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The Oscar-nominated short film Red, White, and Blue is a gut-wrenching, up-close look at the brutal consequences women are facing as a result of the statewide abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Its 23-minute runtime tells the tragic story of Rachel (Brittany Snow), a single mother struggling paycheck to paycheck while supporting two children, as she travels out of state seeking an abortion. Facing financial obstacles, busy clinics, and a ticking clock, Rachel must endure an increasingly precarious journey to terminate an unexpected pregnancy before it's too late.

Despite the film's brevity, it packs a punch as its writer and director Nazrin Choudhury expertly tackles the polarizing political issue of reproductive freedom. Although a fictionalized story, its poignant relevancy mirrors the harsh, everyday reality of thousands of women living in the conservative states that are passing abortion bans into law. As the 2024 Presidential Election puts women's right...

Exclusive: The musical stars are coming out for Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman’s The Gray House.

Leslie Greif opened the series’ playlist exclusively for Deadline and there is serious star wattage in there, including an original song performed by country music legend Willie Nelson, which closes the series. Elsewhere, Shania Twain, Killer Mike and Yolanda Adams are among those to feature, and Jon Bon Jovi co-writes one of the show’s songs.

“My idea was, instead of having one [end] title song, I’m going to have eight different songs by Grammy-winning artists and in different genres of music, which are written for our show and are going to tell a story of that episode,” said Greif, who exec produces and wrote the script with Darrell Fetty, and John Sayles.

Nelson’s “Heart of America” was penned by Erin Enderlin, Jim ‘Moose’ Brown and Jeff Fahey. It closes the limited series,...

John Boyega's best performance is in the Small Axe film "Red, White & Blue" showcasing his range and talent. The film explores the challenges Leroy faced while trying to change the Metropolitan Police from within. Boyega's potential in Star Wars wasn't fully tapped; Finn could have been a driving force but was underutilized.

Years after he first appeared as Finn in the Star Wars films, John Boyega's best performance can be found in a criminally underseen part of the Small Axe anthology that boasts a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score. Boyega was impressive in his role as Finn in the sequel Star Wars trilogy, even as the films steadily shifted focused away from him and more towards Daisy Ridley's Rey or Adam Driver's Kylo Ren. Through a mix of magnetic sweetness and understated drive, Boyega was able to elevate Finn's storyline and deliver a strong performance.

Since Boyega left...

What happened to Harrison on The Young and the Restless? That’s a question on Y&r fans’ minds for several reasons.

The CBS soap had a casting switcheroo just as a storyline featuring the youngest Abbott was heating up.

After playing Harrison since the character came on the scene in May 2021, Kellen Enriquez has exited the role.

On Friday, April 12, a new actor was playing Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Summer’s (Allison Lanier) young son.

The change-up comes as Harrison goes missing, and Claire (Hayley Erin) gets dubbed as his kidnapper.

More on that later because it also has fans wondering what happened to Harrison, but first, let’s take a look at the new actor playing him.

Who is playing Harrison on The Young and the Restless?

Redding Munsell has taken over the role of Harrison Abbott from Kellen. This is Redding’s first forte into the soap world.

Brittany Snow is surfing a newfound wave of success. Red, White, and Blue, a short film directed by Nazrin Choudhury in which Snow starred, nabbed a recent Oscar nomination. And with buzz building around her upcoming roles in the sexy-hot new series The Hunting Wives and the gripping drama, Barron's Cove, the Pitch Perfect star is once again in the spotlight.

Enter: Parachute. The deeply moving romantic drama, directed and co-written by Brittany Snow, tracks two wayward souls braving major life transitions. Snow’s directorial feature debut has already been met with praise from audiences and critics, garnering the Thunderbird Rising Special Award at SXSW. The film stars Courtney Eaton (Yellowjackets) and Thomas Mann as Riley and Ethan, who are both at a crossroads in their lives, braving their own personal demons. It also offers great turns in smaller roles by the likes of Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Joel McHale,...

Redding Munsell will be taking over the role of Harrison Abbott, beginning with the Friday, April 12 episode of “The Young and the Restless.”

Munsell replaces Kellen Enriquez, who has played the son of Kyle Abbott (Michael Mealor) and Tara Locke since May 2021.

Enriquez appeared for the final time in the role during the Wednesday, March 20 episode, a standalone episode of the daytime drama series in which Claire (Hayley Erin) imagines what life would have been like had she never been separated from the Newman family.

Redding appeared in the film, “Red, White, and Blue,” which was nominated this year for Best Live Action Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards. The film stars Brittany Snow as Rachel, a poor single mother who has to go out of state due to a change in American law preventing her from getting an abortion in her home state. Redding plays Jake, one of Rachel’s two children.

