News

The official website for Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Taboo Night Xxxx released an opening movie from the film today. This two-and-a-half-minute footage is shown before Quartet Night's concert begins, introducing each member and building excitement in the audience. Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Taboo Night Xxxx Opening Movie Related: Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Taboo Night Xxxx Reveals Main Trailer, Visual As a "senior" group to the main unit of the franchise, St☆Rish , the four-member idol group Quartet Night has appeared in the anime series since the TV anime's second season Uta no Prince -sama Maji Love 2000% , which aired in 2013. As the third concert from the franchise following Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Maji Love Kingdom in 2019 and Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Maji Love St☆Rish Tour in 2022, Uta no Prince-sama The Movie: Taboo Night Xxxx is set to release in Japan on May 9, 2025. Main Visual Uta...

Pink hair is an undying trend found among anime characters, and anime and manga creators alike have been giving their heroines pink hair since Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997), Chibi Usa from Sailor Moon (1992) and perhaps even earlier than that. Colorful hair is a trope so commonplace in anime that it's practically naturally occurring, as well as a big indicator as to which character in a line-up will end up being important.

Many pink-haired fan favorites, just like the beloved yet infamous "white-haired anime boy" archetype, often have a certain craziness to them that is either hidden by their charisma or becomes a part of it as the story progresses. Yuno Gasai, with her relentless love for Yukiteru in Future Diary, is a perfect example of a pink-haired anime maniac. And there are so many more to name that anime fans are sure to recognize anywhere.

Related How an...

Anime has a unique way of capturing emotions and weaving them into unforgettable stories. Some romance anime are emotional dramas filled with tears and angst, while others are lighthearted rom-coms that show fans how enjoyable love can be. Over the years, Japanese animation has created several romantic stories; regardless, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War stands out the most in the community.

The main lead from Kaguya Sama: Love is War [Credit: A-1 Pictures]

Unlike other romantic titles, this one incorporates a psychological element to its constant knee-slapping comedy. Not to forget, Season 3 left many fans unsatisfied and craving more. Owing to Kaguya-Sama‘s immense popularity, Akasaka Aka once opened up about handling the intense pressure of weekly serialization and meeting fans’ high expectations.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Author Reflects on the Challenges of Weekly Serialization

Since the anime release back in 2019, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War has been a smash hit among romance and comedy fans alike.

Bestselling manga author Aka Akasaka recently published the conclusion to his popular seinen drama, Oshi no Ko. By concluding the series, Akasaka has had a chance to reflect on how his lifestyle and artistic approach has evolved since the completion of his last manga, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War.

In a recent interview published by Shueisha, Akasaka was asked if he was able to live a "calm life" during the four-and-a-half year serialization period of Oshi no Ko, which explores the problematic elements of Japan's pop idol industry. "It's much better than when I was serializing Kaguya-sama: Love Is War...I wasn't living a human life back then (laughs)," he replied. Unlike Oshi no Ko, which was illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari, Kaguya-sama was both written and illustrated by Akasaka. "This time, I was able to focus only on the original work, and little by little I started to think, 'Maybe I...

Aka Akasaka has contributed immensely to the seinen genre through his mangas. Apart from being bestsellers, both manga have impacted readers worldwide. But that is not all, considering the positive reception of his works.

Be it Kaguya-Sama: Love is War or Oshi no Ko, both works have stood out in terms of their storytelling. However, they have their fair share of pitfalls that had fans worried.

Kaguya and Shinomiya | Credit: A-1 Pictures

With his latest project, fans expressed their contention. This has mostly to do with his previous works, but there’s more to it.

Although promising, this raises several questions regarding its coherence. It also doesn’t negate their indelible ending, which left an incorrigible blot on their fame.

Aka Akasaka’s latest project has fans divided

From the Idol Industry to Love Wars, Aka Akasaka has a diverse portfolio of works. This is especially true with his contribution to the seinen genre.

