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This August, HBO Max is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated streaming releases of Final Destination: Bloodlines to the release of the next season of James Gunn‘s Peacemaker. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to HBO Max next month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 5 best films coming to HBO Max in August 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

It’s Always Fair Weather (August 1) Rt Score: 91% Credit – MGM

It’s Always Fair Weather is a musical romantic comedy film co-directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen from a screenplay co-written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The 1955 film revolves around three soldiers in New York who decide to part ways and meet ten years later but when...

This essay is excerpted from Hollywood High: a Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies, by Bruce Handy, out May 20 from Avid Reader Press.

Leap Day, 1940. The city: Los Angeles. The place: the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub, where Hollywood’s biggest names were gathered for the 12th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Among the stars smiling for the cameras: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamar, and emcee Bob Hope.

Professional jealousy was not the evening’s theme, not officially. So surely no one resented the fact that by one important measure — the measure — the answer to the question: Who is the biggest star in the room? was . . . .

None of the above.

Just a month earlier, the nation’s theater owners had conducted their annual poll and named not Gable, not Davis, not Stewart, but the young,...

In the 2005 film adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” the central love story between Elizabeth and Darcy is set in motion during a ball. It’s a rowdy, exuberant scene full of carefree dancing and whispered observations about the other attendees.

That’s also director Joe Wright’s favorite scene. Not too long ago, Wright rewatched his debut feature, which Focus Features is bringing back to theaters this weekend in recognition of the film’s 20th anniversary. “The first ball, the community dance, I’m very proud of that scene. It has a kind of energy and a vitality and a messiness and joy,” Wright tells Variety.

In the scene, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) first spots Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) — “the person with the quizzical brow” —and then overhears him insulting her appearance. It’s also where viewers are introduced to Elizabeth as a young woman with sharp wit, who has a...

Meet the new Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy for the upcoming Pride & Prejudice series!

The works of Jane Austen have been fodder for movie and TV producers for decades. Every generation has grown up on her groundbreaking stories of strong female characters, lush romance and the inspiration for countless period TV shows.

Netflix is now getting into this with a six-episode new limited series based on Austen’s masterpiece Pride & Prejudice. The project has been teased for a while, but now Deadline has reported on the casting of the key leads, and it’s amazing!

Per Deadline, Emma Corrin, last seen in the acclaimed Nosferatu, will play Elizabeth Bennett, the heroine of the tale. Jack Lowden, known for his turn in the Apple TV+ spy show Slow Horses, will play her romantic foil Mr. Darcy.

Not only that, but Academy Award winner Olivia Colman returns to TV to play Mrs.

Netflix is adapting Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice, and they've already assembled an all-star cast for the oft-adapted work. Yesterday, Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) was rumored to be in talks to play Mr. Darcy, and we now know that Emma Corrin (Nosferatu) will join him as female lead Elizabeth Bennet, and Olivia Colman (The Favourite) will play Mrs. Bennet. Deadline reports that the production will be a six-episode miniseries, and will film in the UK later this year.

The series will be written by Dolly Alderton (Everything I Know About Love) and directed by Euros Lyn (Heartstopper). Says Alderton, "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story, and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the blueprint for romantic comedy – it has been a joy to delve back...

Much like the three-and-a-half hour epic The Brutalist, Adrien Brody’s Oscar-winning speech at the Oscars went on longer than anticipated. Brody, who won the Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday, discussed the fragile profession that is acting, the career-topping accolade, and his talented co-stars and director for a record-breaking five minutes and 36 seconds, shattering the Guinness World Record for longest acceptance speech in the award ceremony’s history. Brody reacted to his long-winded speech in a social media post Monday, joking that he’d keep it brief.

“I’m...

All-Time Records Set at 97th Academy Awards (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The 97th Academy Awards delivered a ceremony brimming with groundbreaking momentsh that jolted the congregation of cinema’s luminaries. Anora emerged as the night’s titan, propelled by Sean Baker’s monumental sweep of accolades, while Mikey Madison, at a mere 25 years, clinched Best Actress and etched her name among Gen-z trailblazers.

