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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...

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...

Mikey Madison has the potential to make history at the 2025 Oscars in Best Actress with Neon’s “Anora.” At the age of 25, she is receiving universal praise for her portrayal of the title character, a Brooklyn stripper who gets into a whirlwind, impetuous marriage. Sean Baker‘s wild romantic dramedy is continuing to gain massive buzz since winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Madison is currently headlined at the top of the combined odds at Gold Derby to win Best Actress. Should it occur, she would be the ninth youngest Best Actress Oscar winner and the first since over a decade ago.

Let’s take a look at each of the first eight ingenues ahead who achieved this milestone:

Marlee Matlin

Won at age 21 years and 218 days for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986) on March 30, 1987.

Jennifer Lawrence

Won at age 22 years and 193 days for “Silver Linings Playbook...

Producer David O. Selznick was always looking for the next big thing. He had scored an enormous hit — it was a cultural phenom — with his 1939 Civil War drama “Gone with the Wind,’ which won eight Oscars including best picture, director, actress and supporting actress. And for those fashion-minded, “Gwtw” also caused an uptick in sales of the women’s headgear called the snood.

The following year, Selznick produced the best picture winner, Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic mystery “Rebecca.” Four years after ‘Rebecca” on July 20, 1944, Selznick released the sentimental, home-fires-burning drama “Since You Went Away,” which he hoped would the next “Gwtw” in terms of box office and Oscar love.

The world was war weary in 1944. In fact, World War II seemed never ending. The Allied troops launched its invasion of Europe on the beaches of Normandy on June 6th. But even with the success of D-day, the war wouldn’t...

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.

There are a whole lot of things that Robert Redford is famous for: acting, directing, co-founding the Sundance Film Festival, being incredibly handsome, even running Hydra from within the United States government ... the list goes on and on and on. He became a silver screen icon in classic films like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Way We Were," "The Sting," "Three Days of the Condor," "The Natural," "Sneakers," and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." He even won an Academy Award for directing the acclaimed 1980 drama "Ordinary People."

But in spite of all that there's one thing that Robert Redford is not famous for, and that's his tireless work in the horror genre. That's because, despite an acting career that spanned 60 years, he never really made any horror films. You'd have to go way back to 1962 to find Redford's last real brush with the supernatural, but it's well worth the journey.

A month ago, “The Power of the Dog” looked like it was powered to have a big Oscar night after nabbing a leading 12 nominations. At the time, many were forecasting at least four trophies — and above-the-line ones at that — for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jane Campion, and Best Supporting Actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee. Some thought it could also pull off a below-the-line win or two, like in Best Original Score for Jonny Greenwood or Best Cinematography for Ari Wegner, who’d be the first female winner in the category. Now, “The Power of the Dog” looks strong in just one category, Best Director, as “Coda” has pocketed some big wins the past few weeks, including at Saturday’s Producers Guild of America Awards. But could a 12-time nominee really walk away with so few wins?

It’s actually not that uncommon for a 12-time nominee...

by Nathaniel R

Coda is still riding high on that SAG wave but will cresting during Oscar voting give it the win? If it does a Lot of records will be broken. No film since the current slate of categories was in place (many decades now) has managed a Best Picture win with only 3 Oscar nominations. Most film with 12+ Oscar nominations (like The Power of the Dog has) have won more than three Oscars though sometimes they've lost Best Picture . No films without either a Directing or an Editing nomination (since all the current categories were in place), and Coda has neither has won Best Picture. Finally no film by a streaming company has won Best Picture though this last stat was bound to fall sooner or later and will next Sunday whether Coda or Power of the Dog wins. Unless of course something else entirely surprises. Winners are after the jump.

