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Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’ (Courtesy of Neon)

Anora continues to pick up speed heading into the Oscars, scoring Critics Choice Awards and DGA wins and snagging a Best Feature win at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Anora also captured Best Director (Sean Baker) and Best Lead Performance (Mikey Madison) wins. A Real Pain and Didi each earned two awards during the February 22, 2025 Spirit Awards ceremony hosted by Aidy Bryant.

On the television side, Baby Reindeer dominated with three wins. The critically acclaimed limited series took home the Best Lead Performance (Richard Gadd), Best Supporting Performance (Nava Mau), and Best Breakthrough Performance (Jessica Gunning) wins. Other television winners included Shogun and How to Die Alone.

2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees and Winners

Best Feature

Winner: Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow

Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary,...

The 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards have wrapped! And now we know, as the full winners list for the Spirit Awards has been revealed, just how much momentum “Anora” has going into the Oscars: a lot. It already got the most Spirits nominations with six, and it ended up winning Best Feature, Best Director for Sean Baker, and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison.

Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Performance for “A Real Pain,” which also won Best Screenplay. “No Other Land” won Best Documentary, and the extraordinary animated film “Flow” won Best International feature.

“Baby Reindeer” collected the most prizes on the TV side with Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series going to Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning won Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series, and Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series went to Nava Rau. “Shogun” won Best New Scripted Series.

Host Aidy Bryant...

Kieran Culkin took home the win for best supporting performance at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday.

Presented by Kathryn Hahn, Culkin won the honor for his work in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, marking his first Spirit Award ever. Culkin — who is starring in Glengarry Glen Ross, which opens March 10 on Broadway — was not present at the Spirit Awards in Santa Monica on Saturday, but Hahn accepted the award on his behalf.

His win at the 2025 Spirit Awards came a little over a month after he won the award for best supporting actor at the 2025 Golden Globes. Culkin, too, became a first-time Oscar nominee this year with a nod in the same category for his portrayal of Benji Kaplan in A Real Pain.

The Succession star was nominated for best supporting performance at the Spirit Awards alongside Yura Borisov (Anora), Joan Chen (Dìdi), Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson...

The best in independent film and new television shows were honored at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards and we have the full winners list here.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow led the film nominations with five nods each while Shogun led the television nominations with five nods as well.

In the end, Anora and Baby Reindeer led their respective categories with three wins each!

Make sure to check out the recap of every celeb who attended the event and take a look at our Best Dressed list as well.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of winners…

Best Feature

Anora – Winner

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow

Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall

Nickel Boys

Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine

Sing Sing

Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton...

The 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards — the top awards event for the independent film and television community — were handed out on Saturday from the beach in Santa Monica, Calif.

The ceremony, hosted by Saturday Night Live vet Aidy Bryant for the second year in the row, was streamed live on the IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels at 5 pm Et, and across other social platforms.

More from TVLineSAG Awards 2025: The Penguin, Shōgun and Only Murders in the Building Among TV WinnersNAACP Image Awards: Quinta Brunson, Jennifer Hudson and Fight Night Win BigWriters Guild Awards 2025: Shōgun, The Penguin and Hacks...

The 40th annual Independent Spirit Awards took place in Santa Monica on Feb. 22, with Aidy Bryant as host for the second year in a row.

“Anora” was the biggest winner of the day, being named best feature while Sean Baker and Mikey Madison took home individual trophies for best director and lead performance. “Baby Reindeer” also won big, with Richard Gadd, Nava Mau and Jessica Gunning clinching the awards for lead, supporting and breakthrough performance, though “Shogun” won best new scripted series. And Sean Wang’s “Dìdi” clinched both awards in the debut film category: best first feature as well as best first first screenplay.

See the full list of winners below.

Best Feature

“Anora” (Winner)

“I Saw the TV Glow”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”

“The Substance”

Best First Feature

“Dìdi” (Winner)

“In the Summers”

“Janet Planet”

“The Piano Lesson”

“Problemista”

John Cassavetes Award – Given to the best feature made...

The 40th anniversary Film Independent Spirit Awards got underway Saturday afternoon, and plenty of stars and filmmakers from the indie world walked the blue carpet ahead of the ceremony. In addition to host Aidy Bryant, presenters include Kathryn Hahn, Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Natasha Lyonne, Danielle Deadwyler, Alana Haim, Questlove, Hunter Schafer and more.

