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Spielberg to push for new Oscars rules that exclude streaming movies
It won't surprise you to hear that Steven Spielberg doesn't think streaming movies should win Oscars, but now he appears to be backing up those words with deeds. A spokesperson for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment has indicated to IndieWire that the director will rally support for rules restricting Oscars for streaming movies when the subject comes up at the Academy's Board of Governors meeting in April. Spielberg "feels strongly" about the issue and will be "happy" if others take his side, the spokesperson said.
Recommended Reading: The best of the Best Pictures
The Best Picture championship belt Adam Nayman and Sean Fennessey, The Ringer This year's installment of the Academy Awards is set for February 24th, but ahead of the festivities, The Ringer is looking back at the best Best Pictures with a unique spin. The outlet has applied a WWE-style championship belt to the list of winners, including how long it reigned, who it defeated during that time and more. Is it silly? Yes. Is it a very entertaining read? Absolutely.
Netflix's 'Roma' leads streaming at the Oscars with ten nominations
It won't surprise you to hear that Netflix is particularly eager for awards this year, and it looks like that thirst might pay off at the Oscars. Alfonso Cuarón's Roma is clearly a front runner after receiving no less than ten nominations, including Best Picture, Leading Actress (Yaliza Aparicio), Directing, Foreign Language Film, Supporting Actress (Marina de Tavira), Cinematography, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. It'll be surprising if the movie doesn't pick up at least one of the iconic statuettes.
Netflix's Oscar hopeful 'Roma' gets personal in first trailer
Roma has been racking up praise from critics on the film festival circuit for months. Now that Netflix released a trailer for the film as it is gearing up for a limited theatrical run, it's easy to see what people have been raving about. The film from Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón is filled with stunning black-and-white visuals that pack tons of detail into every frame.
Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. join Hollywood's open-source tech forum
Just months after its launch, Hollywood's first forum for open-source technology tools is adding more big names to its lineup -- along with its first software project. Sony Pictures Entertainment / Sony Pictures Imageworks and Warner Bros. are among the newbies, who'll be joining launch members including DreamWorks, Walt Disney Studios, Epic Games, Autodesk and Google Cloud.
Gorgeous puzzle game 'Monument Valley' is being turned into a movie
One of the most beautifully-designed mobile puzzle games of all time is going to be given the silver screen treatment. Released in 2014 and quickly snapping up the title of Apple's Game of the Year, Monument Valley will be adapted into a movie in a joint venture by Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures.
Facebook will stream The Oscars red carpet this weekend
The Academy Awards take place this Sunday and if you're an Oscar fan who can't get enough behind-the-scenes looks, Facebook has you covered. As Variety reports, Facebook will once again be the only social network to live-stream "The Oscars: All Access," which includes red carpet and backstage views as well as interviews with presenters, nominees and performers. The show will begin at 6:30 PM Eastern/3:30 PM Pacific and will stream on the Facebook pages of both ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. You can also catch it on Oscar.com and ABCNews.com.
After Math: If I had no loot
It was a week of lost and found fortunes in the tech world. The Feds charged My Big Coin Pay over its $6 million cryptocurrency scam, Netflix is poised to take home as many a four golden statues for Mudbound, Bungie's in hot water again over tweaking its Faction token payouts and Google will be holding onto its $20 million XPrize payout thankyouverymuch. Numbers, because how else would you evenly divvy up the spoils?
Netflix's 'Mudbound' receives four Oscar nominations
The Oscar nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced this morning, and Netflix came away with a good showing for its film Mudbound. Mary J. Blige was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Additionally the film received a nod in the Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song ("Mighty River") and Best Achievement in Cinematography (Rachel Morrison).
The Academy awards its first Oscar for virtual reality
Virtual reality experiences aren't just games and cheap thrills -- some creators use the medium to start a dialogue and tell worthwhile stories. Take the VR exhibition Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible) by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who's known for directing Birdman and The Revenant. He created the exhibit now on display in various museums worldwide to explore "the human condition of immigrants and refugees," and now he's getting the first Oscar award ever granted to a VR experience "in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling."
Sean Penn will star in Hulu’s upcoming Mars series, 'The First'
In May, Hulu ordered a straight-to-series show called The First. Set in the not too distant future, the series depicts the first human mission to Mars and humankind's first attempts at colonizing another planet. Today, Variety reports that Sean Penn has been signed onto the series.
