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One of Disney’s best modern movies may finally be getting a sequel. Released back in 2021, Encanto introduced a whole host of wonderful characters in this musical tale about a multigenerational Colombian family, the Madrigals, and their mysterious magical gifts. Now, star John Leguizamo has declared that he is eager to talk more about his character, Bruno, revealing that the House of Mouse is “trying to come up with the storyline” for Encanto 2.

Speaking with People, Leguizamo offered a promising update on the development of Encanto 2, revealing that the animated sequel is now being discussed. Not only that, the actor states that, if he gets his way, the follow-up will be heavily centered on Bruno, the Madrigal’s ostracized uncle who has the ability to see and create visions of the future. A gift that puts him at odds with the rest of the family and led to the hit song,...

Encanto is still waiting for its sequel, as despite its success, a new installment has yet to be officially announced by Disney. However, John Leguizamo has hinted that Encanto 2 may be closer to happening than fans might realize.

Leguizamo discussed the possible sequel in a new interview with People at the opening night for the Buena Vista Social Club. He shared how he's just as eager as the fans to see Encanto get a sequel, though he has the advantage of knowing the decision makers. Leguizamo teased that he's been personally badging the Encanto team about getting progress moving on a follow-up film, sharing a promising update on the movie finally happening.

"I'm also waiting for an Encanto 2 when all we do is talk about Bruno," Leguizamo quipped, referring to "We Don't Talk About Bruno," the popular song featured in the film. "I'm calling them everyday saying 'When is number two coming?...

Studios have circled Thanksgiving in red on their calendars for years now, saving some of their biggest releases to take advantage of the long weekend. While many may be busy planning their menus, figuring out travel schedules, or bracing for that one relative’s questionable opinions, there’s another part of the holiday tradition we can’t ignore, movies.

Dwayne Johnson returns as demigod Maui in Moana 2 | Disney

With five days to fill, families and friends have flocked to theaters to laugh, cry, or cheer together. And in the spirit of that tradition, we are ranking the top 20 Thanksgiving weekend movies based on their gross earnings.

20. Knives Out (2019)

A Thanksgiving murder mystery that’s as sharp as its title, Knives Out was an absolute treat. Directed by Rian Johnson, this film doubles as a sharp critique of class and privilege in modern America. The story begins with the death of Harlan Thrombey,...

An Encanto sequel remains a possibility at Disney. Jared Bush, who co-directed the 2021 animated movie and was recently appointed as the new Cco of Walt Disney Animation Studios, has addressed whether fans can expect to see a return to the world of Encanto in the future.

Per Fiction Horizon, Bush shared at D23 Brazil that Encanto remained "a film that is kept in my heart," adding that he loves "all the characters of the Madrigal family." While he tiptoed around confirming a new Encanto project, he seemed to hint that something may be in the works. "Ill say, without revealing too much, that I would love to spend more time in the Madrigal House and return to Encanto. I hope that one day it will be possible," he added.

Related Best Disney Animated Movies of the 2020s

The 2020s gave fans many incredible Disney animated films, and some of the...

In recent years, the theatre world has witnessed a massive influx of Broadway shows based on films. Stage adaptations of Hollywood hits like Back to the Future, Moulin Rouge, and Beetlejuice have been dominating Broadway, both in terms of ticket sales and critical reception. Even lesser-known works, like the 2007 Israeli film, The Bands Visit, have been brought to the stage, and even gone on to win the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical. Now, with the massive success of these adaptations, audiences must begin to wonder what films may be getting reborn on the stage next.

Of course, not every major motion picture can be seamlessly translated to a different medium. Big-budget films that rely on complex visual effects and numerous locations are often impossible to properly convey on stage. However, films that rely on only a handful of characters within a relatively contained setting typically have excellent potential when...

Walt Disney Animation Studios leadership is getting redrawn.

Jennifer Lee, the company’s chief creative officer and the director of “Frozen” and “Frozen II,” is stepping down and returning to filmmaking full time. Taking her place effectively immediately is Jared Bush, who is currently writing and directing “Zootopia 2” for the studio. He is reporting to Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman

As Cco, Bush will oversee the creative output of the animation studio, including its films, series and associated projects. On “Zootopia 2,” TheWrap can exclusively reveal that Byron Howard is also directing the sequel alongside Bush — they both serve as full directors on the film.

Lee will be directing and writing on “Frozen 3” and writing “Frozen 4” with Marc Smith. She will also serve as executive producer on “Frozen 4.”

Clark Spencer continues as President, Walt Disney Animation Studios.

“I am so grateful to Bob and Alan for supporting my...

