Basically, indies. (And, don't tell the Oscars of 2025, but a lot of women directors crushed it at Sundance too.) In the Summers, the movie that won the top dramatic prize, "snuck up on us," wrote the jury. - The New York Times
Over the last three decades, a number of French movies have earned Oscar recognition, but none have been the official French Oscar submission. - Variety
"The Kyoto District Court found defendant Shinji Aoba mentally capable to face punishment for his crimes and announced the sentence … on Thursday. Aoba stormed into Kyoto Animation’s No. 1 studio on July 18, 2019, and set it on fire. … More than 30 other people were badly burned or injured." - AP
"By the end of March, iHeartMedia plans to debut between five and ten podcasts, originally created in English, translated into new languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian using artificial intelligence." - Inside Radio
Before joining Web Summit, she spent seven years as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, where she drove growth in global readership and impact while doubling fundraising income and raising an endowment to ensure Wikipedia's enduring sustainability. - NPR
Moving “Barbie” from the best original screenplay category — where it was the probable winner over films like “The Holdovers” and “Past Lives” — to adapted changed its Oscar chances. - The New York Times
"The homecoming … comes after (a) yearlong search for a replacement for Trevor Noah – and just in time for the 2024 presidential election to heat up. … (Stewart) will also serve as an executive producer for the show, which will have a rotating lineup of comedians during the rest of the week." - The Guardian
The firing of Antoinette Lattouf and subsequent backlash face the ABC with difficult issues: how do news outlets and their employees cover hot-button topics? And has the network been so weakened by underfunding and right-wing political attacks that it won't stand up for its journalists? - The New York Times
Before the nominations, there were whispers that snobbery would derail the film’s Oscar hopes, but the results show some puzzlement on the part of Academy voters. “Barbie” was far from ignored, but overlooking the two women who were its driving creative forces is a curious way to match nominations to achievement. - The New Yorker
The power of cinema in communicating the climate crisis is undeniable. This is becoming increasingly apparent in my own research on the history of the environmental movement in the UK. - The Conversation
"Though Barbie had no trouble making it into the best picture category, which all members of the academy (may) vote on, the Gerwig snub was delivered by the directors branch, made up of just 587 voters … (and) by far the most likely to reject mainstream studio fare." - The New York Times
Expend4bles leads the nominees for the Golden Raspberry Awards with seven nods, followed by Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey with five, including Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple. - The Hollywood Reporter
The decision marks a further legal blow to the new government’s efforts to regain control of public media from the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. - Notes From Poland
Most social media algorithms are programmed to optimise the spread of inflammatory content, “fuelling the maelstrom of online political debate and, despite what the dominant companies like Meta say, it’s not to champion freedom of speech, it’s all to encourage people to post more, create more content to keep making money out of people’s data”. - The Guardian
The new bill, called the No AI FRAUD Act and introduced by Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), would establish legal definitions for “likeness and voice rights,” effectively banning the use of AI deepfakes to nonconsensually mimic another person, living or dead. - Vice
