Haley Lu Richardson and Jennifer Coolidge in ‘The White Lotus’ season 2 (Photograph by Courtesy of HBO)
It appears hopes have been dashed for those holding on to the belief that somehow Jennifer Coolidge survived HBO’s The White Lotus season two and will return for season three. Granted, the odds were against anything other than a Coolidge flashback.
The official casting announcement for season three confirms Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, and Tayme Thapthimthong will lead the cast of the critically acclaimed, Emmy winning series. In keeping with the previous two seasons, season three will find the new cast visiting a different White Lotus resort property.
The announcement also confirmed filming will take place in and around Koh Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok beginning next month.
“We are pleased to partner with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to execute Mike’s creative vision and showcase all that the beautiful country of Thailand has to offer as the next group of guests check in to the White Lotus,” stated Janet Graham Borba, EVP of Production, HBO & Max.
Mike White created The White Lotus and serves as writer, director, and executive producer. David Bernad and Mark Kamine also executive produce.
“We are honored to have Amazing Thailand featured as the filming location for the highly anticipated upcoming season of The White Lotus. The kingdom’s exotic natural beauty, rich historical sites and diverse landscapes are the perfect settings to share our fascinating culture, fantastic cuisine, top-notch wellness and luxury offerings, and most importantly our people and Thai hospitality,” said Thapanee Kiatphaibool, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. “Thailand has long been considered one of the world’s favorite filming locations. The White Lotus project will certainly strengthen the kingdom’s status as a preferred filming destination and a beacon of experience-based tourism, inspiring even more visitors to Amazing Thailand.”
Season one debuted in July 2021 and was set in Hawaii. The action moved to Sicily for season two, which premiered in December 2022. HBO hasn’t announced a target date for season three.
LL Cool J starts his stint as a recurring special guest star on CBS’s NCIS: Hawaii with season three episode one, reprising his role as Sam Hanna from NCIS: Los Angeles. Episode one, “Run and Gun,” was directed by Tim Andrew from a script by Jan Nash and Christopher Silber, and will air on Monday, February 12, 2024 at 10pm ET/PT.
Season three stars Vanessa Lachey as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant, Alex Tarrant as Kai Holman, Noah Mills as Jesse Boone, and Yasmine Al-Bustami as Lucy Tara. Jason Antoon plays Ernie Malik and Tori Anderson is Kate Whistler.
“Run and Gun” Plot: After passing her medical and psych evaluations, Tennant is surprised to see Sam Hanna conducting her final interview to clear her return to work. Also, when the team discovers a breach in the U.S. Marshal’s database, Sam joins Tennant in Las Vegas to locate the hacker.
The world’s most successful television franchise continues on the seductive shores of Hawai’i as the first female Special Agent in Charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor takes command. She and her team balance duty to family and country, investigating high-stakes crimes involving military personnel, national security, and the mysteries of the island itself.
This NCIS: Hawai’i team is a skilled mix of mainland transplants who’ve relocated to the tranquility of the Pacific and wizened locals who know their mahalo from kapu.
Wyatt Russell in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ episode 9 (Photo Credit: Apple TV+)
Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode eight ended with a gut-wrenching cliffhanger that saw Cate, May, and Lee tumbling through a rift. Episode nine, the season’s penultimate, keeps us hanging about their fate and instead opens with a flashback to a Monarch test site in Kansas, 1962, and a young Hiroshi being babysat by Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) and Bill Randa (Anders Holm).
Scratch that…it’s actually Bill who’s pulled babysitting duty for the day as Lee is about to make history by traveling into a rift via a specially constructed ship. Before leaving, Lee loans Hiroshi his pocketknife to hold onto until he returns.
Bill and Lee have grown close to Hiroshi, and Lee compliments Bill on the job he’s doing raising the boy. Lee thinks Keiko would be proud.
General Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl) does a walk-and-talk with politicians and officers as Operation Hourglass is about to commence. He notes that space travel is still decades away but that they’re capable of traveling into “underspace” now; it’s the culmination of Monarch’s two decades of research and work.
Lee Shaw leads a team of four into the spacecraft as General Puckett proclaims this operation is a matter of national security. Plus, the future of mankind is at stake. However, the only way to enter a rift is with the appearance of a Titan. Otherwise, it’s too unstable.
