News

Disney’s Freakier Friday leads this week’s new cinema releases in the UK and Ireland.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reunite for the sequel to the 2003 hit comedy Freaky Friday. The original, which opened with £1.2m and closed on £6.6m, followed teenager Anna (Lohan) swapping bodies with her mother Tess (Curtis).

This time, director Nisha Ganatra ups the stakes with a four-way body swap, introducing a new generation: Anna’s daughter Harper, played by Julia Butters, and soon-to-be stepdaughter Lily, played by Sophia Hammons. Manny Jacinto and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan also join the cast alongside returning members from the...

A compelling portrait of actor and campaigner Marlee Matlin’s life reveals she achieved much more than her widely lauded 1980s Oscar win

Shoshannah Stern’s study of Marlee Matlin is a film with a real story to tell, about a woman who became a compelling figure in American public life. She is perhaps destined to be known chiefly as the first deaf performer to win an Oscar, for the movie Children of a Lesser God in 1987, but she also campaigned to ensure that Washington DC’s Gallaudet University for deaf and hearing-impaired people had a deaf president, and that all new TV sets were built with optional closed-captioning for deaf people. Generally, she has conducted an ongoing campaign to do away with the condescension of pity, and to raise awareness among hearing people about deaf people’s consciousness and culture, particularly in sign language.

Matlin revealed something more in...

The actor became the first and only deaf winner of the best actress Oscar and a new documentary reveals the highs and lows that came after

In 1987, at the age of 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest person ever to win a best actress Oscar. Footage of her victory appears early in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a new documentary on the trailblazing actor’s life and career: Matlin, remarkably fresh-faced even for 21, in her very 80s purple dress, her brunette hair swept up by a floral headpiece, black-rimmed glasses on, appears stunned as William Hurt, her co-star in Children of a Lesser God and her boyfriend at the time, reads her name. Thunderous applause. The camera captures fellow nominee Jane Fonda mouthing “that’s so great” as Matlin, the first and still only deaf actor to win the award, approaches the podium and kisses Hurt. As she delivers her speech...

Editor’s Note: This review ran during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Kino Lorber releases “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” in New York June 20 before it expands June 27.

The questions shouldn’t surprise, not after all these years, but they do. Well, not the questions so much — people are naturally curious, especially about what they don’t know or have never seen — but the ways in which they were asked, the ways in which they were lobbed at a young Marlee Matlin, hot on the heels of her first major film role in “Children of a Lesser God” and the buzz (and Oscar win!) that followed. It was a consistent query in 1986, when the deaf star burst on to the scene: what else could a deaf actress possibly be good for, other than deaf roles?

Matlin hasn’t forgotten those questions or interviews or articles, and filmmaker Shoshannah Stern doesn’t...

Marlee Matlin is crediting Henry Winkler with saving her.

The 59-year-old actress and activist has a documentary called Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore coming out on June 20, in which she revisits her tumultuous relationship with late actor William Hurt, whom she claims had a “habit of abuse.” The actor died at 71 in 2022.

In the documentary, she credits the 79-year-old Happy Days star with helping her during her recovery after the relationship.

Keep reading to find out more…

Marlee met William on the set of their 1986 film Children of a Lesser God when she was just 19 and he was 35.

While she says William encouraged her to enter rehab, she revealed that post-rehab, she knew she couldn’t return.

“I walked out of that house and never went back,” Marlee says in the documentary, via Decider.

And so, she turned to Henry.

“He didn’t make it hard for me to reach out to him,...

Marlee Matlin made an appearance at the 2025 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards Tuesday night to accept an Academy Award of Merit recognizing “all the individuals who have developed and supported captioning technology, whether open or closed, for film.” In receiving the Oscar statuette, which will remain at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures where the ceremony was held for the third year in a row, the actress praised the Academy’s commitment to accessibility while expressing hope for more widespread inclusion of the deaf community.

“This honorary Oscar of Merit will serve as an inspiration for a new generation of captioning technicians and engineers in ways that millions of people like myself and beyond could only dream of more significantly,” Marlee stated. “There is also an opportunity in the recognition to encourage and inspire the hearts and minds of film producers, studios, film festivals,...

The 2025 Scientific and Technical Awards were held Tuesday night at the Academy's David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles. These sci-tech kudos honored 14 artistic achievements in film, represented by 37 individuals. Andor and La Maquina star Diego Luna hosted the ceremony, and he got political at the start of the show when he joked about President Donald Trump's controversial tariffs.

