Showbiz History: Buffy, Muriel's Wedding, and the most Glamourous Globes night?

9 random things that happened on this day, March 10th, in showbiz history...

1938 The 10th annual Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1937. The Life of Emile Zola wins Best Picture, the second consecutive biopic to win, cementing the agonizing fact that Oscar then and now obsesses over the snooziest of all film genres, the biopic, more than any of its far more interesting cousins. It beat screwball classic The Awful Truth, the actressexual bliss of Stage Door, the non-musical Janet Gaynor version of A Star is Born, and other superior films. Meanwhile Luise Rainer became the first actor in movie history to pull off a two consecutive year Oscar coup with her second win for her yellowface performance in The Good Earth...

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Joan Crawford's long road to Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

I make no secret that I'm a Joan Crawford fan. After all, I've already waxed poetic about the star's stellar 1947 and her turn in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. However, I've never written about Crawford's career pre-Oscar win. Since we're celebrating 75 years since that victory, it feels like an appropriate time to examine the actress' long road to Oscar, the misconceptions about her legacy, the complexities of her contemporary popularity. If you want to read more about the 18th Academy Awards, check out Baby Clyde's wonderful overview of the ceremony and the race for gold. Now, it's time to focus solely on that year's Best Actress champion…

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Interview: BAFTA nominee Mikkel E.G. Nielsen on finding the balance and structure of "Sound of Metal"

by Nathaniel R

Talking to film editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (A Royal Affair, Beasts of No Nation), is a bit dizzying. His conversation moves around our subject, Sound of Metal, in circular fashion regularly bringing up both the films beginning, a raucous noisy concert where we first experience Ruben (Riz Ahmed's) hearing loss with him, and the films very quiet yet symmetrical ending. It doesn't surprise us then when he describes his job holistically. "My job is to try and create a whole from start to finish where you feel that you've been on this journey. Either it's revealing or it's fulfilling or emotional."

Nielsen divides his time between movies, music videos, and commercial work and though he loves the immersive challenge of cinema, he appreciates the mix. "Molding a movie" for months, he explains, becomes all encompassing. Working on a spot for three weeks, though, "Wow, that was almost like a vacation!'"

Another 'vacation' will have to wait. We're deep in awards season and Nielsen's fine work, honing the film's structure, and finessing the movies internal and external rhythms alongside its much praised sound design, has been honored with a Critics Choice Award for Best Editing and, this morning, a BAFTA nomination as well. We recently spoke to him about his work and international career...

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An Offer Elle Couldn't Refuse

by Jason Adams

Have you been keeping up with the movie about the making of The Godfather? It was announced last September that Jake Gyllenhaal will be playing the infamous producer Robert Evans while Oscar Isaac will be director Francis Ford Coppola in Francis and the Godfather, with Barry Levinson directing the thing. My ears, eyes, and everythings perked right up, and so I have been paying close attention ever since and now there's more casting news...

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DGA Nominees: Chung, Fennell, Fincher, Sorkin, and Zhao

by Nathaniel R

The Director's Guild of America have announced their nominations for the 2020 film year. And it's a doozy. For the first time ever two women have been nominated in the top category. It's worth noting that the DGA has nominated more women for their top prize over the years than Oscar has but they've never nominated two simultaneously in their top category.  The nominees and some comments and awards season stats are after the jump...

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