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Oscars Predictions:

Best Live Action Short

Weekly Commentary: Many pundits regard the best live action short category as Wes Anderson’s to lose, thanks to his 40-minute Netflix short film, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Interestingly, the final Oscar ballots do not display the director’s names. Although...

If the Academy judged features by the same standards that they do live action shorts, the best picture ballot would be full of starry, quasi-political issue movies: well-meaning but manipulative films like “Father Stu” and “The Janes.” In this category, it’s the message that matters to Oscar voters, which makes this year’s “2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action” program (available exclusively in theaters from ShortsTV) one of the most frustrating lineups in recent memory. Or it would, if not for the presence of one genuinely brilliant, liberatingly unserious nominee among them. That would be “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” the best of several delightful Roald Dahl adaptations director Wes Anderson cooked up for Netflix … but we’ll come to that in due time.

The slate opens with a far inferior Netflix short, “The After,” a risibly manipulative portrait of grief and finding the strength to move...

Brittany Snow joins ‘The Hunting Wives’ (Photo Credit: Sela Shiloni / Courtesy of Starz)

Brittany Snow (the Pitch Perfect franchise) has boarded Starz’s new drama series The Hunting Wives, based on the bestselling novel by May Cobb. Snow will co-lead the series with Malin Akerman, who was previously announced as attached to the project.

The series, described as a twisty thriller, is targeting a spring start of production in Charlotte, North Carolina. Season one will consist of eight episodes.

“Snow will portray Sophie O’Neil in the series based on the novel by May Cobb, which tells the story of Sophie and her family’s move from the East Coast to deep East Texas, where she succumbs to socialite Margo Bank’s (Malin Åkerman) irresistible charms – and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction, and murder,” reads Starz’s synopsis.

Rebecca Cutter (Hightown) is adapting Cobb’s book and will serve as showrunner and executive producer.

Brittany Snow has been cast in “The Hunting Wives,” an upcoming drama series at Starz adapted from the May Cobb novel of the same name. She will play Sophie O’Neill, and joins previously announced star Malin Åkerman.

“The Hunting Wives” follows Sophie, who moves with her family from the East Coast to deep East Texas. There, she succumbs to socialite Margo’s (Åkerman) irresistible charms and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction and murder.

Snow began her career on the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light” before rising to prominence with roles such as Amber Von Tussle in the 2007 “Hairspray” film and Chloe Beale in the “Pitch Perfect” films. More recently, she has appeared in the A24 horror film “X,” the Fox drama “Almost Family” and the short film “Red White & Blue,” which is nominated for a 2024 Oscar. Up next, she will be seen opposite Nick Jonas in...

Exclusive: Brittany Snow has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Malin Åkerman in Starz’s upcoming thriller drama series The Hunting Wives, produced by Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Written by Rebecca Cutter based on the novel by May Cobb, The Hunting Wives tells the story of Sophie O’Neil (Snow) and her family’s move from the East Coast to deep East Texas, where she succumbs to socialite Margo Bank’s (Åkerman) irresistible charms – and finds her life consumed by obsession, seduction and murder.

Cutter, who will serve as showrunner, executive produces with Cobb and 3 Arts’ Erwin Stoff. Production on the eight-episode series starts this spring in Charlotte, Nc.

Snow can currently be seen in the 2024 Oscar-nominated live-action short film Red White & Blue. Her directorial feature debut film Parachute premiered at SXSW 2023, earning two awards including the Thunderbird Rising Special Award. It is set for a 2024 release.

Related:...

The 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.

The State of the Race

One thing that should always be of note when it comes to the Shorts and Animation branch is that it probably does the best job of looking at the work before looking at the name behind it. Some Oscar winners that directed and/or produced Best Live Action Short contenders that made the 2024 Oscars shortlist, but did not get nominated include Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuarón, and Emma Thompson. If an established name wants to come for the awards most tailored to burgeoning filmmakers, they best come correct.

That is why it is so huge that Wes Anderson received a nomination for his Netflix short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,...

The nominees for the 2024 Oscar Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, with films Oppenheimer and Poor Things leading the race.

Oppenheimer received 13 nods, including Best Picture, Director (Christopher Nolan), Actor (Cillian Murphy), Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.) and Supporting Actress (Emily Blunt).

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things was nominated for 11 awards, with lead actress Emma Stone receiving nods for Best Actress and her producing work. Killers of the Flower Moon followed with ten nominations, with Lily Gladstone’s Best Actress nomination marking a significant moment for native performers in Hollywood.

The 2024 Oscar Awards will take place on Sunday, March 10, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel will be returning as host.

See the full list of 2024 Oscar nominations below.

Best Picture

American Fiction

Anatomy of a Fall

Barbie

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Past Lives

Poor Things

The Zone of Interest

Best Director

Justine Triet,...

