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Disney is donating $15m to relief efforts stemming from the LA wildfires that are reported to have claimed 11 lives, destroyed more than 10,000 structures, and forced more than 130,000 evacuations across the metropolis.

The media giant said the funds would be used for emergency response and rebuilding work in light of the crisis that has seen two of the worst fires in the area’s history – Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire – as well as several others that continued to burn into the night on Friday.

Paramount has reportedly donated $1m to local organisations including Red Cross and Los Angeles Fire Department. The...

Heading into her first edition as Berlin International Film Festival director, Tricia Tuttle has secured a red carpet slot for Bong Joon Ho’s anticipated sci-fi dark comedy Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson.

According to sources this will not be the world premiere, whose location remained unclear at time of writing. However it will play as a premiere of some sort, with international the likely designation.

Bong’s follow-up to his 2020 best Oscar winner Parasite was produced through his Offscreen, alongside Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner and Kate Street Pictures’ Dooho Choi.

The story of an “expendable...

From Ground Zero, Palestine’s Oscar-shortlisted entry for best international film, is to get a sequel that will spotlight more stories from Gaza during the ongoing war.

The follow-up, titled From Ground Zero Plus, will comprise four documentaries of 20-30 minutes each and will again be produced by award-winning Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi alongside Laura Nikolov of France’s Coorigines Productions.

It will mark the second project of the Masharawi Fund, which was launched in December 2023 to provide a platform for filmmakers and artists from Gaza to share their stories on the world stage.

The first was From Ground Zero,...

A handful of haunting images connect the 22 short films in From Ground Zero, Palestine’s poignant Academy Award submission: the eerie hum of drones patrolling Gaza’s airspace; bodies trapped beneath piles of rubble dotting once bustling neighborhoods; and clusters of tents housing people forced into itinerancy. Startling in their familiarity, these scenes have become a shorthand for an ongoing nightmare. Anyone following Israel’s unrelenting and escalating bombardment of Gaza over the last 16 months — whether through the eyes of journalists like Bisan Owda (who won an Emmy for her reporting) or civilians asking for support to escape the besieged enclave — will recognize those images.

But they function differently in From Ground Zero, an anthology work produced by the Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi and distributed by Watermelon Pictures. They do not define life in Gaza. They are an entry point, a means through which these filmmakers process their painful present...

Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Mashawari wanted to give voice to the people in Gaza by documenting their day-to-day experiences, many of which go unheard by the outside world. To capture the diversity of perspectives from Gazans, he curated a collection of 22 short films to create From Ground Zero, Palestine’s official 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature.

Through the power of cinema, Mashawari hopes his film will allow international audiences to see beyond what’s been portrayed by the media. “The news was showing, day and night, all the bombings, and massacres, and what’s going on on the ground,” he tells Gold Derby (watch the video interview above). “Nobody can come close and touch the small details of the daily life of all these innocent people in Gaza. Cinema can do that.”

The collection of shorts is comprised of animation, documentary, and fiction — and each filmmaker lived through their own traumas throughout the process.

A profound testament to the importance of artistic statements in the face of the day-to-day horrors in Gaza, the omnibus film “From Ground Zero” represents an act of bearing witness. Over the course of 22 short films — collected and curated by the Palestinian director Rashid Mashwari, each running just a few minutes long — we witness the horrors, anguish, and, importantly, humanity of the Palestinians currently living in the midst of a genocide.

Continue reading ‘From Ground Zero’ Review: Anthology Film Bears Witness to Tragedy & Artistic Resilience In Gaza at The Playlist.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore has joined the production team of From Ground Zero as an executive producer.

From Ground Zero is a powerful collection of short films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in present-day Gaza. Through a unique blend of animation, documentary, and fiction, these stories capture the steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation.