Aka Akasaka is the famed author of series like Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Oshi no Ko. Both series have gained popularity in Japan and in the overseas market, boosting Akasaka’s reputation in the process.

Ai Hoshino in Oshi no Ko | Credits: Studio Doga Kobo

With two back-to-back hits under his pocket, the author is ready for his next manga project. While fans are a bit skeptical of this leak due to various reasons, the announcement has been received with general glee amongst otakus.

Leaks Reveal Aka Akasaka is Ready to Debut His Next Work After Kaguya-sama and Oshi no Ko Kaguya-sama Love is war | Credits: A-1 Pictures

Online leakers have revealed that Aka Akasaka will be debuting a new manga in the Young Jump magazine. While the name and other details are yet to be revealed, the illustration will be done by Chika Aji, the artist of...

If there was an award for blending comedy and romance brilliantly, it’d go straight to Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, no questions asked. Aka Akasaka checked all the boxes from great characters to intriguing developments, that are the epitome of entertainment. While the manga is great, the anime takes things a step further by putting emphasis on the right moments and enhancing its charm.

Kaguya Shinomiya | Credits: Studio A-1 Pictures

Akasaka is also aware of how the high-quality production enriched his creation, as he shared during an interview once. However, by getting caught up in the moment and taking his praises way too far, he almost landed himself in trouble.

Praising Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Nearly Landed Aka Akasaka in Trouble

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War anime enjoys massive popularity and fans absolutely adore it. It’s a wonderful adaptation of Aka Akasaka’s manga. During an interview, Akasaka was asked for his thoughts on it.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War by Aka Akasaka has a cast of unique characters who all play significant parts in the amusing romance, mind games, and drama that take place within the student council at Shuchiin Academy. However, there’s one character that seems to be destined to remain in the shadows: it’s none other than Yu Ishigami. Despite his engaging backstory, interesting personality, and loyal fanbase, Ishigami is often relegated to the sidelines.

Yu Ishigami from Kaguya-sama: Love is War | Credit: A-1 Pictures

Akasaka crafted Ishigami to be both a foil and a character who exists in the background. However, why would Akasaka create such a compelling character and then push him to the sidelines? In an interview he revealed the underlying motivations behind Ishigami’s role, the contrast he creates with the main characters, and how his understated presence impacts Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

Aka Akasaka’s Intention...

Kaguya-sama: Love is War by Aka Akasaka is a unique romantic comedy about two individuals who are in love but can never bring themselves to confess first. As a result, Kaguya and Shirogane, two of the top students at their prestigious academy, start playing tricks to make the other person confess first.

The cute dynamic in Kaguya-sama: Love is War [Credit: A-1 Pictures]

For these two love-birds, the person who confesses first is weaker and would lose the dominant position in the following relationship. While playing their weird little mind games where each of them keeps scores, both inevitably fall even deeper in love.

Aka Akasaka Wanted to Create a Death Note-like situation in Kaguya-sama: Love is War Kaguya and Shirogane in Kaguya-sama: Love is War [Credit: A-1 Pictures]

In an interview, Aka Akasaka delved into the world of Kaguya-sama and discussed his perspective on the characters and the unique creative style of the series.

Oshi No Ko was one of the most popular anime of 2023, breaking records around the world and generating new interest in Aka Akasaka's idol mystery manga. Following up on that success, a new spin-off will focus on the backstory of one of the most popular characters, Ai Hoshino, shedding light on her past as an idol.

Famous for its colorful designs and unveiling the reality of the brutal entertainment industry, Oshi no Ko recently announced that it would be receiving a second season. While fans will have to wait for updates on the continuation of the anime series, an exciting announcement was also made providing additional insight into Ai's idol career.

Oshi no ko is inspiring a light novel titled "Spica The First Evening Star". It follows Ai shortly after she joins B-Komachi. She decides to quit her idol career, but a promising deal with her manager Ichigo might change her mind.