"First, I need to apologize," Luna told the crowd, which included Oscar winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God), Academy CEO Bill Kramer, and Academy President Janet Yang. "I know my fee is higher than normal this year. I'm very expensive, I know. It's not my fault. Everything coming in from Mexico is more expensive because of the new tariffs. But anyway, my kids and I thank you very much," Luna said at the audience laughed.

In addition to the 14 Scientific and Technical Awards, an Academy Award of Merit was...

Kino Lorber has picked up U.S. rights to Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a documentary on trailblazing Deaf Oscar winner Marlee Matlin that premiered at this year’a Sundance Film Festival.

The film, marking the directorial debut of Deaf actor and writer Shoshannah Stern, is slated for release in theaters on June 20.

Garnering the spotlight most recently with her role in Apple’s Best Picture winner Coda, spotlighting the Deaf community through the experiences of one family, Matlin broke out back in the ’80s, as she became the first Deaf actor to win an Oscar for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. Catapulted to stardom, she seized the moment to challenge an industry unprepared for her talent, emerging as a trailblazer not only as a performer, but also as an author and activist. Here, Matlin opens up about her personal and professional struggles – her rise to fame,...

Kino Lorber has picked up US rights to the Sundance, SXSW, and upcoming Tribeca documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.

Deaf actress and filmmaker Shoshannah Stern’s feature directorial debut looks at the life of the Oscar-winning deaf actress through the lens of American Sign Language, removing conventional voice-overs and including open captions to create an immersive experience.

The film chronicles how at age 21 in 1987 Matlin became the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her performance in Children Of A Lesser God. The author and activist, who has also starred in The West Wing and best picture Oscar winner Coda,...

Night of the Demons III? Weird. That must be like one of those Hellraiser sequels that wasn’t originally intended to be a Hellraiser movie but had Doug Bradley pasted into it for 5 minutes to justify it. Wait, it was written by original director Kevin Tenney? Well surely its easy to watch… oh for Pete’s sake, its not even streaming on Tubi. No offense to Tubi at all. I love finding random movies to watch on there but they have everything and even have commentary on the first Night of the Demons. Okay, I knew this movie existed, especially after I did a black sheep on the second entry a few years ago, but until a couple months ago I had never seen it. After watching both the official version and the workprint version (more on that later), I’m ready to move the Black Sheep crown from part...

This year’s South by Southwest Film and TV Festival was a more star-studded affair than ever. Big movie stars from Nicole Kidman to Ben Affleck and Jenna Ortega descended on the city of Austin, TX to celebrate the premieres of their latest projects. Meanwhile, the festival also served as an exciting showcase of some of the most promising up-and-coming talents in the indie film scene.

From blockbusters to indie gems, this writer saw a total of 51 movies at this year’s SXSW Film and TV Festival. Although narrowing it down to our top ten was challenging, we have decided which films we think you don’t want to miss — whether they come out a few weeks from now or are still looking for a distribution deal.

And if you keep reading after our top 10, you’ll catch some of our additional thoughts on other films that we saw at this year’s festival.

The Academy Awards have celebrated the talents of the film industry for over 96 years, honoring outstanding performances and achievements. Many celebrities dream of winning an Oscar once they come into the Hollywood scene, and a lot of them do achieve it.

Some secure it at a very young age while others get the chance to hold the coveted trophy much later in their careers.

So, let’s look at some child prodigies and veterans who have achieved this incredible feat at an age that will leave you in shock.

1. Timothy Hutton Timothy Hutton wins an Oscar | Credits: YouTube

Winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of success for any actor, and many put in a lot of work to achieve this no matter the age and the time it takes to get to the lectern and hold the golden statue. But for some, they just got a knack for acting and...

Marlee Matlin’s career has charted an unexpected course in the world of cinema. Her achievement as the first deaf actress to earn an Academy Award immediately sets a high bar, inviting viewers to reassess the conventional pathways in storytelling.

This documentary offers a close look at her personal milestones and professional milestones, inviting audiences to examine a life marked by both bold triumphs and significant challenges. The film focuses on the evolution of a celebrated career, moving from her breakthrough role in Children of a Lesser God to a notable appearance in Coda.

The production employs a storytelling style that is clear and straightforward, featuring scenes in American Sign Language paired with on-screen captions. This approach ensures that the film speaks directly to a diverse audience, regardless of their hearing abilities. It is a study in how personal reflections can coexist with public achievements, capturing the nuances of a...