Nominees this year range from Amy Adams to Sebastian Stan to Demi Moore to Kieran Culkin.

See photos from the 2025 Spirit Awards blue carpet below.

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Demi Moore, actress

(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Emma Stone, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Colman Domingo, actor

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Colman Domingo, actor and Raúl Domingo, producer

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Édgar Ramírez, actor

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Mikey Madison, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Kathryn Hahn, actress

(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Natasha Rothwell,...

Indie movies are getting the spotlight at the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards and we’re recapping all of the celebs who showed up on the red carpet!

The afternoon awards show is being held on Saturday (February 22) at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles.

SNL‘s Aidy Bryant is hosting the show for the second year in a row and you can live stream the event on YouTube. Anora and I Saw the TV Glow lead the film nominations with five nods each while Shogun leads the television nominations with five nods as well.

We’ll be keeping track of every celeb in attendance at the event and showing you all of the fashion on the red carpet.

Head inside to see all of the celebs who walked the red carpet…

Keep scrolling to see all of the celebs who walked the red carpet…

Elizabeth Olsen

Fyi: Elizabeth is wearing Erdem.

More than 10,600 registered Gold Derby users voted for the 2025 Gold Derby Film Award winners — an all-time record — and they picked Brazil’s political biopic I’m Still Here as Best Picture. That makes it just the second non-English-language film to take top honors, following South Korea’s Parasite, which prevailed five years ago. Scroll down for our list of winners in all 22 categories and to watch many individual acceptance speech videos.

I’m Still Here defeated an eclectic group of rivals for Best Picture, including fellow international films All We Imagine as Light and Emilia Pérez, big-budget blockbusters Dune: Part Two and Wicked, indie comedy Anora, epic immigration tale The Brutalist, tennis love triangle Challengers, papal thriller Conclave, and body-horror satire The Substance. The victory was so decisive, in fact, that I’m Still Here won all four of the awards it was nominated for, also claiming Best Actress (Fernanda Torres), Best Adapted Screenplay,...

The 24th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards took place over the weekend, celebrating the best films and television shows made by and for older audiences. Hosted by Alan Cumming at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the event recognized standout performances and productions from the past year.

Originally set for January 11, the ceremony was postponed due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. In response, the AARP Foundation announced that proceeds from the event would be donated to local organizations supporting wildfire recovery efforts.

This year’s top honor, Best Movie for Grownups, went to A Complete Unknown, which edged out Conclave, Emilia Pérez, Gladiator II, and September 5. The film also secured the Best Time Capsule award, making it one of the night’s big winners.

Demi Moore won Best Actress for her role in The Substance, while Adrien Brody took home Best Actor for The Brutalist. Joan Chen (Didi) and...

General Hospital alums Demi Moore and John Stamos reunited on the red carpet at the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday night (February 8) in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The annual event took place at the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel and honored some of the films and TV shows that were released in 2024 as well as their talented casts and crews.

It was a star-studded red carpet with additional appearances from the likes of Sean Penn, Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford, Adrien Brody, Zoe Saldana, Alan Cumming, Jane Seymour, Danny Trejo, Joan Chen, Jodie Foster, Emilia Perez director Jacques Audiard and A Complete Unknown director James Mangold. We’ve got photos of everyone in the gallery!

We pulled together photos and the complete winners list so that you could see what everyone wore and who received the top honors!

Keep reading to find out more…...

During a ceremony hosted by the ever-charming Alan Cumming and rescheduled from Jan. 11 due to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, AARP the Magazine this afternoon unveiled the winners of its 24th Annual Movies for Grownups Awards handed out at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, with the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown taking the top honor of Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups over Conclave, Emilia Pérez, Gladiator II, and September 5.

The Best Actress (Film) honor went to Oscar favorite Demi Moore for The Substance — matching her win at the Golden Globes in January and Critics Choice Award on Friday — while Globe victor and past Oscar winner Adrien Brody (another Academy Award frontrunner) took the Best Actor (Film) prize for his lead performance in The Brutalist. Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard earned the Best Director trophy despite the ongoing controversy surrounding star Karla Sofía Gascón, with Joan Chen winning Best Supporting...

After delaying its awards ceremony for several weeks following the wildfires in Los Angeles, AARP the Magazine announced the winners of its annual Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday, with A Complete Unknown going home as the big winner.

