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At the 97th Academy Awards this past Sunday, Mikey Madison won Best Actress in a Leading Role for her eponymous role in Sean Baker's Anora. Anoratook home five other Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It follows the titular character as she embarks on a whirlwind romance and eventual "fraud marriage" with the son of a Russian Oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). In her victory speech, the 25-year-old Madison(who also made history by becoming the first Gen Z actor to win an Oscar) proudly thanked and honored the sex worker community.

While Anora and Mikey Madison's win is one of the most overt examples of the Oscars recognizing sex work in recent memory, it has happened more times than many people may realize. 14 different women have taken home Academy Awards for portraying sex workers. In fact, Emma Stone also won in 2024 for portraying Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lantimos' Poor Things.

There is something very nostalgic about some of those big old Hollywood war movies from the 1960s. They may appear to offer a simplistic Boys' Own view of World War II, but my granddad, who served in the Royal Air Force, couldn't get enough of films like "The Great Escape" and "Where Eagles Dare." Perhaps it is because such rousing crowd-pleasers reassured war heroes like him that they were the good guys and could take pride in their victory over the Axis Powers. Stars were queuing up to appear in these adventures, and even Ol' Blue Eyes got in on the action in "Von Ryan's Express," an underrated escape thriller that is a must-see for fans of Old Hollywood.

Apart from establishing himself as one of the most popular musical performers of the 20th Century, Frank Sinatra also had a long and varied acting career. The legendary crooner starred in...

Quick LinksBurt Lancaster Was a Hollywood LegendThe Train Was a Severely Underrated MovieThe Train Was Based on a Real HeistThe Train Remains a Critical Success

World War II movies have been a prominent fixture in Hollywood since the war began. Even as soldiers were charging onto the battlefield to face off against Imperial Japanese soldiers and the Nazis, the industry was producing more theatrical releases. Movies like The Great Dictator (1940), Minesweeper (1943), and Hitler – Beast of Berlin (1939) forced audiences to reckon with the reality of war. Even when World War II ended violently, Hollywood never lost its fascination with the era. It continued to produce more releases with every passing year.

Throughout the 20th century, World War II movies were an essential staple. Every decade had a massive World War II movie released, culminating in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Schindler's List (1993). Before color films conquered the big screen, however, black-and-white epics...

Did Mikey Madison win an Oscar for portraying a prostitute in Anora? (Photo Credit – AnoraFilm Instagram)

The 2025 Academy Awards came and went in a whirlwind, forging legacies for a slew of talents, though it’s the newcomers who galvanize the most intrigue with their ties to the golden statuette. Amid the night’s fervor, one victory stood out — a triumph that spotlights both a fresh face and a storied trope.

Mikey Madison, the 25-year-old dynamo from Anora, seized her first Oscar for Best Actress, outpacing The Substance’s Demi Moore in a twist few had prognosticated. The win, flanked by Anora’s haul of Best Picture, Director, and more, incentivized a floodlight on her nascent Hollywood path.

Maddison’s raw and unapologetic portrayal of the titular sex worker elucidated a character far from cliché, cementing her ascent with a cataclysmic bang. That win didn’t transpire without etching new stats...

James Marsden would jump at the chance to play Ol' Blue Eyes himself, the legendary Frank Sinatra. In a recent interview, the Paradise and X-Men actor spoke about how he "would love to play" Sinatra in a biopic. However, there are no active movies in development about the famous crooner.

Marsden explained it would be a dream to play Sinatra, and spoke about how Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for playing Ray Charles, and would like a similar opportunity. Marsden can certainly sing, as he showcased in Hairspray (2007), which also starred Zac Effron, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, and Queen Latifah.

RelatedThe Frank Sinatra Biopic Fell Apart When This Actor Was Chosen

Paul Schrader briefly considered doing a Frank Sinatra movie, but his choice of lead actor prevented the film from securing funding.

The actor said that while there haven't really been any films made about the Chairman of the Board,...

No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight; on the other is Alain Guiraudie, who (in advance of Misericordia opening on March 21) has five films arriving. (2001’s duet of That Old Dream That Moves and Sunshine for the Scoundrels have perhaps never streamed in the U.S. before.) Meanwhile, three noirs from Douglas Sirk are programmed alongside a Lee Chang-dong retrospective that features three new restorations.