Exclusive: Charise Castro Smith (Encanto) has signed an overall deal with 20th Television. Under the multi-year pact, she will develop, write and executive produce original series for linear networks and streamers with a focus on the Disney Entertainment Television platforms.

Castro Smith has Confessions On The 7:45, a series adaptation of Lisa Unger’s international bestseller, in development at Hulu with Jessica Alba attached to star and Eva Longoria set to direct the pilot. Castro Smith and Alba originally set the series up at Netflix for development two years ago. It is now being redeveloped for Hulu under Castro Smith’s deal at sibling 20th TV, a part of Disney Television Studios.

Based on Unger’s novel, Confessions On The 7:45 is a psychological thriller in which a working mom (Alba) meets a stranger on a train as she is commuting home who upends her life. As her life unravels and betrayals are revealed,...

Exclusive: Non-profit Humanitas on Friday announced the five fellows selected for its 2024 New Voices Fellowship, and the awardees of its Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award and the David and Lynn Angell College Comedy Award.

Recipients of the New Voices Fellowship, a six-month mentorship program for emerging television and screenwriters, include Aj Currie, Lucas Miller, George Pérez, Mads Summerfield, and Kim Lee Winslow. As fellows, they will each be paired with acclaimed screenwriters for one-on-one mentorship focused on polishing a script submitted for fellowship consideration. Past mentors have included Jenny Bicks, Scott Z. Burns, Reggie Rock Bythewood, Steven Canals, Marissa Jo Cerar, Robb Chavis, Tom Fontana, Hart Hanson, Winnie Holzman, Jason Katims, Bill Lawrence, David Shore, Charise Castro Smith, Robin Swicord, and many more.

Fellows will also each receive a $7,500 stipend, a three-month membership to MasterClass, headshots and a free course from UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and take part in a...

Exclusive: America Ferrera’s hot streak continues, as the Barbie Oscar nom has been set to executive produce and star in Naked by the Window, a series adaptation of the book by Robert Katz, which has landed at Amazon MGM Studios for development following a bidding war.

Originally published in 1990, the book tells the true story of the groundbreaking Cuban artist Ana Mendieta, her formidable impact on the New York art scene, and the controversial trial of her sculptor husband, Carl Andre, for her sudden and tragic death.

Charise Castro Smith (Encanto) will write and exec produce the series, with Plan B also on board to executive produce.

Regarded as one of the most influential Cuban-American artists of the post-wwii era, Mendieta is celebrated for her groundbreaking work in the fields of performance art, sculpture, and land art. Known for works examining themes of identity, feminism, and the relationship between...

Encanto became a success story for Disney and although there have been hints of the possibility of a sequel, nothing has been confirmed yet.

In a recent interview, producer Yvett Merino hinted that Disney is working on ways to “expand across the company.”

“There’s different—we’re working closely with our friends in publishing and consumer products to make sure—there’s always different ideas and needs and wants for, for it to stay alive out there,” Merino said in an interview with The Direct. “But I don’t have anything official to say, but I love the ‘Encanto’ world and can’t wait to see it expand across the company.”

Although Merino didn’t delve into the idea of a direct sequel to the animated film, she did say that the parent company wants to keep the world of Encanto alive.

“I think we will continue to work on what that actually means.

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released its signature comprehensive report on the diversity of movies in front of and behind the camera.

Analyzing the 100 highest-grossing movies at the box office each year since 2007, AI2’s sample size has now reached 1,600 titles and 69,858 speaking characters. Over 16 years, the researchers found little change in the percentage of characters from nonwhite groups of every race and ethnicity except one: Asians represented 15.9 percent of characters in 2022’s top movies – up from 3.4 percent in 2007 (over a decade before Crazy Rich Asians ushered in an unprecedented era of visibility). But overall, nonwhite characters remained slightly underrepresented onscreen, with a 38.3 percent share compared to 41.1 percent of the U.S. population in real life. In 2007, 13 of the top 100 movies featured a lead or co-lead of color. Last year the tally was 31, slightly down from the 16-year high of 37 films the year prior.

Taking home the Golden Globe for best animated feature film, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” just made Netflix the first streamer ever to win the category. Del Toro made history for himself, too, as the first Latino winner.

Accepting the Golden Globe, del Toro proclaimed that “animation is cinema,” continuing, “Animation is not a genre for kids, it’s a medium.”

Since the category’s inception in 2006, only four winners of the Globes’ animation category have failed to win at the Oscars: “Cars” (2006), “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011), “How to Train Your Dragon 2” (2014) and “Missing Link” (2019). They lost to fellow Globe-nominees “Happy Feet,” “Rango,” “Big Hero 6” and “Toy Story 4,” respectively. Steven Spielberg’s “Tintin” is the only film to win the Globe and not receive an Oscar nom.

