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Sean Baker’s Anora leads the 2025 Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards nominations with five nods, including for best picture, best screenplay and best director, it was announced Monday.

Baker’s screwball comedy about a young sex worker’s romantic entanglement with the son of a Russian oligarch also earned a best female actor nod for Mikey Madison and a best supporting male actor nomination for Yuri Borisov.

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist earned nominations for best picture, best screenplay and best male actor for Adrien Brody. Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain will compete in the best picture, best screenplay and supporting male actor category with Kieran Culkin.

And director James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic, received nominations for best male actor for Timothée Chalamet, best supporting male actor with Edward Norton and best supporting female actor with Monica Barbaro.

The Substance, from director Coralie Fargeat,...

From All Of Us Strangers to Hundreds Of Beavers to The Zone Of Interest, last year was by all metrics a banger of a year for cinema — just check out our 20 Best Movies of 2024 if you need any further reminder. And as your friendly neighbourhood Empire has pored over what the next twelve months has in store on screens both big and small, we've found a lot of movies that you simply must see in 2025. 133 to be exact.

In a year that's set to see James Gunn's Dcu take flight with Superman; Ethan Hunt take on quite possibly his last impossible mission; Yelena Belova return to our screens in Dark Av— er, Thunderbolts*; James Cameron whisk us away to Pandora in Avatar: Fire And Ash; Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan scare us up good and proper with Sinners; and new movies fly at us from seasoned auteurs, buzzy new filmmakers,...

Most years, Jessie Eisenberg's performance in A Real Pain would have him in the award season conversation more alongside his co-star Kieran Culkin — but a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor might be out of reach this year. Eisenberg has become an interesting figure in Hollywood. Having already earned an Oscar nomination in 2010 for The Social Network and delivering a mix of performances over the years, Eisenberg has found massive success with A Real Pain.

Eisenberg directed, wrote, and starred in the dramedy, with A Real Pain's main characters being an estranged pair of cousins embarking on a trip to Poland together in honor of their recently deceased grandmother. The film is critically acclaimed and has earned a number of award nominations, especially for Eisenberg's screenplay and Culkin's supporting performance. In other years, Eisenberg would be right there in the conversation for Best Actor, alongside him. However, that's increasingly looking unlikely.

Rank Film (origin) Distributor Jan 17-19 gross Total Week 1 A Complete Unknown(US)

Disney £2.6m £2.6m 1 2 Mufasa: The Lion King (US) Disney £1.6m £26.1m 5 3 Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (US)

Paramount £1.1m £22.3m 4 4 Nosferatu (US)

Universal £1.1m £10.9m 3 5 We Live In Time (UK-Fr) Studiocanal £860,881 £6.8m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.22

Disney’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown opened to £2.6m this weekend across the UK-Ireland, landing in the top spot.

With just shy of 700 sites reporting, and a few still to report, the film has a location average of £3,714.

Timothee Chalamet plays the AmericanBlowin’ In The Wind singer from his early...

Rank Film (origin) Distributor Jan 17-19 gross Total Week 1 A Complete Unknown(US)

Disney £2.6m £2.6m 1 2 Mufasa: The Lion King (US) Disney £1.6m £26.1m 5 3 Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (US)

Paramount £1.1m £22.3m 4 4 Nosferatu (US)

Universal £1.1m £10.9m 3 5 We Live In Time (UK-Fr) Studiocanal £860,881 £6.8m 3

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.22

Disney’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown opened to £2.6m this weekend across the UK-Ireland, landing in the top spot.

With just shy of 700 sites reporting, and a few still to report, the film has a location average of £3,714.

Timothee Chalamet plays the AmericanBlowin’ In The Wind singer from his early...

Warning: Spoilers ahead for A Real Pain.

After seeing Culkin's standout performance in A Real Pain, his current frontrunner status for the 2025 Best Supporting Actor Oscar makes a lot of sense. Despite his supporting role, Culkin leads the cast of A Real Pain alongside Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing), Kurt Egyiawan (The Agency), and Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), who also wrote and directed the film. After his win at the 2025 Golden Globes, Kieran Culkin has emerged as the frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actor race at the 2025 Oscars.

Now that A Real Pain is streaming on Hulu, it's easy to understand for viewers just watching it for the first time why Culkin is the frontrunner for the Supporting Actor Oscar based on his performance. The 2025 Golden Globe results provide a strong indication of how several 2025 Oscars races will shape up, including Culkin's surprise win over...