Showcases will be staged for Dogme 95, Best Supporting Actor winners, and French Poetic Relaism. Welles’ The Trial gets a Criterion Edition alongside Demon Pond; Horace Ové’s newly restored Pressure makes a streaming premiere alongside spruced-up copies of Amadeus, Love Is the Devil, Port of Shadows, and Burning an Illusion, as...

Conspiracy theories are rampant in modern Hollywood, with internet weirdos claiming that Avril Lavigne died and was replaced with a lookalike, Beyonce runs the Illuminati, Logan Paul is a talented performer, etc. But viewers back in the day didn’t need the internet to be weird. Conspiracy theories were just as prevalent in Old Hollywood, there just weren't any subreddits to share them on.

5 James Dean Faked His Death

Rumors of faked death have plagued everyone from Elvis to Tupac, but they go back at least as far as James Dean, whose fans immediately refused to believe he really perished in a 1955 car crash. The car, which was put on display by its new owner, wasn’t damaged enough to have withstood a deadly crash, they insisted, so he must have been either disfigured to the point of being hidden by the studio or used the accident as an excuse...

For a race that seemed as unpredictable as any in recent history, the 2025 Oscar nominations came and went without many huge surprises. All the expected acting contenders — including frontrunners like Demi Moore, Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Zoe Saldaña, and Kieran Culkin — were bestowed with nominations on Thursday, as were several films long predicted to score Best Picture recognition. But while the 97th Oscars were perhaps shorter than usual on snubs and surprises, the list of nominees did clarify which films Academy voters truly loved and what might ultimately win Best Picture in March. Ahead are the key takeaways from the 2025 Oscar nominations.

Emilia Pérez is the front-runner to beat

With 13 Oscar nominations on Thursday, including Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Director, and acting nominations for Karla Sofia Gascón and Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez is not just the year’s top Oscar contender but one of the most decorated nominees in history.

As we wrap an epic day of coverage of the Oscar nominations, here are some final observations:

—It’s ironic that there will be no Best Song performances at this year’s 97th Academy Awards, because music-driven movies have rarely, if ever, made such an impact. This is the first time that three music-oriented/musical films have been nominated for Best Picture in the same year: Emilia Pérez (with its chart-topping 13 nominations), Wicked (with its 10), and the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (with eight). The last times that even two musicals faced off for Oscar’s biggest prize was in 1964 with My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins and in 1968 with winner Oliver! and Funny Girl.

—Emilia Pérez snared more noms than any foreign language film ever with 13, to lead all comers Thursday. It joins an impressive list of other 13-time Oscar nominees that includes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,...

In case anyone needed a reminder that “Film Twitter” and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are not populated by the same people, Emilia Pérez, the polarizing French-directed, Spanish-language musical about a trans Mexican gangster, landed a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations on Thursday morning. That tally — encompassing noms for best picture, director, actress, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, international feature, cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, sound and two for original song — smashed the record for a non-English-language film (previously held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma, which had 10 each) and is just one shy of the all-time record for any film (All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land each landed 14).

Is Jacques Audiard’s Netflix film unbeatable? Of course not. Plenty of people have issues with the film, including many members of the Mexican and trans communities, who find it offensive, and critics and general audiences,...

"Oppenheimer" taking home Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars ceremony was more unusual than you might realize. As much as a WWII-era biopic about a bunch of white guys talking solemnly about Very Important Things qualifies as the ultimate dad movie, Christopher Nolan's film was also the first dyed-in-the-wool blockbuster to win Best Picture in two decades. Just as notably (but more relevant to our purposes here), "Oppenheimer" marked only the second time in that same period that Universal snagged the top prize at the Academy's annual awards show.

Take a step back and you'll notice that the biggest and oldest Hollywood studios, in general, began to win fewer and fewer Best Picture Oscars as the first quarter of the 21st century rolled along. Rather, this was the era in which the likes of indie-style producers and distributors such as Searchlight Pictures, A24, and Neon emerged as major players in the sometimes fun,...

Gwen Van Dam, a veteran character actress of seven decades whose 140 credits spanned television, film and the Los Angeles stage, died Dec. 19 at her home in West LA. She was 96.

Per previous reporting attributed to her son Dirk Smillie, the cause of death was a recurrence of cancer.