While Demi Moore’s inaugural nomination stirred the throng, hinting at her overdue recognition, Kieran Culkin’s season-long conquest lent a touch of inevitability to the proceedings. From distant corners of the globe to voices long sidelined, the night manifested a roster of precedents stretching the annals of Oscar history. Here are 10 records established and broken at the historical 97th Academy Awards.

1. Longest Speech in Oscar History by an Actor

Adrien Brody’s 5-minute-40-second address for The Brutalist set a Guinness World Record as the longest Oscar speech,...

Are there rules that must be followed at the Oscars? (Photo Credit – theacademy/Instagram)

Walking into the Oscars, one might assume that Hollywood’s most powerful and glamorous figures can do whatever they please.

After all, watching Kanye West and Bianca Censori’s antics at the Grammys, it’s easy to believe celebrities operate on a completely different set of rules. But, the truth is, even the biggest names, whether it’s Adrien Brody or Cynthia Erivo, have to follow strict guidelines, or they could find themselves in serious trouble.

The All-Important Wristbands

If a celebrity wants to step inside, they need a wristband. It doesn’t matter if their face is plastered on the posters outside, if one has no wristband, they wouldn’t be allowed entry. Sure, someone like Demi Moore could probably charm her way in, but technically, even the biggest stars are expected to follow this rule.

Adrien Brody has made Oscars history again!

The 51-year-old actor won the award for Best Actor for his role in The Brutalist at the 2025 Academy Awards on Sunday (March 2) at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

As he accepted his award, Adrien‘s lengthy speech broke the record for the longest acceptance speech in Oscars history.

Keep reading to find out more…Adrien‘s speech clocked in at five minutes and 40 seconds in total.

The record was previously held by Greer Garson when she won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver in 1943. According to Guinness World Records, Greer‘s speech was five minutes and 30 seconds.

Adrien also currently holds the record for the youngest person to win the Best Actor award for when he won for The Pianist back in 2003 at age 29.

Following his win last night, Adrien explained why he threw his gum to girlfriend Georgina Chapman.

No guts, no glory. The way to win your Oscar pool this year was to skip some of the obvious frontrunners, note the surge in popularity on the ground, and bet that the international bloc would push over the top Sideshow/Janus Films’ Animated Feature nominee “Flow” (the first Latvian Oscar win), Cinetic Media’s Documentary Feature “No Other Land” (the first Palestinian win), and Sony Pictures Classics’ International Feature “I’m Still Here” (Brazil’s first Oscar in a major category). Even the Live Action and Animated Short winners were international (The Netherlands’ “I Am Not a Robot” and Iran’s “In the Shadow of the Cyprus”).

As American as “Anora” is, the raucous $6-million comedy launched at Cannes with the Palme d’Or and mustered support over the next 10 months across the globe. Oscar-winners “Flow,” “The Substance” (Makeup & Hairstyling), and “Emilia Pérez” also played big at Cannes.

Many folks expected “Anora,...

The 97th Academy Awards were filled with plenty of exciting wins, both for bigger blockbusters and for independent cinema. It was Sean Baker's Anora that took home the big prize of the night with its Best Picture win, along with awards for Director, Editing, Actress in a Leading Role, and Original Screenplay. However, Brady Corbet's The Brutalist also won in significant categories, taking home the Oscars for Best Cinematography, Original Score, and Actor for Adrien Brody's performance as László Tóth. As it turns out, Brody's acceptance speech wasn't just long – it was the longest acceptance speech in Oscars history.

According to Guinness World Records, Adrien Brody's big win at the 97th Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role was extra notable because of Brody's acceptance speech. Clocking in at 5 minutes and 40 seconds, Brody's became the longest in Oscars history, beating out actress Greer Garson,...

Five minutes and 30 seconds was the former record for the longest acceptance speech in Academy Awards history, but Sunday night, a victorious Adrien Brody surpassed even that.

