Adding an Oscar for best adapted performance would acknowledge that "impersonating a famous person employs a completely different skill set than fleshing out a new character, and it frequently involves a generous assist from the makeup-and-hairstyling department." - NPR
The big ceremony is two weeks away, and questions linger: "Will Jessica Chastain or Penélope Cruz rise to the top of the best actress pool? Can Troy Kotsur continue building Oscar momentum by notching a win in the best supporting actor category?" - The New York Times
The shareholders approved the merger, so perhaps DiscoverWarner will actually get off the ground. That means AT&T gets out of the entertainment biz, and HBO, Animal Planet, CNN, and HGTV (among others) will be under the same general control. - Los Angeles Times
"The stakes of the movie, the goal of the movie, is not to save the world. It’s not to save the princess. It’s to get to their first boy band concert and collectively become women together as they watch it." - Slate
Cutting the cord and streaming the Oscars is the obvious move for the Academy to get the show out of its current audience-dwindling funk. The move would instantly trim the show of about 45 minutes’ worth of commercial breaks, enough time to give Tom Fleischman and every member of his extended family their own lifetime achievement awards. - The...
Overnight, the network’s entire orientation had changed. Every segment was about race, and when it wasn’t about race, it was about gender. The stories were no longer reports but morality plays, with predictable bad guys and good guys. Scepticism was banished. Divergent opinions were banished. - Unherd
Announcing the hiring of two senior executives with screen industry experience for his Really Useful Group, the musical theatre mogul said, "While I am thrilled to see live theatre back on its feet, we also have major ambitions in the worlds of TV, film, the metaverse and beyond." - WhatsOnStage (UK)
Time was, folks on a budget could see a film at cinemas where titles that were no longer brand-new were shown at discounted ticket prices before being released for home video. As Hollywood makes that window before video release ever smaller, those theaters are becoming unfeasible. - The Hollywood Reporter
"The simple premise is that if you make a generational commitment — and about 25 to 30 years is a generational commitment — to flooding the market with exceedingly talented people from diverse backgrounds — in this case women — then you will make a change." - Variety
Sanders, who created the weekly show It's Been a Minute, is the fourth host of color in the past year to leave NPR for commercial media. He's joining Vox Media, owner of New York magazine, where he'll host a new weekly podcast for the magazine's culture vertical, Vulture. - Bloomberg
"A new advocacy organization composed of film-makers, distributors and film lovers, Missing Movies has a mission to 'locate lost materials, clear rights, and advocate for policies and laws to make the full range of our cinema history available to all'." - The Guardian
Earlier this week, the streaming service had announced that it would pause all future projects and acquisitions from Russia, joining a growing list of companies that have cut ties with the country. - Variety
Sure, AMC raised prices over The Batman's opening weekend, but Regal and Cinemark had already started raising prices with another blockbuster - Spider-Man: No Way Home. (But good news for indie fans: Those movies aren't on the price increase list.) - Variety
But TIFF also "voiced its solidarity with 'the people of Ukraine and those within Russia who stand against these attacks,' noting films from independent Russian filmmakers are still welcome." - CBC
The director, whose The Power of the Dog has 12 nominations, says that's because "the designer is one of the very first people I bring onto a team. All the work that do as designers is so vital, and it is really deeply valued." Just not live. - Variety
