Support independent journalism, free from the trades and other publications that are part of the tinsel town machine.
For 12 years, Showbiz411.com has been covering Hollywood, Broadway, the music business and the business of celebrity. Ads are our main source of funding, but contributions (not tax exempt) from readers who enjoy the scoops, exclusives, and fact based reports are always welcome and very appreciated. To inquire about ads, email us at showbiz411@gmail.com.
The London Film Critics didn’t like “Wicked.” They didn’t nominate it for Best Picture and ignored actresses Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
“Wicked” has made $55 million in the UK.
They also didn’t care for the Bob Dylan movie, “A Complete Unknown,” although they did throw a bone to Timothee Chalamet.
There wasn’t much love for “Gladiator II” except for Denzel Washington.
Not in the mix at all: Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in “Maria.” That’s a surprise!
The London critics gave boosts to “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” as well as “Conclave.”
Most of their other nominations mimicked US critics and awards groups this season. I am glad they included Saoirse Ronan for Best Actress in “The Outrun,” but they otherwise didn’t do anything for her movie.
A harbinger of things to come? These noms get thrown into the mix.
London Critics’ Circle Film nominations 2025
Film Of The Year
All We Imagine As Light
Anora
The Brutalist
La Chimera
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Kneecap
Nickel Boys
Nosferatu
The Substance
Foreign-language film of the year
All We Imagine As Light
La Chimera
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Kneecap
Documentary film of the year
Dahomey
Grand Theft Hamlet
Made in England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger
No Other Land
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Animated feature of the year
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir Of A Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
British/Irish film of the year
Bird
Conclave
Hard Truths
Kneecap
Love Lies Bleeding
Director of the year
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
Screenwriter of the year
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Peter Straughan – Conclave
Actress of the year
Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
Nicole Kidman – Babygirl
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance
Saoirse Ronan – The Outrun
Actor of the year
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig – Queer
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Supporting actress of the year
Michele Austin – Hard Truths
Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez
Supporting actor of the year
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II
Breakthrough performer of the year
Marisa Abela – Back To Black
Nykiya Adams – Bird
Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison – Anora
Maisy Stella – My Old Ass
Breakthrough British/Irish filmmaker
Luna Carmoon – Hoard
Naqqash Khalid – In Camera
Amy Liptrot – The Outrun
Dev Patel – Monkey Man
Rich Peppiatt – Kneecap
British/Irish performer of the year
Cynthia Erivo – Drift/Wicked: Part I
Marianne Jean-Baptiste – The Book Of Clarence/Hard Truths
Nicholas Hoult – Juror #2/Nosferatu/The Order
Josh O’Connor – La Chimera/Challengers/Lee
Saoirse Ronan – Blitz/The Outrun
Young British/Irish performer of the year
Nykiya Adams – Bird
Elliott Heffernan – Blitz
Raffey Cassidy – The Brutalist/Kensuke’s Kingdom
Dan Hough – Speak No Evil
Alisha Weir – Abigail/Buffalo Kids/Wicked Little Letters
British/Irish short film of the year
Iranian Yellow Pages – directed by Anna Snowball
Karavidhe – directed by Eoin Doran
Push – directed by Elly Condron
Wander To Wonder – directed by Nina Gantz
We Beg To Differ – directed by Ruairi Bradley
Technical achievement of the year
Anora – stunts, Manny Siverio, Christopher Colombo & Roberto Lopez
Donald Trump has published his biggest lie yet, and that’s saying something.
On Truth Social this morning he posted: “Everybody wants to be my friend!”
It’s a total fiction.
Trump is on the verge of cruel mass deportations that will separate families. He’s letting unelected Elton Musk make policy decisions that will terminate massive numbers of government jobs. Out health system is under siege. The government could be shutting down any moment. Trump is the ultimate Marvel villain, installed by the very people who voted him in.
No, nobody wants to be your friend except for billionaires and Arabs.
On the upside, Judge Juan Merchan is not letting go of the Trump hush money case. He’s denied Trump’s motion to throw out the conviction. Trump will enter the White House as the first president already convicted of felonies– 34 to be exact.
Also, the gag order remains in place.
Trump wants to bring America back to the 1980s. So apparently he’s gotten a mullet haircut. You know how that worked out! He waited until “SNL” was on vacation.
James Gunn’s take on “Superman” is coming next year on July 11th.
David Corenswet is Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan is Lois Lane in a movie that will either revive the DC Comics Universe or … something.
How many iterations of this story can we take? A lot, I guess. The best is still Christopher Reeve’s first two movies with Richard Donner, and George Reeves’ TV show.