Oshi no Ko is a dark drama anime with a totally different tone than author Aka Akasaka's previous work, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. These series appear to take place in separate universes, but some fans are open to the possibility of a shared Oshi no Ko/Kaguya-sama continuity, with Pieyon being the potential first link.

Both anime series take place in a modern Japanese setting, making it easy to combine these universes, even if there haven't been any direct references to one another. That's where Pieyon comes in -- a mysterious bodybuilder with a strong online following and a bizarre, Tweety Bird-style mask to hide his true identity.

Related: Oshi no Ko's Akane Isn't in Love With Aqua - She's Obsessed With Him

Evidence That Oshi No Ko's Pieyon Is Kaguya-sama's Kazeno

Oshi no Ko fans are already speculating about who exactly the enigmatic Pieyon really...

‘His House’, ‘Rocks’,‘Calm With Horses’, ‘The Father’ also achieve high totals.

Rose Glass’ horror Saint Maud has set a new record for most nominations for one film at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), with 17 nods.

The nominations were announced online this morning (Wednesday December 9) by actors Holliday Grainger and Micheal Ward.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

Saint Maud received nominations in best British independent film, as well as for Glass in best director, screenplay, debut director and debut screenwriter.

Further nominations include breakthrough producer for Oliver Kassman, best actress for Morfydd Clark and best supporting actress for Jennifer Ehle.

Charlotte Nicdao and Gemma Bird Matheson in ‘Content’ (Photo credit: ABC/Mia Forrest).

Ludo Studio’s vertical comedy Content and Endemol Shine Australia’s documentary Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, both ABC commissions, will fly the flag for Australia at this year’s International Emmy Awards.

Produced by Meg O’Connell and written by Anna Barnes, the comedy starring Charlotte Nicdao as Lucy, an extrovert chasing Internet fame and Gemma Bird Matheson as her best friend Daisy, is nominated for Short-Form Series.

“I love this show so much and I’m so proud of the team,” Ludo Studio’s Daley Pearson said on social media. “This is Ludo’s 4th Emmy [nomination] and I’m so happy for everyone at the studio.”

In April, the Brisbane-based studio’s Bluey won the International Emmy Kids Award for best preschool program, following wins for interactive comedy #7DaysLater in 2015 and animated series Doodles in 2016.

The Esa documentary,...

The film follows an Iranian couple who are forced to flee their country when their affair and child become public.

Zak Brilliant’s Republic Film Distribution has set a UK and Ireland theatrical release date of Noember 6, 2020 for Eva Mulvad’s Iranian refugee documentary Love Child in the latest positive news for the market’s devasated distribution sector.

Love Child premiered in TIFF Docs at Toronto 2019, and has since toured the festival circuit at Idfa and Chicago, where it won best documentary. Since the coronavirus shutdown, it has played at online versions of Cph:dox and the Human Rights Watch Film...

Has played festival circuit at Toronto, Idfa, Cph:dox.

Republic Film Distribution has picked up UK and Ireland rights to Eva Mulvad’s Love Child, a Danish documentary about Iranian refugees from Autlook Film Sales.

It will release the film theatrically in the UK and Ireland later in the year. ”We plan to release in theatres this autumn, at which point we dearly hope UK and Irish independent cinemas will be firing again on all cylinders,” Republic founder Zak Brilliant told Screen.

Love Child premiered in Tiff Docs at Toronto 2019, and has since toured the festival circuit at Idfa and Chicago,...

The rustbelt rebound story American Factory won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature tonight, earning gold for the first collaboration between Netflix and Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground, which produced with Participant Media.

Directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert and producer Jeff Reichert accepted the award from presenter Mark Ruffalo, who noted in his introduction that four of the five nominated docs were either directed or co-directed by women.

Reichert saluted her fellow “sister and brother documentarians” from the stage, noting, “We are so proud. We are inspired by you guys.”

The Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions picked up American Factory after its debut at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, launching the film on Netflix as part of their deal with the streaming platform. The documentary, produced by Participant, explores what happened when a Chinese auto glass giant opened a plant on the site of a shuttered Gm factory near Dayton,...