William Hurt died on March 13, 2022, at age 71, just a week short of his 72nd birthday. The Oscar-winning actor starred in a variety of movies over the last four decades, but how many of those titles remain classics? Let's take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1950, Hurt made his movie debut with a starring role in Ken Russell's psychedelic thriller "Altered States" (1980), quickly followed by Lawrence Kasdan's classic neo-noir "Body Heat" (1981). He won the Oscar as Best Actor just four years later for Hector Babenco's "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985), playing a transgender inmate at a South American prison who forms a bond with his cellmate (Raul Julia), a political prisoner. The role brought him additional prizes at BAFTA and the Cannes Film Festival.

Hurt followed up his Oscar victory with two more consecutive Best Actor bids: first for Randa...

Hot Docs, North America’s leading documentary festival, has unveiled the first slate of films to screen as part of its Special Presentations program. Subjects include Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin, Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist and co-founder of Bellingcat, Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi, and Silas Malafaia, Brazil’s most prominent televangelist, in the latest film from Petra Costa, Oscar-nominated for “The Edge of Democracy.”

Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh’s “The Nest,” described as a “deeply personal exploration of memory, identity and intergenerational storytelling,” makes its world premiere.

International premieres include “Deaf President Now!,” a chronicle of the landmark student protest that transformed accessibility rights in the U.S.; and “Life After,” in which filmmaker Reid Davenport investigates the troubling implications of assisted suicide laws for disabled people.

Making their Canadian premieres are “Antidote,” a real-life thriller following investigative journalist Christo Grozev, co-founder of Bellingcat, and political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza...

The Oscars is an event where stars become legends, and their achievements are forever etched into Hollywood history. Among the highest prestige is the Best Actress award, and many young women have defied expectations over the years. Jennifer Lawrence is one of them, and recently, Mikey Madison has joined the ranks.

Jennifer Lawrence | The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon / YouTube

But despite her triumph, Madison couldn’t surpass Lawrence’s record. Let’s dive into what exactly the latter’s extraordinary accomplishment is and why these two remarkable actresses won an Academy Award.

Mikey Madison’s acclaimed performance in Anora Mikey Madison | Oscars / YouTube

Mikey Madison portrays the titular character in Anora, a role that earned her an Oscar at the age of 25. The film follows Anora’s journey, a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. In her acceptance speech, the actress proved that she wasn...

The 2025 Best Actress Oscar race was one for the ages. Mikey Madison won the award Sunday night for Anora to enter the Oscar annals as one of the youngest champs in the category ever.

At 25 years and 342 days old, Madison is the ninth youngest Best Actress winner. She displaces Vivien Leigh from the top 10 youngest list. Leigh was 26 years and 116 days old when she won her first Oscar for 1939's Gone with the Wind. Here is the new youngest top 10 (their ages calculated at the time of the award):

1. Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God (1986): 21 years, 218 days

2. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (2012): 22 years, 193 days

3. Janet Gaynor, 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise (1927/28): 22 years, 222 days

4. Joan Fontaine, Suspicion (1941): 24 years, 127 days

5. Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday (1953): 24 years, 325 days

6. Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette (1943): 25 years, 0 days

7. Grace Kelly, The Country Girl (1954): 25 years, 138 days

8. Hilary Swank,...

Being the first in anything might be a momentous achievement, but it also comes with the baggage and burden of representing a whole group of people. For Marlee Matlin, that burden came at the tender age of 21, when she became the first deaf actor to win the Academy Award for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. Now, almost 40 years later, Matlin looks back at her life, career, and the progress of deaf actors in the industry. Director Shoshannah Stern looks closely at Matlin's life with the actress and chronicles the highlights and low points of her career alongside family members, friends like Henry Winkler and interpreter Jack Jason, and colleagues like Troy Kotsur and Aaron Sorkin. In Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, we get an intimate look into Matlin's perspective on the span of her career, her reaction to her life-changing Oscar win, her relationship with the deaf community,...

Marlee Matlin said it was “imperative” that the person directing her documentary, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” was also deaf. So when producers of American Masters suggested her longtime friend Shoshannah Stern, who created Sundance Now’s “This Close” — the first TV series created, written by, and starring deaf artists — Matlin knew she was in good hands.

“Having her on board, I knew that I could trust her 100%,” Matlin told TheWrap via an Asl interpreter at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “She followed her instincts all those years of us knowing each other, I knew she was the perfect fit.”

The 59-year-old actress, who was the first deaf performer to win an Oscar in 1987 for her role in “Children of a Lesser God,” said, “It was imperative that I had a director who was deaf, and I knew that someone deaf like myself had the same lived experiences with ‘deafness,...

