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Entertaintment

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

Robert Eggers has previously said that he never wanted to make a Viking movie. It wasn’t until he traveled to Iceland in 2015 that he began to see the beautiful landscapes and do research into Viking lore. Luckily for him, Alexander Skarsgård was itching to be involved in such a movie, and the two decided to collaborate. With the help of Icelandic author and poet Sjón, Eggers crafted The Northman, a historically accurate tale of honor, revenge and extreme violence that hit theaters in April.

The Northman follows Amleth (Skarsgård), a Viking prince who watches the brutal murder of his father King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) and the kidnapping of his mother Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), both at the hands of his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang). Two decades later, he returns under the guise of a slave and seeks to avenge his father’s death, save his mother and murder his treacherous uncle. His quest is aided by Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy), an enslaved Slavic woman who claims to be a sorceress. The Focus Features film also includes cameos from Willem Dafoe and Björk.

Eggers used the film as a re-imagining of Icelandic sagas and Viking legends, like the Scandinavian legend of Amleth. The tale features a young prince seeking revenge on his uncle for murdering his father and stealing his mother, which served as the basis for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Click below to read the script, co-written by Sjón and Eggers.

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Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates

Movies

Last Updated: December 23, 2022, 22:14 IST

Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh’s ‘Current Laga’ plans short circuits; Telugu actor Kaikala Satyanarayana dies at 87

Ranveer Singh and Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus fails to impress the audience at the box office; Telugu actor Kaikala Satyanarayana dies at 87,

Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh’s Cirkus fails to impress the viewers, as per the reviews. News18’s review reads, “Rohit Shetty pulled out his iconic guns for Cirkus — the stellar comical cast, the punchlines, and even drew a connection with the Golmaal series, but the script got lost in the magic box. The first half of the film feels like a traffic-jammed trip to Ooty — the view is great but the people (or story in this case) refuse to move forward. There is only one comedy scene that lights up everyone in the first half, giving us false hopes that Rohit is finally coming into form but it falls flat soon after.”

For more: Cirkus Movie Review: Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh’s ‘Current Laga’ Plans Short Circuits

Ankit Gupta is eliminated from Bigg Boss 16! Yes, you read that right. This comes two days after a nomination task in which Ankit was saved by Priyanka Chahar Choudhary as she sacrificed Rs 25 lakh from prize money. But it seems like Ankit has again faced the elimination process and this time, he has been shown the exit door by the housemates.

For more: Bigg Boss 16: Ankit Gupta Eliminated for Having Least Contribution on Salman Khan’s Show; Deets Inside

Shehnaaz Gill shared a series of photos where the actress can be seen wearing a heavily embroidered golden sharara and posing for the camera. She looked drop-dead gorgeous as she accessorised her look with heavy jewellery. She opted for a low bun and went for subtle makeup which went exceptionally well with her attire. Well, Shehnaaz really knows the art of acing every look and just like her fans, we can’t stop gushing.

For more: Shehnaaz Gill Wows Netizens As She Looks Ethereal In Embellished Sharara; Netizens Call Her ‘Desi Girl’

Disha Patani painted Instagram black in the most sensual way. She uploaded pictures of herself looking drop-dead gorgeous in a black body-hugging dress that has cut-out designs on one arm and waist. She opted for open hair and minimal make-up and paired her outfit with matching stilettoes. The off-white background, which appears to be a room, aptly enhances the actress’ beauty in black attire. The album also features Disha’s rumoured boyfriend Aleksandar Alex Ilic.

For more: Disha Patani Poses With Rumoured BF Aleksandar in Sexy Cut-Out Dress, Pics Set Instagram on Fire

Veteran Telugu actor and former Parliamentarian Kaikala Satyanarayana died at his Jubilee Hills residence in Hyderabad in the early hours of Friday after a brief illness, said his family members. The 87-year-old actor is survived by his wife, son and two daughters. The last rites of Kaikala will be performed at Mahaprasthanam crematorium in Jubilee Hills on Saturday. In his six-long decade career in the film industry, he has acted in over 750 films.

For more: Telugu Actor Kaikala Satyanarayana Dies at 87, Chiranjeevi, Allu Arjun, Others Offer Condolences

Read all the Latest Movies News here

Entertainment Bureau

Entertainment Bureau brings you all updates from the world of entertainment — breaking news, Twitter trends, features, movie reviews, exclusive inter…Read More

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Last Updated: December 23, 2022, 22:14 ISTRohit

Film

Patti Smith hosted a New York screening of Corsage last week, one of many showings since the Oscar-shortlisted Best International Feature contender premiered to a warm welcome in Cannes, where it won Best Performance, Un Certain Regard, for star Vicky Krieps as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Sisi for short. It’s fitting that Smith, royalty of the avant-garde, came out to support a film about an iconoclastic princess.

The musician, poet and artist, “has been a fan of Vicky since Phantom Thread” — Krieps’ 2017 breakout role as muse to a haute couture designer played by Daniel Day-Lewis. “She even has a Phantom Thread club. She saw the [Corsage] trailer and kind of fell for it,” says Corsage writer-director Marie Kreutzer.

In her film, Krieps is muse to an empire as the stunning, slightly off-kilter, fashion-forward wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I in the latter 1800s. She died in 1898, remaining one of Austria’s most popular historical figures. Kreutzer and Krieps excavate the revolutionary modern thinker and flouter of social norms behind Sisi images on coffee mugs and candy boxes as well as older on-screen fairytale adaptations.

It’s unusual to see the heroine of a 19th century costume drama exercising to a sweat with stationary rings, or weighing herself daily. It’s all “true to what I read about her as a person,” said Kreutzer. “The books that were most important to me were the diaries of her daughter, and lady in waiting, Marie…She was really a great, very smart woman and a good observer. And the way she writes about her [is] very tender, loving, but so critical at the same time. I could reread it again and again.”

Sisi is having a moment, including two recent series and another film project on the way. “When we were in financing, suddenly there were Sisi everywhere. I don’t know why. There’s no anniversary or anything that would explain it,” Kreutzer says. “I just think we’re always drawn to the stories” — from Spencer to Blonde – “of a tragic, beautiful woman who’s trapped in her role.”

IFC Films presents Corsage at the IFC Center and Film at Lincoln Center in NYC today, arriving in LA next weekend ahead of a national expansion.

The film, Deadline review here, is an Austria-Luxembourg-Germany-France co-production, Kreutzer’s biggest project yet. It opened in Austria in July and is still in theaters. “That’s something I’m so happy about, because Austrian people don’t really go to see Austrian films.”

“Cinema is in a difficult position” at the moment, she acknowledged, as theaters struggle to move past Covid and compete with streaming. “I think it’s like, yeah, that’s how it is. And we have to make the best of it.” Streaming creates opportunity for “the numbers of people who see my film, which I could never make with a theatrical release.” Personally, she only streams series, keeping feature films for the big screen. “When I want to see a certain actor or actress, or what a director did, I have to see them in theaters.”

Also opening: United Artists Releasing presents Sarah Polley’s acclaimed Women Talking from Orion Pictures in eight locations in NYC, LA, Chicago, Austin, and Toronto, expanding thereafter with a wide release set for Jan. 20. Based on the book by Miriam Toews with Brad Pitt as an executive producer, the film premiered at Telluride. Deadline review here. Scores 98% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The starry cast includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand. A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the men there.

Sony Pictures Classics presents Oliver Hermanos’ Living on three screens in New York (Angelika, New Plaza Cinema) and LA (Royal). Written by Nobel Prize-winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro, and starring Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, the film is the story of an ordinary man reduced to a shadow existence by years of oppressive office routine, who makes a supreme effort to turn his dull life around. This reimagining of the 1952 film Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa premiered at Sundance. With a 93% critics score. See Deadline review.

Magnolia Pictures presents Emer Reynolds Joyride in five theaters including the Glendale Laemmle in LA, and on VOD. Olivia Colman, Charlie Reed, Lochlann Ó Mearáin. A complicated middle-aged mother (Colman) and troubled adolescent (Reid) meet under unusual circumstances and end up traveling together across Ireland.

Netflix opens Scott Cooper’s historical crime drama The Pale Blue Eye in 55 theaters in 35 cities including the Paris and the Quad in NYC, the Landmark Westwood, Los Feliz and the Bay in LA, ahead of a Jan. 6 streaming date. A New York City detective Augustus Landor (Bale) investigates a gruesome murder at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, circa 1832, aided by a young Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling) goes along to observe and detect. Deadline review here.

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Patti Smith hosted a New York screening

TV

The global television scene offered up an embarrassment of riches this year, with a seemingly endless supply of phenomenal dramas, comedies and crime procedurals as good as, or often better, than the best on offer Stateside.

The international expansion of Netflix, Amazon, AppleTV+ and others has meant many global talents now have the financial means to make their dream originals, while series from more traditional local broadcasters have access to global platforms, and a worldwide audience, on a scale never seen before.

Ahead of the winter break, The Hollywood Reporter continues its holiday tradition in picking out the best international series to binge-watch over the holiday season. Our favorite 2022 series stocking stuffers include a feminist spy thriller from Germany, a Korean take on a British romantic classic and a deep dive into the French hip-hop scene of the 1980s. (Check out our list of international holiday movies to watch here.)

Beyond Evil

‘Beyond Evil’

Courtesy of Everett Collection

Shin Ha-kyun and Yeo Jin-goo play two oil-and-water police detectives who join forces to try and solve a 20-year-old cold case murder that they think was the work of a serial killer. This Korean thriller evokes Bong Joon Ho’s procedural classic Memories of Murder (2003) in its twisty, but also terrifying, exploration of the dark heart of man. (Streaming on Netflix)

Bad Sisters

'Bad Sisters'

‘Bad Sisters’

Courtesy of AppleTV+

Sharon Horgan’s Irish family whodunnit, the first fruit of Horgan’s multiyear deal with AppleTV+, is farcical, absurd and ridiculously entertaining. When John Paul (Claes Bang), beloved husband to Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) gets offed, every one of Grace’s siblings — Horgan, Sarah Greene, Eve Hewson and Yasmine Akram — is a suspect. The show balances the drama, comedy and mystery elements perfectly, but it’s the chemistry between this cast of sisters that makes the show sing. (Streaming on AppleTV+)

Beforeigners

Beforeigners

‘Beforeigners’

HBO Max

This Norwegian drama was a casualty of HBO Max’s budget cuts of 2022. But the show’s first two seasons are available on Amazon in the U.S. and reward rewatching. The show’s fascinating high-concept premise — involving time-traveler refugees from Norway’s past, including cave men, vikings and 19th-century dandies, who arrive in present-day Oslo — is the kickoff point for one of most fascinating world-building exercises on the small screen. What starts as a procedural crime drama, with the detective team of modern-man detective Lars (Nicolai Cleve Broch) and Old Norse ex-shield-maiden Alfhildr (Krista Kosonen), soon expands into an unclassifiable sci-fi/mystery/comedy that, by the end of season 2, is clearly just getting started. (Streaming on Amazon)

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’

@Netflix

This delightful K-drama, about an autistic rookie female lawyer with a genius IQ and extremely poor social skills, is extremely cute — all pastel colors and plot problems tied up nicely with a bow by series’ end. But it’s impossible to resist Park Eun-bin’s star-making turn as the irrepressible Attorney Woo. (Streaming on Netflix)

Finding Ola

Finding Ola

‘Finding Ola’

The standout series from Netflix’s new Middle East originals, this drama features Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry as a divorcée who sets off on a journey of self-discovery. Sabry is reprising a role she played in acclaimed 2010 romantic comedy series Ayza Atgawez (I Want to Get Married), but here, her character Ola is older, wiser and a lot busier, trying to balance demands as a single mother, her career as a pharmacist and responsibilities as the daughter of aging parents, with her own hopes to find new love. A story of female empowerment with a gentle Arab touch. (Streaming on Netflix)

On the Job

On the Job

‘On the Job’

Filipino filmmaker Erik Matti, together with screenwriter Michiko Yamamoto, re-cut his 2013 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight favorite into this six-part miniseries for HBO Asia. A noir crime thriller, inspired by a real-life scandal in which prison inmates were temporarily released to work as contract killers for local politicians and military officials, the series loses nothing in the transition to the small screen. And its themes relating to the real-world impact of fake news and manufactured online “truth” are, if anything, more relevant than ever. (Streaming on HBO Max)

Queen Song

Queen Song

‘Queen Song’

This South Africa spy action series should properly have gone on last year’s list, but we somehow missed it. No worries, though: The adventures of a badass secret operative, played with furious elan by Pearl Thusi, has not dated a day. The Netflix series plays with themes of South African politics, pre- and post-apartheid, but its main appeal is Thusi and the impressive action scenes throughout. (Streaming on Netflix)

Kleo

Kleo

‘Kleo’

Courtesy of Netflix

Another feminist spy thriller in heavy rotation on our Netflix account this year was this German entry. Rising star Jella Haase (Suck Me Shakespeer, Berlin Alexanderplatz) dazzles as an East German Stasi-trained assassin who spent the final days of the Cold War in a West German prison cell, only to be set free after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She then sets off, Kill Bill style, to take out the people who conspired to betray her. Kleo‘s slick style and dark ironic comedy will remind viewers of Killing Eve, but this series can stand on its own, in large part due to Hasse’s can’t-stop-watching performance. (Streaming on Netflix)

Vincenzo

Vincenzo

‘Vincenzo’

@Netflix

Gomorrah, Korean style. This epic gangster tale sees Song Joong-ki play the titular Vincenzo Cassano, a Korean-Italian mob lawyer and consigliere to the Cassano crime family who returns to Korea to find a spot to stash the mob’s assets and expand the family’s money-laundering business. Once there, however, he gets caught up in a local turf war and, unwittingly, becomes a warrior for justice. Vincenzo nails the action and thrills, even if its tonal shifts to slapstick comedy can sometimes jar. (Streaming on Netflix)

Suzhal: The Vortex

Suzhal: The Vortex

‘Suzhal: The Vortex’

@Amazon-Studios

This murder mystery takes the Nordic Noir trope of a missing girl whose disappearance tears through a small community and reinvents it for the setting in southern India. The somber greens and greys of Denmark are replaced with the vibrant colors of Tamil Nadu as a police investigation into the case plays out over the 10 days of a temple festival. The plot is largely an excuse to explore themes of religion, superstition and industrial unrest, but the series doesn’t neglect the mechanics of the whodunnit. It’ll have you guessing up to the last reveal. (Streaming on Amazon)

Oh Hell

Oh Hell

‘Oh Hell’

@magentaTV

Arguably the best show, period, in 2022, this gem of a German dramedy channels Fleabag and Single Drunk Female in a story of 20-something Helene (Mala Emde), who is extremely self-aware, and extremely-funny, but still seemingly unable to avoid extreme acts of self-sabotage. (Streaming on HBO Max)

Reign Supreme

Reign Supreme

‘Reign Supreme’

-Jean-Claude-LOTHER-LES-FILMS-DU-BELIER-ARTE-France

Winner of this year’s best series at SeriesMania, this French drama is a deep dive into the local hip-hop scene, tracing the origin story of seminal French rap band Suprême NTM. Come for the music and stay for the ground-level look at the forces shaping France in the 1980s. (Streaming on Netflix)

Little Women

Little Woman

‘Little Women’

Taking the bare bones of Louisa May Alcott’s classic as a jumping-off point, this Korean drama follows three very different sisters who grow up poor and find themselves the target of the ultra-rich Park family when a corporate slush fund goes missing and the sisters are linked to its disappearance. Don’t expect much 19th-century romance here. This Little Women is a suspenseful, twisty tale of power, greed and deception that shows off the best of what Korean TV can do. (Streaming on Netflix)

Prisma

Prisma

‘Prisma’

@AmazonStudios

The pick of the many, many high-school dramas out there, this Italian series features Mattia Carrano in the central role as Andrea and Marco, twin brothers, identical on the outside, with very different approaches to life. The show explores all the typical YA drama — friendship, love, identity both social and sexual — but does so with a refreshing sense of patience, empathy, and discovery. (Streaming on Amazon)

Derry Girls

Derry Girls

‘Derry Girls’

Courtesy of Netflix

Lisa McGee’s cracker coming-of-age comedy had a note-perfect finish in season 2, closing with Bill Clinton’s historic visit to Derry and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. But it would be churlish to deny the cast and crew one last go-around. We could have done without the celebrity cameos — though Liam Neeson is hilarious as a put-upon local copper — but Season 3 manages to deliver the same magic mix of the personal and the political, the poignant and the hilariously absurd that made Derry Girls such a revelation. (Streaming on Netflix)

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The global television scene offered up an

What to Watch

Published:

(Photo by: NBC)

In the past, NBC has used competition series to help fill gaps in its primetime schedule. Sometimes the shows last and get renewed and sometimes, they get cancelled after a short run. Will The Wheel be renewed for season two? Could it become a staple of the holiday season? Stay tuned.

A trivia game show that’s based on a UK format, The Wheel TV series is hosted by its creator, British comedian Michael McIntyre. In the game, a 42-foot-wide spinning wheel of celebrity guests helps everyday contestants as they try to win a lot of cash. As the contestants vie for the chance to win over $100,000, the celebrities lend their expertise and support in various humorous and unexpected categories of trivia, ranging from poker and politics to candy and comedians. Guests include Cat Cora, Mark McGrath, Todrick Hall, Steve Kornacki, Christina Ricci, Amber Ruffin, Vivica A. Fox, Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, JoJo, John Urschel, Captain Sandy Yawn, Bruno Tonioli, Judge Greg Mathis, Ricki Lake, Mark Sanchez, Amber Ruffin, Justin Willman, Tori Spelling, Buddy Valastro, Amber Riley, Jaime Camil, Carnie Wilson, Steve Kornacki, Sheila E, Tom Bergeron, Shawn Johnson East, Captain Lee Rosbach, Kyla Pratt, Victor Cruz, and Debbie Gibson.

The ratings are typically the best indication of a show’s chances of staying on the air. The higher the ratings, the better the chances of survival. This chart will be updated as new ratings data becomes available.

12/23 update: You can see the latest night’s ratings in context.

Note: If you’re not seeing the updated chart, please try reloading the page or view it here.

Note: These are the final national ratings, including all live+same day viewing and DVR playback (through 3:00 AM). Early fast affiliate ratings (estimates) are indicated with an “*”. While these numbers don’t include further delayed or streaming viewing, they are a very good indicator of how a show is performing, especially when compared to others on the same channel. There can be other economic factors involved in a show’s fate, but typically the higher-rated series are renewed and the lower-rated ones are cancelled.

 

What do you think? Do you like The Wheel TV series on NBC? Should it be cancelled or renewed for a second season?

Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.

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Published: December 23, 2022(Photo by: NBC) In the

Entertaintment, TV

We see a lot revealed in Jack Ryan Season 3 episode 4, Jack and Mike are interrogating Levan Zubkov, they soon find out the Uranium which he is dealing is being shipped to Matoksa. Meanwhile Greer has been investigating the president’s father Petr who we find out was a soldier at Matoksa and is working with Radek and Petrov on the Sokol union project. The episode ends with Radek driving away with the president after learning the CIA is on to him.

Read the recap of Season 3 Episode 4 here.

The summary for episode 5 reads, “Jack and Mike head to a mysterious, abandoned outpost in Russia to seize the Sokol nuclear device, but an unexpected visitor foils their plans. Meanwhile, Petr seeks to rescue Alena, who has been kidnapped by her own head of security.”

