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Universal is revealing “Wicked” to Academy voters and media as the film adaptation of the global musical juggernaut finally heads for screens November 22. On Sunday afternoon, the Academy screening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre on Wilshire drew some 900 attendees, the best showing since last year’s “Oppenheimer,” and drew a rousing standing ovation as the credits rolled.

On Friday night, when the DGA hosted a screening and Q&a for SAG and Academy members as well as press, attendees were also ebullient. (Sandwiched between the two was the film’s Hollywood premiere.)

With a hit show whetting appetites for the screen version, many fans turned up at these screenings. However, it will not be boosted by critics groups at year’s end. They will want to support other, less commercial prospects. When reviews come in and box office numbers climb, we’ll see where “Wicked” winds up in the Oscar race.

Whoopi Goldberg has shared a first-look image of herself as Miss Hannigan in the upcoming stage revival of the musical Annie. See it below.

“It may not be your grandma’s Annie, but it will be fun,” Goldberg teased on The View today.

The touring revival will play The Theater at Madison Square Garden this holiday season, with Goldberg, as previously announced, joining the show in the second week of its five-week engagement at the venue. The Sister Act vet will play the role from December 11 – January 5.

Check out complete tour details here.

As Miss Hannigan, who runs an orphanage and terrorizes Annie and the other little girls, Goldberg will get the second biggest showstopping song of the musical: Along with a couple criminals she recruits, Hannigan celebrates a shady plan in the deliciously villainous “Easy Street.”

Goldberg said of her return to the stage,...

On Tuesday August 20 2024, Fox broadcasts The Quiz With Balls!

Sister Act Season 1 Episode 8 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “The Quiz With Balls,” titled “Sister Act,” promises to bring excitement and fun to the screen. This episode features two families competing against each other in a series of entertaining quiz challenges. With the lively atmosphere and friendly rivalry, viewers can expect plenty of laughs and surprises.

In “Sister Act,” each family will showcase their knowledge and skills as they tackle various quiz questions. The show is known for its engaging format, and this episode will not disappoint. The families will have to work together, relying on their collective knowledge to outsmart their opponents. The dynamic between family members is sure to add an extra layer of enjoyment to the competition.

As the episode unfolds, viewers can look forward to moments of tension and excitement as the families race to answer questions correctly.

On Tuesday August 20 2024, MyNetworkTV broadcasts The Quiz With Balls!

Sister Act Season 1 Episode 8 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “The Quiz With Balls,” titled “Sister Act,” promises to bring an exciting competition to MyNetworkTV. In this episode, two families will go head-to-head in a series of fun and challenging quiz rounds. Each family will showcase their knowledge and teamwork as they strive to win the title.

As the families compete, viewers can expect a mix of laughter and tension. The host will guide them through various trivia questions and interactive games, keeping the energy high. The families will need to rely on their unique strengths and strategies to outsmart each other.

“Sister Act” highlights the importance of family bonds and friendly rivalry. It will be interesting to see how each family works together and supports one another during the challenges. The episode aims to entertain while showcasing the spirit of...

The musical sometimes feels like a relic of a long-dead Hollywood studio system, but it remains a genre that captures movies’ ability to create story worlds that move freely between reality and fantasy. The worst examples come from filmmakers who give license to music, color, and movement to run amok; the best transcend artifice and integrate songs that become expressions of pure character emotion. Musicals offer endless possibilities, but success demands a complete mastery of the medium.

The best movie musicals of all time have faced obstacles as varied as their creators’ styles and tastes. That’s in part because its integration of at least two art forms — music and film always, but sometimes also dance — demands an unusually high-caliber of multi-faceted talent from those attempting its complexities.

After Lee De Forest invented the “talky,” the opportunity oozing from that new tech prompted an industry rush on musicals in the last days of the 1920s.

[Editor’s note: This list was originally published in June 2023 and has since been updated.]

If “Barbie” tells us anything, it’s that a movie doesn’t have to be gay to be, well, gay. So what makes a movie gay if it isn’t explicitly? Cast a few top-shelf gay icons in there — your Bette Middlers, your Joan Crawfords, your Faye Dunaways playing Joan Crawford — and especially have them reparteeing bitchy lines tearing each other to pieces, and have an aesthetic that’s outre and unironically camp, and you’ve got the winning-formula starter-pack for something deliciously fabulous and queer, even if not by intentional design.