Marlee Matlin is an Oscar winner for her work in “Children of a Lesser God,” and starred in the 2021 film “Coda,” which won the Oscar for best picture, but she feels that Hollywood is so rigid that it hasn’t necessarily given her advantage when it comes to pitching projects.

“I’m not happy with the way things are,” she says. “It’s simply because I don’t know how this industry works to this day. You know, you win an Academy Award, everybody’s so excited. ‘Oh, that’s great. Things are gonna change. It’s fantastic. You’re gonna be working, offers are gonna come in,’ and they didn’t. Yes, you’ll be on that high, it lasts maybe a short little time, and then something comes up again a little while later. So what I do is I have to do it myself. I create my own projects.

For almost 40 years, actress Marlee Matlin has shown how what some may deem a disability can actually be made a strength. Winning the 1986 Academy Award for Best Actress for her stunning turn in “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin became the first deaf performer to receive such an accolade and quickly rose as a representative for the deaf community at-large, promoting the implantation of closed-captioning and serving as a celebrity ambassador for disability rights with the ACLU. Her film and television career has also continued to flourish, recently taking part in the 2022 Best Picture winning family drama “Coda.” To honor her work, American Masters at PBS commissioned a documentary on her life, but before agreeing to sign on, Matlin had a few stipulations.

“I was approached by American Masters at PBS to do a film about my life and I said, ‘Sure, absolutely,’ and I have, though, one condition that...

Four years ago, Oscar winner Marlee Matlin experienced the magic of a Sundance premiere virtually when the heartfelt indie “Coda” made its debut at the fest (it then sold for $25 million to Apple on the way to winning the Oscar for best picture). But this year, Matlin gets to enjoy Sundance in-person with the debut of the documentary about her life and career, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” which premiered before a packed house at the Eccles Theatre in Park City, Utah on Thursday.

“You just gave me chills,” Matlin tells Variety a couple days before the festival, thinking ahead to how she’ll feel as a roomful of strangers watch her story play out on the big screen. “Being in Eccles and opening the festival is pretty cool, I have to say.”

We’ve convened over Zoom with the documentary’s director Shoshannah Stern and their interpreters to discuss...

Marlee Matlin’s episode of Seinfeld, in which she plays Jerry’s new girlfriend and a surprisingly useful lip reader, made her a little nervous. After all, it was the first time the deaf actress had ever done a television comedy. But despite her trepidation, she told Doug Roland, her collaborator on the film Feeling Through, “the experience was awesome.”

Matlin had already won an Academy Award for Children of a Lesser God, but the opportunity to act on the biggest sitcom on television was a thrill. “Once I read the script, I realized, you know, it was perfect. It was perfect. The sense of humor from the writers, from myself, all fit together perfectly.”

“The Lip Reader” wasn’t shy about addressing the deafness of Matlin’s character, Laura. In typical Seinfeld fashion, George Costanza wasted no time in taking advantage of Laura’s ability to read lips, convincing...

In her documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” the star continues to explore the at times lonesome space she has occupied since bursting on the scene in 1986: that of being a representative for deaf people, and being herself. For more than three decades, Matlin was the only deaf performer to have won an Oscar, and among the few to have what could be considered a mainstream acting career. That changed when Troy Kotsur, her co-star in the 2021 Oscar-winning drama “Coda,” took home the prize for best supporting actor.

At 19, Matlin was cast opposite William Hurt in the adaptation of the play “Children of a Lesser God.” She portrayed Sarah Norman, a janitor in a school for the deaf. Hurt’s character is a speech teacher. She resists speaking. He says he won’t push her to speak but then does. After production, Hurt became Matlin’s romantic partner. So,...

Hollywood is heading up the mountain for what’s possibly one of the final Sundance Film Festivals to be held in the posh ski-resort town of Park City. It’s a place that’s hosted its fair share of all-night bidding wars, where films ranging from “Reservoir Dogs” and “Napoleon Dynamite” to “Brooklyn” and “The Big Sick” landed massive deals before going on to box office, and in some cases, Oscar glory. But it’s also been the setting of some frenzied sales that didn’t always pay off, like “Happy, Texas”or “Blinded by the Light.”

Sundance has already announced the festival is considering decamping Utah for Ohio or Colorado in 2027. Even if it does stay in the state, the focus of the festival will shift to Salt Lake City, which is better positioned than Park City to host the crowds that the celebration of movies attracts. So will...