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JACK RYAN SEASON 3 EPISODE 5

Jack’s Sokol investigation has taken him from Athens, Greece, Vienna, Austria, Budapest, Hungary and now back to where this story originated 50 years ago, Matoksa. Episode 5 starts with Levan bring taken into custody by Elizabeth. As you may remember in the last episode, she convinced Jack to give up his location. She asks Jack if he has a plan for Matoksa, the nuclear fallout site where the uranium is being shipped, and of course, he does. She promises backup when he makes his move. Some thing to note from this conversation is Jack asks her “The agency, or just you? To which she replies “good luck.” We then see Elizabeth answer a phone call from a frustrated Angent Miller, but when he asks where Jack is, she covers for him and simply says she’s waiting to hear back. From this we can officially say, Elizabeth is now team Ryan. That’s some significant character development since the first episode.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

In Prague, we see what has happened to President Alena Kovac. Radek drives nervously with her in the back seat, she soon realizes he is making up this plan as he goes. Meanwhile what Radek feared for his family was correct, as we see Petr enter his home with a gun and a silencer, luckily Radek’s wife and kid have already left, but Petr threatens to find his family, which is when Radek says “My family for yours,” as he has Kovac ziptied in the back seat of the car. He then tells Petr to meet him at the president’s mansion in the country for a trade.

 

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

In the meantime, Jack’s plan is in motion. Jack, Mike, and tactical team of 2 have made it into Matoksa, and are communicating with Wright. Since the site is supposedly covered by nuclear fallout, the team senses a radiation signal, the signal continues to get stronger with every few steps, Jack finds it odd that the meter would jump so high so fast, suspecting it was a cover to keep people away, so of course Jack being Jack tests his theory in a very risky move by continuing to move forward through the area that was giving off high signals of radiation.

As he did, one of the members of the team asked him “Are you really willing to bet your life on this?”, Jack turned around, but kept going, and he was right, it was a false reading, and in that moment Mike proudly says “Yeah, he does that”, a perfect description of Jack Ryan. This bold movie is similar to when Jack pulled thr pin of a grenade in the pilot episode of the series, threatening to kill himself and the two terrorists in the room, betting on whether or not they’d make a move.

Back in the Czech Republic, Greer and his team have tracked down Radecks family, and have now found where Radeck and the president are going, and that Petr is headed there as well. In a very direct move, we see Greer call Petr and confront him with what he knows to be true. He is even so direct as to question whether or not Petr would actually kill his own daughter to protect his beloved cause.

Jack and his team finally reach their target, but surprise, surprise, Luka is there too, and he warns the Russians they are coming. Wait a second. What’s going on. Whose side is Luka on?

While this is going on, Radek has reached the president’s country home, he kills the guard and shoves the president into a shed that is located above a lake, but that doesn’t hold her for long because while Radek continues to set a trap for Petr, rigging the property with an explosive device and a trip wire, President Kovac tries to find a way to escape, she find a nail to cut her her ties free and then loosens a few nails on the floor which leads to the lake below and then slips through it. Meanwhile Radek has set himself up on the roof with a sniper rifle waiting for Petr.

Jack and his team make their approach into the building taking out man by man, when Jack finally makes it into the

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

control room, he comes face to face with Luka, as he starts talking Jack pulls his gun on him. He seems to have lost a sense of trust in him. In that tense moment Luka tells Jack he has been working from the inside, but Jack does not seem happy when he finds out he knew about this plan all along. Things get really intense when Luka asks Jack to let them go, saying there is no way of stopping this and following the device which was made of the uranium from Levan is the only way he can find out who is behind all this chaos. “Sokol did not come back from the dead, it never died, says Luka asking for Jack’s trust, Jack lowers his weapon.

When Petr finally makes it to the house, after scouting out the place, he sets off Radek’s trip wire, the explosion distracts him, and Kovak makes it upto the house. When Radek enters, just as he is about to confront her with the truth, Petr stabs him from behind. In that moment she comes to realize the truth behind Radek’s words and what kind of person her father really was. He admits it all, working with Radek, ordering the Minister of Defense’s assassination, being behind Sokol. He even admits to playing dirty plitics in order to have her elected as president.

When Jack and his team are exciting the building they get into a gunfight with the Russians, which allows Luka to escape with the device. Jack’s team then exits via helicopter taking out as many hostiles as possible on the way.

When Greer arrives at the Boathouse, Petr is gone and Alena is still in shock. Greer wonders whether or not she know where her father is, but by her state of bewilderment, she looks just as in the dark as everyone else. Where has he disappeared to? That’s a question for another episode, but we know what he plans to do next. “Nobody knows anyone anymore, not really,” she says to Greer. Which can apply to Luka and Jack as well.

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

At the end of the episode, Jack and Mike make it to Finland. Jack tries to call Elizabeth with some news, but it looks like she’s got problems of her own to deal with. She has been recalled by the FBI. However on the bright side, thanks to the data they recovered in Matoksa, Jack finally figures out what the Sokol project’s endgame is. They’re building a missle to mirror an American nuke, so that when it goes off, it will appear as thought it was the Americans who launched it.

 

In What was probably the most thrilling episode of the season so far, we got to see a raid on Matoksa and a hostage situation unfold at the same time. The suspense of one storyline along with the action of the other made this one of the best episodes yet. Once again John Krasinski delivers a stellar performance both emotionally and physically.

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We see a lot revealed in Jack

Awards

As the Oscar shortlist tightens the race, Screen Talk looks at the big picture of this year’s awards season.

Paramount Pictures

Months ago, when “Top Gun: Maverick” took off at the box office, there were early murmurs of Oscar season potential. Compared to traditional fall season awards material, from “TÁR” to “Women Talking,” a giant blockbuster sequel may not have looked like the most obvious Best Picture contender. But now, it even has some company in that department, with “Avatar: The Way of Water” gaining traction in the aftermath of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” taking off. “RRR” may not be an American spectacle, but it also brings a certain blockbuster scale to the awards conversation.

None of this means that other contenders, such as “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” have zero chance at Best Picture. But Hollywood is embracing big commercial movies in awards season because Hollywood needs big commercial movies, period.

In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson discuss what this means as Hollywood is at a crossroads and less likely to greenlight vanity projects from name directors going forward as a result. The pair also talk about the recent Oscar shortlists, including the surprises and snubs among the documentaries and international films. Screen Talk goes on break next year and will return in 2023.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk. 

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.


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As the Oscar shortlist tightens the race,

Music

Taylor Swift is set to direct her first feature film — and she’s already written an original script.

The studio behind The Shape of Water, Searchlight Pictures, will produce the project. But the director’s chair is all hers, Variety reported last week.

This isn’t the first time Swift has written and directed a project — she did both for “All Too Well: The Short Film” which was released alongside Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. She has more than proven her storytelling expertise, having written or co-written the majority of the songs released over 10 solo studio albums. Earlier this year, her newly released Midnights album started breaking records within a day.

Taylor Swift has spent the past five years taking major ownership of her work — literally. She released her first two “Taylor’s Version” albums in 2021, re-recorded versions of previous music Big Machine refused to let her buy full rights to. While more installments of these re-releases will come, 2022’s Midnights was her first full album of original music published since Folklore and Evermore in 2020.

When you have 10 highly successful albums behind you and demand for your first post-pandemic tour is so high it entirely breaks Ticketmaster, you’ve earned the right to take on basically any project you want. Instantly sell out a world tour? Sure. Write and direct an original film just because you can? Go nuts. What might be next after that? Who knows!

If her worth with Searchlight goes well, we’ll likely see more of a mix of projects from Taylor Swift moving forward, which could even lead to her producing movies when she’s between albums and tours.

But only if that’s what she wants to do, of course. A successful career like hers pretty much opens up opportunities for her to follow her creative muses wherever they might take her, and there’s no doubt most of her fans will follow her and her work wherever it leads her.

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Taylor Swift is set to direct

Docs

When most people think of the film industry, they think of actors, directors, and producers. But there’s a crucial role that often goes overlooked – the role of illustrators.

Illustrators play a vital role in the filmmaking process, from pre-production to post-production. In pre-production, illustrators are often responsible for creating concept art and storyboards. This involves visualizing the scenes and characters in the film and creating detailed drawings that help the director and production team plan out the shooting process.

During production, illustrators may be called upon to create props, set designs, and other visual elements for the film. This could involve designing and building physical objects, or creating digital art that will be used in the final film.

In post-production, illustrators may be responsible for creating special effects, matte paintings, and other visual elements that are added to the film in post-production. This can involve using a combination of traditional drawing and painting techniques, as well as digital tools like Photoshop and 3D modeling software.

But the role of illustrators in the film industry goes beyond just creating visual elements for the film. Illustrators are also key members of the creative team, and they often work closely with the director and other filmmakers to help develop the overall look and feel of the film. This can involve brainstorming ideas, providing feedback, and collaborating on creative decisions.

In short, illustrators are an essential part of the film industry. Without them, many films would lack the rich, detailed visuals that we have come to expect from modern cinema. So the next time you watch a movie, remember to appreciate the hard work and creativity of the illustrators who helped bring it to life.

If you are pursuing a career in Illustration, you can find useful tools and freebies to help your journey here.

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When most people think of the film

Global

A major winter storm is descending on Quebec just in time for the holidays, forcing widespread school closures, power outages and travel delays.

Environment Canada has issued a mix of warnings for much of the southern half of the province Friday. Many areas are expected to receive a messy cocktail of heavy snow, rain and strong winds, while some areas could see freezing rain.

“If you absolutely have to hit the road, be sure to adapt your driving and be careful,” Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault wrote on Twitter.

Some regions will get whacked by snow, including the Laurentians and Lanaudière which could see up to 70 centimetres by Christmas Eve day. Quebec City residents are bracing for “hazardous” conditions and the weather agency advises postponing non-essential travel.

Read more:

Winter storm warning prompts preemptive school closures in Montreal

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Meanwhile, Montreal is expected to see up to 20 centimetres of snow before heavy rain (and possibly freezing rain) takes over in the morning.

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“Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow,” the weather agency warns.

Many school boards across the province have cancelled class for the day, including most Montreal-area school boards. It would have been the last day of school before the winter holidays.

When it comes to travelling, officials are asking those who get behind the wheel or head out in the storm to exercise caution. In Montreal, the mayor said the city had nearly finished snow-removal operations from last week’s storm, but was prepared for another round of winter weather.

“This storm could make travel difficult. Be careful,” Valérie Plante wrote.

Read more:

Quebec winter storm could make holiday travel difficult

Those hopping on a plane should check their flight’s status before heading to Montreal or Quebec City airports. Many departures and arrivals are delayed.

Hydro-Québec warns the storm could lead to power outages and says it is monitoring the situation and “will be ready to intervene” when necessary. As of 8 a.m., more than 111,000 customers were in the dark across the province.

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— with files from The Canadian Press

&copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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A major winter storm is descending on

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The Traitors has been a revelation (SPOILERS BELOW) and the ratings haven’t been bad either.

Last night’s finale of the BBC entertainment hit closed with 3.2M, a series high for a ‘word of mouth’ shocker that has steadily accrued viewers over the past weeks. For some, the Claudia Winkleman-hosted caper has really been all they can talk about.

According to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv, a share of more than 20% of UK TV watchers tuned in for a dramatic finale worthy of the bone-janglingly intense 12-part run, in which traitor Kieran was outed and then dramatically hinted at his fellow traitor Wilf’s position with the immortal phrase “a parting gift.” Cue chaos. The remaining faithfuls cottoned on and went home with more than £30,000 ($36,000) each.

The share was a 50% increase on the previous episode and the audience has been steadily growing through the run, an impressive feat given that live viewing has been rising at the same time as new viewers cotton on to the show’s wow factor and catch up on iPlayer. By last night, it appeared many had caught up, and The Traitors was the most-watched program on UK TV yesterday bar the news and Emmerdale.

In almost all areas the show has been heaped with praise as it has grown from sleeper hit to outright hit in double quick time and one consistently singled out has been the intelligent scheduling, which could set a bar.

The Traitors, which is produced from an original Dutch idea from Marc Pos by Gogglebox indie Studio Lambert, aired three times a week at 9 p.m. GMT on BBC One (Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday for its final week) and this has allowed viewers to feed their addiction while not falling too far behind. More could be scheduled in this vein next year, one feels.

The premise is simple: 22 contestants enter a castle – 19 are faithfuls and three are ascribed traitors. Those traitors have to evade their fellow faithful’s watchful eyes while ‘murdering’ one per night and avoiding being ‘banished’ during intense roundtable sessions when contestants select who to evict from the castle. In the daytime, they compete in challenges in order to add money to a prize fund that will eventually be either shared out with the remaining faithfuls – as happened last night – or land with a traitor.

Nobody from the BBC or Studio Lambert could have anticipated the drama that has ensued. Producers are even referring to the opening of one episode as the ‘Red Breakfast’ in a callback to Game of Thrones. As contestants stayed longer in the game, their paranoia grew – and at some point everyone was accused.

Casting has also been lauded, with producers praised for choosing a diverse, ‘normal’ bunch of contestants that the public can relate to. Love in particular goes out to 72-year-old Andrea, who almost made it to the end, repping an area of diversity that is maybe less discussed in the wider diversity debate – older people living alone. Not a dry eye was in the house for her departure speech.

Since launching in The Netherlands on RTL4 having been created and produced by All3Media-backed indie IDTV, The Traitors has had 11 recommissions in less than a year – demonstrating its instant global appeal.

All eyes now turn to NBC’s U.S. version for Peacock launching next month, in which celebrities will compete for the prize alongside non-celebs, and to whether the BBC will choose to order a second season, although it’s hard to imagine this is in doubt. More international sales are also incoming, we hear, with distributor All3Media International shopping far and wide.

In what has been a cold, dark December full of strikes and bad weather, The Traitors has shone out like a beacon – a reminder that ‘word of mouth’ hits still exist in the age of peak content and streaming. The BBC will be simply delighted.

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The Traitors has been a revelation (SPOILERS

Tech

The data breach incident that hit password manager (opens in new tab) LastPass earlier this year saw the thieves crooks steal encrypted password vaults belonging customers, the company has confirmed.

The password vault is where people keep their passwords, so should the attackers find a way to decrypt the vaults, they’d be able to read all of the passwords saved in there.

In an update (opens in new tab) published on the LastPass blog, CEO Karim Toubba said that the threat actors used cloud storage keys stolen from a LastPass employee to access and exfiltrate customer vault data. The data stolen is a combination of encrypted intelligence – password vaults, and unencrypted information – vault-stored web addresses, names, email addresses, phone numbers, and in some cases – billing information.

Master password secure

The good news is that the password vaults are stored in a “proprietary binary format”, meaning that it’s close to impossible to actually read the contents. For that, the attackers would need the customer’s master password, which no one but the user (hopefully) knows. LastPass claims not to know this info. 

“These encrypted fields remain secured with 256-bit AES encryption and can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user’s master password using our Zero Knowledge architecture,” Toubba said. “As a reminder, the master password is never known to LastPass and is not stored or maintained by LastPass.”

Still, the company warned cybercriminals “may attempt to use brute force to guess your master password and decrypt the copies of vault data they took,” which could be a problem if the users created weak and easy-to-guess master passwords. 

For those worried their master password might be cracked, the best thing to do right now would be to change it to something more resilient. If you have reason to believe the contents of your vault might be compromised, then changing the passwords is the only way to stay safe (aside from setting up multi-factor authentication whenever possible). 

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The data breach incident that hit password

Video

During the latest episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit series, presented by HBO, TV editors Michael Schneider and Emily Longeretta looked through the year’s best in television limited series and outlined their awards season potential. Among the shows discussed were “The White Lotus,” which just wrapped a much-viewed season two, “Pam & Tommy,” “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” “The Dropout” and more. Here’s who could win big in the upcoming ceremonies.

“Pam & Tommy” was recognized as a show that initially did not have any awards season buzz, but has since become a big player at the Emmys and Golden Globes. Praise was directed toward the Hulu show’s curation of its mid-1990s time period, along with the performances of leads Sebastian Stan and Lily James as the eponymous characters in a show that gave audiences a deeper perspective beyond what was previously known about the celebrity couple’s tumultuous marriage.

On the highly-lauded second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” which stars the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Michael Imperioli and more along with the return of series star Jennifer Coolidge, Schneider and Longeretta noted potential awards season buzz for star Meghann Fahy, whose notable performance in the finale resonated with audiences and critics. Overall, the pair said the show’s second season finale could certainly boost its chances of awards season love down the line.

“A Friend of the Family” and “Station Eleven” were recognized as potential dark horse contenders in limited series, with praise given to the shows’ individual performances along with the emotional narrative behind the Mackenzie Davis- and Himesh Patel-starring series.

Watch the full video above.

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During the latest episode of Variety‘s Awards

Entertaintment

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

LAST UPDATED: Dec. 22, 2022

2023 Oscars Predictions: Best Live Action Short

Image from “Warsha”

CATEGORY COMMENTARY: The big takeaway from the Oscars shortlist announcement was an entire lineup that doesn’t feature any U.S. titles. All but Tom Berkeley and Ross White’s “An Irish Goodbye” are non-English, which could be an advantage moving toward Oscar nom voting which begins on Jan. 12.

The non-English title increase shouldn’t be interpreted as a “bad thing” since we consistently encourage Academy members to seek more non-traditional and international titles. However, this could point to another example of how the increase in international voters has had an incredible effect.

That also could point to the omissions of the two music superstars — Taylor Swift (“All Too Well”) and Kendrick Lamar (“We Cry Together”) — being snubbed from the shortlist.

The most recognizable name in the discussion is four-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, who produced Disney’s “Le Pupille” from writer and director Alice Rohrwacher. Making stops at the Cannes, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals, the movie could have the most buzz to bring it to the finish line.

The Criterion Channel made a significant flex in the shorts categories, notably with Dania Bdeir’s “Warsha,” a story of a Beirut crane operator living out his secret passion.

They’ll be more buzz to consider as people begin to watch them over the holiday break.

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

ALL AWARDS CONTENDERS AND RANKINGS:

An image from “An Irish Goodbye”

And The Predicted Nominees Are:
Rank Name Director(s) Distributor(s)
1 “An Irish Goodbye” Tom Berkeley, Ross White Floodlight Pictures
In rural Northern Ireland, a pair of estranged brothers reunite following their mother’s untimely death.
2 “Le Pupille” Alice Rohrwacher Disney+
Follow the rebellious girls of a Catholic boarding school before Christmas, a time of war and scarcity.
3 “The Red Suitcase” Cyrus Neshvad Cynefilms
Luxembourg Airport. Late in the evening. A veiled 16-year-old Iranian girl is frightened to take her red suitcase on the automatic carpet. She keeps pushing back the moment to go through the arrival gate and seems more and more terrified.
4 “Warsha” Dania Bdeir The Criterion Channel
Away from everyone’s eyes, a Beirut crane operator is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.
5 “Nakam” Andreas Kessler Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Twelve year old violin player Mitka is supposed to execute an attack on several SS officers in the name of a Ukrainian partisan movement. But his attempt will also put his only friend in life danger.
Next in Line
6 “Ivalu” Anders Walter M&M Productions
Ivalu is gone. Her little sister is desperate to find her. Her father does not care. The vast Greenlandic nature holds secrets. The search for Ivalu is on.
7 “Sideral” Carlos Segundo The Animation Showcase
In Natal, on the Brazilian coast, the country is preparing to launch its first manned space rocket into space. A couple lives with children near the space center, she is a cleaner and he is a mechanic, but she dreams of other horizons.
8 “The Right Words” Adrian Moyse Dullin Punchline Cinéma
When naive and romantic Mahdi is peer-pressured into confessing his love to Jada, a girl who doesn’t know he exists, his declaration becomes a public spectacle.
9 “Almost Home” Nils Keller Le Hof Media
When they learn of an outbreak of a dangerous virus shortly before their long-awaited return to Earth, a teenager and his mother struggle to decide whether to land or return to space aboard their confined spaceship.
10 “All in Favor” Santiago Requejo 2:59 Films
What begins as an ordinary meeting of neighbors to vote on the change of elevator, ends up becoming an unexpected debate on the limits of coexistence.
Also In Contention
— “The Lone Wolf” Filipe Melo Força de Produção
— “Night Ride” Eirik Tveiten Cylinder Production
— “Plastic Killer” Jose Pozo Arlong Productions
— “The Treatment” Álvaro Carmona Line Up Shorts
— “Tula” Beatriz Silva Agencia Audiovisual Freak

2023 Academy Awards Predictions

BEST PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTOR | ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY | ADAPTED SCREENPLAY | ANIMATED FEATURE | PRODUCTION DESIGN | CINEMATOGRAPHY | COSTUME DESIGN | FILM EDITING | MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING | SOUND | VISUAL EFFECTS | ORIGINAL SCORE | ORIGINAL SONG | DOCUMENTARY FEATURE | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE | ANIMATED SHORT | DOCUMENTARY SHORT | LIVE ACTION SHORT

The 95th Oscars ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre and televised live on ABC on Sunday, March 12, 2022.