Some films have gotten swept up into the queer canon by virtue of their unintentional awfulness or arguable quality while others actually push forward the cinematic medium to create something that stands the tests of time and the weathers of queer folks and their mercurial tastes. Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning “Death Becomes Her” boasts the double whammy of Meryl Streep...

At the Academy Awards in 1929, Charles Reisner's "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" was nominated for Best Picture. "Revue" is a relative obscurity to modern audiences — even less well-known than that year's Best Picture winner "The Broadway Melody" — and it may even baffle certain viewers. True to its title, "The Hollywood Revue" is a collection of musical numbers, comedic sketches, and dramatic scenes, all played out "live" on a theater stage. A curtain closes and opens in between each number, and two emcees — Jack Benny and Conrad Nagel — introduce each vignette.

Such filmed stage performances may look a little odd to the modern eye, but they were common throughout the '20s and '30s. Few audiences had access to high-end live theater, and Hollywood was happy to step in to provide. Studios would distribute such revues as, essentially, a Broadway substitute, allowing distant viewers to experience the theater events...

MGM celebrated its centennial on April 17th. Marcus Lowe established the studio by merging Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Boasting it had “more stars than there are in heaven,” MGM may have been the biggest studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood, it has gone through many owners and regimes over the years but seems to on terra firma since Amazon acquired MGM in 2021. In fact, Amazon MGM Studios won best screenplay Oscar for “American Fiction.” And speaking of Academy Awards, MGM has earned numerous statuettes over the years. Here’s a look at five Best Picture winners produced between 1929-1958.

“The Broadway Melody”

The 1929 musical made Oscar history by being the first talkie to win the top prize. Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed wrote the songs which include “The Broadway Melody,” “You Were Meant for Me” and “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” but...

During a trip to the Serengeti in Tanzania, Black-ish star Jenifer Lewis experienced a devastating accident that she thought she might die. Lewis recently opened up exclusively to Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts to recall the moment. She was injured after falling 10 feet off her hotel balcony and into a dry ravine.

Jenifer Lewis in Dirty Laundry (2006)

The Sister Act star said that she went on the trip to celebrate the conclusion of the hit eight-season sitcom, which ran from 2014 to 2022. She said that after exploring nature in the Serengeti for a day, she fell off her hotel balcony and as a result, she couldn’t move.

SUGGESTEDThe Perfect Actor to Play Miles Morales Has Already Met Tom Holland and Kevin Feige on Red Carpet

The actress, 67, is known for her prominent roles in hit sitcoms like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World.

Jenifer Lewis Had...

Whoopi Goldberg is speaking out in defense of Kate Middleton.

On Monday’s (March 11) episode of The View, the actress and TV personality shared her thoughts on the Princess of Wales’ recent controversy involving an altered family photo that was published on her and Prince William‘s Instagram page.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I’m sorry, I know very few people who don’t manipulate their own photos,” Whoopi said. “I mean all you gotta do is swipe.”

The Sister Act star added, “You know what, I have to tell you. She may be the future queen, [but] she’s still an amateur photographer. That’s what they do!”

After several news outlets rejected the photo of Kate and her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, the Princess of Wales issued an apology on social media and.

Hours later, she was photographed with Prince William outside of Windsor Castle!

Whoopi Goldberg is looking back at how Patrick Swayze convinced her to take on her Oscar-winning role in 1990’s Ghost.

The actress told author Dave Karger in his new book 50 Oscar Nights, via People magazine, that she needed a bit of persuading before she decided to play psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Jerry Zucker-directed film.

“I get a phone call from my agent, Ron Meyer, who says, ‘Patrick Swayze has been hired for this movie. Patrick is not going to do this if you don’t do it. Can you make some time for him and the director to come up?’” Goldberg recalled.

The Egot winner added, “So they [Zucker and Swayze] flew in, I meet Patrick, and out of the blue, we’re old friends. … About 40 minutes go by and Patrick says, ‘Please do this [movie] with me.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And that’s how it happened.”

In Ghost,...

The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.

Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988

An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...

“Barbie” triumphed at the box office. Can it conquer the Oscars too?

If history is any guide, it may have to settle for the adoration of audiences over the acclaim of awards voters. The Academy has nominated some recent commercial juggernauts for best picture — last year “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” made the cut. But it tends to hand out the top prize to movies that hail from the art house, not the blockbuster part of the business. In fact, it’s been 20 years since the highest-grossing domestic film was also the best picture winner. That last happened with 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which took all 11 categories in which it was nominated.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Can “Barbie” beat the odds and follow Frodo and company to the Oscar stage...