Prime Video’s Red, White & Blue is a month away from release and the streaming service is finally showing off the first official trailer for the gay romantic comedy set in the world of international politics. The trailer shows the antagonistic beginnings of the relationship between Britain’s Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) and Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the U.S. President, and teases their evolution from enemies to frenemies to lovers.

Based on Casey McQuiston’s bestselling 2019 LGBTQ love story, the rom-com stars Uma Thurman, Clifton Collins Jr., Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, and Stephen Fry. The ensemble also includes Ellie Bamber, Thomas Flynn, Malcolm Atobrah, Akshay Khanna, Sharon D Clarke, Aneesh Sheth, and Juan Castano.

Tony Award-winning playwright Matthew López (The Inheritance) and Ted Malawer adapted McQuiston’s book, with López directing and executive producing. McQuiston, Michael Riley McGrath, and Michael S. Constable also serve as executive producers.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Breaking (Abi Damaris Corbin)

Following on the heels of his impressive turn in Steve McQueen’s Red, White and Blue, John Boyega does noble work in Breaking, directed by Abi Damaris Corbin. Boyega stars as Brian Brown-Easley, the 33-year-old Marine veteran who held a bank hostage in order to get a disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs he was owed. The amount was eight-hundred and ninety-two dollars. – Dan M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Destello Bravío (Ainhoa Rodríguez)

In the arid, lunar landscape of Ainhoa Rodríguez’s Destello Bravío, a whole village waits for things to fall apart. We’re in the rural outskirts of Spain’s Extremadura region, a few miles from the border with Portugal, but the...

John Boyega's feature film debut came in 2011 with the release of Joe Cornish's excellent alien invasion film "Attack the Block." Boyega, striking and intense, immediately caught the attention of those who saw Cornish's film, and he would almost immediately go on to appear in numerous British TV and film projects like "Becoming Human" and "Law & Order: UK." In 2015, he appeared before a global audience with the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," one of the biggest box office hits of all time. Despite his immediate high profile, Boyega remained pragmatic, even cynical about his new place in the pop culture firmament. In a 2019 interview with Variety, Boyega was asked about the potential of expanding his "Star Wars" role beyond feature films, to which he responded, "You ain't gonna Disney+ me."

Indeed, Boyega often seems to have an eye on his career trajectory. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast,...

Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) with Godfrey Niven (Colin Firth) in Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday

Eva Husson’s prepossessing Mothering Sunday, based on the 2016 novel by Graham Swift, with a screenplay by Alice Birch, produced by Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, stars Odessa Young with Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles in The Crown), Colin Firth, Olivia Colman, Patsy Ferran, Sope Dirisu, Emma D’Arcy, and Glenda Jackson.

Eva Husson with Odessa Young and Anne-Katrin Titze on the Bloomsbury Group inspiring the costumes: “Virginia Woolf and her friends, because I was obsessed with them.”

Costumes by the great Sandy Powell, production design by Helen Scott, editing by Emilie Orsini, and the cinematography of Jamie Ramsay...

Following on the heels of his impressive turn in Steve McQueen’s Red, White and Blue, John Boyega does noble work in 892, directed by Abi Damaris Corbin. Boyega stars as Brian Brown-Easley, the 33-year-old Marine veteran who held a bank hostage in order to get a disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs he was owed. The amount was eight-hundred and ninety-two dollars.

Scripted by Abi Damaris Corbin & Kwame Kwei-Armah’s screenplay, based on the real-life event that took place in the summer of 2017, 892 recalls plenty of hostage films from years past while attempting to separate itself by acknowledging humanity of its hostage-taker. In this way is it incredibly easy to recall something like Dog Day Afternoon. Boyega is surrounded by a stellar supporting cast. Nicole Beharie and Selenis Leyva are quite extraordinary as the two bank employees Brown-Easley takes hostage. In smaller parts, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington,...

MangroveFor many, the entrance of Steve McQueen into television was expected—his mercurial career has encompassed video-art installations, music videos, shorts and award-winning feature films. Before the critical success of Small Axe (2020) and Uprising (2021), twin anthology series that navigate the lives and passions of London’s Caribbean and West Indian communities, McQueen had already directed the pilot episode of HBO’s TV series Codes of Conduct, and his fourth feature, Widows (2018), smartly transplanted Lynda La Plante’s 1980s mini-drama into present-day Chicago.McQueen is one of many working directors—David Fincher, Jane Campion, and Andrea Arnold, of recent years—whose careers have migrated from cinema to small-screen television. Switch between your streaming channels, and the volume of director-driven programs is extensive—and growing. In the past, the director-led format of television was far less common and expected, with the groundbreaking prestige series of Rainer Fassbinder, Krzysztof Kieślowski (Dekalog), and David Lynch...