Throughout her long-tenured career, Van Dam appeared in 1978’s Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, 1994’s Star Trek Generations with Patrick Stewart, the romantic war drama Coming Home featuring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight and the Sidney Poitier-helmed Gene Wilder pic Stir Crazy.

Among her television credits are illustrious series like Days of Our Lives, Gilmore Girls, Knots Landing, ER, Moonlighting, The Brady Bunch, Maude, Owen Marshall, New Girl, Modern Family and Criminal Minds.

On the music video side of things, she appeared in visual works for U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Panic! At the Disco and heavy metal band Mastodon.

Gwen Van Dam, whose 70-year career as a character actress for film, television and the stage included turns in True Confessions, Halloween, Coming Home, Stir Crazy and The Trip to Bountiful, has died. She was 96.

Van Dam, who compiled about 140 acting credits on IMDb, died Dec. 19 at her home in West Los Angeles after a recurrence of cancer, her son, Dirk Smillie, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Van Dam remained a busy actress until the end, appearing on the first five episodes of Prime Video’s Homecoming in 2018, on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie in 2019 and on two installments of Hulu’s Interior Chinatown last year. She recently finished a play, too.

Her TV résumé included The Brady Bunch, Mannix, Maude, House Calls, Days of Our Lives, Moonlighting, 227, Knots Landing, Star Trek: Generations, ER, Gilmore Girls, Charmed, New Girl, Criminal Minds, Angie Tribeca and Modern Family.

Meanwhile, she spent the...

"From Here to Eternity" is the 1953 Oscar winning feature, directed by Fred Zinnemann, based on the 1951 novel by James Jones, following three US Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on 'Pearl Harbor', December 7, 1941, with the film selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant":

"...in Hawaii in the months preceding the Japanese attack on 'Pearl Harbor', 'Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt' (Clift) reports for his new assignment as an infantryman. At his previous Post, Prewitt was a bugler and his unit's top boxer. But after a man died in the ring, Prewitt wants nothing to do with the sport.

"Trouble is, his new company commander, 'Captain Dana Holmes' (Philip Ober) has a championship boxing team and Prewitt's refusal to...

When Steven Spielberg first heard John Williams’ shark music for Jaws – the menacing “dunh dunh dunh dunh” signalling the approach of the terrifying beast – he wasn’t blown away. He gave “dunh dunh” a “meh,” more or less.

That’s one of the revelations in the Oscar-contending documentary Music by John Williams, director Laurent Bouzereau’s exploration of the work of the maestro. Eventually, Spielberg came around, of course, recognizing the brilliance of the score that became integral to one of the great Hollywood blockbusters of all time. Alluding to the struggles he faced getting the motorized fish to function as intended, Spielberg says in the film, “His musical shark worked a lot better than my mechanical shark.”

Director Laurent Bouzereau

Bouzereau approached the documentary having absorbed Williams’s scores in his youth growing up in France. In the 1970s, a big Hollywood movie like Jaws came out in the U.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film in the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery above features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

The Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece “The Godfather” (1972) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Picture winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 29 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 96 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is the Michael Curtiz classic “Casablanca” (1943). Following in third place is the powerful Steven Spielberg film “Schindler’s List” (1993). Rounding out the top five are Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” (1974) in fourth place and Billy Wilder‘s “The Apartment” (196o) in fifth place.

The worst among 96 Best Picture winners is “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) from Cecil B. DeMille. Just above that film on the bottom of the rankings are “Cimarron” (1931) from Wesley Ruggles, “The Broadway Melody” (1929) from Harry Beaumont, “Crash” (2005) from Paul Haggis, and “Around the World in 80 Days’ (1956) from Michael Anderson.

Our photo gallery below features the full top 10. See the complete rankings of all 96 films below.

Geraldine Page found her calling at the age of 17 when she did her first play “Excuse My Dust” at her Chicago church youth group. “I always wanted to be good at something, to be somebody,” she wrote in the New Yorker. “The minute I got into my first play, which was called ‘Excuse My Dust,’ I knew that this was what I was looking for.” Read on as Gold Derby celebrates what would have been her 100th birthday.

Page, who was born on Nov. 22 a century ago in Kirksville, Mo. and grew up in Chicago, was more than good at acting. The influential, versatile actress won her Best Actress Oscar on her eighth and final nomination for 1985’s “The Trip to Bountiful,” and received four Tony nominations and two Emmy Awards. She once explained what makes a successful actor, saying, “The main thing is the ability to control your instrument,...

