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Critics’ Choice Awards Jump Ahead of Oscar Season Fray
18 August 2016 12:05 PM, PDT
By moving up their annual A&E Network show from January 17 to December 11, the Critics Choice Awards will become the first major televised award show of the season. For several years they aired on Oscar nominations Thursday, but last year aired after the Golden Globes.
This also moves up the date that the film critics will submit their ballots by about two weeks. Even on the old schedule, they barely screened “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” before their voting deadline last year. Will they be able to see all the films in time? Such likely late entries as Ben Affleck’s “Live By Night,” Denzel Washington’s “Fences” and Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” may not be screened by then.
Read More: Critics’ Choice Awards Adds Brand New Event Honoring Documentary Film and Television
“We talked to the studios about that, and we only identified two pictures that may be problematic, »
- Anne Thompson
‘The Birth of A Nation’: What Fox Searchlight Faces As It Plows Forward With A Tainted Oscar Frontrunner
18 August 2016 11:37 AM, PDT
As Sundance moments go, the reception for “The Birth of a Nation” was unheard of. The audience gave writer-director-actor Nate Parker a standing ovation before the film began. Now his movie is facing another kind of reception, also unheard of: He must promote the movie while being shadowed by his 1999 rape trial, and news that the accuser committed suicide in 2012.
There are no real precedents for Parker’s situation.
Read More: Nate Parker Writes ‘Devastated’ Facebook Response to College Rape Trial and Accuser’s Suicide
Fox Searchlight executives are presenting a united front. Here’s their official statement: “Searchlight is aware of the incident that occurred while Nate Parker was at Penn State. We also know that he was found innocent and cleared of all charges. We stand behind Nate and are proud to help bring this important and powerful story to the screen.”
Inside the company, they’re not abandoning hope of an Oscar. »
- Anne Thompson
The All-Comedy-Predictions Episode — Screen Talk, Emmys Edition
17 August 2016 12:16 PM, PDT
It’s Comedy Week! Anne Thompson and Michael Schneider make their picks in the major comedy categories. How will “Transparent” fare in its second season? Will “Master of None” break through the pack as the year’s freshman surprise? Or is “Veep” just a foregone conclusion at this point? Plus, a few thoughts on the cancellation of Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.”
Listen to the full episode above.
Screen Talk is available on iTunes. You can subscribe here or via RSS. Share your feedback with Thompson and Schneider on Twitter or sound off in the comments. Browse previous installments here, review the show on and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk. Check out the rest of Indiewire’s podcasts on iTunes right here.
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! »
- Indiewire Staff
Ben Affleck’s ‘Live By Night’ May Enter Year-End Oscar Derby
16 August 2016 12:42 PM, PDT
In late summer, studios check out rough cuts for movies that might be finished in time for year-end release. Top filmmakers and stars are eager to grab one of those key slots. But for distributors, mounting a big year-end release is costly — especially with awards campaigns attached. The movie had better have the goods. Going in January is one option.
For example, when awards-savvy Weinstein Co. commits its (limited) resources to a full campaign on Garth Davis’s “Lion,” which is hitting the fall festival circuit, then you know it’s a bonafide contender. But when “The Founder” gets a late-year limited slot with a January break, you know they’re pushing a Best Actor campaign for Oscar perennial Michael Keaton in order to boost attention.
Thus, eyes have been on Warner Bros. and Boston ’20s drama “Live By Night,” Ben Affleck long-awaited return to the director’s chair after the Oscar-winning “Argo. »
- Anne Thompson
How ‘The People v. O.J. Simpson’ Changed Everything for Breakout Star Sterling K. Brown
15 August 2016 2:40 PM, PDT
While filming Episode 9 of “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” Sterling K. Brown prepared at length for the explosive courtroom scene as assistant prosecutor Christopher Darden, when he releases pent-up rage against defense attorney Johnny Cochran (Courtney P. Vance). Brown knew emotion and sentiment would be high; he had to be on top of it to let it go.
He went to set early, when it was quiet and dark, and did a strong rehearsal. The lights were set. Director Anthony Hemingway called “Action!”
And Brown forgot all his lines. For three takes.
Hemingway called ‘cut’ and gave the actor a few minutes to go over the lines. He took some deep breaths, came back, and nailed it. “I just needed to get over that initial hiccup,” he said. “Once I was able to marry the emotion with the words, it went well, it just took a minute.”
There is no »
- Anne Thompson
5 articles