2022 category winner: “The Long Goodbye” (WePresent) – Aniel Karia, Riz Ahmed

About Variety Awards Circuit:

Variety’s unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online and provides inside reports on all the contenders in this year’s awards season races. In addition to predictions, the section includes — Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders in the race; Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly series featuring interviews with the top contenders in the awards race and an expert roundtable discussion with Variety’s leading editors and columnists; Awards Circuit Predictions Video Series, a deep dive into specific categories, led by the leading pundits.

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Variety Awards Circuit section is the home

Movies

In my time as an occasional culture reporter, I’ve come to expect strange days at work.

This one, which involved a round trip to Burlington and flipping a grown man to the ground, might be one of the strangest.

The film “Fight Another Day” follows a cop, played by Eric Johnson (“Fifty Shades Darker”), into a dystopian future, where he must fight different villains throughout history in order to return to the past. His roster of enemies includes a gladiator, a samurai warrior and a cowboy, and the film boasts a number of star performances including Jim Belushi and Martin Kove (“The Karate Kid”).

James Mark, writer and director of the film, has an extensive background in stunt work (he was a stunt double on Toronto gem “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” in 2010). Growing up surrounded by fighter movies, he knew he wanted to make them one day.

“I started with karate, then transitioned to taekwondo,” he said in an interview on the set of “Fight Another Day.” “We grew up watching all the greats — Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee — and that inspired me to get into film. I started as a stunt double.” (The craziest stunt he’s ever done? A drop from 40 feet with no airbag.)

What some might be surprised to learn is just how much preparation goes into getting a stunt ready for filming. On “Fight Another Day,” Mark worked with his team to break down the script and design “base choreography.”

“We shoot the fight with the edit in mind,” he said. “We don’t shoot the entire fight from one angle, then another, then another: we’ll go from punch to punch and decide what looks best from each angle … and then on the day of the shoot, we copy that and we go in chronological order. Any time there’s a cut point, that’s a new shot. So we can move very quickly that way.”

While CGI-enhanced stunts have become something of an industry standard, Mark has a personal appreciation for “practical stunts,” or stunts performed without the help of a computer or editing.

“It’s the old-school way of doing it. But I still lean into that direction a bit more,” he said.

The time travel element of the film came from wanting to see as many different types of fighters as possible onscreen. Mark was determined to make it happen.

“We wanted these warriors from different time periods to fight each other and we landed on time travel to do that. Of course, that brought its own complexities to the project and, as we know, there are some very, very serious time travel movies,” he said.

Johnson, too, grew up with action movies and dreamed of starring in them as a kid.

“When I was thinking about this career as a kid, it was always the idea of doing an action movie, something really physical with one-liners and stuff,” he said in an interview.

“I saw ‘Fight Another Day’ as a challenge … it meant I wouldn’t be spending all that time in the gym for nothing! This was an opportunity to try something definitely not in my regular wheelhouse, and to challenge myself and hopefully walk away without too many bumps and bruises,” he continued.

“I’m surrounded by very, very talented stunt performers. I feel like I’m in a super band, playing rhythm guitar, just trying not to screw it up. Everybody else is so good … it’s a testament to how professional and how prepared everyone’s been for this.”

Film producer Bruno Marino spoke in an interview of the enduring fan base for genre films like “Fight Another Day.” According to him, the “genre space” very much still exists.

“Marvel movies dominate the theatrical space now, but then there’s all the streamers like Amazon, Netflix and whatnot. So there’s a place for independent film to exist, which has given us opportunities to not only rely on traditional formats like video-on-demand or DVD,” he said.

“There’s someone out there for every movie. It’s just a matter of getting it to them. Half the battle is getting the movie made and the other half is getting it seen,” he continued.

Christina Ochoa, who plays Isabelle in the film, agrees: even for what some might consider a niche or a genre film, there will always be an audience there waiting for it.

“I did a show a while back called ‘Blood Drive’ and it was very much a genre,” she said in an interview. “But that audience was so fervent, like diehard fans … if enthusiasm is the new metric, genre still has it.” Ochoa grew up a fan of old-school fighter films like “Total Recall” and “True Lies.”

The other crucial part of getting a film made, beyond finding a target audience, is engaging a knockout cast. Kove, best known for his appearances in the “Karate Kid” franchise and now Netflix’s “Cobra Kai,” was eager to make a futuristic movie.

“I liked how this one was written,” he said in an interview. “The written word is everything … you can rarely make a bad movie from a great script. You can have a fair script and make a bad movie, or a good script and a bad movie. But when you have a great script like this one, and the words are terrific, rarely are you gonna kill it in production.”

Kove fosters an enormous reverence for classic Western narratives (his ringtone is the theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”), and appreciated that “Fight Another Day” incorporates elements of the Western genre into its storytelling.

“My dream is to rejuvenate the Western,” he said. “My whole world is the West … kids today don’t have a hero. I think they need a hero. And heroes of the old Western cinema, the American heritage of cinema, I want to emulate that — I’m not a writer, but I can produce, and I can act. We can bring back the genre to the kids who don’t know much about it.”

The best part of making a fighter movie?

Teaching an unsuspecting journalist how to flip another human being.

Mark and stunt man Dylan Rampulla showed me how exactly a stunt is filmed: first, you mark out the choreography. The person getting “hurt” (not me, in this case!) is generally the person doing the most work. For this stunt, Rampulla showed me how he’d react to my “punches,” and even though I knew I wasn’t hitting him, it looked completely real.

Then, after our “fight,” I got the honour of “finishing” it by bringing him to the floor. Mark and Rampulla showed me how to move so that the flip would look real — really, Rampulla just did a front aerial while I did very little.

“Audiences are inundated with special effects and all these huge, very costly scenes that you see,” said Mark.

“But I think, because they’ve seen them so often, that the audience just kind of yawns at this point … we don’t need those effects. We have the great story.

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In my time as an occasional culture

Film

Bollywood megastar Ranveer Singh is stoked about the Friday release of Rohit Shetty’s comedy “Cirkus.”

The film was shot under strict COVID-19 protocols and is one of the major post-pandemic Bollywood releases. “It’s made with joy, and its objective is to spread joy. So, the Christmas release is coming at just the right time, when families get together and go out and do joint activities – movie-going being one of them. It’s the perfect fit, coming at the perfect time and I get to explore yet another facet of my repertoire,” Singh told Variety.

In the 12 years since he made his debut as a happy-go-lucky wedding planner in “Band Baaja Baaraat” (2010), Singh has essayed a variety of roles ranging from a conflicted army general in historical drama “Bajirao Mastani” (2015) to playing the antagonist in epic “Padmaavat” (2018), a rapper from the slums of Mumbai in “Gully Boy” (2019) and World Cup-winning Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev in “83” (2021).

The actor has explored comedy before, as a comic policeman in Shetty’s cop universe films “Simmba” (2018) and “Sooryavanshi” (2021) and as a crusading villager in “Jayeshbhai Jordaar” (2022), but “Cirkus” is the first time he is venturing into slapstick territory. “It is like a mishmash of all kinds of humor – insult humor, slapstick humor, situational humor. So, it was fun and fulfilling to be a part of this comedy, it allowed me to do something I was really looking forward to exploring since a really long time,” Singh said.

“Cirkus,” set in the 1960s, is loosely based on William Shakespeare’s play “The Comedy of Errors,” which has been adapted several times for Indian screens, notably in 1963 by Manu Sen as Bengali-language film “Bhranti Bilas,” in 1968 by Debu Sen as Hindi-language film “Do Dooni Chaar” and in 1982 by Gulzar as Hindi-language film “Angoor.”

Singh has not watched any of these. “I try and not be colored by anybody else’s interpretation and try to put something out that’s original, that’s born out of a direct connection between me and this specific text,” Singh said.

One of the “Cirkus” highlights for Singh is sharing screen space with one of his comic heroes – revered Indian comedian Johny Lever, who he ranks alongside Peter Sellers, Robin Williams, Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carrey and Indian comic icon Govinda. ” I was very overwhelmed that I was in a movie with him and that too an out-and-out comedy,” Singh said.

“Cirkus,” an ensemble comedy, features Singh and Varun Sharma in dual roles and also stars Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Siddhartha Jadhav, Sanjay Mishra, Tiku Talsania, Vrajesh Hirjee and Ashwini Kalsekar, with cameos by Deepika Padukone and Ajay Devgn.

The film will form part of another Shetty film universe. “It is a part of what is now dubbed the ‘comedy verse.’ It started with ‘All the Best,’ then ‘Golmaal’ 1, 2, 3, 4 and now ‘Cirkus,’ which hopefully, will connect with people, and then become a franchise of its own, bringing the characters from his other comedy films into this,” Singh said.

After an indifferent 2022, the Bollywood box office saw a late revival with “Drishyam 2” in November. Industry pundits are hoping that “Cirkus” will see the year end with with a bang.

“Cirkus” is produced by Rohit Shetty Productionz, T-Series Films and Reliance Entertainment.

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Bollywood megastar Ranveer Singh is stoked about

TV

James J. Murakami, an art director, production designer and set designer on numerous film and television projects, died Dec. 15 at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 91 and suffered complications from a fall, according to his wife.

Murakami earned an Emmy for his work on HBO’s Deadwood and an Oscar nomination for the film Changeling, the latter one of many films he worked on with director Clint Eastwood.

Among his many credits: The Godfather Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One From the Heart (1981), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Unforgiven (1992), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) and Letters From Iwo Jima (2006). Also, he was the production designer on Eastwood’s Gran (2008), Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Trouble With the Curve (2012), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) and Sully (2016).

Murakami received a pair of Emmy nominations for his work on HBO’s Deadwood, winning in 2005.

Murakami retired in 2016 and two years later received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Directors Guild.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughter, Patricia, and stepchildren John and Sandee.

His obituary was first published in The Hollywood Reporter.

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James J. Murakami, an art director, production

What to Watch

Well it’s that time of year, where Stephen Fishbach from “Survivor: Tocantins” and “Survivor: Second Chance” joins us for his bi-annual recap of the latest “Survivor” season and this one doesn’t disappoint per usual. We talk about this season, the gameplay, the strategy, the blindsides, that crazy final tribal council, did he agree with it, who would he have voted for, and much, much more. Stephen’s insight to this show being a two-time former contestant is what makes him one of my favorite podcast guests out there and I look forward to hearing from him every season. Lets just say that Stephen and I are both in the same boat when it comes to what we saw last Wednesday night. I think I’m still scratching my head over it, and Stephen is even considering re-watching the season he was so caught off guard by it, which is something he never does. As always, if you’d like to respond to the interview, please include Stephen’s IG handle (@stephenfishbach) in your replies. Thanks again to Stephen for coming on and being one of the best conversations out there.

You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:


Subscribe: Apple Podcasts,RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

(SPOILERS) I begin by talking about some news regarding Chris Harrison’s podcast and if Rachel Lindsay says she’d do it. Then Stephen joins me (7:32) to talk about this season of “Survivor.” Was he surprised at the vote, was he surprised at the winner, did Jesse pull an all-time blindside, who would he have voted for, the Last Gasp Challenge, and much, much more.

Twitter – @stephenfishbach
Instagram – @stephenfishbach

Also, released earlier this morning was Today’s Daily Roundup.

(SPOILERS) Today’s Daily Roundup covers Rachel reacts to Chris Harrison’s podcast, his network of shows, the Challenge, exposing a morning radio bit, John Mayer, and your NFL weekend.

You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:


Subscribe: Apple Podcasts,RSS, Stitcher, Spotify
Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.






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Awards

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an intricate puzzle in which each piece finds its perfect place, the DC Universe is a Gordian knot, complicated by aborted overarching storytelling plans and less continuity in more recent films. There is certainly a way to watch the DC movies in order, but you’ll find some films make more sense than others, while some feel completely disconnected from the DCEU at large. This is no fault of the filmmakers, of course, as Warner Bros. was playing catch-up with the MCU and trying to build to their own team-up movie “Justice League” as quickly as possible, resulting in a bit of a slapdash approach to universe-building.

And yet, largely thanks to Zack Snyder, there’s an overarching story that’s been told, and one you can follow if you watch the films in a specific order. Below, we run down how to watch the DC movies in chronological order.

DC Movies in Chronological Order

Warner Bros.

The DC Extended Universe

When trying to watch the DC movies in chronological order, most people are talking about the interconnected universe of films that kicked off with Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot “Man of Steel.” From then on, a universe was constructed in which characters crossed over from one film to the next, only to be somewhat abandoned after the release of “Justice League.”

The theatrical cut of “Justice League” was finished off by Joss Whedon after Snyder left during post-production and after hefty reshoots that largely abandon teases for future DC films. “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” meanwhile, is Snyder’s epic four-hour version of the story that teases grand DCEU plans that will not be coming to fruition following his departure.

After either version of “Justice League,” you’ll find DC connectivity is more sparse.

The most recent DC film, “Black Adam,” takes place after the events of “The Suicide Squad.”

‘Black Adam': Inside the Decade-Long Journey to Bring Dwayne Johnson’s DC Anti-Hero to the Big Screen

Without further ado, here’s how to watch all the DCEU movies in chronological order:

  • Wonder Woman
  • Wonder Woman 1984
  • Man of Steel
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
  • Suicide Squad
  • Justice League // Zack Snyder’s Justice League
  • Aquaman
  • Shazam!
  • Birds of Prey
  • The Suicide Squad
  • Black Adam

DC Movies in Release Order

wonder woman 1984 (1)
Warner Bros

The DC Extended Universe

If you simply want to watch the DC movies in the order in which they were released — which, frankly, makes a bit more sense connectivity-wise — here’s a complete rundown of the DCEU movies in release order:

  • Man of Steel (2013)
  • Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
  • Suicide Squad (2016)
  • Wonder Woman (2017)
  • Justice League – (2017)
  • Aquaman – (2018)
  • Shazam! (2019)
  • Birds of Prey (2020)
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
  • Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
  • The Suicide Squad (2021)
  • Black Adam (2022)

Is “The Batman” Part of the DCEU?

the-batman-robert-pattinson
Warner Bros.

If you’re wondering why the new Robert Pattinson-led reboot “The Batman” isn’t on this list, it’s because it’s not part of the DCEU. Which means you could watch it at any time without worrying about where it fits on the timeline.

The Matt Reeves-directed box office hit takes place on “Earth-2,” meaning it’s in an entirely different universe than the one populated by Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman. It’s completely disconnected from any of these aforementioned movies, just like the Joaquin Phoenix-led “Joker.”

Upcoming New DC Movies

the-flash-movie-ezra-miller
Warner Bros.

And here’s a list of the DC movies currently in the works that are set for release:

How ‘The Batman’ Cinematographer Greig Fraser Crafted an ‘Urban Noir’ Take on the Caped Crusader

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Music

Patti LuPone

Patti LuPone
Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix

Patti LuPone has joined the cast of Agatha: Coven Of Chaos, Kathryn Hahn’s spin-off of WandaVision on Disney+, increasing the chances of fans getting something they maybe never even considered wanting in the first place: Patti LuPone performing a song about a Marvel Comics character. Maybe even “Agatha All Along” itself? The show is going to have to do something with that earworm.

This news was first reported by Deadline, which reported that LuPone “may be playing a witch,” but Disney and Marvel haven’t said anything official (and they surely won’t any time soon). If that’s true, though, it would make a lot of sense: You can’t have a “Coven Of Chaos” without a coven, and you can’t have a coven without multiple witches, so why not bring in some famous people to play witches? Aubrey Plaza would also fit there, since she joined the show in November and it wouldn’t especially make any sense for her to reprise her role from Legion… though it didn’t make any sense for Evan Peters to reprise his X-Men role in WandaVision, and that was Agatha all along, so she could pull some nonsense in this show as well.

In addition to Hahn, LuPone, and Plaza, the series will feature Emma Caulfield Ford (reprising her role from WandaVision), Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Maria Dizzia. As far as we know, there haven’t been many rumors about other people from the comics stopping by, but maybe we’ll get, like… the Hellstroms? Or how about Daredevil? It was fun trying to figure out when he’d show up in She-Hulk, let’s just do that again. They could pull from the Ann Nocenti run where he fought Satan, since that was a magical-type thing that could’ve involved witches. (We know it was Mephisto, not literally Satan, we’re trying to make things easier to follow.)

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Patti LuPonePhoto: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for NetflixPatti

Docs

A cop is given the promotion of a lifetime, but with that promotion comes temptation and compromise in Omar Cook and Adonis Armstrong’s feature film, LA Undercover.

Omar Cook plays Officer Corey Shaw, a young cop who quickly proves himself to be a valuable asset to the department. Out on the mean streets of Los Angeles is the cold-blooded crime lord Kevin “Keys” Lyles (Clay Cureton). Keys and his gang are running lucrative drug running operations, but with the paranoid Keys demanding a larger piece of the action, bodies are starting to pile up on the LA streets. The LAPD needs an inside man in Keys’ operation. Corey Shaw is the right officer for the job.

Seeing the potential to fast-track his career Shaw accepts the undercover offer, but this means he has to separate himself from his girlfriend, Sierra (Ajima Cole), who just revealed she is carrying Shaw’s child. However, her love and prayers for Shaw will keep him strong.

As the operation begins, Shaw quickly finds himself in Keys’ inner circle. But the deeper Shaw gets, the more he realizes that he must commit some horrible and highly illegal acts if he is to keep his cover. The more successful Shaw becomes, the more he loses grip on the good cop he once was and the thug he’s slowly becoming.

For me, it’s just exciting to see the progression of Omar Cook and Adonis Armstrong as filmmakers. I have had the pleasure of reviewing several of their short films and what’s clear is they take their craft very seriously. There’s a clear vision in the kind of stories they tell and how they want to tell them—even with the budget they’ve been given. They’ve also got a solid ensemble to pull from as well. The best part is that these guys are evolving, and LA Undercover is their first feature film (albeit an hour long).

“…Shaw accepts the undercover offer, but this means he has to separate himself from his girlfriend, Sierra…”

The worst thing I can say about LA Undercover is that it looks like a micro-budget indie film. The sets are makeshift. They are in desperate need of quality lighting, and their HD cameras are sufficient, but everyone’s headed to 4K these days.

That’s said. Cook and Armstrong are definitely putting the work into becoming full-fledged filmmakers making the most of their resources. The editing and sound are top-notch. I’m excited to see what Cook and Armstrong have coming next. It takes great discipline to tell your story and stop when it’s done (I’m referring to the sixty-minute runtime). There’s no fluff in this film.

LA Undercover is a straightforward narrative, meaning that each scene exists to propel the narrative. It plays out more like a drama of an undercover cop walking that line of moral compromise. Now the next step is to break up the drama by adding some action…low-budget action to pad that time out to ninety minutes.

What LA Undercover gets right is that it focuses on one character, Det. Corey Shaw, played by Omar Cook. Shaw has a complete character arc, and the film is then built around that arc. He’s a virtuous cop with a loving girlfriend…pregnant girlfriend. Shaw is also good at his job…almost too good. When he begins blurring the line between cop and thug, that’s when the film kicks into high gear.