Garnering international acclaim since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2024, Variety praised the project, stating: “The filmmaking ingenuity on display is undoubtedly impressive.” while FilmThreat said, “From Ground Zero is a profound cinematic event, proving that movies can be made even on the edge of destruction.” Slant Magazine said, “The film is a stirring testament to art as a tool of survival, to the power of community art-making to affirm life in the face of omnipresent death, and to...

Although Iran continues to hold the sceptres in the region as its largest movie industry, the cinema of other countries from the region finds an increasing numbers of way out, with Kazakhstan’s genre movies for example. At the same time, festivals all around the world continue to nurture movies from the region, whose approach is definitely of independent style, but not exactly arthouse, at least not all the time. “Songs of Adam” and “Seed of the Sacred Fig” definitely stood out this year due to their quality, just like “Sima’s Song” and “From Ground Zero” did for their significance

Without further ado, here are the best West-Central Asian (rest of Asia one could say) films of 2024, in random order. Some films may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Dastur

One of the reasons “Dastur” fared so well at the domestic...

The brief was simple: Palestinian director Rashid Mashwari invited Gazan filmmakers to submit three-to-six-minute shorts about their day-to-day experience of life under threat of annihilation. The results are as anguished, eclectic, and persevering as the people of Palestine themselves, and — under Mashwari’s supervision — they’ve been collected into a 22-part anthology that offers approximately one story for every 2,100 people who have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 (to go by the latest published figures). That “From Ground Zero” exists is both a tragedy and a miracle in unequal measure, a fact that proves impossible to forget over the course of a film whose every frame has been rescued from the rubble of an ongoing genocide.

As in most anthologies, some of these shorts are more effective than others, and even the best of the ones you’ll find here suffer from the brevity imposed upon them by the scale of their format.

As awards season heats up, From Ground Zero, Palestine’s Oscar entry that’s on the shortlist for Best International Feature, debuts this weekend at about 70 AMC locations in top 20 markets and select arthouses including the Quad in New York and Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles.

The documentary from Watermelon Pictures is a series of 22 video diaries by Palestinian filmmakers commissioned and assembled by Gaza native Rashid Masharawi that show what it’s like on the ground in Gaza trying to survive and keep families safe, fed and sheltered amid Israeli bombardments. Mostly shying away from politics, From Ground Zero is a view of life in hellish conditions that also finds hope in small moments of normalcy. Masharawi, who currently lives in France, set up a fund early in the Israel-Hamas war to support filmmaking in Gaza.

Watermelon and parent MPI Media took a risk opening soon after Oscar shortlists were unveiled,...

It’s the start of a new year, which means much of the month’s attention will go to expanding December releases, including Nickel Boys, The Brutalist, The Room Next Door, Vermiglio, and a few films mentioned below that only got awards-qualifying runs in December. For new releases, though, January isn’t all cinematic doldrums if one digs deep enough, and we’ve collected the titles to have on your radar.

10. Eat the Night

One of the most distinctly directed debut films of recent years was Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel’s strange sci-fi wonder Jessica Forever. Six years later, the duo finally return with Eat the Night, a thriller that premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and will now arrive in the U.S. to kick off 2025. Alistair Ryder said in his BFI London review, “Jane Schoenbrun didn’t invent movies exploring teenage malaise and identity through the lens of pop culture,...

Filmmakers from Gaza combined 22 short films, produced entirely under Idf siege, into the two-hour From Ground Zero, less a war documentary than a collage of survival. Curated by director Rashid Masharawi—who, after Cannes recanted its invitation for the film, screened the shorts in a tent outside the festival’s...

From Ground Zero is a film that, in an ideal world, would not exist, and cannot be written about as if it were a normal production. This anthology of 22 shorts is Palestine’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar and has deservedly made the 15-title shortlist. Like any anthology film, it suffers from certain pieces being better-realized than others, though it’s difficult to critique this in all good conscience; when making art in a war zone, there’s an inherent urgency that outweighs dramatic shortcomings. As the title reminds us, these are dispatches from a living hell unfathomable to any viewer, and the fact that several filmmakers have been able to keep creating under such circumstances is a miracle––one anybody with a heart would trade for both an end to the bloodshed and these directors being able to create art on their own terms.