Bill and Lee exchange quick salutes before Lee enters the craft. Dr. Suzuki (Leo Ashizawa) activates his Titan signal, which lures in a creature with the promise of a meal. A massive creature responds, the tunnel stabilizes, and the spacecraft drafts into the rift in the Titan’s wake.
Mere seconds later, it’s apparent there’s a problem when all the metal surrounding the launch platform folds in on itself. Anything not tied down gets caught up in a quick-forming tornado above the rift. The crew signals that they’re in distress, but no one above ground responds.
The tornado vanishes, and even Bill and Dr. Suzuki have no idea what happened to Lee and the other rift travelers.
In the aftermath of the disastrous mission, General Puckett informs Bill Randa that the DoD has taken away all of Monarch’s funding. Puckett acknowledges the DoD doesn’t understand underspace and that to the powers-that-be, it all sounds insane.
Both men believe they could have stopped Operation Hourglass, which cost them their friend, Lee.
Almost 15 minutes in, the action finally moves forward to 2015, with Kentaro (Ren Watabe) recuperating from his injuries in a hospital in Tokyo. Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) informs him that the Kazakhstan reactor plant collapsed down on itself after Shaw imploded the rift. Tim (Joe Tippett) was injured, but Duvall saved him. He breaks the news to Kentaro that Cate, May, and Lee never made it out.
Verdugo blames the deaths and the chaos surrounding the implosion on Shaw. She also informs Kentaro there’s no further need for his assistance at Monarch. Kentaro becomes emotional, suggesting there must be something he – and/or Monarch – can do. Verdugo says the only thing left for him to do is live.
Kiersey Clemons and Kurt Russell in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ episode 9 (Photo Credit: Apple TV+)
And it turns out Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) is also busy trying to just live after falling through the rift. He regains consciousness in the Titans’ underground universe, surrounded by tall creaking trees. Cate doesn’t respond when he calls her name.
May (Kiersey Clemons) also comes to in this bizarro world, and Lee knocks her out of the way just as the ground lights up with an electrical charge. Lee warns her they need to move fast, and she needs to follow exactly in his footsteps. They carefully make their way through a field of lightning, pausing in an area Lee believes is momentarily safe. Lee says that after a rift closes, an electrical charge is left behind that feels like a lethal static shock. It also affects your vision.
Lee explains he was down there once on a recon mission. He also confirms he caught Cate and that they fell together. However, he doesn’t know for sure that she’s still alive.
Lee promises to keep May safe if she does exactly what he says. Together, they set off to find Cate. Lee confesses he’s not a science guy but knows that time’s running short.
A flashback shows the moments after Lee returned from his first disastrous trip into the underspace. He’s peppered with questions while being examined but refuses to eat unless they agree to contact Bill Randa. A nurse brings him a cookie, and Lee returns her kindness by taking her hostage and demanding to see Bill.
Lee’s finally informed that Bill is dead. Oh, and 20 years have passed since Operation Hourglass. (This explains why Kurt Russell’s Lee Shaw looks so much younger than his chronological age.) The man who informs Lee of this is a grown-up Hiroshi, who still has the knife Lee handed him two decades ago before the mission into the rift.
Lee goes into shock when he realizes it’s now 1982.
Later, Hiroshi apologizes to the nurse Lee assaulted, and she understands Shaw was simply alone and terrified. Hiroshi confesses that when he was a child, Lee, Bill, and his mom promised they’d return. They didn’t, and now he’s having a difficult time accepting Lee’s back after spending so much time mourning his death.
Hiroshi works through his issues and has a chat with Lee. Lee reveals that they followed a Titan down and crashed. One crew member died upon impact. The survivors immediately began to try and contact Mission Control while also doing a recon of the landing area. Unfortunately, that was interrupted by a Titan.
Lee was pulled up through the rift in the draft of a Titan. He remembers looking up and seeing an airplane and then nothing else until he came to at the hospital. Hiroshi fills in a few details, including that he was found in the woods near the site of a shrine that marks the boundary of the living and the dead.
Hiroshi claims they found a rift inside the shrine. Lee believes Bill was right about everything, including the Titans’ world and its balance to our world. Hiroshi corrects him and says his dad was crazy. He also informs Lee that he’s being sent to a “retirement home” for further study.