The show, hosted by Alan Cumming at the Beverly Wilshire, celebrates TV and film for older audiences, and this year also presented a career achievement award to Glenn Close. Though Conclave came into the ceremony with the most nominations, the film left empty handed. A Complete Unknown took best picture as Demi Moore and Adrien Brody won the top acting prizes, and Shogun was recognized as best TV series.

Check out a full list of winners below:

Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups

A Complete Unknown (Winner)

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Gladiator II

September 5

Best Actress

Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl)

Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths)

Nicole Kidman (Babygirl)

Demi Moore (The Substance...

The 24th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards are here, crowning the best movies and TV shows of the past year for audiences of a certain age.

Hosted by Alan Cumming on Saturday at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Conclave and A Complete Unknown led the nominations at the awards show, which was created by and for people over 50 years old.

The latter beat out Conclave, Emilia Pérez, Gladiator II and September 5 for Best Movie for Grownups during the ceremony.

Originally scheduled for Jan. 11, the awards show was postponed due to last month’s devastating Los Angeles County wildfires. The AARP Foundation will donate proceeds from the awards to local organizations to aid in wildfire recovery efforts.

The 24th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards will be broadcast by PBS on Great Performances on Sunday, Feb. 23 7pm Et/6pm Ct, also streaming on the PBS website and app.

Here are the winners of...

Don’t call it a remake, it’s a reimagining. In the case of Andrew Ahn’s take on Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy “The Wedding Banquet,” that couldn’t be more true. For the “Driveways” filmmaker’s latest film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival before its upcoming spring release, reimagining, freshening up, and contemporizing the story of a young gay Taiwanese immigrant who lies to his parents about his romantic status and ends up falling into a green card marriage to a woman, was top of mind.

Ahn’s take on the film has some canny tweaks: Our star (Han Gi-chan) and his character are now Korean, while his eventual fake wife Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) is already in her own same-sex relationship with Lee (Lily Gladstone). There are plenty more updates to the story, but the personal touches the cast and crew brought to it seem particularly special.

It's common knowledge that our society has such a long way to go before truly, fully normalizing and accepting people of color and queer artists and narratives in the mainstream. Yet despite the continuing struggle, it's important to recognize just how far minorities in cinema have come, and how enduring these films continue to be. As evidence, filmmaker Andrew Ahn's remake of "The Wedding Banquet" just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and the movie marks a milestone of sorts in Poc and queer cinema. As Ahn told the premiere screening's audience, he first saw the 1993 Ang Lee version of "The Wedding Banquet" as a child thanks to his mother renting it one night during a trip to the video store, telling her son that she wanted to see the movie about Asian-Americans that all the white people were watching.

As Ahn confessed, viewing that film at a young age was a formative experience,...

The American gay rights movement’s focus on marriage equality in the early 21st century wasn’t without controversy. For some, putting a premium on an arrangement so associated with heterosexual orthodoxy sold out the promise of gay liberation. Legally recognized unions represented to them an attempt to erase, not embrace, the differences within a community whose members had each other’s backs long before the federal government did.

Such conflicting views are highlighted in Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, a film whose very title speaks to the nature of nuptials. The ceremony to which the film builds is flashy but also a façade covering up true acceptance for a coterie of queer characters. Leave it to Lily Gladstone’s Lee, an Indigenous organizer devoted to making youth of all sexual orientations feel empowered, to harmonize the opposing feelings about marriage. She’s less concerned about honoring the institution...

The cast of “The Wedding Banquet” had a blast filming the remake of the landmark 1993 dramedy by Ang Lee — all except for Joan Chen and writer-director Andrew Ahn.

Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone and “Our Song” actor Han Gi-chan play the principal characters: Yang is Chris, a gay man whose boyfriend, Min (Han), agrees to marry their lesbian friend, Angela (Tran), for a green card in exchange for in vitro fertilization treatment. When word gets out to their older, more traditional family overseas, a larger wedding banquet is thrown together and Chris is in part responsible with planning the ruse.

“These four kids, I was so envious of them. They were always having fun,” recalled Chen, who plays Chris’ mom, at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt.

“You just wanted the gummies!,” Yang teased her, revealing that CBD gummies were available on the set, just not for Chen.

Bleecker Street has debuted the teaser trailer for the remake of Ang Lee’s comedy of errors ‘The Wedding Banquet.’

The movie follows a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity. Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile, their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead: a green card marriage in exchange for funding Lee’s IVF. But their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min’s sceptical grandmother flies in from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza.