Netflix’s “American Factory,” produced by Michelle and Barack Obama, took home the award for best documentary at the 92nd Oscars. It’s the first Academy Award for the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground.

The former president and first lady weren’t able to attend Sunday’s ceremony in Hollywood. The award was accepted by the film’s co-directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert.

Accepting the award, Reichert said, “Working people have it harder and harder these days — and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.”

Michelle Obama sent her congratulations, tweeting “The best stories are rarely tidy or perfect. But that’s where the truth so often lies.”

Congrats to Julia, Steven, and the whole crew on winning Best Documentary for #AmericanFactory, Higher Ground's first release! So glad to see their heart and honesty recognized—because the best stories are rarely tidy or perfect.

The winners of the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards are being announced live during today’s ceremony, hosted for the second year in a row by Aubrey Plaza (fresh off rave reviews from Sundance for her performance in the indie “Black Bear”). Unlike the Oscars where Netflix is the most-nominated studio, the Spirit Awards are dominated in 2020 by A24. The indie distributor boats 18 nominations across four movies: “The Lighthouse,” “Waves,” “The Farewell,” “Uncut Gems,” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” The Safdie brothers’ “Uncut Gems” and Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse” lead all movies with five nominations each. Both of these films are nominated for Best Feature along with Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency.”

Last year’s big Spirit Award winner was Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which won prizes for Best Feature,...

Aubrey Plaza will return to host the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday in Santa Monica.

The 35th annual Spirit Awards are set to air live on the IFC Channel beginning at 5 p.m. Et/2 p.m. Pt. The network will live stream the ceremony on its website, though audiences will need a cable login to watch. TV subscribers can also watch the show live on IFC app’s, available on iOS and Android, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Xbox, and Android TV devices.

This year’s top Spirit Award nominees include Robert Pattinson’s “The Lighthouse” and Adam Sandler’s “Uncut Gems,” with five nods each. Shia Labeouf’s “Honey Boy” and Kirill Mikhanovsky’s scored four nominations.

“Uncut Gems,” Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” are up for best feature.

Here’s the full...

Much has been written about “Joker” composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, the Icelandic cellist who may well walk off with the Oscar Sunday night, making her only the third woman to win an Academy Award for best original score.

But she’s not the only woman who has composed scores for Oscar-nominated films. In fact, five others are in contention in the documentary feature, documentary short subject and animated short categories.

Three of the five nominated films in the doc shorts category were scored by women (and one of the other two has no score): Sasha Gordon for “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” Amanda Jones for “St. Louis Superman” and Laura Karpman for “Walk Run Cha-Cha.”

Music for the documentary feature “For Sama” was composed by London-based Nainita Desai, and Japanese composer Karen Tanaka scored the nominated animated short film “Sister.”

The number is...

In two days, the Film Independent Spirit Awards will be handed out. By now, we all know how different the Spirit Awards are than Oscar. That goes without saying. This year, the Academy Awards largely went in a separate direction, so there’s less crossover than usual. So, that means we can worry less about if these voters will reject/simulate the Academy, and just focus on how the vote might go. I’ve tinkered a bit with my picks, though ultimately I think it could be a really good night for Uncut Gems. Watch out for The Farewell (or Marriage Story) in the top category, while The Lighthouse could end up spoiling in several categories. It’s going to be interesting, the results, that much I can assure you of… Enough talk. You’ve read my thoughts on this race already in the very recent past. Time for what...

For female filmmakers in the industry, this year’s round of Oscar nominations – in which acclaimed female-helmed films such as “Hustlers” and “The Farewell” were shut out in place of male-directed Best Picture nominees predominantly centred on stories of white men – told a frustratingly familiar story. But in the Academy’s non-fiction branch, a different narrative was being written.

Not only did the Best Documentary Feature category achieve directorial gender parity, with four female and four male nominees, but female filmmakers led men overall, with 13 nominees to 12 across both feature and doc short categories.