This might be...

Palestinian Oscar entry “From Ground Zero” is adding to its credits, just in time for its upcoming U.S. release later this week. Watermelon Pictures today announced that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore has joined the production team of the anthology film as an executive producer.

The film was recently shortlisted for the 97th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category. Billed as “a powerful collection of short films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in present-day Gaza,” the film blends “animation, documentary, and fiction” with “stories [that] capture the steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation.” The film premiered at the 5th Amman International Film Festival in July and had its North American premiere at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival in September.

In an official statement, Moore noted, “These Palestinian filmmakers have accomplished a cinematic miracle. They...

Michael Moore has boarded Palestine’s Oscar entry From Ground Zero as an executive producer ahead of a theatrical release on Jan. 3 by Watermelon Pictures.

The project, shortlisted for the upcoming Academy Awards in the best international feature film category, is a collection of 22 films by Palestinian filmmakers completed while impacted by the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

“These Palestinian filmmakers have accomplished a cinematic miracle. They have made a brilliant film in the midst of what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have now declared a genocide,” Moore said in a statement on Monday.

The anthology of documentary, fiction and animated films was spearheaded by Gaza-born Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi and his Masharawi Fund for local films and filmmakers.

“The only weapons that Rashid and these 22 courageous Palestinian directors in Gaza have are their cameras and their creativity. No filmmaker, writer or artist should ever have to tell the story of their own extermination.

Michael Moore has joined the production team of “From Ground Zero” — the recently shortlisted Palestinian entry for the 97th Academy Awards’ best international film category — as executive producer.

A collection of shorts made by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in present day Gaza, “From Ground Zero” blends animation, documentary and fiction to “capture the steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation,” according to the producers. Watermelon Pictures will release the film — which was coordinated and funded by director Rashid Masharawi — across the U.S. on Jan. 3.

“These Palestinian filmmakers have accomplished a cinematic miracle. They have made a brilliant film in the midst of what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have now declared a genocide,” said Moore, who won the Oscar in 2003 for his groundbreaking documentary “Bowling for Columbine” and the Palme d’Or in 2004 for “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

“The...

Neither Israel nor Hamas is referenced by name in From Ground Zero, an anti-war collage film conceived, produced, and curated by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi. Its voices and images belong solely to the citizens of Gaza affected by those warring ethnonational entities’ choices. Throughout the 22 shorts that comprise the film, the roar of war planes and drones is near-constant, the percussion of semi-distant explosions and gunfire arrhythmic, yet those who document their daily reality in a humanitarian crisis zone—many of whom recall the 2014 Gaza War, the most devastating event in the strip prior to 2023—struggle only to preserve what familiar beats they can of their lives from before this latest onslaught.

The styles and technologies employed by the different directors are variable: Footage was shot on both handheld cameras and smartphones, and many of the shorts weave fluidly between documentary, drama, and even music video as non-actors reenact their...

(L-r): Noa (played by Owen Teague), Soona (played by Lydia Peckham), and Anaya (played by Travis Jeffery) in 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists in 10 categories for the 97th Academy Awards®: Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound and Visual Effects.

Documentary Feature Film

Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred sixty-nine films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“The Bibi Files”

“Black Box Diaries”

“Dahomey”

“Daughters”

“Eno”

“Frida”

“Hollywoodgate”

“No Other Land...

A filmmaker burns his clapperboard for warmth. A schoolteacher scavenges to feed his students. A stand-up comedian arrives at a gig to find the venue bombed. In “From Ground Zero,” Palestine’s entry for the Oscars’ international feature film category, 22 directors present cinematic diaries from Gaza, shot in between Idf bombing raids to weave a portrait of life under siege. Each short is unique in its conception, and yet, is bound by a common resilience, and a need to document the violent interruption of life and routine.

