“God’s Own Country” won multiple prizes at the British Independent Film Awards, including Best British Independent Film, Best Actor for Josh O’Connor, and Best Debut Screenwriter for Francis Lee. Lee also directed the romantic drama, which stood tall at the ceremony in London; “Lady Macbeth” — which took home the Screenplay, Actress, Most Promising Newcomer, Cinematography, and Costume Design awards — and “I Am Not a Witch” (Director, Debut Director, Breakthrough Producer) had big nights as well.

Read More:‘Lady Macbeth’ Leads British Independent Film Nominations

This year’s ceremony, the 20th, took place in London. Full list of winners:

Best British Independent Film

“God’s Own Country”

Best Director

Rungano Nyoni “I Am Not a Witch”

Best Screenplay

Alice Birch “Lady Macbeth”

Best Actress

Florence Pugh “Lady Macbeth”

Best Actor

Josh O’Connor “God’s Own Country”

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Clarkson “The Party”

Best Supporting Actor

Simon Russell Beale

Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm’s long awaited “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” blasted off with a world premiere at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Saturday night and left the passionate fans on hand left immensely satisfied.

The experience began – and Disney wonderfully made sure it was an experience – with an incredible white carpet featuring a gigantic At-at Walker and rebel cannons blasting onlookers. The premiere itself began with introductions of producers Kathleen Kennedy, Ram Bergman and legendary composer John Williams taking the stage.

Continue reading ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Premiere Launches With A Dedication ‘For Carrie’ at The Playlist.

Armie Hammer made headlines once again this week when he compared Casey Affleck unfavorably to Nate Parker, in whose “The Birth of a Nation” Hammer co-starred. He later apologized for his remarks — which had to do with Affleck (who settled two sexual-harassment lawsuits) winning an Oscar the same year that Parker (who was accused of rape in college) appeared to lose all his career momentum — but someone else was paying attention: Spike Lee.

Lee was asked about the situation in a Daily Beast interview, responding in typically fashion that “there were some shenanigans there” and “it was a dirty, low-down shame.”

Read More:Spike Lee, On Fire: An Exclusive Conversation About Netflix, Domestic Terrorism, and the Brilliance of ‘Get Out’

“[Affleck] settled several times,” says Lee. “I don’t know the exact details of it. One day, someone’s going to write a book about that whole thing, because I’ve

With bitcoin values soaring and “blockchain” the soon-to-be-new film industry buzzword, Christopher Arcella is out with a well-timed short, The Satoshi Sculpture Garden.” With a cool, meditative calm, he follows a young woman as she surveys an outdoor sculpture garden consisting of pieces that play upon ideas tied to the cryptocurrency. Data visualization indeed! From Arcella’s director’s statement: In order to fully appreciate Bitcoin one needs to have a basic understanding of Bitcoin’s technology and the systems that the technology is disrupting. Otherwise, trying to understand Bitcoin is a bit like trying to derive meaning from abstract sculpture. The Satoshi […]

Grosses this weekend were seasonably typical, which means as lousy as most early December weekends. With “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” looming large, most companies are avoiding new wide releases. That makes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like “Moana” last year, a Disney animated title leads the pack for a third straight week: Pixar’s “Coco” continues to be a strong performer, well-positioned to play well through the lucrative holidays ahead. “Coco” should easily continue in two-thirds or more of its dates, even though it started lower than last year’s “Moana.”

Unlike last year, no new wide release boosted results, which will come in just under the same weekend in 2016 at around $80 million total. Last year saw “Office Christmas Party” open to $17 million. This year, the sole film to risk opening wide was the senior citizen comedy “Just Getting Started” (Broad Green). It managed a poor $3.2 million, good enough only for

Over the last six weekends, six new specialized releases have opened to a per-theater average of over $60,000. “I, Tonya” is the latest, and comes at a time when seats at prime theaters are at a premium.

Still, it isn’t necessarily a bad weekend to open. Last year, “La La Land” launched to $881,000 in five theaters, a nearly $170,000-per-theater result. But it had far less competition, ecstatic reviews, top stars, and signs of early appeal that propelled it to over $100 million and much more worldwide.

This year has more strong titles; even better, most show early success with wider audiences. “The Disaster Artist” expanded quickly in its second weekend to place #4 overall, while A24 had a second Top 10 hit again with “Lady Bird.” That film, coming off critics’ group wins, is thriving and easily the leader among fall releases so far. In fact, it already is the second-biggest specialized release

We’ve known for many years now who shot Mr. Burns, but way back when it was the biggest mystery to ever hit Springfield. 22 years after answering that question, “The Simpsons” writer Josh Weinstein has revealed cut lines from one of the show’s most famous episodes.