The branch celebrated newcomers such as Waad al-Kateab (“For Sama”), Tamara Kotevska (“Honeyland”) and Smriti Mundhra (“St. Louis Superman”); mid-career filmmakers such as Sigrid Dyekjær (“The Cave”) and Joanna Natasegara (“The Edge of Democracy”); and established documentarians such as Julia Reichert (“American Factory”).

The latter duo both achieved remarkable feats that garnered little mainstream press coverage:...

The Ee British Academy Film Awards took place in London on Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall. The ceremony was hosted by Graham Norton and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD later this evening in the U.S.. The ceremony is also broadcast in all major territories around the world. In this truncated awards season, the BAFTAs this year arrived just two days before Academy ballots are due on February 4. BAFTA has an overlap of several hundred voters, who reside mainly in London, New York, and Los Angeles.

Approximately 6,700 BAFTA members voted for the nominations spanning 39 feature films. British theater director and filmmaker Sam Mendes’ WWI epic “1917,” which landed nine nominations, took home seven wins including Best Film, and Outstanding British Film. The movie has already racked up two Golden Globe wins, the Directors Guild of America Award, and the Producers Guild of America...

“1917,” Sam Mendes’ World War I survival thriller, dominated at the 73rd British Academy of Film and Television’s Film Awards with seven wins including best film and best director.

“Joker,” meanwhile, which went into the BAFTAs with the most nominations, 11, won three awards including best actor for Joaquin Phoenix. “Parasite” picked up two awards, for original screenplay and film not in the English language.

Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which had 10 noms in total, emerged empty handed. Among other awards favorites, “Marriage Story,” “Bombshell,” “JoJo Rabbit,” “Little Women” and “Ford v Ferrari” won one prize each.

“1917,” with nine nominations in all, took the first award of the evening, the outstanding British film award, where it was the clear favorite in the category against fellow nominees “Bait,” “For Sama,” “Rocketman,” “Sorry We Missed You,” and “The Two Popes.”

“1917,” which has has struck a resounding chord at the box office,...

‘1917’ wins seven prizes including best film; Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, ‘Parasite’, ‘Bait’ among other winners.

1917 was the big winner at the 2020 Baftas on Sunday (February 2), winning seven awards including best film.

It also picked up outstanding British film, best director for Sam Mendes, best cinematography for Roger Deakins, as well as Baftas for production design, sound and special visual effects.

Joker won three awards including best actor for Joaquin Phoenix, while Parasite won two including best original screenplay and film not in the English language.

The ceremony took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London and was hosted by...

‘1917’ leads the way; Joaquin Phoenix, Renée Zellweger, ‘Parasite’, ‘Bait’ among the winners.

The 2020 Bafta Film Awards are taking place tonight (2 Feb) at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Screen will be posting all the winners on this page and on Twitter as they are announced.

The ceremony started at 18:45 UK time and finishes at approximately 21:30, with Graham Norton on hosting duties for the first time.

Joker leads the way with 11 nominations. The Irishman and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood follow on 10, with 1917 earning nine nods.

Winners as they happen in bold (latest first), below.

Leading Actress Jessie Buckley...

Winners of the 2020 British Academy Film Awards (the BAFTAs) were revealed on Sunday February 2 (two days before final voting for the Oscars ends) in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Graham Norton presided over the star-studded affair. Scroll down for the full and complete list of winners (and nominees) at the 73rd annual BAFTA Awards.

“Joker” leads all films with 11 nominations, while “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “The Irishman” are tied for second at 10 each. “1917” has nine, “Jojo Rabbit” earned six while “Marriage Story,” “The Two Popes,” and “Little Women” received five apiece.

A trio more of films — “Parasite,” “Rocketman,” and “For Sama” — sit at four. And another three each earned three bids: “Bombshell,” “Judy,” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”

Refresh this page for the most up-to-date results

Best Picture

X – “1917”

“The Irishman”

“Joker”

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

“Parasite”

Best Director

X – Sam Mendes,...