Directed by Andrew Ahn, the cast includes Bowen Yang, Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan,...

The highly anticipated remake of The Wedding Banquet has dropped its first trailer, giving audiences a glimpse into the heartfelt and comedic story of a green-card marriage gone wrong. Directed by Andrew Ahn, the film is a modern reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic and has already received praise following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

The story follows two queer couples—Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone), and Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan)—who find themselves entangled in a complicated arrangement. Angela and Lee have struggled with unsuccessful IVF treatments but can’t afford another attempt.

Meanwhile, Min, who comes from a wealthy but conservative family, is in a tough spot as his student visa is about to expire. After his boyfriend Chris turns down his marriage proposal, Min makes an unconventional offer to Angela—he’ll pay for her IVF treatment if she...

Filmmaker Andrew Ahn started in indie cinema before moving into studio comedies with Fire Island and now a remake of the seminal queer film The Wedding Banquet. However, despite telling relatively straightforward stories, Ahn makes his movies from a place of uncommon honesty and great representation. That is the case with The Wedding Banquet — a conventional film elevated by its cast and authenticity.

The Wedding Banquet Review

Inspired by the 1993 classic directed by Ang Lee, the movie follows two friends — one gay and the other lesbian — who make an unusual deal: they enter into a sham heterosexual marriage so that both of them can reap the benefits they need. While the original film was a clever reinvention of the romantic comedy genre, this remake coming out 30 years later feels much less original and unique.

Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-Chan, Bowen Yang appear in The Wedding Banquet by Andrew Ahn,...

Bowen Yang and Kelly Marie Tran brought their upcoming movie The Wedding Banquet to the 2025 Sundance Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release in the spring.

The actors were joined by co-stars Han Gi-chan, Youn Yuh-jung, Joan Chen, Bobo Le and director Andrew Ahn at the film’s Sundance premiere on Monday night (January 27) in Park City, Utah.

The Wedding Banquet is a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity. Angela (Tran) and her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone) have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile their friend Min (Han), the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris (Yang) rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead: a green card marriage...

"It's for the cause! We're helping a gay couple stay together." Bleecker Street has unveiled the teaser for the ensemble comedy called The Wedding Banquet, a brand new modern day remake of the 1993 Ang Lee movie. This teaser is debuting the day after the film's world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival - where it earned a standing ovation after its premiere at Eccles (and I was there - it was amazing!!). This time the story features four people living together: two gay men and two lesbian women in relationships. Korean Min makes a deal with his lesbian friend: a green-card marriage for him, in exchange for IVF treatments for her. But their plans to quietly elope are upended when Min's skeptical grandmother flies in right from Korea unannounced, insisting on an all-out wedding extravaganza. With a pitch-perfect cast of talent that includes Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran,...

Ang Lee may be taking some time getting his next movie off the ground as his Bruce Lee biopic aims to finally start production this year, but first, one of his early classics is getting a modern update. The latest from Driveways and Fire Island director Andrew Ahn is The Wedding Banquet, which brings together Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Joan Chen, Han Gi-chan, and Youn Yuh-jung, with a script co-written with James Schamus, who co-wrote and produced the original 1993 rom-com. Following its Sundance premiere and ahead of Bleecker Street’s spring release on April 18, the first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “From Director Andrew Ahn comes a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness, and cultural identity. Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round.

Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang are caught up in a queer-marriage comedy of errors.

The Oscar-nominated actress and the “Wicked” and “SNL” star both lead the “Wedding Banquet” reimagining from Andrew Ahn. The “Fire Island” filmmaker reunites with Yang for his own twist on Ang Lee’s Golden Bear-winning 1993 film “The Wedding Banquet.”

Writer/director Ahn co-wrote the 2025 take on “The Wedding Banquet” with original co-screenwriter James Schamus, who co-wrote the 1993 film with Lee.

The official synopsis for the feature, which debuted at Sundance 2025, reads: “Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and her partner Lee (Gladstone) have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile their friend Min (Han Gi-chan), the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris (Yang) rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead:...