Stricken from the Cannes lineup back in May on political grounds, the anthology was screened just outside the festival as an act of protest: a fitting premiere for a defiant act of creativity in the face of genocide. Coordinated and funded by filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, “From Ground Zero” brings dozens of emerging artists to the fore, as they present digital memories and DIY...

The 2025 Oscars shortlist was revealed Tuesday, and the Live Action Short Films category aims to pull on Academy voters’ heartstrings and appeal to their humanity.

With each showcasing and tackling a form of injustice, societal inequality and perseverance, highlights that found a place for themselves across the 15 dedicated slots include notable shorts such as Adam J. Graves’ Anuja, which follows the story of a young Indian girl who has to decide between education or employment at a factory. The short film grabbed wins for Best Live Action Short at the HollyShorts Film Festival, the Grand Prize at the New York International Short Film Festival alongside attaining support from filmmakers Mindy Kaling and Guneet Monga Kapoor, who signed on as EPs. Dovecote, directed by Marco Perego, stars Zoe Saldaña as a woman who contemplates the real meaning of freedom on her last day in prison.

In the Colin Farrell endorsed and EP’d project Room Taken,...

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

Prior to the shortlists announcement, there had definitely been folks walking around in denial about “Emilia Pérez” being the dominant Best International Feature contender; less so because of negative feelings about the Netflix film, and more because the raft of submissions from all over the world have been so good this year.

Looking at the Oscars 2025 shortlists generally, Jacques Audiard’s musical got recognized just about everywhere it would have wanted to, even nabbing two spots on the Best Original Song shortlist. But looking at...

It’s almost that magical time of the year when the Academy announces the final list of nominees for the 97th Academy Awards! The Oscars represent what many consider the biggest night in Hollywood, as celebrities and filmmakers dress to the nines and walk a red carpet on their way to recognizing some of the best the industry offers. Before the Academy unveils the final list of nominees on January 17, shortlists for 10 Oscar categories have arrived!

The 10 shortlists include considerations for the following categories: documentary feature film, documentary short film, international feature film, makeup and hairstyling, music (original score), music (original song), animated short film, live-action short film, sound and visual effects.

Voting for the 97th Oscars begins at 9 a.m. Pt on January 8 and lasts until 5 p.m. Pt on January 12. The final list of nominees posts on January 17, with final voting at 9 a.m. Pt on February 11 and ending at 5 p.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today pulled back the curtain on the semi-finalists in 10 categories for the 2025 Oscars, revealing shortlists that found the Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez and the Broadway-born musical Wicked leading the way with six and four shortlist mentions, respectively. Both movies are considered Oscar frontrunners in several primary categories as well, including Best Picture.

The announced categories in which contenders were pared down to 15 contenders include Best International Feature, Best Documentary, Best Original Song, Best Documentary Short, Best Animated Short, and Best Live Action Short. Ten films, meanwhile, are moving forward in the Best Sound, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects categories. Twenty films are advancing for Best Score.

SEE2025 Casting Society nominees include ‘Wicked,’ ‘A Complete Unknown,’ ‘Emilia Pérez’

The six total for Emilia Perez includes a pair for Best Song (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”), Best International Feature, Best Score,...

There’s a big difference between critics groups telling awards groups what they should watch, and lists that represent actual Oscar voters. The shortlists, announced on Tuesday, are actually long lists in 10 Oscar categories, revealing the contenders for animated, documentary, and live-action shorts, crafts such as Hair & Makeup, Sound, and VFX —the branches will soon mount show-and-tells for the voters, or “bakeoffs” — Original Score and Song, and Best International Feature and Documentary Feature.

This is step one on the road to an Oscar: Now, the awards campaigners will kick into high gear to make sure their films make it to the final five nominees. There are plenty of other categories for non-crafty films like “Anora” to land on nominations morning, January 17, 2025.