Read More:‘The Simpsons’ Team Considering How to Handle Apu Backlash, Hank Azaria Says

Grampa Simpson, Homer’s Brain, and Milhouse all appear in the excised scenes, which revolve around, you guessed it, figuring out who shot Mr. Burns. (Spoiler alert: It was Maggie!) “That’s right,” Grampa Simpsons says at the beginning. “We all gotta stick together if we’re going to have any hope of bringing that awful Homer to justice.” Homer finds himself in the woods hours later and complains, “When I agreed to this plan, I didn’t know there’d be so much running.”

Read More:‘The Problem

Misdirection: Keep that in mind when you check out the eighth “Star Wars” installment, “The Last Jedi,” next weekend.

That’s what writer-director Rian Johnson does throughout this dense, careening, seemingly unstructured movie’s 2-hour, 32-minute running time. The movie is worth a second viewing, as it demands that you pay attention. Every little detail pays off.

At the world premiere — the first-ever public screening — Saturday night at downtown L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall, security guards swept under every car, guests wore individual badges with seat assignments, carried their own smartphones in locked security bags to their seats, and kept their collectible “Last Jedi” popcorn buckets with them all night.

Read More:‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Star Gwendoline Christie Has a Charming Theory About Those New Porg Creatures

On crutches, veteran director and puppeteer Frank Oz headed into the auditorium to see the film for the first time.

If you’re done obsessing over the fact that a newly released “Ready Player One” poster makes it look like Tye Sheridan has a freakishly long leg, avail yourself of the new trailer for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming nostalgia fest.

Read More:‘Ready Player One’: Trey Parker Compares Steven Spielberg’s Video-Game Movie to the Member Berries

Spielberg’s adaptation of the Ernest Cline novel of the same name tells of a virtual-reality game that brings together an array of ’80s pop-culture touchstones: “Back to the Future,” Freddy Krueger, “Mad Max,” and so on and so forth. That’s fitting of the director, whose own output in that most reminisced-upon of decades has inspired everything from “Super 8” to “Stranger Things” in recent years.

Read More:‘Ready Player One’ Will Feature the Iron Giant, and People Are Freaking Out

Sheridan stars as Wade Watts, a wayward youth living in Columbus,

Sufjan Stevens contributed two highly acclaimed tunes to the “Call Me by Your Name” soundtrack, with both “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon” considered likely nominees for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. To hear the indie-rock icon tell it, he almost had another in the mix this fall: “Tonya Harding,” which, despite his efforts, bears no relation to “I, Tonya.”

Margot Robbie stars as the disgraced figure skater in Craig Gillespie’s biopic, which has earned strong reviews since premiering in Toronto and opens later this month. Stevens writes on his website that he’s “been trying to write a Tonya Harding song since I was 15” and that the final product is “not at all related to the new biopic” because he “sent it to the music supervisors but they couldn’t find a way to use it.”

Read More:‘Call Me by Your Name’ Soundtrack: Sufjan Stevens,

As Disney prepares to become a giant media behemoth with their acquisition of Fox, you might want to ask yourself if you really want one studio dominating the landscape. The mouse house has owned the box office for three straight weeks now, and will probably hold the crown for a few more to come.

“Coco” stayed on top at the multiplex, with the Pixar movie pulling in $18 million.

Continue reading Everyone Is Still Going To See ‘Coco’ [Box Office] at The Playlist.

With “The Post” out of the way, Steven Spielberg isn’t taking a break, as he gets ready to release “Ready Player One” in the spring. And the latest look at the movie offers more explanation of the virtual world and the story surrounding the Spielberg’s 80’s nostalgia piece. The official synopsis reads:

In 2045, the planet is on the brink of chaos and collapse, but people find salvation in the Oasis, an expansive virtual reality universe created by James Halliday.

Continue reading ‘Ready Player One’ Trailer: Steven Spielberg Boots Up Pop Culture Nostalgia at The Playlist.

Oh hai, “Saturday Night Live.” James Franco hosted the show for the fourth time last night, an occasion that, according to the director and star of “The Disaster Artist,” isn’t treated as a big deal. Lorne Michaels and the other higher-ups didn’t even write him a monologue, Franco said, and so he was simply there to take questions from the audience — which included Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and even Steve Martin.

Read More:‘Saturday Night Live’ Review: James Franco Plays Himself, and Plays It Safe, in 4th Hosting Appearance

The bit included much ribbing between the old friends, as Rogen and Hill claimed to not even know (or care) that Franco was on hosting duty — they were mostly just there to see Sza, the evening’s musical guest. “I’m just here to see the show in general,” Rogen said. “I didn’t realize you were hosting it.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” had its long-awaited premiere last night in Los Angeles, and early word is highly positive for Rian Johnson’s contribution to the space-opera franchise. Formal reviews won’t be published for another few days, but praise like “so beautifully human, populist, funny, and surprising,” “spectacular and unpredictable,” and especially “Space Dern” indicate that they’ll be similarly enthusiastic.