Lee asks Hiroshi for help with the Titans, and Hiroshi refuses. He believes the Titans lived here for 300,000 years and it wasn’t until Lee, Bill, and Keiko disturbed them that there was any trouble between the worlds.
Ren Watabe in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ episode 9 (Photo Credit: Apple TV+)
Tokyo, 2015 – Kentaro’s mom helps him settle in back home, and although she tries her best to tell him he’ll get through this, Kentaro feels guilty he wasn’t with Cate when she fell into the rift. He can’t just go back to the way things were before learning about Monarch.
Kentaro’s mom says that to get through this, he must accept that he can’t go back. He needs to allow himself to feel the pain and loss. She also says that he shouldn’t listen to Verdugo and shouldn’t cut himself off from what just happened.
And speaking of Verdugo… Over at Monarch, Dr. Barnes discovers the gamma-ray bursts are signals. There’s a pattern in the bursts, and Tim believes someone is sending them a message.
A brief scene of Lee from 1982 taking medication while watching TV with his fellow retirement home residents and then an elderly Lee going through the same motions indicates decades have passed while he was locked away. He’s about to take his meds when a breaking news report gets his attention. The news shows Honolulu under attack (there’s a scene of Godzilla fighting a MUTO) and confirms the USS Saratoga has been deployed to help.
The action catches up to Lee and May still trying to find Cate, but at least May now understands what Lee’s been through over the past 50 years. Lee hopes what happened to him doesn’t happen to May and that he can get her and Cate home quickly – if they ever find Cate.
Kentaro’s looking through his dad’s office when Hiroshi walks in on him. Kentaro’s still angry at Hiroshi for deserting them, but Hiroshi’s more interested in learning why his daughter and son were together in the desert. Kentaro explains they were looking for him and thought he was dead.
Hiroshi never expected his two families to meet. He also didn’t expect Kentaro to be taking some of his files. Kentaro reveals that since Monarch won’t help him, he’s conducting his own research now into what happened at the rift. Hiroshi begs to be allowed to explain everything to Kentaro and Cate, and Kentaro breaks the news that Cate is dead.
Sobbing, Hiroshi sinks to his knees, devastated to learn Cate’s gone. Kentaro calls him a sad, lying, secret little man who caused all of this.
Anna Sawai in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ episode 9 (Photo Credit: Apple TV+)
Episode nine ends with Cate (Anna Sawai) finally waking up from the fall. The forest is full of weird noises when suddenly she hears a growl nearby. A Titan stalks her and breathes directly into her face from inches away. It then circles the tree she’s leaning against as if taunting its prey.
Cate crawls away on her hands and knees, and the creature comes charging after her. It’s just feet away when an arrow hits its face and causes it to turn tail and run off. Cate turns to see her savior and discovers it’s Keiko!
Carrie Preston leads the cast of CBS’s new primetime drama Elsbeth, premiering on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 10pm ET/PT. The series centers around Elsbeth Tascioni, a character that was featured in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, and kicks off with an episode that reunites Preston with her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer.
In addition to Carrie Preston, season one stars Wendell Pierce as Captain C.W. Wagner and Carra Patterson as Officer Kaya Blanke. Episode one was written by executive producers Robert King and Michelle King, with Robert King directing. Jonathan Tolins guides the series as showrunner and also executive produces along with Liz Glotzer.
“Carrie Preston stars as Elsbeth Tascioni, an astute but unconventional attorney who utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner brilliant criminals alongside the NYPD. After leaving her successful legal career in Chicago to tackle a new investigative role in New York City, Elsbeth finds herself jockeying with the toast of the NYPD, Captain C.W. Wagner (Pierce), a charismatic and revered leader,” reads CBS’s synopsis. “Working alongside Elsbeth is Officer Kaya Blanke (Patterson), a stoic and ethical officer who quickly develops an appreciation for Elsbeth’s insightful and offbeat ways.”
And the network released this description of the pilot episode:
“In the premiere, when a college theater student is mysteriously found dead in her high-rise New York City apartment, Elsbeth immediately suspects foul play and enters a game of wits against the victim’s popular theater director Alex Modarian (guest star Stephen Moyer) who she believes is involved. Throughout the evolution of the murder investigation, Elsbeth must balance her consent decree role with the NYPD and her uncommon methods to make her case and uncover the real killer.”