Netflix has received four nods for animated feature at the Oscars — “I Lost My Body” (2020), “Klaus” (2020), “Over the Moon” (2021) and...

Encanto co-director Jared Bush resolves a supposed Bruno plot hole involving telenovelas. A Disney regular known for Zootopia and Moana, Bush co-directed Encanto along with Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith. The animated musical underperformed at the box office when it debuted in 2021, though it exploded in popularity once it was released on Disney+ a month later. Due to its beautiful animation and catchy songs written by Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda, Encanto would become a pop culture sensation and take home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Encanto takes place in the mountains of Colombia during an unspecified time during the early 1900s. Because of this setting, viewers were confused by Bruno's knowledge of telenovelas, considering television wasn't invented until 1927, and turn, considered this a plot hole. During a recent Q&a session on Twitter, a fan asked, "How did Bruno know about telenovelas?" and director Jared Bush settled...

The trend-bucking ending of Disney’s Encanto means a lot in the wider context of Disney releases, and here's how it differs from previous Disney movies. Encanto is the 60th animated movie produced by Disney Animated Studios, but the first one to be set in Colombia’s gorgeous landscapes. Encanto opened to rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, and the movie stands out as one of the few movies from the mega studio that bucks Disney stereotypes. Disney tropes have been the topic of controversy from time to time, with Disney princesses, in particular, receiving the brunt of it. While tropes are often unavoidable in specific genres, oftentimes Disney tropes can promote harmful ideas like misogyny.

In Encanto, All of the members of the Madrigal family, except for Mirabel, possess their own magical ability or “gift.” However, Encanto’s final twist sees Mirabel restore Casita’s magic and her...

During the 2022 Power Women Summit panel “Inside the Writer’s Room: Telling Stories That Matter” on Tuesday, moderator Carla Renata asked the group about their advice for breaking into film and television screenwriting.

“Ozark” screenwriter Ning Zhou emphasized that “everyone has a different path,” citing herself as an example. She knows many screenwriters who studied the craft and business in college, but she had a less traditional start in the field by switching gears mid-career.

"Watching someone like Laura Linney take a scene that you've written and carve her own path with that scene is an experience that every writer should have," says Ning Zhou the screenwriter of "Ozark" in our #PowerWomenSummit panel https://t.co/eMIrwguNzw pic.twitter.com/P9sckMDNRe

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) December 13, 2022

“The good news is that I think there’s many different ways to to get into it,” she said. “The bad news is you kind...

“The Woman King” star Thuso Mbedu will be the keynote speaker for WrapWomen’s 2022 Power Women Summit, the largest annual gathering of women in media and entertainment at the iconic Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, California on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

The theme, “A Time to Unite,” will be highlighted throughout the day via panels, stirring dialogues, networking, a luncheon and a cocktail party to close out the day.

Mbedu’s career continues to astonish the world of entertainment. In 2021, she won an Independent Spirit Award, Gotham Award and Hollywood Critics Association Award for her starring role as “Cora” in Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad,” which her the first South African leading woman of a U.S. television series. Mbedu continues her remarkable run as the co-lead in the historical epic feature “The Woman King,” opposite Viola Davis.

Also Read:

‘The Woman King’ Director Gina Prince-Bythewood Doesn’t Take No for an Answer

“The Woman King,...

The Imagen Awards unveiled the winners of their 37th annual gala honoring Latinos in television and film. Some of the honorees that received the accolade included the animated film Encanto for Best Feature Film, Love, Victor as Best Comedy Primetime Program and Selena: The Series for Best Drama Primetime Program.

Luis Valdez, a writer, director and playwright, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The influential filmmaker was behind La Bamba which celebrated its 35th anniversary since its release.

Imagen Awards 2022 Photos: ‘Love, Victor’ Star Michael Cimino, Ana De La Reguera, Alfonso Herrera, Judy Reyes & More On Red Carpet

Television producer and Imagen Awards co-founder Norman Lear, who turned 100 years old this year, was honored with sincere and emotional messages from select audience members. Lear captivated the audience with a heartfelt recorded message over the video monitors.

Winners of the Imagen Awards were determined by an independent panel of...

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Disney’s Encanto and Hulu’s Love, Victor were the big winners at the 2022 Imagen Awards, held Sunday at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles.

Encanto was named best feature film and Love, Victor was a repeat winner for best primetime comedy at the 37th annual awards, which were established in 1985 from a suggestion by veteran television producer Norman Lear to encourage and recognize positive portrayals of Latinos in the media. Today, The Imagen Foundation aims to serve as a bridge between the Latino community and the entertainment industry in providing access, education, and resources for Latinos in the industry, as well as those seeking careers in entertainment.