While accepting his award for Best Actor at the 97th Oscars ceremony, Brody — who was accepting for his portrayal as Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth in The Brutalist — ignored the 45-second time limit, standing at the microphone for a lengthy five minutes and 40 seconds, and beating the record previously held by Mrs. Miniver’s Greer Garson. (Garson received the Best Actress trophy for her title role at the 1942 ceremony held on March 4, 1943.)

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Adrien Brody joined the coveted club of two-time Oscar winners last night after picking up the Best Actor award for his role in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.

With his lengthy acceptance speech, the New York-born actor also joined the much more obscure contingent of Academy Award winners to clock extended minutes at the Academy podium as they accepted their awards.

Brody spoke for 5 minutes and 40 seconds at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday. The Guinness World Records (Gwr) currently cites Greer Garson’s 1943 Best Actress acceptance speech as the longest in Academy history at 5 minutes and 30 seconds. This would mean Brody’s is now the longest, but there’s some debate about the Gwr figure. Some historians have clocked the full length of Garson’s speech around the seven-minute mark; however, only partial audio recordings of the speech remain. The Academy has a 3-minute 56-second transcript of the speech on its online archive.

Adrien Brody made history at the 2025 Oscars, according to Guinness World Records. The “Brutalist” Best Actor winner now also holds the title for longest Academy Awards acceptance speech across 97 years of the ceremony. This is Brody’s second Academy Award for Best Actor; he first won for “The Pianist” in 2003.

Brody’s “The Brutalist” Academy Award acceptance speech edged out the previous record-holder, Greer Garson, by only 10 seconds. Garson’s 1943 “Mrs Miniver” acceptance speech was 5 minutes and 30 seconds long, while Brody’s was 5 minutes and 40 seconds to top the record for longest ever.

When the customary music began to play at the 40-second mark for Brody on Sunday night, he said onstage, “Turn the music off! I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.”

Well, he wasn’t entirely brief. The actor, who beat out fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet, Sebastian Stan,...

The actor, who won for The Brutalist, spoke for five minutes and forty seconds, beating Greer Garson in 1943

Adrien Brody has broken the record for the longest ever Oscars acceptance speech.

The 51-year-old, who picked up his second best actor Oscar on Sunday, spoke for five minutes and 40 seconds, beating Greer Garson, who spoke for five minutes and 30 seconds when she accepted for Mrs Miniver in 1943.

As per the Guinness World Records, Adrien Brody‘s best actor acceptance speech at the 2025 Oscars is the longest in Oscars history.

Brody emerged triumphant ahead of Timothée Chalamet, Sebastian Stan, Colman Domingo and Ralph Fiennes at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, claiming one of the top performance prizes for his portrayal as Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth in The Brutalist.

He came up onstage — not before spitting out his chewing gum and throwing it to partner Georgina Chapman — and ignored the standard 45-second timer to speak for a whopping five minutes and 40 seconds. It beats the record of five minutes and 30 seconds held by Greer Garson, according to Gwr, when she won for Mrs. Miniver in 1943 (though there is no existing footage of the speech in its entirety).

When the music started to cut the star off, he said: “Turn the music off! I’ve done this before.

Adrien Brody took home this year’s Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Brutalist, but what the internet found truly brutal was his 5-minute, 40-second acceptance speech! While Oscar speeches are often a race against the clock, as winners frantically try to squeeze in thank-yous before the music plays them off, Brody stretched his moment to the max.

Adrien Brody as László Tóth in The Brutalist | Credits: A24

So much so, he came dangerously close to dethroning Greer Garson, who still holds the record for the longest Oscar speech ever, clocking in at over 7 minutes back in 1943.

Believe it or not, the longest acceptance speech in Oscar history isn’t Adrien Brody’s!

For 82 years, one Oscar record has remained unmatched: Greer Garson’s legendary acceptance speech. While today’s winners are urged to keep it under a minute before being played off by music, Garson took her sweet time,...

