As 2021 winds down, guilds and other organizations are making their lists of favorite films and TV from the past year and checking them twice, determining which projects make the grade when it comes to accolades, including the Directors Guild Awards (DGA), Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG-AFTRA), Writers Guild Awards (WGA), and Producers Guild Awards (PGA). And that doesn’t even begin to take into consideration all the other specialty guilds with their own prizes, with juries of peers determining the finest makeup, hairstyling, sound design, and more....

Technically, this isn’t set in stone; it is one studio’s agreements with two circuits. However, it creates a template that others will follow. Going forward, if a title holds an exclusive theatrical window for six weeks or more, it’s at the studio’s pleasure. Exhibitors no longer set the terms. Those two extra weeks are a Cinemark “victory,” but in 2019 only 16 films cleared that $50 million bar. There were 13 other films that made over $100 million, but opened to less than $50 million; these included “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Knives Out,” “Hustlers,” and “1917....

The earliest deals were huge, with streamers snapping up worldwide rights for two Black Oscar-winning actresses’ directorial debuts. Netflix, in a near-$20-million deal, grabbed Halle Berry’s MMA drama “Bruised,” ahead of its online and drive-in TIFF premiere as a “work in progress” Saturday. The streamer also picked up Venice winner “Pieces of a Woman,” and Sam Levinson’s secretly shot quarantine film “Malcolm and Marie” starring Zendaya and John David Washington out of the TIFF marketplace for a whopping $30 million....

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” made its debut on Thursday. The musical drama is currently playing in movie theaters, but HBO Max subscribers have the option of enjoying the movie from the comfort of home. Based off Miranda’s hit stage musical, “In the Heights” takes place in the vibrant New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights, where a tight-knit community of New Yorkers are busy following their dreams and working toward better lives....

Wes Craven was a master of horror movies. The Cleveland native, who made his directorial debut with 1972’s “The Last House on the Left,” gave us spine-chilling classics “The Hills Have Eyes” and “Swamp Thing” before introducing fans to “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” and the “Scream” franchise. Craven’s other credits include “The People Under the Stairs,” “Vampire in Brooklyn,” and, taking his oeuvre in a slightly different direction, the drama “Music of the Heart” starring Meryl Streep....

The dance in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” is different from what we’ve seen in movie musicals in the last half century. The film marks a stunning retrieval of a relationship between Hollywood, Broadway, and the ballet world not really seen since, well, the original Jerome Robbins-Robert Wise “West Side Story.” For his update, Spielberg turned to the person who currently holds Robbins’ old position as resident choreographer at the New York City Ballet, 34-year-old phenom Justin Peck....

That’s why, unlike the other guilds, every year a long list of WGA ineligible indie, British, and animated movies are excluded. A WGA nomination isn’t essential for Oscar nomination; plenty of exceptions include American indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Iranian Oscar-winner “A Separation,” Oscar-winning British films “Les Miserables,” and “The Favourite,” and all Pixar animated contenders, from “Up” to “Incredibles 2.” “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech” both won Best Picture without the benefit of a WGA nomination....

“The Good Doctor” (ABC) Premiere Date: November 2 Cast: Freddie Highmore, Antonia Thomas, Hill Harper, Richard Schiff Plot: The fourth season of ABC’s popular medical series sees Freddie Highmore return as Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young doctor dealing with autism. This season has already started by taking stock of 2020, and the premiere was one of the first medical shows to tackle the coronavirus and show how it affected hospitals in real-time....

Premiering September 2, the prequel series is co-created by showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay using appendices and footnotes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels to focus on a fresh story in Middle-earth, set thousands of years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings.” “We were not interested in doing a show about the younger version of the same world you knew, where it’s a little bit of a prequel,” McKay told Entertainment Weekly in a cover story....

So why did Anderson return to Focus for his latest star-crammed comedy ensemble, “Asteroid City” (2023), an original “poetic meditation on the meaning of life” co-written with his usual collaborator Roman Coppola? This time Anderson returns to a fictional American locale, setting the 1955 story at a desert town’s Junior Stargazer convention, which pulls in student competitors and their parents from across the country. (Still, the Europhile is shooting the film in Spain....

Smith previously tendered his resignation from the Academy. Speculation swirled that his Best Actor Oscar could be rescinded or he might be declared ineligible for future nomination, but here’s why both of those outcomes were unlikely. The sole precedent for overturning a win came in 1969, when feature documentary “The Young Americans” was found to be ineligible due to its release date. In that case, runner-up “Journey Into Self” received the statuette and the original one was returned....

Jessica Chastain and Ariana DeBose delivered smart speeches that did the Oscars proud. Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur saw his hometown of Mesa, Arizona fly banners to celebrate his historic victory. Smith also could have enjoyed the sweet peak of his three-decade career this week: One reason he won the Oscar is Hollywood understood that he might never deliver a strong performance in a movie as well-reviewed as “King Richard....

The win came after a shocking moment in which Smith smacked Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. He addressed the moment, which went viral immediately, in his speech. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Smith said. “In this time of my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world....

For God knows how long, the women of an isolated religious community (Mennonite in everything but name) have been drugged with cow tranquilizer and raped on a regular basis during the night. The women had been told they were being violated by ghosts, demons, or even Satan himself — punishment for their own improprieties — and they believed that lie until two young girls saw one of the rapists as he scurried back to bed across the field one night....

Created and produced by Wong, “Blossoms Shanghai” offers an homage to the “In the Mood for Love” director’s birthplace at the most intriguing moments in its recent history. The pilot is also directed by Wong. This is Wong’s first time behind the camera since 2013’s “The Grandmaster.” Written by award-winning Shanghainese screenwriter Qin Wen, with visuals from Academy Award-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” cinematographer Peter Pau, the series, according to the official synopsis, “tells the story of an enigmatic, self-made millionaire, Mr....

“I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it,” Snyder said. “Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Bros. and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300.’ But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander....

That helps explain why, this Sunday, “American Idol” will get its first post-Oscars time slot with an hour-long episode that wraps up Season 20’s judge auditions ahead of Hollywood Week. Even with the recent Academy Awards’ ratings struggles — and how late the awards show can run on the east coast — that post-Oscars time slot is highly coveted scheduling sure to reward host Ryan Seacrest and judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan with a sizable built-in audience....

“The Staircase” helmer Antonio Campos is set to direct the upcoming spinoff show of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” about Gotham City mental institute Arkham Asylum. Campos will also serve as showrunner and executive producer. Variety reported the news. IndieWire has reached out to representatives at HBO Max for comment. In addition to directing, show-running, and executive-producing HBO Max’s “The Staircase” with Maggie Cohn, Campos previously directed films including “The Devil All the Time” for Netflix, plus indies “Simon Killer” and “Christine....

The “Atlanta” creator, writer, producer, director, and star debuted a first look at “Atlanta: The Final Season,” coming to FX and Hulu this September. The teaser shows Glover reprise his role of Earn, side-by-side with on-again, off-again love interest Van (Zazie Beetz) as pals Alfred aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) and Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) pop up alongside them. The foursome are walking underwater in a surreal return to Atlanta after spending Season 3 abroad for Alfred’s rap tour....

“I just don’t know how you fulfill that any better than [the animated] show did,” said Dee Bradley Baker, who voiced Appa and Momo on the series. “I’m open to whatever they do with the live-action series, which I know nothing about, but it’s like, ‘Well, how do you do this better than the way that it was rendered on this show?’ I don’t know how you do that! I hope you can....