The Imagen Awards were handed out Sunday at an afternoon gala, which marked the in-person return of the ceremony after a two-year live hiatus due to the pandemic.

Encanto also won best director for Jared Bush,...

Click here to read the full article.

Don’t Look Up, Black-ish and Pachinko were among the winners of the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes announced Friday from a luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The awards, honoring the craft of screenwriting, featured winners in nine juried categories spanning film and television. These included Don’t Look Up from writer Adam McKay for comedy feature film, The Starling from Matt Harris for drama feature film and Encanto from Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush for family feature film.

On the TV side, Black-ish writer Robb Chavis prevailed for comedy teleplay, Pachinko creator Soo Hugh won for drama teleplay and Women of the Movement creator Marissa Jo Cerar was tops for limited series, TV movie or special.

Larry Wilmore hosted the event, and presenters included Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks. Also honored were...

The writers behind ABC’s Black-ish, Apple TV+’s Pachinko, Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto and Adam McKay’s satire Don’t Look Up are among the winners of the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes. The honors were bestowed Friday afternoon in a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Humanitas Prizes have been handed out since 1973 to empower television and film writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. Writers across 10 categories receive 10,000 cash prizes.

Other winners included Nanfu Wang for her documentary In the Same Breath, Matt Harris for writing the script for Ted Melfi’s The Starling starring Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Kline, and Marissa Jo Cerar for penning the “Mother and Son” episode of ABC’s anthology series Women of the Movement.

Also during the ceremony emceed by Larry Wilmore, the Humanitas organization presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award and Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch...

Retiring ABC series “Black-ish” picked up one more honor on Friday, a Humanitas Prize for comedy teleplay, while Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” and ABC’s “Women of the Movement” also were recognized at the event.

Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and hosted by comedian Larry Wilmore, the 46th annual Humanitas Prize event centered on awards and 10,000 cash prizes to screenwriters across ten categories. In addition, Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award “in recognition of their work to connect the Ukrainian film and TV community impacted by the Russo-Ukrainian War with resources, jobs, and funding to meet basic needs.”

And Jasmine Cephas Jones presented Starz with Voice for Change Award for its #TakeTheLead initiative. Starz president/CEO Jeffrey Hirsch accepted the prize on the network’s behalf. Nkechi Okoro Carroll oversaw the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Award presentations.

Here are this...

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West Side Story, Encanto and In the Heights are among the nominations for the 37th annual Imagen Awards, which recognize work by Latino talent, new faces and seasoned creatives.

“After two years of streaming celebrations, we are ecstatic to be back in person and to honor those who made significant contributions to the television, film and streaming spaces,” What We Do in the Shadows star Harvey Guillén, who presented the nominees, said. “With the caliber of talent and the diversity of the roles and projects, our expectations were wildly exceeded with 445 entries, up 125 from 2021! We are beyond proud of this year’s nominees and all those who submitted. Given the excellence of the entries, the judges had a difficult time selecting those to be nominated.”

Nominees are determined by an independent panel of entertainment industry and Latino community leaders.

The 37th annual Imagen...

The Imagen Awards on Monday unveiled the full list of nominees for its 37th annual gala honoring Latino storytelling, performances, writing and creative expression in television and film. This year’s awards show is set for October 2 in Los Angeles at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.

Walt Disney Studios’ West Side Story was among the most nominated alongside Disney’s animated movie Encanto. Eugenio Derbez scored several nods including Best Actor in a Feature Film for Apple TV+’s Coda and Best Actor in a Comedy (Television) for Hulu’s The Valet.

Derbez’s 3Pas Studios is also behind Apple TV+’s comedy Acapulco, which also received several mentions in the noms, which were revealed today by What We Do in the Shadows star Harvey Guillén and actress-writer-producer Karrie Martin Lachney.

“After two years of streaming celebrations, we are ecstatic to be back in person and to honor those...

Humanitas has revealed the nominees for this year’s Humanitas Prizes, which recognize “television and film writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced way.” The award is given out in nine categories, including comedy, drama and limited series.

This year’s nominees include “Maid,” “This Is Us,” “Queen Sugar,” “Pachinko,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Somebody Somewhere” and “Black-ish.” Winners will be announced at an in-person awards luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on September 9, 2022.

