As reported by Variety: “Sarandos said that high-concept Korean survival drama ‘Squid Game,’ which premiered Sept. 17, has a very [big] chance of becoming the biggest Netflix show ever, and currently ranks as the No. 1 show worldwide on the service. ‘We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity,’ Sarandos said.” “Squid Game” comes from writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk, whose credits include the feature films “The Fortress,” “Miss Granny,” and “Silenced....

The “Only Murders in the Building” co-stars got right to work on their monologue, delivering a series of one-liners that gently poked fun at current pop culture trends but saving the bulk of their efforts for self-deprecation. “We’re like Harry and Meghan,” Short said. “Nobody is rooting for us, but you’ll tune in to watch anyway.” “Working with Martin Short is like World Cup soccer,” Martin said. “I just can’t get into it....

The Oscar-winning writer-director is gearing up to helm his own franchise installment, but seemed, perhaps in jest, to have overlooked “Thor: Love and Thunder” star Natalie Portman’s pivotal role in the prequel films. After wrapping the third “Thor” film with Portman reprising her character Jane Foster, Waititi asked if she’d be willing to star in his “Star Wars” movie… you know, after she famously portrayed Princess Leia’s mother Padmé Amidala in “The Phantom Menace,” “Attack of the Clones,” and “Revenge of the Sith....

The “Westworld” star slammed Sean Penn via Twitter after Penn voiced his criticisms on modern gender roles. Penn previously said in an interview with The Independent that he is “in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized.” Penn continued, “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them…I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them....

As always, there were also plenty of exciting breakthrough performances this year, as we’ve already documented in a stacked list of rising stars of screens both large and small, but the women who qualify for this list of the best film performances by actresses have fully arrived in every sense of the term. Ahead, the 13 best performances by actresses in 2020. Eric Kohn, Anne Thompson, David Ehrlich, Zack Sharf, Ryan Lattanzio, Tambay Obenson, Jude Dry, Bill Desowitz, and Chris Lindahl contributed to this article....

Because life as a teenager is equal parts happy and sad, hilarious and tragic, horny and horrifying, the following curation does not limit selections by genre, meaning: These picks range from animation to sitcoms to murder mysteries to science fiction. That said, there are also a fair number of picks that are entirely focused on the dramatic ups and downs of this turbulent time in peoples’ lives. Sometimes that’s all the drama we need....

“There has been such widespread generosity in our industry that limiting the Hersholt Humanitarian Award to one recipient, this year in particular, was impossible. So, we are breaking with tradition and giving two awards to honor that spirit,” said Academy President David Rubin in an official statement. “Tyler’s cultural influence extends far beyond his work as a filmmaker. He has quietly and steadily focused on humanitarian and social justice causes from the beginning of his career, caring for people who are most often ignored....

Non-fiction cinema has been evolving since the birth of the medium while capturing a world in motion. From the actualités of the Lumière brothers in the late 19th century to the heavily manipulated ethnographic films of the 1920, from the vérité films of the Maysles brothers to the man-on-the-street agitprop popularized by Michael Moore, documentaries have naturally always been more responsive to their times than any other mode of filmmaking....

In Adapted Screenplay, a close race among three women directors, WGA and BAFTA-winner Sian Heder (“CODA”), Critics Choice-winner Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), and USC Scripters and Indie Spirits winner Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Lost Daughter”) could make it easier for Denis Villeneuve’s space epic “Dune” or Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” to catch a break and win. Gyllenhaal’s movie isn’t a Best Picture contender, but she’s a popular actress with a serious charm offensive, and has been winning lately, sweeping the Indie Spirits and winning the Best First Director DGA Award against Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Tick Tick Boom”)....

Jenna Ortega stars as Vada, a high schooler in emotional freefall after a school shooting alters her friends, family, and other relationships in her orbit. Others affected by the shooting act out in different ways to cope with their pain. Once-silly Nick (Will Ropp) becomes an overnight sensation as a victim’s advocate, while Quinton (left injured by the shooting) proves to be the most surprisingly emotionally stable. Meanwhile, Shailene Woodley co-stars in a small role as a therapist....

