There’s little doubt about James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” (20th Century/Disney) winning the VFX Oscar, even though it doesn’t arrive until December 16. Not when it has the makings of being another industry game changer. That is, unless it turns out to be a major disappointment. Otherwise, the state of the race will focus on winnowing the other contenders, of which there are several Marvel and DC films, a few sci-fi thrillers, and other assorted action-adventures and fantasies....

Earth Day is always a great opportunity to think about how our habits affect the environment, especially after a year-long pandemic that had many of us spending extended time at home. It’s never too late to start reconsidering your environmental impact, and re-evaluating your routine to better help the planet. Commuting less definitely reduces your carbon footprint, but have you looked into building an environmentally conscious home office? There are plenty of great companies that prioritize the reduction of waste and emissions, to make sustainable furniture and office supplies....

Here’s the official synopsis courtesy of Netflix: “Director Alonso Ruizpalacios takes us deep into the Mexican police force with the story of Teresa and Montoya, together known as ‘the love patrol.’ In this thoroughly original and unpredictable documentary, Ruizpalacios plays with the boundaries of nonfiction and immerses the audience into the human experience of police work within a dysfunctional system.” “Over the course of our investigation, I came to the conclusion that performing is an essential part of a police officer’s life....

The glamour of Old Hollywood is timeless, but the holiday season is a great time to purchase one of these classic film-themed gifts. In addition to curating broadcast lineups of the greatest films of all time (from one of the largest film libraries in the world), Turner Classic Movies has also curated a wide variety of gifts for the classic film fan in your life — or yourself, if that’s you....

Sorkin delivers a powerful Oscar contender as a great cast runs with his brilliant dialogue that serves witty real-life characters and high-pitched drama. While Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay nods are in the bag, Netflix hasn’t yet decided how to play out the Oscar categories for this wide-ranging cast. It’s likely the awards team will push the most established stars for Best Actor: Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) as Tom Hayden and Original Screenplay Oscar nominee Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) as Abbie Hoffman....

Academy governors DeVon Franklin and Jim Gianopulos lead a task force that adapted the British Film Institute Diversity Standards for funding eligibility in the UK as well as eligibility in some categories of the British Academy of Film and Television Awards, in order to serve the specific needs of the Academy, which also consulted with the Producers Guild of America. “The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them....

In the past two years, though, the pace has slowed, since the Academy met its goal of doubling the number of women and people of color in its membership. Instead of 819 new invites going out in 2020, the 2022 invites are just 397, a sign that the Academy is continuing to pull back on its 10 percent growth rate surge, and that the number of qualified experienced industry professionals has limits....

Over 100 employees signed the petition, representing about half of the staff that worked at the theater before it closed in March. The workers sent the document to Alamo Drafthouse leadership last week; in response, the leaders invited the workers to a conference call September 10 to discuss the matter, according to one employee who shared the petition with IndieWire. Here’s an excerpt from the petition: Employees also demanded that the mask requirement for patrons be enforced by “sufficient security present at all times” who would, if needed, escort the guest from the building should they refuse....

In a 35-minute, wide-ranging interview with Kara Swisher on “Sway” this week, League briefly discussed the fallout from the expose published by Kansas City alt weekly “The Pitch” in August 2020. Among the claims: managers sexually and physically abused employees and were never disciplined; employees who were injured on the job and were never properly accommodated; and reports that managers targeted predominantly Black audiences when enforcing its signature “no talking” rule....

If properly followed by a production’s cast and crew, they make a tragedy like this one impossible. On any set, the prop master — or in some cases, a weapons expert — is responsible for obtaining, maintaining, and handling all firearms for the production. According to Local 44, which oversees prop masters, the gun contained a live round and the “Rust” call sheet did not list any members of Local 44....

The name Alvin Ailey is synonymous with modern dance everywhere. The legendary dancer, director, and choreographer predominated contemporary dance through the latter half of the 20th century under the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, democratizing the art form with his racially diverse company and emotionally driven movements that spoke directly to the Black American experience. An eponymous documentary tribute to Ailey’s momentous life’s work offers a moving archive of his most momentous achievements, including his masterpiece “Revelations,” but struggles — as many of his friends and collaborators did — to fully understand the man behind the myth....

Over 18 years later, Seyfried is still recognized for high school comedy “Mean Girls” and her ditsy character Karen Smith, who, by the end of the film, gives on-air weather reports while grabbing her breasts. Of course, male fans couldn’t help but quote the final scene whenever they saw Seyfried after the movie was released in 2004. “I always felt really grossed out by that,” Seyfried told Marie Claire in a cover story....

These important titles at key film festivals are now in the purview of their streaming distributors. That turns what was once a relatively straightforward proposal — promoting a film’s theatrical run — into something much more complex, even political. How does a streamer distribute a film that was made to be seen in theaters while not undermining the reason that it bought the title in the first place — i....

The $50 million for “No Way Home” translated into a $260 million pre-Christmas domestic weekend, a little over five times the preview haul. The equivalent for “The Way of Water” would be under $100 million for the weekend — but there’s reason to believe the weekend total will be significantly higher. Industry projections from exhibitors and rival distributors anticipated an opening weekend somewhere around $175 million, with a chance for more....

The theater will also be implementing a variety of enhanced safety measures, including mandatory masks unless eating or drinking (concessions will be available), socially-distanced seating (thanks to assigned seating, a first for the theater), enhanced HVAC filtration, and increased time between screenings to facilitate thorough cleaning and minimize interactions. The theater will play a variety of new releases and older selections when it opens, including several titles that initially premiered as virtual cinema titles, such as Ousmane Sembène’s “Mandabi,” which first played on the virtual platform in February....

Ostensibly held to celebrate the birthday of Adam (Iwan Rheon), nothing about the dinner for four at the film’s center feels celebratory. Adam has been unsettled all day after finding a wounded fox that keeps reappearing; his partner, sculptor Eva (Catalina Sandino Moreno), is excited to live in the kind of chilly modernistic home that just cries out for masked men to enter with weapons drawn; and their friends — influencer Lucas (Tom Cullen, serving B-movie Henry Cavill) and his girlfriend Chloe (Inès Spiridonov) — are there almost entirely to drive the already fragile Adam further off the edge....

Never say that the Australian director isn’t down for a challenge. On his first trip to Cannes three decades ago, he walked the Croisette in a warm wool suit looking for financing for his first feature, “Strictly Ballroom.” Since then he’s made “Romeo + Juliet,” Cannes 2000 opening-night dazzler “Moulin Rouge,” “Australia,” and his last film, “The Great Gatsby,” which debuted at Cannes in 2013. With a dense wall of visuals and music, he sets out to hypnotize, overwhelm, and entertain....

The ’90s might just be the biggest and best decade when it comes to showcasing high school hierarchies om film. Rom-coms featuring rich and popular teens, football jocks, and the lonely outcast struggling to fit in come to mind, along with memorable fashions (plaids skirts, baggy pants, oversized suit jackets, midriff shirts, you get the idea). The ’90s was also a time where filmmaking evolved. From genetically engineered extinct species suddenly roaming the earth, to choreographed fight scenes and explosions, and alien invasions threatening life as we know it, the ’90s brought a new level of cinematic genius as high quality graphics and new directorial styles emerged....

There’s a lot of variety within the tablet market, but one thing that the tablets on our list have in common: deep discounts. Whether you’re looking for a glorified PC that can double as a work computer, or a lightweight but compact tablet for reading, there’s no reason to pay full price on anything now that Black Friday is around the corner. If you love bargains but don’t have time to hunt for them, check below for seven of our favorite tablet deals....