(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we take a look at an Oscars category from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winner stands the test of time.)

Let's go back a few years to the 88th Academy Awards in 2016. Todd McCarthy's investigative journalist drama "Spotlight" took home Best Picture, but it was by no means a dominant force that evening. "Mad Max: Fury Road" walked away with the most awards that night with six, and "The Revenant" took home three, including Best Director and Best Actor. The only other award "Spotlight" won was for Best Original Screenplay. In the last ten years, it's the only film to win Best Picture with that low of an awards total.

Only three movies have won Best Picture without winning anything else, and they all came in the 1930s. It first happened at the 2nd Academy Awards with "The Broadway Melody...

The Best Picture win at the Oscars is the highest prize in the film industry. However, some films manage to take home the top award, yet they still don’t manage to stand the test of time. There are some Best Picture winners that no one talks about, even though they’ll always be a part of Academy Award history.

‘The Broadway Melody’ (1929) L-r: Charles King as Eddie Kearns, Bessie Love as Harriet ‘Hank’ Mahoney, Mary Doran as Flo, Anita Page as Queen Mahoney, and Nacio Herb Brown as Pianist | John Springer Collection/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Harriet ‘Hank’ Mahoney (Bessie Love) and Queenie Mahoney (Anita Page) are vaudeville sister performers looking to break into the Broadway scene. However, romantic melodrama quickly overshadows their attempt to pursue fame as a duo.

The Broadway Melody is the second film to win the Best Picture Oscar, with only Wings coming before it.

There's one thing you can say about every single Academy Award nominee: whether they're good films or bad films, beloved or obscure, they are officially in the history books. Future movie lovers will read about them and, often, watch them out of either passionate interest or mild curiosity, decades later.

And that's a very good thing because a lot of the films that are nominated for the Oscars fall into obscurity pretty quickly. We may remember most of the Best Picture winners, for example, but what about the other films in contention? "Casablanca" won Best Picture at the 16th Academy Awards and it's a film most people can quote directly, even if they've never watched it before. But there's a good chance that many of its fellow nominees that same year — films like "The Human Comedy," "The More the Merrier," and "Watch On the Rhine" — aren't nearly as well known today.

What do “The Broadway Melody” (1929), “Grand Hotel” (1932) and “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935) all have in common? In Oscar history, they are the only films to have won the Academy’s most coveted award — and nothing else. Could Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” join that select group this year, despite being the second-most-nominated movie of the lot?

Of the dark comedy’s nine noms, only three have a viable path to glory: Colin Farrell for actor, McDonagh for original screenplay and best picture. The other mentions — director, supporting actress and the double-dipping (and vote-splitting) supporting actors among them — face hurdles too high to clear.

Farrell is walking steadily with a Golden Globe for lead actor (comedy), but the film was shut out at the Critics Choice Awards. With Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) equally building on their movies’ buzz, all eyes are on BAFTA and SAG...

Look over the list of Best Picture winners over the years and you realise that almost every film selected is still in circulation.

William Wellman’s Wings, the very first winner in 1927, is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray, as are such other early winners as Cimarron and Broadway Melody.

Most of the other Best Picture winners are titles that any film lover will recognise instantly. The blind spots are obvious. The Academy never chooses foreign language titles. In recent years, it has shunned comedies.

The Shape of Water may have won in 2018, but voters are generally wary about genre pictures. You don’t see many sci-fi or martial arts titles on the list.

There is a growing divide between what wins at the Oscars and what makes the money at the box office. Even so, the est Picture Oscar remains one of the most reliable bellwethers for films that will have an afterlife.

Look over the list of Best Picture winners over the years and you realise that almost every film selected is still in circulation.

William Wellman’s Wings, the very first winner in 1927, is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray, as are such other early winners as Cimarron and Broadway Melody.

Most of the other Best Picture winners are titles that any film lover will recognise instantly. The blind spots are obvious. The Academy never chooses foreign language titles. In recent years, it has shunned comedies.

The Shape of Water may have won in 2018, but voters are generally wary about genre pictures. You don’t see many sci-fi or martial arts titles on the list.

There is a growing divide between what wins at the Oscars and what makes the money at the box office. Even so, the est Picture Oscar remains one of the most reliable bellwethers for films that will have an afterlife.