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 28, 2025. Jonas Brothers to star in Disney+ Christmas movie

‘Tis the season for a Jonas Brothers Christmas movie. Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas will star in Disney+’s Jonas Brothers Christmas Movie (working title), scheduled to premiere during the 2025 holiday season. In the film, the trio “face a series of escalating obstacles as they struggle to make it from London to New York in time to spend Christmas with their families,” per the logline. Oscar and Emmy winner Jessica Yu will direct the film, written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who will also produce. The Jonas Brothers will serve as executive producers alongside Adam Fishbach, Spencer Berman, and Scott Morgan. Grammy nominee Justin Tranter is the executive music producer and will write original songs for the film. Watch their Love Actually-inspired announcement below.

New Sinners trailer showcases bloodthirsty vampires...

What are the ingredients for a modern Wedding Banquet? Try a mother (Joan Chen) who is actually perplexed by her daughter entering a heterosexual marriage; a lesbian couple who are struggling to fund their IVF treatments; and somebody in need of a green card. That last element was also part of Ang Lee's 1993 film,...

When Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” was released back in 1993, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was still taking lives, marriage equality in the U.S. was decades away, and queer representation in media remained limited. It was, certainly, a different time. Considering the progress made since — while not forgetting the fight to protect it from perpetual attacks — Andrew Ahn’s consistently amusing and winningly sincere reimagining of the classic for a 2025 audience finds the LGBTQ community in a dramatically improved place. For starters, the characters in this new iteration can legally marry and become parents if they wish, which means conflict has to operate differently. The pressure of societal norms hasn’t entirely disappeared, but the interpersonal squabbles of the quartet here (rather than the trio in Lee’s film) take precedence.

After a second unsuccessful IVF treatment, Seattle lesbian couple Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) hit...

Youn yuh-jung, Andrew Ahn, Joan Chen, Han Gi-chan, Kelly Marie Tran and Bowen Yang at the film's premiere Photo: Amber Wilkinson

Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s Berlinale Golden Bear-winning The Wedding Banquet had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival yesterday. The screenplay, co-written with original writer James Schamus, and which originally revolved around a marriage of convenience, has been expanded to include the messy love lives of four gay friends. This time around it’s Korean Min (Han Gi-chan) who is nearing the end of a student visa stay when he proposes to his boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang). Things don’t go to plan as Chris proves to be commitment-phobic. Their friends Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) and Lee (Lily Gladstone) may provide a solution, since they are struggling to conceive a baby via IVF. A deal is hatched whereby Angela will enter a green card marriage...

When Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet” was released back in 1993, the AIDS epidemic was still taking lives, marriage equality in the U.S. was decades away and queer representation in media remained limited, even if strides had been made. It was certainly a different time. Considering the progress obtained since — while not forgetting the perpetual fight to protect LGBT community from incessant attacks — Andrew Ahn’s consistently amusing and winningly sincere reimagining of the classic for a 2025 audience finds the queer community in a dramatically improved place.

For starters, the characters in this new iteration can legally marry and become parents if they wish, which means conflict has to operate differently. The pressure of societal norms hasn’t entirely disappeared, but the interpersonal squabbles of the quartet here (rather than the trio in Lee’s film) take precedence.

After a second unsuccessful IVF treatment, Seattle lesbian couple Angela (Kelly Marie Tran...

A lot has changed in queer culture and visibility since 1993, notably marriage equality and expanded LGBTQ parenting rights, even if the threat of legislative challenges from conservatives could mean more change, this time of a regressive nature. Repositioning a movie from more than three decades ago about queer sexuality, coupledom and family for today is no straightforward task. But director Andrew Ahn and his co-writer James Schamus, who filled that same role on Ang Lee’s beloved original, have cooked up a clever contemporary reimagining that honors the source while opening it up to all sorts of new realities.

What the second iteration of The Wedding Banquet does specifically for this precarious moment is not just add fresh fizz to the romance and comedy but also reaffirm the fundamental right to love who we love and celebrate the warm embrace of the chosen queer family. Funny and poignant in equal measure,...

It takes some guts to follow in the footsteps of writer James Schamus and director Ang Lee, but Andrew Ahn has achieved something pretty special here with his big-hearted reinterpretation of the pair’s 1993 arthouse hit The Wedding Banquet. Its unapologetic approach to all the which-ways of human attraction might be a bit full-on for mainstream audiences (it’s hard to imagine something so otherwise wholesome being any gayer), but don’t be surprised to see Ahn’s film pop up in the awards conversation this time next year, even if it doesn’t do Crazy Rich Asians figures at the box office.

The particular stroke of genius at play here is that Ahn has actually put some thought into the way the original story — in which a closeted gay Taiwanese-American man goes through with a fake straight marriage to please his conservative parents — could maintain its relevance so far...