LA Undercover is the kind of film we appreciate the most at Film Threat. There’s this belief that Hollywood still owns specific genres, and filmmakers like Omar Cook and Adonis Armstrong prove that the tools are available to tell exciting stories with little to no money.

For more information, visit the LA Undercover official webpage.

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A cop is given the promotion of

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Siesta Keys before the debut of their new season.


'Siesta Key' stars Juliette Porter, Robby Hayes, Kelsey Owens and Brandon Gomes stop by HollywoodLife. They dished all about season three before the Jan. 7, 2020 premiere.


'Siesta Key' stars Juliette Porter, Robby Hayes, Kelsey Owens and Brandon Gomes stop by HollywoodLife. They dished all about season three before the Jan. 7, 2020 premiere.

Image Credit: MTV

The end of Kelsey Owens’ journey on Siesta Key: Miami Moves played out during the Dec. 22 episode. Kelsey bought a new home with her boyfriend, Max, during the episode, and came to the realization that she was ready to move on from the show. With the rest of the cast relocating to Miami for the newest season, Kelsey knew her life was going in a different direction, and she broke down in tears as she shared her decision with Madisson Hausburg during a night out at the club.

“I’ve just been thinking more and more,” Kelsea admitted. “I love this group so much, but with all the big decisions [Max and I] did make, I was like…what’s another one? I decided, I think I’m done with the show. I’m scared s***less, but I know it’s time.” Madisson commended Kelsey for coming to the decision and knowing it was the right time to move onto the next chapter in her life.

“It’s been amazing and I’ve grown up on it, but…” Kelsey said, trailing off. She then continued, “I’m so freakin’ excited to be in a home with my boyfriend, hopefully fiance soon, start a family. I’m ready to move forward from all this, truly. I’m ready.” Kelsey wiped away her tears as she announced the news. “I’m ready,” she confirmed. “I think this weekend really made me realize that it’s time. As hard as it might be, it’s time.” There was also a montage of some of Kelsey’s most memorable moments on the show that played in the midst of her final scene.

Back in August, Kelsey announced on Instagram that her time on the show had come to an end. However, she did not appear to leave on good terms. “Last night I was walking into a scene at a freaking strip club of all places and was informed that I will be cut moving forward on Siesta Key with absolutely no warning,” Kelsey wrote. “It’s mind blowing and truly disgusting that after working on a show since I was 19 years old, where I’ve shared things about my personal life that I wasn’t always comfortable with, revolved my whole life around, and put so much effort into could come to an end in such a disrespectful manner and so abrupt. Not even a simple, ‘thank you for sharing the past 5 years of your life with us.’ I cried my eyes out and then wiped those tears and filmed my last scene the best I could with my head held high.”

In October, HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Juliette Porter, who clarified some things about Kelsey’s exit, though. Juliette left Kelsey a supportive comment on her Instagram post about exiting the show, but explained that her on/off friend wasn’t as blindsided as she made it seem. “This is a job,” Juliette explained. “We signed contracts and we sign on for a certain amount of episodes. She was signed on for a certain amount of episodes and she had finished that cycle. She had known what she was getting into.”

However, Juliette acknowledged that things weren’t exactly handled fairly. “The way it was delivered to her..I don’t think she was quite prepared to leave [that night],” Juliette added. “But it wasn’t shocking news. She knew what she signed up for, but the way it was delivered to her was not right.”

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View gallery Image Credit: MTV The end of Kelsey Owens’

Tech

Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise)

 

Tom Cruise reprises the role of Captain Pete Mitchell, who many think would have been promoted past the status of captain by now. He is more often referred to by his call sign “Maverick,” and now he test-flies cutting edge planes for the navy. Maverick tried his hand at becoming an instructor at Top Gun years ago, but he didn’t fit. That is, until Commander Iceman calls him back to teach the best of the best how to execute one heck of a mission.

 

Tom Cruise is, of course, one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

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Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise)   Tom Cruise

Video

After shooting the film, Scott called Phoenix “the most special, thoughtful actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Ridley Scott has spent most of the 2020s directing period pieces ranging from the medieval “The Last Duel” to the 20th-century fashion drama “House of Gucci.” And the 85-year-old director shows no signs of slowing down, as he is currently gearing up to release “Napoleon,” a drama starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte.

Scott and Phoenix previously worked together on “Gladiator,” and their collaborative relationship only appears to be improving. In a new interview with Empire, Scott explained how Phoenix’s performance ultimately reshaped the entire film.

“Joaquin is about as far from conventional as you can get. Not deliberately, but out of intuition. That’s what makes him tick. If something bothers him, he’ll let you know,” Scott said. “He made [‘Napoleon’] special by constantly questioning.”

Scott went on to explain that Phoenix’s intuitive understanding of the character meant that many of his script notes were helpful and the entire film ended up being reshaped because of the actor’s interpretation of Napoleon.

Related

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“With Joaquin, we can rewrite the goddamn film because he’s uncomfortable. And that kind of happened with ‘Napoleon,’” he said. “We unpicked the film to help him focus on who Bonaparte was. I had to respect that, because what was being said was incredibly constructive. It made it all grow bigger and better.”

The hard work ultimately paid off, and Scott says that he left the film thinking even more highly of Phoenix than he did when they began.

“With Napoleon, I think we dug in and found the character, or as close to what he may have been,” Scott said. “Joaquin is probably the most special, thoughtful actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Countless filmmakers have tried to make movies about Napoleon Bonaparte’s life over the years. Stanley Kubrick famously wrote and planned to direct a hyper-realistic war epic about the French general, and Steven Spielberg tried to turn Kubrick’s script into a miniseries after the legendary director died. Phoenix has been attached to Scott’s film, originally titled “Kitbag,” since 2020.

The film has previously been described as “an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition, and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.”

Apple is expected to release “Napoleon” in 2023.

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After shooting the film, Scott called Phoenix

Entertaintment

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

LAST UPDATED: Dec. 22, 2022

2023 Oscars Predictions: Best Documentary Short

CATEGORY COMMENTARY: It’s an eclectic mixture of short films in the running for the documentary short race.

The New Yorker’s “Nuisance Bear” is among the most acclaimed, making multiple stops at festivals and picking up various trophies.

Frank Chi’s “38 at the Garden,” looking at the cultural impact of Jeremy Lin during his season on the New York Knicks, is a favorite in the race, especially with Oscar-winner Trayvon Free (“Two Distant Strangers”) onboard as one of the producers.

Heartfelt tales such as “Holding Moses” are heavily featured, focusing on a woman dealing with grief and trying to connect with her disabled son. Jay Rosenblatt’s “How Do You Measure a Year,” who filmed himself asking his daughter from the age of two to 18, asking her daughter – what do you dream about? what scares you? what do you think about our relationship? The movie will surely strike a chord if you’re a family person.

You can never count out Netflix with a pair of movies in the discussion — Kartiki Gonsalves’ “The Elephant Whisperers” and Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy’s “The Marsha Mitchell Effect.”

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

See the 2022-2023 Awards Season calendar for all key dates and timelines.

ALL AWARDS CONTENDERS AND RANKINGS:

An image from “Holding Moses”

And The Predicted Nominees Are:
Rank Name Director(s) Distributor(s)
1 “Holding Moses” Rivkah Beth Medow, Jen Rainin (co-director) Frankly Speaking Films
A Broadway performer becomes a mother, braiding rhythm and grief and time and joy on her path to connect with her profoundly disabled son.
2 “Nuisance Bear” Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman The New Yorker
Churchill, Manitoba, is famous as an international destination for photographing polar bears. We’ve seen the majestic images and classic wildlife TV programs – but what does the bear see of us? ‘Nuisance Bear’ shifts the perspective to reveal the obstacle course of tourist paparazzi and wildlife officers that bears navigate during their annual migration.
3 “38 at the Garden” Frank Chi HBO Max
Follows the cultural impact of NBA trailblazer Jeremy Lin during his 2011-12 season with the New York Knicks and the cultural phenomenon known as “Linsanity”.
4 “As Far as They Can Run” Tanaz Eshaghian MTV Documentary Films
Three young adults join a running program for disabled youth in Pakistan, hoping to shift perspectives in their rural community.
5 “How Do You Measure a Year? Jay Rosenblatt Jay Rosenblatt Films
From the time she was two-years-old and until she turned 18, they had a ritual: Dad asked (and filmed), and Ella answered. What do you dream about? What scares you? What do you think about our relationship? This is a little story about growing up and the love between father and daughter.
Next in Line
6 “Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison” Cinque Northern Aubin Pictures
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison gives us a window into playwright Liza Jessie Peterson’s performance in 2020 of her acclaimed play The Peculiar Patriot performed at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, said to be America’s largest prison.
7 “The Marsha Mitchell Effect” Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy (co-director) Netflix
The Cabinet wife who spoke out during Watergate and the Nixon administration’s campaign to gaslight her into silence.
8 “The Elephant Whisperers” Kartiki Gonsalves Netflix
The Elephant Whisperers’ follows an indigenous couple as they fall in love with Raghu, an orphaned elephant given into their care, and tirelessly work to ensure his survival. The film highlights the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space
9 “Anastasia” Sarah McCarthy MBK Productions
A woman whose resistance to the Putin regime comes at a terrible cost.
10 “American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton” Herb Ferrette, Andrew Abrahams Open Eye Pictures
The film tells the forgotten story of the death penalty case that put racism on trial in a U.S. courtroom in the fall of 1968.
Also In Contention
— “The Flagmakers” Sharon Liese, Cynthia Wade National Geographic Documentary Films
— “Happiness Is £4 Million” Weixi Chen, Kai Wei TripodMedia
— “Haulout” Maxim Arbugaev, Evgenia Arbugaeva Albireo Films
— “Shut Up and Paint” Titus Kaphar, Alex Mallis DCTV
— “Stranger at the Gate” Joshua Seftel The New Yorker

2023 Academy Awards Predictions

BEST PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTOR | ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY | ADAPTED SCREENPLAY | ANIMATED FEATURE | PRODUCTION DESIGN | CINEMATOGRAPHY | COSTUME DESIGN | FILM EDITING | MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING | SOUND | VISUAL EFFECTS | ORIGINAL SCORE | ORIGINAL SONG | DOCUMENTARY FEATURE | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE | ANIMATED SHORT | DOCUMENTARY SHORT | LIVE ACTION SHORT

The 95th Oscars ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre and televised live on ABC on Sunday, March 12, 2022.

2022 category winner: “The Queen of Basketball” (The New York Times) – Ben Proudfoot

About Variety Awards Circuit:

Variety’s unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online and provides inside reports on all the contenders in this year’s awards season races. In addition to predictions, the section includes — Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders in the race; Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly series featuring interviews with the top contenders in the awards race and an expert roundtable discussion with Variety’s leading editors and columnists; Awards Circuit Predictions Video Series, a deep dive into specific categories, led by the leading pundits.

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Film

The Goldbergs

The Goldbergs
Screenshot: ABC

The disgraced actor who allegedly wouldn’t stop saying “oh, my vagina” at work has a new job. So who’s the lucky cast that gets to put up with Jeff Garlin’s raunchy punch-ups? Well, Never Have I Ever won’t be able to claim “hired Jeff Garlin” as something it’s never done. Garlin is jumping from his cushy gig on The Goldbergs, where he’s collected residuals on 205 episodes, for Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever fourth season on Netflix.

The Creepy CGI of Jeff Garlin from the Goldbergs

After multiple complaints and internal investigations, Garlin and Sony Television made the mutually beneficial decision to spare the Goldbergs’ cast and crew from anymore Garlin. “There has been an HR investigation on me the past three years,” Garlin told Vanity Fair in 2021. “HR has come to me three years in a row for my behavior on set.” So the cast and crew of The Goldbergs won’t have Garlin to complain about anymore, nor will they have to continue hearing genuine apologies like “[A]s a comedian, if somebody is offended by what I say, all I can say is, I’m sorry. OK?” Or, as Garlin’s former co-star Wendi McLendon-Covey put it on Twitter: “This season threw us for a loop because a.) it’s hard to incorporate someone who doesn’t want to be there and wants to leave mid-scene, and b.) we weren’t about to re-write the 2nd half of the season.”

So the show gave Garlin his wish, and his character was killed off the show, and so the production went through the trouble of adding a horrific digital Jeff Garlin to the show’s wedding episode. Crawling straight out of the pits of the uncanny valley, Garlin 2.0 has haunted the nightmares of television viewers ever since, sneaking into their dreams and shouting “oh, my vagina” at them.

And like the sleeping children hoping that the Sandman won’t conjure Garlin, Never Have I Ever can now count the actor as their problem. According to Variety, Garlin will play, what else, “a sweet man who fixes a mean sandwich.” What can we say? He was simply the only person who could bring that role to life.

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The GoldbergsScreenshot: ABCThe disgraced actor who allegedly

TV

Fasten your seat belts: Hollywood is in for another bumpy ride in 2023.

With the economy once again on the brink of a recession and cutbacks hitting hard all over town, the entertainment industry is bracing for more challenges in the year ahead. Among the many question marks for 2023: Will the movie business revive to pre-pandemic levels? When will the high drama at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery settle down? And how viable is streaming as a business model for legacy media companies anyway?

In an ordinary year, Will Smith’s Oscar night slap of Chris Rock might stand out as a signature event, but that onstage incident, as shocking as it was, was soon overshadowed by two seismic developments: In April, the Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed, paving the way for a series of changes under new boss David Zaslav, while Wall Street darling Netflix disclosed its first subscriber loss in a decade, prompting a massive stock slide and general freakout about big bets placed on streaming as the wave of the future.

In November, Disney’s board of directors stunned Hollywood when it ousted embattled CEO Bob Chapek and reinstated Bob Iger to the top perch. Iger quickly undid some of his successor’s corporate realignments and set about mending relationships with a rattled creative community.  

Nerves are far from soothed around town as the holidays get underway, however. With last-minute cancellations on the rise and labor storm clouds on the horizon, Hollywood is feeling less festive than usual. Here’s our look back at the tumultuous year that was and the outlook for the one ahead.

Multiplex woes

When will the exhibition business be truly boffo again? Sure, “Avatar: The Way of Water” dominated at the box office over the weekend, but its opening haul fell short of 2022 Marvel releases including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and cannot paper over the ongoing difficulties of midrange films such as Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” Theater owners have been lamenting the meager release slate for months, and it doesn’t look like studios will return to pre-pandemic output levels any time soon.

Outlook: Troubled

Streaming’s reality check

Netflix’s Q1 2022 subscriber miss forced the industry to reexamine bullish predictions about the sector’s growth potential and all the billions of dollars spent on content. Layoffs and cancellations commenced, none more startling to the creative community than Zaslav’s August decision to write off “Batgirl,” greenlit by the previous leadership of Warner Media and intended for HBO Max. This here-today-gone-tomorrow approach to distribution unnerved creatives behind shows, some of whom had spent years developing their projects.

Outlook: Mixed. Streaming is here to stay, but so, likely, are scaled-back expenditures and a reliance on ad-supported options as the sector matures.

Ads regain favor

With cord cutting continuing and content costs high, streamers began leaning more heavily into ad-supported options in 2022. Former holdout Netflix rolled out an ad-supported tier in November, with Disney+ doing the same earlier this month. Meanwhile, free ad-supported streaming channels are growing apace, and all that inventory makes Madison Avenue happy.

Outlook: Positive. The threat of TV shifting to entirely subscription models is fading fast.

Post Peak TV?

With networks and streaming services ready to cancel shows on a moment’s notice and cost containment a mandate from C-suites, we might have finally moved to post-peak TV. In 2023, we should get a better idea of whether that mountain of content has been scaled — and whether the upcoming Emmy season will be less punishing as a result.

Outlook: Sanity seems to be returning as the volume of content production slowly (and inevitably) ebbs.

Whither #MeToo?

A series of court cases involving sexual assault have many in Hollywood wondering about the future of the #MeToo movement. A Los Angeles jury has convicted Harvey Weinstein on three more counts of sexual assault. But earlier in the year, a jury sided with Kevin Spacey in a $40 million civil lawsuit. Danny Masterson’s rape trial, which could have put him behind bars for 40 years, ended in a mistrial. Meanwhile, Louis C.K. won a Grammy in April.

Outlook: Unclear. It’s hard to imagine returning to a pre-Weinstein world of looking the other way at vile behavior, but the legal processes for #MeToo cases remain unpredictable.

Ticketing drama

In the wake of botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s tour, the biggest cliffhanger in music is whether lawmakers are all bark or some bite, too, in taking on either Ticketmaster (which is caught in a stuck-in-the-middle-with-you dance over tacked-on fees that actually benefit the company relatively little) or what many see as the real enemy, the secondary market.

Outlook: Don’t hold your breath but after the outcry from the Swifties, maybe some consumer-friendly legislation is on the horizon.

Golden future?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made headlines this year with Meghan’s revealing interview with Variety in October and with the December release of Netflix’s “Harry and Meghan” docuseries. All that buzz generated a quick Season 2 pickup of the series. So what’s the next frontier for 2023 — producing scripted series and features?

Outlook: One bullish Variety staffer sees the pair adding “Oscar-nominated” to their list of credits in the future.

Contributors: Jem Aswad, Marc Malkin, Joe Otterson, Brian Steinberg, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Chris Willman

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Entertaintment, Film

The festival of lights is back and here is a list of Hanukkah movies to get you into the holiday spirit.

What is Hanukkah?

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or Hanukkah.

Courtesy of Getty

One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shammash. Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shammash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival.

Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries.

Hanukkah Movie ‘Must Watch’ List

1

Eight Crazy Nights

Adam Sandler’s animated flick, which this hilarious adaptation the comedian plays a 30-something who parties a little too hard. He gets in legal trouble, but his judge gives him another chance since it’s the holiday season. He’s tasked with doing community service as a referee for the youth basketball league.

It can watched on Amazon Prime here.

2

Hitched for the Holidays

This list wouldn’t be complete without a holiday rom-com. In the film a bachelor signs up for a dating site to fulfill his grandmother’s wish of seeing him settle down. He meets another Jewish New Yorker, and they agree to accompany each other at their families’ holiday celebrations. Will their faux-mance become real?

It can be watched on TubiTV here.

3

Fiddler on the Roof

An oldie but good and classic. This adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical follows a poor dad to five daughters in pre-revolutionary Russia who tries to keep up Jewish traditions against antisemitism while finding good husbands for them.

It can watched on Amazon Prime here.

4

A Rugrats Chanukah

Throw it back with this 1996 Hanukkah special from the beloved Rugrats cartoon. Tommy, Dil, Chucky, Angelica, Lil, and Phil learn about the history of the holiday from Tommy and Dil’s grandpa Boris during a trip to the synagogue.

It can watched on Paramount Plus here.

5

Little Fockers

This original was absolutely hilarious. In this sequel to Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers it continues the story of Greg Focker. Like the first two films in the hilarious trilogy, Greg tries to impress and earn the trust of his uptight father-in-law, Jack.

It can be watched on Peacock TV here.

6

The Night Before

This one’s for the adults, three childhood best friends have a yearly Christmas Eve tradition of throwing the craziest parties. The tradition is changing as they’re growing up, but to make it a night to remember, they set out to find the best holiday party: the Nutcracka Ball. Seth Rogen plays a Jewish character in this comedy.

It can watched on Amazon Prime here.

7

Mistletoes & Menorahs

We all love the rom-coms and what the perfect mix with Hanukkah and Lifetime. They  make some of the best holiday movies out there, and Hanukkah is no exception. In this lighthearted film, a big-shot toy company executive must learn about the Jewish holiday to land a big account. She enlists the help of a bachelor who happens to need her help to impress his girlfriend’s family for Christmas.

It can be watched on Hulu here.