When the 2020 Oscar nominations were announced, critics immediately seized upon the glaring lack of women recognized in the Best Director competition. But on the nonfiction side, it’s a completely different story.

In the Best Documentary Feature category, four of the five nominated films are directed or co-directed by women. In Best Documentary Short, it’s the same story—four of five nominees are directed or co-directed by women.

It’s also a year when Greta Gerwig was overlooked for Best Director in the fiction realm. “Narrative is so badly handling women,” comments Carol Dysinger, who earned an Oscar nomination for her short doc Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). “But in my community, documentary, we do Ok.”

Among the women documentary filmmakers recognized with an Oscar nomination this year is Syrian-born Waad Al-Kateab, who directed For Sama with Edward Watts.

“Two days before the nominations,...

Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” continued its run of top critics’ honors this season, scooping the Film of the Year and Director of the Year awards at the London Film Critics’ Circle kudos ceremony this evening. The victory puts extra wind in the sails of the South Korean phenomenon as it heads into the final stretch of awards season, with the BAFTAs delivering their verdict on Sunday.

Other multiple winners at the black-tie ceremony, voted on by the UK’s most high-profile critics’ group, were “Marriage Story,” recognized for Noah Baumbach’s screenplay and Laura Dern’s supporting performance, and Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir.” A melancholy memory piece inspired by the director’s film school days, Hogg’s film was named British/Irish Film of the Year, while its 22-year-old leading lady, Honor Swinton Byrne, won Young British/Irish Performer of the Year. It was a welcome boost for “The Souvenir,...

#BAFTAsSoWhite was not the hashtag that BAFTA brass was hoping would trend on Twitter within minutes of nominations being announced.

Yet there it was: an incensed public response to a slate that, for the fourth time in a decade, yielded all-white nominees in the four top acting categories, including two apiece for actresses Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson — at the expense of heavily buzzed contenders including Lupita Nyong’o, Golden Globe winner Awkwafina and even British star Cynthia Erivo.

Erivo would scoop an Oscar nomination days later, making the BAFTA omission all the more jarring.

In a bitter irony, the inaugural nominees for the new casting award — BAFTA’s one well received move this year, it seems — included Sarah Crowe for “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” a Dickens adaptation that has received praise for its diverse, color-blind ensemble led by former BAFTA winner Dev Patel.

When none of its individual actors made the cut,...

While an all-male list of director contenders and a mostly white actors roster caught the eye of the diversity-conscious on Oscar nominations day, another blip signaled deep change within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That is, four out of five documentary feature nominees—The Cave, The Edge Of Democracy, For Sama, and Honeyland— came from outside the United States, and leaned heavily into foreign languages, including Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Macedonian, and Serbo-Croatian dialects. Meanwhile, the single largely American nominee—American Factory, from Netflix—featured a number of Chinese factory managers in Ohio, and communicated partly in Mandarin.

This is new, and not an accident.

In eight of the prior ten years, there were at least three nominated documentary features of U. S. origin, and never fewer than two. Even in 2013, when How To Survive A Plague and The Invisible War were the only American entries, the year...

Moments ago, the Producers Guild of America finished up their annual awards show, highlighted by the Darryl F. Zanuck Award, their version of Best Picture. The PGA top prize is a reliable indicator of future Oscar success, since eight of the last ten winners here have gone on to take the Academy Award as well. Are we in line to see that happen again? Considering that the Producers Guild opted to reward Sam Mendes’ 1917, and the fact that that film is currently surging, we very well might be seeing just that. Read on for more, as well as the rest of the winners… PGA not only went for 1917 in their top category, but they rebuffed the Academy with their Documentary prize, going with Apollo 11, despite it not being nominated in Best Documentary Feature. In the Animated field, they picked Toy Story 4, arguably keeping it the slight Oscar favorite in Best Animated Feature.