In an era when gay marriage is legal, same-sex parenting is commonplace and the decision to build a nuclear family is, for many millennials, complicated not by cultural, sexual or familial impediments but rather ethical and financial ones, it might seem like an odd choice to remake Ang Lee’s 1993 “The Wedding Banquet.” But while watching Andrew Ahn’s amiable dramedy, which expands on the original premise while maintaining its central themes of found family and tolerance, one rarely questions the story’s relevance. More vitally, it lacks panache.

The movie follows a lesbian couple and a gay couple sharing a split-level Seattle residence: Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) live in the upper house, while Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan) reside in the converted garage. The story begins conventionally, churning out exposition to introduce the foursome. And for a while, each couple scarcely amounts to...

As the Sundance Film Festival nears its conclusion on Day 5, the buzz on Main Street in Park City continues with premieres ranging from Rachael Abigail Holder’s; Love, Brooklyn to Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet.

The premiere of Rachael Abigail Holder’s directorial debut, featuring Roy Wood Jr., Nicole Beharie, Cassandra Freeman, DeWanda Wise, and Andre Holland himself, was attended by the cast and crew of Love, Brooklyn. The film chronicles the lives of three lifelong Brooklyn residents as they grapple with careers, love, loss, and the enduring bonds of friendship amidst the city’s ever-evolving urban landscape.

Related: Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet, starring Bowen Yang, Youn Yuh-jung, Han Gi-chan, Kelly Marie Tran, Joan Chen, and Lily Gladstone followed at the Eccles Theater. The remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com follows Angela and her partner Lee who have...

Director Andrew Ahn was just 8 years old when he first watched Ang Lee’s 1993 “The Wedding Banquet,” and the queer romantic comedy about a gay Taiwanese American man who marries a Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card had a profound effect on the budding young filmmaker.

“My mother saw the VHS at a video rental store and was like, ‘This is the Asian film that white people are watching. We should see what it’s about,'” Ahn recalled at the Variety Studio presented by Audible. “We rented it not knowing it was a gay film. As a nascent gay boy, it was mind-blowing. That was the first time I saw a gay character on screen. And it was a gay Asian character. It really set up my life in many ways.”

For all those reasons, Ahn didn’t feel the film necessarily merited a remake.

UK Drama School Lamda Opens In New York

Top UK drama school Lamda is opening in the U.S. The institution, which says it is the “world’s oldest drama school,” last week launched a New York facility with U.S. sister org American Friends of Lamda (Aflamda). The facilities will serve as a hub for training, innovation, collaboration and education, Lamda said. They were launched at an event Thursday night at the Players’ Club in Manhattan attended by Lamda faculty, alumni and special guests. Aflamda has meanwhile appointed Succession star Brian Cox as its inaugural patron and brought in board members David Beach, Gabby Beans, Baron Kelly and Mary Willis White. Cox and the likes of Jim Broadbent, Maureen Lipman and David Oyelowo are former students. “The opening of our New York office is an exciting new chapter,” said Mark O’Thomas, Principal and CEO of Lamda. “As we...

The Wedding Banquet, starring Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran, will open the 39th BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival.

From March 19 to 30, the fest will lead with the international premiere of Andrew Ahn’s dramedy, set to screen at the festival’s opening night gala.

Alongside Yang, Gladstone and Tran, the film stars Han Gi-Chan (Where Your Eyes Linger), Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, Twin Peaks) and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung (Minari). Co-written by Ahn and James Schamus, co-writer of the original film, The Wedding Banquet will world-premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by the BFI Flare Opening Gala. A plot synopsis reads: “Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile, their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa.

Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet,” a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone, will open this year’s BFI Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival.

The film, which is world premiering Monday night at Sundance Film Festival, will have its international debut on March 19 at London’s BFI Southbank with Ahn in attendance.

According to a press release, “The Wedding Banquet” is a “joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family navigating the disasters and delights of family expectations, queerness and cultural identity.”

The plot description reads: “Angela and her partner Lee have been unlucky with their IVF treatments, but can’t afford to pay for another round. Meanwhile their friend Min, the closeted scion of a multinational corporate empire, has plenty of family money but a soon-to-expire student visa. When his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris rejects his proposal, Min makes the offer to Angela instead:...