Plot: A woman searching for a spark finds a whirlwind night of romance with a man only to discover he is terminally ill and commits to helping him spend his last days living life to the fullest.

Review: It’s always exciting when a veteran actor decides to step behind the camera to make a movie. Years of experience in front of the camera often results in a unique view behind it. I’ve always loved Julia Stiles in front of the camera so it’s great to see her make the leap to directing. Based on Renee Carlino’s book of the same name, Wish You Were Here follows Charlotte (Fuhrman) who is meandering through her young adult life. But when she meets Adam (Massoud), her life is flipped upside down in a way that she doesn’t expect, as he reveals he has a terminal illness.

Just based on that plot,...

The best new movies to watch on streaming this week feature some big-name stars as well as some of the most acclaimed performances of 2024. Movies from all types of genres are available on streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Peacock, and Paramount+, with titles that will appeal to audiences of all ages and all tastes. With awards season heating up, this week features a lot of new titles on streaming that fans are likely to see represented at the 2024 Oscars.

Two actors who have been earning big awards attention are Kieran Culkin and Sebastian Stan with both of their respective acclaimed projects, A Real Pain and A Different Man, finding new streaming homes. There are also some big-name stars with big comebacks on the way as Cameron Diaz stars in her first movie in over a decade with Back in Action while Jennifer Lopez is earning some of the...

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which is set to take place Feb. 4-15, one day longer than previous editions, in recognition of its milestone anniversary, has released its full program.

The lineup — listed in full at the bottom of this post — is comprised of films from 60 countries. Thirty-three will be world premieres and 74 will be U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will kick off the fest on Feb. 4, and the U.S. premiere of A Missing Part will close it on Feb. 15.

This year’s fest will be dedicated to and raise financial support for those affected by the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires. “As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” the fest’s executive director Roger Durling said in a statement. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal,...

A successful Will Smith sci-fi movie has appeared on a major streaming chart. Will Smith is a rapper and Oscar-winning actor who first rose to prominence onscreen when he played the title role in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for six seasons between 1990 and 1996. He successfully transitioned into being a major movie star after playing lead roles in the 1995 action-comedy Bad Boys and the 1996 alien invasion movie Independence Day, the latter of which grossed $817.4 million and became the highest-grossing release of the year.

Although subsequent Will Smith movies have taken on a wide variety of genres, he starred in many science fiction movies after the runaway success of Independence Day. His sci-fi output includes the first three movies in the Men in Black franchise, the post-apocalyptic Richard Matheson adaptation I Am Legend, and M. Night Shyamalan's 2013 movie After Earth. One of his biggest science fiction hits,...

Warning: this article contains spoilers for the movie A Real Pain and briefly mentions suicide.

Director Jesse Eisenberg's newest film A Real Pain is now streaming on Hulu, and the acclaimed movie is definitely worth a watch. A Real Pain stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin in the leading roles as two cousins who decide to travel to Poland for a Holocaust memorial tour and a visit to their beloved grandmother's childhood home. The movie explores the differing personalities of the two characters as well as their emotional reactions to the spaces that they are in, resulting in several beautiful and moving moments.

Given the talented cast and the personal nature of the subject matter for Eisenberg as the writer and director, it is no surprise that A Real Pain is faring well with critics and audiences too. Reviews for A Real Pain have been overwhelmingly positive, with critics praising the performances and storytelling.

What’s taking the 10th spot in Best Picture? And who’s grabbing the fifth spot in Best Actress? Gold Derby experts and editors Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng make their final 2025 Oscar nominations predictions in all 23 categories on Awards Magnet.

The delayed Producers Guild of America Awards nominations threw us all for a loop on Thursday with a surprise nomination for September 5 alongside the expected Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, The Substance, and Wicked. Sing Sing, which remains in ninth place in the Best Picture odds, was Awol, a day after it collected three BAFTA nominations in all of its longlisted categories. The A24 drama’s run has been up and down all season, but is the PGA snub a death knell? Especially since September 5 has also underperformed?

See ‘Awards Magnet’: Analyzing the 2025 BAFTA Awards nominations

Similarly, the...

After being postponed from its original date of Jan. 10 due to the Los Angeles wildfires, the American Film Institute’s 2024 AFI Awards luncheon has been rescheduled for Feb. 6, it was announced late Friday afternoon.

