Steve Pond
Steve Pond
Steve Pond’s inside look at the artistry and insanity of the awards race, drawn from more than three decades of obsessively chronicling the Oscars and the entertainment industry.
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BAFTA Overhauls Voting Rules to Increase Diversity of Film Awards
New rules include longlists in all categories and more nominees in the acting, directing and Outstanding British Film categories
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‘Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles’ Film Review: Dessert’s the Main Course in Opulent Food Documentary
Though Laura Gabbert’s film showcases impossibly elaborate pastries inspired by the French court of Versailles, it doesn’t settle for making your mouth water or your eyes bug out
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Emmys Put the Focus on Black Lives, But Also Go Overboard for ‘Schitt’s Creek’
For the second consecutive year, voters delivered a massive mea culpa to a critically-acclaimed series that the Emmys had ignored until its final season
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Awards
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‘Nomadland’ Wins Audience Award at Toronto Film Festival
Nine of the last 10 TIFF audience winners have gone on to receive Oscar nominations for Best Picture, and three have won
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Emmy Predictions: Who Will Take Over From ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Fleabag’?
Contenders for the top awards range from “Schitt’s Creek,” “Insecure” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” to “Succession,” “Ozark” and “The Mandalorian”
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TV
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Emmy Preview: A Wide Open Race and a Big Challenge for Jimmy Kimmel and Show Producers
If a Hollywood award is handed out in the forest (or on Zoom) and there’s no one there to applaud the winner, is it really an award?
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Awards
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‘Antebellum’ Film Review: Janelle Monáe Stars in Uneasy Hybrid of Horror and Social Commentary
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s movie has a touch of “12 Years a Slave,” a bit of “Django Unchained” and a central twist that’s worthy of a bad M. Night Shyamalan film
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How a COVID-Era Toronto Film Festival Found a New Purpose – as a Platform for Unheard Voices
This year’s TIFF wasn’t dominated by awards contenders, but its heart was in smaller films from underrepresented voices who deserve to be heard
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Awards
Available to WrapPRO members
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USC, NYU Lead in 2020 Student Academy Awards
Foreign Student Oscars go to filmmakers from Germany, Norway, Mexico, Belgium and Estonia
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‘Notturno’ Film Review: Middle East Doc Finds Poetry in ‘Rubble and Darkness’
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Director Gianfranco Rosi’s film has elegance and a stillness that makes it one of the most meditative works you’ll ever see about war and strife
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‘The Way I See It’ Review: Pete Souza Documentary Throws Major Shade at Donald Trump
TIFF 2020: The film by Dawn Porter showcases photographer Souza’s work in the Obama and Reagan administrations, but it’s also a pointed rebuke to the current president
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‘Fireball’ Film Review: Werner Herzog Looks to the Sky and Brings the Wonder
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Surveying the world of meteorites and asteroids, Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer mix science with a healthy dose of philosophy and mysticism
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‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ Film Review: Byrne and Spike Lee Burn Down the House With Style
Toronto Film Festival 2020: Like all of Byrne’s work, the film is sly performance art masquerading as rock ‘n’ roll, or maybe it’s sly rock ‘n’ roll masquerading as performance art
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Academy on Fallout From New Oscar Best Picture Rules: ‘You Aren’t Creating Change If You Don’t Get Criticized’
“We knew that both sides would come at us,” says Academy governor DeVon Franklin, who co-chaired the committee that came up with the new inclusion and diversity standards
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Awards
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Oscars Set New Inclusion and Diversity Standards for Best Picture Eligibility
The standards are designed to nudge the industry in the direction of increased representation throughout all stages of film production, by using the lure of the movies’ most coveted prize