After more than 2,400 people cast their votes, the finalists for the 2025 Gold Derby Film Awards have been unveiled. Leading the way are Dune: Part Two and Wicked, with 11 bids apiece, followed closely by Conclave with 10.

You can vote for winners effective immediately through Jan. 31 by visiting our predictions center and clicking the green vote button to the right of Gold Derby Film Awards 2025. Most categories will be decided by a straight plurality vote where you will select one nominee as your favorite, and whoever gets the most votes wins. The one exception is Best Picture, where you will rank your top three favorites in order of preference. Your top choice gets three points, second choice gets two points, and third choice gets one point. Whoever scores the most points wins. Winners in all categories will be announced on Feb. 10.

Conclave, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked face off for Best Picture,...

Nearly five decades into her career, Joan Chen is getting another chance at a Hollywood comeback — but this isn’t the first time the acclaimed actress has tasted success.

Her introduction came when she was the 18-year-old star of the 1979 Chinese film “Little Flower,” for which she won China’s most prestigious acting award. Eight years later, she experienced fame on a global scale with Bernardo Bertolucci’s celebrated historical drama, “The Last Emperor,” which took home nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Now, at 63, Chen is receiving renewed attention for her achingly nuanced portrayal of Chungsing, an immigrant Taiwanese mother who gives up her artistic dreams to raise her less-than-grateful American teenage children in Sean Wang’s feature directorial debut, “Dìdi.”

“Life is mysterious, isn’t it?” Chen said of the recent kudos coming her way. “Sometimes we try to put it into some kind of a framing to understand it,...

As much of Los Angeles burns, it’s hard to think of anything else. But this morning, as Oscar nominations voting opened, SAG-AFTRA announced its nominees for the 31st SAG Awards, so we might as well take a look at what and who the acting guild’s nominating committee — made up of 2,500 members selected from the overall membership of some 160,000 — chose to highlight and ignore.

Not surprisingly, the guild, which leans more populist than most other awards groups, wholeheartedly embraced two acclaimed blockbusters: Universal’s Broadway adaptation Wicked, with a field-leading five noms (including one for stunts!), and Searchlight’s Bob Dylan drama A Complete Unknown, with four. Both films’ tallies included multiple individual acting noms — including far-from-assured noms for supporting actor Jonathan Bailey for the former, and supporting actor Edward Norton and supporting actress Monica Barbaro for the latter — as well as noms for best ensemble, which many treat...

Gold House has unveiled its fifth annual Gold List with “Wicked” and “Moana 2” among the films being honored.

The list spotlights the most exceptional achievements in film by Asian Pacific creatives over the past year. It also serves as a guide for awards voters and celebrates a monumental year for Asian Pacific representation in cinema.

Since its launch five years ago, the Gold List has celebrated an emerging tide of increasing representation in film by honoring over 200 Asian Pacific films and creatives, with many proceeding to receive Academy Awards. Among those films are “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Minari,” “Rrr,” “Parasite,” “The Boy and the Heron” and “The Elephant Whisperer.”

In a year when Asian Pacific creativity dominated the box office —”Moana 2″ and Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” alone grossed over $1.2 billion globally — the Gold List celebrates these blockbusters alongside “All We Imagine As Light,” “Dìdi” and “Monkey Man.

So many stars stepped out to attend the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominee Brunch at Hotel Casa del Mar on Saturday morning (January 4) in Santa Monica, Calif. We’ve got all the photos!

The event was attended by the likes of Sebastian Stan, Richard Gadd, Nava Mau, Mikey Madison and Danielle Deadwyler.

For the occasion, the Marvel actor looked stylish in a dark suit, which he paired with a maroon shirt. Mikey wowed in a chic black dress, Nava color blocked in black and white and Danielle provided a pop of color in a vibrant dress.

They weren’t the only stars in attendance either.

Keep reading to find out more…

Katia Washington, Olivia Washington, Ryan Destiny, Jessica Gunning, Greg Kwedar, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ali Abbasi, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Brian Tee, Karen Pittman, Justin Simien, Leonie Benesch, Rudy Galvan, Joan Chen, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov, Maisy Stella, Mark Eydelshteyn, Alex and Erin Coco,...

Japanese author Haruki Murakami is a celebrated writer of essays, short stories, and novels that have enchanted readers around the world, and the work of Murakami has inspired not only avid bookworms but filmmakers as well. Since the 1980s, both shorts and featured films have been made from his books. Titles like Norwegian Wood, The Elephant Vanishes, and the three novels that make up the Trilogy of the Rat have had such a big influence on Japanese literature that it seems only right these humanist stories would be brought to life on the screen.