In making the announcement, AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale said, “With the encouragement of the community, we will gather our honorees at the AFI Awards luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 6. The spirit of this event has always been one of camaraderie – not competition – and a moment to celebrate the power of art to heal, inspire, and unite. This is a city built by dreamers – and bringing today’s dreamers together as one will lead us to brighter days ahead.”

Firefighters continue attempts to gain control of almost 40,000 acres of ongoing wildfires, which have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 12,300 structures.

SEECritics Choice Awards rescheduled for Feb. 7 after pair of L.A. wildfire-related postponements

This...

Updated, 5:41 p.m.: This year’s AFI Awards luncheon will now take place on Thursday, February 6, AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale announced on Friday evening. Like many award shows around town, they’d been delayed by the L.A. wildfires, which continue to approach containment. The luncheon had previously been dated for Friday, January 10.

“With the encouragement of the community, we will gather our honorees at the AFI Awards luncheon on Thursday, February 6,” said Gazzale. “The spirit of this private event has always been one of camaraderie – not competition – and a moment to celebrate the power of art to heal, inspire and unite. This is a city built by dreamers – and bringing today’s dreamers together as one will lead us to brighter days ahead.”

Previously, January 8: The Annual AFI Awards luncheon scheduled for Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills has been postponed.

As Frodo says after destroying the One Ring while sitting on a boulder surrounded by rivers of lava in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”: It’s done.

After two voting extensions prompted by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, the nomination voting period for the 97th Academy Awards has officially closed. While the Producers Guild of America, Writers Guild of America, and other key guilds have offered some insight into which films might dominate this year’s Oscars, one thing remains certain: surprises are practically guaranteed when it comes to the Academy.

For seasoned awards pundits, predicting the Oscars has always involved careful calculations, heated debates, and whispered, off-the-record conversations with Academy voters. These chats, typically brimming with insider insights and candid opinions, took on a different tone this year. Many pundits hesitated to reach out in the wake of wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles.

The Best Film Ensemble category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards can occasionally be a tough one to predict. Gold Derby’s pundits erroneously thought that 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would prevail over Parasite, while 2016’s Hidden Figures was correctly chosen by only one of the editors, experts, or top 24 users — combined. Well, this year’s top race looks to be less of a head-scratcher and more of a coronation, as Gold Derby’s 2025 SAG Awards predictions overwhelmingly favor Wicked to win with 17/10 odds. Talk about popular!

The SAG nominations were announced on Jan. 8, with Wicked leading all other films with five bids: Best Ensemble, Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande), Best Supporting Actor (Jonathan Bailey), and Best Stunt Ensemble. Universal Pictures’ big-budget adaptation of the beloved Broadway stage musical is not expected to win any other trophies with the acting guild, though that’s par for the course,...

I Saw the TV Glow and The Substance led the way at the Dorian Film Award nominations on Friday. The awards are selected by Galeca — the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics comprises more than 500 critics, journalists, and media figures. Winners will be announced on Feb. 13.

SEE2025 Independent Spirit Awards nominations: Full list led by ‘Anora,’ ‘I Saw the TV Glow’

From director Jane Schoenbrun, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow tells the eerie story of two friends (Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine) whose realities start to collapse around their favorite television series. The movie received a leading nine Dorian nominations including Film of the Year, LGBTQ Film of the Year, and Director of the Year, while both Smith and Lundy-Paine were nominated for their performances. The indie feature, hailed as a groundbreaking trans allegory, has mostly flown under the radar this awards season, though it did score three Gotham...

The votes are in for the 2025 Dorian Awards nominations. Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics said today that Neon’s Anora, Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers, A24’s I Saw the TV Glow, Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM’s Nickel Boys and Mubi’s The Substance will battle it out for Film of the Year.

Vying for LGBTQ Film of the Year are Challengers, I Saw the TV Glow, Netflix’s Emilia Peréz and A24’s Love Lies Bleeding and Queer.

Nominees for the all-gender Film Performance of the Year prize are Golden Globe winners Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) and Demi Moore (The Substance) along with Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Peréz), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Mikey Madison (Anora) and Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow).

Jane Schoenbrun’s thought-provoking horror tale I Saw the TV Glow leads...

The 2025 Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 40th anniversary event, with 52 percent of the films directed by women. The 12-day extravaganza will raise funds for Los Angeles wildfire relief to help the community that has been devastated by the deadly infernos.

