Joanna Lumley, the BAFTA-winning British actress, has said that women would lose out if award ceremonies switched to gender-neutral prizes.

The Absolutely Fabulous and Paddington performer said she was unsure about the drift away from segregating awards on the basis of gender, saying it was “a bit weird.”

Ceremonies including the Brit awards have embraced gender-neutral categories, while BAFTA has said it is actively considering the issue. Emma Corrin, who identifies as non-binary, is a vocal supporter.

Lumley is less sweet on the idea, telling TalkTV: “I know that if my name was just put up as best actor against lots of men, I wouldn’t have a chance. But as best actress, you might.”

The Brits was criticized this year after its award for artist of the year featured an all-male list of nominees, including Stormzy and Harry Styles.

Others in the industry think the gender-neutral move is inevitable. Sam Mendes told the BBC earlier this year: “I have total sympathy with it, yeah, and I think it might well be inevitable in the end … I think that’s the way it’s moving and I think that it’s perfectly reasonable.”

Lumley said she was uncertain about awards altogether. She said: “When I read about the Oscars, and I realized that to get even onto a list to be part of the shortlist, you have to go around lobbying people and promising things, and having lunch. These are the stars who are up for it. You have to go, as it were, tarting around to get people in favor, I’m not sure about it.

It’s old school versus new school for best director at the DGA Awards.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” is the culmination of more than 50 years of moviemaking. Then there’s the visionary whimsy of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the duo behind the sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The veteran and the newcomers are the front-runners to win the top prize at the DGA ceremony, which take place on Feb. 18.

Which picture will prevail among the guild’s 19,000 members? One camp esteems a long and storied career; the other points to a cinematic future that will look different but be just as enjoyable.

The Daniels and Spielberg are joined in competition by three other dynamic directors — Todd Field (“Tár”), Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”). But pending a stunning upset, the latter aren’t expected to be serious challengers.

With their hyper-imaginative tale of a Chinese laundromat owner who sets off to save the multiverse, the Daniels have gained recognition from various awards groups. “Their film is the most awarded of the year,” says Mark Johnson, an editor for Awards Daily. “With the most Oscar nominations, you have to assume it’s near the top.”

One member of both the Academy and DGA says they’re “undecided” on who they’ll vote for, but are leaning toward the Daniels. “What you can’t say about that movie is it wasn’t directed,” the voter says. “There’s directing all over that film.”

However, the pair must overcome a couple of hurdles. The most significant is that directing teams seldom win DGA; only two duos — Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for “West Side Story” (1961) and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men” (2007) — have achieved the feat.

Additionally, Hollywood has long adopted a “pay your dues” mentality. At 35 years old each, Kwan and Scheinert would be not only the youngest pair ever to win DGA (or the Oscars) but also the seventh-youngest director winners overall. Conservative voters may hesitate to reward the sophomore filmmakers, whose only other movie is the zany dead-body comedy “Swiss Army Man” (2016).

That creates an opening for Spielberg to capitalize on the industry narrative that he’s due for late-career recognition. With “The Fabelmans,” he depicts the origins of his love of celluloid while mapping out the deterioration of his parents’ marriage. The vulnerability on display has resonated with voters of all guilds. “Between what he did with ‘West Side Story’ and the personal effort on ‘Fabelmans,’ there’s a legacy value that’s been hard to ignore,” Johnson says. “And after 25 years, it’s time for him to win his third Oscar.”

At the DGA, Spielberg holds the record for the most nominations and wins, at 13 and three, respectively. It also helps that he has been working the circuit far more than he did for other recent films, such as “Lincoln” (2012) and “West Side Story” (2021). That visibility and track record boosts Universal’s hope of netting a win, which could lead to an Oscar moment.

Over its 75-year history, the DGA Awards has been the most reliable barometer for the Oscars’ best director prize. Only eight DGA winners have failed to walk away with the Academy Award, most recently Sam Mendes (“1917”), who lost to Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) in 2020.

Despite his BAFTA snub, if Spielberg wins, the Oscar best picture would likely come along too — as was the case with “The Departed” (2006) and overdue director Martin Scorsese. Nonetheless, the DGAs will likely mark the moment the duo that brought us subtitled talking rocks solidify their front-runner status. My pick for the DGA is … the Daniels.

DGA Predictions

See the latest film predictions, in all 23 categories, in one place on Variety’s Oscars Collective. To see the ranked predictions for each category, visit Variety’s Oscars Hub.

In the abysmal landscape of short film distribution, documentaries have had the easiest time translating to streaming and internet consumption. Often overlapping with hard-hitting video journalism, documentary shorts appeal to establishment news outlets like The New Yorker and The New York Times, and both outlets have funded numerous short documentaries over the last decade.

In its effort to earn industry clout by wracking up Oscar nominations, Netflix joined the fray, and its two nominations for Best Documentary Short this year are by far the most accessible.

