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

The State of the Race

In recent years, recognizable names have flooded the Best Live Action Short category, with two of the last three winners being Wes Anderson and Riz Ahmed, both previously nominated in different categories.

This time around, the celebrity presence is more subtle, though even if there were a flood of already acclaimed directors giving short films a go again, the Short Films branch would probably reject them if it at all felt like a shameless Oscar grab.

The film right on the fence of this internal debate is “Dovecote,...

Though Wes Anderson has only made two fully stop-motion animated feature films — “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Isle of Dogs” — almost all of his films dating as far back as “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” have featured some element of animation. Whether it be a full sequence designed to look like classic French bandes dessinées in “The French Dispatch” or the quirky alien featured in “Asteroid City,” Anderson has come to love animation despite not having any initial interest in it. As such, he was invited to take part in a masterclass held at last year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, parts of which were recently published in The Hollywood Reporter.

“It’s a sort of giant, slightly overwhelming thing,” Anderson said of the practice of animation, particularly stop-motion, “but it’s very fun.”

While many have come to love Anderson through his animated work, he still...

The Bangladesh Ministry of Cultural Affairs has launched an ambitious anthology film project titled “Remembering Monsoon Revolution,” selecting eight accomplished directors to create works that will traverse the breadth of the country. The project will produce six fictional stories and two documentaries, each running 40-50 minutes.

The initiative’s title is a reference to the events of July 2024, referred to as the Monsoon Revolution, that led to then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina‘s flight from the country amid mass protests and the formation of an interim government under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

The project, overseen by celebrated Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki who has been put in charge of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, and a three-member search committee including Sumon Rahman, Adnan Al Rajeev and Tanim Noor, will conduct workshops across Bangladesh’s eight divisions. Each director will mentor emerging filmmakers from regional ShilpoKola Academies,...

Warner Bros. stated on Friday that “The Batman” will have a sequel on October 1, 2027. The highly awaited film directed by Matt Reeves has experienced its second delay. The film was pushed back to 2026 earlier this year after being set to come out in October 2025.

Robert Pattinson will play the superhero again. As Reeves continues to polish the script, the production is expected to start in the third quarter of 2025.

James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios, talked to fans on Threads’ social media site about their worries about the long wait. He told us, “Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write.” He also said that once the script is done, pre-production, shooting, and post-production for big movies usually take two years.

According to Gunn, the five-year gap between Batman pictures is comparable...

Perhaps the Grinch ruined Christmas at Warner Bros., and now the studio is somewhat hellbent on wreaking havoc. Because right after Christmas, WB got busy making release date changes for next year and beyond. Funnily enough, the studio took the most audacious step of shifting Matt Reeves’ highly anticipated The Batman sequel to 2027, while offering Tom Cruise’s unnamed movie a 2026 release date.

Robert Pattinson in The Batman (2022) | image: DC Studios, Warner Bros.

Well, we understand that production for The Batman 2 isn’t scheduled to get started until late summer of 2025 and is set to be a VFX-heavy sequel, but despite all odds, a fall 2026 theatrical release seemed perfectly within reach. So why did Warner Bros. shift its release date, and instead offer Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s untitled movie a 2026 deadline? Well, whatever the reason might be, right now, even Cruise’s movie doesn’t...

Gold Derby rounds up today’s top stories in entertainment for Dec. 27, 2024.

Update:

Nightbitch comes barking to Hulu

On Dec. 27, Amy Adams‘ latest awards contender became available to stream for free for Hulu subscribers. Based on the 2021 Nightbitch novel by Rachel Yoder, the big budget film version from writer/director Marielle Heller stars Adams as a stay-at-home mother who starts inexplicably transforming into a dog. Other cast members include Scoot McNairy as her husband, Arleigh Patrick Snowden & Emmett James Snowden as their son, and Zoë Chao as a family friend.

Searchlight Pictures’ horror-comedy has been racking up various awards nominations this season, including for Adams at the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards. Oscars next? As Heller recently told Gold Derby, “[Adams] is so wonderful and she’s so vulnerable, and I feel like she really trusted me.” Watch the video interview below:

Tim Allen spills secrets about Toy Story 5...

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s untitled Tom Cruise film has been set for an October 2, 2026 Imax release by Warner Bros Pictures, giving the project a prime awards season slot.

The date had previously been claimed by Warner for Matt Reeves’ sequel to The Batman, which now moves to a global release on October 1, 2027, also in Imax.