Sbiff will run from Feb. 4 to Feb. 15 — that’s one day longer than usual in honor of its four-decade mark. The festival will showcase movies from 60 different countries, including 33 world premieres and 74 United States premieres, and a majority come from female directors. In addition, there will be tributes to talented artisans, panel discussions, and free community education and outreach programs.

“As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” said Roger Durling, Sbiff executive director. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal, and film festivals play a vital role in fostering a sense of connection.

Exclusive: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two leads the nominations at this year’s Online Film Critics Society Awards. Scroll down for the lists in full.

Dune: Part Two clocked nine noms. The haul includes nods in the Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Chasing Villeneuve’s sci-fi sequel is Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (8), Edward Berger’s Conclave (7) and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (7), while Anora, Nickel Boys, and Wicked each earned 6 nominations.

Comprised of nearly 300 voting members from around the world, the Online Film Critics Society was founded in 1997. Check out the nominations below.

Best Picture:

Anora

The Brutalist

Challengers

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

I Saw the TV Glow

Nickel Boys

Nosferatu

The Substance

Wicked

Best Animated Feature:

Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir of a Snail

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot

Best Directing:

Sean Baker – Anora

Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Coralie Fargeat – The...

Suspense is building for the Oscars season this year. In a different world, the nominations would have been announced by now, on the morning on January 17. The devastatingly destructive fires in California have disrupted this plan, forcing the Academy to extend the voting window and push the nomination announcement twice. As such, awards fans and industry professionals will have to wait another week to see what is in contention for Best Picture and other major awards. Films expected to be at the top of the heap include Anora, The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez, and Wicked.

In addition to the Best Picture race, the acting categories are competitive this year. One such competitive category is Best Supporting Actor, a category in which both seasoned actors and brand-new voices may compete. Multi-time nominee Denzel Washington might be up for Gladiator II, while newcomer and formerly incarcerated man Clarence Maclin may be up for...

On this week's Empire Podcast Chris Hewitt, Alex Godfrey and Beth Webb gather together to bid a hard but heartfelt farewell to the great David Lynch, who sadly died at the age of 78 this week. Over the course of a wide-ranging, anecdote filled forty or so minutes, the trio — all huge, dyed-in-the-wool Lynch fans — pay tribute to the genius behind Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks, and so, so many more [44:18 — 1:26:33 approx.]

Elsewhere in this week's episode, which we hasten to clarify was recorded before the news broke of Lynch's passing, Chris is joined in the podbooth by colleagues of such lethal cunning Helen O'Hara and James Dyer. Together, the intrepid podding trio field a listener question that has them discussing cinema's greatest bike moments, chat about the BAFTA nominations and the new Daredevil: Born Again trailer, and find the time amid all the usual fun, news, and nonsense to...

Annually, Rotten Tomatoes hands out Golden Tomatoes to the best-reviewed movies and TV series from the past year.

Previous winners include Oppenheimer, The Last of Us, Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and House of the Dragon, but Dune: Part Two has reigned supreme this time.

Shōgun largely dominated the TV side, though there were noteworthy wins for both The Penguin and X-Men '97. Unfortunately, neither Deadpool & Wolverine nor Agatha All Along have received any love, even in the newly created "Fan Favorite Movies" category.

The winners and nominees are determined by an adjusted score formula, which is a weighted ranking that compensates for the variation in the number of reviews when comparing movies or TV shows within a specified time frame.

Critics have always had something of a complicated relationship with comic book adaptations, particularly in recent years. However, between this and other televised award shows, it's clear...

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.

Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice)

Eríce’s latest is the ultimate cinephile catnip: the triumphant return of a director known to only make masterpieces, a film filled with in-group references and nods to cinema history (including a lengthy performance of a song from a Howard Hawks film), and an ending that hinges on the literal power of cinema itself. Thankfully, these qualities are hardly gimmicks; there’s real pathos in this story of a missing director that’s aided by these loving reminders of what makes the seventh art so important to so many. Close Your Eyes commands a secular, cynical audience to remember that art was born out of religion and miracles can still happen if one believes. – Z.W. L.

Sofia Vergara and Lewis Hamilton (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Sofia Vergara and Lewis Hamilton have set the rumor mill ablaze after being spotted sharing what appeared to be a flirtatious evening in New York City.

‘The Modern Family’ star, 52, and the Formula One champion, 40, dined together at a chic Manhattan spot, exuding undeniable chemistry as they laughed and leaned into their conversation.

I mean Sofia Vergara with Lewis Hamilton in nyc it’s just sooooo Iconic...

