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Exclusive: Amazon MGM Studios’ Michael B. Jordan-directed reimagining of The Thomas Crown Affair has added a pair of Oscar winners to its team: Kenneth Branagh (Belfast), who joins in an undisclosed (we’re told villainous) role, and producer Charles Roven (Oppenheimer), who will produce the film via his Atlas Entertainment banner, alongside Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo via Outlier Society, and others.

As previously announced, Jordan and Taylor Russell lead the cast of the film, which shoots this summer and is slated for an exclusive theatrical release on March 5, 2027.

While plot details are being kept under wraps, both the original 1968 film from United Artists and the 1999 remake from MGM were heist stories revolving around a wealthy, thrill-seeking man who orchestrates a high-stakes robbery simply for the challenge, only to find himself entangled in a complex cat-and-mouse game with a brilliant investigator.

As previously reported, Drew Pearce wrote the script for The Thomas Crown Affair,...

One of the stars from the popular TNT crime drama Animal Kingdom is making a big splash as the star of Netflix's new hit series The Waterfront. Created by Kevin Williamson of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Dawson's Creek acclaim. The Waterfront is an eight-part family drama/crime thriller with similar notes to Netflix's Emmy-winning series Ozark. Holt McCallany leads the cast of The Waterfrontas the head of the prominent Buckley family in the fictional coastal town of Havenport, North Carolina. The Waterfront was released on June 19, 2025, and is already topping Netflix's TV streaming charts.

Animal Kingdom ran for 75 episodes across six seasons on TNT from 2016 and 2022. Based on the 2010 crime thriller movie written and directed by David Michôd, Animal Kingdom centers on a family in Southern California who, like The Waterfront's Buckleys, also have their hands dirty in various criminal operations. Developed by Jonathan Lisco,...

Exclusive: Kenneth Branagh, Hiam Abbass (Succession) and Boyd Holbrook (A Complete Unknown) are teaming on a feature adaptation of 2012 New Yorker article Atonement.

Atonement, which rolls cameras this month in Jordon and Texas, is about a troubled marine who seeks to reconcile with the survivors of an Iraqi family he and his unit fired on back in 2003.

The movie is the feature directorial debut of Reed Van Dyk, who was Oscar-nominated for his 2017 short DeKalb Elementary. Based on a 911 call, that pic followed a gunman who enters an elementary school and encounters a compassionate employee.

The ensemble trio lead the movie that comes 13 years after Dexter Filkins’ resonant New Yorker article, which was also titled Atonement. Delving into the psychological and emotional aftermath of the Iraq War on both Iraqi civilians and U.S. Marines, it centered on Lu Lobello, haunted by memories of a deadly incident in Baghdad, whose journey...

The 2018 Academy Awards took place on March 4 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The 90th annual ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. The full list of winners is below.

Supporting Actor:

Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”

Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”

Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”

Makeup and Hair:

“Darkest Hour,” Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick

“Victoria and Abdul,” Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard

“Wonder,” Arjen Tuiten

Costume Design:

“Phantom Thread,” Mark Bridges

“Beauty and the Beast,” Jacqueline Durran

“Darkest Hour,” Jacqueline Durran

“The Shape of Water,” Luis Sequeira

“Victoria and Abdul,” Consolata Boyle

Best Documentary Feature:

“Icarus,” Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman

“Faces Places,” Jr, Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda

“Last Men in Aleppo,” Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Soren Steen Jepersen

“Strong Island,...

Best Picture

The Shape of Water

Call Me By Your Name

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Get Out

Lady Bird

Phantom Thread

The Post

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actor

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Best Actress

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Supporting Actor

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,...

MaryAnn’s quick take… My pick: I think the quietly shocking “DeKalb Elementary” [pictured] may win for its very of-the-moment story about a school office worker’s attempt to de-escalate an invading gunman’s rage via patience and empathy. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

The power of film to move the needle on contentious topics of cultural debate could not possibly be on better display in the films nominated for the Oscar for Best Live Action Short… unless all five of them, instead of merely four, tackled serious matters with such social-justice-warrior ferocity. The one outlier here, though, is a very welcome light distraction.

The nominated films these year are all so strong that it’s difficult to pick an indisputable front-runner. But I think the quietly shocking “DeKalb Elementary” [IMDb|official site], by writer-director Reed Van Dyk,...

As the gun control debate rages on in wake of last month’s tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Oscar nominated live-action short DeKalb Elementary couldn’t be more relevant.

The film, written and directed by Reed Van Dyk, depicts the mass school shooting that wasn’t — it’s based on a 911 call from a 2013 incident in which Antoinette Tuff, an Atlanta elementary school bookkeeper, was able to convince 20-year-old gunman Michael B. Hall to put down his weapon and surrender to police.

“The thing that I keep getting struck by was that it...