The six-episode “The Hot Zone: Anthrax,” which stars Daniel Dae Kim and Tony Goldwyn, will premiere on November 28 and will air over three nights. Kim, Goldwyn, and the series’ executive producers discussed the upcoming season during a virtual panel during the Television Critics Association 2021 Summer Press Tour on Wednesday. National Geographic’s synopsis for Season 2 reads: “With the world still reeling after the attacks on 9/11, America faces a second wave — the anthrax letters....

Time has a tendency to flatten history’s darkest chapters, reducing panic and persecution to footnotes and caricature. So it goes with Adolf Hitler, whose outsized image as a cartoon villain often obscures the horrifying endurance of Nazi ideology today. “The Meaning of Hitler” sets the record straight. A bracing blend of historical inquiry and cinematic soul-searching, directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s eerie and insightful essay film burrows into the nexus of Hitler’s mythology in a remarkable attempt to determine whether it makes more sense to understand its resilience or tune it out....

Developed by Jacob D. Butler and designed by Adolph Hoak, the 6,000-square-foot property located at 339 Convent Avenue was the home of U.S. attorney Charles H. Tuttle. Several prominent New York personalities, such as Fiorello LaGuardia and James Russel Parson, were regular guests as well. According to Anderson, the mansion was at first vacant when he and his team discovered it, though it had just been purchased for $460,000. The buyer, Willie Woods, allowed Anderson to rent the property for six months....

Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) adopted home planet is where his journey began, as “a nobody…who’s fucked it all up.” The Season 1 finale, written by Tony Gilroy and directed by Benjamin Caron, covers the funeral proceedings of Cassian’s mother figure Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw), as all the characters converge on what they know will be a pivotal moment. It’s the first time everyone on “Andor” — with the minor exception of Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), who has her own agenda and troubles brewing — is so singularly focused on the same thing for the same reason....

Here’s what we know so far about the plot via Netflix’s official synopsis: “In a world terrorized by super-villains, one woman has developed the process to give superpowers to regular people. But when scientist Emily Stanton accidentally imbues her estranged best-friend with incredible abilities, the two women must become the first superhero team. Now, it is up to Thunder Force to battle the super-powered Miscreants and save Chicago from the clutches of The King....

It wouldn’t be a true documentary season without a new entry from the quixotic mind of Herzog. The distinctive Bavarian director, who turns 80 a week ahead of this year’s TIFF, will visit the festival to screen “Theatre of Thought,” a study of the human brain that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of neurological inquiry. “It’s a real science-meets-poetry kind of exploration,” Powers said. “He’s exploring the landscape inside our skulls....

From “Nanette” to “Inside” to mental health jokes proliferating on sweaty basement stages, vulnerability is the new comedic currency. Lest traditionalists be dissuaded, Notaro is first and foremost a comedian, and a very funny one at that. All “Live” did was elevate her brand of dry observational comedy on mundane topics — from ‘80s singer Taylor Dayne to the spelling of “diarrhea” — to the near-divine. The comedian’s latest special, “Tig Notaro: Drawn,” may not reach as holy heights (a person only has so much unspeakable trauma to mine for laughs), but it continues the Notaro tradition of pushing standup norms to ever more creative ends....

Like most of the duo’s work, “Tori and Lokita” leverages the irreducible nature of human dignity against the ever-worsening apathy of human civilization. Like much of their work — including the Palme d’Or winner “Rosetta” and the 2002 masterpiece, “The Son” — the film’s threadbare story hinges on effectively parentless children whose need for support leads them towards danger. And like the best of their work, which this sobering return to form represents from its curious first shot to its furious last beat, its premise pulls tighter until even the simplest actions are endowed with breathless intensity....

After the first footage of Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” featured lead star Halle Bailey singing “Part of Your World,” the teaser trailer received online backlash, triggering 1.5 million “dislikes” on YouTube before the rating feature was disabled. Bailey was cast as Ariel in 2019, leading to a #NotMyAriel racist Twitter campaign. The new teaser for the film reignited the color-blind casting debate. “Really, people — we’re doing this again?...

With just a month left before the festival was set to celebrate its 19th edition this past April, Tribeca was forced to postpone its mid-April dates when Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a ban on all gatherings of more than 500 people. In the following days, the festival made available “a mix of programming online that celebrates and promotes creators,” including a selection of projects from the Tribeca Immersive Cinema360 VR programming, N....