Rueby Wood as Nate in 20th Century Studios’ Better Nate Than Ever, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by David Lee. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Much like Don Lockwood’s “Broadway Melody” hero in Singin’ In The Rain, this title kid’s “gotta’ dance”. And sing. And, well, just be on the stage. Any stage, but one on the “great white way”…someday. Yes, this is another tale of a youngster following his “dream” while trying to survive small-town life. Plus he’s trying to keep that dream alive, protecting it from being crushed by those that just don’t “get it”. In this original Disney feature film, this dreamer’s determined to prove he’s got the “chops” because when his big breaks looms, everyone will realize that it’s Better Nate Than Ever. And he’s not gonna be late.

So when we meet Nate (Rueby Wood) early on a school day morning,...

Before the academy expanded the Best Picture race in 2010, the winner of that award almost always picked up the Best Director prize as well. But since then, these two awards have aligned at only seven of the dozen ceremonies. We thought that we’d see another case of double-dipping this year with Jane Campion winning for both directing and producing “The Power of the Dog.” But now it looks like “Coda” will claim the top prize of Best Picture, with Campion consoling herself with being the third woman to win Best Director.

Why the change?

When the decision was made to increase the number of nominees for Best Picture, it was also decided to bring back the preferential ballot that had been used by the academy until the mid 1940s. The rationale was that by ranking the nominees, the winner would be the film that had the broadest level of support.

Apple Original Films’ “Coda” has skyrocketed up Gold Derby’s Oscar chart for Best Picture in the past several weeks. It’s currently tied with Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” in the #1 position to win, and by the time you finish reading this article, it may have actually taken the lead. But is the heartwarming PGA, WGA and SAG Award winner hurt by the fact that it didn’t receive any below-the-line noms at the Academy Awards? Nope. Just ask “Ordinary People” (1980).

Exactly 41 years ago, “Ordinary People” won Best Picture at the 1981 Oscars despite only earning above-the-line nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Redford), Best Adapted Screenplay (Alvin Sargent), Best Actress (Mary Tyler Moore) and Best Supporting Actor (Timothy Hutton and Judd Hirsch). The psychological film ended up winning four trophies for picture, directing, writing and Hutton.

See 2022 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories...

A weekend trio of big wins for Netflix at the DGA, BAFTA and Critics Choice awards has given Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” the gas required to make it over the finish line. That’s if it can keep its closest competitors — “Belfast” from Kenneth Branagh and “Coda” from Siân Heder — at bay.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, which is the top prize from the PGA Awards, has been one of the most vital and telling precursors from all major guilds. In 2009, both the PGA and the Oscars switched the voting for their highest honor to a preferential ballot system. In terms of films perceived to be divisive with audiences, PGA has become the litmus test for whether or not those contenders have the goods to win.

Read more: Variety’s Awards Circuit Predictions Hub

Since 2009, only three movies have...

Netflix has the right to flex after this weekend’s trio of big wins from the Directors Guild of America (DGA), BAFTA and Critics Choice Awards, where it won the top prizes with Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.” With its mighty 12 nomination haul, and the criticism from Oscar-nominee Sam Elliott over the movie’s homosexual themes, arguably helping it along, the film could be headed for B-e-s-t-p-i-c-t-u-r-e (so to speak). However, with two 50/50 screenplay categories up for grabs — “Belfast” and “Licorice Pizza” battling for original, and “Coda” and “The Power of the Dog” angling for adapted — the answer to which film wins the Academy’s top prize is within those races.

Walking into a ceremony with the most nominations is not always a given for Oscar success, shown by our last three tally leaders: “Mank” (2020), “Joker” (2019), “The Favourite” and “Roma” (2018). Campion’s methodical drama has brought Netflix...

“Grand Hotel” (1932) holds a special place in Oscar pundits’ hearts. To date, it’s the only film to win Best Picture without receiving any other nominations. Because of that unique stat, “Grand Hotel” is often cited as an example when trying to make the case for a movie winning Best Picture without having a corresponding such-and-such nomination. How is that relevant to this year’s Academy Awards? Let me introduce you to “Coda.”

The Apple TV Plus drama about a predominantly Deaf family of fishing industry workers notably missed out on the two key Oscar bids a film usually needs in order to win the top category: Best Director and Best Film Editing. Put another way, every Best Picture winner since the creation of the film editing category in 1934 has been nominated in either directing or editing (often both). That means “Coda” would break an 87-year Oscars curse if it...

New York, New York is a helluva town. The Bronx is up. And the Battery is down. The people ride in a hole in the ground. New York, New York. It’s a helluva town. And it’s also a perfect backdrop for countless Broadway and movie musicals.