Sam Mendes’ World War I drama “1917” got a boost in its bid to win the Best Picture Oscar when it took home the top prize at the 31st annual Producers Guild Awards Saturday night. The winner of the PGA Awards’ top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, has historically been a strong indicator of which film will go on to win the Best Picture Oscar. Since 1989, the PGA winner has matched up with the top Oscar 21 out of 30 times.

Last year, Peter Farrelly’s controversial racial drama “Green Book” took the top PGA trophy before going on to win the Best Picture Oscar. This year “1917” bested the other eight films competing for the top Oscar at the PGAs, as well as a tenth film, Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” — which settled for an Original Screenplay Oscar slot.

The victory comes after surprise...

Two years after BlacKkKlansman debuted on the Croisette, Spike Lee is heading back to Cannes to serve as jury president.

The 62 year-old U.S. filmmaker will award the Palme dO’r at the close of the 73rd edition, which will take place from 12-23 May, 2020. Jury members will be announced in mid-April.

BlacKkKlansman, which won Cannes’ Grand Prix and scored Lee’s first Oscar, marked the director’s return to Cannes after a 22-year absence. Seven of Lee’s movies have played at the festival, including She’s Gotta Have It, Do The Right Thing and Summer Of Sam.

Lee said in a statement, “In this life I have lived, my biggest blessings have been when they arrived unexpected, when they happened out of nowhere. When I got the call that I was offered the opportunity to be president of Cannes jury for 2020, I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time.

Long before pundits speculated about the Oscar odds for “Joker,” the first person to predict that Todd Phillips’ dark supervillain origin story would become a serious awards player was across the globe in Europe. Discussing the upcoming competition for the Venice International Film Festival, artistic director Alberto Barbera didn’t mince words: “This one’s going straight to the Oscars,” he said.

That was an understatement: “Joker” wound up with 11 nominations, more than anything else in contention this year. The decision by Warner Bros. to launch the movie at a revered overseas festival, in a prime competition slot where it wound up winning the prestigious Golden Lion, paid off by immediately establishing the future blockbuster as more than comic-book escapism.

Some cinephiles scoffed at the idea of festivals as a marketing launchpad for Hollywood product, but this is exactly the sort of outcome that helps elevate festivals and allows the...

Netflix's American Factory, National Geographic's The Cave, Netflix's The Edge of Democracy, PBS' For Sama and Neon's Honeyland on Monday earned nominations for best documentary feature for the 2020 Academy Awards.

American Factory director Julia Reichert earned her fourth career nomination for her film, while The Cave helmer Feras Fayyad scored his second career nom after a previous mention for Last Men in Aleppo.

Watch the trailers for all five best documentary feature nominees below.

Netflix's American Factory, National Geographic's The Cave, Netflix's The Edge of Democracy, PBS' For Sama and Neon's Honeyland on Monday earned nominations for best documentary feature for the 2020 Academy Awards.

American Factory director Julia Reichert earned her fourth career nomination for her film, while The Cave helmer Feras Fayyad scored his second career nom after a previous mention for Last Men in Aleppo.

Watch the trailers for all five best documentary feature nominees below.

After making some major strides last year, the nominations for the 92nd Annual Academy Awards are basically #OscarsSo WhitePart 2: #OscarsSoWhiterAndWithMoreMen, a sequel to the hashtag originated in 2015 by April Reign for the lack of diverse nominees. The Academy Awards took the non-inclusive torch that was carried by the BAFTA Awards and the Golden Globes. Only one actor of color were nominated in the major acting categories while women were shut out of Best Director. It was at least refreshing to see John Cho and Issa Rae unveil the nominations early Monday morning because they provided much-needed color to the announcement — both figuratively and literally.

For Best Supporting Actress, awards season favorite Jennifer Lopez was snubbed for her role in Hustlers while people will be tweeting #JusticeForNaiNai as The Farewell‘s Zhao Shuzhen was excluded as well. Speaking of Lulu Wang’s family drama, Awkwafina, who made history as the...