Kieran Culkin Career Rise (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Kieran Culkin has become a prominent name in Hollywood circles in recent years. After his rise to prominence with the leading role of Roman Roy in the acclaimed HBO drama Succession, he’s had another career success with his role in the film A Real Pain. With the recent high-profile successes of the brother of famous child actor Macaulay Culkin, let’s look at Kieran’s career trajectory and accomplishments and how he grew to become a well-respected screen actor in his own right.

Kieran Culkin, alongside Macaulay, was one of seven children. His father was former theatre actor Christopher “Kit” Culkin, and his mother was road traffic controller Patricia Bentrup.

Kieran has spoken about his difficult upbringing

Kieran Culkin has been publicly open about his difficult circumstances. For the first nine years of his life, he lived in a railroad apartment in Yorkville,...

The Best Supporting Actor category will see fierce competition this year at the 97th Academy Awards. Forget voting for a winner, the Academy will be scratching their heads to come up with the five nominees. Before the announcement of final nominees, FandomWire predicts the top 5 contenders and another 4 actors who could become Robert Downey Jr.’s successor.

Kieran Culkin with Jesse Eisenberg in a still from A Real Pain | Credits: Searchlight Pictures

Interestingly, our top five for the nominees have never won an Oscar, despite one of them receiving three nominations including two Best Supporting Actor nods. However, three of these contenders have Emmys to their names to show for. And the other nominee is making waves this award season, with nominations at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and BAFTAs.

FandomWire’s predicted nominees for Best Supporting Actor Edward Norton as Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown | Credits: Searchlight Pictures...

Nominations voting is from January 8-17, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

With the announcement of the PGA Awards 2025 nominations, just about every major Oscar precursor has shown its cards in terms of what it thinks deserves a nomination slot in Best Picture. And ultimately, there has been less of a consensus this year.

For instance, had you asked the majority of prognosticators the day before PGA nominations dropped, they would probably tell you that Paramount Pictures’ “September 5” is out of the race. But given how the PGA Awards predicted the full Best Picture lineup and winner last year,...

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

Once again, the last time the Best Original Screenplay Oscar was won exclusively by someone who did not direct the film was in 2011 for “The King’s Speech.” More specifically, the last time a director won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay who was not also nominated for Best Director that year was when Spike Jonze won for “Her” a decade ago.

So with that in mind, consider Sean Baker (“Anora”), Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”), and Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold (“The Brutalist”) shoo-ins for a...

The Best Picture race at the 2025 Oscars is coming into focus. The Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, were created by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1929, and celebrate the artistic achievement of each year's films in a variety of categories including acting, directing, editing, costume design, sound design, and more. The Oscar that is perhaps the most prestigious is the Best Picture award, which celebrates what Academy voters have deemed to be the best film of the year.

Over the years, there have been a wide variety of Best Picture winners, so far running from 1927's Wings, a silent film starring Clara Bow, through 2023's Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's biopic-thriller of J. Robert Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy. Some winners are minted classics such as 1942's Casablanca, 1964's The Sound of Music, 1971's The Godfather, and 1992's Schindler's List. However, there are also some winners that...

This article contains mention of suicide.

A Real Pain has an ambiguous ending after its equally hilarious and sobering story. Jesse Eisenberg directs, writes, and stars in the comedy-drama film. He plays the reserved and anxious David Kaplan, who travels to Poland with his charismatic and troubled cousin Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin). They join a Holocaust tour group and also intend to visit the home where their grandmother lived during her time in Poland. A Real Pain's reviews have been overwhelmingly positive since the movie first debuted at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Eisenberg has received acclaim for his direction, writing, and for his portrayal of David, with the film proving to be one of the many high points in Eisenberg's career. A Real Pain has also proven to be one of Kieran Culkin's best movies, which led to him winning a Golden Globe Award for his performance. David and Benji's relationship,...

The nominations announcement of the PGA Awards 2025 made for a tough morning for the “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” Oscar campaigns in particular.

Because the Producers Guild of America uses the same system as the Academy to determine its nominees for Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures — a preferential ballot with 10 slots— it is seen overall as the most accurate precursor for Best Picture. In fact, its nominees completely mirrored what the Best Picture nominees were in 2024.

Have things really changed that much between now and December, when the winners of the AFI Awards were announced? In recent years that awards body has been almost as accurate at predicting the final 10 Best Picture nominees, often only leaving out the international titles. For example, the American Film Institute had “May December” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” last year instead of eventual nominees “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,...