And for good reason. The metropolis is a melting pot of cultures and boroughs. Over the decades, the Great White Way has been home to burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway. The town always is brimming with the best writers and composers. Remember Tin Pan Alley?

There is also a romanticism of New York often depicted in these musicals: most of them were shot on sound stages and studio, so they offer an expressionistic, impressionistic, and even surreal look at NYC. Martin Scorsese tipped his out to these studio musicals with his classic 1977 “New York, New York,” starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro.

The...

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who hate musicals and those who love them. The naysayers argue that musicals are unrealistic, as people don’t randomly “break into song.” But those who do love a good musical may actually be inclined to spontaneously sing a familiar tune, or have their own moments of “musical stardom” in front of a mirror, hairbrush in hand, belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” or “All That Jazz” or “Singin’ in the Rain.” Love ’em or hate ’em, musicals have a rich history in Hollywood, dating back to the earliest days of sound, with a musical winning the second Best Picture Oscar ever given out.

Although it’s rather dated now, “The Broadway Melody” was also the first talking picture to win the top award at the Oscars, and was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical. Sound was a challenge for these early films,...

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who hate musicals and those who love them. The naysayers argue that musicals are unrealistic, as people don’t randomly “break into song.” But those who do love a good musical may actually be inclined to spontaneously sing a familiar tune, or have their own moments of “musical stardom” in front of a mirror, hairbrush in hand, belting out “Don’t Rain on My Parade” or “All That Jazz” or “Singin’ in the Rain.” Love ’em or hate ’em, musicals have a rich history in Hollywood, dating back to the earliest days of sound, with a musical winning the second Best Picture Oscar ever given out.

Although it’s rather dated now, “The Broadway Melody” was also the first talking picture to win the top award at the Oscars, and was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical. Sound was a challenge for these early films,...

For his first re-teaming sans Ginger, Fred Astaire hot-foots it to MGM and the waiting tap & sweep partner Eleanor Powell, already a terrific box office draw in her own right. These were the days when the caliber of talent in Hollywood justified the exalted, glamorous aura of star status. The story is a backstage mixup with sidebar singing and joke acts, decent dialogue and not much else. But when these two alight on a dance floor — not just ‘a’ dance floor but an enormous expanse of glittering glass — Hollywood hits a too-glamorous-to-be-real peak. The music by Cole Porter includes Begin the Beguine. Just-okay George Murphy is the third wheel on this musical bicycle, with Frank Morgan serving as fuddy-duddy comic relief.

Broadway Melody of 1940

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 102 min. / Street Date April 13, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Trixie Firschke,...

The Oscars could have some interesting surprises pop up at the ceremony on April 25, even in the best picture race. Given the unprecedented nature of the season and the assumption that many AMPAS voters sat out the nomination phase of voting, a couple of upsets may await. One of which could be “The Trial of the Chicago 7” only winning best picture.

The historical drama, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, has long been considered one of the potential spoilers to Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which has been steamrolling its competition most of the awards season. After the Netflix drama failed to score a director nod for Sorkin, all hope seemed to be lost, especially after factoring in its losses from the WGA (losing to “Promising Young Woman”), DGA and PGA (losing to “Nomadland”). However, the film got a nice bump from the SAG Awards, picking up the cast ensemble prize.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.In 1920, after a decade trading in carte-blanche sensationalism, California’s growing movie colony was rocked by the first of many scandals: beloved silent comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, known the world over for his girth and grace, was charged with the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappé. Two years later, a cadre of movie moguls established the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, with the express purpose of “cleaning up” their nascent industry. It was a fraught decision, made under duress, meant to offset increasing pressure from politicians, social reformers, and religious leaders of all faiths.Conservatives pointed to cinema’s growing influence as an instigator of violence, promiscuity, and atheism. At a time when sex and, by extension, sexual assault was hardly dinner conversation, public coverage of Arbuckle...

7 random things that happened on this day, November 18th, in showbiz history...

