Amazon's owner and the richest man in the world makes an appearance in one of the best documentaries of the year, The Dissident.  Bezos and others in Big Tech have so much power we should feel lucky that some of them are using that power for good. But the funny thing is, power and good are often in the eyes of the beholder, which is why in America we must rely on the Constitution to keep us on the straight and narrow, not the whims of trillionaires who control and monitor every aspect of our lives. That isn't the overt...

Promising Young Woman. Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut, is a stylish, contemporary  thriller rich in candy-colored hues. Sylvie’s Love features Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha in a lush, jewel-toned, 1950s love story. Two wildly different films showcasing the incredible range of one very talented makeup artist — Angie Wells. In an interview with Awards Daily, Wells shares her visions for both projects, including Carey Mulligan’s many Promising disguises. When Wells isn’t on the set of buzzy films or collecting Emmy nominations, she also happens to be a world-class jazz singer, a personal connection she drew upon for Sylvie’s classic makeup looks. Read more about her iconic creations...

Hi friends, how are you all holding up in these times? Here we meet, once again, as we head towards the next phase in the Awards race: the Golden Globes. It is a very surreal time, there is no doubt about it. Even though we ushered in Biden and Harris, and a good many people feel relieved about this, the problems that existed before on the left remain very much in place: suffocating cancel culture, self-censorship for survival's sake, the threat of deplatforming looming across the board, and a need to continually prove yourself to a group of very judgmental,...

Even thought 2021 has barely started, the ghost of 2020 is still haunting us. We all liked to think that when we rang in the New Year, our problems would magically disappear, but, deep down, we knew that wasn't true. Depression and anxiety have been weighing on us all with the pandemic forcing us to stay in our homes and isolate, and Zach Woods' short film, David, is proof that we could all use someone to talk to. Yes, even men. David (William Jackson Harper) is admitting to thoughts of suicide to his therapist, played by Will Ferrell, when the...

Awards Daily's Megan McLachlan engages in an email exchange with Palm Springs cinematographer Quyen Tran. There are many different colors one might associate with Hulu's Palm Springs. The beige sand of the California desert, the electric blue chlorine of the pool that's become iconic, and of course the hot pink font of the movie poster. But as I learned with my email chat with the film's cinematographer Quyen Tran, there's another color to look for on a rewatch, one that represents Sarah (Cristin Milioti) and Nyles's (Andy Samberg) connection within the time loop. Just as the themes within the film...

When I first started Oscarwatch.com back in 1999 Bill Clinton was on the way out. The Oscars still cared about middle America, both in terms of the movies they chose and the telecast itself. "Getting political" at the Oscars was frowned upon. No one really liked it then, debatable if they like it now, when Hollywood "gets political," not at the Oscars, not on Instagram, not in the movies they make or the candidates they endorse. But one thing is for sure: Hollywood and the Oscars are overtly political now and they do not shy away from it. So much...

The Wrap reports that the Spirit Awards will separate from being held a day before the Oscars to being held the Thursday before the Oscars: The Film Independent Spirit Awards are moving up on the release calendar for this year only — breaking tradition by not taking place on the Thursday night before the Oscars, the nonprofit group Film Independent announced Thursday. The 36th Annual Indie Spirits will now be held on the evening of Thursday, April 22 for a primetime broadcast on IFC. They were meant to be held on the afternoon of Saturday, April 24 — following a...

Robin Wright directs herself in Land, a stirring, moving actor's showcase about a woman moving to a cabin in the mountains in an effort to escape from unbearable grief. One of the things I loved about this dynamic is that there is no barrier between herself and the director. She is the director, which made it, I think, slightly more intimate of a performance; she has no one to impress except herself. Perhaps that's why we see her go deeper than we've ever seen her go before as an actress. I don't know how this is possible when directing, how...

Awards Daily's Megan McLachlan talks to Cristin Milioti of Hulu's Palm Springs about Reddit research and gunning for the types of roles men play. Most recently seen in Amazon's Modern Love, Cristin Milioti has made a mark playing the girl next door. But in Hulu's Palm Springs she is the permanent GND to Andy Samberg's Nyles when they both get trapped in a time loop on her sister's wedding day (how's that for a meet-cute?). This premise sounds perfect for comedy hijinks, especially when both Sarah (Milioti) and Nyles kill themselves over and over again in fantastically horrible ways and attempt...

It must have seemed so obvious in the summer of 2002. Put Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg together in a sci-fi/action film and then just wait for the Brinks trucks to roll up and dump money all over 20th Century Fox’s lawn. While you would be hard-pressed to call Minority Report a financial failure (it did make over $350 million worldwide) that caravan of trucks never quite arrived. Even now, nearly twenty years later, the reason why Minority Report wasn’t more successful remains elusive. Cruise was (and maybe still is) the biggest movie star on the planet, and Spielberg practically...

The Academy has hired Fernando Garcia to work with members, oversee process of submissions and will also work with the Office of Representation, Inclusion and Equity to "heighten awareness of diverse filmmakers worldwide who meet membership criteria." I thought occurred to me last night that I will bet there are some filmmakers who will not follow these rules because they do not plan to submit their film for the Oscars. For some, that will honestly be a blessing in disguise as they know the Oscar gauntlet can often be a grueling, exhausting experience. Not in terms of anything to do...