Adapting Sergio De La Pava’s self-published, Pynchonesque, 700-page debut novel “A Naked Singularity” into an 86-minute crime saga would seem to be an inherently radical act, and yet “Naked Singularity” is . That filmmaker is “It” scribe Chase Palmer — a first-time writer-director born with a veteran producer’s name — and while his New York legal thriller boasts a few brief flights of fancy, it’s frustrating to watch a movie that wants to go full “Southland Tales” but settles for a half-hearted episode of “Law & Order: Wtf” instead (Dick Wolf is unsurprisingly credited among the executive producers).

You get the sense that John Boyega, whose social conscience has added a searching moral urgency to his post-Finn performances, was down to take things a lot further and weirder than the film around him ever does. The “Red, White and Blue” star assumes the role of Casi, a cocky but rumpled young...

John Boyega has taken some fascinating swings in his post-“Star Wars” career. Last year, he earned heaps of acclaim for his role as London Metropolitan Police officer Leroy Logan in the “Red, White and Blue” entry in Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe.” He was set to star in the Netflix thriller from Jeremy Saulnier “Rebel Ridge,” and though he left that project earlier this summer, fans can still get a chance to see him in the upcoming “Naked Singularity,” in theaters on August 6 and on demand August 13. Check out the trailer below.

Here’s the official synopsis from Screen Media Films: “‘Naked Singularity’ tells the story of Casi (John Boyega), a promising young NYC public defender whose idealism is beginning to crack under the daily injustices of the very justice system he’s trying to make right. Doubting all he has worked for and seeing signs of the universe collapsing all around him,...

“Small Axe” was a hit with TV and film critics when it premiered last fall on Amazon Prime Video. It won Best Picture from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and was nominated for Best Limited Series at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards. But how many Emmy nominations will it get? It’s up for consideration 18 times across the Emmy ballots. Scroll down to see the full list.

Seebafta TV Awards: ‘I May Destroy You,’ ‘Small Axe,’ ‘Normal People’ ….

Directed and co-written by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), “Small Axe” is an anthology consisting of five standalone films that explore the West Indian immigrant experience in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s. “Mangrove” tells the true story of a group of Black protestors who were persecuted by the police and the legal system. “Lovers Rock” is a fictional story set during a lively house party.

Last fall the Amazon anthology series “Small Axe” blurred the lines between cinema and television. Consisting of five films that explore the West Indian immigrant community in the UK, it was a favorite of both film and TV critics. But will it be favored by the Emmys? Scroll down and follow the links to watch four in-depth interviews with below-the-line artists from the ambitious project.

“Small Axe” was directed and co-written by Steve McQueen, who became the first (and still only) Black producer to win a Best Picture Oscar when his film “12 Years a Slave” won top honors for 2013. He’s also known for the acclaimed films “Hunger,” “Shame,” and “Widows,” and film journalists were so impressed by his five-film achievement that the Los Angeles Film Critics Association made the unusual choice of awarding it Best Picture.

Seebafta TV Awards: ‘I May Destroy You,’ ‘Small Axe,’ ‘Normal People’ ….

But...

John Boyega had a strong winter and spring awards season for his performance in the “Red, White and Blue” episode of Steve McQueen‘s anthology series “Small Axe,” winning at both the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards. Will his momentum continue at the Emmys? He’s the front-runner to win Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actor, but a few of our Experts think he’ll be upset by veteran character actor Bill Camp (“The Queen’s Gambit”).

Boyega has gone back and forth this awards season, winning the Golden Globe as a supporting actor but then Critics Choice as a lead (he also picked up a BAFTA nom as a lead). He’s entered as a supporting actor at the Emmys because while he’s the front-and-center protagonist of his episode about a Black cop trying to reform a racist police force, he doesn’t appear in any of the other four episodes of “Small Axe,...

It is often hard enough to conjure the right mood for one installment of an anthology series, but what if your task is five times that? Music supervisor Ed Bailie was tasked by Academy Award-nominated director Steve McQueen to do just that for “Small Axe,” a quintet of period-specific films about Black life in England ranging from the 1960s to the 1980s, touching on social topics from police brutality to the failings of the education system to a raging house party’s effect on young lives. “We used about 80 or 90 songs in the course of ‘Small Axe,'” says Bailie, “and each film had different music illustrated in the scripts, so every part carved their own identities throughout”.

For “Mangrove,” the lengthiest and arguably most-charged entry that opens “Axe,” Bailie took his cue from the Trinidadian-settled Notting Hill of the late 1960s — far removed from the gentrified neighborhood seen years...

John Boyega may not be appearing in any “Star Wars” films at the moment, but the franchise hasn’t left him yet. The actor, now courting talk of Emmy awards for his performance in Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, “Red, White, and Blue,” sat down with IndieWire’s Libby Hill to talk about the series and its brief reference to a galaxy far, far away.