Mrs. Miniverwas a sensation when it was released in 1942, providing a patriotic tonic to a nation that had just entered the Second World War. The highest-grossing film of its year, it earned 12 Academy Award nominations and won six, including Best Picture, spawned a sequel, and turned its stars Greer Garson (who won Best Actress) and Walter Pidgeon into a bonafide box-office duo that rivaled Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Yet how many people talk about it today, aside from citing it (unfairly) as an example of Oscar bait? Those willing to rediscover it might be surprised to find that it's far from sentimental awards fodder, but rather a somber look at the human cost of war.

If there is any guarantee about the Academy Awards, it's that the show will feature jokes about how long the ceremony itself is. Sometimes, those jests far outweigh the number of ceremonies that actually run long. Moreover, this is arguably just as true for other big awards shows, like the Golden Globes and the Emmys, but it often feels most specifically accurate about the Oscars.

The notion is simple enough: because the Oscars air on network TV, even with the reality that it's a live event at which any number of things could unexpectedly happen, the show has to end at some point -- even if that means that certain awards get truncated or speeches get cut short. The latter is the most common thing; we've all seen an acceptance speech get cut off no matter what, and sometimes no matter who's on camera. Yes, for the last few big awards,...

For the first time in 47 years, all five Best Actress Oscar nominees hail from Best Picture nominees.

The Best Actress lineup was the top five in the odds: Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance), and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here). Four of those films were widely predicted to score Best Picture nominations except for I’m Still Here, which was in 13th place in the odds; but in the biggest surprise of the day, the Brazilian feature made the cut on Thursday. The other Best Picture nominees are The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, and Nickel Boys.

The last time the Best Actress and Best Picture lineups aligned was during the 1977-78 season when Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) won Best Actress over Jane Fonda (Julia), Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl), and The Turning Point stars Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine.

It's time to talk about Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," one of the most enduring novels in English literature. It is a tale so timeless that countless adaptations — both official and not-so-official — have been made, approaching the source material from all sorts of perspectives. Apart from inspiring cinematic adaptations, Austen's novel has also led to a world of associated stories, including Janet Aylmer's bestselling "Darcy's Story" and the more recent "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," which blends period drama with ultra-violent zombie-horror tropes.

Due to the sheer breadth of adaptations, discerning which one is the "best" can certainly be tricky. For starters there's the mix of faithful adaptations versus those loosely inspired by the 1813 novel, such as the Bollywood-style "Bride & Prejudice" or the Emmy-winning "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries." For the sake of simplicity, let's stick to straightforward adaptations, which firmly situate themselves within the novel's text and...

Bette Davis, one of the best actresses of all time, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress 11 times in her career. Some persnickety Oscar historians might say that she was nominated only 10 times, though, as her nomination for 1934's "Of Human Bondage" was one of the very few write-in votes ever permitted by the Academy. Records show that Davis, although not officially nominated by the Academy, still came in third that year.

Davis only won two Oscars, however. The first was for her performance in "Dangerous" in 1935 and the second was for playing a Scartett O'Hara-like role in "Jezebel" in 1938. Her performance in "Jezebel," Hollywood would eventually learn, was the first in a streak of nominations that would last for five straight years. In 1939, Davis was nominated for her performance in "Dark Victory." 1940 would see her nominated for "The Letter." In 1941, it was for "The Little Foxes," and...

Memo to the potential winners: Be more like Halle Berry and less like James Cameron.

The calendar tells us that a new year is dawning, and we know what that means: The two-month-long awards show avalanche is upon us, beginning with Sunday’s Golden Globes. And with awards come acceptance speeches. They go together like salt and pepper, ketchup and burgers, Beavis and Butt-head. Those speeches come in all shapes and sizes depending on the winner doing the accepting. They can be long, they can be short, they can be full of gratitude and meaning. They can be powerful or they can be interminable, or something in-between.

There is an undeniable finesse essential to delivering an effective and impactful acceptance speech. Yet, there is no specific playbook to learn the do’s and don’ts. That leads to speeches being wildly unpredictable. It can be 16-year-old Patty Duke uttering a...

Meryl Streep is the best of the best.

Her performance in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Diane Keaton ranked second for Annie Hall (1977), with Jodie Foster following in third for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972) and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent Gold Derby poll of cinema experts declared The Godfather (1972) as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all...