Westerns are populated with cowboys, gunslingers, bandits, Native American, horses, cows and buffalos. But the genre is much more complex than shoot-‘em-ups. In fact, the best Westerns are Shakespearean in nature exploring such universal subjects as love, hate, revenge, greed, power and good versus evil. One of the most popular sub-genres is the “ranch” Western where the patriarch or matriarch — remember Barbara Stanwyck in “The Big Valley”– governs with a strict and often violent hand. They act like they are above the law and often take legal matters into their own hand. They are often widowers or widows and have sons who run the spectrum from hero to villain.

Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed Netflix Oscar-contender “The Power of the Dog” falls into this sub-genre. Set in Montana in 1925, the story revolves around the charismatic but sadistic Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) who relishes being the master of a cattle rancher.

Jo-Carroll Dennison, who parlayed her victory in the 1942 Miss America contest into an acting career that saw her appear in films including Winged Victory and The Jolson Story, has died. She was 97.

Dennison died Oct. 18 at her home in Idyllwild, California, her son, Peter Stoneham, told The New York Times.

A contract player at 20th Century Fox, Dennison also had uncredited roles in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Something for the Boys (1944) — where she first met her future husband, actor Phil Silvers — and State Fair (1945) and appeared on television in Lux Video Theater, in a Dick Tracy series and ...

Jo-Carroll Dennison, who parlayed her victory in the 1942 Miss America contest into an acting career that saw her appear in films including Winged Victory and The Jolson Story, has died. She was 97.

Dennison died Oct. 18 at her home in Idyllwild, California, her son, Peter Stoneham, told The New York Times.

A contract player at 20th Century Fox, Dennison also had uncredited roles in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Something for the Boys (1944) — where she first met her future husband, actor Phil Silvers — and State Fair (1945) and appeared on television in Lux Video Theater, in a Dick Tracy series and ...

Sister Maria, a.k.a. La SexorcistaMovie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook—a collaboration between Mubi's Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a title that we think embodies the era of 24-hour genre-hopping, and present the venue at which it premiered...This month, we welcome one of our favorite Deuce-regulars, Screen Slate contributor Madelyn Sutton, who’s taken the helm and commandeered us down a merciless spiral of nunsploitation… Check out her piece below for your fill of nuns gone wild!—The Deuce JockeysVanessa Redgrave in Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971)Naughty nuns: the appeal is obvious. Cloaked in the magnetic mystery of her thick twill tunic, the solid walls of the cloister,...

William Smith, the action star who tussled with Clint Eastwood in Any Which Way You Can, made a lasting impression as the evil Falconetti on TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and was a regular on the final season of Hawaii Five-o, died July 5 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 88.

His wife Joanne Cervelli Smith confirmed the death. A cause of death was not disclosed.

Smith was born in Columbia, Mo, in 1933 on his family’s cattle ranch where he grew up surrounded by many beloved horses. Although the Smith family moved to Southern California before he was 10, it was his time spent on the ranch that influenced the roles he’d take during his more than seven decades-long career in TV and film.

He began his career in entertainment as an extra in 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein when he was eight years old.

There’s the germ of a provocative idea in “The Unholy” — namely, what if you took a religious-visitation movie like “The Song of Bernadette” or “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima” and turned it into a horror movie? Had the film bothered, or dared, to pursue that notion to the fullest, “The Unholy” might be something other than the standard-issue, priests-versus-demonic-spirits thriller that it is.

You’ve seen this one before, countless times, with its superhero priests and seemingly omnipotent spirits who are somehow powerless against containment prayers and quick-thinking investigative journalists. On top of that, it’s a PG-13 horror movie, which takes excessive gore off the table, pushing the director to replace it with lukewarm jump scares.

The film’s opening sequence, set in 19th-century Massachusetts, offers a woman’s Pov. She’s accused of being possessed, then nailed to a tree and set on fire. The...

Will the movies ever let religion back into the mainstream? It doesn’t seem likely, given the secular bent of most critics, festivals, and film awards. But the question could certainly occur to any thoughtful viewer of Marco Pontecorvo’s Fátima, which is set for release by Picturehouse in theaters and via PVOD on Aug. 28.