This year’s nominees lean far lighter than in most years, which is somewhat surprising seeing as the terrible news just keeps piling up. Perhaps voters needed a little levity this year, or perhaps filmmakers themselves are seeking out more uplifting stories.

From saving baby elephants in India to a shocking tale of a changed perspective, the films in this category offer more than a glimmer of hope for humanity. Although it may be willfully naive, it certainly makes the viewing more pleasurable.

Most of the films are currently available online, and all are worth seeking out. Here’s our ranking of all five contenders.

5. “The Martha Mitchell Effect”

The most notoriously outspoken lady of the 1970s, Martha Mitchell made political spousing a blood sport — and paid the price. The wife of Richard Nixon’s campaign manager and Attorney General John Mitchell, Nixon himself blamed her for Watergate. With a sharp wit and a loose tongue, she intuited the power of the press long before doing so became a political necessity, brandishing the mic to shift public opinion.

Netflix

Her rise and eventual downfall gets comprehensive coverage in Anne Albergue’s “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” though it doesn’t reveal much more than the excellent podcast “Slow Burn: Watergate.” Mitchell herself is a compelling enough subject, and it’s nice to see her considerable style and charisma in the archival footage. The filmmaking itself is fairly straightforward, however, and the quite dramatic story of Mitchell’s forcible silencing somehow falls flat.

4. “The Elephant Whisperers”

“The Elephant Whisperers”

Netflix

To someone who is skeptical about the appeal of short film, there’s no easier sell than a feel-good story about a couple who fall in love while raising orphaned baby elephants. Set in the Mudumalai National Park in South India, first-time filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves spent five years following indigenous couple Bomman and Belli as they rehabilitate two orphaned baby elephants.

Making use of many drone shots to capture the grand scale and lush greenery, the film looks as slick as any high-budget nature documentary. The subjects are personable and genuine, as they speak openly about how they see the elephants as their children. Mercifully, nothing horrible happens, making it a safe watch for kids and a welcome reprieve for news-addled adults.

3. “Stranger at the Gate”

“Stranger at the Gate”

The New Yorker

Certain documentaries, such as 2007’s bombshell “Crazy Love,” are best viewed with no prior knowledge. Joshua Seftel’s powerful portrait of an ex-Marine unmoored and radicalized by untreated PTSD utilizes a similar technique, setting up one story and delivering quite another.

Seftel shoots the film’s brawny subject, Mac McKinney, in a sleeveless gray beater at a sterile location that could pass for a prison, priming the viewer for the worst. McKinney is scarily candid about the way he was taught to dehumanize his targets during wartime, and the hate he harbored when he returned home. Though visually unremarkable, “Stranger at the Gate” is a startling firsthand account of violence calcifying into hate, and the power of a little humanity to transform it. It reads a little too optimistic for the current moment, but it serves as vital proof that change is possible.

2. “How Do You Measure a Year?”

“How Do You Measure a Year?”

ShortsTV

Back in the category for the second year in a row, scrappy micro-budget filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt impresses with another personal and experimental charmer. Taking a page from Michael Apted’s “Up” series, Rosenblatt interviewed his daughter Ella on her birthday every year from the ages of two to 18. It’s a satisfying gimmick that pays off, though the filmmaker remains mostly opaque safely behind the camera. His goal is to ask her the same questions every year, which can yield predictably funny results, such as three-year-old Ella’s response about the meaning of power.

Rosenblatt’s artistic goal feels somewhat nebulous: Is it about watching someone form their identity, a father/daughter relationship, or the importance of creativity and ritual? Rosenblatt doesn’t seem to know himself, as Ella’s questions over the years about why they’re doing this go mostly unanswered, but his jumping into the artistic unknown is certainly admirable. The result is a little bit jumbled, though it’s undeniably compelling to watch Ella transition from adorable baby to surly adolescent to mature teen. “I’m really grateful we do this,” an older and wiser Ella says, offering her own conclusion. “I love ritual, I love traditions, and this one’s really nice.”

1. “Haulout”

“Haulout”

The New Yorker

The most stunning film of the group is as impressive in its filming as in the dedication of the subject himself. Shot in a remote region of Eastern Russia by brother/sister duo Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaeva, “Haulout” follows the cold and lonely efforts of Russian marine biologist Maxim Chakilev to track a walrus colony. The filmmakers spent three months with Chakilev, living in a tiny seaside shack on a gray stretch of beach that is a popular rest stop for the migrating mammals.

As temperatures rise and ice melts, upwards of 90,000 walruses crowd the shore, where they are susceptible to sickness and stampedes. Gorgeous cinematography captures the awesome scale of the dilemma, and Chakilev’s wind-hardened face translates the anxiety and concern he feels for the massive bellowing creatures. With very few words, the film communicates a monumentally poignant picture of the effects of climate change.

The 2023 Oscar-nominated short films will be available in select theaters on Friday, February 17. Find participating theaters here.

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