The performance by Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977). Following in third place is Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Rounding out the top five are Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent poll had The Godfather (1972) declared as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all time (view...

[Editor’s note: For this article, The Hollywood Reporter only looked at the shortest and longest screen times in the lead acting categories. Best supporting actor and actress were not included.]

Longest Screen Times Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind (1939)

Movie Length 3 hrs 58 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 23 mins

Percent of Run Time 60 Percent

Vivien Leigh holds the record for the longest performance to win an Oscar, though the work took a deep physical and mental toll on her. The film itself is also the longest to win best picture. At the 12th Academy Awards, Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind also won best supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African American to win an Oscar. Leigh was nominated alongside Bette Davis (Dark Victory), Irene Dunne (Love Affair), Greta Garbo (Ninotchka) and Greer Garson (Goodbye, Mr. Chips).

Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur (1959)

Movie Length 3 hrs 32 mins

Time Onscreen 2 hrs 1 min

Percent of Run Time 57.1 Percent...

Countless women have graced the silver screen over the decades, and some stand out for the number of times they have been nominated for an Oscar. The list of defining, iconic actresses is endless, but some performances truly outshine others, earning high praise from audiences, critics, and peers. Earning one Oscar nomination is already an impressive achievement, but some of the best actresses of all time have accumulated multiple nominations during their careers.

Not only that, some of them have won multiple Oscars, and others have accumulated Academy Award nominations in the double digits. Some have even made Academy Awards history by breaking and setting records. From Kate Winslet to Meryl Streep, the actresses with the most Oscar nominations have made their mark on the industry.

Kate Winslet Nominated for an Academy Award Seven Times, Won Once

Kate Winslet has an impressive several nominations under her belt and one win...

Winning at the Oscars for acting is an extraordinary achievement. However, a more remarkable achievement is receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor or Best Actress five years in a row. So far, only two actors have ever reached this record, and no other actors have matched them in 79 years. The actor who first set this record at the Oscars is Bette Davis, one of the most celebrated and respected actresses in cinematic history.

Bette Davis' movie career is best defined by her roles in All About Eve and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? What's more, she gained five consecutive Oscar nominations with her performances in Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, and Now, Voyager. However, that's not to say she towered over all the other Hollywood stars of her time in terms of accolades. In fact, she had a rival in Greer Garson, who managed...

Receiving an Academy Award is the pinnacle of any actor's career. While winning is the goal, just being nominated is also an honor. Leonardo DiCaprio is a classic example of an actor who was nominated countless times before finally winning for his performance in The Revenant in 2016, 12 years after he was first nominated in 1994 for What's Eating Gilbert Grabe. It can be a tense waiting game for actors who are nominated several times and continue to lose, especially for those actors who've put their energy into transforming into different characters and getting nominated for stellar performances consecutively.

To say you're a "three, four, or five-time Academy Award-nominated actor" is an especially desirable accolade. When those nominations are one after another, it keeps the actor relevant. Bradley Cooper's Oscar losing streak comprises him being nominated three times in a row for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and American Sniper from...

One of the all-time best Jane Austen books may be getting a new version on Netflix! Over 200 years after her death, the author is as beloved as ever. Generations have grown up on her novels, which were ahead of their time, exploring issues of feminism, class, and some wonderful romances. In just six books, Austen made herself a literary icon who’s influenced countless writers since.

Not surprisingly, adaptations of Austen’s works have been plentiful. There have even been adaptations of her two posthumous novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and her unfinished book Sanditon.

Trying to narrow down the best Austen works is difficult as many will cite Sense and Sensibility, which was adapted into a 1995 film directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, with Thompson also writing the script, earning her an Oscar. Yet, to many, the topper of Austen’s works is Pride and Prejudice.

The Toronto International Film Festival reserves its opening weekend for world premieres — as in, films that did not previously screen at Sundance, Cannes, Venice or Telluride. Unfortunately for the fest, it seems like most of this season’s movies with serious awards prospects opted not to wait. Cases-in-point: two films that debuted in prime slots on Friday night, Unstoppable (5:30 p.m. at Roy Thomson Hall) and We Live in Time (9:30 p.m. at the Princess of Wales Theatre). Both are very engaging and moving, but also have very narrow awards paths moving forward.