The film, which has been shown in pop-up previews for the last few weeks, is about the heavenly visions of three young children, who in 1917 said they encountered the Blessed Virgin Mary in a field near Fátima, Portugal. Believers flocked to the site. There may have been miracles. And Mary, said the children, confided three “secrets,” which became the core of an enduring Catholic cult that eventually found of the two young people, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, canonized as saints following their deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic, and made the third, Lùcia dos Santos, a...

A version of this story about Thomas Newman and the Newman family first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.

When you think of the first families of the Oscars, you might think of the Coppolas, with nominations for director Francis Ford Coppola, his father Carmine, his daughter Sofia, his son Roman, his nephew Nicolas Cage, his former son-in-law Spike Jonze and his brother-in-law David Shire; or the Hustons, with Walter, his son John and John’s daughter Angelica all nominated.

But no family has more Oscar nominations than the Newmans. This year, the Academy’s most honored family received its record-breaking 91st, 92nd and 93rd nominations: a pair in the Best Original Score category for Thomas Newman’s “1917” and his cousin Randy Newman’s “Marriage Story,” and an additional nomination for Randy’s song “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from...

Robert Walker Jr., son of actors Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, died Thursday, his family confirmed to the official website for the television show “Star Trek.” He was 79.

Walker Jr. is best remembered for playing the titular Charlie Evans in the “Star Trek” episode “Charlie X” from the show’s first season in 1966. His character was a teenage social misfit with psychic powers. The episode was written by D.C. Fontana who also died earlier this week.

Walker Jr. also starred in a handful of 1960s pictures including “Ensign Pulver” with Burl Ives and Walter Matthau, and “Young Billy Young.”

He was born in Queens, New York in 1940, by which time his father was just launching his career as an actor. Walker Sr. was of course best known for playing the role of murderous psychopath Bruno Antony in Alfred Hitchcok’s “Strangers on a Train.” The film was released shortly before...

Robert Walker Jr., best known for a classic early Star Trek episode and as the son of Hollywood stars Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, died Thursday in Malibu, according to family members. He was 79.

The New York native portrayed the twitchy, callow title character in “Charlie X,” the second episode of Star Trek’s pioneering first season in 1966, and also handled the title role of the notable 1960s feature films Ensign Pulver and Young Billy Young.

For Ensign Pulver, the comedic 1964 naval drama, Walker inherited a role that had earned Jack Lemmon an Oscar for best supporting actor for Mister Roberts (1955). In the 1969 gunfighter tale Young Billy Young, Walker was the volatile outlaw who finds a mentor in Robert Mitchum in film that also featured Angie Dickinson and David Carradine. That same year Walker and his wife, Ellie Wood, appeared together in the milestone counter-culture epic Easy Rider.

Walker’s...

If Saoirse Ronan makes the Best Actress Oscar cut for “Little Women,” there’s a 99.9 percent chance she’ll be the youngest nominee of the group at the age of 25. But in terms of Oscar resumes, she’d be an ol’ veteran. Ronan would be on her fourth career bid, which would make her the second youngest performer, male or female, to amass four nominations.

The record is currently held by Jennifer Lawrence, who snatched it from Jennifer Jones. Jones, who won Best Actress on her 25th birthday for “The Song of Bernadette” (1943), was 27, a couple weeks shy of her 28th birthday, at the time of her fourth consecutive nomination, for Best Actress for “Duel in the Sun” (1946). Lawrence was 25 when she received her fourth nomination, for Best Actress for “Joy” (2015), but the tiebreaker is their birthdays — Lawrence was born Aug. 15, 1990, and Ronan on April 12, 1994 — so Lawrence was about four...