Netflix is having a good day, landing 15 mentions across nine titles. They landed three out of 15 on the Best Documentary shortlist: Sundance breakouts “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Daughters,...

Refresh for latest…: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whittled down a field of 85 eligible films to a shortlist of 15 which will now advance to the next round of voting, looking to secure a nomination for the Best International Feature Oscar.

In the mix are such expected titles as Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez from France, Walter Salles’ Brazilian drama I’m Still Here and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which is Germany’s submission.

This marks a first for Rasoulof, who (never having represented Iran) has been living in Germany since his dramatic flight from his native country in May this year.

Also a first is the advancement of Flow — the animated fantasy adventure gives Latvia its inaugural appearance on the shortlist in this category.

Thailand also makes history today with How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. The country...

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in ‘Will & Harper’ (Photo Courtesy of Netflix © 2024)

15 documentary feature films and 15 international films made the cut and are shortlisted for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards set for Sunday, March 2, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Nominees for the 2025 Oscars will be announced on Friday, January 17th.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a total of 10 shortlists including Documentary Short Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound, and Visual Effects.

2025 Oscars Shortlists

Documentary Feature Film

Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred sixty-nine films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

“The Bibi Files”

“Black Box Diaries”

“Dahomey”

“Daughters”

“Eno”

“Frida”

“Hollywoodgate”

“No Other Land”

“Porcelain War”

“Queendom”

“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin...

The race for the International Film Oscar is not wide open in 2025, but there were many question marks before the now-annual Academy Shortlists. Celebrated contenders such as France’s “Emilia Perez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here,” made it to the next voting round as expected. Some surprise snubs included Mexico’s “Soju” and Palestine’s “From Ground Zero.”

Read More: “Flow” Review: An animated triumph of visual storytelling that’s deeply human

“Flow,” Latvia’s shortlist entry, is also a contender for an Animated Feature nomination.

Continue reading ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig,’ ‘Flow’ & ‘Emilia Perez’ Earn International Feature Oscars Shortlist Mentions at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has released the shortlist of films that will move forward in 10 categories in the awards race for the upcoming 2025 Oscars.

While hundreds of movies were eligible for awards this year, the Academy narrowed down the field in these 10 categories ahead of the voting period, which begins on January 8.

Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Gladiator II, and Emilia Perez are among the films eligible in multiple categories.

Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on January 17 ahead of the televised ceremony on March 2, which will be hosted by Conan O’Brien and aired lived on ABC.

The shortlist categories include Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Documentary Short Film, Best International Feature Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Animated Short Film, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.

Head inside to check out the shortlist…

Documentary...

And they’re off.

Awards season just got entirely official with the revealing of shortlists for the 97th Oscars in 10 categories today. See the lists from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences below.

Fifteen movies each are moving forward in the contests for International Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Original Song, Music Score and Documentary, Animated and Live Action Shorts. Ten films each also advanced in the categories of Sound, Visual Effects and Makeup & Hairstyling.

Celebrating the Oscar shortlists the most today undoubtedly is Emilia Pérez with a towering six mentions, missing only from the Visual Effects list of possible inclusion, though that would have been a longshot. This sets up a possible huge showing for Jacques Audiard’s film, which could also land two Best Song nominations, the only film to have a pair among the finalists.

Also having a good morning is Wicked with four mentions, the...

As the industry readies for the holiday break between Christmas and New Year’s, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is sharing its final big announcement for the year.

The Academy revealed on Tuesday the 10 shortlists for the 97th Oscars, with frontrunners named for categories including Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Short Subject, Best Original Song, Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound, and more. Voting took place last week for participating branches specific to their categories.

“Emilia Pérez,” representing France in the International Feature Film race, earned six spots across these lists, including two for Original Song, for “El Mal” and “Mi Camino.” The Jacques Audiard Netflix musical also received nods for Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, and Sound — as well as International Feature, which was all but a given. “Wicked,” one of its Best Picture competitors, has four in the crafts races,...