8

Jack and Jill

Adam Sandler is hilarious in anything to be honest which is why we have him as our top pick. This movie is no exception and is LOL funny, The comedian plays a pair of siblings that get off on the wrong foot during Thanksgiving. To make it up to his sister, Jack offers to let Jill stay through Hanukkah.

It can be watched on Netlix here.

9

Eight Gifts of Hanukkah

This holiday flick will put anyone in the holiday spirit. When Sara starts receiving anonymous Hanukkah gifts from a secret admirer, she realizes that she may find love where she least expects it.

It can be watched on Amazon Prime here.

10

Love, Lights, Hannukah!

When a restaurant owner learns she’s Jewish from a DNA test, she meets new family members and even finds an unexpected romance over the eight nights of Hanukkah.

It can be watched on Amazon Prime here.

So get your latkes and babka ready with some popcorn and prepare for a night on with all these movies.

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The festival of lights is back and

Entertaintment, Film

Here is a list of a bunch of Christmas movies to watch with your loved ones this holiday season.

 

Courtesy of Disney +

Courtesy of Hallmark

Courtesy of AMC

Courtesy of Lifetime

Courtesy of CBS

Courtesy of Netflix

For the UK

Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Prime Video

For ABC

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

8:00-8:30 p.m.              “The Conners” (Thanksgiving episode)

8:30-9:00 p.m.               “The Goldbergs” (Thanksgiving episode)

9:31-10:00 p.m.             “Home Economics” (Thanksgiving episode)

TUESDAY, NOV. 22

10:00-11:00p.m.            “The Rookie: Feds” (Thanksgiving episode)

SUNDAY, NOV. 27

7:00-7:30 p.m.               “Mickey Saves Christmas” (new)

7:30-8:00 p.m.               “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure”

8:00-10:00 p.m.             The Wonderful World of Disney: “Magical Holiday Celebration” (new)

MONDAY, NOV. 28

8:00-10:00 p.m.             “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (season premiere)

TUESDAY, NOV. 29

8:00-9:00 p.m.               “Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer/ABC News Special” (new)

THURSDAY, DEC. 1

8:00-10:01 p.m.             The Wonderful World of Disney: “Frozen II” (broadcast premiere)

MONDAY, DEC. 5

8:00-10:00 p.m.             “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (new)

TUESDAY, DEC. 6

8:00-9:00 p.m.               “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (holiday episode)

9:00-10:00 p.m.             “Press Your Luck” (holiday episode)

10:00-11:00 p.m.           “The $100,000 Pyramid” (holiday episode)

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7

8:00-8:30 p.m.               “The Conners” (holiday episode)

8:30-9:00 p.m.               “The Goldbergs” (holiday episode)

9:00-9:31 p.m.               “Abbott Elementary” (holiday episode)

9:31-10:00 p.m.             “Home Economics” (holiday episode)

THURSDAY, DEC. 8

8:00-9:00 p.m.               “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”

9:00-10:01 p.m.             “CMA Country Christmas” (new)

MONDAY, DEC. 12

8:00-10:00 p.m.             “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (season finale)

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14

10:00-11:00 p.m.           “Finding Harmony” (new)

TUESDAY, DEC. 20

8:00-9:00 p.m.               “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”

9:00-9:30 p.m.               “Disney’s Prep & Landing”

9:30-10:00 p.m.             “Disney’s Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice”

FRIDAY, DEC. 23 

8:00-8:30 p.m.               “Mickey Saves Christmas”

8:30-9:00 p.m.               “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure

 

SATURDAY, DEC. 24

8:00-10:00 p.m.             The Wonderful World of Disney: “Home Alone”

 

SUNDAY, DEC. 25

10:00 a.m-12:00 p.m. ET/

7:00-9:00 a.m. PT         “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” (new)

 

MONDAY, DEC. 26

9:00-11:00 p.m.             “The Year: 2022” (new)

 

SATURDAY, DEC. 31

8:00-10:00 p.m.             “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023” (new)

10:00-10:30 p.m.           Local Programming

10:30 p.m.-2:13 a.m.   “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023” (new)

 

About ABC Holiday Programming

 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

“The Conners” – “Untitled” – It’s Thanksgiving at the Conners and Jackie must come to terms with her mother, Beverly, becoming ill. Meanwhile, Darlene is on the job hunt which proves to be more difficult than anticipated. (8:00-8:30 p.m.) (working episode description) 

 

“The Goldbergs” – “Another Turkey Trot” – It’s Thanksgiving, and no one crushes Turkey Day like Beverly Goldberg; though, with the loss of Murray, this holiday feels a bit different. Geoff and Erica are stressed over the new baby; and, even more worrisome, an unexpected Goldberg relative arrives. With everyone highly suspicious of this unforeseen visitor, things are likely to go off the rails at any moment. (8:30-9:00 p.m.)

 

“Home Economics” – “Wheel of Vegan Brie, $24” – It’s Thanksgiving at the Hayworths, though this year feels a bit different with one extra chair at the table. While Tom, Sarah and Connor wrestle with their conflicting emotions, Marina and Denise see this new addition to the family as a potential chance to gain a new “normal.” This episode guest stars Casey Wilson. (9:31-10:00 p.m.)

 

TUESDAY, NOV. 22

“The Rookie: Feds” – “Standoff” – After a father and daughter are kidnapped on Thanksgiving, the team discovers a hostage situation involving police deputies. When the gunmen offer an exchange for the hostages, Simone is sent undercover by Garza, and Lopez arrives to help rescue Wesley. Meanwhile, Laura and Brendon search for a nanny cam that could reveal the identity of the kidnapper. (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

 

SUNDAY, NOV. 27

“Mickey Saves Christmas” – Disney’s new stop-motion holiday special, “Mickey Saves Christmas,” follows Mickey, Minnie and their pals as they attempt to celebrate the perfect Christmas at their snowy cabin. However, when Pluto causes Santa to lose all the presents on his sleigh, the friends travel to the North Pole on a quest to save Christmas and find the true meaning of the holiday. A collaboration between Disney and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, “Mickey Saves Christmas” premieres with a simulcast on ABC, Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. (7:00-7:30 p.m.)

 

“Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” – In “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” Olaf teams up with Sven on a merry mission. It’s the first holiday season since the gates reopened, and Anna and Elsa host a celebration for all of Arendelle. When the townspeople unexpectedly leave early to enjoy their individual holiday customs, the sisters realize they have no family traditions of their own. So, Olaf sets out to comb the kingdom to bring home the best traditions and save Anna and Elsa’s “first Christmas in forever.” “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure” features the original cast of Arendelle characters, including Olaf, voiced by Josh Gad; Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell; Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel; and Kristoff, voiced by Jonathan Groff. (Rebroadcast) (7:30-8:00 p.m.)

 

The Wonderful World of Disney: “Magical Holiday Celebration” – This ABC holiday season staple returns for its seventh year with a dazzling array of all-new musical performances. The special is executive produced by Disney Parks along with Film 45 Live. (8:00-10:00 p.m.)

For Turner Classic Movies

Friday, November 18, 2022

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Saturday, December 3, 2022

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Monday, December 12, 2022

  • 12:00am – Christmas Past (1925)

Saturday, December 17, 2022

  • 2:00am – Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
  • 8:00am – The Captain’s Christmas (1938)
  • 10:00am – Mister and Mistletoe (1955)
  • 5:00pm – King of Kings (1961)
  • 8:00pm – The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Monday, December 19, 2022

  • 12:00am- The King of Kings (1927)
  • 2:45am – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
  • 5:00am – Mon Oncle Antoine (1971)
  • 8:00pm – The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

  • 10:15pm – The Holly and the Ivy (1952)

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Thursday, December 22, 2022

  • 10:45am – Susan Slept Here (1954)
  • 5:30pm – The Lion in the Winter (1968)
  • 8:00pm – It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
  • 10:15pm – The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Friday, December 23, 2022

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Sunday, December 25, 2022

  • 6:00am – Star in the Night (1945)
  • 2:15pm – The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
  • 4:15pm – Holiday Affair (1949)

For BET

All Films available to stream on-demand on BET+

“THE RECIPE: HOLIDAY EDITION FT. THE MANNS” PREMIERES
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 AT 8PM ON BET AND BET HER

“THE RECIPE: HOLIDAY EDITION FT. THE MANNS” premieres Thursday, November 24 at 8PM – A holiday celebration with The Manns enjoying signature dishes and singing Christmas favorites.

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “A WESLEY CHRISTMAS” PREMIERES
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 AT 9 PM ON BET AND BET HER

“A WESLEY CHRISTMAS” premieres Thursday, November 24 at 9PM – Adult siblings Chris, Todd, and Cydney Wesley travel to their childhood home to celebrate Christmas with their parents and the entire Wesley family. With everyone together and all their physical and emotional baggage in tow, the annual Wesley family holiday promises to be a festive, hot mess of a Christmas with life-changing impacts on the whole family.

Cast: Dorien Wilson, Jasmine Guy, Terrence Carson, Loren Lott, Terayle Hill, Mike Merrill

Director: Patricia Cuffie Jones

Writer: Bree West

Produced by: Octet Productions

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: A WESLEY CHRITSMAS

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “THE CHRISTMAS CLAPBACK” PREMIERES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 AT 9PM ON BET AND BET HER

“THE CHRISTMAS CLAPBACK” premieres Friday, November 25 at 9PM – Every year the three Miles sisters, Jasmine, Kira, and Tisha, battle each other for a chance to win the neighborhood Christmas Church Cook-Off competition. But when Aaliyah, the vivacious Social Media Influencer, enters the competition, the sisters must choose to rise together or fall divided.

Cast: Nadine Ellis, Porscha Coleman, Candace Maxwell, Kara Royster, Eltony Williams, Brandon Sutton, Lisa Arrindell

Director: Robin Givens

Writer: Christopher Oscar Pena and Joy Kecken

Producer: Stargazer

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: THE CHRISTMAS CLAPBACK

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “ROLLING INTO CHRISTMAS” PREMIERES
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2 AT 9PM ON BET AND BET HER

“ROLLING INTO CHRISTMAS” premieres Friday, December 2 at 9PM – Two childhood sweethearts who shared a passion for roller skating are reunited 15 years later during the holidays, forcing them to question their love and life choices.

Cast: Rhyon Nicole Brown, Donny Carrington, Brandee Evans, Gary Dourdan

Director: Trey Haley

Writer: Greg Anderson

Producer: Swirl Films

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: ROLLING INTO CHRISTMAS

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “THE SOUND OF CHRISTMAS” PREMIERES
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9 AT 9PM ON BET AND BET HER

“THE SOUND OF CHRISTMAS” premieres Friday, December 9 at 9PM – A down-on-her-luck music teacher leads a wealthy widower away from his gold-digging girlfriend and back to love and music during the Christmas holidays.

Cast: Ne-Yo, Serayah, Draya Michele, Michael Bless, Alijah Kai

Director & Writer: Booker T Mattison

Executive Producer: Tressa Azarel Smallwood

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: THE SOUND OF CHRISTMAS

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “THE FIRST NOELLE” PREMIERES
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16 AT 9PM ON BET AND BET HER

“THE FIRST NOELLE” premieres Friday, December 16 at 9PM – After twenty years of friendship, Terrance and Noelle finally decide to date each other but ultimately break up when Terrance moves to London for work. Now that Terrance is back in Atlanta for Christmas with his new girl, also named Noelle, our lead is determined to get him back and say goodbye to being friend-zoned forever.

Cast: Novi Brown, LaLa Milan, Todd Anthony

Director: Patricia Cuffie Jones

Writers: Ariel Driskell and Patricia Cuffie Jones

Executive Producers: Larry Grimaldi, Hannah Pillemer, and Fernando Szew for MarVista Entertainment

Co-Executive Producer: Adam Shepard for MarVista Entertainment

Producers: Autumn Bailey-Ford from Autumn Bailey Entertainment and Karl Horstmann at Triple Horse Studios.

For Film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: THE FIRST NOELLE

A HOLIDAY CHANCE PREMIERES
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22 AT 9PM ONLY ON BET

“A HOLIDAY CHANCE” premieres Thursday, December 22 at 9PM – The family of the founder of a multi-million-dollar film company experiences some tragic events during the holidays and two sisters must set aside a life-long rivalry and come together to turn the company around and keep the family intact.

Cast: Nafessa Williams, Sharon Leal, Tobias Truvillion, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Amin Joseph, Richard Lawson

Director: Jamal Hill

Writer: Curtis Bryant, Jamal Hill, Nafessa Willams

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM A MIRACLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS PREMIERES
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23 AT 7PM ON BET AND BET HER

“A MIRACLE BEFORE CHRISTMAS” premieres Friday, December 23 at 7PM – With a little help from an angel, Mercedes Wright, a fast-talking popular relationship therapist with all the answers when it comes to fixing everyone else’s marriage, must now use the magic of Christmas to find the secret to save her own.

Cast: LeToya Luckett, Romeo Miller, Keith David, Demetrius Shipp Jr, Paula Jai Parker and Porscha Coleman

Director, Writer & Producer: LazRael Lison

For film images click here: Images.

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM CHRISTMAS PARTY CRASHERS PREMIERES
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23 AT 9PM ON BET AND BET HER

“CHRISTMAS PARTY CRASHERS” premieres Friday, December 23 at 9PM – When two grifters meet after crashing the same millionaire’s Christmas party, they agree to work together to achieve each other’s “mission,” not knowing that they would find something more than money or fame – true love.

Cast: Skye Townsend, Jaime Callica, Cocoa Brown

Director and Co-Producer: Sheldon Epps

Writer: Scotty Mullen and Chad Quinn

Executive Producers: Todd Y. Murata, Larry Grimaldi, Hannah Pillemer, Fernando Szew for MarVista Entertainment

Producer: Susan Ratliff for A Ratliff Concepts Production

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: CHRISTMAS PARTY CRASHERS

ON BET HER:

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM “HOLIDAY HIDEAWAY” PREMIERES
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17 AT 8PM ONLY ON BET HER

“HOLIDAY HIDEAWAY” premieres Saturday, December 17 at 8PM – Carly is the queen of holiday celebrations, but her mistletoe misstep sends her running to a Holiday Hideaway that teaches her the importance of family, forgiveness and fighting for love.

Cast: Camille Winbush, Vivica A Fox, Leonard Earl Howze, Rodney Van Johnson, Novi Brown

Director: Cole Patterson

Writer: Sharon Brathwaite

Produced by: Freeze Frame Entertainment

For film images click here: Images. Watch and share the trailer here: HOLIDAY HIDEAWAY

BET+ ORIGINAL FILM A CHRISTMAS GIFT PREMIERES
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24 AT 8PM ONLY ON BET HER

“A CHRISTMAS GIFT” premieres Saturday, December 24 at 8PM – In a failed attempt to cancel Christmas, the McKenzie’s find themselves ultimately navigating through unexpected guests, secrets, and revelations that will have a lasting effect on their families.

Cast: Blue Kimble, Noree Victoria, Javon Johnson, Victoria Rowell, Aaron D Spears, Nadia Simms, Tiffany Snow, Marc Jones, Cayen Martin

Director: Christopher A. Nolen

Writer: Cassandra Mann

Producer: Christopher A. Nolen for Nferno Media Entertainment

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Here is a list of a bunch

Entertaintment, TV

At the end of Jack Ryan episode 3, Luka killed Konstantin and revealed himself to be Jack’s source, and Jack and Mike headed to Budapest to track down an arm’s dealer named Levan Zubkov who was dealing Uranium to the Sokol project, and he happened to be one of Mike’s client’s. Meanwhile Greer had helped president Kovac figure out that her chief of staff Radek was in fact one of the people behind minister Popov’s death.

The summary of this episode reads, “In Budapest, Jack and Mike plan a sting on a slippery arms dealer to ascertain the whereabouts of the Sokol nuclear device, as Greer discovers some intriguing and potentially incriminating information on Petr Kovac.”

Read the recap of Season 3 Episode 3 here.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JACK RYAN SEASON 3 EPISODE 4

 

In a very smart move, when he returns to Moscow, Russia, Luka has a meeting with defense minister Petrova and hands him his own phone, which contains Jack’s texts and claims that Konstantin is the traitor, and accuses Petrov of trying to have him killed. He tells him Jack never showed at the meeting but Luka tried to kill him instead accusing Petrova of setting him up. Framing him as the leak inside the Sokol project instead. A masterful move on his part. Petrov apologizes and says he had nothing to do with it.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

In Budapest, Jack and November start planning how they will get to Hungarian arms dealer, Levan Zubkov. November talks about what a tight ship he runs and what a closely guarded operation this is and how Zubkov has a close relationship with the police. So getting to him is not going to be easy, now remember Zubkov is one of November’s clients, so Jack suggests they get him to need an extraction, getting him to come to them.

The first part of the plan starts with Jack hijacking one of Levan’s meetings. Jack meets one of Levan’s buyers and convinces him it’s too dangerous right now to work with Levan, the buyer, then backs out, messages Levan saying that he cannot make it. This gets the dominoes falling.

When Elizabeth has to brief their boss Miller on what happened in Vienna, she covers for Ryan and doesn’t tell him he was on the train, but when she does relay what he spoke about in the phone call from the previous episode, Miller begins to question if Jack is being played and whether he really can be trusted when he finds out who Jack’s asset is.

Meanwhile Greer is investigating Radek and Peter, Kovac’s father, and most trusted advisor. We see Greer and 2 other agent break into Radek’s apartment and search it, there they find an old army photo which shows Petr was Radek’s commander in the Army.

We then see a flashback that shows us Petr was one of the soldiers back in Matoksa, he refused to kill the scientists because he believed the Sokol project was their chance to save the union, but he was shot. Of course, it wasn’t fatal. We now know that he is one of the people working on the Sokol project to bring back old Russia.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Flash forward to Jack and November abducting George, Zubkov’s assistant. Soon after we see November walk into a room with George’s bag and leave it there. Later on we see a paranoid Levan checking his room and his people for bugs and wires. George’s phone, which was left there by November then gets a call, with Jack listening to Levan panic on the other line. It was almost time for the last phase of their plan.

 

As for as politics is concerned, we see Greer question the President without telling her of his suspicions. Later on we see Greer ask a fellow agent to put a 24 hour detail on her. Which wouldn’t seem important at the time but when it comes to the end of the episode, it will be.

Meanwhile in the Russian war room, Luka seems to push the idea that Greer is putting ideas into Kovac’s head and the Russian president decides to strike back at the Czech Republic. Petrov on the other hand seems distracted by the fact that the Chief of Staff is missing. Cut to an underground bunker where we see Luka has a man tied up, it’s the Chief of Staff. Luka has found out that the Russian President’s chief of staff, was spying for Petrov. Luka gets him to write down the set of names of everyone linked to the project by convincing him his boss is giving everyone up,  which of course he isnt. He plays him perfectly, before he eventually shoots him in the head.

A determined Greer questions Petr later, the two bond over vodka and he pulls some information from the old man that he is not “Czech” but Russian. Petr tells how his mother immigrated with him to the neighboring country. He is an exile and never had a home to go home to.

In the next step of their plan, Jack and November’s partner and IT guy drives a car with a fake bomb in the backseat into Levan’s compound which sends him and his security team into frenzy, after running away, Levan finally calls Mike November for an extraction. Mike then tells him to meet him at a safe house and transfer 100,000 into an account.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

When Levan walk into the safe house and sees a tied up George, Mike pulls a gun on him, and Jack very calmly explains to him just how screwed he is. Jack asked him where the Uranium was and when he didn’t answer, he explains, the account he transferred the money into was an ISIS monitered account, and his name was now on every country’s watch list. So he had no choice but to help them. When Jack asks the second time, he has no choice but to help them.