Boyega said upon seeing the reference to being a “Jedi” in the script, he was initially taken aback. “I was more like, ‘Is this a moment where professional actors are supposed to come and say, ‘Oh, Steve, don’t you think this is a bit too much?'” Boyega said. “And then something in my brain said, ‘Do you actually even care?'”

The actor said, ultimately, he was fine with the reference being put in there considering the context. The film takes place...

When Steve McQueen first approached John Boyega about playing London police officer Leroy Logan in his Amazon Prime Video anthology series “Small Axe,” they were both amazed and puzzled by the story of the real-life trailblazer. Logan was a young forensic scientist who gave up that successful career to take on the challenge of a lifetime: He wanted to create change from within by becoming a police officer.

But in doing so, Logan faced the disapproval of his father, was seen as a traitor by his community, and encountered plenty of blatant racism inside the Metropolitan police force.

“That was the key for me see, this guy’s made the decision that a lot of people wouldn’t make, especially during that time,” Boyega tells Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “And I was curious as to what kind of mind is behind a man that kind of makes this choice.

Amazon Prime just won a couple of Oscars for their film “Sound of Metal,” and now the streaming service is jumping right into Emmy season with “Beyond the Screen” virtual events and a “Prime Video Presents” podcast to promote their slate of programs from May 1 through June 10. Their events can be found on the Emmys FYC calendar.

Among the programs being promoted by Amazon this season include the sci-fi dramas “The Boys” and “The Expanse”; the Barry Jenkins limited series “The Underground Railroad”; the telefilms “Uncle Frank,” “Yearly Departed,” and “Sylvie’s Love”; the documentary “All In: The Fight for Democracy“; the anthologies “Solos” and “Them”; and the theatrical special “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

Seersvp now for May 10: TV documentary directors for ‘Framing Britney Spears,’ ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ ‘High on the Hog,’ ‘Seduced,’ ‘The Year Earth Changed’ join Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts series

“Beyond the Screen” kicked...

Amazon Prime Video has once again put a pause on its annual in-person Emmy FYC pop-up events space due to the pandemic. But in its place, the streamer has curated a virtual experience, dubbed “Beyond the Screen,” that kicks off this weekend with an evening devoted to the stars, crafts and music of Steve McQueen’s anthology series “Small Axe.”

Variety has the exclusive roundup of the Emmy FYC panels, screenings, podcasts and performances that will kick off Amazon Studios and Prime Video’s campaign starting May 1, and continuing through June 10.

Talent populating the panels, set to be streamed for Television Academy members, include McQueen and John Boyega (“Small Axe”); Barry Jenkins and Joel Edgerton (“The Underground Railroad”), and Karl Urban, Antony Starr, Aya Cash and Jack Quaid (“The Boys”). Other contenders participating include “Solos,” “Sylvie’s Love,” “The Expanse,” “Them,” “Uncle Frank,” “What The Constitution Means To Me” and “Yearly Departed.

Sky One sci-fi Intergalactic is part conspiracy thriller, part prison break drama, and all space romp. It’s set 150 years in the future, when all of Earth’s nations have united into a single authority known as the Commonworld, and a new element has enabled Earth’s people to escape ecological collapse and colonise other planets via intergalactic travel. Over eight episodes, available to stream as a box-set on Now, we follow a group of female fugitives searching for freedom and uncovering long-buried lies.

The cast has been gathered from far and wide, ranging from relative newcomers to TV like Diany Samba-Bandza to more familiar faces Natasha O’Keeffe, Thomas Turgoose and Eleanor Tomlinson, and established actors Parminder Nagra, Craig Parkinson and Neil Maskell. Here’s who everybody is playing, and the major roles where you may have encountered them before.

Oliver Coopersmith as Echo Nantu-Rose

Coopersmith plays space pirate Echo in Intergalactic,...

Netflix put streaming content on the map at the Oscars and Emmys, but Amazon could end up drinking its rival’s milkshake by making history as the first streaming platform to win Best Picture at the Oscars and a best series award at the Emmys in the same year.

SEEOscar nominee profile: Riz Ahmed (‘Sound of Metal’) would make history twice with Best Actor win

Amazon already has an Oscar track record, though not quite as extensive as Netflix’s. “Manchester by the Sea” (2016) was their breakthrough with its nomination for Best Picture and wins for Best Actor (Casey Affleck) and Best Original Screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan). Now they’re nominated for Best Picture again for “Sound of Metal” (along with a few noms in other categories for “One Night in Miami”).

Best Picture looks like it might be a long shot — it ranks last in our odds, based on the...

Critics Choice Best Picture Nomadland

It's been a fantastic year so far for Chloé Zhao, who last night added further Best Film and Best Director awards to her collection for Nomadland at the Critics Choice Awards. It was eight-year-old Alan Kim from Minari, however, who stole the show when accepting the award for Best Young Actor or Actress, overwhelmed by emotion and struggling to hold back tears as he thanked his fellow cast members and apologised as if worried about being unprofessional.

