 2, “The Sound of Movies: 1933-1975,” which came out on Blu-ray in 2015. The third installment will bring the presentation into the 21st century.

Norma Shearer: The Boss' wife was cast in 'The Divorcee.' Norma Shearer movies on TCM: Early talkies and Best Actress Oscar Note: This Norma Shearer article is currently being revised and expanded. Please Check back later. Norma Shearer, one of the top stars in Hollywood history and known as the Queen of MGM back in the 1930s, is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of Nov. 2015. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that even though its parent company, Time Warner, owns most of Shearer's movies, TCM isn't airing any premieres. So, if you were expecting to check out a very young Norma Shearer in The Devil's Circus, Upstage, or After Midnight, you're out of luck. (I've seen all three; they're all worth a look.) It's a crime that, music score or no, restored print or no, TCM/Time Warner don't make available for viewing the...

'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...

Modern presidential campaigns and Oscar campaigns share several things in common: both have become months-long affairs; both cost sums of money that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago; and above all, both are now shaped tremendously by publicity strategists.

Because most Academy members do not follow the annual Oscar race nearly as regularly or closely as the pundits who cover it, it has become imperative for studios to hire publicity strategists to try to corral their attention — and to make the “case” for their clients in the most succinct and digestible manner possible when they have it.

From conversations with strategists in both the political and cinematic arenas, I learned that two of the oldest and most effective ways to do so are to…

1. Create and hammer home short, general, and easy-to-remember narratives describing their client. For example…

Obama: “the candidate who has shown good judgment in the...