What is it like to be face to face with a person who could potentially end your life? In “DeKalb Elementary,” director Reed Van Dyk draws from a real life event to showcase this experience. His film is one of this year’s nominees at the Oscars for Best Live Action Short and marks his first Academy Awards bid.

The film takes place in the front office of an elementary school in Georgia. A receptionist, Cassandra, is going about her normal business when a young man in his twenties, Steven, enters the office. He proceeds to take out an Ak-47 and tells the staff in the office to evacuate the school. He also takes Cassandra hostage and instructs her to call 911 and relay his messages to the operator. As she communicates with the dispatcher and the police arrive on the scene, Steven paces around unsure of himself. He opens a...

UCLA film student Reed Van Dyk didn’t come up with the story for his Oscar-nominated short film, “DeKalb Elementary.” The story found him. He was already writing a feature script about a mass shooting incident, and eager to make the story as true-to-life as possible, he went looking for recorded 911 calls to get a better sense of how dispatchers handle these kinds of incidents. “I just needed to know how a 911 dispatcher answers the phone,” the filmmaker said in an interview this week. “I just needed to know what the protocol was. What do they say when they pick up the phone?”

He googled “911 call” and found what he was looking for. “This call that my short film is based on happened to be the first one that popped up,” he said.

The call that Van Dyk found was from a 2013 incident at an Atlanta, Georgia elementary school, in...

Three of the most difficult categories to call every year at the Oscars are those of the short films. They lack precursor prizes and, in many cases, visibility. If you are not able to see these films before the Academy Awards on March 4, don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. Below is our take on the five nominees for Best Live Action Short.

A screening committee drawn from the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members winnowed a record field of 165 entries for Best Live Action Short down to 10 semi-finalists. All members of the branch could attend December screenings in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco and then cast preferential ballots for the five nominees.

“DeKalb Elementary” (USA)

Director/Writer: Reed Van Dyk

Running Time: 21 minutes

The film details the terrifying experience of an elementary school secretary when she confronts a disturbed gunman who has entered the...

Chicago – From deafness to religious conflict to one of the most vicious events in American history, the Oscar nominated Live Action short films fulfill the drama, emotions and even laughs in a compact form. The 2018 Live Action Shorts nominees are being shown in one program, locally at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema in Chicago. Click here for more information. The Animations Shorts are also being shown.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

The caliber of all the live action shorts – which of course means a narrative with actors, as opposed to animation or documentary – are at a top drawer level, both as stories and films. There is even a surreal comedy (“The Eleven O’Clock”) that delivers hilarity and thoughtfulness in 13 scant minutes. There is not one to recommend over the other, only a journey of cinematic purpose in each film, delivered with a creativeness that becomes emotional. Even the film that is a plea...

Be prepared to gasp, cringe and cry while watching this year's Oscar-nominated live-action short subjects. One of the strongest lineups in recent memory, the films deal with a variety of hot-button topics in powerful and moving fashion. It all makes the sole comic entry, The Eleven O'Clock, feel like a much-needed tension reliever.

Three of the short films are based on real-life events. Reed Van Dyk's DeKalb Elementary revolves around a subject that, horrifically, seems to be in the news every few days: school shootings. This taut effort begins with a distraught-looking young man (Bo Mitchell) brandishing an automatic weapon...

Ahead of the Academy Awards, we’re reviewing each short category. See the Live Action section below and the other shorts sections here.

DeKalb Elementary – USA – 20 minutes

There’s a moment in Reed Van Dyk’s DeKalb Elementary where the young, mentally unstable white male shooter (Bo Mitchell’s Steven Hall) exits the school in search of a suicide-by-cop scenario. He opens fire on the police — receiving bullets in return — until the courageously calm black female receptionist (Tarra Riggs’ Cassandra Rice) asks him to come back in so as not to hurt himself. It’s a surreal exchange because you place yourself in her situation and realize you would probably start silently praying that the cops do grant his wish. This whole ordeal is over if they succeed at shooting him dead. The lockdown ends, the scared children in their classrooms remain safe, and another gun-toting domestic terrorist is off the street forever.

This year’s batch of Oscar nominated live-action shorts — five in total, including two from the United States — features a startlingly varied selection, from topics to genre (there’s even a stray comedy in here). Yet, despite the wide range of films on offer for this year’s award, the five nominees are bonded by a strong take on timely political issues (from gun control to religious tolerance) and personal anxieties that hardly seem out of place in seriously strange times. Look closely — this batch might not be as unconnected as it seems.

Read More:2018 Oscar Predictions: Best Live Action Short

As is awards season tradition, ShortsHD will be releasing this year’s short film Oscar nominees — including live-action, animated, and documentary — into theaters around the country next week, all in hopes that cinephiles will spark to the idea of checking out a big batch of contenders they most likely...