“The Humanitas Prizes were created to recognize writers whose work explores the beauty and complexity of the human experience and the 2022 nominees do just that,” said Michelle Franke, Humanitas Executive Director. “Ranging in scope, style, and perspective, these stories underscore our bonds, our history and responsibility to each other in the present as well as possibilities for the future. Especially during challenging times, writers dedicate themselves to the stories that connect and entertain us.”

Here...

After a two-year hiatus, Humanitas has revealed the nominations for its 2022 Humanitas Prizes in nine categories

Winners will receive their trophies during a September 9 in-person ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Launched in 1974, the Humanitas Prizes honor film and television writers whose work explores the human condition, with recipients receiving a trophy and a cash prize.

Here are the nominees for the 46th annual Humanitas Prize:

Children’s Teleplay

El Deafo: Written by Cece Bell and Will McRobb

Karma’s World: “Hair Comes Trouble” – Written by Kellie R. Griffin and Halcyon Person

Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), with Love: Written by Alex Galatis

The Babysitters Club: “Claudia and the Sad Goodbye” – Written by Sascha Rothchild

Comedy Feature Film

Don’t Look Up: Written by Adam McKay

Everything Everywhere All At Once: Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Queen Bees: Written by Donald Martin

tick, tick…Boom!:...

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Humanitas has announced the nominees for the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes, which celebrates the craft of screenwriting. Across nine juried categories, which include both television and film, 45 writers are nominated for their work.

Among the nominees are Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson (comedy teleplay) and Academy Award-winning Coda writer-director Sian Heder (drama feature film). Adam McKay, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, also received a nom for comedy feature film, along with Everything Everywhere All At Once scribes and directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

“The Humanitas Prizes were created to recognize writers whose work explores the beauty and complexity of the human experience and the 2022 nominees do just that,” said Humanitas executive director Michelle Franke in a statement. “Ranging in scope, style, and perspective, these stories underscore our bonds, our history and...

Jessica Alba is returning to TV. The actor will star in Confessions on the 7:45, a Netflix adaptation of Lisa Unger’s bestselling novel of the same name. Encanto co-director and co-writer Charise Castro Smith is adapting the novel for the small screen. In Confessions on the 7:45, Alba will play a working mom whose life is upended when she meets a stranger on a commuter train, Deadline reports. Her life will unravel and betrayals will be revealed, making her question whether we can ever truly know the people closest to us. “I could not put this book down. The moment I read the line, ‘If you want to keep a secret you must first hide it from yourself,’ I was hooked,” Alba said in a statement. “This book is about trying to bury secrets and the shame we carry until the truth exposes us. I can’t think of...

Jessica Alba is headed to Netflix with a series based on New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger's novel, "Confessions on the 7:45." Alba will star and Charise Castro Smith will act as showrunner and writer of the "Confessions on the 7:45" adaptation.

"The 7:45" refers to the train in the book's Hitchcockian plot. According to Variety, "Confessions on the 7:45" is "described as a psychological thriller about a working mom (Alba) who meets a stranger on a train as she is commuting home who upends her life."

Alba had her breakthrough role in the Fox series, "Dark Angel," before crossing over into movies like "Sin City" and...

The post Jessica Alba To Star in Netflix Series Confessions on the 7:45 appeared first on /Film.

Jessica Alba will star in a series adaptation of the book “Confessions on the 7:45,” which is currently in development at Netflix.

The show will be based on the Lisa Unger book of the same name. It is described as a psychological thriller about a working mom (Alba) who meets a stranger on a train as she is commuting home who upends her life. As her life unravels and betrayals are revealed, she questions whether we can ever truly know the people closest to us.

Charise Castro Smith is set to write the series in addition to serving as showrunner and executive producer. Alba will executive produce in addition to starring. Michael Rotenberg and Oly Obst of 3 Arts will also executive produce.

Castro Smith most recently co-directed and co-wrote the screenplay and story for the hit Disney animated film “Encanto,” which recently won the Academy Award for best animated film.

Exclusive: Jessica Alba has closed a deal to executive produce and headline a series based on Lisa Unger’s international bestseller Confessions on the 7:45, which is in development at Netflix, sources tell Deadline. Charise Castro Smith, co-writer and co-director of Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto, is attached to adapt Unger’s novel. She also serves as showrunner and executive produces with Alba and 3 Arts’ Michael Rotenberg and Oly Obst.

Confessions on the 7:45 is a psychological thriller in which a working mom (Alba) meets a stranger on a train as she is commuting home who upends her life. As her life unravels and betrayals are revealed, she questions whether we can ever truly know the people closest to us.

Alba, a working mom herself, had a strong reaction when she read Confessions on the 7:45, leading to her involvement in the project.

“I could not put this book down. The moment I read the line,...