The Academy has unveiled the 10 shortlists for the 97th Academy Awards in March, with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Walter Salles’sI’m Still Here among the international feature film category heavyweights.

Besides the French, German and Brazilian contenders, the list includes Mati Diop’s Dahomey for Senegal, Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap for Ireland, Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio for Italy, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh for the UK, and Matthew Rankin’sUniversal Language for Canada.

Europe accounts for 10 or two-thirds of the shortlist, Africa and Middle East two, and Americas two,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the shortlists in 10 Oscar categories for the 97th Academy Awards.

The announcement included movies that are in consideration for the following categories: documentary feature film, documentary short film, international feature film, makeup and hairstyling, music (original score), music (original song), animated short film, live-action short film, sound and visual effects.

Emilia Pérez, The Apprentice, Dune: Part Two, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Nosferatu, Wicked, Challengers, The Wild Robot, Gladiator II and Blitz were among the films that were shortlisted in several categories.

Voting for the 97th Oscars begins at 9 am Pt on Jan. 8 and runs through 5 p.m. Pt on Jan. 12. The nominees will be unveiled Jan. 17. Final voting begins at 9 a.m. Pt on Feb. 11 and ends at 5 p.m. Pt on Feb. 18.

Conan O’Brien is set to host the 2025 Oscars ceremony, which will take place March 2. It will be televised...

France’s “Emilia Pérez,” Germany’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here” have been named to the shortlist in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category, retaining their frontrunner status in a race that had fewer high-profile contenders than usual this year.

Other films on the list are Canada’s “Universal Language,” the Czech Republic’s “Waves,” Denmark’s “The Girl With the Needle,” Iceland’s “Touch,” Ireland’s “Kneecap,” Italy’s “Vermiglio,” Latvia’s “Flow,” Norway’s “Armand,” Palestine’s “From Ground Zero,” Senegal’s “Dahomey,” Thailand’s “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” and the United Kingdom’s “Santosh.”

“Flow” is the only animated film on the list, while “Dahomey” is the only documentary. The Palestinian selection, “From Ground Zero,” is the most unusual of the shortlisted films, consisting of 22 separate short films made over the last year by directors living in Gaza.

If the Oscars shortlist is the equivalent of mid-term exams for awards contenders, then Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” and Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” just received passing grades.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 97th Oscars ceremony.

“Emilia Pérez” landed six mentions overall, including makeup, sound, original score, international feature, and two for original song (“El Mal” and “Mi Camino”). The musical was followed another behometh in the race, Universal Pictures’ “Wicked,” which landed four.

The preliminary voting applies to animated short film, documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, live action short, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, sound and visual effects.

Oscar voting to determine the nominees in all 23 categories opens on Wednesday, Jan. 8, and concludes on Sunday, Jan. 12. Nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17.

There are five 2024 Student Academy Award-winning films shortlisted: “Keeper” (documentary short), “Au Revoir...

We've been getting a clearer picture of what the Oscars race will look like given all the lead-up award show nominations (like the Golden Globes) that have come out so far. But now we have an even clearer picture with the release of shortlists for 10 categories from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic musical Better Man will open the 36th annual Palm Springs Film Festival on Thursday, January 2, while The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan in the heartwarming story of a teacher who rescues and adopts an adorable penguin, closes it out January 13. Both films had premieres at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year, and Better Man first had its world premiere at Telluride.

As always a hallmark of Psiff are screenings of numerous entries into the Oscar International Feature Film race, this year with 35 scheduled to screen in the desert.

The festival has programmed 158 films from 71 countries including 68 premieres. The lineup also includes sections like Talking Pictures, a focus on Spanish films with a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories,...

On Tuesday, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Psiff) announced its official 2025 lineup for the nearly two-week event that’s being held from Jan. 2 to Jan. 13.