Youth is not wasted on the young, especially if you’re Timothée Chalamet. The A Complete Unknown star made Oscar history in more ways than one with his Best Actor nomination for the Bob Dylan biopic on Thursday.

Chalamet, who turned 29 on Dec. 27, is the youngest person to score multiple Best Actor nominations since James Dean. As writer and film historian Mark Harris first noted on Bluesky, both men accomplished this feat before the age of 30. Chalamet received his first bid at 22 for 2017’s Call Me by Your Name. Dean died at 24 in September 1955 in a car crash. Less than six months later, Dean received a posthumous nomination for East of Eden. He earned a second one the following year for Giant and remains the only performer to receive multiple posthumous nominations.

Chalamet is the youngest nominee in his category, which includes The Brutalist‘s Adrien Brody (51), Sing Sing‘s...

First, manage your expectations: This bio-documentary doesn’t reveal much that its subject, the actor Marlee Matlin, hasn’t already discussed — particularly in her own 2009 memoir I’ll Scream Later, in which she frankly addressed her struggles with addiction, sexual abuse experienced in childhood, and alleged violence at the hands of early boyfriend, the actor William Hurt.

But Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore does offer an engaging, exuberant portrait of the relentlessly likeable Matlin as she enters her 60s, having achieved a substantial amount in career terms — from being the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her lead turn in Children of a Lesser God, to advocating before the U.S. Congress that closed captions be mandatory, and generally being a voice, in every sense, for the deaf community.

In fact, as the film explains in one of its most interesting passages, she took flack from some...

It’s shocking, now, to look back and realize that actress Marlee Matlin was just 21 when she won an Academy Award in 1986. She was, as she recalls in “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” practically a child. As we learn in this deeply affectionate biographical history, the actress, who is deaf, has already been through a lifetime of challenges. And yet, there were plenty more to come.

As a PBS American Masters portrait designed to celebrate Matlin’s accomplishments, “Not Alone Anymore” can’t really be called a traditional documentary. Matlin chose first-time director Shoshannah Stern herself (they worked together on the Sundance Now series “This Close”), and the connection between them is evident. Though this obviously precludes a lack of neutral distance, it also opens up space for Matlin to share her story with unguarded intimacy.

And what a story it turns out to be. Matlin lost her hearing as...

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore trains its camera on Marlee Matlin, who became the first Deaf performer to win an Oscar when she took home Best Actress for the 1987 film Children of a Lesser God. The film is directed by Deaf director Shoshannah Stern in her directorial debut. Jon Shenk, whose previous credits include Athlete A and Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, served as director of photography. Below, he explains how cinematographic techniques taken for granted when shooting with hearing actors and spoken dialogue cannot be implemented when shooting Deaf conversations and how he and Stern adjusted their filmic language. See all […]

The post “I Had to Relearn How to Look at and Respond to the World”: Dp Jon Shenk on Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore trains its camera on Marlee Matlin, who became the first Deaf performer to win an Oscar when she took home Best Actress for the 1987 film Children of a Lesser God. The film is directed by Deaf director Shoshannah Stern in her directorial debut. Jon Shenk, whose previous credits include Athlete A and Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, served as director of photography. Below, he explains how cinematographic techniques taken for granted when shooting with hearing actors and spoken dialogue cannot be implemented when shooting Deaf conversations and how he and Stern adjusted their filmic language. See all […]

The post “I Had to Relearn How to Look at and Respond to the World”: Dp Jon Shenk on Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Scarecrow Video has named Jonathan Marlow as executive director. The Scarecrow archive of more than 150,000 physical film and television items makes it one of the largest publicly-accessible physical media libraries in the world.

“Scarecrow Video is not just a place or a collection of movies, it is another portal to home. In our search for a new Executive Director, we needed to find someone who not only has the skills necessary to help us navigate the challenging times facing all nonprofits but also someone who truly understands the special nature of this institution. The Board is thrilled that Jonathan Marlow has returned down the yellow brick road to Scarecrow,” said Lacey Leavitt Gray, Board President of Scarecrow Video.

Scarecrow launched a fundraising effort in 2024 to keep the nonprofit alive and preserve public access to its collection, raising over $1 million to help the archive stay in its Seattle location through at...

Mark your calendars, Oscars fans, because the 97th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 2, 2025 on ABC. The annual star-studded ceremony will honor movies released in theaters within the 2024 calendar year of eligibility. AMPAS members will vote on the Oscar winners in 23 categories, including Best Actress. But who will win? Here at Gold Derby, thousands of users have been making and updating their 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Actress, so let’s take a look at all of the top contenders in our photo gallery below.