The awards, which are usually announced in December but were delayed this year because of the pandemic, represent the votes of members of the American-Canadian Critics Choice Association. As well as film, they cover television, and this year saw John Boyega win for his work in TV/film crossover project Red, White And Blue.

Those film award winners in full:-

Best Picture Nomadland

Best: Director Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

Best Actress Carey Mulligan,...

Awards season is well and truly underway after a more than difficult year giving way to some rather excellent TV content and a few feature film gems thrown in for good measure.

Last night saw the Hollywood Foreign Press make their choices for the cream of the crop which saw Chloe Zhao not only take home the award for best director, – the first female to do so in 72 years – but also the Best Picture gong in the drama category for ‘Nomadland’.

Daniel Kaluuya, John Boyega, the late Chadwick Boseman and Andra Day for their roles in ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, Red, White and Blue’, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and Billie Holliday Vs The United States’ respectively took home top honours for their performances in the film category. Emma Corrin, Josh O’Connor and Anya-Taylor Joy all won for performance in the TV category for ‘The Crown’ and ‘The Queen’s Gambit...

“Small Axe” made a large impact when it premiered last fall, uniting film and television critics in their praise of the Steve McQueen anthology series about the history of oppression against West Indian immigrants in the UK. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association even awarded it Best Picture. But it competes as a TV limited series at the Golden Globes, and now it’s the front-runner to win Best TV Supporting Actor for John Boyega.

Before nominations were announced, Boyega ranked fourth in our predictions with 6/1 odds based on the combined forecasts of Gold Derby users, with none of our Experts predicting him to win. Many of our users and top journos might have been hedging their bets about his candidacy since he’d never been nominated for a Globe before and the TV supporting categories at these awards are prohibitively crowded, combining comedies, dramas, movies and limited series with only five nomination slots available.

HBO’s House of the Dragon has rounded out its main cast with the addition of Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best and Sonoya Mizuno.

They join Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy in the straight-to-series Game of Thrones prequel from George R.R. Martin, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik.

Based on Martin’s Fire & Blood, the series, which is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen. I hear the series has five lead characters: King Viserys Targaryen (Considine), Alicent Hightower (Cooke), Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (D’Arcy), Prince Daemon Targaryen (Smith) and Lord Corlys Velaryon (Toussaint), known as the Sea Snake, who becomes Hand to Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen during the Dance of the Dragons.

Toussaint’s Lord of House Velaryon comes from a Valyrian bloodline as old as House Targaryen. As “The Sea Snake,” the most famed nautical adventurer in the history of Westeros,...

Amazon’s five-part anthology series “Small Axe” is a strong contender for three Golden Globe Award nominations: Best TV Movie/Limited Series, Best TV Supporting Actor for John Boyega and Best TV Supporting Actress for Letitia Wright. Respectively the stars of the “Red, White and Blue” and “Mangrove” installments, Boyega and Wright were submitted by Amazon in the Best TV Movie/Limited Actor and Best TV Movie/Limited Actress categories, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association deemed them ineligible for consideration there.

Globe rules stipulate that for anthology performances to be considered in the leading races, the episodes in which they appear must cumulatively comprise at least half of the series’ runtime. Boyega and Wright do not appear outside of their aforementioned episodes, so the Globes count them as supporting players under the overall “Small Axe” title.

“Small Axe” ranks sixth in our racetrack odds for the Globes’ series category,...

Variety will host a virtual 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards event with the Palm Springs International Film Society on Feb. 26 at 10:00 a.m. Pt.

The event will consist of a virtual panel with the 10 Directors to Watch plus honor director Steve McQueen with its annual Creative Impact in Directing Award for his work on Amazon Studios’ collection of films “Small Axe.” McQueen directed all five films in the anthology that includes “Mangrove,” “Lovers Rock” and “Red, White and Blue.”

McQueen will participate in an awards presentation as part of the 10 Directors to Watch brunch as well as a Q&a about his work creating and directing the project.

“After the creative and commercial triumph of ’12 Years a Slave’ filmmaker Steve McQueen took his place in the international pantheon of great directors,” said Variety Executive Vice President of Global Content, Steven Gaydos. “With the arrival of his new ‘Small Axe’ series,...

John Boyega and Robert De Niro will star together in a crime thriller called “The Formula” at Netflix, and Gerard McMurray, the director of “The First Purge” and Netflix’s “Burning Sands,” will direct.

McMurray will write, direct and produce the film based on an original idea but that’s reminiscent of “Drive” about a Formula One racing prodigy who becomes a getaway driver in order to care for and rescue his family.

De Niro will also produce “The Formula” along with Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh.