Unstoppable, the directorial debut of the Oscar-winning film editor William Goldenberg (2012’s Argo), recounts the real story of Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg and into a broken home but nevertheless manages to become a world-class college wrestler. Jharrel Jerome, a gifted Emmy winner for When They See Us, does a particularly fine job playing Robles,...

Meryl Streep might hold the record for the most Oscar nominations and Katharine Hepburn might have the most wins (four in Best Actress). But neither can claim this Academy Awards stat: the most consecutive acting nominations. That record is currently held by two actresses who often found themselves in direct competition with each other: Bette Davis and Greer Garson. Both Davis and Garson earned five successive bids in the Best Actress category, and the nominations of both say something about the type of performances by women that Oscar voters tend to gravitate toward.

George Sanders is one of the most underrated actors from Hollywood's Golden Age who gave unforgettable performances in several noteworthy classics, including Witness to Murder, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, and All About Eve. Known for his dastardly cad characters and suave baritone voice, Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and, while working at a British advertising agency, the company's secretary and future film star, Greer Garson, suggested that he take up acting. He started performing on the stage and, in 1936, he made his feature film debut in Lloyd's of London starring Tyrone Power, making him an instant success with American audiences.

War movies with strong female leads showcase the resilience, dedication, and perseverance of women in conflicts. Movies like Mrs. Miniver and Carve Her Name With Pride give voice to unsung stories of war. Films like A Private War and Quo Vadis, Aida? shed light on personal battles faced amid larger conflicts.

This article discusses issues around conflict, genocide, Ptsd, torture, and war.

While most war movies told their story from a male perspective, some great entries in the genre told important stories centered on female characters. The bias toward primarily depicting men in war movies was an extremely limiting way to look at the harrowing effects of conflict and wholly ignored the importance of the female experience in these situations. However, plenty of fantastic war movies have given female leads the spotlight that they deserve in both depictions of true stories and fictional accounts.

War movies starring strong female leads...

MGM celebrated its centennial on April 17th. Marcus Lowe established the studio by merging Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Boasting it had “more stars than there are in heaven,” MGM may have been the biggest studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood, it has gone through many owners and regimes over the years but seems to on terra firma since Amazon acquired MGM in 2021. In fact, Amazon MGM Studios won best screenplay Oscar for “American Fiction.” And speaking of Academy Awards, MGM has earned numerous statuettes over the years. Here’s a look at five Best Picture winners produced between 1929-1958.

“The Broadway Melody”

The 1929 musical made Oscar history by being the first talkie to win the top prize. Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed wrote the songs which include “The Broadway Melody,” “You Were Meant for Me” and “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” but...

The preview opening of the new exhibit Meet the Stars: 100 Years of MGM Studios and the Golden Age of Hollywood on Thursday night was a crowded, buzzing affair. Held at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in the historic Lasky DeMille Barn across from the Hollywood Bowl, the event showcased the items of over 20 movie collectors. Memorabilia hunters, dressed in fedoras and flirty ’40s dresses, gabbed about their latest finds with others who have a similar passion.

The highlight of the night was when the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to former MGM child star Cora Sue Collins (who played a little Greta Garbo in 1933’s Queen Christina), the last surviving MGM contract player from the 1930s. Sitting at a tableau that recreated a party thrown for her by MGM in 1935, Collins elegantly thanked everyone for their well wishes. Actor George Chakiris was also in attendance, and he posed next to a costume...

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill...

Pageantry. Screw ups. Touching tributes. Private beefs made public. There are plenty of reasons to watch the Oscars. But they all amount to partaking in, witnessing, movie history in its many forms — the high art, the gossip, the record-breaking moments when an arthouse director becomes a household name.