HBO’s set a January 27, 2024 premiere date for Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero. The documentary from directors directed by Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel is a behind-the-scenes look at the Grammy Award-winner’s “Long Live Montero” tour.
In addition to interviews with Lil Nas X, the documentary features his show producer Saul Levitz, manager Adam Leber, creative director/stylist Hodo Musa, lead choreographer/show director Sean Bankhead, choreography assistant Christian Owens, horse designer Margot Rada, and tour videographer Aaron Idelson. Family members Chase White, Lamarco Hill, Robert Sleepy, Tramon Hill, Mia Stafford, and Robert Stafford also participate in the documentary which premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival.
“Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero captures the creative dynamo and mesmerizing star power of Lil Nas X, the groundbreaking, Grammy award-winning rapper, singer, and songwriter, as he prepares for and embarks on his first-ever headlining U.S. tour. With unparalleled access, the film follows the genre-breaking artist on a personal journey of self-investigation and discovery as he creates, rehearses, and performs nightly in front of his legions of devoted fans.
Spanning 60 days of the ‘Long Live Montero’ tour in 2022/2023, the verité-style film delves beneath the surface of Lil Nas X, a boy from Atlanta born Montero Hill, whose musical career exploded with his 2019 crossover hit ‘Old Town Road.’ Mirroring the stage show, the film is divided into three acts — Rebirth, Transformation, and Becoming — and chronicles Montero’s own odyssey as he navigates the pressures of his meteoric rise to stardom, his desire to inspire his fans and accept the naysayers, and his place within the pantheon of Black, queer icons.
Capturing this provocative performer at a transformational point in his life, Montero’s elaborate stage show transports the audience through the highs and lows of his life via his deeply personal music, while behind the scenes, the film reveals a sensitive young man still exploring his own queer identity, complicated relationships with family members, and his aspirations as a force for self-expression and acceptance. Vulnerable and raw off stage, dazzling and spectacular on stage, Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero is a testament to an artist who continues to push boundaries, transcend genres, and reshape expectations on his quest to become the truest and greatest version of himself.”
January is here. That’s the time when studios will traditionally and unceremoniously dump movies in which they don’t have a lot of confidence. That usually includes a lot of horror movies. But last year, January gave us such well-received offerings as M3GAN, Knock at the Cabin, and Skinamarink. So, what does this January have in store for us? We shall see. First up – the new Blumhouse Studios movie Night Swim.
Night Swim is about a former baseball player named Ray Waller (Overlord’s Wyatt Russell) who is suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Along with his wife Eve (Kerry Condon from The Banshees of Inisherin) and kids Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) and Elliot (Fear the Walking Dead’s Gavin Warren), he seems to find a perfect house in which to lay low and begin his recuperation – it even has a pool so that he can do his water therapy. Soon after moving in, the family starts to experience strange happenings, all revolving around the aforementioned pool.
Forget about haunted houses, haunted forests, and even haunted cars. Night Swim is about a haunted pool. Writer/director Bryce McGuire and co-writer Rod Blackhurst adapted the screenplay from their own spooky 2014 short film of the same name. In reality, it’s not so much of an adaptation as it is an expansion. It provides a mythology to the one-scene short film. Whether or not that mythology is necessary is the question.
The set-up and first act of Night Swim are terrific. The audience cares about the characters and is engaged in what is happening to them. And for the most part, it’s a fairly creative little supernatural tale. For as corny as a movie about a haunted pool sounds, Night Swim pulls it off. At least, for a while it does. Once the movie gets rolling and the family (and the audience) starts to figure out what’s going on, it loses most of the momentum that it has been building up for the first half.
Unsurprisingly, Night Swim is an aesthetically well-made movie. There’s some great underwater camera work from cinematographer Charlie Sarroff (Smile, Relic), a nail-biting score from composer Mark Korven (The Witch, The Black Phone), and a subtle sound design by P.K. Hooker (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Insidious: The Red Door) and his team, all of which helps to build tension in the way that only a Blumhouse production can do it. The suspense doesn’t always pay off with a good scare, but boy does it build itself up well.