The Inarritu project, the Mexican filmmaker’s first English-language film as a director since The Revenant, is being produced by Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment and will also star Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Riz Ahmed.

Plot details have not been revealed,...

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first English-language film since “The Revenant” has a release date — and fans of Tom Cruise’s return to auteur-driven fare have a reason to look forward to October 2, 2026. And even more cause to celebrate: Plot details are finally available. According to a Warner Bros. release, “The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.”

The untitled project marks the director’s latest collaboration with his “Birdman” co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone, with Sabina Berman also sharing a screenwriting credit. Cruise leads a cast that includes Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, and Riz Ahmed.

Of note: “The Batman II” was initially announced for an October 2, 2026, release. It moves to October 1, 2027.

Also shuffling around on the release calendar: Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” moves...

Riddle me this! What highly-anticipated superhero sequel is getting delayed? If you said Matt Reeves’s The Batman sequel, give yourself a gold star! The Dark Knight’s next theatrical outing is Bat-grappling from October 2, 2026 to October 1, 2027, a full year from its intended release date. Production for The Batman sequel begins in the late summer. If WB kept the film’s original date, the VFX team would have been working night and day to finish the movie on time. The new date gives Reeves and his fellow filmmakers ample time to fine-tune the project for a box office-breaking 2027 release. Plus, who doesn’t love seeing a Batman film in Autumn? Prime time Spooky Season, baby! Let’s go!

Sliding into The Batman sequel’s original slot is the untitled Tom Cruise movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Filmed for IMAX, the untitled film features Cruise alongside Sandra Hüller, John Goodman,...

Moviegoers will have to wait a little longer to return to Gotham City, as Matt Reeves’ follow-up to “The Batman” has been pushed back until 2027. The superhero sequel was originally supposed to open on October 2, 2026, but will now shift a year and open on October 1, 2027, in Imax, Warner Bros. announced on Friday.

That left an opening for Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise’s upcoming film to hit theaters in 2026, just as the awards season race kicks off. The film, which still lacks a title, will open in Imax on Oct. 2 in the date “The Batman 2” vacated.

Warner Bros. made some additional tweaks to its upcoming release slate, swapping the openings of Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Now, “Mickey 17,” which stars Robert Pattinson (who plays the Dark Knight in Reeves’ comic book series), will open on March 7, 2025, while “Sinners,” which re-teams Coogler...

Warner Bros. Pictures is moving its schedule around. The studio’s upcoming and currently untitled movie from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Tom Cruise has been given an October 2026 premiere date. It will be released on Imax on Oct. 2, 2026.

The upcoming movie from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Entertainment follows “the most powerful man in the world,” according to a logline for the project, who takes on a mission to prove he’s the savior to humanity before it’s too late. In addition to directing the project, Iñárritu co-wrote the film alongside Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone. Its producers include Iñárritu, Cruise and Mary Parent.

Cruise will star in the movie alongside Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Riz Ahmed.

Additionally, “The Batman” sequel has been moved to 2027. Previously, the movie was set to premiere in IMAX on Oct. 2, 2026. Now it will premiere on Oct.

Post Christmas Warner Bros is busy making release date changes for next year before it rings in and beyond. The most prolific move is that Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel is heading from Oct. 2, 2026 to Oct. 1, 2027. Production isn’t scheduled to get started until late summer and with a VFX heavy sequel such as this one, a fall 2026 theatrical release is within reach. The Reeves’ movie will have Imax screens.

Funny enough, Warner Bros always had the first weekend of October 2027 staked out for a DC title.

Reeves’ The Batman was the first fire-breathing theatrical release for Warner Bros. post Covid after implementing a day-and-date release strategy on Max; the movie making $369.3M domestic, $772M WW. The feature spawned a Max series, The Penguin, the third-most-watched HBO or Max debut season around the world following The House of the Dragon and The Last of Us.

Taking over The Batman sequel’s place on Oct.

Exclusive: Nearly 35 years on from his release, Channel 4 has made a definitive documentary series charting Nelson Mandela’s journey.

In Free Nelson Mandela [w/t], the man who was arguably the most famous political prisoner of all time will have his story told by Rogan Productions, the indie behind Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation and Abba: Against All Odds, along with GroupM Motion Entertainment.