Earlier today the folks at the Northwest Film Center announced the full line-up for this year’s Portland International Film Festival, and have published a Pdf for all to read online. The printed copies will be making their way around town this week.

The Northwest Film Center is proud to reveal the 41st Portland International Film Festival (Piff 41) lineup. This year’s Festival begins on Thursday, February 15th and runs through Thursday, March 1st. Our Opening Night selection is the new comedy The Death of Stalin from writer/director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop). The film, adapted from the graphic novel by Fabien Nury, stars Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Jason Isaacs, and Michael Palin. The Death of Stalin will screen simultaneously on Opening Night at the Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum (1219 Sw Park Ave) and on two screens at Regal Fox Tower 10 (846 Sw Park Ave).

Check...

The Live Action and Animated 2018 Oscar Nominated Shorts Open at Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63130) in St. Louis February 9th.

For the 13th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Feb. 9th. With two categories offered – Animated and Live Action– this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, March 4th.

Here’s the line-up:

Nimated Shorts (Estimated Running Time: 83 minutes)

Dear Basketball – Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant, USA, 5 minutes

Negative Space – Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata, France, 5 minutes

Lou – Dave Mullins and Dana Murray, USA, 7 minutes

Revolting Rhymes – Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, UK, 29 minutes

Garden Party – Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon, France...

The Shape of Water, Get Out, Lady Bird, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led the 2018 Oscar nominations, with Guillermo Del Toro's horror/romance The Shape of Water scoring an impressive 13 nods.

All five of the aforementioned films were nominated for Best Picture, a list that also included Phantom Thread, The Post, Call Me By Your Name and Darkest Hour.

Del Toro was also nominated for Best Director, along with first timers Get Out's Jordan Peele and Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig. Christopher Nolan also received a nod for Dunkirk,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are set to reveal the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards in all 24 categories this morning. Films such as “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” are expected to earn multiple nominations this year following big wins at the Golden Globes and Critic Choice Awards.

Click here to watch the nominations announcement live. Nominations will be updated live below as they are announced.

Best Picture

“Call Me by Your Name”

“Darkest Hour”

“Dunkirk”

“Get Out”

“Lady Bird”

“Phantom Thread”

“The Post”

“The Shape of Water”

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Best Director

Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water

Christopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”

Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”

Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird”

Jordan Peele, “Get Out”

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet “Call Me by Your Name”

Daniel Day-Lewis “Phantom Thread”

Daniel Kaluuya “Get Out”

Gary Oldman “Darkest Hour”

Denzel Washington “Roman J.

Two American university film schools are represented on this year’s Oscar shortlist for Best Live Action Short Film, which have to win film festival awards to qualify. The Academy’s Short Films and Animation branch selected 10 live-action shorts (out of 165 qualified submissions) to contend for Oscar nominations. They will now vote for five nominees from the shortlist after attending January branch screenings in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco.

The shorts are listed below in alphabetical order. No film will be deemed a frontrunner until I have seen it.

Contenders:

“DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk, director (UCLA)

“The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, director (Finch)

“Facing Mecca,” Jan-Eric Mack, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion)

“Icebox,” Daniel Sawka, director, and Camille Cornuel, producer (Iceboxthefilmco)

“Lost Face,” Sean Meehan, director, and Sam McGarry, producer (Soma Films)

“My Nephew Emmett,” Kevin Wilson, Jr., director (New York University)

“Rise of a Star,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Short Films and Animation branch has selected its shortlist of 10 live-action short films (out of 165 qualified submissions) to contend for five Oscar nominations.

American film schools UCLA and Nyu both landed films on the list. “DeKalb University,” directed by UCLA’s Reed Van Dyk, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences College Television Awards. “My Nephew Emmett,” from Nyu’s Kevin Wilson Jr., received the gold medal for narrative at the 2017 Student Academy Awards.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk, director (UCLA)

“The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, director (Finch)

“Facing Mecca,” Jan-Eric Mack, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion)

“Icebox,” Daniel Sawka, director, and Camille Cornuel, producer (Iceboxthefilmco)

“Lost Face,” Sean Meehan, director, and Sam McGarry,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Short Films and Animation branch has selected its shortlist of 10 live-action short films (out of 165 qualified submissions) to contend for five Oscar nominations.

American film schools UCLA and Nyu both landed films on the list. “DeKalb University,” directed by UCLA’s Reed Van Dyk, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences College Television Awards. “My Nephew Emmett,” from Nyu’s Kevin Wilson Jr., received the gold medal for narrative at the 2017 Student Academy Awards.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk, director (UCLA)

“The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, director (Finch)

“Facing Mecca,” Jan-Eric Mack, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion)

“Icebox,” Daniel Sawka, director, and Camille Cornuel, producer (Iceboxthefilmco)

“Lost Face,” Sean Meehan, director, and Sam McGarry,...