Comedian Roy Wood Jr. will host the 77th Annual Writers Guild Awards in New York next month. WGA nominations were announced yesterday after being postponed amid LA wildfires.

The awards are still set to unspool in concurrent ceremonies on both coasts — the Edison Ballroom in New York and the Beverly Hilton in LA — on Feb. 15.

NYC presenters include Ronny Chieng, Adriana Diaz (CBS Mornings), Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain), Cole Escola, Bridget Moynahan (Blue Bloods), Michael McKean (The Diplomat), Annette O’Toole Rosie Perez (The Flight Attendant), Meredith Scardino (Girls5eva), Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night Live), DeWanda Wise and Michael Zegen.

Wood is currently host of CNN satire Have I Got News For You. He wrote and starred in the Writers Guild Award-nominated series Command Z, produced...

The Producers Guild of America has announced its 2025 nominees for movies and television.

The list was released Thursday following two postponements due to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

Nominees for the guild’s top film prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, include Sean Baker’s dramedy Anora, Brady Corbet’s historical epic The Brutalist, Edward Berger’s Conclave, Jacques Audiard’s musical Emilia Pérez, Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of Wicked, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, Jesse Eisenberg’s bromance dramedy A Real Pain, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Tim Felbaum’s thriller September 5.

The Producers Guild will also present special honors to Chris Meledandri (David O. Selznick Achievement Award), Dana Walden (Milestone Award), Taika Waititi (Norman Lear Achievement Award) and Lynda Obst and Paula Weinstein (Trailblazer Award).

Winners will be announced at the PGA...

Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Emilia Pérez, The Substance and surprise package September 5 are among the delayed Producers Guild of America (PGA) nominees announced on Thursday.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, A Real Pain and Wicked are also in the running, while Nickel Boys and Sing Sing did not make the cut.

Flow, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, The Wild Robot and the Disney pair of Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 are the animation nominees.

The nominations were unveiled after the announcement had been pushed back twice due to the LA wildfires,...

The Producers Guild of America anointed Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, September 5, The Substance, and Wicked as its contenders for Best Picture on Thursday, solidifying those films Oscar hopes. The guild announcement came six days later than originally planned due to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

The PGA Awards are arguably the most consequential industry awards for predicting the Oscar for Best Picture. Lke the Oscars, the PGA nominates 10 films for the prize and decide its winners using a ranked-choice preferential ballot. Since the PGA started giving out its award in 1989, the guild have disagreed with the Oscars only 10 times. And since the Oscars and PGA expanded the number of Best Picture nominees in 2009, the two groups have differed on only three occasions. PGA picked The Big Short as the best film of 2015, while the Academy chose Spotlight. Then PGA...

Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin lead a great ensemble cast of tourists traveling through Poland on a Holocaust tour in the acclaimed comedy-drama movie A Real Pain. When their Holocaust survivor grandmother passes away, two mismatched Jewish American cousins join a tour group in Poland to honor her memory. This is Eisenberg’s second film as writer-director after 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World.

Since its release, A Real Pain has been met with positive reviews and awards recognition. Amid Oscar buzz, A Real Pain is now streaming on Hulu. Eisenberg and Culkin’s hilarious odd-couple dynamic has been widely praised, but the cast of A Real Pain is full of great performances.

Actor

Character

Jesse Eisenberg

David Kaplan

Kieran Culkin

Benjamin "Benji" Kaplan

Will Sharpe

James

Jennifer Grey

Marcia

Kurt Egyiawan

Eloge

Liza Sadovy

Diane

Daniel Oreskes

Mark

Ellora Torchia

Priya

Jesse Eisenberg As David Kaplan Date Of...

One of many awards announcements delayed by the unprecedented wildfires, the Producers Guild of America announced the always influential PGA Awards nominations on a Sunday. On the film side, Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures nominees include “Anora,” “A Complete Unknown,” “The Brutalist,” “Conclave,” “Dune Part II,” “Emilia Perez,” “September 5,” and “Wicked.” Notable television nominees are “Hacks,” “The Penguin,” “True Detective: Night Country,” “Fallout,” and “Shōgun.”

Read More: Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Mickey 17’ Set To Premiere At 2025 Berlin Film Festival

The other nominees in the Theatrical nomination category included “A Real Pain” and “The Substance.” The surprising inclusion of “September 5” was concerning news for “Sing Sing,” “Challengers,” and “Nickel Boys,” three films all attempting to make the Oscars Best Picture 10.