The South African politician and freedom fighter, who died in 2013, was imprisoned for 27 years during the apartheid era and the campaign for his release was one of the biggest in history. He was let out of prison in February 1990 and the image of him walking free immediately became iconic. Channel 4’s doc will explore how a fierce political struggle and cultural battle was waged to bring about his freedom, as it charts Mandela’s journey from activist to revolutionary to prisoner to negotiator. With access...

Tom Cruise stars in the latest film from Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, and filming has quietly got underway. More on the story here.

We’re not surprised if Tom Cruise sometimes looks a little tired in interviews. After now completing filming on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and wrapping production on a project which began filming all the way back in 2020, Cruise has reportedly already finished up shooting the first phase of his upcoming collaboration with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu.

According to World Of Reel, the project is tentatively titled Judy and will see Cruise play ‘the most powerful man in the world, who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.’

Sounds cheap.

While the events onscreen may be pretty frantic, they’re set to be matched by Cruise’s off-screen calendar for 2025.

As well as shooting the...

Exclusive: Bleecker Street has dated their Sundance premiere title The Wedding Banquet starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone for April 18 while their Telluride acquisition, the Bill Murray and Naomi Watts movie The Friend will start its limited rollout on March 21.

They’re both part of a 2025 theatrical release slate which includes Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths which is getting a wide release on Jan. 10, the Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun movie Love Me on Jan. 31; the Riz Ahmed, Sam Worthington and Lily James movie Relay in Q2 and the Damian Lewis and Thomasin McKenzie Feckham Hall later in the year.

“We are excited to unveil our 2025 theatrical lineup, which truly embodies the diverse, bold, and original storytelling that we are passionate about championing at Bleecker Street,” said Bleecker Street CEO Andrew Karpen and President Kent Sanderson. “With a star-studded roster of filmmakers and talent, across a wide array of genres,...

The jury for European Shooting Stars, the program that promotes rising actors from Europe, has revealed its 2025 lineup. Shooting Stars from previous editions have included Riz Ahmed, Leonie Benesch, George MacKay, Carey Mulligan, Alba Rohrwacher, Bill Skarsgård, Alicia Vikander and Maisie Williams.

The actors will be presented to the international press, film industry and public during the 75th Berlinale, which runs Feb. 13 – 23. They will take part in a tailor-made, four-day program that will culminate with an awards ceremony on Feb. 17 at the Berlinale Palast. The program is organized by European Film Promotion and is supported by Creative Europe’s Media Programme of the European Union.

The 10 actors selected for its 28th edition are Marina Makris (Cyprus), Besir Zeciri (Denmark), Maarja Johanna Mägi (Estonia), Devrim Lingnau (Germany), Elín Hall (Iceland), Kārlis Arnolds Avots (Latvia), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (Lithuania), Lidija Kordić (Montenegro), Vicente Wallenstein (Portugal) and Frida Gustavsson (Sweden).

The Shooting Stars were...

The Girl With The Needle star Besir Zeciri and Devrim Lingnau, lead in Netflix series The Empress are among the 10 actors selected for the 2025 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars.

The 10 Stars will participate in a four-day programme at next year’s Berlinale, culminating with the European Shooting Stars awards ceremony on February 17 at the Berlinale Palast.

Scroll down for the full list

Each Shooting Stars submission must highlight one performance from the actor’s career, which may be from an as-yet-unreleased work.

Danish entry Zeciri hails from Copenhagen, and played a leading role in Magnus von Horn...

It isn’t clear as yet why Vikrant Massey has decided to quit acting just when things are looking up for him after 12th Fail and The Sabarmati Report.

Long before these, Vikrant was immediately noticed as Ranveer Singh’s best friend in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera. Ever since then Massey has been struggling to find his bearings in the film industry.

He was eminently watchable in the webseries Criminal Justice and Broken But Beautiful. Sadly films like Chhapaak and Haseen Dilruba seem to cast him as this millennium’s Vinod Mehra, that dependable actor who was typecast as the supportive co-star in women-oriented films in the 1980s.

Vikrant Massey awaited that one big explosion in his career. Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut A Death In The Gunj did justice to Vikrant Massey’s talent. But no one saw that film outside film festivals. In A Death In The Gunj...

The hunt for the new face of James Bond has been ongoing for years, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been possibly the most consistent, and preferred actor for the role. A lot of times, it has seemed like the answer is finally within reach in the fandom. However, the tight-lippedness of the producer Barbara Broccoli-headed casting team has completely prevented any update about the process from being released.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the Hunter (2024) | Credit: Sony Pictures

As a result, the confusion as well as the thrill of finding the best fit for James Bond has continued in the fan base. Keeping that very trend alive, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, in a recent interview, responded to the question of his potential appearance as the MI6 spy in a very cryptic way. This seems to have confirmed the fear that the wait for Daniel Craig’s successor will stretch on for a long time.