Ten live-action short films have been selected to advance in the contest for best live-action short Oscar. The films on the shortlist were chosen by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s short films and feature animation branch, which reviewed all eligible entries.

Members of the branch will now choose five nominees, which will be announced Jan. 23 when the full list of nominees for the 90th Academy Awards is unveiled.

The 10 films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are below.

DeKalb Elementary, Reed Van Dyk, director (UCLA)

The Eleven O’Clock, Derin Seale, director (Finch)<br...

This year, some 500 filmmakers from 60 countries braved record temperatures to attend the 23rd annual Palm Springs International ShortFest (June 20-26), the largest short film festival and only short film market in North America. Psisf hosted 338 fiction and documentary shorts, 46 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres, 42 North American Premieres and 16 U.S. Premieres.

And more than 4,200 of the festival submissions were available in the Film Market for industry attendees to view online. Check out the complete lineup here.

Designated by AMPAS, BAFTA, and Bifa as an award-qualifying festival, and accredited by the International Short Film Conference, the festival gives its competition filmmakers a chance to secure $20,000 in cash prizes in 21 categories. The Panavision Best North American Short Award winner gets the use of a camera package valued at $60,000. Only the first-place winners in five categories are eligible to vie for an Academy Award nomination. Over 22 years, the Festival has presented 101 films that have...

This year, some 500 filmmakers from 60 countries braved record temperatures to attend the 23rd annual Palm Springs International ShortFest (June 20-26), the largest short film festival and only short film market in North America. Psisf hosted 338 fiction and documentary shorts, 46 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres, 42 North American Premieres and 16 U.S. Premieres.

And more than 4,200 of the festival submissions were available in the Film Market for industry attendees to view online. Check out the complete lineup here.

Designated by AMPAS, BAFTA, and Bifa as an award-qualifying festival, and accredited by the International Short Film Conference, the festival gives its competition filmmakers a chance to secure $20,000 in cash prizes in 21 categories. The Panavision Best North American Short Award winner gets the use of a camera package valued at $60,000. Only the first-place winners in five categories are eligible to vie for an Academy Award nomination. Over 22 years, the Festival has presented 101 films that have...

California festival runs through June 26.

Jan-Eric Mack’s Facing Mecca from Switzerland was named best of fest as the Palm Springs International Shortfest awards were handed out on Sunday (25).

The film (pictured) received a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau and may be eligible for Oscar consideration.

The grand jury award went to The Head Vanishes (France-Canada) by Franck Dion Jacqueline, and the Panavision Best North American Short award and the use of a camera package valued at $60,000 courtesy of Panavision was presented to Reed Van Dyk’s Dekalb Elementary (USA).

In the non-student awards, whose winners may be eligible for Oscar consideration, The Head Vanishes took the animated award, while best documentary short was presented to Edith + Eddie (USA) by Laura Checkoway.

Retouch (Iran) by Kaveh Mazaheri prevailed in the best live action short over 15 minutes category, and the best live action short of 15 minutes and under award went to [link...

Finalists were chosen from the previously announced 45 shortlisted films.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nine finalists for the 2017 BAFTA Student Film Awards.

This year, select film schools worldwide were invited to submit up to nine films for consideration for four top prizes: the BAFTA Student Film Award for Animation presented by Laika, the Student Film Award for Documentary, the Student Film Award for Live Action Film, and the Special Jury Prize, selected by the event’s panel members.

The finalists are (listed alphabetically by film title):

Animation

Adam directed by Evelyn Jane Ross, Rhode Island School of Design

Once Upon A Line directed by Alicja Jasina, USC

The Wishgranter directed by Kal Athannassov, John McDonald and Echo Wu, Ringling College

Documentary

4.1 Miles directed by Daphne Matziaraki, Uc Berkeley

The Female Voice directed by Julia dos Santos of Goldsmiths, University of London

Living Behind Numbers directed by Martin Read, University...

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation handed out its 29th College Television Awards on Saturday night at a black-tie gala ceremony at Culver Studios.

Among the winners were Stephen Neary of New York University (animation category), Michelle Tessier of UCLA (children's program), Reed Van Dyk of Cornell University (comedy), Jonas Mayabb of Pasadena's Art Center College of Design (commercials), Jolene Pinder and Sarah Zaman of the University of Florida, Gainesville (documentary), Nicole Haeusser and Ulrich Schwarz of UCLA (drama), Tim Wilkerson and Sean Brown of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (magazine shows), Jean-Olivier Begin of the Manhattan School of Music (in collaboration with Columbia University) (best composition), Sou Yun Sim of Florida State University Graduate Film School in Tallahassee (best use of music) and Ryan Dietz and Patrick Lester of Northwestern University (newscasts).