However, there are a lot of ways to set a record. There are big moments like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King tying the record with 11 trophies or Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite becoming the first film not in English (or silent) to win Best Picture. And then, beyond those sit the oddities and records that are nearly impossible to break. Give me records like Walter Brennan winning three Best Supporting Actor awards because, as a former extra, he was popular with the Union of Film Extras, who were allowed to vote. At least, the story goes, they were allowed...

Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea.

Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga. With a lead actress (drama) Golden Globe and a SAG Award now under her belt, Gladstone’s award-season momentum continues to be formidable. Historically, only seven performers have failed to win the Oscar after winning the unique combination of Globe and SAG:

1995: Lauren Bacall (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”) lost to Juliette Binoche 2001: Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”) lost to Denzel Washington (“Training Day...

Upon securing a spot in the 2024 Best Supporting Actress Oscar lineup, Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) officially shattered the Academy Awards record for longest span between fourth and fifth acting nominations. Following her two Best Actress wins for “The Accused” (1989) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1992), she had last been recognized in that category for “Nell” (1995), making for a general nomination gap of 29 years. Coincidentally, she took this particular distinction from fellow “Silence of the Lambs” winner Anthony Hopkins, who waited 22 years between his supporting bids for “Amistad” (1998) and “The Two Popes” (2020).

Previously, the female record for longest wait for a fifth nomination was 12 years, as shared by Julianne Moore and Frances McDormand. Considering gaps between any two consecutive acting nominations, Foster ranks well behind overall record holder Judd Hirsch, whose first and second career notices for “Ordinary People” (1981) and “The Fabelmans” (2023) came 42 years apart. His female counterpart is Helen Hayes (39 years...

For the second time in six years, the Best Actress category looked to be on track to feature nominees from films nominated for Best Picture. But just like six years ago, it came up short — and it once again involved Margot Robbie.

Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) made the Best Actress cut on Tuesday. Every film but “Nyad” is nominated for Best Picture. Gladstone, Hüller, Mulligan and Stone were all expected to get in, but Bening was in seventh place in the odds. Now a five-time nominee, she made it in over Robbie, who was in fifth place in the odds and headlines Best Picture nominee “Barbie” (Robbie is nominated as producer).

Six years ago, it was the reverse situation with Robbie. She earned her first career Oscar nomination for her...

The Academy Awards grew up at the 16th annual ceremony March 2, 1944. Since the first Oscar ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Blossom Room in 1929, the Academy Awards were small banquet ceremonies for La La Land movers and shakers. But that all changed 80 years ago. World War II was in its third year and movies meant more than ever to war-weary audiences.

So, the Oscars moved to the then-Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and bleachers were introduced giving fans a chance to see their favorites walk the red carpet. And instead of a select industry audience, attendees included members of all branches of the armed services many of whom sat in bleachers on the stage at the Chinese. The ceremony was heard locally on Kfwb; Jack Benny hosted the international broadcast for the troops on CBS Radio via shortwave. And for the first time, supporting performers finally received a full-size Academy Award.

In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, 88 films have each received nominations for both Best Actor and Best Actress. Although there have been 19 cases of two or more movies doing so in a single year, there hasn’t been such an occurrence since 1996, when both lead lineups included performers from “Dead Man Walking” and “Leaving Las Vegas.” However, according to Gold Derby’s late-stage 2024 Oscar nominations predictions, that nearly three-decade gap is set to soon be closed by costar pairs from “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Maestro.”

The vast majority of the Oscars prognosticators who’ve been shaping our odds all season agree that Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) will all clinch academy mentions for their lead performances. The last such quartet consisted of eventual winners Nicolas Cage (“Leaving Las Vegas”) and Susan Sarandon (“Dead Man Walking”) and their respective costars,...

Courtesy of Kino Lorber

by Chad Kennerk

Set in the 1920s, Has Anybody Seen My Gal? gets its name from the once-popular jazz song recorded by the California Ramblers in 1925. Loosely based upon the Eleanor Porter novel Oh Money! Money! (she was also the author behind Pollyanna), the 1952 jukebox musical comedy was given the full Technicolor treatment – a visual bee’s knees in Kino Lorber’s sterling release.