Criterion resurrects Ernst Lubitsch’s final completed film Cluny Brown (1946), a post-war comedy about pre-wwii class divisions in 1938 England. Headlined by Jennifer Jones, fresh off her divorce from actor Robert Walker and whose career was now completely in the hands of lover and eventual second husband, studio titan David O. Selznick, it’s an odd standout in her filmography of serious, dramatic turns. Having already acquired a Best Actress Academy Award, Jones is the titular protagonist, playing the prototype of a character whose overarching traits would eventually come to be known as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.…...

It’s clear that the Academy tasked producer Donna Gigliotti and co-producer/director Glenn Weiss with reinventing the Oscar show this year. After all, the promise of a show limited to three hours, made by the AMPAS Board of Governors in August, before the producers was hired, was enough to demand a new approach.

As we all know, two of the ideas that were to make this a new kind of Oscar show — the creation of a new “Popular Oscar” category and the shifting of several categories into the commercial breaks — were scrapped, the first in September and the second just last week.

That’ll make it significantly harder (and quite possibly impossible) for Gigliotti and Weiss to hit that three-hour limit, but they’ll probably trot out a few new takes on an old model. We won’t know how well it’s going to work until Sunday night...

“Roma” star Yalitza Aparicio could make history with a Best Actress Oscar win in multiple ways. Not only would she become the first Mexican woman and the first indigenous woman to prevail, but she’d be one of the youngest as well.

The former schoolteacher just celebrated her 25th birthday on Dec. 11 and will be 25 years and 75 days old on the Feb. 24 Oscar ceremony, which would make her the seventh youngest winner in the category. Three 25-year-olds have won Best Actress: Jennifer Jones prevailed on her 25th birthday on March 2, 1944, for “The Song of Bernadette”; “The Country Girl” (1954) star Grace Kelly, whom Aparicio would dethrone, was 25 years and 138 days old; and Hilary Swank was 25 years and 240 days old when she nabbed her first Oscar for “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999).

Then-21-year-old Marlee Matlin holds the record as the youngest champ, for “Children of a Lesser God” (1986).

See ‘Roma’ stars Yalitza...

Virtually every usually-reliable indicator suggests that all of the women at the center of The Favourite — Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz — will receive Oscar nominations on Jan. 22. Should that happen, Yorgos Lanthimos' period dramedy will become only the 19th film in history to produce three or more female acting noms.

The prior titles to achieve this feat, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library confirms, span from Gone With the Wind (1939) through The Help (2011). In between there were The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Mildred Pierce (1945), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), I Remember Mama (1948), Come ...

Virtually every usually-reliable indicator suggests that all of the women at the center of The Favourite — Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz — will receive Oscar nominations on Jan. 22. Should that happen, Yorgos Lanthimos' period dramedy will become only the 19th film in history to produce three or more female acting noms.

The prior titles to achieve this feat, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library confirms, span from Gone With the Wind (1939) through The Help (2011). In between there were The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Mildred Pierce (1945), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), I Remember Mama (1948), Come ...

Are “Green Room” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” Best Picture Oscar favorites because they won the Golden Globes’ top prizes? Maybe.

Or maybe not.

Though the Globes have been considered a leading bellwether for the Academy Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have agreed to disagree numerous times in major categories over the past 75 years.

In fact, the very first Golden Globes ceremony selected the religious drama “The Song of Bernadette” as the best film of 1943, while the Oscar for best picture went to the beloved “Casablanca.”

Even last year, Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fantasy “The Shape of Water” won four Oscars including best film and director. But the Globes chose “Lady Bird” for best picture musical or comedy and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” won best drama. Del Toro did win the Globe for director.

Checking out Golden Globes best drama winners for the past decade,...

Ethan Hawke is this awards’ season critical darling earning several best actor nods from critic’s groups including the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and New York Film Critics Circle for his powerful performance as a troubled clergyman haunted with his past and the future in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.”

Hawke, who also won the Gotham Awards honor for best actor, is also nominated for a Critics Choice and a Film Independent Spirit Award but was snubbed in the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

But Hawke, who has received four previously Oscar nominations including for supporting actor for 2014’s “Boyhood,” shouldn’t give up the faith about a fifth nomination. Over the years, the academy has embraced actors and actresses who played members of the clergy with six wins and upwards of two dozen nominations.