Where is the Uranium going? Back to where it all began. Matoksa. After contemplating it, Jack calls and gives this information to Elizabeth, he even tells her exactly where he is. But when Jack asks her for her help, she asks him to turn himself in.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

The episode ends with the president attending a military event, there Radek gets a call from his wife who warns him the CIA has been in there house. She warns what would happen if Petr were to find out they were on to him. He tells them to run. As the president gets into her vehicle he takes control leaving behind the rest of her security detail and while they are driving away, Radek turns and drives away with the president.

Tensions rise in this episode, both on the CIA and political side, and with both countries, what’s exciting is we get to see some old school secret agent work from Jack. This season though is a perfect example of the complex writing we always see on Jack Ryan, and we are only halfway through season 3.

 

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At the end of Jack Ryan episode

Entertaintment, TV

When we last saw Jack Ryan, he had just been picked up by Mike November and was safe in Santorini Greece, hell bent on finding who the source who was feeding him information was. Whereas Greer who was trying to help Jack wound up being sent to the Czech Republic as a punishment. What happens next, with our heroes spread out across the world?

Read the recap of Season 3 Episode 2 here 

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JACK RYAN SEASON 3 EPISODE 3

 

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

This episode finds Jack and Mike November in Vienna Austria. Where we see Mike tailing Zoya whom we first saw give Jack the Intel about Sokol jn episode 1. Jack Sneaks into her apartment and once they are face to face, he asks for her help in setting up a meeting with the person who’s been feeding them information.

 

Back in Rome, the FBI is commandeering Jack’s office, his files and are looking for him themselves, officially labeling him as a rogue agent and a traitor. Things seems bleak for Jack, how the hell is he going to figure out a way out of this one now?

Meanwhile Greer is in the Czech Republic to speak to President Kovac

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

on the assassination of Popov, he shocks her by telling her the NSA has transcripts of Popov’s phone calls, and that he was on the same page as the president all along, which may have lead to his death. Greer then brings up the possibility that the new defense minister Petrov, may have something to do with it.

Soon Elizabeth gets wise of the fact that Jack is in Vienna, by tracking Zoya, and since she had lost control of the situation and was now ordered by the top of National Intelligence, she had to hand that information over to the NSD, and now the dead or alive option is mainly limited to one option, especially since Elizabeth’s boss agent Miller has charged him with treason.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

When Greer finds out, he calls Mike and speaks to Jack and warns the two of them that the NSD had agents on the way to Vienna to arrest them. In that moment Greer says something that sets the premise for the whole season, “I think both of you are in way over your head, and every day you’re on the run, you’re digging a hole that you may not be able to get out of.”

This is when things get really exciting. Jack and Mike enter a train station in Vienna, still trying to find the source who sent the scientist to them in the first episode. They board a train, but not before Jack looks directly at the camera, in order to set a trap, and with the help of their very clever tech guy, who changes the number of the platform and the location they are able to throw the NSD Agents of their trail for a while.

Jack Ryan

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

But hold on a second, they’re not in the clear yet, because as Jack and Mike are on the train, Konstantin appears and starts to stir up trouble. First he knocks out Mike and locks him in a bathroom, and as jack is walking through the train, we see Luka inject him with something.

Konstantin now starts to attack Jack and beat him up, Jack fights back but Konstantin pins him down on the ground. Near the trains exit. We then see Luka come up behind him and start to ask certain questions, he mentions the drug he injected Jack with, which he says is truth serum. Things start to heat up for Jack, and just as you think Luka is about to shoot him, his gun points to Konstantin instead, and kills him. Telling him it was nothing but water in the syringe, he goes on to say “We have much to discuss and little time, if we are to stop Sokol,” which confirms everything we thought about Jack’s source.

Greer takes President Kovac back to the football stadium, he impresses upon her that this was an inside job. While making her relive the situation she comes to the realization that Radek wasnt with her when Popov was assassinated. Greer shows the president a video of the supposed shooter driving in with someone in the passenger seat that they cannot identify. James confirms that Radek is behind the plot.

When Jack asks Luka why he wants to help the CIA, he very says that for once they are on the same side. They have a long conversation about why Luka chose Jack, how he got them to go after Yuri, why Konstantin was a traitor and how Sokol was a mistake made by a rogue faction of Russia who wants to restore the Soviet Union, and to do so they need Uranium from one of Mike’s client’s, Levan Zubkov, in Budapest, which is where they head.

This makes Jack do the unthinkable, he calls Elizabeth Wright, with the info he has, admitting that Luka is his asset, but the fact that it comes from Luka Gocharov is not a big sell for the agency, he warns her that the US and Russia are being baited into War. Elizabeth however keeps her call with Jack quiet.

The episode ends with a reminder from Mike “Remember that line I was telling you about, you just crossed it.”

Things get really intense in this episode, both politically and action wise. John Krasinski describes Jack as “the superhero that didn’t have a cape,” this season Jack’s moral compass is called into question and we see him having to make a decision that will save everyone but put everything he has worked so hard for in jeopardy.

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When we last saw Jack Ryan, he

What to Watch

In the latest TV show ratings, CBS’ The Price Is Right at Night rerun led Wednesday aka Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve in both total viewers and in the demo.

CBS | The TPIR at Night rerun drew 4.4 million total viewers and a 0.5 demo rating, after which A Grammy Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon did 3.8 mil and a 0.3.

FOX | Night 3 of LEGO Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular was steady with 1.1 mil and a 0.3.

NBC | Leading out of a Dolly Parton’s Magic Mountain Christmas (or is it Mountain Magic Christmas?) encore, The Wheel (1.6 mil/0.3) was steady on Night 3 (of 10).

THE CW | Beebo Saves Christmas this year drew 290K and a 0.0.

Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.


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In the latest TV show ratings, CBS’

Awards

Emma Thompson, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is a British actress and screenwriter who is the only person who has ever won Academy Awards for both acting and writing.

In addition to those two Oscars, the former for 1992’s Howards End and the latter for 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, she has also won three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, one Emmy Award and one Critics Choice Award, with other credits including 1993’s The Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father, 1998’s Primary Colors, 2003’s Love Actually and the miniseries Angels in America, 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2006’s Stranger Than Fiction, 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2009’s An Education, 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks, 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories, 2019’s Late Night and this year’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — all of which might explain why the 2018 citation in which Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame describes her as “one of Britain’s most versatile and celebrated actresses,” why Vanity Fair has said she “redefined our image of female stardom,” why Interview has called her “the rarest of cinematic talents” and why The Observer’s Mark Kermode once said, “She’s up there with the great — I mean really great — British female performers.”

Over the course of our conversation — which Thompson recorded from her London home after being honored at a luncheon by the U.K. Critics’ Circle, the oldest association of critics in the world, for her Services to the Arts, and at which she gave a speech about the impact of film critics — the 63-year-old and I discussed the origins of her pursuit of acting and of her deep and passionate feminism; the peaks and valleys of a long career as a woman in the business; why, in Sophie Hyde’s 2022 Searchlight film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, she agreed to play a retired schoolteacher who was recently widowed and hires a sex worker to help her finally experience an orgasm; plus much more.

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Emma Thompson, the guest on this episode

Docs

Ever since its launch, Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program has supported a wide variety of projects: shorts, features, both narrative and nonfiction—even the occasional new media project, special event or advocacy initiative. Each month’s Fiscal Spotlight column announces three new projects taking part in the program. But maybe you’re curious how some of those prior subjects have turned out. Well, you’re in luck! Once again it’s time for another FiSpo Update highlighting the recent achievements of previous subjects of our Fiscal Spotlight hosannas.

For the uninitiated, Fi’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists. The projects and makers participating in the program express a uniqueness of vision, celebrate diversity and advance the craft of filmmaking through the creation of these special works. To see the full range of projects that are part of our program, visit our Sponsored Projects page.

For more, watch our full discussion with Film Independent’s Artist Development team at the bottom of this article. If you’re already part of our Fiscal Sponsorship program and you have a production milestone you’d like to see here, please email us.

 

TRUCKSTOP

Project Type: Narrative Short

Project Status: Post-Production

Filmmaker: Molly Karna

Cast: Mansi Kaur, Destinee Turpinio, Gurinderjit Kaur, Prateek Chaturvedi, Anirudh Pareek, Raunak Singh

Synopsis: A restless young immigrant working at an isolated Punjabi truckstop in the California desert must decide whether she truly wants out.

Updates: Truckstop wrapped principal photography, capturing the Mojave Desert at her finest—with a brilliant lightning storm in tow! Since production wrapped, the film received editing support from the Om Garg Foundation and Hellerstein Foundation. Now in post-production, editor Avo Kambourian has created an assembly cut while the filmmakers work with long-time friend and composer Prateek Rajagopal (The Book of Boba Fett, Fairfax) to create a score rooted in the sounds of CA’s Central Valley that also pays tribute to classical Punjabi music. Meanwhile, producer Julia Elizabeth Evans was recently a Finalist at the 2022 Austin Film Festival Writers Conference.

 

LEVELING LINCOLN

Project type: Documentary Feature

Project status: Distribution/Impact Campaign

Filmmaker: Arden Teresa Lewis

Logline: Leveling Lincoln tells the story of a community’s involvement in a forgotten Civil Rights case. Filmmaker Arden Teresa Lewis had always taken for granted her integrated elementary school and upbringing in the 1960s. But when she discovers that this integration was made possible by a landmark court case, she starts interviewing her classmates and residents. The leveling of nonwhite Lincoln Elementary School paved the way for classroom integration in New Rochelle, NY—but what about the multiethnic Lincoln neighborhood? Leveling Lincoln asks as many questions as it answers, making viewers reflect on our their behaviors, then and now, as public schools across our the country still struggle with equity and integration.

Updates: Leveling Lincoln had its live world premiere at the Rhode Island Black Film Festival in April 2022 and won Best Historical Documentary. It went on to win the New York Vision Award at the Harlem International Film Festival and Best Feature Documentary at the Lady Filmmaker’s Film Festival in Beverly Hills, among other awards in over a dozen festivals. The film most recently screened at the 2022 YoFiFest in Yonkers, NY. Additionally, four community group screenings were held in the New Rochelle area, most recently at Iona University. The Chimaera Project and the Kaplan-Loring Foundation recently awarded the project funding, and Francois Blaignan (My Cousin Vinny, The Thin Red Line) joined as Sound Designer. Educational distributor NETA is working towards a January 10, 2022 release date. Visit the film’s website for more info on screenings and social impact progress.

 

EVERYTHING’S FINE

Project type: Narrative Short

Project status: Post-Production

Writer/Director: Christina Hulen

Cast: Charlotte Rothwell, McKenna Slone, Michelle Clunie, Chopper Bernet, Rick Otto

Synopsis: Young teacher Hannah is the sole survivor of a school shooting, suffering from PTSD and trauma-induced memory loss. Rather than acknowledge her issues, she puts on a brave face, insisting “everything’s fine” while attempting to hide her symptoms from her family. As the hours tick down to the one-year anniversary of the event, Hannah finds herself spiraling dangerously out of control. Plagued by disjointed flashbacks, her panic attacks, isolation and self-harm only increase, threatening to destroy her carefully crafted veneer of normalcy. Cracks also emerge in her family members. Her parents, Rachel and David, and wife Paige all manifest varying degrees of PTSD.

Updates: Everything’s Fine wrapped principal photography in November and is gearing up to go into post-production. The film has received support from the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation and Change the Ref, which uses urban art and nonviolent creative confrontation to expose the disastrous effects of the mass shooting pandemic. The filmmakers were honored to have the endorsement and active participation of Manuel Oliver, who lost his son Joaquin in the Parkland shooting, as well as having a gifted crew member who is also a school shooting survivor. Everything’s Fine is continuing to raise funds for post-production.

 

Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.

Keep up with Film Independent…

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China‘s decision to stick with draconian restrictions for so long is to blame for the ‘thermonuclear’ Covid wave that could kill up to a million people, experts warned today.

Startling projections since Beijing U-turned on its tough zero Covid stance suggest hundreds of thousands will die in the coming months because of low immunity across the country’s 1.4billion population.

Immunologists predict up to 60 per cent of the country will get infected between now an March, as the virus is allowed to rip. 

Deaths will likely be in the ‘millions — plural’, one leading expert said, adding: ‘This is just the start.’ 

Pictured: Emergency health workers transport a Covid patient to a fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing yesterday

Official figures show Covid cases fell 47 per cent to 4,666 on December. Infections appear to have peaked back on November 29, when they totalled more than 71,000. But the figures are highly unreliable because mass testing in China was abandoned as part of the Government's U-turn

Official figures show Covid cases fell 47 per cent to 4,666 on December. Infections appear to have peaked back on November 29, when they totalled more than 71,000. But the figures are highly unreliable because mass testing in China was abandoned as part of the Government’s U-turn

China also reported no new Covid deaths yesterday and subtracted one death from its overall toll, lowering it to 5,241

China also reported no new Covid deaths yesterday and subtracted one death from its overall toll, lowering it to 5,241

Hubei in central China has seen the most cases since the start of the pandemic, with around 68,154 infections recorded

Hubei in central China has seen the most cases since the start of the pandemic, with around 68,154 infections recorded

China had consistently reported fewer cases than countries in the West throughout the pandemic ¿ due to different ways of counting ¿ until the recent surge

China had consistently reported fewer cases than countries in the West throughout the pandemic — due to different ways of counting — until the recent surge

Why is China being battered so badly by Covid? 

China is currently in the midst of a Covid ‘pandemic tsunami’, according to doctors working in the country.

While official cases have dropped since the end of mass-testing, the Government’s U-turn on its zero Covid approach has seen the virus run rampant. 

Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: ‘China is in for a few grim weeks as zero Covid is unravelled. 

‘There will be a major surge of infections. Given China’s vast population and the low rates of vaccination in the vulnerable elderly there will be large numbers of deaths. 

‘Those who were vaccinated received killed whole virus vaccines, not western mRNA products. 

‘Hong Kong’s experience, back in the spring, was that these killed-virus preparations were less effective in reducing mortality.’

Chinese Covid vaccines — Sinovac and Sinopharm — are widely considered to be less effective than the mRNA vaccines used in most other nations. 

The country’s vaccination drive began to tail off in early February, when around 7million people a day were getting a shot.

Booster doses over the summer were virtually non-existent over the summer, with people largely protected by stringent Covid measures and mass testing.

But since the policy-change, the virus has been allowed to rip through a population that had largely not been exposed to the virus.

Experts told MailOnline dropping zero Covid wasn’t the problem — it was dropping it so late after vaccinating the population. 

Professor Paul Hunter, a public health expert at UEA, said any weak immunity afforded by the jabs had long run-off by the time measures were abandoned.

And because people were not topped up with immunity afforded by natural infection, they are particularly vulnerable now.

He said: ‘China’s problem now is not because they lifted the restrictions too soon but because they maintained zero Covid policy too long after the vaccination campaign so that the protective effect of the vaccination has been largely lost. 

‘Compare this to new Zealand who lifted their restrictions soon after the vaccination campaign and got away with few deaths even though there was a surge in infections as expected.’

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Shocking footage shared online over the past few day show sick patients on respirators packing out hospital wards, with many forced to lie on the floor because beds have run out.

One clip shows an exhausted doctor collapsing because he was thought to have seen so many patients. Crematoriums say they have run out of space to keep bodies.

Experts today told MailOnline the capitulation has been caused by President Xi’s Government sticking with its zero Covid policy so long after rolling out vaccines.

The hermit strategy left China’s population with little to no natural immunity.

In contrast, countries in the West, including Britain, resorted to living with the virus, which now poses a milder threat thanks to immunity afforded by the vaccine and natural infections.  

Official figures show Covid cases in China fell 47 per cent in a week to an average of 1,801 a day on December 20. 

Infections appear to have peaked back on November 29, when they totalled more than 71,000.

But the figures are highly unreliable because mass testing in China was abandoned as part of the Government’s U-turn.

Even the Chinese authorities admit they do not know what the real numbers are — but experts believe the virus is running rampant.

Wang Guangfa, a doctor at Peking University First Hospital, described the surge as a ‘pandemic tsunami’. 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday said: ‘WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China, with increasing reports of severe disease.’

Despite the suspected increase, China — which has repeatedly been accused of fiddling its numbers — also reported no new Covid deaths yesterday and subtracted one death from its overall toll, lowering it to 5,241.

The daily tally was issued by the National Health Commission, which did not explain the decrease. 

Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at the same hospital in Peking, confirmed earlier this week that deaths in patients with pre-existing illnesses are not officially counted as Covid deaths.

In most countries, including the UK and US, guidelines stipulate that any death in which Covid is a factor or contributor is counted as a related death.

In effect, Wang’s comments on Tuesday clarified publicly what the country has been doing throughout the pandemic.

Even with underreporting, the latest projection, published in the medical journal Nature, suggest up to a million could die in the coming months.

Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: ‘China is in for a few grim weeks as zero Covid is unravelled. 

‘There will be a major surge of infections. 

‘Given China’s vast population and the low rates of vaccination in the vulnerable elderly there will be large numbers of deaths. 

‘Those who were vaccinated received killed whole virus vaccines, not western mRNA products. 

‘Hong Kong’s experience, back in the spring, was that these killed-virus preparations were less effective in reducing mortality.’

Chinese Covid vaccines — Sinovac and Sinopharm — are widely considered to be less effective than the mRNA vaccines used in most other nations. 

The country’s vaccination drive began to tail off in early February, when around 7million people a day were getting a shot.

Booster doses over the summer were virtually non-existent, with people largely protected by stringent Covid measures and mass testing.

But since the policy-change, the virus has been allowed to rip through a population that had largely not been exposed to the virus.

Some of the first projections since the country U-turned on zero Covid suggest hundreds of thousands will die in the coming months

Some of the first projections since the country U-turned on zero Covid suggest hundreds of thousands will die in the coming months

Patients recover at the Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China's Hebei province on Wednesday

Patients recover at the Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China’s Hebei province on Wednesday

This picture shows Covid patients on stretchers in the emergency ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China's southwestern city of Chongqing on December 22

This picture shows Covid patients on stretchers in the emergency ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing on December 22

People queue for a Covid test at a facility in Macau, China, on December 21

People queue for a Covid test at a facility in Macau, China, on December 21

Which countries have been worst affected by Covid since the start of the pandemic? 

United States

Brazil

India 

Russia 

Mexico 

Peru 

United Kingdom 

Italy 

France 

Indonesia

Germany 

Iran

Colombia

Argentina

Poland 

1,114,931

692,407 

530,681 

393,220 

330,834 

217,941 

198,271 

183,138 

160,874 

160,466

160,424

144,672

141,996

130,080

118,452 

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Experts told MailOnline dropping zero Covid wasn’t the problem — it was dropping it so late after vaccinating the population. 

Professor Paul Hunter, another public health expert at UEA, said any weak immunity afforded by the jabs had long run-off by the time measures were abandoned.

And because people were not topped up with immunity afforded by natural infection, they are particularly vulnerable now.

He said: ‘China’s problem now is not because they lifted the restrictions too soon but because they maintained zero Covid policy too long after the vaccination campaign so that the protective effect of the vaccination has been largely lost. 

‘Compare this to New Zealand, who lifted their restrictions soon after the vaccination campaign and got away with few deaths even though there was a surge in infections as expected.’

The surge in cases has led some leading to experts to call China the ‘ideal’ breeding ground for risky variants because of how it has been sheltered from previous waves and has a low vaccine uptake. 

High infection rates are a ‘cauldron of virus evolution’ which could result in a more lethal and immune-evading variant, they said.

There is little surveillance to check for strains in the country, meaning a new one could appear at any time.

But not all pandemic-watchers are as concerned. The BF.7 Omicron substrain thought to be behind the current outbreak has not been shown to have an advantage on variants in the West.

Professor Hunter said: ‘I don’t think the situation in China will pose a substantial additional risk to many other countries. After all, most of the rest of the world has hybrid immunity.

‘It is said that it is the BF.7 variant of Omicron that is driving the wave in China but at a global scale this variant does not appear to have any growth advantage against other variants.