Academy Awards Week began with a celebration of Black women’s achievements in Hollywood and crescendoed with “The Slap Heard Round the World” as one Black man sucker slapped another during the broadcast and women lost ground in the never-ending battle for equality. There were some strides, as “Coda,” a female-directed-and-written film took Best Picture and Jane Campion snagged Best Director (the third woman in 94 years) for “The Power of the Dog,” but the talk of every after-party on Sunday night wasn’t celebrating those achievements; instead, every conversation was about the two famous men and the one famous woman at the center of the storm.

But Hollywood’s return to the party swirl had plenty of glitz and glamour as the week unfolded – and lots of love, too, overriding that violent interlude seen around the world. Here are some photo memories of the best, which happened with pandemic vaccination protocols still in place,...

Encanto won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature tonight, beating out Flee, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and two other Disney animated features, Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon.

This is Jared Bush and Yvett Merino’s first Oscar nomination and win, as well as the second win and third nomination for both Byron Howard and Clark Spencer. Howard and Spencer won for Best Animated Feature in 2017 for Zootopia.

“I am so proud to be a part of a film that puts beautiful diverse characters front and center,” says Merino, “and that people everywhere are seeing themselves in the film.”

Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, and co-directed by Charise Castro Smith, this Disney musical animated film features original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Encanto takes place in a magical town sheltered by mountains. As she is fleeing from her home, Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero) loses her husband...

Updated for March 15: The race has tightened with “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” winning best feature at the 49th annual Annie Awards on March 12. In fact, “The Mitchells” dominated with eight prizes, while “Encanto” earned three for character animation, music, and storyboarding. However, despite the impressive outpouring of support for “The Mitchells” by the animation community, “Encanto” has garnered too much adulation and buzz to be denied the Oscar this late in the season.

Updated for February 8: The Oscar nominations are out and Disney dominated with “Encanto” and “Raya and the Last Dragon,” and Pixar’s “Luca.” This marks the first time that Disney has had two in contention since 2016 and the first time it’s had three since 2012. The other two slots were taken by “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” (Netflix/Sony), and the acclaimed documentary “Flee” (Neon/Participant), which also scored historic noms in the doc and international categories.

Sony Animation/Netflix’s innovative, 2D-inspired “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” led the 49th annual Annie Awards Saturday with eight wins, including best feature, direction and writing, character design, production design, editorial, FX, and voice acting (Abbie Jacobson as Katie). Asifa-Hollywood’s animation version of the Oscars was held virtually at UCLA’s Royce Hall for the second consecutive year because of the pandemic.

Disney’s Oscar frontrunner, “Encanto,” the animated musical set in Colombia, followed with three awards for character animation, music, and storyboarding. It went into the awards ceremony with nine noms. Disney’s other Oscar contender, “Raya and the Last Dragon,” however, was shut out after leading the pack with 10 noms, as was Pixar’s “Luca,” which had eight noms.

Meanwhile, the Oscar-nominated animated doc, “Flee,” the Afghan refugee drama from Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, earned best indie feature honors. Additionally, live-action character animation went to...

While the Madrigal family is the heart of Disney’s “Encanto,” another key character in the film is Casa Madrigal, the family’s magical home and center of the narrative.

From the very beginning, co-writer and co-director Charise Castro Smith says the creative team knew that the house would be a reflection of the family and their magical powers, with a personality and a point of view.

“We knew it was going to be alive, magical and fun and a friend to the kids who lived in the house,” she says.

Each room in the house also had its own personality and early on, Castro Smith says the magic of technology allowed her to visualize the world of “Encanto” through VR.

“The visual design team modeled it in 3D, so we got to put a headset on and walk through the house.”

That process came in handy when she was...

The View Conference, in partnership with Ogr, presents a full slate of free virtual PreVIEW panels in March featuring an array of Oscar nominees.

First, on Friday, March 4, at 10 a.m. Pt, will be a talk with the filmmakers behind the five nominees for animated feature. Speakers are Byron Howard, Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith of Disney’s “Encanto”; Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Charlotte De La Gournerie of the animated documentary “Flee”; Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren of Pixar’s “Luca”; Mike Rianda, Phil Lord and Chris Miller of Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix’s “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”; and Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada of Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

“This year’s list of Oscar contenders is truly breathtaking,” says conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez. “I have been blown away by the depth of creative thinking that has gone into their production, and...

The team behind Disney Animation’s “Encanto” gave themselves a high degree of difficulty: In a development/production process that took five years of constant rewrites, they insisted on a film with a family of 12 principals, while most animated films center on half that number.