Sophie Okonedo will receive the Richard Harris Award at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), organizers unveiled Monday.

The Richard Harris Award recognizes the outstanding contribution of an actor to British film. Previous recipients of the honor include the likes of Samantha Morton, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and, last year, Stephen Graham.

“Sophie’s celebrated career has seen her embrace both U.K. independent and Hollywood film and has taken her from the National Theatre to Broadway and back, with a significant body of acclaimed television roles in between,” the BIFAs organizers said in a statement. “Sophie’s work has been recognized by, amongst others, BIFA, BAFTA, the Academy, Tony, Olivier, Screen Actors Guild and Emmy Awards.”

They also highlighted: “Her versatility as a performer has seen her in demand across all film genres,...

Sophie Okonedo will be honoured with the Richard Harris award at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas).

The actor will receive the award at the Bifas ceremony held this Sunday, December 8, at the Roundhouse in London.

Okonedo is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in 2004’s Hotel Rwanda while her other film credits include The Secret Lie Of Bees, Christopher Robin, Wild Rose, Death On The Nile and Catherine Called Birdy.

She was previously nominated for two Bifas - in 2002 for Stephen Frears’s Dirty Pretty Things and in 2009 for Anthony Fabian’s Skin.

On the TV side, Okonedo is...

Benski Launches Lumina

Thomas Benski, the former Pulse Films boss who recently unveiled Carousel Studios with Omar Sy and Louis Letterier, has launched talent and IP banner Lumina. Based in London, New York, Paris and Los Angeles, the new venture claims to have been “built to support and grow companies in the modern media and consumer landscape where talent, IP and brand are the multipliers,” and comes with a first-round of funding in the “mid-eight figures.”

Lumina says it will focus on talent-driven studios, production, kids and family content, plus consumer brands. Lumina has already partnered with Carrousel Studios, as well as with Yann Demange’s Wayward Films. On the kids and family side, Lumina is backing gaming studio Creators Corp. and the kids IP business Strike. Its consumer division has backed brands including Metie and Daaci, with its Lumina’s will include a “multi-disciplinary” film studio, Magna Studios, headed...

Sophie Okonedo is set to receive the Richard Harris Award at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) on Sunday 8 December.

The prize is given for an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film. Previous recipients include Samantha Morton, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and in 2023, Stephen Graham.

Stage and screen star Okonedo was Oscar-nominated for Hotel Rwanda in 2005 and won a Tony for A Raisin In The Sun in 2014. She has twice previously been nominated for a BIFA for roles in Skin and Dirty Pretty Things.

She made her way into acting at the Royal Court’s youth theatre in London, before going on to develop her craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada). She made her big-screen debut in Isaac Julien’s enduring 1991 East-end drama Young Soul Rebels.

Director Doug Liman says he’s making Deeper, a ‘scary’ undersea supernatural thriller, with Tom Cruise as its star.

Director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise have long planned to work together again after collaborating on Edge Of Tomorrow and American Made. And according to a new report, that is still set to happen – just not in the guise we expected. When thinking about a Liman/Cruise collaboration at Warner Bros, a sequel to 2014’s Edge Of Tomorrow might spring to mind – but no, it seems like the duo could be cooking up something different.

Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman (via World of Reel) quotes Doug Liman as saying that his next film will be Deeper, starring Tom Cruise. It’s a project that Warner Bros has reportedly been trying to get off the ground for a decade under the stewardship of several different filmmakers.

Liman tells Friedman that he and Cruise...

One of the world’s most prestigious short film festivals, HollyShorts, is coming to London.

HollyShorts will hold its first-ever London edition as part of the L.A.-based festival’s 20th anniversary year and, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal, will present HollyShorts Honoree Awards to a slew of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated British and Irish short filmmakers.

Recipients of the HollyShorts Honoree Award include Tom Berkeley and Ross White, who won an Oscar in 2023 for their short film An Irish Goodbye; Chris Overton, who won an Oscar in 2018 for The Silent Child; Misan Harriman, who was nominated for an Academy Award this year for The After; and Jamie Donoughue, who was nominated in 2016 for Shok.