‘Yes another variant could arise and probably will arise, they are doing so all the time but each new variant seems to have decreasing incremental benefit over previous ones. 

‘Also hybrid immunity has provided good cross protection against severe disease from new variants as well as older variants.’ 

Medical workers push a man past an ambulance at the Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China's Hebei province on Wednesday

Medical workers push a man past an ambulance at the Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China’s Hebei province on Wednesday

Hearses queue outside a funeral home in Beijing, China, on December 17, as morgue pack out with Covid patients

Hearses queue outside a funeral home in Beijing, China, on December 17, as morgue pack out with Covid patients

World Health Organization names Sir Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist 

Sir Jeremy Farrar, currently head of the UK's biggest private research funding body ¿ the Wellcome Trust, originally believed the pandemic have been sparked by 'Wild West' virus experiments carried out in the notorious Wuhan site

Sir Jeremy Farrar, currently head of the UK’s biggest private research funding body — the Wellcome Trust, originally believed the pandemic have been sparked by ‘Wild West’ virus experiments carried out in the notorious Wuhan site

The influential British scientist who helped crush suggestions that Covid could have leaked from a Chinese laboratory was today named the World Health Organization‘s chief scientist.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, currently head of the UK’s biggest private research funding body — the Wellcome Trust, originally believed the pandemic may have been sparked by ‘Wild West’ virus experiments carried out in the notorious Wuhan site. 

But he soon changed his position, co-ordinating an authoritative statement by five top experts that dismissed the idea that the virus may have originated in the lab as merely a conspiracy theory.

Now, the WHO — branded ‘China‘s puppet’ by Donald Trump and critics during the pandemic for bowing to Beijing — has given him one of the most prestigious roles in the world of science. 

Critics hit out at the appointment of Sir Jeremy and called for him to come in front of MPs to be ‘pressed hard’ on the origins of the pandemic and failing to challenge the natural origins hypothesis early on.

READ MORE: ‘China’s puppet’ the World Health Organization names Sir Jeremy Farrar – the influential scientist who helped to crush Covid lab leak theory as ‘conspiracy’ – as its new chief scientist

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Professor Livermore said the less effective jabs used in China are also unlikely to select for vaccine immunity-evading variants.

He said: ‘I don’t think this surge has major implications for the rest of the world. 

‘Whilst the Chinese vaccines are not particularly effective they are, at least, targeted against the whole virus, inducing antibodies to multiple viral proteins. This should make it harder for the virus to mutate away from them. 

‘The selection pressure for the evolution of new variants appears greatest in someone who has received one of the western mRNA or DNA vaccines and is then infected. 

‘These vaccines solely target the virus’s Spike protein, which is highly variable — and it’s this variation that provides the route to vaccine escape.’

While the surge may not pose much of a threat to the rest of the world in terms of new strains, it is an immediate danger in China itself.

A citizen in Shanghai told of deserted streets, closed supermarkets and empty offices as the virus continues to rampage.

‘I think the official numbers are fake, how can a few hundred cases be possible across China?,’ said a 43-year-old man, speaking to MailOnline over an encrypted Signal call, who preferred not to be named.

‘People don’t believe the government numbers. They are not stupid! They will chat among themselves, but never discuss it on social media.

‘Even if they do, the comments will be deleted immediately.’

He and his partner recently contracted Covid themselves and ‘had a fever of 39 degrees, cough, body-ache and a sore throat and stayed in bed for a few days’.

‘Partly we feel happy because of the relaxation of Covid measures, but at the same time we are ill and we need to find ways to get Panadol, electrolytes replenishment drinks and rapid test kits,’ he said.

A lot more people are ill, he believes. ‘Beijing is worse. The Government probably wants all of us to get infected.’

He has a friend in Beijing who said there are many deaths but no actual number being released. ‘My friend said the funeral homes in Beijing cannot cope.’

People testing positive are left to their own devices, he said. ‘The hospital called up my friend about his positive test result, that’s it, he wasn’t told to self-isolate or quarantine. 

‘No one will be taken to a quarantine facility anymore if tested positive. Pretty much you sink or swim by yourself.’

He said his ‘conspiracy theory’ was: ‘If people get sick, they won’t be on the streets to protest.’

Unlike in the West, vaccines have not been widely pushed: ‘The Government hasn’t made vaccines compulsory, neither promoted it. 

‘Now they’re like “come on, it [Covid] is just like a flu, get it, let it go!” You see this 180-degree change?

‘Since last week, everything has been cancelled. No need to take test at test centres on the street. 

‘Some employers don’t require staff to do any Covid tests or show a negative test result.’

But he did tentatively welcome the Chinese Government’s U-turn in dropping its ‘dynamic zero’ Covid policy and relaxing restrictions.

He said: ‘I fear the virus but it’s better to catch it now while everybody does and it seems to have weakened, I’d rather take a risk. 

‘The virus might mutate, who knows. But I think if that happens, the Government won’t tell us.’

Visitors line up at the cash counters in Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China's Hebei province on Wednesday

Visitors line up at the cash counters in Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city in northern China’s Hebei province on Wednesday

People queue for a Covid test at a facility in Macau on December 21

People queue for a Covid test at a facility in Macau on December 21

A Covid patient on a stretcher in the emergency ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China's southwestern city of Chongqing on December 22

A Covid patient on a stretcher in the emergency ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing on December 22

He believes that the government knows how widespread is the virus, he thinks the government was forced to relax the measures because it was getting out of control.

He said his partner’s office, where 50 people normally work is now reduced to a fifth of that number ‘The office spans over two floors, only 10 people went to work, they must either be infected with Covid or related to someone who has been infected.’

And in the streets, usually packed with delivery drivers, little is moving.

He went to the supermarket today and it’s closed, he believed due to Covid infection among staff.

Of the local news reports, he said: ‘News here is not so updated. I don’t know the reality. 

‘I heard from a friend in Beijing that there are queues at hospitals, so I think it’s crazy in China, we’re probably not at the peak yet.

‘They tell us the number of cases every day in the news, but people respond “ha ha ha” — they’re used to “news”.’

He said the government still has the same narrative that Covid is imported. He said: ‘They will use terms like “imported” in announcements, but that’s not the focus anymore. No one cares if it’s imported.’

He doesn’t think there’ll be another lock down because so many people are infected now. 

‘The point of a lockdown is to stop the spread of the virus, but now the Government is letting people get infected, so there probably won’t be another lockdown.’

If you enjoyed this article…

Could China’s Covid chaos send world straight back to square one? Experts fear unrelenting crisis risks spawning lethal mutant variant that dodges wall of immunity 

World Health Organization names Sir Jeremy Farrar – the influential scientist who helped to crush Covid lab leak theory as ‘conspiracy’ – as its new chief scientist 

Influential panel tells hospitals: Stop mass testing for Covid, it’s a waste of money and doctors’ time 

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China's decision to stick with draconian restrictions

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It’s all out there! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have opened up about their royal experience in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, and they are “pleased” with the outcome.

“Meghan and Harry don’t have any major regrets about doing the docuseries, and we’ll be seeing Harry elaborate about his relationship with his family in Spare,” a source exclusively reveals in the latest issue of Us Weekly, referring to the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex’s forthcoming memoir. “While the couple were prepared for the backlash, they’re pleased to have gotten their story out there.”

Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, 41, detailed their early courtship, 2018 royal wedding, life with their two children and the breakdown of their relationships with the royal family in Harry & Meghan, which dropped on the streaming giant earlier this month.

“We’ve never been allowed to tell our story,” the BetterUp CIO — who shares Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 18 months, with the Suits alum — quipped in the second episode. “That’s the consistency.”


Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Nearly one year after welcoming their son, Harry and Meghan announced in 2020 that they were stepping down from their duties as senior working royals as they relocated to California.

“I miss the weird family gatherings when we’re all sort of brought together under one roof for, you know, certain times of the year — that I miss. Being part of the institution meant that I was in the U.K. So, I miss the U.K. [and] I miss my friends,” Harry revealed during the sixth episode. “I’ve lost a few friends in this process as well. I mean, I came [to California] because I was changed. I changed to the point that I’d outgrown my environment.”

He added at the time: “Therefore, this was the most obvious place to come. You know, it’s one of the places where I think my mom, [Princess Diana], was probably gonna end up living potentially.”

As Harry and Meghan remained focused on their new lives stateside, the duke remained at odds with father King Charles III and brother Prince William, who favored the regal traditions.

“It was hard [seeing them at Prince Philip’s funeral]. Especially spending time, having chats with my brother and my father. [They] were very much focused on the same misinterpretation of the whole situation,” Harry continued in the docuseries, referring to his family reunion in April 2021. “None of us really wanted to have to talk about it at my grandfather’s funeral, but we did. … I’ve had to make peace with the fact that we’re probably never gonna get genuine accountability or a genuine apology. My wife and I, we’re moving on. We’re focused on what’s coming next.”

While neither the Prince of Wales, 40, nor the king, 74, have publicly addressed Harry and Meghan’s documentary claims, a second source told Us that its release was a “thorn in the flesh for William.”

“He’s disappointed with Harry for portraying him and the family in a cynical light,” the insider told Us earlier this month about the Duke of Cornwall. “William was hoping they could move on after the CBS interview, but Harry airing his dirty laundry has only heightened the conflict between the two brothers and resulted in them taking a step-backwards.”

Harry is further expected to discuss his royal history in his Spare memoir, which is set for a January 2023 release.

“Spare takes readers immediately back to one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow — and horror,” Penguin Random House wrote in an October press release, referring to William and Harry attending their mother’s 1997 funeral. “As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.”

For more on Harry and Meghan’s docuseries and the military veteran’s upcoming memoir, watch the video above and pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.

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It’s all out there! Prince Harry and

Tech

Lisa Miner thought she had found the perfect new job: Earlier this year, the dialysis technician got an offer to be an app developer for CVS Health after passing a skills test administered by a purported recruiter who had reached out via a personal Gmail account. But the job wasn’t just fake — it was a ploy to steal her money.

The quick onboarding process sketched out Miner after the supposed recruiter told her that the company planned to send her a $3,500 certified check to spend with a specific vendor for her work supplies — a process that sounded strange. Instead of immediately ordering her supplies when the check arrived, as she was instructed, Miner waited to see if the check would clear with her bank before spending any of her own money. It didn’t, validating Miner’s fear: She was dealing with a scammer.

Luckily for Miner, who lives in Dallas, Ga., she hadn’t been able to reach her boss to resign — otherwise she could have ended up unemployed.

“How can I really be that dumb?” she remembers asking herself. “I was harder on myself than anything.”

Miner, who applied to openings on job sites such LinkedIn and Indeed and published posts about her job hunt, has company. Experts say scammers are targeting job seekers, a group that is growing as companies across industries continue laying people off, and they are especially going after those pursuing remote positions. Scammers are posting fake job openings on websites and are posing as recruiters in an attempt to steal everything from passwords to money and identities.

“Job scammers are trying to prey on people’s desire to be flexible,” said Sinem Buber, lead economist at job search engine ZipRecruiter. “It’s a peak time because of that.”

Job sites such as ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn and Indeed say they try to weed out fake job listings and employers, though scammers are getting more sophisticated. These websites also offer tools to flag suspicious content in case a scam gets past their screening. Still, many job seekers are airing their horror stories across social media.

But experts say that if you’re looking for a job, even a remote one, don’t fret. There are steps you can take to skip the scams and get the real gig.

“The majority will be legitimate,” said Stacey Perkins, career and leadership coach at recruiting firm Korn Ferry. “You just have to be careful.”

Miner reported the scammer to the FBI, but she hasn’t received a response from the scammer or the FBI since. CVS Health advises job seekers to check the company’s career website to ensure a posting is real. The company also said it will never ask job candidates to join a Google Hangout, purchase their own equipment or pay to apply. And it will never send emails from a third-party email service such as Yahoo or Gmail.

Here are 12 ways you can avoid falling for a job scam, according to job experts.

Avoid opportunities that promote easy money. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is, Perkins and Buber agreed. Job scams often play up little work for big paychecks. And they frequently promote that they are not a scam. “If they have to say that [they are legitimate], it’s a flag,” Perkins said.

Get the details of the job. Legitimate jobs will explain the specific job duties, often in the listing. Be wary of jobs that require you to receive something, repackage it and send it somewhere new, especially if you don’t know the details. During the holidays, scammers may promote gift-wrapping jobs, Buber said. But you could be trafficking illegal materials.

Watch for spelling and grammar. If a post or outreach is riddled with spelling and grammar errors, experts agree that it’s probably a scam. A typo may just be a typo, but if a message is hard to read or full of obvious errors, move on. Also watch for one-letter differences in a company’s name, email or web address, Perkins said.

Research the company. Most companies have a web presence, Buber said. Check the company’s website, and see if it has a LinkedIn account, social media profile or comments on the employee review site Glassdoor, experts advise. Can you connect with others who work there? Can you find an address to its headquarters? Does it actually exist?

Check the trusted sources. The Federal Trade Commission can provide details on cases against companies. And the Better Business Bureau accredits companies it deems trustworthy. Buber said a quick search could save you a headache later.

Look at the sender’s email address and profile. A recruiter or hiring manager should always be communicating with you via their company’s email account, never their personal Gmail or text message, for example. So make sure when responding or writing emails, the address matches the company’s web domain, Perkins said. If they’re reaching out to you on social media, do they have connections or posts? Are they interacting with others? Over how much time?

Pay attention to the process. Companies should be able to spell out their hiring process, Perkins said. If a company is eager to hire quickly and responses come within minutes, those could be red flags, Indeed warned. LinkedIn says employers rarely hire after one remote interview, and Indeed said that is especially true if the interview is over a text-based messaging service. Most employers will connect you to multiple people before you get the job.

Don’t pay for anything. If the employer asks you to pay for materials, training or testing, even if it offers reimbursement, the job is probably a scam, Perkins said. Buber said scammers often send victims a fake check and ask them to pay for something or claim that they need to send some back because an error. Scammers are able to then steal money by cashing in victims’ valid check or payment before the fake check bounces. Scammers could also use you as a money mule, asking you to deposit a valid check and send the same amount somewhere else, Buber said.

Protect your personal information. While applying, don’t give your social security number, pictures of an ID or passport, or any financial details, such as your bank account or credit card number, experts say. “They need your contact information, and that’s it,” Perkins said.

Get all questions answered. Go to every interview with questions, and make sure they get answered. Real employers will view that as interest, and fake ones will panic or avoid answering, Buber said.

Watch for pyramid schemes. Don’t fall for job opportunities in which you get paid only if you lure more people into the operation, Perkins said. Some multilevel marketing companies are legitimate, but many are pyramid schemes.

Trust your instincts. If something feels amiss, it probably is, experts say. So keep moving. “There are 1.7 jobs available for every unemployed person right now,” Buber said. “You will find something.”

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Video

Dev Ritchie vividly remembers the first time she experienced ASMR — a feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, often experienced in response to sound.

She was sitting in a cafe with a friend, who had told Ritchie she wanted to show her something. Ritchie allowed her companion to place a headphone earbud in each of her ears, closed her eyes, and listened to the barbershop-based ASMR video her friend had discovered. Her whole body tingled. Instantly, she was hooked. 

She wasn’t alone. According to ASMR University, there are roughly 500,000 ASMR (an abbreviation of autonomous sensory meridian response) channels and 25 million ASMR videos on YouTube alone, and the hashtag #asmr has attracted more than 460 billion views on TikTok. Creators in the space create sound-based content designed to elicit the sensation of ASMR in viewers, often attracting millions of views in the process. The niche involves the recording of specific sounds — often things like tapping or clicking — in striking detail through the use of microphones. 

The ASMR niche has given way to a wide range of vloggers who cater to specific themes, like electronic restoration and even barbershop experiences. Ritchie, who now creates her own ASMR content, occupies one of its most controversial subgenres: a genre whose creators dub it sensual ASMR. Videos in the niche often involve the sounds of sexually charged licking, kissing, and “wet” massages, all amplified by the use of microphones. 

Sensual ASMR’s popularity pales in comparison to traditional ASMR — Ritchie’s most viewed video, “HOT Step sister gives you HJ ASMR,” has 1.5 million views, while the most viewed ASMR video on YouTube has 407 million. But its appeal is undeniable. Ritchie alone has attracted more than 70,000 subscribers under the name GanjaGoddess, by releasing clips with titles like “Boob Massage ASMR,” “HOT Teacher PUNISHES You ASMR,” and “Moaning and Dirty Talk ASMR.”

“ASMR videos with audio sexual sounds may be age-restricted or removed from the platform.”

Clearly, there is an audience for the content that Ritchie creates — but YouTube doesn’t see the appeal in her line of work. A year ago, Ritchie received a message that explained her videos had been demonetized due to their sexual nature. Since then, the platform has redoubled its efforts to combat the spread of sensual ASMR. In its September 7th policy change announcement, YouTube stated that it had “strengthened our policies to better identify and action ASMR content that is sexually gratifying,” adding that “ASMR videos with audio sexual sounds may be age-restricted or removed from the platform.” Ritchie, like many other creators in her niche, is worried her videos could all be deleted.

Sensual ASMR videos have an undeniable raunchy component, but raunchiness is also a spectrum — purging anything that might be sexually titillating from YouTube would mean removing all kinds of scenes from mainstream films or television. And many creators argue that they aren’t purely about sex. Former model-turned-ASMR vlogger Elcee Orlova feels that the mantras she utters in her videos — which are usually proclamations of love, care, and affection aimed at those watching her clips — are what keep people coming back for more.

“I get comments like, ‘Thank you for your video. No one has ever told me those things in my entire life,’ and, ‘Watching your videos makes me feel a bit less lonely,’” recounts Orlova, who declined to share her age and location with The Verge for privacy reasons. She has attracted more than 40,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, ASMR GIRLFRIEND, where she uploads videos with titles like “ASMR Girlfriend Gives You A VERY WET Massage” and “ASMR Girlfriend Measures You and Finds Out Your Size.” “I believe my videos can help [those people] feel cared for,” she adds, “and appreciated for who they are.”

Ritchie has similar feelings about her work. “There’s a lot of people out there, whether they want to admit it or not, that are having a lot of issues with loneliness. I call myself their e-girlfriend,” she says. “I take the time to talk to them, I tell them things, and I care about them. That’s going to make them feel better.”

“There’s a lot of people out there … that are having a lot of issues with loneliness.”

In the eyes of ASMR creators, the content they offer up isn’t inherently sexually explicit or in violation of YouTube’s policies. It’s all built around the power of suggestion — and is often used to entice prospective clients who might want to view their more X-rated work. “Most of the traction that I get through YouTube, I use to just funnel into OnlyFans. It’s like a billboard that I kind of get paid for. Like: Now that you see what my tongue can do, come watch me do other things with it,” explains Kaitlyn Siragusa, a 28-year-old sensual ASMR content creator and streamer from Texas, who has amassed more than 8 million Twitch and YouTube followers under the name Amouranth. “I don’t know any girls who only do sensual ASMR,” she adds. “They’re always doing harder stuff [on the side].”

The reluctance of ASMR creators to explicitly label their content as sexual is understandable in the context of YouTube’s policies. The platform does not allow sexual content if its primary purpose is sexual gratification, nor any content that involves “the depiction of sexual acts or fetishes that are meant for sexual gratification.” Its policies also clearly state that links to websites that violate those guidelines — like sexually explicit OnlyFans pages, for example — are not allowed. It doesn’t help that ASMR has often been classed as a fetish, although creators in all of its niches vehemently deny that this is the case. Admitting that their ASMR content is designed to be sexually gratifying, or used to promote X-rated content, could mean that creators risk their videos being banned or their accounts being deleted.

