In their comments, judges said “IndieWire.com is creative, well-curated, and popping with photos and subtle splashes of color.” IndieWire also received the prize for Obituary/In Appreciation — Film/TV Personalities, which went to Managing Editor Christian Blauvelt for his remembrance of Sean Connery, who died in October 2020. The judges, in their comments, called the obituary a “well-researched, enticing story of mythical leading man Sean Connery’s life with his flaws and triumphs....

The Emmy-nominated series stars Julia Garner as convicted fraudster Anna “Delvey” Sorokin, who conned elite Manhattan into believing she was an international heiress. While Sorokin has (for the most part) stood by the series, it’s former Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Williams who is slapping the streamer with a defamation suit. Williams is portrayed by Katie Lowes in the Shonda Rhimes-produced limited series. Williams previously wrote about her experiences with former best friend Delvey in 2018 for Vanity Fair after Delvey allegedly conned her into footing the bill for a $62,000 trip to Morocco; Williams carried the debt on her corporate Condé Nast credit card....

With the over-crowded documentary awards field, being seen is the first order. Box-office buzz is not a factor in this pandemic year, which gives deep-pocketed distributors like NatGeo an advantage. It has a long list of strong, widely seen contenders that yielded two of the eight PGA nominations: Thai cave thriller “The Rescue” and COVID diary “The First Wave.” HBO also landed two nominees, Nanfu Wang’s portrait of China during COVID, “In the Same Breath,” and Megan Mylan’s Syrian migrant documentary “Simple As Water....

The star of upcoming “Mothers’ Instinct” revealed to Net-a-Porter that the 94th Academy Awards “was a weird night” on March 27. “I walked into a very charged energy in that room, and I was trying to figure out how to just breathe and create a calmness,” Chastain said. Best Actor winner Smith slapped Rock after the comedian made a comment about Jada Pinkett Smith’s haircut. Smith later was banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years and resigned from the Academy....

But, as the writing process progressed, Scheinert and partner Daniel Kwan ended up retooling the script and making Evelyn the film’s protagonist, opening the door for Yeoh to carry the film. “We were having trouble figuring out the casting for the father figure, and one of us started wondering what happens if we take Michelle’s character and flop it and she becomes the protagonist,” Kwan said. “And the film just opened up in a completely different way....

The label previously released a new LP for the soundtrack for “The Thing,” which Carpenter also composed along with directing the film, that resurrected lost cues from the original score. The “Escape from New York” score was written by Carpenter and co-produced by Carpenter and Alan Howarth. Howarth used equipment such as ARP and Prophet-5 synthesizers, plus a Linn LM-1 drum machine, as well as an acoustic piano and Fender guitars, to create the film’s soundscape, while Carpenter composed the melodies on synthesizer keyboards....

In announcing his own exit from an upcoming Cambridge Union talk, Cleese reminded his fans that he also has done Adolf Hitler impersonations in the past. One famous example is on Cleese’s BBC2 sitcom “Fawlty Towers,” where the comedian went as far as reenacting Hitler’s Nazi march. If Cambridge Union was blacklisting someone for a Hitler impersonation, then Cleese wanted to impose a self-made blacklist for the same reason....

Burr shared his support for Depp during his “Monday Morning Podcast,” saying he’s “too big of a Johnny Depp fan to watch” the livestream. “I love that guy,” Burr said (via Mediaite). “I don’t want to hear all these personal details and shit. From what I’ve seen the guy is fucking destroying.” He continued, “And what’s great about this, is if he really does expose this woman for lying, I’m wondering if all these people that, you know, just accepted her lies about him, if they’re going to apologize somehow....

Publisher Abrams Books touts “Masterworks” as “an illustrated mid-career monograph exploring the 30-year creative journey” of Paul Thomas Anderson. The book features essays on each Anderson feature written by Nayman, a contributing editor to Cinema Scope and the author of “Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together.” Greenwood is one of several Anderson collaborators who took part in interviews for the book along with costume designer Mark Bridges, cinematographer Robert Elswit, producer Joanne Sellar, editor Dylan Tichenor, and “Phantom Thread” actress Vicky Krieps....