These 25 Best Actress hopefuls are listed in order of their racetrack odds, which are derived from the combined forecasts of four unique groups: experts we’ve polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, top 24 users who had the best accuracy scores last year, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc.

The five most recent...

If one were to ask the average media viewer about disability at the Academy Awards, they’d probably refer to Marlee Matlin winning the Oscar for Best Actress for the 1986 feature “Children of a Lesser God” and the 2021 feature “Coda” winning Best Picture. But to the disabled community, these two wins illustrate the highs and lows of the con- tinued struggle for representation on-screen.

Though one in four people have a disability in the United States, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that number is not reflected in entertainment. According to a 2024 study from USC Annenberg, 2.2% of all characters in the films of 2023 had a disability, a 0.3% increase from the previous year. And according to GLAAD’s 2022 “Where Are We on TV” report, only 2.8% of all series regulars were characters with disabilities. So, this raises the question: In the three years since “Coda” debuted, has Hollywood capitalized on its success?...

Meryl Streep is the best of the best.

Her performance in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Diane Keaton ranked second for Annie Hall (1977), with Jodie Foster following in third for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972) and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent Gold Derby poll of cinema experts declared The Godfather (1972) as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all...

The performance by Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977). Following in third place is Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Rounding out the top five are Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent poll had The Godfather (1972) declared as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all time (view...

A rivalry is brewing at the upcoming Oscars, and there’s history on the line. Adrien Brody is a Best Actor contender for “The Brutalist,” but if he loses to Timothée Chalamet‘s performance in “A Complete Unknown,” he won’t just lose an Oscar. He’ll also lose his record as the youngest Best Actor champ of all time.

SEEFirst ‘A Complete Unknown’ reactions praise Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro

Brody was 29 years, 343 days old when he claimed Best Actor for “The Pianist” on March 23, 2003. That made him the first, and to date the only leading man under age 30 to win the Oscar. He broke the record that had been held by Richard Dreyfus, who was 30 years, 156 days old when he prevailed for “The Goodbye Girl.” Dreyfus held that record for 25 years, and now Brody has held the record for 21 years running.

Chalamet turns 29 on Dec. 27. Then the 97th...

Mikey Madison has the potential to make history at the 2025 Oscars in Best Actress with Neon’s “Anora.” At the age of 25, she is receiving universal praise for her portrayal of the title character, a Brooklyn stripper who gets into a whirlwind, impetuous marriage. Sean Baker‘s wild romantic dramedy is continuing to gain massive buzz since winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Madison is currently headlined at the top of the combined odds at Gold Derby to win Best Actress. Should it occur, she would be the ninth youngest Best Actress Oscar winner and the first since over a decade ago.

Let’s take a look at each of the first eight ingenues ahead who achieved this milestone:

Marlee Matlin

Won at age 21 years and 218 days for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986) on March 30, 1987.

Jennifer Lawrence

Won at age 22 years and 193 days for “Silver Linings Playbook...

PBS’ “American Masters” documentary series will tackle the life of actor, activist and author Marlee Matlin with the feature documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.”

The film will use Asl as its primary language. Along with stylized captioning and dynamic editing, it aims to push the boundaries of conventional documentaries and will bring together Deaf and hearing team members across production and post-production roles.

“The film will explore Matlin’s life as a groundbreaking performer, whose meteoric and tumultuous rise to fame started in 1987 when she became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her role in ‘Children of a Lesser God.’ At the age of 21, Matlin was thrust into the national spotlight, becoming for many Americans the first Deaf person they saw on TV and overnight becoming the de-facto representative of the Deaf community,” reads its log line.

It continues: “The film boasts never-before-seen home video...

Exclusive: Kecia Lewis, who won a Tony Award this year for her featured portrayal of Miss Liza Jane in the Alicia Keys Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, has signed with Paradigm Talent Agency.

Hell’s Kitchen is Lewis’ 10th Broadway show following performances in Leap Of Faith, Children Of A Lesser God, The Drowsy Chaperone and Once On This Island, among others. She started her career in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls.

On television, Lewis was a series regular on the Fox series The Passage and the 2019 reboot of Mad About You opposite Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. She has recurred on Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Law & Order: Svu and The Blacklist. She recently appeared in …And Just Like That.

In film, Lewis played Jodi Turner-Smith’s mother in The Independent.