The opening night movie will be Paramount Pictures’ “Better Man,” starring Robbie Williams and directed by Michael Gracey, which chronicles the pop star’s meteoric rise and dramatic fall. And the festival will close with Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Penguin Lessons,” starring Steve Coogan and directed by Peter Cattaneo, in the dramedy about a teacher whose life changes when he adopts a penguin. In all, Psiff will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Artistic director Lili Rodriguez said, “Our lineup this year is truly something special. In true Psiff fashion, it spans genres and crosses borders to bring an exciting mix of films to the Coachella Valley. Over the past year, our Palm Springs International Film Festival team has carefully crafted a program that celebrates the art of storytelling,...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival is set to kick off on Jan. 2 with “Better Man,” directed by Michael Gracey, while the closing film on Jan. 12 will be “The Penguin Lessons,” directed by Peter Cattaneo.

The lineup will feature 35 of the international feature film Oscar submissions. Over 11 days, the festival will screen 158 films from 71 countries, including 68 premieres.

Also set are a focus on Spanish films including a spotlight on Pedro Almodóvar, and the return of sections such as New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories and World Cinema Now.

“Better Man” is based on the true story of the rise, fall and return of British musician Robbie Williams. Cattaneo will be in attendance for “The Penguin Lessons,” a dramedy about a schoolteacher in militaristic Argentina who rescues a penguin.

Several of the honorees from the Palm Springs International Film Awards are set to participate in the Talking Pictures screenings,...

Of the vital dispatches from the frontlines of the Palestinian’s struggle for their livelihood, one that will soon reach the wider audience it deserves is From Ground Zero, Palestine’s Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards. Premiering at TIFF, the film is a collection of stories from 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through the war, led by Rashid Masharawi. MPI Media Group‘s Watermelon Pictures picked up North American rights for the film and will begin rolling it out in U.S. theaters on January 3, 2025. As the trailer and poster debut, we’re pleased to offer 10 posters to our readers. Enter the giveaway here!

Here’s the synopsis: “Palestine’s Official Submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, From Ground Zero, is a collection of revealing stories from 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war, who capture their lives in Gaza following the attacks on October 7, 2023. Through a blend of animation, documentary, and fiction, they...

From Ground Zero—a collection of 22 on-the-ground stories from Palestinian filmmakers living through horrific violence in Gaza—will surely be one of the most vital films of the year. The feature, which tells its stories through a variety of mediums, will serve as Palestine's official entry for Best International Film at the Academy Awards.

Bloodshed always begets more bloodshed, and if you’re remotely any kind of humanist, you lament the loss of any life. The October 7, 2023, attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas against the innocent civilians of Israel were heinous and deplorable, full stop. But the counter-offensive response has been a year-long campaign that has leveled much of Palestine into rubble and claimed the lives of 43,000 innocent people and counting—women and children, too. It’s become so brutal that the world’s top war crimes court issued arrest warrants last week for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity.

Continue reading ‘From Ground Zero’ Poster: Palestine’s Oscar Submission Tells ‘Stories From Gaza’ [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

The Academy has unveiled the list of feature films that are eligible for consideration in the animated feature, documentary feature Film, and international feature at the 2025 Oscars.

In animation, 31 films will vie for one of the five spots, including “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

In documentary feature, 169 films are eligible. Among them are “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Martha,” “I Am: Celine Dion,” and “Dahomey,” which is Senegal’s submission for international feature.

In international feature, there are 85 hopefuls, including frontrunner “Emilia Pérez” (France), “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany), “Kneecap” (Ireland), and “Flight 404” (Egypt).

The shortlists of 15 films for documentary and international features will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will be held on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.

Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi opens the Cairo Film Festival with the world premiere of his new film “Passing Dreams” — that most unlikely of genres: the Palestinian road movie.

