Showbiz History: Gyllenhaal's first win, The Witch's release

5 random things that happened on this day, February 19th, in history (as it relates to showbiz)...

1942 /1945 Two historic and tragic days in the history of Japan & US relations. In '42 President FDR ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps. This shameful moment is rarely dramatized in English-language movies outside of documentaries (surely because Hollywood doesn't love looking at America's own sins) though its shown up in a few like Go For Broke (1951) about Japanese-Americans serving in the US Army at the time and 1990's Come See the Paradise about an interracial family during the war. Later in '45 the US marines invasion of Iwo Jima begins. We recently saw it dramatized, from the Japanese perspective, in Clint Eastwood's Best Picture nominee Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: "It" girls and Scarlett Johansson's first big win

Happy President's Day. Aren't you glad an actual adult is in the White House again? Anyway, here are 5 random things that happened on this day, February 15th, in showbiz history

1927 "It" starring Clara Bow is released. Did it create the lingo of "It girl" like Gaslight spawned the term "gaslighting"? I don't know. I'm not a linguistic historian. If you are, do tell... 

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Tom & Jerry's debut, BAFTA nights, and wild Laura Dern

7 random things that happened today, February 10th, in showbiz history...

1940 The first Tom & Jerry cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot debuts. Tom & Jerry would go on to become major stars of the short film format and super stars of Oscar's animated short category! The series received 13 nominations (starting with Puss Gets the Boots) and 7 wins. 

1972 David Bowie debuts his character Ziggy Stardust at a London pub...

Click to read more ...

BAFTA Long Lists

Each year the BAFTA longlists remind us that awards voters have extremely narrow vieweing habits and blind spots that are practically extend to their peripheral vision. We're SOOO glad Oscar doesn't do this winnowing in their major categories since otherwise we'd have to give us so many dreams that our favourites justmissed each year, rather than not being considered at all for their brilliance.

BAFTA voters have yet to decide on the nominations. Those are not announced until March 9th but this is the list each category will draw from so hundreds of options are now ineligible. The long lists are stunningly messy. They're after the jump if you dare... 

Click to read more ...

Trust BAFTA to make this bizarre awards season even crazier!

BAFTA has made a strange decision. Despite more than enough movies to justify an awards season (as you can see from the numerous critics awards we've already witnessed... many of which weren't considering January/February releases like Oscar and the Globes are), BAFTA now just opened to the window for even more films to play. They're saying that as long as you already had a release date planned before April 9th in the UK, you can be eligible for their current award season and just delay your actual release until any point in 2021. 

This is an administrative nightmare. Or, at least it's a nightmare for those of us who enjoy things like calendars, time, seasons, and Things That Make Sense.

It also begs the question of what groups like the Globes, SAG, BAFTA, and the Academy are going to do for next year's awards (do all of these awards bodies think the world is going to end in 2021)...

Click to read more ...