The event will also present a special Trailblazer Award to actor James Martin, whose pivotal role in An Irish Goodbye led to him being the first star with Down Syndrome to win at the Academy Awards.

Idris Elba (via his 22Summers production company) and Chiwetel Ejiofor have signed on as executive producers for “The Brown Dog,” a short animated film commissioned by WeTransfer. The film stars the late Michael K. Williams in his last featured performance.

Williams, who memorably portrayed Omar Little in “The Wire” and Chalky White in “Boardwalk Empire,” died in 2021. He was 54. In honor of Williams’ birthday (the actor would have turned 58 on Nov. 22), “The Brown Dog” is now available to stream on WeTransfer’s YouTube channel.

“When I was approached to come on board as an executive producer for The Brown Dog, it felt like a natural, emotional connection to Michael K. Williams, my dear friend and co-star,” Elba said in a statement about his involvement.

“Michael had such a unique gift — he brought soul, depth, and honesty to every role he played, and it’s an honor to continue his legacy through this film,...

Nicholas Braun, Stephanie Koenig, Debby Ryan, Mekki Leeper and Cory Michael Smith have joined Zac Efron and Phoebe Dynevor in celebrity thriller “Famous.”

The LA-set film — from director Jody Hill and exploring the dark side of celebrity — began production last week in Los Angeles, comes from Esmail Corp. and Caviar.

A24 is set to release “Famous” in the U.S., reuniting with Efron after last year’s “The Iron Claw,” which grossed $45M worldwide. Black Bear is repping international rights. WME Independent and CAA Media Finance brokered the sale.

In “Famous,” Efron stars in dual roles, playing both overzealous fan, Lance Dunkquist, and Hollywood heartthrob, James Jansen. The film is based on the acclaimed novel by New York Times bestselling author Blake Crouch and is adapted for the screen by Chad Hodge, who also adapted Crouch’s Wayward Pines trilogy into a series.

The story follows Dunkquist, who has one...

Back in early 2023, it was announced that Best Actor Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Lily James, who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy, had signed on to star in the thriller Relay for director David Mackenzie, whose credits include Outlaw King, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Best Picture nominee Hell or High Water. By the end of April, they were joined in the cast by Sam Worthington of the Avatar franchise and production was underway. A year and a half later, Relay has finally secured a U.S. distribution deal, with Bleecker Street revealing that they’re planning to give the film a theatrical release sometime in 2025.

Worthington and Mackenzie previously worked together on Under the Banner of Heaven. Details on his Relay character have not been revealed.

Mackenzie wrote the screenplay for Relay with Justin Piasecki,...

Bleecker Street has acquired US rights to David Mackenzie’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere Relay starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington.

The company plans a 2025 theatrical release on the thriller, which Black Bear fully financed and produced alongside Thunder Road Pictures and Sigma Films.

Justin Piasecki wrote the screenplay to the story about a fixer who specialises in brokering lucrative pay-offs between corrupt corporations and individuals who threaten their downfall. When a message arrives from a potential client who needs his protection, the fixer’s rules of engagement start to change.

Relay producers include Basil Iwanyk for Thunder Road,...

Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights to “Relay” following the twisty thriller’s debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

The film was directed by David MacKenzie, who oversaw the Oscar-nominated “Hell or High Water,” and stars Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Lily James (“Pam & Tommy”) and Sam Worthington (“Avatar”). Bleecker Street is planning to release the film in theaters next year.

“Relay” puts a new spin on the kind of paranoid loner films like “The Conversation” and “The Parallax View” that populated ’70s cinema. In it, Ahmed plays a “fixer” who specializes in brokering payoffs between businesses and employees who have secrets about corporate malfeasance that could ruin companies. Because of the nature of his work, he keeps his identity a secret through meticulous planning, but his guard drops ever so slightly when he takes on a new client (Lily James) who needs his protection to stay alive.

Bleecker Street has swooped on Relay, acquiring U.S. rights to the high-concept contemporary thriller, starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington, which impressed in its world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Written by Justin Piasecki and directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water), the film will be released in theaters sometime next year.

In Relay, Ahmed plays a world class “fixer” who specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He keeps his identity a secret through meticulous planning and always follows an exacting set of rules. But when a message arrives one day from a potential client (James), needing his protection just to stay alive, the rules quickly start to change.

Black Bear fully financed the project and produced alongside Thunder Road Pictures and Sigma Films. Producers include Basil Iwanyk for Thunder Road, Gillian Berrie for Sigma,...

Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights to “Relay” from acclaimed director David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”) and written by Justin Piasecki, the company announced on Monday.

The high-concept contemporary whistleblower thriller starring Academy Award winner Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington received rave reviews following its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Bleecker Street is planning a 2025 theatrical release. Black Bear fully financed “Relay” and produced alongside Thunder Road Pictures and Sigma Films.

Producers include Basil Iwanyk for Thunder Road, Gillian Berrie for Sigma, Teddy Schwarzman for Black Bear, and Mackenzie. Executive producers are Black Bear’s Michael Heimler and John Friedberg, and Thunder Road’s Erica Lee and Charlie Morrison.

In “Relay,” Riz Ahmed plays a world class “fixer” who specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He keeps his identity a secret through...

The fall festivals may be in the rearview, but there is still plenty of wheeling and dealing to be done. The latest: Bleecker Street announced Monday it has picked up the U.S. rights for David Mackenzie’s sharp and very entertaining TIFF premiere, “Relay.”

Starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington, the “high-concept contemporary thriller” is a throwback to clever, classy films of yore. Even better: the distributor is planning a 2025 theatrical release for the film. Bleecker has purchased two fall premieres that did well on the fest circuit and beyond, with “Relay” joining Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s “The Friend” as a recent purchase.

Per Bleecker, the film follows Riz Ahmed as “a world class ‘fixer’ who specializes in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten their ruin. He keeps his identity a secret through meticulous planning and always follows an exacting set of rules.

Bleecker Street has picked up the U.S. rights to Relay, a gritty corporate whistleblowing thriller from director David MacKenzie that stars Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthingon.

Written by Justin Piasecki, Relay stars Ahmed as a fixer who specializes in brokering deals between whistleblowers and endangered corporations. He keeps his identity a secret and follows an exacting set of rules, only to see a message from a potential client, played by James, have him seek protection as the rules of the game quickly change and a dangerous cat-and-mouse chase involving his latest client escalates.

After a world bow in Toronto, Bleecker Street has set a 2025 theatrical release for the film.

Relay was financed by Black Bear, which produces alongside Thunder Road Pictures and Sigma Films. Producers include Basil Iwanyk, Gillian Berrie, Teddy Schwarzman and MacKenzie. Executive producers are Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Erica Lee and Charlie Morrison.

The...

Two days after being chosen as the recipient of the Cinema Vanguard Award at this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Adrien Brody has been awarded another top honor at an influential awards season stop.

On Thursday, the Palm Springs International Film Awards revealed Brody will get the group’s Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor for his performance in “The Brutalist.”

The film, due out in December via A24, is one of the year’s top awards contenders and has Brody on a collision course for his second-ever Oscar nomination. He was last nominated in 2002 for “The Pianist” and later won Best Actor.

“In ‘The Brutalist,’ Adrien Brody delivers a stunning performance as architect László Toth following his escape to America to rebuild his life, having been forced to flee Europe at the end of the war. Brody’s mesmerizing portrayal showcases the depth of human dignity in the face of incredible suffering,...

Exclusive: Across a wide swath of genres, the inaugural Desi List revealed its finalists today.

Drawing from talent such as 2020 Black List recipient and Apple TV+ Wolfboy and the Everything Factory scribe Monisha Dadlani, the12 projects made public were drawn from 346 submissions. The selections are perfectly balanced between big screen and small screen efforts – as you can see below.

As Deadline exclusively revealed last month, the successful Desi List applicants were decided from a selected group of 43 writers, showrunners, directors, actors, producers, executives, agents, and managers put together by The Salon and the Black List. Among those judges were Mindy Kaling and Riz Ahmed, and Salon co-founders Nik Dodani, Bash Naran, and Vinny Chhibber.

To that, the trio Wednesday said: “The 2024 Desi List represents a wide spectrum of stories that entertain, explore untold histories, and bring richly layered characters to the forefront. We urge the industry to stay steadfast...

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Venom: The Last Dance continues to chew up the box office, but fans of the franchise can already look forward to the Blu-Ray. The series is getting a limited, collector’s edition release that is available to pre-order on Amazon. It includes six discs and features the films on 4K Uhd, Blu-Ray, and Digital, and it even includes a collectible Venom action figure.

Venom 3-Movie Collection + Collectible Action...