Lewis continues to be represented by Jed Abrahams at The Rosenzweig Group.

Exclusive: Tony-nominated composer Branford Marsalis (Fences) is joining a revised music team for the upcoming fall Broadway production of A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical to create new musical arrangements and orchestrations, producers said today.

The new team, which also includes music supervisor Daryl Waters, dance music arranger Zane Mark and music director Darryl G. Ivey, replaces Annastasia Victory and Michael O. Mitchell who served those functions at the show’s pre-Broadway engagements last year in New Orleans and Chicago.

A spokesman for the production declined comment on the reasons for the switch.

The musical, starring Tony-winner James Monroe Iglehart (Disney’s Aladdin) as the groundbreaking jazz great, begins previews at Studio 54 on Wednesday October 16 ahead of an opening date of Monday November 11.

In its announcement about the Marsalis hire, producers, including singer-actor Vanessa Williams, described the new team as “powerhouse” and New Orleans native Marsalis as a virtuosic...

At the start of last year, former DC Films boss Walter Hamada signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, the idea being that he would become, as Deadline put it, “the architect of Paramount’s mainstream horror genre pod, with the mission to release several low- to mid-budget films per year across theatrical and streaming.” Now Deadline has an update on Hamada’s horror-minded efforts at Paramount, as they’re reporting that the studio has given the greenlight to the Hamada-produced horror film Primate, which has Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur attached to star.

Kotsur won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film Coda, becoming the first deaf male actor and only the second deaf actor overall to win an Oscar. Kotsur’s other credits include Wild Prairie Rose, No Ordinary Hero, Universal Signs, The Number 23, and episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Mandalorian, Criminal Minds,...

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has greenlit the Johannes Roberts horror film Primate, with Oscar winner Troy Kotsur (Coda) set to lead the cast. Roberts will direct the Walter Hamada-produced feature, which Roberts co-wrote with Ernest Riera.

Plot details are being kept under wraps.

The project falls under Hamada’s exclusive first-look deal with Paramount which began January 1, 2023, making him “the architect of Paramount’s mainstream horror genre pod, with the mission to release several low- to mid-budget films per year across theatrical and streaming.”

The former DC Films boss steered DC to its highest-grossing movie Aquaman with $1.1 billion worldwide. He was also behind The Conjuring franchise, the highest-grossing horror series ever with more than $2 billion in global box office, 2017’s It and Matt Reeves’ The Batman, to name a few.

Hamada is producing via his 18hz production company alongside Bradley Pilz and John Hodges. Up next, Paramount and Hamada are...

In September 2021, Olivia Colman bagged her first career Emmy for “The Crown” despite having failed on her Oscar bid for “The Father” five months earlier. This made her the 16th performer to triumph at the Emmys after going home empty-handed at the same year’s Oscars and the fourth to do so during the 21st century. The release of the 2024 Emmy nominations ballots confirmed that nine of the 16 actors who lost at the latest Oscars ceremony are capable of joining Colman on said list.

Gold Derby’s current Emmy odds indicate that the man and woman with the best hopes of following in Colman’s footsteps are Ryan Gosling and Jodie Foster, who just earned their respective third and fifth Academy Award notices for their supporting turns in “Barbie” and “Nyad.” They are now generally expected to share in the experience of being first-time acting Emmy nominees thanks to his...

Maleah Joi Moon has become the 101st performer to win a Tony Award for their first outing on a Broadway stage for her performance in the musical “Hell’s Kitchen.”

She won Best Actress in a Musical at the 77th Tony Awards for portraying Ali, a 17-year-old girl searching for her place in the world while living in the titular New York City neighborhood and also being restrained by her overbearing mother. She is the 10th person to win the category for her Broadway debut. She joins:

Elizabeth Seal, “Irma La Douce” (1961)

Anna Maria Alberghetti, “Carnival” (1962)

Liza Minnelli, “Flora the Red Menace” (1965)

Leslie Uggams, “Hallelujah, Baby” (1968)

Alexis Smith, “Follies” (1972)

Natalia Makarova, “On Your Toes” (1983)

Lea Salonga, “Miss Saigon” (1991)

Catherine Zeta-Jones, “A Little Night Music” (2010)

Cynthia Erivo, “The Color Purple” (2016)

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Other performers who pulled off this accomplishment in recent years include...