Continue reading ‘Wicked,’ ‘Conclave,’ & ‘The Penguin’ Earn 2025 PGA Awards Nominations at The Playlist.

After being postponed as a result of the Southern California wildfires that have leveled parts of Los Angeles this past week, the nominations for the Producers Guild Awards were announced today, with the ceremony still scheduled to take place Saturday, February 8 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Facing off this year in the category of Theatrical Motion Picture are the producers for “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown, “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5,” “The Substance,” and “Wicked.”

Named for one of the original producers and studio executives, a man responsible for films such as “The Jazz Singer” and “The Grapes of Wrath,” the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures has long been considered an accurate predictor of Best Picture Oscar winners, with 14 of the past 20 recipients going on to claim the top prize at the Academy Awards, including “Oppenheimer,...

The Producers Guild of America has announced its 2025 PGA Awards nominations across film and TV categories.

For the guild’s top film prize, the Daryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, the nominees are Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, September 5, The Substance and Wicked.

The guild had initially planned to announce its film and TV nominees last Friday but the announcement was postponed twice, first to Sunday, Jan. 12 and then to “next week” amid the wildfires raging across Los Angeles.

The guild also extended its voting window after the fires broke out last week, giving members until Saturday to vote on this year’s nominees.

The Producers Guild has also established a fund, in partnership with the Entertainment Community Fund, to support producers affected by the fires.

The guild is contributing a portion of net proceeds...

The Producers Guild of America, one of the most reliable predictors of success in the Oscars’ Best Picture category, has nominated Oscar favorites “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Perez” and “Wicked” for its top feature film award, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures.

Other nominees in the category are “Dune: Part Two,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5” and “The Substance.”

While last year’s PGA nominations included a record three films directed by women and three predominantly not in English,”The Substance” was this year’s only female-directed nominee and “Emilia Perez” its only non-English one.

The nominations include most of the top contenders for the Oscar for Best Picture, with the indies “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” being the highest-profile films that were left out. “September 5,” the European-made film about the terrorist attacks at the Munich Olympics in 1972, is the biggest...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) unveiled its 2025 Awards nominees on Thursday, honoring an eclectic slate of films poised to dominate this year’s Oscar race.

Among the 10 nominees for the coveted Darryl F. Zanuck Award for outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures are Sean Baker’s poignant dramedy “Anora,” Brady Corbet’s meticulously crafted historical epic “The Brutalist,” Edward Berger’s religious thriller “Conclave,” Jacques Audiard’s genre-bending musical “Emilia Pérez” and Jon M. Chu’s glittering adaptation of “Wicked.”

Perhaps the most unexpected entry in this year’s list is Tim Fehlbaum’s indie thriller “September 5.” The high-stakes dystopian drama, acquired by Paramount Pictures after generating buzz at Venice and Telluride, edged out high-profile contenders like RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” and Greg Kwedar’s prison drama “Sing Sing.” The nod for “September 5” marks a significant moment for the underdog film, which now finds itself in the best picture conversation.

When the 2025 Oscars nominations are announced on Jan. 23 at 5:30 a.m. Pt, expect Emilia Pérez to be on top.

According to Gold Derby predictions, the Netflix musical dramedy is poised to receive 11 bids — more than any other contender — including Best Director (Jacques Audiard), Best Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), and Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña). That would be two fewer than last year’s nominations leader Oppenheimer at 13, but on par with 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once at 11 — both of which won Best Picture.

Close behind with 10 forecasted noms is A24’s The Brutalist, starring Best Actor frontrunner Adrien Brody as a Holocaust survivor who tries to live out the American Dream in the 1940s and 1950s. Expect nominations for Best Director (Brady Corbet), Best Supporting Actress (Felicity Jones), and Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce), per Gold Derby odds.

Focus Features’ Conclave, which depicts the intrigue inside the Vatican...

After a week of delays, the Producers Guild of America has announced its nominees for the 2025 PGA Awards. These prizes constitute the PGA’s favorites in movies and television, with only a few surprises scattered throughout. On the movie side, the PGAs were in line with last week’s Golden Globes,...

Usually, the arrival of Oscar prognostication season is both a blessing and a curse. Namely, it gives us an opportunity to take a playful tour through what passes for the best in cinema in an alternate universe even as we’re forced to reckon with just how all-encompassingly market-tested and gatekeeper-checked the entire annual exercise has become.