1932 The fifth annual Academy Awards are held at the Ambassador hotel honoring the films released between August 1931 and July 1932. Grand Hotel wins Best Picture. It's the only Best Picture ever to win the top prize that was only nominated for that one Oscar and won of only three top winners to win only one statue (the others were Broadway Melody at the 2nd annual Oscars and Mutiny on the Bounty at the 8th Oscars). As we've said multiple times, it's too bad there weren't supporting Oscars back then because Joan Crawford sure was more than worthy in the all star ensemble. The only film to win multiple Oscars that night was the pre-code relationship drama Bad Girl which took Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. (The next ceremony would have a long eligibility period because Oscar wanted to...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: 42nd StreetWhile other genres undoubtedly advanced with the dawning of sound technology, the musical is likely the most indebted to the reverberations of this complementary process. More than that, though, the movie musical was fundamentally born with the surge of sound—it simply could not have existed otherwise. And since that time, the musical has indeed been a uniquely cinematic venture, less beholden to conventional narratives and often disposed to experimentations in color, location, camera mobility, production design, and special effects. Especially in its heyday, the so-called “Golden Age” lasting between the mid-1930s and late-‘50s, Hollywood musicals were an enrapturing experience, delighting audiences with spectacle, romance, athleticism, fine performances, and, of course, song and dance. Some of America’s brightest stars sparkled in the musical, while many of...

What do “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Joker,” “Judy,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Rocketman,” “Marriage Story,” “Pain and Glory” and “Bombshell” have in common? That is, beyond their makers wanting to hear their movie’s title when the Academy Awards are announced February 9?

The answer? They all reflect various aspects of the world of show business. This is not a new development. The first-ever winner of a Best Picture Oscar was the 1927 World War I action drama “Wings.” But the second was 1929’s “The Broadway Melody,” a soap-operatic backstage look at a theatrical revue in progress. Thus began the Academy Awards love affair with movies and performances that reflect the voter’s own preoccupation with the performing arts.

Other notable Best Picture winners whose themes spotlight the entertainment industry include 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld,” 1950’s “All About Eve,” 1952’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” 1965’s “The Sound of Music,...

By now we all know that the film the Academy selects as the “Best Picture” of any given year is rarely the actual Best Picture, but some years it’s hard to explain why they picked what they picked. Never mind “Shakespeare in Love” beating “Saving Private Ryan,” because at least “Shakespeare in Love” is a handsome production with a witty script. Never mind “Dances with Wolves” beating “Goodfellas,” because at least “Dances with Wolves” is a respectable western. We’re taking a look at the films that we can’t watch, even in a vacuum, without cringing nowadays. And when you compare them with the nominees that didn’t earn the Oscar, it’s just plain hard to justify why the Academy voted the way it did.

“The Broadway Melody” (1929)

The second Best Picture winner, and the first synch sound movie to win the top prize, was innovative for the time.

Make room for a genuine rarity, come back from the cinema graveyard in excellent condition: a lavish color musical extravaganza from 1930 that’s been effectively Mia for generations. Universal undertook a daunting restoration of this ‘revue-‘ style spectacle, which includes a full presentation of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in its original orchestration.

King of Jazz

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 915

1930 / Color / 1:33 flat full frame / 98 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 27, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Paul Whiteman, John Boles, Bing Crosby (unbilled),

Laura La Plante, Jeanette Loff, Glenn Tryon, Wiliam Kent, Slim Summerville, The Rhythm Boys, Kathryn Crawford, Beth Laemmle, Stanley Smith, Charles Irwin, George Chiles, Jack White, Frank Leslie, Walter Brennan, Churchill Ross, Johnson Arledge, Al Norman, Jacques Cartier, Paul Howard, Nell O’Day, The Tommy Atkins Sextette, Marion Stadler, Don Rose, The Russell Markert Girls.

Cinematography: Hal Mohr, Jerry Ash, Ray Rennahan

Film Editor: Maurice Pivar, Robert Carlisle...

“If you are a nominee tonight who isn’t making history, shame on you,” Jimmy Kimmel chided in his Oscars monologue Sunday. “The Shape of Water” doesn’t need to saunter off with its head down because the Best Picture champ made a whole lot of history by taking the top prize, one of four awards it won.

Here’s a list of all the droughts that were ended, records that were set and stats that were killed (say it with me: no SAG ensemble nomination!) by “The Shape of Water” with its Best Picture victory.

See How I knew ‘The Shape of Water’ would beat ‘Three Billboards’ for Best Picture

– First film since “Braveheart” (1995) and second overall to win without a SAG ensemble nomination

– First film since “Braveheart” to win without acting, writing or editing wins

– First film with a female lead to win since “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)

– First...