Rosenthal and Welsh have an overall deal with Netflix, and “The Formula” came together under that arrangement. Jason Michael Berman is executive producing the film, and Ephraim Walker, working under McMurray’s banner Buppie Productions, is co-producing, as is Sam Shaw.

Boyega, who broke out in the latest “Star Wars” trilogy, most recently starred in one of the five installments of Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology,...

Today, the London Critics Circle announced the nominations for the 41st annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards which saw Rose Glass’ dramatic horror, ‘Saint Maud’, out in front with 8 nominations.

Other leading contenders include Sarah Gavron’s London coming-of-age story ‘Rocks’ with 6 nominations, Chloé Zhao’s improvised American road movie ‘Nomadland’ with 5, and Emerald Fennell’s provocative blackly comical thriller ‘Promising Young Woman’ with 4. Also earning 4 nominations were David Fincher’s Hollywood biopic ‘Mank’ and Steve McQueen’s house-party drama ‘Lovers Rock’. McQueen is up for Director of the Year for his five Small Axe films.

The late Chadwick Boseman received nominations both for his lead role in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and his supporting role in ‘Da 5 Blood’s. Other multiple acting nominees include Morfydd Clark, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan, Riz Ahmed, Vanessa Kirby, Sacha Baron Cohen and ‘Rocks‘ newcomer Bukky Bakray.

Due to the pandemic, more films released...

Films by women writer-directors including Rose Glass, Sarah Gavron, Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell scored the most nominations for the 41st London Critics’ Circle Film Awards, which were announced on Tuesday.

Glass’s horror film “Saint Maud” earned eight nominations, including film, director, screenwriter, actress (Morfydd Clark), supporting actress (Jennifer Ehle) and British/Irish film of the year, while Clark is also nominated for British/Irish actress.

Sarah Gavron’s coming-of-age tale “Rocks” scored six nominations, Chloé Zhao’s road movie “Nomadland” five, and Emerald Fennell’s black comedy “Promising Young Woman” four. David Fincher’s biopic “Mank” and Steve McQueen’s house-party film “Lovers Rock” also had four nominations each.

The late Chadwick Boseman received nominations for his lead role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and his supporting role in “Da 5 Bloods.” Other multiple acting nominees include Morfydd Clark, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan, Riz Ahmed, Vanessa Kirby, Sacha Baron Cohen and Bukky Bakray.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association caused a bit of a stir when they made the unconventional choice of picking Steve McQueen‘s “Small Axe” as Best Picture of 2020. That’s because “Small Axe” isn’t a film, per se. It’s an Amazon anthology series consisting of five standalone stories. But this isn’t the first time a European auteur blurred the line between television and film. French filmmaker Olivier Assayas‘s miniseries “Carlos” racked up both film and TV plaudits 10 years ago.

See‘Small Axe’ production designer Helen Scott: ‘Lovers Rock’ was an ‘exercise in atmosphere’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

“Small Axe” and “Carlos” are different in how they’re presented. “Carlos” told one story about international terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (played by Edgar Ramirez) over three episodes totaling more than five hours. “Small Axe’s” episodes, meanwhile, are different stories exploring a similar theme: the lives and struggles of Afro-Caribbean...

2020 was not so much a year that changed cinema, but the way we experience it––at least in the United States. The countries that contained Covid have largely reopened to box office success. The proof is in the numbers as the global box office champion of the year was the Chinese war epic The Eight Hundred, not a film from a major US-based studio. Instead, high-profile event films like a new Pixar animation or a major superhero movie became “must-stream TV,” leaving theatrical exhibitors largely high and dry. For cinephiles, most of us enjoyed Steve McQueen’s masterful Small Axe anthology at home on Amazon Prime or the BBC, further blurring the line between prestige television and prestige cinema.

2021 will continue to be a year of experimentation until the theatrical business finds its footing again. While the latter half of the year may include delayed blockbusters, one has to fear...

A version of this story first appeared in the Documentaries issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.

The past is ravishingly alive in “Small Axe,” a five-film anthology directed by Steve McQueen. Originally scheduled to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (which was cancelled due to Covid-19), three of the films in the series eventually screened to raves at the virtual and drive-in New York Film Festival in September, prior to debuting on Amazon Prime.

Though not eligible for next April’s Academy Awards, the anthology has won awards from major critics’ organizations in New York, for Best Cinematography, and Los Angeles, for Best Picture(s).

Set between 1968 and the mid-’80s in London’s West Indian community, the movies include a real-life courtroom drama (“Mangrove”), a quasi-musical (“Lovers Rock”), and a police exposé, all pulsating with McQueen’s primal themes of justice, injustice and love. The filmmaker spoke to TheWrap...