If you’ve been keeping up with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, you know it’s one wild and bumpy ride. For those of us invested in the big screen’s only officially Spidey-adjacent anti-hero, Eddie Brock, the past few years have brought mixed emotions. Sony owns the rights to a massive Spider-Man gallery of characters. Still, they can’t exactly bring Spider-Man himself into their solo adventures, so we’ve been watching them piece together a somewhat awkward “Sony-Verse” since 2018, all while the MCU does its own thing with Peter Parker.

The Ssu introduces a new web-slinger | Credits: Sony

As a result, Sony has to balance its films with heavy hints that a certain web-slinger might be out there somewhere – but he’s not coming through that door anytime soon. In this slightly messy context, we have three Venom movies so far, with each one taking a new shot at...

Even early into its theatrical release 10 years ago, Dan Gilroy’s 2014 thriller Nightcrawler felt like an instantly timeless classic. For starters, writer-director Gilroy’s startlingly confident debut made an immediate impression as an iconic Los Angeles movie, with immersive neo-noir vibes and unsettling chills bolstering its impeccable cinematic craft and rich thematic aims.

Amazon’s head of Pan-English scripted originals Rola Bauer is exiting her role at the tech giant.

Bauer, who was elevated to the position in 2022 as part of a restructuring following Amazon’s $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM, previously served as MGM’s president of international TV.

An individual familiar with the matter tells TheWrap that the decision was made by Bauer, who is looking to “return to her entrepreneurial roots” and pursue options outside the company. The separation was a mutual decision with Amazon and her official date of leave remains to be determined.

During her tenure over the past two years, the Pan-English division has produced six projects, including “Harlan Coben’s Lazarus” starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, “Haven” with Sophie Turner, “Quarter Life” with Riz Ahmed and “The Girlfriend” with Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke.

The Pan-English team will now be absorbed into the larger Amazon MGM Studios...

International TV veteran Rola Bauer is stepping down from her role as Amazon MGM Studios’ head of English-language global original series produced outside the U.S.

The parting is amicable and instigated by Bauer. The seasoned producer and creative executive joined MGM in 2020 as president of international TV production. The scope of her role changed after Amazon’s 2022 acquisition of MGM to focus on a specific type of content that Amazon MGM Studios dubbed Pan-English global originals — projects produced in English but outside the U.S. The team put an emphasis on glossy event series that can travel well across territories and cultures.

As Amazon and MGM fine-tune the company’s hierarchy and strategy, Bauer decided it was a good time to return to producing and entrepreneurial content packaging and development efforts. Bauer’s executive team will be absorbed into the larger Amazon Studios structure. Bauer will help steer the...

International television executive, and producing pioneer, Rola Bauer is stepping down from her post as as head of pan-English scripted SVOD TV at Amazon Studios, Bauer and Amazon announced on Wednesday.

After several years at the global streamer, producing series starring the likes of Sophie Turner, Bill Nighy, Riz Ahmed and Robin Wright, Bauer said she wanted to “return to my entrepreneurial roots.”

Bauer was President of International Television Productions at MGM when, in May 2021, Amazon bought the studio in an $8.5 billion deal. Following the merger, she was put in charge of a new division, pan-English global originals, developing and producing English-language series outside the United States.

Her team produced six series in two years, including such upcoming shows as the thriller series Harlan Coben’s Lazarus starring Sam Claflin and Nighy; crime drama Haven featuring Turner; the half-hour comedy Quarter Life written by, and starring Ahmed; and The Girlfriend,...

Veteran international TV executive and producer Rola Bauer is leaving Amazon MGM Studios where she served as Head of Pan-English scripted originals for the past two years.

This was a role carved out for Bauer in the November 2022 consolidation of Amazon Studios and MGM following Amazon’s acquisition of the venerable Hollywood studio. The long-time Studiocanal executive had originally joined MGM in 2020 in a broader role, as President, International Television Productions.

Under Bauer, the Pan-English division of Amazon MGM Studios has generated six upcoming Prime Video series, including Harlan Coben’s Lazarus starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, — Bauer’s fourth career Coben series — Haven with Sophie Turner, Quarter Life with Riz Ahmed and The Girlfriend with Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke.

Her team and their slate will now be absorbed into the larger Amazon MGM Studios group led by Head of Television Vernon Sanders, to whom Bauer reported. There...