For “Dopesick” star Kaitlyn Dever, her favorite scene from the harrowing Hulu drama showing the full history and scope of America’s opioid crisis, which earned her her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, was a fateful phone call between her character Betsy, a coal miner hooked on Oxycontin after a bad back injury, and Dr. Fennix (Michael Keaton), the doctor who prescribed the drug to her, and later became addicted to it himself....

After Jennings’ gig was announced last night, actress and activist Yvette Nicole Brown posted a tweet decrying the casting choice. When asked by followers why she directed them to a tweet posted by Jennings on September 22, 2014 where he posted: “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.” Jennings never condemned his actions at the time, and as of this writing the tweet is still up on his timeline....

Franco Nero shared similar sentiments when Spacey’s casting was first announced over the weekend, saying in a statement, “I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film. I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.” Spacey’s role is expected to be a small one, as Nero is playing the lead character. Mark Ebenhoch, an actor who accused Spacey of sexual misconduct on the set of the 1995 movie “Outbreak,” condemned the casting in an interview with TMZ (via The Independent)....

The lawsuit has been dismissed after a jury came to a decision after deliberations. “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Rapp accused Spacey of groping him against his will at age 14 in 1986. Spacey was 26 at the time of the alleged events. Rapp publicly accused Spacey of the events in 2017; Rapp sued Spacey for battery in 2022. Per ABC, Judge Lewis Kaplan “dismissed Rapp’s claim of assault before the trial started and dismissed his claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress after Rapp’s attorneys rested his case, leaving the jury to decide only the battery claim....

The film drew controversy even in its production stages for bringing on nonprofessional, underage actors and exposing them to an unruly set where drugs were readily available, and anything resembling an intimacy coordinator was nonexistent. In a new interview with Deadline, one of the film’s actors Hamilton Harris opened up about the traumatic aftermath of starring in the movie, especially given that two of his co-stars, Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, died young amid tragic circumstances in the years after the film’s release....

Sitting on a balcony at the festival the day after his premiere, Serebrennikov said that even though leaving Russia meant that he had to abandon his 90-year-old father, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine expedited the filmmaker’s decision to move away as soon as the law allowed for it. “If you live inside the war, and you understand you’re inside the war — for a person like me, that’s very painful,” he said....

Oscar winner Poitras criticized the TIFF and Venice programmers for not asking “hard questions” as to the purpose of the former First Lady’s film endeavors. Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton attended both Venice and TIFF to launch AppleTV+ docuseries “Gutsy,” as well as support “In Her Hands,” directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen and produced by the Clinton family. “Hillary Clinton was actively involved in the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Poitras stated during TIFF’s Doc Conference (via Variety)....

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) November 12, 2020 From asking “Splash” star Tom Hanks “How do you kiss underwater without bubbles coming out of your nose and mouth?” to telling Gene Hackman “You’ve done some brilliant pictures, you’ve done some stinkers” (“Really,” he replies mildly), Drake has all the panache of Zach Galifianakis on “Between Two Ferns.” Only here, the celebrities are clearly not in on the joke, because Drake isn’t making one....

During a video interview with Vogue‘s Life in Looks reliving her best fashion moments, the “Falling for Christmas” star revealed that she didn’t see her character Cady Heron exactly as the victim of a high school clique, here called the Plastics, played by Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert. Instead of playing “damaged” Cady, Lohan hoped to portray head mean girl Regina George, before the role ultimately went to McAdams....

Milsom wanted to explore, through Renee (voiced by the autistic Madison Bandy), how we communicate and connect through sensory perception. She not only thoroughly researched autistic behavior but also invited a group of consultants from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network to dig deeper into the non-verbal characteristics that would help personify Renee. Something Milsom read online became her motto: “Nothing about us without us.” But animation inspired her further with its unique ability to be non-verbal....

Mielgo has certainly earned the right to make his own originals after winning the Emmy for Season 1’s “The Witness” (the anthology’s first episode not based on existing source material), and scoring the Oscar this year for his animated short “The Windshield Wiper.” The Spanish filmmaker has become the show’s premier auteur — pushing adult animation further with his hybrid of 2D painted backgrounds and 3D modeled characters and his exploration of toxic relationships....