Predict the Oscar nominations now; change them until January 22

Both Spencer Tracy...

Nathaniel R welcomes the panel Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic) and Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) to discuss 1943 at the movies with recommended favorites and our favorite switch-the-actresses around game. We had previously reviewed the supporting actress nominees.

We talk about the three actresses in Ww II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar. 

You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? ...

by Nathaniel R

Thanks to all the wonderful readers who've commented on or shared or expressed enthusiasm for the Supporting Actress Smackdowns this summer. So far we've looked at 1970 and 1994. Our 'year of the month' for July will be 1943.

On Sunday July 29th "The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1943"

Gladys Cooper, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon | iTunes] Paulette Goddard, So Proudly We Hail [Amazon] Katina Paxinou, For Whom the Bell Tolls [Amazon | iTunes]  Anne Revere, The Song of Bernadette [Amazon |  iTunes]  Lucille Watson, Watch on the Rhine [Amazon | iTunes | Filmstruck]

Balloting opens July 1st and closes July 26th. Please do not vote before balloting is open as your ballot will likely be lost in the shuffle. How To Vote: E-mail with "1943" in the subject line and each performance that you've seen rated on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (stupendous) hearts. You don't have to include the reasons behind your votes but if you do we might quote you at the smackdown.

Patricia Morison, who starred as shrewish diva Lilli Vanessi in the original 1948 Broadway production of “Kiss Me, Kate” as well as Anna Leonowens in the 1954 run of “The King and I” opposite Yul Brynner, died of natural causes in her Los Angeles home Sunday. She was 103.

Morison was born on March 15, 1915 in New York City, the daughter of playwright and actor William Morison and Selena Fraser, a British Intelligence agent during World War I. After graduating from high school, Morison took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in the musical revue “Don’t Mind the Rain.” Her Broadway debut followed shortly, in 1933’s “Growing Pains,” though she never appeared on stage, instead acting as the stand-by for Helen Hayes in the lead role of Victoria Regina.

After catching the eye of talent scouts, Morison signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and...

Patricia Morison, the glamorous star who originated the role of the shrewish actress diva in the delightful 1948 Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate, has died. She was 103. 

Morison, who also appeared on stage opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I in such films as The Song of Bernadette (1943), died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to publicist Harlan Boll.

With a mane of exuberant, dark hair that reached her hips, Morison often was cast as a villainess or "the other woman" on the big screen. She notably played Sherlock Holmes' smiling adversary ...

Patricia Morison, the glamorous star who originated the role of the shrewish actress diva in the delightful 1948 Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate, has died. She was 103. 

Morison, who also appeared on stage opposite Yul Brynner in The King and I in such films as The Song of Bernadette (1943), died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to publicist Harlan Boll.

With a mane of exuberant, dark hair that reached her hips, Morison often was cast as a villainess or "the other woman" on the big screen. She notably played Sherlock Holmes' smiling adversary ...

There have been 342 Oscars given out to actors, but only one of them has won on their birthday. Jennifer Jones scored Best Actress for “The Song of Bernadette” on her 25th birthday at the 16th ceremony on March 2, 1944.

Jones received the award from reigning champ Greer Garson (“Mrs. Miniver”), which you can watch in the academy’s recap video above. It was the actress’ only win from five nominations, but none of the other ceremonies fell on her birthday.

See Oscar Best Actress gallery: See every winner in history

Several people have won close to their birthdays: Marie Dressler (1930’s “Min and Bill”), Peter Ustinov (1960’s “Spartacus”), Holly Hunter (1993’s “The Piano”) and Lupita Nyong’o (2013’s “12 Years a Slave”) all got a belated birthday gift from the academy the next day. Dianne Wiest (1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway”) received an early birthday present, winning her second Best Supporting Actress...