The Universal Pictures title makes good use of Twenties tunes such as ‘Tiger Rag,’ ‘When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along,’ ‘It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More,’ ‘Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?’ - and of course, ‘Has Anybody Seen My Gal?’. It was directed by studio regular Douglas Sirk, who would go on to make his name with lush, slyly ironic melodramas such as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind (all with Rock Hudson), There's Always Tomorrow,...

Noreen Nash, a starlet of the 1940s and ’50s who appeared in such notable films as The Southerner, Giant and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, has died. She was 99.

Nash died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills, her oldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., told The Hollywood Reporter.

Nash worked on about two dozen features during her two-decade career, including several “B” pictures like Phantom From Space (1953), where she portrayed an abducted scientist in a movie shot at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The blue-eyed, dark-haired Nash also starred as the wife of an owner of a Palm Springs tennis club on the CBS summer replacement series The Charles Farrell Show — it stood in for I Love Lucy in 1956 — and appeared on episodes of Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show, My Little Margie, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.

Nash played the...

Danette Herman was one of the key staff members of the Academy Awards ceremonies from the 1970s into the 2010s, beginning as a production assistant and rising through the ranks to become the show’s executive in charge of talent and coordinating producer. One of the few women to serve in key positions at the Oscars, she was with the show during the years of its highest ratings and largest cultural impact.

As the Academy prepares for the 95th Oscars ceremony, Herman asked TheWrap if she could share some memories of past shows, from an encounter with Katharine Hepburn in 1974 to a pair of anniversary shows in which she assembled historic groups of past winners. —Steve Pond

Congratulations to the Academy on 95 years of the Academy Awards. Almost 40 of those years are my history, also.

It began in April 1968 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The 40th Academy Awards were hosted by Bob Hope,...

As we approach O-Day and the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, it’s always fun to go back and look at the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories and revel in some of the trivia and shockers that have gone down on the awards season’s biggest stage. This is the rare year when Meryl Streep isn’t in the running, as her 21 overall nominations in the acting categories are nearly double the number of her closest female pursuer, Katherine Hepburn, who has 12. However, Hepburn still holds the all-time Oscar record with four acting wins. Streep has a mere three.

Here are some other actress category factoids to chew on:

Should Cate Blanchett win Best Actress this year for her role in “Tar,” she would tie Streep, Ingrid Bergman and Frances McDormand for second place behind Hepburn among actresses with three triumphs apiece. All four of Hepburn’s wins...

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

On 4 March 1943, Greer Garson stepped behind a lectern at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub inside the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Garson, 38, was accepting the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work inMrs Miniver, a romantic war drama directed by William Wyle. She was only the 15th actor in the history of Hollywood to take home the trophy. That was an achievement in itself, but Garson made history in another, more unexpected way that night.

Her acceptance speech remains, to this day, the longest in the history of the Academy Awards. While today’s winners are asked to keep to 45 seconds, Garson spoke for a comparatively generous seven minutes.

The speech, sadly, wasn’t preserved in full. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which organises the Oscars each year, says it has newsreel footage of “only portions” of Garson’s address – for a total of three minutes and 56 seconds.

Robert Donat snagged an Oscar for this sentimental crowdpleaser, a Best Picture nominee in Hollywood’s ‘Golden Year’ of 1939. The genteel chemistry between Donat’s shy schoolteacher and the charming personality Greer Garson broke hearts, and made Ms. Garson one of MGM’s top names for the next decade. It’s one of the studio’s English productions, filmed in the shadow of the coming war. A glowing new digital restoration redeems 70 years of not-so-good TV prints.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 115 min. / Street Date January 24, 2023 / Available at Amazon.com/ 21.99

Starring: Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, Paul Henreid, Judith Furse.

Cinematography: Freddie Young

Art Director: Alfred Junge

Film Editor: Charles Frend

Original Music: Richard Addinsell

Written by R.C. Sherriff, Claudine West, Eric Maschwitz from the novel by James Hilton

Produced by Victor Saville

Directed by Sam Wood

No, it’s not about the terrible Chips Ahoy!