With 10 adaptations so far, the best Murakami movies have succeeded in captivating even the most die-hard fans of the acclaimed author. Of course, being notoriously difficult to make, some movie adaptations are better than others. Murakami’s work in particular can be a challenge, with its use of abstract themes and often poetic prose. While some...

An emotional scene unfolded inside the ballroom of Santa Monica’s Hotel Casa del Mar on Saturday afternoon as Film Independent hosted its annual Spirit Awards nominee brunch.

The event is typically a casual and cozy beachside affair filled with actors, auteurs, producers, press, executives and other industry insiders in attendance to toast the annual awards show while the organization doles out grants to rising filmmakers. And while the reflection looked similarly this year, a cloud hung over the festivities due to the absence of Film Independent president Josh Welsh, who died just days ago on New Year’s Eve following a private five-year battle with colon cancer.

“We’re handing out a lot of free hugs this week,” explained Film Independent board chair Brenda Robinson as she stepped up to the podium for the brunch presentation with a view of the beach and Pacific Ocean over her shoulders. “We...

If film is, as Roger Ebert famously put it, a machine that generates empathy, then there's perhaps no other artistic medium out there so perfectly suited to communicating and eliciting sadness. By the same token, movies are maybe the best medium at laying out a persuasive case for the value of sadness as an aesthetic experience. A good cry at a movie can be cathartic, therapeutic, restorative, sobering and educational, or merely painful and gut-wrenching and still have value for its sheer depth of experience.

To compile this ranking of the 15 saddest movies ever, we've tried to go beyond the territory of efficient tear-jerking, and look instead for those films that are positively drenched in gloom, pain, misery, and despair from beginning to end — the movies that articulate sadness as an existential constant as opposed to a momentary state. Get the tissues ready, take a deep breath, and happy (or not) viewing.

A year where the most celebrated films are as diverse as “Wicked,” “The Brutalist” and “Smile 2” is a year movie-lovers are going to remember for a long time. The industry’s and the audience’s acceptance of wildly disparate films allowed for a host of memorable, unique performances in 2024 that challenged the norms of motion picture performance and gave many actors their most iconic roles to date.

It’s hard to narrow down all the greats; by the time this retrospective was already getting out of hand, it became clear that some wonderful turns were somehow, despite their brilliance, not going to make the cut. But these are the performances that stood out amongst the standouts, in some of the best — and arguably one or two of the worst — movies of the 2024.

Mikey Madison in “Anora” (Neon) Mikey Madison, “Anora”

It’s a cliché to call actors a “force of nature,...

The Unforgettable Gala, an end-of-year award celebration that honors the Api community’s brightest talents in entertainment, arts and culture, held its 2024 ceremony at the Beverly Hilton over the weekend.

Co-hosted by Stephanie Hsu, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Jr De Guzman, the awards ceremony’s 2024 theme was “unforgettable together” and featured one-of-a-kind segments and performances. The event was produced by GoldenTV and Character Media.

Shogun star Hiroyuki Sanada was honored with the global icon award, while his co-star Anna Sawai was presented with the actor in TV honor. Sawai was unable to attend in person, but the Emmy-winning actress sent in a video thanking the crowd for the honor. Unforgettable also honored the cast of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender with the vanguard award, with much of the young cast in attendance.

GoldenTV CEO Takashi Cheng previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the gala continuously brings visibility to talent who...

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,...

With FX’s “Shōgun” winning 18 primetime and creative arts Emmys (the most ever for a single TV season), Netflix’s live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” racking billions of minutes viewed, and the indie coming-of-age story “Didi” receiving four Independent Spirit Award nominations, Asian and Asian American-led productions enjoyed a well-earned list of Hollywood successes in 2024, as celebrated at Saturday’s star-studded Unforgettable: The 22nd annual Asian American Awards at the Beverly Hilton.

“I’m feeling the Hollywood doors open wider than 20 years ago, when I came here for the first time,” Hiroyuki Sanada, who was honored Saturday as a “global icon,” told Variety.

“Step by step, they are understanding our culture. Especially like ‘Shōgun,’ they respect our culture,” Sanada said. “It’s a great steppingstone for the next generation. I feel more comfortable, year by year. I want to introduce Asian talent for stories to the world as a producer,...