"The 96th Oscars will begin one hour early, with the official show starting at 7 p.m. Eastern for the first time, ABC said Thursday. The official pre-show will also begin earlier, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The show has traditionally begun at 8 p.m." - AP
"Montana’s first-in-the-nation law banning the video-sharing app TikTok in the state was blocked Thursday, one month before it was set to take effect, by a federal judge who called the measure unconstitutional." - AP
“It’s one thing to use to make a King Kong or a flying serpent (though this displaces many VFX/CGI artists), it is another thing to have an AI object play a human character instead of a real actor.” - Wired
It set the stage for the rise of empowering culturally rich narratives in the decade that followed. Subsequent hits included the strongly female-centric Moana (2016), Encanto (2021), and Turning Red (2022), marking a new era in animated storytelling celebrating different kinds of voices and perspectives. - The Conversation
All these movies are awards contenders, and each of them, in a different way, is enthralling. What they add up to is the glorious resurgence of a form that never went away but is reaching a new peak of influence. Yet you might well ask: Why the biopic, and why now? - Variety
The federal government had estimated earlier this year that Google's compensation should amount to about $172 million. Google estimated the value at $100 million. - CBC
Jeremy Hobson, the creator of the weekly evening show called The Middle, "found much of modern public radio’s heavily produced, pre-recorded nature grating, as it appeared the hosts were too scripted, sounded unnatural, and pandered to a single worldview." - The Daily Beast
The network is nearly entirely funded by listener donations after its budget was slashed by state lawmakers and the Iowa Board of Regents discontinued funding the station in 2020. - Inside Radio
"Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep, a pledge-drive special released in October, features station staffers reading snooze-worthy documents related to public broadcasting and the details of running a radio station. Featured texts on the show’s 10 episodes ... included NPR’s style guide and the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act." - Current
"The deal will give SPE’s film and television production groups, which include Columbia Pictures, TriStar, Screen Gems and 3000 Pictures as well as TV operations …, development rights to The Guardian’s current and developing news stories, as well as the paper’s archive, reaching back 200 years." - The Hollywood Reporter
Well, yes … more or less. They are home-baked by Muppet wrangler Lara MacLean and contain entirely edible ingredients. Mind you, that doesn't mean they taste good (to humans). Flavor is not their most important quality. - The New York Times
While the current legacy-I.P. production boom is focused on fictional characters, there’s no reason to think it won’t, in the future, take the form of beloved real-life entertainers being endlessly re-presented to us with help from new tools. - The New York Times
"No longer does the phrase 'British independent film' instantly bring to mind a particular sort of gritty, miserable social-realist drama." Instead, think psychosexual dramas, delightful rom-coms, and much, much more. - The Observer (UK)