I won’t lie, I do get a strange enjoyment out of the Venom films but I would hesitate to call them “good.” I’ve been a big fan of the character since its inception and so, like many, I was very disappointed when the first film came out. The design was too alien and he didn’t act like how I like my Venom to act. See, I’m a 90’s Spider-man guy and the primary motivating factor for Eddie Brock is his hatred of Peter Parker/Spider-man. We don’t have any Spider-man in the Tom Hardy-starring Venom movies. So we’re already off to a massive disadvantage. And with every film having some kind of Symbiote bad guy, they can feel very samey. I mean, imagine Iron Man taking on three Robot Men, three films in a row. It would get pretty old and tired.

But...

This article contains spoilers for "Venom: The Last Dance."

The first two movies in the "Venom" franchise gave the eponymous anti-hero and his new buddy Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) a run for their money by having them go up against some deadly rival symbiotes. In 2018, the outdated but silly "Venom" saw the symbiote Riot merge with Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), and the two teamed up in an effort to bring an entire race of symbiotes to Earth to bond with humanity, though each had their own very different motivations for doing so. In 2021, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" (which almost had a better title) turned serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) into the aforementioned symbiote Carnage after a piece of Venom was inadvertently consumed by the criminal when he bit Eddie's hand during a journalistic prison visit.

"Venom: The Last Dance" (read our review) also brings some new symbiotes to the table.

This article contains massive spoilers for "Venom: The Last Dance."

What is Venom? Who is Venom? Are we Venom? These are the questions that Venom and the trilogy of films that bear his name have been struggling with since the black, gooey symbiote first hijacked a probe to Earth in the 2018 movie. In some ways, Venom is the quintessential comic book character, with creators Todd MacFarlane and David Michelinie building upon some pre-existing "Spider-Man" lore and making him an aesthetics-first, thought-second figure. To wit: when you think of Venom the character, you instantly picture white eyes, black goo, tentacles, a huge tongue and long, sharp teeth; you're not initially thinking of any deep emotion or internal struggle within the dude. That's partially because of the way Venom has evolved and been used over the decades, with various writers and artists shifting his parameters around to try and keep up with the character's iconographic popularity.

Elizabeth Woodward saw an opportunity in the indie film market and ran with it. The founder and CEO of production shingle and distributor Willa is poised to break into bigger endeavors with Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “La Cocina,” which it will release Oct. 25 in New York and Nov. 1 in Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. The film then rolls out nationwide Nov. 8 in over 75 markets.

The film embodies Willa’s mission of finding great material with a social conscience and tailoring the release strategy to not only bring in audiences but really reach them through events around the film. With “La Cocina,” which played in the Berlinale competition, that strategy entails an urgency spurred by the current election campaigns, from the presidential race to races on local levels.

Woodward strives to make films that move audiences, and because she came into the industry during a time of change and transition, “I’ve...

Venom: The Last Dance is hitting theaters soon and it’s still kind of boggling to me that this franchise made it to three movies. Venom as a character is intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, but the two characters aren’t connected at all in the films. Plus, Sony’s other spinoff movies include the critically reviled Madame Web and Morbius, the latter of which might be the only film in box office history to bomb twice.

Yet the Venom movies have slowly managed to become fan-favorites; with the third entry building up plenty of buzz as the grand finale of the trilogy. So how did we get here from a premise so seemingly destined to not work? Well, let’s look back at those first two movies and see if we can figure it out.

Venom (2018) Tom Hardy as Venom

Our story centers on Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy,...

Huge news for fans of crazy filmmaking techniques and even crazier live-action stunts. The fabled Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu teamup, which Warner Bros. announced back in February, is really moving forward. Variety reports that the still-untitled film is set to start shooting in the U.K. soon. No...

Dan Gilroy's "Nightcrawler" is designed to make you feel ill at ease. When small-time thief Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is first introduced, the discomfort evoked stems from the desperation late-stage capitalism embeds into our souls and how it pushes us towards unsavory avenues. However, once Bloom pawns a stolen bicycle for a camcorder, and we are forced to dissect violent, extreme crime scenes with him, the true, eerie heart of "Nightcrawler" is revealed. Bloom isn't just pushed into taking such ethically void measures to ensure his survival: he actively hungers for these excesses, as seen in his wide-eyed, unblinking gaze, which Gyllenhaal invests with an unsettling intensity that grants "Nightcrawler" its discomfiting tint. It is an experience that comes alive solely because of him, and Gyllenhaal carries this burden by channeling a haunting, career-defining performance that is both subtle and felt deeply in our bones.

Gyllenhaal is no one-hit...