The story of this year’s Oscar race is rules. Which long-standing rule awards pundits rely on to make predictions will be broken? All of the top five Best Picture contenders in our predictions have something missing — “The Shape of Water” doesn’t have the SAG ensemble nomination, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” doesn’t have a director nomination, “Lady Bird” and “Get Out” don’t have editing or any craft nominations, and “Dunkirk”? “Dunkirk” would have to break one of the longest stats. Christopher Nolan’s epic doesn’t have any acting or writing nominations and only two films have won Best Picture without either of them: “Wings” (1927/28) and “Grand Hotel” (1932).

That’s right, it hasn’t happened in 85 years. Even then, you can attribute the first two instances to the early days of the Oscars, when categories, rules and voting patterns were in flux. “Wings,” of course, was...

“Get Out” and “Lady Bird” have inhabited the No. 3 and 4 spots in our Best Picture Oscar odds in some order since nominations were announced. On the surface, those high rankings make sense — they’re two well-received, critically acclaimed movies by exciting new filmmakers. But look a little closer and you’ll see that neither film has any below-the-line nominations. If either wins the top prize, it’d only be the sixth film to do so and the first in 37 years.

The five films in this small club are “The Broadway Melody” (1928/29), “Grand Hotel” (1931/32), “It Happened One Night” (1934), “Annie Hall” (1977) and “Ordinary People” (1980). Of these, Best Picture was the only award “The Broadway Melody,” which was also up for director and actress, won and it was the only category in which “Grand Hotel” was nominated.

“Get Out” has four nominations, one fewer than “Lady Bird,” and they’re all for acting,...

“The Shape of Water” numbers three acting bids among its leading 13 Academy Awards nominations for lead Sally Hawkins and supporting players Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer. According to our exclusive Oscar odds none of them is predicted to win on March 4. Should that scenario play out, does that mean that their film won’t win Best Picture?

Not so fast.

While 53 of the 89 Best Picture champs to date include an Oscar-winning performance, 36 of them (40%) did not win any acting awards. And among those three dozen winners are four of the eight films — “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Argo” (2012), “Birdman” (2015) and “Spotlight” (2016) — decided by preferential ballot under the newly expanded slate of Best Picture nominees.

Surprisingly, an even dozen of the Best Picture winners did not even reap any acting nominations. That is welcome news for “Arrival,” which does not number an acting bid among its eight nominations. However, four of those films...

It used to be pretty much an Academy Awards norm that the film that won Best Picture also took home the Oscar for Best Director. In recent years that has changed, largely due to the preferential ballot that has been implemented for Best Picture voting. These two categories have split in four of the past five years, with “Birdman” (2014) and its director Alejandro G. Inarritu being the last time they lined up. Currently “The Shape of Water” is in first place to win both categories on Gold Derby’s Oscar charts, so might things get back on track this year?

See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories

A year ago Damien Chazelle won Best Director for “La La Land” while “Moonlight” took Best Picture, becoming the fourth time this decade that the Oscar split occurred. In 2015 Inarritu won Best Director for “The Revenent” (his second...

Martin McDonagh’s omission from the Best Director final five was a big blow to “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” as it now tries to become just the fifth film to win the Best Picture Oscar without a directing nomination. But that may not be the only stat it has to defy: “Three Billboards” could also be the first film in 15 years to snag the main award without a directing or screenplay win.

Only 10 other films have done this. They are:

1. “Wings” (1927/28)

2. “The Broadway Melody” (1928/29)

3. “Grand Hotel” (1931/32)

4. “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935)

5. “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936)

6. “Rebecca” (1940)

7. “Hamlet” (1948)

8. “All the King’s Men” (1949)

9. “Gladiator” (2000)

10. “Chicago” (2002)

(1952 Best Picture champ “The Greatest Show on Earth” could also be included in this list — it won the now-defunct Oscar for Best Story, which didn’t award the actual script and co-existed with Best Original Screenplay until it was dissolved after the 1956 season.)

Directing and screenplay understandably...

By Jacob Oller

The city that never sleeps and the least sleepy genre are a match made in heaven. he early musicals were similar to the early animations: raucous, irreverent, and intensely urban. New York City was a haven for both. From Lights of New York to The Broadway Melody, the stage musical’s home became home to the […]

The article Dreamers and Dreams: New York and the Early Musical Film appeared first on Film School Rejects.

*Sigh* — Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my escaped brontosaurus. This wonder movie of the silent era, which pits five intrepid explorers against Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fantastic South American plateau where marvelous animals from the dawn of time still live. Blackhawk Films and Lobster’s latest digital restoration includes footage never before seen, in original tints; it’s dedicated to film restorer David Shepard.