The “Lovers Rock” installment of “Small Axe” has been a fixture on critics’ lists of the year’s 10 best films. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association just named the complete five-film “Small Axe” collection the best single film of the year. But do not look for either title to show up in the Best Picture race at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice or industry guild awards — Amazon is campaigning “Small Axe” for those awards as a limited/anthology series and will presumably do the same for the Emmys and BAFTA when submissions open in the spring.

SEEour interview with the “Small Axe” production designer

The category confusion does not end there. Letitia Wright, recently nominated as a supporting actress (in a feature film) by the Chicago Film Critics Association, and John Boyega, who appear in the “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue” installments, respectively, were initially submitted as leads at the Globes,...

The line between film and television have been blurred for years. Some of us thought it would be one film that would force the call, but coincidentally, it seems to be five films that encapsulate Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” that forces the question of what constitutes an Oscars vs. Emmys contender.

Amazon Studios’ anthology series, a collection of five films with different casts and stories, made history on Sunday night when it won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) award for best picture. Since Lafca was established in 1975, no piece of art like McQueen’s has ever been awarded the top prize. Every winner of Lafca has gone onto be nominated for at least one major Oscar — in categories such as picture, director, acting and writing.

“Small Axe” is a collection of five films with varying runtimes: “Mangrove” (128 minutes), “Lovers Rock” (71 minutes), “Red, White and Blue” (81 minutes), “Alex...

Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe,” an anthology of five films set in Black areas of London over a period of decades, has been named the best film of 2020 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which announced its annual winners on Sunday.

It is the first time that the Lafca has honored a group of films rather than a single film with its best picture award. McQueen’s anthology, which includes “Lovers Rock,” “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue,” is currently playing on Amazon Prime, and neither the individual films nor the series are qualifying for the Oscars or guild awards as motion pictures.

“Small Axe” will be in the running for Emmys and guild awards in the television categories as a limited series. Strangely, Lafca voters treated the anthology as individual movies in the music category, where they singled out “Lovers Rock” for a runner-up citation, but then lumped...

Proving to publications around the world they should wait until the year’s actually over before naming the best in their particular field, Mica Levi has now dropped her new solo album titled Ruff Dog. Capping off a particularly prolific year, the Under the Skin and Jackie composer also scored A24’s yet-to-be-released Zola, Jonathan Glazer’s short Strasbourg 1518, and three Steve McQueen films.

Her new album, clocking in at 25 minutes across 11 tracks, is described as thus: “a lot of pixels later there was a huge surge in frequency and some tiny clouds of knowledge burst into rain during the dress rehearsal for the collection of a lost wav file. in this moment the other clouds parted and a ray of sunshine shone onto input 1 and 2 on the audio interface – the screen brightness dimmed and instead there was a long 6 hour recording session split into 2 days in which they quit...

In any year, Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” would be a historic achievement. But in 2020, amid a worldwide reckoning on racial injustice while a pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry — blurring the lines between film and TV — this five-part series is an auspicious game-changer.

Shining a light on little-known tales of Black pride and heroism from the U.K.’s Windrush generation, each instalment is set between the late ’60s and early ’80s and features people from the Black diaspora speaking in their own dialects and revelling in their culture. For that alone, “Small Axe” is special, but the themes in each of the interlinked stories still resonate powerfully today.

With the final chapter debuting on the BBC on Sunday, the time has come to rank the series as a whole — a considerable challenge when you consider that while satisfaction may have varied over the films, there isn...

“These are the stars of Andromeda!” Education, the fifth episode of Steve McQueen’s 2020 Small Axe anthology, co-written with Alastair Siddons, sets the tone in outer space. This is a film about strong, formidable performances by women, whose characters take on the systemic wrongs and grinding injustices imposed upon the children in their community.

Twelve-year-old Kingsley Smith (Kenyah Sandy) visits the planetarium with his class and knows then and there that he wants to become an astronaut. In school, they read John Steinbeck’s Great Depression novella Of Mice And Men. When it is Kingsley’s turn, he remains silent. He is called a “big blockhead” by his teacher (Sam Fourness) and his mainly white classmates laugh.

Later, during a music lesson, his harmless acting up is judged “unacceptable” by his prowling and growling teacher Mr. Hamley (Nigel Boyle). While...

Steve McQueen’s Small Axe portmanteau of five roughly hourlong films centered on racial issues in second-half 20th century UK wraps up with Education, which, at the end of the day, is what the series is all about: education in terms of the efforts of different segments of the population to begin to understand each other, to cast off ill-informed presumptions and long-entrenched prejudices, creating more opportunities and learning that the “other” should ideally create more possibilities than problems in a newly multi-racial society, if, in the end, citizens can open up to it all. Although British cinema for decades has looked long and hard at class distinctions, investigating racial divides of the past half-century in such a comprehensive way is something quite rare; this alone makes the series something unique. There are takeaways here for every segment of the audience, both domestic and foreign, young and old.

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