The film tells the story of Sami (Adel Abu Ayyash), a 12-year-old living in a refugee camp in the West Bank. His father is in jail and his carrier pigeon has flown away so he heads off to Bethlehem to ask his uncle (Ashraf Barhom) to help him find the lost bird.

While not shying away from the realities of life in the Occupied Territories, the film remains optimistic. Masharawi agrees, talking with Variety on the eve of the festival: “Where there is no hope, cinema should invent it just to show it to the people and make them touch it and believe in it because this also is part of our resistance. After all the years of occupation, still now we have hope,...

The following article is an excerpt from the new edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

Given the state of things at home, I thought that I’d give this week’s newsletter a decidedly foreign bent and focus what little attention I have left on my favorite contenders for this year’s Best International Feature race. The United States might feel like a lost cause at the moment, but at least the movies can spirit us away to idyllic places like … um, modern-day Iran and 18th century Austria.

Okay, so maybe America isn’t special in its suffering, but until the shock of what just happened wears off...

MPI Media Group’s new Watermelon Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to From Ground Zero, which will represent Palestine in this year’s Oscar race for Best International Feature.

The label is planning a full theatrical release and run for the short list for the work from Rashid Masharawi — a collection of short films, both documentary and drama, made in Gaza since January 2024. It had a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Specifically, the project brings together 22 shorts from Gaza filmmakers in an initiative set against the backdrop of conflict, providing a platform for young artists. Ranging in length from 3 to 6 minutes, the short films presents a unique perspective on the current reality in the territory, which Israel began bombarding shortly after the brutal attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Gaza has been pretty much flattened since and, according to authorities there, over 40,000 Palestinians have died with nearly 2 million displaced.

by Cláudio Alves

At the Berlinale, No Other Land won the Best Documentary and Panorama Audience awards.

The 2024 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival was marked by multiple instances of political protest. PETA came for Pharrell Williams, and the documentary Russians at War had its screenings delayed until after the official festival in response to the public outcry against it. While some organizers, guests, and audience members may have grumbled about it, one should expect such demonstrations at an event that purports "to transform the way people see the world" and lead in the "creative and cultural discovery through the moving image." Like every art form, cinema is political – everything is political – and a festival's program can delineate allegiances and avenues of dialogue. In its search for plurality, it can also illuminate contradictions of its own.

In the realm of political cinema, No Other Land and From Ground Zero,...

The race is on to select films from around the world to compete for the Best International Feature Film award at the 2025 Academy Awards. With the October 2 submission deadline approaching, countries have started announcing their official entries for the prestigious Oscar category. The films under consideration reflect a wide array of styles, genres, and perspectives from the global film community.

The selection process for the international feature film award involves stages of review. After countries submit films, an initial group of 15 finalists will be announced on December 17. Judges will then select just five nominees from this shortlist on January 17, 2025. Last year’s contest similarly started with 88 submissions before narrowing to the final five nominees. The winner was “The Zone of Interest” from the United Kingdom.

Some early contenders are already generating buzz among film festivals and audiences. Croatia entered “Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day,” a period drama set in 1950s Yugoslavia about censorship and artistic freedom.

A group of almost 70 Palestinian filmmakers — including two-time Oscar nominee Hany Abu Assad, acclaimed director Elia Suleiman and recent BAFTA winner Farah Nabulsi — have signed a strongly-worded letter in which they accuse Hollywood of “dehumanising” Palestinians on screen over decades, a factor they assert has helped enable the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

The letter — also signed by the likes of multiple-award winners including Michel Khleifi, Mai Masri, Najwa Najjar and the 22-strong list of directors behind the compilation of shorts “From Ground Zero,” Palestine’s current submission to the Oscars — also expresses outrage and what it described as the “inhumanity and racism shown by some in the Western entertainment industry towards our people, even during this most difficult of times.”

The letter marks the first collaborative initiative by Palestinian filmmakers since the horrific events of Oct. 7, in which terror group Hamas — which rules Gaza — killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage,...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...