The Lost World

Deluxe Blu-ray Edition

Flicker Alley

1925 / Color / 1:37 Silent Ap / 110 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Wallace Beery, Lloyd Hughes, Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Alma Bennett, Arthur Hoyt, Margaret McWade, Bull Montana, Frank Finch Smiles, Jules Cowles, George Bunny, Leo White.

Cinematography: Arthur Edeson

Writing credits: Marion Fairfax from the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

New Music Score: Robert Israel

Technical Director: Willis O’Brien, assistants & effects men Marcel Delgado, Ralph Hammeras, Fred Jackman, Devereaux Jennings, Hans Koenekamp,...

In the 89 years that the Academy Awards have been held, over 40 musicals have either been nominated for or have won an Oscar for Best Picture, including this last December's La La Land. The first musical to ever win Best Picture was The Broadway Melody at the second Academy Awards in 1929. The film starred Charles King, Eddie Kane, Bessie Love and Anita Page...

‘La La Land’ (Courtesy: Lionsgate)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

La La Land has officially earned a spot in the history books by tying the record for the most Oscar nominations ever — but just how many of those 14 chances will it see a win? This critical darling is widely considered to take home best picture come February 26, which would make it just the 11th musical to do so, so let’s examine how it stands in the other categories by doing a deep dive into the track records of the 10 musicals that took home top honors before it.

These legendary musicals that were all able to garner Hollywood’s top award include: 1929’s The Broadway Melody, 1936’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1944’s Going My Way, 1951’s An American in Paris, 1958’s Gigi, 1961’s West Side Story, 1964’s My Fair Lady, 1965’s The Sound of Music, 1968’s Oliver!, and 2002’s Chicago. Now,...

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in ‘La La Land’ (Courtesy: Lionsgate)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Not only is La La Land breaking records as the most-nominated musical in Oscar history but that haul of 14 nominations for its lead pair, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Musicals don’t often get that much love from the Academy Awards and getting recognition in both the best actor and best actress categories is even rarer. Let’s take a look back at the history of this happening and see how Stone and Gosling’s nominations — and potential wins — are important.

Taking a look at this year’s nominations, Stone is favored to win more than Gosling is for their work in the Damien Chazelle-directed musical. Gosling is up against Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge), Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic), and Denzel Washington (Fences) — with the latter expected to reign supreme.

‘La La Land’ and ‘Moonlight’ (Courtesy: Dale Robinette; David Bornfriend/A24)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Nothing is certain at the Oscars, and that absolutely applies to the best picture and best director categories. While it is common for films to win both of these trophies in a given year, sometimes they can go to two different works. There’s a chance that La La Land and Moonlight could split these categories at the upcoming ceremony — but how often does that happen?

Both of these films are considered frontrunners in both the best picture and best director category at the upcoming Oscars. This site’s namesake, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, lists La La Land — written and directed by Damien Chazelle — and Moonlight — written and directed by Barry Jenkins — as the top two contenders in both categories in his latest check-in on the race. The two films have been...

Emma Stone in ‘La La Land’ (Courtesy: Lionsgate)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Emma Stone is poised to do something very historic this year if she takes home the best actress Oscar for La La Land. The history of leading ladies from musicals in this category isn’t that long and, should the 28-year-old win — as critics are predicting even considering Natalie Portman in Jackie — it would be an occurrence we haven’t seen for quite some time.

In the Damien Chazelle-directed flick, Stone plays an aspiring actress named Mia opposite Ryan Gosling as a jazz musician named Sebastian — their third time playing love interests after 2011’s Crazy, Stupid, Love and 2013’s Gangster Squad. As these two fall in love amid their struggle to make it in Los Angeles, their individual quests for fame begin to pull them apart.

The other frontrunners to give Stone competition for best actress...

‘La La Land’ (Courtesy of Venice Film Festival)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

Musicals have always had their place in Hollywood, but they aren’t exactly hyped these days. One film, La La Land, could change that this year and — based on what critics are predicting — is poised to at least be nominated for, but potentially win, best picture at the Oscars.

Should the film — directed and written by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone — take home the top honors at the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2016, it would be joining an elite group of works as just the 11th musical to win the coveted category.

The list of musicals to have won best picture at the Oscars include: 1929’s The Broadway Melody in 1930, 1936’s The Great Ziegfeld in 1937, 1944’s Going My Way in 1945, 1951’s An American in Paris in 1952, 1958’s Gigi in 1959, 1961’s West Side Story...