Yes, a read through Michael Schulman’s excellent Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears will swiftly disabuse any notions that the Oscars were ever any other way. But in the same sense that dystopia was a lot more fun to read about when it was fiction, the baseline politicking of Oscar season is dishy good fun in the rearview, excruciating in real time.

We’d love to casually pivot away from the apocalyptic overtones and into wondering whether the range of Nicole Kidman’s faked orgasms throughout Babygirl...

Queda un mes para conocer a los ganadores. © Elástica Films | A24 | DeAPlaneta | 20th Century Studios | BAFTA

Ya se conocen los nominados a los Premios BAFTA 2025. Los ganadores se anunciarán el 16 de febrero. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Emilia Pérez

Cónclave

Mejor PELÍCULA BRITÁNICA

Bird

Blitz

Cónclave

Gladiator II

Hard Truths

Knecap

Lee

Love Lies Bleeding

The Outrun

Wallace y Gromit: La venganzase sirve con plumas

Mejor debut de un escritor, director o productor británico

Hoard

Kneecap

Monkey Man

Santosh

Sister Midnight

Mejor PELÍCULA Familiar

Flow

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Wallace y Gromit: La venganzase sirve con plumas

The Wild Robot

Mejor PELÍCULA De Habla No Inglesa

All We Imagine as Light

Emilia Pérez

I’m Still Here

Kneecap

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Mejor PELÍCULA Documental

Black Box Diaries

Daughters

No Other Land

Super/Man: The...

The nominees for the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards are locked in, leaving out Denzel Washington’s performance in Gladiator 2 and possibly marking the end of his awards campaign for Best Supporting Actor. While Ridley Scott’s legacy sequel to his critical and commercial hit from 2000 wasn’t strong enough to perform well during awards season as a whole, Washington’s magnetic and charismatic performance as the power-hungry Macrinus was a standout that seemed to have legs. The two-time Oscar winner earned nominations at the Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globes for his performance, but has yet to score any wins.

Washington lost the Golden Globe to Kieran Culkin, but the Critics' Choice Awards have yet to be handed out.

The BAFTA nominations for the 2025 awards ceremony have been announced, and Washington isn’t among the names for Supporting Actor. Instead, the category includes Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), Clarence Maclin...

The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East have chimed in with their selection of the best writing among television and film offerings of 2024. The 2025 WGA Awards nomination announcement was delayed a week due to the devastating fires that hit Los Angeles and scorched more than 40,000 acres. The guild currently plans to stick with its Saturday, February 15th date for the awards ceremony.

Ceremonies will take place in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton and in New York City as the Edison Ballroom.

WGA Awards 2025 Nominees

Original Screenplay

A Real Pain, Written by Jesse Eisenberg; Searchlight Pictures

Anora, Written by Sean Baker; Neon

Challengers, Written by Justin Kuritzkes; Amazon MGM Studios

Civil War, Written by Alex Garland; A24

My Old Ass, Written by Megan Park; Amazon MGM Studios

Adapted Screenplay

A Complete Unknown, Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks, Based on the Book Dylan Goes Electric!

Denzel Washington has been snubbed by another awards organization for his performance in Gladiator II, continuing a glaring trend. The actor was expected to be a major presence this awards season thanks to his performance as Macrinus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator sequel. While the initial returns looked promising for Washington, he's undoubtedly lost steam as the race for Best Supporting Actor at the 2025 Oscars has unfolded. Looking at his standing historically, Washington's chances to win his third Oscar are over thanks to how the Golden Globes and SAG nominations played out.

Yet, it is the BAFTA nominations that mark the continuation of a glaring trend for the heralded performer. Denzel Washington was not nominated by the BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor based on his performance in Gladiator II. The nominations instead went to Yura Borisov (Anora), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist...

After a wildfire related delay, the Writer’s Guild of America unveiled the 2025 WGA Awards nominations today with few surprises. Likely Oscar nominees “Anora,’” “A Complete Unknown,” “Challengers,”and “A Real Pain” made the cut on the theatrical side. Television contenders saw “Fallout” and “Shogun” earn three nominations each.

Read More: “Conclave,” “Emilia Perez” and “The Brutalist” top 2025 BAFTA Awards nominations

This year, there is perhaps one of the longest lists of Oscars and awards contending films that are ineligible in decades.

Continue reading ‘Challengers,’ Nickel Boys’ & ‘Fallout’ Top 2025 WGA Nominations at The Playlist.