Throughout the history of the Oscars, there have been many directors who have received acclaim for their commitment to bringing classic Hollywood movies to life. Since its first award ceremony held nearly a century ago, the Oscars have been recognized as the highest honor achievable in the movie industry. Many actors, composers and directors have received recognition from the Academy, for their hard work in creating many acclaimed movies.

Since the first ceremony in 1929, the Academy has awarded directors for their dedication to transforming a script into a movie using actors, visual effects, and cameras. With the 96th ceremony set to take place on March 3, 2025, there are already predictions on who will receive nominations in the Best Director category. Many directors, including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, have received multiple wins and nominations for their work in directing.

Frank Capra Won 3 Best Director Academy Awards Out Of 6 Nominations

Italian-American director...

Its rather remarkable that only a few years after the end of World War II, Hollywood instantly began taking an interest in developing projects about the conflict. Whether it was a means of coping with the tremendous loss of life or to help assert the importance of the Allied victory to an international audience, the sheer number of films about World War II made in the mid-20th century created a unique subgenre that was just as popular as Westerns had been. Occasionally, these films would be Best Picture winners like From Here to Eternity or Bridge on the River Kwai, but a majority of them were more straightforward works of populist entertainment. The 1976 World War II adventure film The Eagle Has Landed served as the last entry in this classical era of the subgenre, which would reach a new level of prominence in the 1990s thanks to the success...

Burt Lancaster was an Oscar-winning actor who appeared in dozens of movies until his death in 1994. But which titles are among his finest? Let’s take a look back at 20 of Lancaster’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1913, Lancaster got into acting after performing as an acrobat in the circus. He made his movie debut in 1946 with a leading role in the quintessential noir thriller “The Killers” (1946). He earned his first Oscar nomination as Best Actor for Fred Zinnemann‘s wartime drama “From Here to Eternity” (1953), winning the prize just seven years later for playing a fast-talking preacher in “Elmer Gantry” (1960). Lancaster would compete twice more in the category (“Birdman of Alcatraz” in 1962 and “Atlantic City” in 1981).

In the 1950s, the actor decided to chart his own career by forming the production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, which churned out a number of successful titles including the Best Picture-winning “Marty...

Lyon’s Lumière festival screened a fascinating footnote to the great duo’s career: Behold a Pale Horse, an adaptation of Emeric Pressburger’s novel by Fred Zinnemann

The Lumière festival in Lyon in south-east France – the home of 19th-century movie inventor-pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière – always serves up mouthwatering classic films on the big screen. This is true once again this year, with a retrospective season of works by Fred Zinnemann, famously the director of High Noon and From Here to Eternity.

In one of its most interesting films, the festival also provided what could be the last remaining underexamined footnote in the history of the great Powell/Pressburger partnership that gave us Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon.

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since...

Quick Links What is A Man for All Seasons? A Man for All Seasons Subverts All Expectations A Man for All Seasons Had Only One Real Competitor Striking Similarities to a 2024 Best Picture Contender

2025 will mark the 97th year of the Academy Awards. Winning an Oscar is the crown jewel of the film industry, and regardless of the category, it is every filmmaker's dream to earn that status. While every award is extremely coveted, the top prize of the night is, of course, Best Picture.

From 1927s Wings to 2023s Oppenheimer, the list of Best Picture winners is full of stone-cold classics that will remain relevant for eternity. While the winners are forever a part of film history for the truest of fans, not every film can maintain the relevance of a Forrest Gump or The Godfather. As the years go on and the list of winners expands, it is...

With six Oscar bids to her name, Scottish-born thespian Deborah Kerr is one of the most celebrated performers of all time. However, she never actually won one of those little gold statuettes, giving her the dubious distinction of tying Thelma Ritter and Glenn Close as the most nominated actress without a victory. Still, she must’ve done something right to rack up all that Academy recognition. Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1921, Kerr got her start on the London stage before appearing in her first film when she was just 20-years-old: “Major Barbara” (1941). She had her big break two years later in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s epic “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943). Kerr reunited with the filmmaking duo for “Black Narcissus” (1946), which brought her the first of three Best Actress victories at the New York Film Critics Circle.