The film is about 15-year-old Mirabel Madrigal (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) and her family; the breakout star for fans and social media is Bruno, the exiled uncle voiced by John Leguizamo. “Encanto” was written by Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith from a story credited to six writers, including those two. Castro Smith and Bush directed alongside Byron Howard.

“We knew he was someone people would gravitate towards,” Bush says on Bruno. “John was so spectacular: funny, lovable and weird — and in not a lot of screen time!”

Bruno is part of a long line of family outcasts, starting with Greek tragedies through Shakespeare to Buster Keaton,...

We need to talk about Bruno, even if “Encanto” won’t!

Chart-topping song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is not the official 2022 Oscars submission for the Disney film, and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is just fine with that.

“I’m still proud of ‘Dos Oruguitas’ as the submission,” Miranda told Variety. “When those are the parameters, you have to pick the thing that best exemplifies the spirit of the movie, and it contains all of it inside this song — as opposed to a journey of a particular character. It’s the foundational story, but I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard [to choose].”

The decision to nominate “Dos Oruguitas” over “Bruno” was required by November 1, when the animated film had not yet opened in theaters. However, the soundtrack was already making waves. The “Encanto” album spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, with “We Don’t Talk...

When he began working on the music for Disney’s animated film Encanto five years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda admits he didn’t know all that much about Colombian music. “I had a beginner’s understanding, or a layman’s understanding, of Colombian music going into this project,” he says. “I knew Shakira, I knew Carlos Vives, and I knew Joe Arroyo, who is just an incredible salsa musician from Colombia. That alone is three totally different genres, and so I just knew it was an incredibly diverse part of Latin America,...

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2022 Oscars Predictions:

Best Animated Feature

Updated: Feb 17, 2022

Awards Prediction Commentary:

Walt Disney Pictures’ “Encanto,” directed by Jared Bush...

Lin-Manuel Miranda is ecstatic about the success of the animated feature “Encanto,” and for his second Oscar nomination for original song — this time, for the emotional number “Dos Oruguitas.” However, the performance of the movie’s soundtrack on the music charts has been getting all the headlines, specifically the hit song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” Miranda doesn’t regret submitting “Dos Oruguitas” rather than “Bruno” for consideration for this year’s Academy Awards. The decision had to be done by Nov. 1, which the film had yet opened in theaters despite its performance on the charts.

“I’m still proud of ‘Dos Oruguitas’ as the submission,” Miranda says. “When those are the parameters, you have to pick the thing that best exemplifies the spirit of the movie, and it contains all of it inside this song – as opposed to a journey of a particular character. It’s the foundational story,...

The View Conference in association with Baobab Studios and Ogr is presenting free virtual panels with the creatives behind some of the season’s most critically acclaimed animated films.

First up is a free virtual screening and conversation with the filmmakers behind “Namoo,” the shortlisted animated short by Oscar-nominated Erick Oh. In addition to Oh, speakers will include Baobab Studios’ co-founders Maureen Fan and Eric Darnell, who produced “Namoo,” art director Eusong Lee and lead Quill artist Nick Ladd. Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey will moderate.

The panel will take place Friday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m. Pt.

“Namoo,” which means tree in Korean, follows one man’s journey from birth to death, touching on beautiful and heartbreaking moments throughout his life. The film, which was created in VR and 2D, was produced by Baobab Studios and executive produced by John Cho, and produced by Baobab’s Fan, Darnell, Larry Cutler and Kane Lee.

For the first time in its nearly hundred-year history, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated the same female filmmaker for the Best Director honors for a second time. Jane Campion, who was previously nominated in the category for 1993’s “The Piano”, picked up a record-breaking second Oscar nom for her work on awards season favorite “The Power of the Dog.”

Campion, long viewed as the frontrunner in this category after picking up a bevy of awards already this season, was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Campion was also nominated for Best Picture as a producer of “The Power of the Dog.”

Campion will face off against Kenneth Branagh, Ryuske Hamaguchi, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg in the stacked category.

In the Academy Awards’ 94-year history, only seven women have ever been nominated for Best Director alongside Campion: Lina Wertmüller (1976′s “Seven Beauties”), Sofia Coppola...

"Encanto" pulses with a tremendous amount of heart. It's among Disney's most enchanting offerings in recent years — largely because of its immersive animation and musical vibrancy. The animated feature is co-directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush (who co-wrote the screenplay with Charise Castro Smith) and depicts the struggles and triumphs of the Madrigal family. Through the course of the film, a young Mirabel, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, learns to cope with being the only family member without a special gift or talent. Her inward journey is as important as the outward one, as she uncovers the truth about her mysterious Uncle Bruno and her Abuela's tragic past.

With original songs...