Camryn Manheim, who plays stern NYPD Lt. Kate Dixon on Law & Order, is very pleased that the show’s writers finally decided to write in Dixon’s son, Patrick, who is deaf. He was mentioned back in her first season, when she explained to a detective that she read a deaf witness’s sign language because her child was deaf. We’ll finally meet Patrick in the May 2 episode. The Emmy-winning actress (The Practice) talks about the episode and her adventures with Asl (American Sign Language). Talk about this special episode and working with Caverly. Camryn Manheim: Caverly’s character Patrick comes into the precinct and gets a bit involved in this week’s investigation. It’s very cool. James is a bright and shining actor who did the Broadway production of Children of a Lesser God, and he played Nathan Lane’s son on Murders. While he ...

Sigourney Weaver's Oscar nomination for Aliens was deserved but remains one of the genre's biggest snubs. Weaver lost at the 1987 Oscars to Marlee Matlin, but her character Ripley remains the more iconic role in hindsight. Weaver's influence as Ripley in Aliens set the tone for future films, inspiring audiences, game designers, and filmmakers.

Alien franchise star Sigourney Weavers Oscar nomination for Aliens was well-deserved but remains one of the genre's biggest snubs. The actress made her mark in cinema history with the character of Ellen Ripley, considered to be one of the greatest final girls and action heroes, particularly in the sci-fi/horror world. Ridley Scott, along with writers Dan OBannon and Ronald Shusett, created Ripley and the Alien franchise with the first installment in 1979, which became a perfectly blended sci-fi/horror classic. Weaver was already a star, but the sequel Aliens took her, and Ripley, to the next level.

Jennifer Lawrence said winning the Best Actress Academy Award in 2013 for portraying a troubled young widow, Tiffany Maxwell in the comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook didn’t make her happy for long.

Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany Maxwell in a still from Silver Linings Playbook

With this award, she became the second-youngest winner in the category at just the age of 22. But for Lawrence, it was more like a quick burst of joy followed by the usual chaos of life.

As she strutted towards the stage to grab her trophy and say her thanks, she pulled off an epic stair-fumble in front of the A-list crowd and those watching on TV. J.Law has confessed that she was sensitive about the incident for a long time.

SUGGESTEDJennifer Lawrence’s Net Worth Took a Massive Hit after She Sold Her NYC Penthouse at a Gargantuan Loss

Oscar Fall Left Jennifer Lawrence Rattled in...

While Frieze Los Angeles, Felix and Spring/Break Art Show will certainly be the draw of the international collecting crowd descending upon the city for L.A. Art Week (Feb. 26 to March 3), there are plenty of local artists, galleries and events taking place outside an overcrowded tent or booth that are equally worthy of attention.

THR rounded up some of our favorite art happenings in and around the city — from two psychedelic painters turning their visions into wearable art to a group of Mexican-American artists taking over Jeffrey Deitch Gallery — so you’ll have other nice things to look at when you leave the Frieze VIP section.

Jeremy Shockley at Saint Laurent

At the 2022 gala of the Flea-founded Silverlake Conservatory of Music Benefit auction, Saint Laurent’s Farrah Katina, who specializes in public relations and collaborations, fell in love with a painting by Jeremy Shockley. A year later, Katina was...

Since the beginning of the Academy Awards in the late 1920s, Hollywood filmmakers have been making socially conscious films. Many of the best of those have scored the film town’s top honor — Oscar best picture.

This year, that winner could be “Oppenheimer,” a film that boldly and starkly dramatizes the creation of man’s most dangerous invention: atomic weapons.

It could be “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a film that brought a lost and dreadful piece of American history into the sunlight of the Cannes Film Festival and ultimately the spotlights of awards season.

It could be either “Barbie” or “Poor Things,” two of the wildest, most colorful and inventive investigations of feminist and/or post-feminist womanhood to ever hit the big screen.

It could be “American Fiction,” a wry and witty look at Black American middle-class identity and family relations under preposterous, dispiriting cultural pressures.

But will the...

Barbie director Greta Gerwig was notably snubbed in the best director category during the Oscar nominations on Tuesday. But following last year’s omission of any female filmmaker in the category, Anatomy of a Fall’s Justine Triet received a nomination.

Triet, Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) and Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) were nominated in the coveted category Tuesday morning.

Gerwig is a notable snub, as the Barbie director, throughout the awards season, received various best director nominations (the Directors Guild of America, the Golden Globes, Critics Choice) and wins (Palm Springs International Film Fest). She was also on various pundits’ prediction lists for best director, including from The Hollywood Reporter. Frontrunner Alexander Payne (The Holdovers) was also omitted.

Last year, no woman was nominated for best director. The nominees were Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Todd Field...