Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
January 26 - February 1st

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Apple re-releases Oscar Best Picture nominee “Killers of the Flower Moon” in theaters, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, beginning Friday, January 26...

The Europe-based International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk has called for the immediate release of Myanmar documentary maker Shin Daewe. One of Myanmar’s leading female filmmakers, Shin Daewe (“An Untitled Life,” “Take Me Home,” “A Bright Future”) was arrested in Yangon in October after she had gone to collect a drone. After three months on remand she was tried by a military tribunal, inside the Insein Prison and without legal representation. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for violating Myanmar’s anti-terrorism law by possessing a drone....

Even though Barbie was the biggest box office success of 2023, Hollywood’s reaction to the dramedy’s impact proves that the industry has profoundly misunderstood the movie and misread its importance. The first and most surprising reaction to Barbie’s success came from Mattel, the toy company that owns the rights to the character. Mattel immediately announced a deluge of further toy movies. This entire strategy badly misreads the reason behind Barbie’s success. Barbie became a hit because Gerwig’s movie engaged with the toy’s history and cultural impact. The fact that Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ken while neither Margot Robbie was nominated for Best Actress nor Greta Gerwig for Best Director, this decision seemingly reaffirms that Gosling’s supporting work is more deserving of recognition than the labor of the movie’s main creatives. Hollywood is trying to repeat Barbie’s success with everything from sequels to other toy movies, to tie-in products, to lame attempts at recreating the movie’s box office battle with Oppenheimer. However, the industry isn’t embracing anything about Barbie’s message since the movie’s most salient points fly in the face of many Hollywood maxims. Barbie is, ultimately, a movie designed to promote a product. However, within that framework, Gerwig and Robbie created a project that questions how viewers can find a purpose in life beyond constant consumption and whether a society that doesn’t rely on rigid gender binaries can be achieved. (Courtesy Cathal Gunning)...

Jodie Foster revealed that her children thought she worked in construction when they were young because she didn’t tell them she was an actress. “I don’t know why, I guess I just didn’t want them to know me that way,” Foster said. “I wanted them to know me as their mom and the person who went away to work and stuff. I just didn’t want them to be confused about what I did for a living.” The Nyad star proceeded to recall what her older son, Charles Bernard, 25, thought she did when she went to a filming set each day. I brought him to set one day, and I bought him a little plastic tool belt and stuff,” she explained. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, and this is this set and this set and this set.’ And for a really long time, he thought I was a construction worker. He thought I did construction.”...

Expend4bles leads the nominees for the Golden Raspberry Awards — aka the Razzies — which were unveiled Monday morning. The film earned seven nominations for the Razzie Awards, which honor the worst of the year and are announced annually ahead of the Oscars noms announcement, which takes place Tuesday morning. Expend4bles is one of five movies competing for “worst picture” of the year. The other nominees in that category are: — The Exorcist: Believer: “a 50-years-later remake/rip-off that was horrifying in unintended ways” — Meg 2: The Trench: “a fishy tale about a snarky shark that flopped across all seven seas” — Shazam! Fury of the Gods: “one of 2023’s several comic book movies failing to save the superhero genre” — Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey: “a defamation (and defecation) on two of the most beloved Kiddie Lit characters, ‘re-imagining’ the huggable denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood as vicious, cannibal serial killers” Among the acting contenders are former Oscar winners Jon Voight, Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren, as well as Razzie “Repeat Offenders” Sylvester Stallone, Megan Fox and Jennifer Lopez....

Veteran German director Wim Wenders broke new ground during the Oscar nominations on Tuesday morning when he was nominated for his Japanese-language drama Perfect Days in the best international feature category. This isn’t Wenders’ first Oscars rodeo. The 78-year-old German director has three Academy Award nominations to his name but all have come in the best documentary category. He was nominated in 2000 for the music doc Buena Vista Social Club about aging Cuban street musicians; in 2012 for Pina, a groundbreaking 3D documentary tribute to the work of legendary dance choreographer Pina Bausch; and in 2015 for The Salt of the Earth, a portrait of famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Perfect Days does, however, mark Wenders’ first-ever Oscar nomination for a drama. “It’s a bit ironic to be nominated for a Japanese-language film but at the same time a great honor for me as Japan is the country of Yasujirô Ozu, who is my declared cinematic master,” says Wenders. “This feels like a huge bow to Mr. Ozu. Representing Japan is a deep honor for me.” Perfect Days made history as the first film not directed by a Japanese filmmaker to be Oscar-nominated for Japan....

Netflix beat streaming rival Apple in the studio race for most Oscar nominations, scoring 18 including one for best picture for “Maestro.” That total topped Apple, which nabbed 13 nods. In fact, Netflix’s haul was most bolstered by the Bradley Cooper-helmed Leonard Bernstein biopic, which scored seven nominations including best picture. Apple made a run for the title with a slew of nominations for “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon.” And overall, Walt Disney Company nabbed 20 nominations via its various content brands and platforms representing 20th Century Studios, Disney+, Hulu, Lucasfilm Ltd., Marvel Studios, National Geographic Documentary Films, Pixar Animation Studios and Searchlight...