The 2018 Golden Globes will mark the 75th Golden Globe Award show ceremony. In its 75 years, the annual event, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has honored dozens of films, television programs and actors. About 150 movies have received top awards. In 1944, during World War II, the first Golden Globes ceremony was held at at the 20th Century Fox studios and honored the best in 1944 filmmaking. The Song of Bernadette, starring Jennifer Jones, won Best Picture. Only one top award, Best Picture, was given every year at the Golden Globes until 1951, after which the honor was split into two awards—Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and Best Motion Picture - Drama. In...

This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Greig Fraser for his contribution to Lion as last year’s greatest accomplishment in the field. Of course, his achievement was just a small sampling of the fantastic work from directors of photography, but it did give us a stronger hint at what may be the winner on Oscar night. Ahead of the ceremony, we have a new video compilation that honors all the past winners in the category at the Academy Awards

Created by Burger Fiction, it spans the stunning silent landmark Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans all the way up to the end of Emmanuel Lubezki‘s three-peat win for The Revenant. Aside from the advancements in color and aspect ration, it’s a thrill to see some of cinema’s most iconic shots side-by-side. However, the best way to experience the evolution of the craft is by...

‘La La Land’ (Courtesy: Lionsgate)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

It’s beginning to look like La La Land is going to sweep the entire awards season all the way through the Oscars — and to make history in the process. The L.A.-set musical that is chock full of Hollywood magic has been dominating every major awards show thus far and is poised to tie the record for garnering the most Oscar nominations — and potentially wins — for a film ever.

At this point La La Land has bested its closest competition — such as Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea — at the biggest award shows. For the Critics’ Choice Awards it led the pack with 12 nominations (ultimately winning eight of them) and for the BAFTAs it overshadowed the others with 11 nominations (with results coming on February 12). La La Land’s biggest achievement thus far, though, is probably becoming the most-awarded...

The Keys of the Kingdom

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 137 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn, Cedric Hardwicke, Peggy Ann Garner, Jane Ball, James Gleason, Anne Revere

Cinematography: Arthur Miller

Art Direction: James Basevi, William Darling

Film Editor: James B. Clark

Original Music: Alfred Newman

Written by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Nunnally Johnson from a novel by A.J. Cronin

Produced by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Directed by John M. Stahl

The Twilight Time label has access to much of the Fox library, and draws from the vault what’s been fully restored and what’s not already claimed elsewhere. Accompanying their UA- sourced disc of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa is a 1944 Fox release from the writer-director-producer, a big studio production directed in this case by John M. Stahl. The Keys of the Kingdom...

We're less than a week from Hollywood's High Holy Night. Are you excited yet?

For today's trivia party we'll look at the only people to win exactly six Oscars. Four men. It's always men (sigh). Only 11 people have won more Oscars than these four men. I did not include confusing cases like Visual FX guru Dennis Murren -- IMDb argues exactly 6 but that depends on how you count them since his prizes are many and a confusing jumble of technical achievements, special Oscars, and regular competitive statues. (Unfortunately I couldn't find photographs of the set decorators) 

Gordon HollingsheadGORDON Hollingshead (1892-1952)

This producer won more Oscars in the short film categories than anyone other than the legendary Walt Disney and Frederick Quimby (of Tom & Jerry fame) but he won them for live action films. His first Oscar, though, was in the inaguaral year (1933) of a category called "Best Assistant Director" which...

Child actor Dickie Moore: 'Our Gang' member. Former child actor Dickie Moore dead at 89: Film career ranged from 'Our Gang' shorts to features opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper 1930s child actor Dickie Moore, whose 100+ movie career ranged from Our Gang shorts to playing opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gary Cooper, died in Connecticut on Sept. 7, '15 – five days before his 90th birthday. So far, news reports haven't specified the cause of death. According to a 2013 Boston Phoenix article about Moore's wife, MGM musical star Jane Powell, he had been “suffering from arthritis and bouts of dementia.” Dickie Moore movies At the behest of a persistent family friend, combined with the fact that his father was out of a job, Dickie Moore (born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Los Angeles) made his film debut as an infant in Alan Crosland's 1927 costume drama The Beloved Rogue,...