How YouTube’s rules should apply to sensual ASMR is up for debate, and YouTube didn’t return a request for comment on the policy before publication. Creators in this space rely on the art of suggestion. Their videos are not visually sexually explicit, and the reality of what’s occurring — whether it be the licking of an ear-shaped microphone or the squelching of off-screen macaroni — is not necessarily sexually gratifying. YouTube’s enforcement of such policies is also blurry. Clips of someone called “Fetish Pixie” spitting in front of a mirror, as well as spitting compilations of TikTokers, are available on the platform — as well as videos that feature women sucking on each other’s toes or women being tickled while tied up BDSM-style. Like sensual ASMR, none of it depicts sex, but it’s widely recognized as sexually charged.

Not everyone feels that YouTube’s regulations are a bad thing. “To be honest with you, I actually support YouTube’s decision regarding ASMR videos that exist solely for sexual arousal, like kissing and licking the microphone,” says Orlova. “If someone wants to enjoy that kind of content, they can easily switch from YouTube to some other sex-related platform and watch the videos there.”

Others blame an increasingly competitive social media ads market, which has come to a grinding halt this year after years of growth. “I think a lot of it’s a rat race now. There’s so many places people can advertise — Facebook, Twitch, Snapchat, YouTube,” says Siragusa. “The advertising market is getting so saturated now from all these different platforms. I think it’s a race to the bottom for who can be the most advertiser-friendly platform that people go to.” But Ritchie thinks that the popularity of ASMR has made it an easy scapegoat for YouTube, which is frequently under pressure to purge the site of non-family-friendly videos.  

“The space for nudity and sexual content online is shrinking.”

Dr. Carolina Are, an innovation fellow at Northumbria University’s Center for Digital Citizens and expert in online moderation and the censorship of nudity, points to the influence of FOSTA-SESTA — a US act designed to curb online sex trafficking, making the hosting of sexual content riskier. “The space for nudity and sexual content online is shrinking, and this is massively worrying not just for sexual expression but also education,” she explains. Over-the-top policies from social media giants have already left safe-sex educators struggling to disseminate information and has even led to the development of “algospeak” due to the censorship of words like “lesbian” and “BDSM,” which entrenches the idea that sexuality and fetish are taboo things best left undiscussed. “It feels like an incredibly patronizing, puritan move,” Are continues. “Like platforms are trying to regulate people’s lives and choices.” 

Are also warns that YouTube may not make the distinctions Orlova does between sensual and non-sensual ASMR. “It’s going to bleed onto creators that make non-sexual content anyway because this is what happens with these specific policies,” she says. FOSTA-SESTA, for example, has already led to the inadvertent silencing of queer adult comic artists. “This is very worrying because it means platforms can decide which type of content becomes obsolete or wrong at the flick of a switch.” 

Companies, it seems, are mostly at that point. Most social media platforms practice stringent policies around sexual content — Instagram’s famed opposition to the female nipple in all of its forms, Tumblr’s porn ban, and OnlyFans’ almost-decision to remove sexual content creators from its platform are just three examples of social media’s sexual sanitation era — and toeing the line between suggestive and unacceptable content becomes harder every month. It’s left creators feeling frustrated. “I just feel like people should be able to enjoy what they want to enjoy,” says Siragusa. “If listening to girls lick and spit on microphones makes them feel less lonely, I don’t see a problem with that.”

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Dev Ritchie vividly remembers the first time

Entertaintment

Violet Grohl joined her father and keyboardist Greg Kurstin for the fourth night of Hanukkah Sessions

Dave Grohl was joined by his daughter Violet for the fourth night of Hanukkah Sessions, along with collaborator and keyboardist Greg Kurstin.

Sitting on a stool in front of a live audience at the Largo in Los Angeles, Violet sang Janis Ian’s iconic song, “At Seventeen.” The 1975 hit is described in the video caption as “one of the all-time classic coming-of-age anthems.”

In September, Violet took to the stage at both Taylor Hawkins memorial concerts in London and L.A. And last year, the younger Grohl and her father released a cover of X’s “Nausea,” which originally appears on the band’s 1980 debut album.

Trending

The “Hanukkah Sessions,” which was launched by Grohl and Kurstin  back in 2020, continues to celebrate the holiday by sharing covers of songs by Jewish artists. 

Yesterday, Inara George performed for night three of the Hanukkah Sessions to cover 10cc’s “The Things We Do For Love” with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D as backing vocals. This year’s sessions also featured with Pink, who sang “Get the Party Started” on night two, and Judd Apatow, who took to the stage on the first day to belt the big opening number with a cover of Blood, Sweat and Tears’ “Spinning Wheel.”

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Violet Grohl joined her father and keyboardist

Movies

Last Updated: October 25, 2020, 18:35 IST

Comedy Couple

Cast: Shweta Basu Prasad, Saqib Saleem, Jasmeet Singh Bhatia, Rajesh Tailang

Director: Nachiket Samant

Comedy Couple springs up a pleasant surprise for OTT viewers this week as it clears the clutter in the choice of its subject matter, casting and treatment. The movie sets up with India’s first comic duo, Deep (Saqib Salim) and Zoya (Shweta Basu Prasad), taking the stage and ends up in bashing down on gender and social-cultural norms in a light, humoured way, which mostly sits well as it is neither understated nor over the top.

It is established in the start that the much-in-love ‘Comedy Couple’ are one of a kind. Together, they make rather ‘offensive’ jokes meaningful and digestible for the audience. But problem arises in their personal lives as Deep, without the knowledge of his personal and professional partner, has built their seemingly perfect lives on the foundation of outright lies and it comes back to haunt him.

As and when the couple is confronted with reality and their house of cards crumbles under ego clash and uncertainty about the future, we see humane and relatable characters bared on screen. Credit goes to Saqib and Shweta for relying on their easy-going facet to bring Deep and Zoya alive. Both actors are natural in their approach to the situations and compliment each other well on stage and on camera. The comedy couple’s relationship issues are not overly complicated and neither are these two characters. This gives the movie an authentic and urban edge.

There is everyday humour in director Nachiket Samant’s fresh dramedy and the performers crack you up with one-liners every now and then. From gaumutra (cow urine) to live-in relationships and house hunting in Mumbai to conservative parenthood, there is plenty of fun to be had while watching this rather breezy movie, streaming on ZEE5 now.

Comedy Couple will interest you certainly with its everyday humour and a solid dialogue-driven screenplay.

Rating: 3.5/5

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here

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Last Updated: October 25, 2020, 18:35 ISTComedy

Film

The Palm Springs International Film Awards has announced that The Fabelmans is the recipient of the Vanguard Award. The Vanguard Award is a group honor distinguishing a film’s cast and director in recognition of their collective work on an exceptional film project. The award will be presented to director Steven Spielberg and cast members Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch who are all expected to attend. The Film Awards will take place in-person on January 5, 2023 at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival running through January 16, 2023. The event will be presented by American Express and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight and IHG Hotels & Resorts.

 

“The Fabelmans is an achievement not only as a deeply personal portrait of Steven Spielberg’s childhood, but also as a profoundly universal story that each and every one of us can relate to. Giving audiences a glimpse at Spielberg’s early love for movies and moviemaking, the film features a tremendous ensemble performance by Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch, making it one of the must-see films of the year,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “It is our honor to present the Vanguard Award to The Fabelmans.”

 

Past recipients of the Vanguard Award include Academy Award Best Picture winners Green Book and The Shape of Water as well as Best Picture nominees Belfast, La La Land, Little Miss Sunshine and The Trial of the Chicago 7. The Fabelmans joins this year’s previously announced honorees Cate Blanchett (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Colin Farrell (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), Sarah Polley (Director of the Year Award) and Michelle Yeoh (International Star Award).

 

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is a cinematic memory of the forces, and family, that shaped the filmmaker’s life and career. A universal coming-of-age story about an isolated young man’s pursuit of his dreams, the film is an exploration of love, artistic ambition, sacrifice and the moments of discovery that allow us to see the truth about ourselves, and our parents, with clarity and compassion. The Amblin Entertainment film stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch and is released by Universal Pictures. 

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The Palm Springs International Film Awards

TV

Henry Cavill

Henry Cavill
Photo: Jay Maidment (Netflix)

Who does Henry Cavill work for? This a strange question to ask about a guy who played Superman, Geralt of Rivia, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. With so many iconic characters under his belt, the last two months of career politicking left him out of one job, then out of another one. Now that Cavill is heading to Warhammer 40k, the producers of Witcher still have another season of the show to sell. Thankfully, the people that make Witcher haven’t abandoned the project and are pretty generous in the face of such a shake-up.

Speaking to EW, showrunner Lauren Hissrich explained how Geralt’s character would grow this season and what it means for the show in the future. Hissrich even goes as far as to call the Cavill’s final season a “heroic sendoff.”

“Geralt’s big turn is about giving up neutrality and doing anything that he has to do to get to Ciri,” Hissrich said. “And to me, it’s the most heroic sendoff that we could have, even though it wasn’t written to be that. Geralt has a new mission in mind when we come back to him in season 4. He’s a slightly different Geralt than we expected. Now, by the way, that’s an understatement.”

Last month, the Cavill quit his hit Netflix series The Witcher to pursue a return of his Superman. Black Adam kicked off a two-month-long victory lap for Cavill in the DC Universe, making good on that changing of the hierarchy of power business that the Rock was so taken with. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. Discovery did that without him and named James Gunn and Peter Safran the heads of DC Studios. Gunn and Safran set forth wiping the slate clean on the Snyder Verse, including, we found out yesterday, Black Adam. Most embarrassingly for Cavill, who announced his return to the big blue suit in October, the actor had to retract his announcement.

Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite Hemsworth, Liam, will take over for Cavill on Witcher. So while this is probably a stressful time for the Cavill household, at least the Hemsworths are picking up wins. Considering that Liam’s brother has been running around with the Avengers for a decade, it must be relieving to have a franchise on which Liam can hang his hat.

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Henry CavillPhoto: Jay Maidment (Netflix)Who does Henry

Awards

Warning: This podcast contains minor spoilers about Avatar: The Way of Water
Despite being the highest grossing movie ever at $2.9 billion, Avatar isn’t your run-of-the-mill franchise.

It doesn’t have the Star Wars toys sales, nor does it have the rabid fandom associated with Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. How can a series like this maintain its momentum 13 years after the first movie was released? Especially a movie about blue aliens? Producer Jon Landau provides insight to the series’ appeal on Crew Call today.

You can listen to our conversation below:

Avatar: The Way of Water has survived a corporate merger, multiple delays, the year-long closure of exhibition and the pandemic itself.

In regards to the sequel staying relevant, Landau likes to say, “If you make a good movie, people are going to come back.”

“We’re a third of the amount of time that it took for (Top Gun): Maverick to come back,” he adds.

“What Jim has done in the Avatar Pandora world, he’s put in timeless stories with universal themes,” Landau tells us.

“Imperial forces coming back and invading an indigenous population. Those things don’t go away. In some ways what he wrote years ago, is more timely today,” the producer explains.

“If you think about this, the Sullys are refugees. They are forced to flee their home and seek refuge in a clan that doesn’t look like them,” explains Landau.

While Avatar: The Way of Water came in under its weekend projections, opening at $134.1M stateside and under a half billion worldwide, many consider that largely due to the high demand for and low supply of premium auditoriums (i.e. Imax and Dolby) which is where audiences are buying out seats. The pic’s midweek grosses have held up and all eyes are on Avatar 2‘s potential holding pattern through the holiday.

Cameron and Landau are set on changing the narrative of cinema, from saying “I saw a movie to I experienced a movie,” says the Titanic Oscar winning producer.

While the pandemic closed movie theaters and prompted streamers to turn consumer viewing habits upside down, Landau is confident about the big screen winning out.

He paraphrases a New York Times article from March 1983.

“‘Entertainment can be had today at a cut-rate at home, and that’s exactly the way people are going to see their movies: The entertainment business as we know it is going to die,’” recalls the producer.

“I’m sure there was a similar article in ’56 for television,” he continues, “Let’s make an analogy to the music industry. We can do Spotify, we can do Pandora, we can do all these things, (but) nothing replaces the live concert. Cinema is that experience. Cinema is the live concert equivalent.”

“It’s not just about the communal experiences of it, it’s about the social commitment that you make when you go to the movies. You make a commitment to turn off your phone, to not talk to the people you’re around. I think people crave being part of that social system,” adds Landau.

Landau also expounds on upping the stakes of 3D in Avatar 2, what’s yet to come in Avatar 3 & 4, and more.

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Warning: This podcast contains minor spoilers about

Docs

An Oscar-winning Indigenous artist who rose to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene, Buffy Sainte-Marie has had a six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist. This timeline explores Sainte-Marie’s life and the major milestones in her career.

1941

Born on a Plains Cree First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, Buffy
Sainte-Marie was adopted as an infant and raised in Maine and
Massachusetts.

1941

1944

Sainte-Marie begins showing an interest in music and starts playing the
piano at the age of 3.

1944

1963

Sainte-Marie graduated with honors from the University of Massachusetts, and then moved to New York where she started playing the coffeehouse folk music scene alongside other Canadian icons.

1963

PHOTO: GBRC37 Buffy Sainte-Marie at the Gaslight Cafe, 1964

1963

That same year, she wrote the anti-war protest anthem Universal Soldier
and was already performing it in coffeehouses, but was banned from singing it on the radio and TV until 1965.

1963

1964

Sainte-Marie’s First Album

Her debut album releases, “It’s My Way!”

Sainte-Marie was named “Best New Artist” by Billboard Magazine.

1964

1965

Released “Many A Mile.”

1965

PHOTO: GBRCB9 Buffy Sainte-Marie on the subway in New York City, September 21, 1964.

1966

Released “Little Wheel Spin And Spin.”

1966

1967

Released “Fire & Fleet & Candlelight.”

1967

1968

She guest starred on NBC’s “The Virginian,” where she only agreed to do so after requesting all Indian roles be played by Native Americans.

1968

PHOTO: 2HPFF9D Buffy Sainte-Marie Circa 1980’s Credit: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch

1968

Released “I’m Gonna Be A Country Girl Again.”

1968

1969

An Electronic Pioneer

An Electronic Pioneer

She released her album Illuminations, which is considered to be a groundbreaking work of early electronic music.

1969

1969

She created the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an ongoing effort to teach native children core subjects like science from an indigenous perspective.

Cradleboard was a spinoff of the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education, which she founded in 1969.

1969

1969

She appears on the Johnny Cash Show where they sing “Custer,” a ballad
about General George Custer who led his men to death in the Battle of the
Little Bighorn.

1969

1960s-1970s

She suspects her music is being blacklisted from US radio due to strong
environmental and indigenous rights messaging.

1960s-1970s

PHOTO: Buffy Sainte-Marie at the Hotel Albert in NYC, 1964

1970

Released “The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie.”

1970

1971

Released “She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina” and “The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Vol. 2.”

1971

1972

Elvis records “Until It’s Time for You to Go” written by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

1972

1973

Released “Quiet Places.”

1973

PHOTO: 2JJEA4F BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE Canadian singer in July 1965. Photo: Tony Gale

1974

Released “Buffy” and “Native North American Child.”

1974

1975

Released “Changing Woman.”

1975

1976

Released “Sweet America.”

Her son was born and she quit recording after releasing 15 albums and
became a regular on “Sesame Street” between 1976 and 1981.

1976

1977

Sainte-Marie Marks a Television Milestone

She breastfed her son on “Sesame Street,” one of the first times breastfeeding was depicted on TV.

1977

1978

Sainte-Marie lent support alongside Muhammad Ali for the Longest Walk in support of American-Indian rights.

1978

1979

She was featured on a Supersisters trading card used to celebrate famous
women.

1979

1982

The First Indigenous Oscar Winner

She won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for co-writing the song
“Up Where We Belong,” used in the 1982 romantic drama “An Officer and
a Gentleman” and sung by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker.

1982

1984

She starts recording music and making art on a Macintosh computer.

1984

1992

Released “Coincidence and Likely Stories.”

1992

1993

She acted in the TV movie “The Broken Chain” with Pierce Brosnan.

1993

1995

Sainte-Marie was Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

1995

1996

Won a Genie for her 1996 TV special “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Up Where We
Belong.”

1996

2009

Released “Running for the Drum” and was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame
in 2009.

2009

2010

Sainte-Marie was awarded a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2010.

2010

2015

Released “Power In the Blood.” “Power in the Blood” won the Polaris Music Prize and received three 2016 JUNO nominations.

2015

2017

Released “Medicine Songs” and collaborates with Tanya Tagaq on “You Got to Run.”

2017

2018

Andrea Warner writes an authorized biography of Buffy Sainte-Marie with a foreword by
Joni Mitchell.

2018

2020

She published her first children’s book about pet adoption, “Hey Little
Rockabye.”

2020

2020

Won the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize awarded to her debut album It’s My Way, for impact and cultural relevance decades after its release.

2020

2022

Publishes her children’s books “Tâpwê and the Magic Hat” “Still this Love Goes On.”

2022

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An Oscar-winning Indigenous artist who rose to

Global

Police in Coquitlam, B.C. are seeking public assistance to find a “high-risk” 22-year-old woman who has not been seen since Sunday.

Zailey Smith was last spotted leaving her home near Clarke Road and Como Lake Avenue. A Wednesday news release did not specify why she is considered to be at extra risk.

“Zailey is known to frequent Vancouver and the Metrotown area of Burnaby. Police and family are concerned for Zailey’s wellbeing,” wrote Coquitlam RCMP.

Read more:

B.C. RCMP seize huge cache of guns, parts, ammunition from alleged firearm trafficker

Smith is described as a white woman, five-feet-two-inches tall with long brown hair, hazel eyes and a slim build. She was last seen wearing a black winter jacket, light grey leggings, black shoes and a black cross body bag.

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Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the detachment at 604-945-1550 and quote file number 2022-33540, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 to remain anonymous.


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Police in Coquitlam, B.C. are seeking public

Tech

Google’s YouTube TV is close to getting over the goal line on a rich deal for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket out-of-market games subscription package in the U.S., according to multiple reports.

If the pact goes through, starting with the 2023 NFL season, YouTube TV would become the exclusive home to Sunday Ticket after the package rolls off DirecTV, which has hosted it for nearly three decades. The “advanced talks” for Sunday Ticket between YouTube and the NFL were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Google has “discussed” paying the NFL $2.5 billion per year for Sunday Ticket, the New York Times reported. The league also could receive additional payments from Google for performance targets, such as fees based on the number of YouTube TV subscribers gained through the football package. Since 2015, DirecTV has paid about $1.5 billion annually for Sunday Ticket rights.

Reps for the NFL and YouTube declined to comment.

In addition to YouTube, others said to have been in the months-long negotiations for Sunday Ticket rights included Apple, Amazon and ESPN. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this year had indicated the package would be going to a streamer as the option that was “best for consumers.”

Sunday Ticket’s move from DirecTV to YouTube TV would reflect the broader industry evolution from traditional TV to streaming platforms. DirecTV, which AT&T spun off in August 2021 in a deal with TPG Capital, has suffered ongoing subscriber declines (as has the rest of the pay-TV industry) and the satellite/streaming provider opted to decline to renew the Sunday Ticket deal. DirecTV has an estimated 1.5 million-2 million subscribers for Sunday Ticket. For the 2022 season, DirecTV’s pricing for Sunday Ticket started at $293.94.

For YouTube TV, Sunday Ticket has the potential to pull in a wave of new subscribers. This summer, Google said YouTube TV had more than 5 million customers (including those on free trials), making it the biggest internet TV service in the U.S.

Sunday Ticket first launched in 1994 on DirecTV, and in the U.S. it has been the only way to (legally) watch all of the NFL’s regular-season Sunday daytime matchups.

The NFL’s Sunday Ticket remains the only piece of the league’s media-rights puzzle that has not been locked up into the next decade. Last year, the NFL inked a set of massive deals with Disney, Fox, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Amazon that will keep most of its games with traditional media companies through 2033. 

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Google’s YouTube TV is close to getting