Any kid who ever dreamed of striding the boards, meticulously prepping for their glamorous on-camera close-up, or adorning the walls of teenagers all over the world as the most fetching heartthrob on the planet, did not entertain for a second that steady work as less-than-studly screen presence like M Emmet Walsh could be its own gloriously gruff reward. If you were born with a face that looked like it went 12 rounds with Sonny Liston before exiting the birth canal, or walked in heels like they were a pair of Carhartts, you're probably destined to be a working stiff like the rest of us for the remainder of your life.

And there is dignity in this. There is meaning. And not to get your hopes up too high, but if you can strut across the stage like you were born to it, hold the gaze of a camera, or fire off one-liners with buffoonish aplomb,...

“The Piano Lesson” is a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler. This upcoming Netflix flick is adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner. The story is centered on the Charles family, who have to decide what to do with a great family heirloom — a piano. Jackson plays the patriarch, Doaker Charle, who acts as a storyteller in the play and recounts detailed stories about the piano’s history. And Deadwyler plays his niece Berniece, who is a strong advocate for keeping the piano.

Jackson has a long history with this piece. He originated the role of Boy Willie at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1987 and reaped a Tony bid for his performance as Doaker in the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival directed by his wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson. John David Washington, who played Boy Willie in that production, reprises his role here, with his brother Malcolm Washington handling helming.

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It often feels like movie marketing is an unimaginative, flood-the-zone proposition in our age of pre-sold, IP-driven blockbusters. But as we've recently been reminded via the carefully crafted ad campaigns for smaller genre efforts like "MaXXXine" and "Longlegs", marketing departments are still a vital part of the business. How you sell each movie has certainly changed with the evolution of the media landscape, but even the biggest films will always need some kind of push. After all, audiences aren't likely to flock to a movie that has zero presence in the marketplace.

There really isn't an exception to this rule. The closest you're liable to find might be the August 5, 1953 release of Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity." Based on James Jones' critically acclaimed novel set at the U.S. Army's Schofield Barracks in Hawaii just prior to the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor,...

Natalie Wood was the former child actress who racked up three Oscar nominations before she was 25, Wood’s life ended in a tragedy that often overshadows her movie career. Yet many of her titles remain classics, so let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1938 in San Francisco, Wood snagged her first starring role when she was just nine years old in the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), playing a precocious girl who tugs on Santa Claus’ beard. She earned her first Oscar nomination when she was 17 for the juvenile delinquent drama “Rebel Without a Cause” (Best Supporting Actress in 1955), which made an icon out of James Dean, who died before its release. Wood added two more Best Actress bids to her resume with the romantic melodramas “Splendor in the Grass” (1961) and “Love with the Proper Stranger” (1963).

Though she never won an Academy Award,...

Amazon Prime Video is the place to go for movies this month, with a plethora of original films as well as new library additions for just about every movie fan. The Emma Roberts-led original Space Cadet hits the streaming service aptly on the Fourth of July, for anyone looking for a fish-out-of-water style comedy. My Spy the Eternal City, the newest film in the Dave Bautista-led family action series also drops on July 18.

Action film fans are also in for a treat with recent films The Beekeeper and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning coming to Prime Video in July.

As far as TV shows go, the most notable addition this month is the adult animated series Sausage Party: Foodtopia, a continuation of the 2016 film Sausage Party.

Here’s everything coming to Prime Video and Freevee in July – Amazon originals are designated with an asterisk.

New on Amazon Prime Video...

This July, beat the heat with the latest additions at Prime Video and Freevee!

It’s a light month for original series, films, and specials as we head into the summer lull, but there is still plenty to watch throughout the month: over 140 classic films between the two Amazon streamers will be added this month, from horrors such as the genre-changing “The Silence Of The Lambs” and last year’s newest “Evil Dead” franchise installment “Evil Dead Rise,” the first five films of the “Rocky” franchise, and comedies like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Animal House,” “13 Going On 30,” and much, much more.

But after the majority of the film load drops on July 1, don’t forget to head back to the services’ additions throughout the month, including Season 2 of the critically acclaimed “Troppo,” the new “Legally Blonde“-like comedy “Space Cadet,” and a new documentary from award-winning documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter,...