Robert Walker: Actor in MGM films of the '40s. Robert Walker: Actor who conveyed boy-next-door charms, psychoses At least on screen, I've always found the underrated actor Robert Walker to be everything his fellow – and more famous – MGM contract player James Stewart only pretended to be: shy, amiable, naive. The one thing that made Walker look less like an idealized “Average Joe” than Stewart was that the former did not have a vacuous look. Walker's intelligence shone clearly through his bright (in black and white) grey eyes. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” programming, Turner Classic Movies is dedicating today, Aug. 9, '15, to Robert Walker, who was featured in 20 films between 1943 and his untimely death at age 32 in 1951. Time Warner (via Ted Turner) owns the pre-1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library (and almost got to buy the studio outright in 2009), so most of Walker's movies have...

Twilight Time is celebrating its 4th anniversary with a major promotion that sees some of their limited edition titles reduced in price through April 3. These are the titles on sale.

Group 1

Retail price point: $24.95

Picnic

Pal Joey

Bite The Bullet

Bell, Book, And Candle

Bye Bye Birdie

In Like Flint

Major Dundee

The Blue Max

Crimes And Misdemeanors

Used Cars

Thunderbirds Are Go / Thunderbird 6

Group 2

Retail price point: $19.95

Rapture

Roots Of Heaven

Swamp Water

Demetrius And The Gladiators

Desiree

The Wayward Bus

Cover Girl

High Time

The Sound And The Fury

The Rains Of Ranchipur

Bonjour Tristesse

Beloved Infidel

Lost Horizon

The Blue Lagoon

Experiment In Terror

Nicholas And Alexandra

Pony Soldier

The Song Of Bernadette

Philadelphia

The Only Game In Town

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Sleepless In Seattle

The Disappearance

Sexy Beast

Drums Along The Mohawk

Alamo Bay

The Other

Mindwarp

Jane Eyre

Oliver

The Way We Were...

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.

By winning the Best Cinematography Oscar for a second year in a row, "Birdman" director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki has joined a truly elite club whose ranks haven't been breached in nearly two decades. Only four other cinematographers have won the prize in two consecutive years. The last time it happened was in 1994 and 1995, when John Toll won for Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" respectively. Before that you have to go all the way back to the late '40s, when Winton Hoch won in 1948 (Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman) and 1949 (John Ford's western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). Both victories came in the color category, as the Academy awarded prizes separately for black-and-white and color photography from 1939 to 1956. Leon Shamroy also won back-to-back color cinematography Oscars, for Henry King's 1944 Woodrow Wilson biopic "Wilson" and John M. Stahl...

Oscar 2015 winners (photo: Chris Pratt during Oscar 2015 rehearsals) The complete list of Oscar 2015 winners and nominees can be found below. See also: Oscar 2015 presenters and performers. Now, a little Oscar 2015 trivia. If you know a bit about the history of the Academy Awards, you'll have noticed several little curiosities about this year's nominations. For instance, there are quite a few first-time nominees in the acting and directing categories. In fact, nine of the nominated actors and three of the nominated directors are Oscar newcomers. Here's the list in the acting categories: Eddie Redmayne. Michael Keaton. Steve Carell. Benedict Cumberbatch. Felicity Jones. Rosamund Pike. J.K. Simmons. Emma Stone. Patricia Arquette. The three directors are: Morten Tyldum. Richard Linklater. Wes Anderson. Oscar 2015 comebacks Oscar 2015 also marks the Academy Awards' "comeback" of several performers and directors last nominated years ago. Marion Cotillard and Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress Oscars for, respectively, Olivier Dahan...