Amazon gets seven Oscar nominations for 'Manchester by the Sea'
As awards watchers expected, Manchester by the Sea ended up being a major Oscar magnet for its co-distributor Amazon. The film, which was also Amazon's first Golden Globe winner, nabbed seven Academy Award nominations this morning: including best picture, actor (Casey Affleck), actress (Michelle Williams), supporting actor (Lucas Hedges), director (Kenneth Lonargan) and original screenplay. It's particularly notable as the first-ever Best Picture nominated film for a streaming service.
Snapchat Stories come to the browser with Oscars roundup
Snapchat is immensely popular, but at the moment its plentiful Snaps and stitched Stories are trapped inside the mobile app. If you're on a laptop or PC, or want to share a Snap on another social network, there's no obvious way of doing so. That state of affairs started to change last night, however, when Snapchat slapped a live Story up on its website. It meant anyone could get a taste of what people were posting at the event, including, perhaps most importantly, people that aren't already on Snapchat.
'Ex Machina's' Oscar win is a triumph for low-budget VFX
If you've ever thought that a low-budget sci-fi thriller can't compete with the cream of Hollywood, think again. Last night's Academy Awards handed the Oscar for best visual effects to Alex Garland's brilliant Ex Machina. It's something of a shock, since the category had three heavy hitters in The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. By comparison, Ex Machina is a claustrophobic three-hander with a minuscule budget of just $15 million. According to Moviefone, that makes it the cheapest FX Oscar winner since 1979's Alien and that's before you take inflation into account.
Watch the Engadget staff on: Online streaming
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Meet the Oscar-nominated sound designers behind Kylo's lightsaber
Skywalker Sound is home to Star Wars. The award-winning sound designers and mixers who inhabit the red-bricked walls of George Lucas' audio post-production facility have shaped the soundscapes for the saga so far. From the first movie in 1977 to The Force Awakens in 2015, the team of sound wizards has converted fictional ideas into believable sounds and indelible memories. Instead of pulling from a ready-made digital library, they tend to rely on organic sounds. Mundane objects and creatures are carefully manipulated into powerful spaceships and energized lightsabers. try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-554275").style.display="none";}catch(e){}
'Star Wars' VFX Oscar nominees on making 'The Force Awakens'
If there's one thing you can be certain to find in a Star Wars movie, it's glorious special effects. So after The Force Awakens opened last year, an Academy Award nomination for the film's VFX leads seemed inevitable. Roger Guyett and Patrick Tubach will be going up against visual effects teams behind other big-budget sci-fi films, including Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian, as well as a rare indie nominee, Ex Machina. We sat down with Guyett and Tubach ahead of the Oscars on February 28th to explore how they went about bringing Star Wars back to life. (Warning: This interview is naturally full of spoilers.)
The Oscars piracy problem is only getting worse
In 2016, Oscar screeners for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are still receiving DVDs as part of the voting process. This year, though, the piracy rates are at an all-time high as all eight best picture nominees have surfaced on file-sharing sites. Variety reports that in response to the problem, the Motion Picture Academy will finally give streaming a shot with a beta test this year. Last year, the Television Academy transitioned from DVDs to Chromecasts for Emmy voting. In that scenario, members-only web and mobile apps are used for streaming purposes. Of course, many of those TV episodes have already aired, so piracy isn't as much of a concern.
Netflix's 'Beasts of no Nation' already has 3 million views
With Netflix's first theater-ready film, Beasts of No Nation, content chief Ted Sarandos broke a long-standing company rule not to reveal viewing numbers. "It is worth sharing that this movie, in North America alone, has over 3 million views already," he told Deadline. Netflix racked up those figures in two weekends, and the Cary Fukunaga directed film, starring Idris Elba, was the top Netflix movie in its first week of release. The service helped it along with a strong launch, though. "We focused on making the film available to all 69 million Netflix subscribers around the world, in more than 50 countries," Sarandos said.
Netflix chases awards glory with new Idris Elba movie
Oscar season has only just come to a close, but already Netflix is eyeing up a potential candidate for next year's run. Deadline reports that the streaming service has got its hands on Beasts Of No Nation, a film led by True Detective director Cary Fukunaga that stars Luther (and Pacific Rim) actor Idris Elba. Based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts Of No Nation is an African war drama that focused on the experiences of a child soldier fighting under the command of guerilla warlord, who systematically strips the boy of his humanity.