The post The 14 Best Moments in Encanto Ranked appeared first on /Film.

When Germaine Franco began composing the score for Encanto, the directors knew they didn’t want the sound of a traditional Disney film. Franco began experimenting with Colombian instruments and rhythms to create the sound of Latin American magic.

Encanto takes place in a magical town sheltered by mountains, created when Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero) lost her husband and prayed for a miracle to save her three children. The idea of magic being born out of emotion was important to make the film based in Latin American magic, rather than European.

As opposed to the sounds associated with European fantasy, Latin American magical realism comes with the influences of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous cultures. Franco used traditional Colombian instruments and cumbia, the national rythym of Colombia, to score this Latin American Disney film.

Franco’s score for Encanto has been shortlisted for the Best Score category at the Oscars this year.

Since the academy expanded the Best Picture category at the Oscars in 2010, Best Original Screenplay has gone to writers of a wide-range of genres: dramas; comedies (“Midnight in Paris”); biopics; true-life stories (“Spotlight”); period pictures (“Django Unchained”); war movies (“The Hurt Locker”); sci-fi (“Her”), thrillers and horror (“Get Out”). (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Original Screenplay)

Regardless of the type of film, a nominee needs broad academy support to win this race. Indeed, all 12 of the most recent Best Original Screenplay winners were, at the least, Best Picture nominees. And six of them won the big prize, bringing the total number of Best Picture champs with Oscar-winning original screenplays to 18. By comparison, 41 films have done this on the adapted side.

In 2021, all five nominees for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards were crafted by writer/directors. Expect auteurs to be well-represented in this race once again.

Every year the same question is asked about the Best Animated Feature category: can anyone beat Disney? Walt Disney Studios, along with subsidiary Pixar, has won 14 Oscars in the Best Animated Feature category since the category began two decades ago, followed in a distant second by DreamWorks Animation’s two wins. 26 animated features are eligible to be nominated this year, and with only five slots, who will make the final cut?

Walt Disney Studios is coming on strong again with their competitors this year, including Pixar’s Luca. Enrico Casarosa makes his feature-length directorial debut with this coming-of-age story inspired by his childhood in Genoa, Italy. Although the theatrical release of the film was canned due to the ongoing pandemic, that didn’t hinder the film’s popularity. It tells the story of Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay), a young sea monster boy who has been living a sheltered life under...

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

Lin-Manuel Miranda had three movies open in 2021, but only Encanto has brand new music by the Hamilton creator. In the Heights was based on his stage musical, while Tick Tick… Boom! featured Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical songs.

Encanto tells the story of Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), an outcast in a Colombian family where everyone has a unique gift, except for Mirabel. Mirabel’s sister, Luisa (Jessica Darrow), has super strength, and her other sister, Isabel (Dianne Guerrero), can bring vegetation to life. Her cousin, Antonio (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), can talk to animals. Yet, when the magic starts to dwindle, Mirabel still steps up to save the magic, of which she was not a beneficiary.

Producer Clark Spencer said the inspiration for Encanto was her grandparents.

Latin America is a large place, so when the idea was pitched, it was a daunting task to narrow it down. Directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, with co-director and writer Charise Castro Smith, found the perfect place for this musical fantasy: Colombia.

Encanto takes place in a magical town sheltered by mountains. As she is fleeing from her home, Alma Madrigal (María Cecilia Botero) loses her husband and prays for a miracle to save her three children. The candle she was holding becomes magical and builds an “encanto” around the refugees, blasts away the invaders, and builds a sentient house for her family to live in. The candle gave magical gifts to Alma’s family for 50 years, until her granddaughter Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) mysteriously receives no gift. Mirabel starts to notice cracks forming in the house and goes on a quest to fix the magic of the candle, without...

Walt Disney Animation Studios' CG-animated musical fantasy feature "Encanto", directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Charise Castro Smith, starring Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Carolina Gaitán, Diane Guerrero and Wilmer Valderrama, has won the 'Golden Globe' award for the year's 'Best Motion Picture – Animated' by the 'Hollywood Foreign Press Association':

"...forced by an armed conflict to flee her home, a young 'Alma Madrigal' loses her husband 'Pedro' but saves her children 'Julieta', 'Pepa' and 'Bruno'.

"By a 'miracle', her candle attains magical qualities, blasts away their pursuers, and creates a sentient 'Casita' house for the Madrigals, in a town sheltered by surrounding 'encanto' mountains.

"Fifty years later, the candle continues to burn and the town thrives under its protection, with the candle gifting each member of the Madrigal bloodline, superhuman abilities they use to help the villagers..."

Click the images to enlarge.