Hello from the Oscar nominees luncheon! Upon entering the lobby, I’m confronted with Ted Sarandos, Rita Wilson, Austin Butler, and Malala. Obviously! Tom Cruise has arrived at the Oscar nominees luncheon

Hello from the Critics Choice Awards… follow along for highlights from the room “It was a breakout year for queer cinema,” says host Chelsea Handler, “with films like Bros, Fire Island, Top Gun: Maverick…”

New thread! I’m inside the Oscars and I’ll be telling you what goes down in the hour before the live telecast, when they’re controversially handing out 8 Oscars (then editing the speeches into the show later) Many stars are still on the red carpet, but from my high nest, I see Rami Malek and Jamie Lee Curtis in the tables near the front…

Curious what it’s like to walk the Oscar red carpet from beginning to end? Here’s a video from before the celebs get here… Ok, the Oscars red carpet is officially open. Follow along on this thread and I’ll try to get you some fun tidbits and scoops.

I’m at the Governors Awards, where Danny Glover, Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May and Liv Ullmann are all receiving honorary Oscars tonight. Also, there’s a smoked salmon Oscar at every seat… Talking to Oscar folks at the Governors Awards and the buzz for a Penelope Cruz best-actress win is very real…

I asked Jon Bernthal to give me his guide to making it as a supporting scene-stealer. nytimes.com/2022/01/19/mov… Sensing a pattern here

Bonsoir! Heading to the premiere of ANNETTE (or Turkey Leg Hut, take your pick) Outside the premiere, Jessica Chastain is going down the line of fans and posing for selfies

Here is your (masked) Cannes jury. Jury prez Spike Lee, a waving Song Kang Ho, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tahar Rahim and others Song Kang Ho: “When I first got the email to invite me to the festival, I was wondering could the festival really take place because of the immense threat posed by the pandemic. The fact that we’re all here together, I think it’s a miracle.”

OK, here are my predictions for the Oscar nominations on Monday. BEST PICTURE

The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
Promising Young Woman
The Trial of the Chicago 7

🚨The Oscars just announced their watershed new diversity and inclusion standards for Best Picture.🚨

Starting with the 2024 Oscars, a film must meet 2 of the following 4 standards to be eligible for Oscar’s biggest prize: I’ve seen a lot of people saying “There goes THE IRISHMAN and MARRIAGE STORY.” Thing is... as near as I can tell, both those movies would still qualify. Each had at least 2 female department heads (standard B) and the Netflix marketing team is pretty diverse (standard D)

I wrote a mammoth, no-holds-barred oral history of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD.

Tom! Charlize! All the Wives, War Boys, and even the Doof Warrior!

They’re all here, and candid as hell about the difficult making of an against-all-odds masterpiece: nytimes.com/2020/05/12/mov… 5 years after its release, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy get candid about why they fought during the making of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD nytimes.com/2020/05/12/mov…

CATS: It's amazing to see what Adult Swim can accomplish with a $100 million budget I never knew Tom Hooper was capable of making a surrealist nightmare that would rival Jodorowsky, that could baffle David Lynch, that would prompt even the dark god Cthulhu to emit an impressed eldritch shriek of “nehehehehehe”

The first big Oscar-season awards show is tonight! Anyone who’s a contender is expected at the Governors Awards, where they’ll schmooze with scads of Oscar voters and see honorary awards given to David Lynch, Geena Davis, Wes Studi, and Lina Wertmüller. Follow along! Two of the best seats in the house tonight are going to....

How will the movie industry survive the next 10 years?

I asked two dozen actors, directors, and studio heads to tell you about the worries they've been telling each other in private.

nytimes.com/interactive/20… I've been reporting this out for the last two and a half months and every one of the conversations was fascinating and a real eye-opener.

Happily, we'll be rolling out a lot of those talks as separate Q&As over the coming days, so there will be a lot to dig into here.

Your Carpetbagger is on the Oscars red carpet, facing a phalanx of celebrities and a very cruel sun. Follow along! Just talked to A STAR IS BORN’s Shangela, who performed at the Indie Spirits yesterday after getting the call on Wednesday from host Aubrey Plaza. As for Drag Race’s recent, controversial double crowning, “I wish it had been a triple crown because I’m still waiting on mine!”

Your Carpetbagger is at the morning roundtable for all the DGA nominees (from l to r: Cooper, Farrelly, McKay, Cuarón, Lee) Before they took the stage, strong 5-minute clips played from each director’s film for this big industry audience. The choices...

ASIB: “La vie en rose”
ROMA: Beach scene
GREEN BOOK: Copacabana
BLACKKKLANSMAN: Charlottesville
VICE: GWB offers VP job to Cheney

12 YEUNS A-YAWNING 11 LIVELYS THRIVING