One of the most prolific entertainers of the 20th century, Frank Sinatra is best known for his charming crooning, so beloved that he's often referred to as "The Voice." Sinatra, a charismatic performer on all accounts, also had a tremendously successful film career as well. Punctuated with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity in 1953, Sinatra excelled in dramatic roles, often featuring in films related to, or exploring themes of, war. Considered a cultural touchstone, The Manchurian Candidate may be Sinatra's best known acting work, wherein Ol' Blue Eyes played an Army Intelligence officer tasked with preventing an assassination attempt on the president. However, nearly a decade prior, Sinatra played essentially the opposite role in the noir crime film, Suddenly. Playing a cold-hearted killer, Sinatra stars as a hired gun set to assassinate the president as he travels by train through a small town,...

A true entertainer, Frank Sinatra did more than just sing throughout his career. In the early thirties, Sinatra was destined to become a movie star. Frank was a true performer. He could do anything from dry comedies to the rigid character studies of drama and crime films. Starting early in musicals, he slowly made his way to be a more prominent star. A legendary entertainer that all of us know even if we aren’t aware! Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. ‘On the Town’ Frank began his acting...

Roxanne Rosedale, the glamorous model and actress who assisted host Bud Collyer on the 1950s game show Beat the Clock and appeared in the Marilyn Monroe-starring The Seven Year Itch, has died. She was 95.

Known professionally as Roxanne, she died May 2 in an assisted care facility in her birthplace of Minneapolis, her daughter Ann Roddy told The Hollywood Reporter.

Roxanne became a hugely popular TV star after she joined CBS’ Beat the Clock, from Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions, in 1950. She would introduce the contestants — who were tasked with completing complicated, outrageous stunts in an allotted time — snapped photos with a Sylvania camera and posed alongside the winners’ prizes. (Watch an episode here.)

While on the show, she made the covers of such magazines as Life, Look and (with Collyer) TV Guide and even had a doll named for her. The blue-eyed Roxanne Dolls featured a Beat the Clock...

Exclusive: To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, the municipality of Cannes will present a free photographic exhibition titled “Lighting the Way: From the Torch Lady to Leading Ladies.” The photos will be on display for the general public on Cours Félix Faure in Cannes from May 13 to June 10.

Led by Columbia Pictures’ iconic Lady with the Torch, the exhibition will consist of over 30 rare photographs from Columbia’s archive and highlighting legendary actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age and beyond, including Katherine Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Claudette Colbert, Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Julia Roberts, Michelle Yeoh and Rita Hayworth. A restored version of Hayworth’s Gilda is screening as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Cannes Classics program this year.

Said Tom Rothman, Chairman & CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, “Columbia Pictures may have been founded by men, but women have always been vital to its growth and impact.

If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.

Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...

Despite being 81 years old, legendary Hollywood director and Oscar winner Martin Scorsese is not ready to retire. After his most recent film, Killers of the Flower Moon, was nominated for numerous awards, the acclaimed filmmaker is seemingly eyeing a new project and while it has yet to be greenlit, Scorsese has seemingly begun to put together a star-filled cast. The movie in question is a biopic about legendary singer and actor Frank Sinatra, and knowing Scorsese’s background in music, this biopic promises to be amazing.

Frank Sinatra is a legendary figure in American pop culture. He is first and foremost known as a musician, a talented singer with evergreen hits like “Fly Me to the Moon,” “New York, New York,” and “My Way,” but he was also a very talented and popular actor. Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity...

When we think of the greatest kisses in movie history, there are some genuine classics that come to mind: Lady and the Tramp smooching via spaghetti, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing on the beach in From Here to Eternity, Michael Corleone sealing brother Fredo’s fate in The Godfather Part II…And up there with all of these is the upside down kiss from 2002’s Spider-Man, in which Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane peels up her hero’s mask and plants one in a New York downpour. And as immediately iconic as it was, the scene was something of a pain to shoot.

As Dunst recalled of the famous Spider-Man scene, “I remember Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired but also he really wanted to make it special even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it…It was pouring with rain,...

Now that the Oscar winners are known, we can determine the other winners: the studios’ and distributors’ strategic release decisions that impacted results.

Some may reflect genius or gut instinct; others are timing and preparation creating luck. In each case, distribution (or the lack thereof) played a significant role in positioning the films for success — but none of them could be considered a template.