Jean Arthur films on TCM include three Frank Capra classics Five Jean Arthur films will be shown this evening, Monday, January 5, 2015, on Turner Classic Movies, including three directed by Frank Capra, the man who helped to turn Arthur into a major Hollywood star. They are the following: Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; George Stevens' The More the Merrier; and Frank Borzage's History Is Made at Night. One the most effective performers of the studio era, Jean Arthur -- whose film career began inauspiciously in 1923 -- was Columbia Pictures' biggest female star from the mid-'30s to the mid-'40s, when Rita Hayworth came to prominence and, coincidentally, Arthur's Columbia contract expired. Today, she's best known for her trio of films directed by Frank Capra, Columbia's top director of the 1930s. Jean Arthur-Frank Capra...

Spirituality in cinema has been expressed in various ways where the feel-good aspect of faith-based films are put to great use for emotional manipulation. The triumph and tragedy of religious themes in the movies have never been championed as much as when the protagonist at the helm is a loving nun. Film nuns come in all varieties: nurturing, helpful, complex, obstinate, crusading and flawed.

Get into the Habit: The Top 10 Movie Nuns on the Big Screen will take a look at some of the movies most colorful and notable women of the cloth. You decide…will these God-serving maidens give you a sense of uplifting forethought?

Get into the Habit: The Top 10 Movie Nuns on the Big Screen selections are (in alphabetical order according to film title):

1.) Sister Agnes from Agnes of God (1985)

An unlikely religious murder mystery surrounds a novice nun in Sister Agnes (Meg Tilly) as questions...

‘Gone with the Wind’ actress Mary Anderson dead at 96; also featured in Alfred Hitchcock thriller ‘Lifeboat’ Mary Anderson, an actress featured in both Gone with the Wind and Alfred Hitchcock’s adventure thriller Lifeboat, died following a series of small strokes on Sunday, April 6, 2014, while under hospice care in Toluca Lake/Burbank, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Anderson, the widow of multiple Oscar-winning cinematographer Leon Shamroy, had turned 96 on April 3. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1918, Mary Anderson was reportedly discovered by director George Cukor, at the time looking for an actress to play Scarlett O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s film version of Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind. Instead of Scarlett, eventually played by Vivien Leigh, Anderson was cast in the small role of Maybelle Merriwether — most of which reportedly ended up on the cutting-room floor. Cukor was later fired from the project; his replacement, Victor Fleming,...

Did you know that only one other Oscar ceremony has ever been held on a March 2nd? That'd be March 2nd, 1944 which crowned Casablanca 1943's best picture. Let's hope Oscar chooses as well tonight.

May your favorites lose tonight ... if they're different than mine! Kisses.

Though Casablanca is one of those rare pictures that virtually everyone loves, it actually only won three of its eight Oscar nominations that night: Picture, Director (Michael Curtiz), and Screenplay. Only Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) won fewer Oscars among the Best Pictures of the 1940s with just two statues. So I don't wanna see any online snarking if 12 Years a Slave goes home with only a 2 or 3 statues including the big one. Spreading the wealth is not a new thing and i'd argue it's a healthier thing for the movies, too.

Jennifer Jones with Ingrid Bergman who she beat to Best Actress 1943Happy Birthday March 2nd Oscar Babies!

Oscar winners Olivia de Havilland and Luise Rainer among movie stars of the 1930s still alive With the passing of Deanna Durbin this past April, only a handful of movie stars of the 1930s remain on Planet Earth. Below is a (I believe) full list of surviving Hollywood "movie stars of the 1930s," in addition to a handful of secondary players, chiefly those who achieved stardom in the ensuing decade. Note: There’s only one male performer on the list — and curiously, four of the five child actresses listed below were born in April. (Please scroll down to check out the list of Oscar winners at the 75th Academy Awards, held on March 23, 2003, as seen in the picture above. Click on the photo to enlarge it. © A.M.P.A.S.) Two-time Oscar winner and London resident Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth, The Great Waltz), 103 last January...