Here’s what people are saying:

Read More:Mark Hamill Seems to Think There Are Too Many ‘Star Wars’ Movies: ‘Great Marketing There, Disney’

Luke was right: “This is not going to go the way you think.” #TheLastJedi will shatter you – and then make you whole again. pic.twitter.com/PJyYpH5loP

— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) December 10, 2017

#StarWars: The Last Jedi is so beautifully human, populist, funny, and surprising. I cried when one Poc heroine got her moment because films like these leave their mark on entire generations

No spoilers don’t worry. We’d behead anyone that tried to spoil “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (and really, what kind of heel would you have to be to do that?). Lucasfilm’s latest installment in the ongoing “Star Wars” saga premiered last night—as if you couldn’t tell from the non-stop social media red carpet photos and video—and it appears that the Force is with its director Rian Johnson’s film.

Continue reading ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ First Reactions: The Force Is With Rian Johnson at The Playlist.

There was another big event last night besides the world premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” While everyone was freaking out about porgs (or whatever), the European Film Awards were handed out in Berlin. And one film ruled them all.

Ruben Ostlund‘s comedic takedown of modern art and the ignorance of the bourgeois, “The Square,” swept the ceremony winning Best European Film, Best European Comedy, Best Actor for Claes Bang, and Best Director.

Continue reading ‘The Square’ Sweeps European Film Awards at The Playlist.

There’s still one more week to go before “Saturday Night Live” breaks for the holidays, but the show is still ramping up the yuletide cheer. In addition, like other “SNL” episodes with an experienced host at the helm, the tone this week felt more driven by their skill set than that of first-timers. And when it comes to this week’s host… well, it’s a very specific sort of tone.

Host: James Franco

Let’s be honest: James Franco is always at his best when he’s committing to a clear sort of character. It’s something we’re seeing right now with his performance as Tommy Wiseau in “The Disaster Artist,” and something we’ve seen before as he embodied known figures like James Dean or the dual roles of “The Deuce.”

In his fourth hosting appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” the role that Franco seems most comfortable playing is James Franco,

The documentary film and television community came together to honor their own at the festive 33rd Annual Ida Documentary Awards celebration Saturday night at the Paramount Studio Theatre. The evening’s top prizes went to Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s Sundance-jury-winning love story “Dina” for Best Feature, and Laura Checkoway’s Oscar-shortlisted “Edith+Eddie” for Best Short.

Other winners included Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin’s Oscar-shortlisted “La 92” for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Independent Lens for Best Curated Series, HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” for Best Limited Series, BBC’s “Planet Earth II” for Best Episodic Series, The New York Times Op-Docs for Best Short Form Series (which boasts three Oscar-shortlisted shorts), and Joel Fendelman’s “Man on Fire” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Charles Burnett presented the Emerging Filmmaker Award to Yance Ford, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling,

1. mother!Darren Aronofsky’s divisive nightmare boasted a number of very striking posters this year, including one that blatantly yet beautifully pastiched the iconic Gips/Frankfurt design for Rosemary’s Baby and another in which Jennifer Lawrence’s face is minutely cracked like a porcelain doll. But it is this first teaser poster for the film, by the extraordinary artist James Jean, that stands out for me not only as a surreally appropriate representation of Aronofsky’s uncompromising vision, but as the best movie poster of the year. Grotesque and gorgeous, and dotted with hidden clues, Jean’s looks more like a piece of devotional iconography than a poster for a horror movie. (There is also an accompanying poster by Jean which features Javier Bardem’s character.) Known for his covers for the DC comic book series Fables, Jean has been in high demand this year, creating the charcoal illustration

Later, Sully. Now that “Call Me by Your Name” has emerged as an awards-season favorite and bonafide art-house hit, two things are certain: hot takes and memes. “We Are Bears” writer Mikey Heller has gifted us with the latter, recutting the “Call Me by Your Name” trailer using clips from “Monsters University.” Why, you ask? No, reader — why not?

Read More:The Best Sex Scenes of the 21st Century Ranked, From ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ to ‘Call Me by Your Name’

Like most of these exercises, this one cleverly capitalizes on the two films’ superficial plot similarities — Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed drama deals with academia, as does Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.” sequel; too, both involve unexpected friendships. Only the former delves into romance, of course, which is where this gets truly inventive.

Read More:2017 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: ‘Call Me by Your Name’ Wins Both Best Picture and Best