Surprisingly, the universal non-factor appeared to be SAG strike, which constrained promotion. “Oppenheimer” completed most cast appearances in time, while “Killers of the Flower Moon” had press stockpiled from Cannes. The French “Anatomy of a Fall” was unaffected.

“The Holdovers,” along with “Priscilla,” took the biggest chances with their October releases. Both made platform debuts on the same day. Sofia Coppola’s biopic showed a faster response, but Alexander Payne’s film found awards success (as well as a near-equal box office haul and bigger home...

On the eve of Shirley MacLaine’s 90th birthday (on April 24), let’s revisit on this 96th Academy Awards day what remains one of the top five Oscar acceptance speeches (in my humble opinion) ever: the night 40 years ago when MacLaine won Best Actress for “Terms of Endearment” over co-star Debra Winger (who played her daughter) and three others. It hearkened back to an era before the orchestra played off the big winners if they dared exceed 90 seconds or so. MacLaine’s speech clocked in at a leisurely 3 minutes, 26 seconds, and not a moment of it seemed unnecessary on that night of April 9, 1984 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It started with, “I’m gonna cry because this show has been as long as my career!” and ended with, “I deserves this. Thank you.” Watch the full presentation and speech above.

It was MacLaine’s sixth nomination and her first and only win.

When the winners of the 96th Academy Awards are announced on Sunday, Mar. 10, “Oppenheimer” will become one of the winningest films of all time with eight trophies. This final tally is derived from our official odds with nearly 8,000 experts, editors and users logging their predictions for the champions in 23 categories. See a complete list of predicted winners organized by film below.

If it does indeed take home eight Oscars, “Oppenheimer” would tie with only eight other films that have won eight trophies. Those movies are a veritable list of classics: “Gone with the Wind,” “From Here to Eternity,” “On the Waterfront,” “My Fair Lady,” “Cabaret,” “Gandhi,” “Amadeus” and “Slumdog Millionaire.” Amongst “Oppenheimer’s” awards will be Best Picture, Director for Christopher Nolan, two acting prizes for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. and four other design and craft categories.

Watch Experts slugfest: Our final 2024 Oscar winner predictions

As this year...

The 96th Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, Mar. 10, celebrating the best films of 2023 in 23 different categories. Scroll down for our official odds with our projected winners highlighted in gold.

Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” heads into the ceremony with the most nominations of the year with a lucky 13, which means the film ranks as one of the most nominated movies of all time. Although it did not tie the record 14 held by “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land,” it is tied with an impressive list of films that also scored 13 bids, including “Gone with the Wind,” “From Here to Eternity,” “Mary Poppins,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “Forrest Gump,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” “Chicago,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Shape of Water.” Our experts, editors and users expect it to win 8 Oscars, which would make...

As the expectation of an “Oppenheimer” steamroller at the Academy Awards this coming Sunday rises seemingly by the day, it’s worth looking at some of the Oscar juggernauts of the past and guessing where the film will fall in terms of number of victories. It’s possible the movie could even score a double-digit total, and if it does, that would elevate it into some very rarified air.

While it could conceivably win as many as 13 statuettes based on its 13 nominations, “Oppenheimer” is obviously highly unlikely to sweep every category. It probably won’t, for instance, take home the trophies for costume design or for makeup and hairstyling. When you think of the Father of the Atomic Bomb, after all, you don’t necessarily envision what a sharp dresser he was or how perfectly coiffed. I’m also predicting the film will lose at least one other of the...

The 2024 Oscar race is on, and one film has the potential to accomplish a feat that hasn’t happened in 64 years. “Oppenheimer” leads the nominations with 13, and it’s on track to win several of those categories. If Christopher Nolan‘s epic claims Best Picture, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), it will be the first time since 1960 that the same film (“Ben-Hur”) has won those three exact categories. And it would be only the fourth time it’s ever happened.

See Cillian Murphy interview: ‘Oppenheimer’

Since the Best Supporting Actor category was introduced in 1937, only three films have walked away with Best Picture as well as both male acting categories. In 1945, the inspirational musical comedy “Going My Way” not only became the highest-grossing film of 1944, but also won seven of its ten Oscar nominations, making it the big winner of the night. Beside the top prize,...

Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea.

Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga. With a lead actress (drama) Golden Globe and a SAG Award now under her belt, Gladstone’s award-season momentum continues to be formidable. Historically, only seven performers have failed to win the Oscar after winning the unique combination of Globe and SAG:

1995: Lauren Bacall (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”) lost to Juliette Binoche 2001: Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”) lost to Denzel Washington (“Training Day...

Among the various distinctions “Everything Everywhere All at Once” incurred by winning seven awards at the 95th Oscars was becoming the first film in a dozen years (and ninth overall) to conquer both supporting acting categories. This rare occurrence involved Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis preventing their respective “The Banshees of Inisherin” competitors from accomplishing the same goal, as the sets of featured nominees from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog” had both failed to do one year earlier. Now, two more pairs of cast mates – who happen to hail from the two highest-grossing live action movies of 2023 – are gunning for entry into this exclusive club.

The concurrent nominations of Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera (“Barbie”) and Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) bring the total number of films that have ever vied for both Best Supporting Actor and Actress to 110. Although this marks the third...

In the "Twilight Zone" episode "A Game of Pool", Jack Klugman plays a would-be pool champion named Jesse who feels that he would be more widely recognized for his billiard skills, were he not living in the shadow of the late pool champion James Howard "Fats" Brown. Jesse posits that if he had had the opportunity to play against Fats, he would definitely win. In a supernatural twist, Fats (Jonathan Winters) arrives from the afterlife to accept the challenge. The ensuing game, however, comes with a stipulation: if Jesse wins, he will indeed be granted the lifelong reputation as the greatest pool player of all time. If he loses, he'll die in obscurity. Jesse accepts.

Throughout their game, Fats points out that living well and happily is more important than the hard-edged fame of being a great pool player. Jesse doesn't listen. He wants fame.

Jesse, perhaps shockingly, wins the game.

When the Oscars like you, they really, really like you. Tour our photo gallery above (or click here for direct access) to see the 15 movies that won the most competitive Oscars throughout history. At 11 victories apiece, the current three record-holders are “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), “Titanic” (1997) and “Ben-Hur” (1959). But where do other Academy Awards favorites like “West Side Story” (1961), “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and “Gone with the Wind” (1939) fall on the historic list?

At the upcoming Oscars, “Oppenheimer” (2023) leads all other contenders with a whopping 13 nominations for picture, director (Christopher Nolan), adapted screenplay, actor (Cillian Murphy), supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), supporting actress (Emily Blunt), cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup & hairstyling, production design, score and sound. If it claims 12 or 13 of these trophies on March 10, 2024, “Oppenheimer” will break the record and become the all-time winner at the Academy Awards. Make your Oscar predictions to let...

It's easy to forget that "M*A*S*H" was actually a period piece. The acclaimed sitcom was filmed in the '70s and borrowed liberally from compassionate discussions surrounding the Vietnam War, but it took place two decades earlier, in 1950s Korea. Despite anachronistic '70s mustaches, a timeline that reimagined the relatively short Korean War as near-endless, and the occasional not-retro-enough prop, the show still worked hard to bring a fairly accurate vision of the 1950s to life.

Sometimes, that meant referencing movies that were made in the 1930s and '40s, like "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Good Earth." In other instances, though, the series got ahead of itself, name-dropping movies that hadn't been released yet. The show's masterpiece series finale, the feature-length concluding story "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," apparently almost included a reference that straddled the line between anachronism and timeliness. According to The Hollywood Reporter's 35th-anniversary spotlight on the finale,...

Before the 2023 Academy Awards, only “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network” had won three Oscars for acting. The former won its hat trick in 1952 with Vivien Leigh taking home Best Actress, Karl Malden claiming Best Supporting Actor, and Kim Hunter winning Best Supporting Actress. Then, in 1976, “Network” won Best Actor for Peter Finch (posthumously), Best Actress for Faye Dunaway, and Best Supporting Actress for Beatrice Straight. Those two movies stood alone as the only pictures to win three acting Oscars until 2023 when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” produced wins for Michelle Yeoh (Best Actress), Jamie Lee Curtis (Best Supporting Actress), and Ke Huy Quan (Best Supporting Actor). These three films now have the joint-highest number of acting wins in Oscars history as no film has ever managed to reign victorious in all four acting categories.

Plenty of movies have had four nominations for acting, including “American Hustle” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.