In the new version it looks like Superman and Lois don’t waste any time getting to know each other. Is the Daily Planet considered ‘mainstream media’ now? Or will it be competing with Tik Tok?
It’s a Christmas tradition: the great Darlene Love singing her Phil Spector produced classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on late night TV. She did it with Paul Shaffer on Letterman for about 25 years. It never gets old!
Tonight, Darlene returned to Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show with Shaffer and Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. And wow! Shaffer conducting a dozen musicians, Little Steven wailing away on guitar and Darlene’s famed throaty vocal was like an early Chanukah er Christmas gift!
“Blue Bloods” ended on Friday night with a whimper, not a bang, after 14 seasons.
The total viewers for the end of the police family drama was 5.86 million. The good news was that was up by 500,000 from the previous week.
Still, “Blue Bloods” was far off its old ratings, having lost customers over the years. Tom Selleck is upset that the show ended, and the way the final episode was written it could come back. But it shouldn’t. It’s time to let this thing go. “Blue Bloods” will run in syndication for eons.
“Yellowstone” concluded on Sunday with a series or season finale. No one knows what’s going on.
Sunday’s episode was up slightly from the previous week with 7.3 million viewers.
But Season 5, which began in 2022, and ended Sunday two years later, was down 4.76% from Season 4. In the key age demo, the show was down 14.64%.
The reality is that over time, with no new shows and constant reports of Kevin Costner fighting with the show’s producers, fans lost interest, gave up and went away.
Can “Yellowstone” come back in a new form and attract its old audience? Probably not. The phenomenon is over. But Taylor Sheridan will try again, no doubt, with a new locale and a few of the characters from the original series.
What a shame. “Yellowstone” could have been like the show it mimicked, “Dallas,” which ran for years as characters came and went.
Stephen Bishop had a lot of hits in the 70s and 80s, and has composed some famous movie music as well. Art Garfunkel recorded many of his songs, and Phoebe Snow named an album after his “Never Letting Go.”
Bishop’s biggest hit was “On and On,” a record that goes on and on for radio. You can hear it all the time on soft rock stations and on Sirius.
Apparently, “American Idol” didn’t get that message. Bishop’s very astute wife and manager, Liz Kamlet, revealed in a recent post how much she was offered by the competition show to use “On and On” for their singers this season.
The number is shocking. Just $500! And that’s for all rights. A more usual offer would start at $10,000. Kamlet’s humorously asks an off camera Bishop is his answer. It’s a definite “No!
“On and On” spent 2 weeks in the Hot 100 back in 1977 and was a gold single (500,000) copies sold. This was before SoundScan. Since 1993, “On and On” has been a best seller among downloads. More recently, it streams like crazy since being included as a touchstone of “Yacht Rock.”
Is this what “Idol” pays for all of its songs? Or do they just lowball for older songs? The whole disrespect for musicians and composers just goes on and on!
Disney has had a pretty good year so far with Marvel’s “Deadpool and Wolverine,” Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” and “Moana 2.”
But trouble is brewing.
Tomorrow night, Barry Jenkins’ “Mufasa,” an off shoot of “The Lion King,” heads to theaters with a lot of question marks.
Right now, “Mufasa” is largely panned on Rotten Tomatoes at 59. More reviews are coming but they are likely to pull down the average.
Yesterday, the score for “Mufasa,” which has a long, tangled history, failed to make the Oscars short list. This doesn’t bode well for a musical! Only one song, “Tell Me It’s You,” made the short list for songs. Written by Lin Manuel Miranda, but not sung by Beyonce — who’s in the movie. It’s a nice song by Miranda, but the recording is unremarkable.
“Mufasa” has other issues. It’s not done with regular animation and it’s not live action. It’s “photorealistically animated,” which is off putting from the looks of the trailer. Whether or not the audience — particularly children — will take to it remains to be seen.
The budget for “Mufasa,” which regurgitates the classic animated film to some degree, is a staggering $200 to $250 million. No matter how well it does this weekend and over the holidays, that number may be too much for it to succeed.
So everyone waits until the public sees “Mufasa” on Thursday night and there’s some measure of audience interest. “Wicked” and “Moana 2” have been seen by millions, so “Mufasa” could fill the hole left by them for families.
Earlier today the Motion Picture Academy released the Oscar shortlists in 10 categories.
Among them are Best Foreign Language Film, Best Song and Best Score, and Best Documentary. I’m sorry to say in the latter category, the film about Christopher Reeve called “Super/Man,” was snubbed. It deserved to at least be on the short list.
Diane Warren’s song, “The Journey,” sung by HER Music, is my pick for Best Song. It didn’t get Golden Globe or Critics Choice noms, but I think it can win the Oscar. I’ll put it below the noms here. That song is a HIT.
Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here” is one of my favorite films this year. Fernanda Torres should be nominated for Best Actress. I’m glad to see it on the shortlist for foreign films.
97TH OSCARS® SHORTLISTS IN 10 AWARD CATEGORIES ANNOUNCED
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”
“Porcelain War”
“Queendom”
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
“Sugarcane”
“Union”
“Will & Harper”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred four films qualified 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:
“Chasing Roo”
“Death by Numbers”
“Eternal Father”
“I Am Ready, Warden”
“Incident”
“Instruments of a Beating Heart”
“Keeper”
“Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World”
“Once upon a Time in Ukraine”
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra”
“Planetwalker”
“The Quilters”
“Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr”
“A Swim Lesson”
“Until He’s Back”
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Fifteen films will advance to the next round of voting in the International Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. Films from 85 countries and regions were eligible in the category.
Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.
In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:
Brazil, “I’m Still Here”
Canada, “Universal Language”
Czech Republic, “Waves”
Denmark, “The Girl with the Needle”
France, “Emilia Pérez”
Germany, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
Iceland, “Touch”
Ireland, “Kneecap”
Italy, “Vermiglio”
Latvia, “Flow”
Norway, “Armand”
Palestine, “From Ground Zero”
Senegal, “Dahomey”
Thailand, “How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies”
United Kingdom, “Santosh”
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Ten films will advance in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 97th Academy Awards. All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar® consideration.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“The Apprentice”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
“A Different Man”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Maria”
“Nosferatu”
“The Substance”
“Waltzing with Brando”
“Wicked”
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Twenty scores will advance in the Original Score category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred forty-five scores were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
The scores, listed in alphabetical order by film title, are:
“Alien: Romulus”
“Babygirl”
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
“Blink Twice”
“Blitz”
“The Brutalist”
“Challengers”
“Conclave”
“Emilia Pérez”
“The Fire Inside”
“Gladiator II”
“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1”
“Inside Out 2”
“Nosferatu”
“The Room Next Door”
“Sing Sing”
“The Six Triple Eight”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
“Young Woman and the Sea”
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Fifteen songs will advance in the Original Song category for the 97th Academy Awards. Eighty-nine songs were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:
“Forbidden Road” from “Better Man”
“Winter Coat” from “Blitz”
“Compress/Repress” from “Challengers”
“Never Too Late” from “Elton John: Never Too Late”
“El Mal” from “Emilia Pérez”
“Mi Camino” from “Emilia Pérez”
“Sick In The Head” from “Kneecap”
“Beyond” from “Moana 2”
“Tell Me It’s You” from “Mufasa: The Lion King”
“Piece By Piece” from “Piece by Piece”
“Like A Bird” from “Sing Sing”
“The Journey” from “The Six Triple Eight”
“Out Of Oklahoma” from “Twisters”
“Kiss The Sky” from “The Wild Robot”
“Harper And Will Go West” from “Will & Harper”
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Animated Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. Eighty-eight films qualified in the category. Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.
In the nominations round, Academy members from the Animation Branch and Short Films Branch are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“Au Revoir Mon Monde”
“A Bear Named Wojtek”
“Beautiful Men”
“Bottle George”
“A Crab in the Pool”
“In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Magic Candies”
“Maybe Elephants”
“Me”
“Origami”
“Percebes”
“The 21”
“Wander to Wonder”
“The Wild-Tempered Clavier”
“Yuck!”
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Live Action Short Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. One hundred eighty films qualified in the category. Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.
In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“Anuja”
“Clodagh”
“The Compatriot”
“Crust”
“Dovecote”
“Edge of Space”
“The Ice Cream Man”
“I’m Not a Robot”
“The Last Ranger”
“A Lien”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”
“The Masterpiece”
“An Orange from Jaffa”
“Paris 70”
“Room Taken”
SOUND
Ten films will advance in the Sound category for the 97th Academy Awards. All eligible members of the Sound Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. Academy members will be invited to view excerpts from each of the shortlisted films beginning Thursday, January 9, 2025, in the San Francisco Bay area, followed by London, Los Angeles and New York on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“Alien: Romulus”
“Blitz”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Gladiator II”
“Joker: Folie à Deux”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
VISUAL EFFECTS
Ten films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 97th Academy Awards. The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“Alien: Romulus”
“Better Man”
“Civil War”
“Deadpool & Wolverine”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Gladiator II”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
“Mufasa: The Lion King”
“Twisters”
“Wicked”
Nominations voting begins on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, and concludes on Sunday, January 12, 2025.
Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Friday, January 17, 2025.
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu and airs live in more than 200 territories worldwide.
