In 1999, with a baby on my hip, while living in a one-room guest house behind my sister's house in Van Nuys, California, I had a really good idea. I'd already been online for five years, with an entire social life and an outlet for creative expression. Back then, it was mostly words tapped out on a screen. We played around with emoticons to convey our shorthand attitudes, but...

In almost every industry but the Oscars, there is a sense of building up from scratch. It's a new dawn and a new day, not for those still heartbroken over the election, and there are many of those, but everywhere else. Why? Because they remembered what this country was invented for. Opportunity and merit. Nothing has hit Hollywood harder than those who run it on a quest for absolution,...

The Frontrunner Mikey Madison, in my opinion, gives the performance of the year in Anora. That means there was never one minute in this movie that I did not believe I was watching a real person. Madison played Sexy Sadie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a wildly different kind of character, so intellectually, I know she's acting, but watching Anora, largely due to Sean Baker's realist's eye,...

024 HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARDS COMPLETE WINNERS LIST (FINAL) SONG - FEATURE FILM "The Journey" from THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT. Written by Diane Warren. Performed by H.E.R. SONG - INDEPENDENT FILM "Beautiful That Way" from THE LAST SHOWGIRL - Written by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt. Performed by Miley Cyrus. SONG - DOCUMENTARY FILM "Never Too Late" from ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE. Written by Elton...

Continuing the below-the-line analysis, it seemed appropriate this week to focus on what I would call the technical side of the below-the-line crafts. Next week we'll take a look at Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling, and the following week we'll cover the music categories of Original Score and Original Song. Best Film Editing Best Film Editing is the most important, below-the-line category and equally the most...

The Astra Awards are coming in early for the awards season and could influence the Golden Globe voters who are voting as we speak with ballots due December 4. Both the Globes and the Astras are rebuilding after a tsunami of outrage whipped through the industry for various reasons. But in the end, we're not exactly curing science here, folks. Get over yourselves. They're film awards, probably the least...

It's hard to know how Wicked will be received by Academy members. At the moment, there are few negative reactions to it beyond complaints about the run time. Considering so many hopefuls for 2024 fell flat at the box office, Wicked might fill the necessary slot of making the Oscars exciting for movie fans. Then again, we said the same thing about Barbie and it didn't do much to...