Story-wise, Night Swim is full of problems. There are plenty of unexplored subplots, untied loose ends, and unforgivable plot holes that leave the audience scratching its head. It feels as if either the concept of the short film wasn’t ambitious enough to support a feature on its own, or that the feature is too ambitious to do justice to the simple-yet-terrifying short film. Either way, Night Swim is let down by its story. Even by horror movie standards, the decisions made and the events that occur are, in a word, silly.
Night Swim is the epitome of a January release. It’s serviceable in the moment, but it will be forgotten by summer. And it may be better that way.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, terror, and some violent content
Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes
Release Date: January 5, 2024
Studio: Universal Pictures
Can love raise the dead? Apparently, it’s possible in the undead romantic comedy Lisa Frankenstein. The official trailer for the February 9, 2024 release shows a teenager falling hard for a boy who should be unattainable – given that he’s a corpse.
Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies) stars as the girl with the twisted crush, and Riverdale‘s Cole Sprouse plays her decaying love interest. The cast also includes Liza Soberano (Make It With You), Henry Eikenberry (The Crowded Room), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things), and Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher). Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) dives back into the horror genre with Lisa Frankenstein, and Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams) makes her feature film directorial debut with the project.
“A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse,” reads Focus Features’ synopsis. “After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness… and a few missing body parts along the way.”
Gina Rodriguez (Not Dead Yet), Damon Wayans Jr (The Harder They Fall), and Tom Ellis (Lucifer) lead the cast of Netflix’s upcoming romantic comedy Players. The streaming service just released the first batch of photos from the rom-com that takes its name from a group of friends who refuse to become emotionally involved in relationships.
The cast also includes Joel Courtney (The Kissing Booth), Augustus Prew (The Morning Show), Liza Koshy (Work It), Ego Nwodim (Saturday Night Live), and Marin Hinkle (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).
“New York sportswriter Mack (Rodriguez) has spent years devising successful hook-up ‘plays’ with best friend Adam (Wayans Jr.) and their crew. While it has led to countless one-night stands over the years, following their playbook comes with a strict set of ground rules — chief among them: you can’t build a relationship from a play,” reads Netflix’s synopsis. “When Mack unexpectedly falls for her latest target, charming war correspondent Nick (Ellis), she begins to rethink the game entirely. As the lines between work, fun, friendship, and romance begin to blur, Mack must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.”
Trish Sie (Sitting in Bars with Cake, Pitch Perfect 3) directed from a screenplay by Whit Anderson. Ross M. Dinerstein, Marc Platt, Adam Siegel, and Ryan Christians served as producers, with Ross Girard, Sophia Lin, Gina Rodriguez, and Molly Breeskin executive producing.
Sandra Hüller in ‘The Zone of Interest’ (Photo Credit: A24)
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) voted The Zone of Interest starring Sandra Hüller and Christian Friede as Best Film of 2023, with Barbie‘s Greta Gerwig collecting Best Director honors. The critics group also recognized Killers of the Flower Moon, American Fiction, The Holdovers, and The Boy and the Heron as EDA Awards winners.
“2023 was an exceptional year with so many women playing major creative roles in high-profile projects,” said AWFJ President Jennifer Merin. “AWFJ always focuses on and supports women’s contributions in all aspects of film production, and we are delighted that this year’s AWFJ EDA Awards honor women creatives in six of our ten non-gendered BEST OF categories, as well as in all of our Female Focus categories. We hope this female forward trend will continue in 2024.”
2023 EDA AWARDS WINNERS
BEST FILM
AMERICAN FICTION
ANATOMY OF A FALL
BARBIE
THE HOLDOVERS
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
OPPENHEIMER
PAST LIVES WINNER: THE ZONE OF INTEREST
BEST DIRECTOR WINNER: Greta Gerwig – BARBIE
Jonathan Glazer – THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Martin Scorsese – KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Celine Song – PAST LIVES
Justine Triet – ANATOMY OF A FALL
BEST SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL
ANATOMY OF A FALL – Justine Triet and Arthur Harari WINNER: BARBIE – Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
THE HOLDOVERS – David Hemingson
MAY DECEMBER – Samy Burch
PAST LIVES – Celine Song
BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED WINNER: AMERICAN FICTION – Cord Jefferson
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese
OPPENHEIMER – Christopher Nolan
POOR THINGS – Tony McNamara
THE ZONE OF INTEREST – Jonathan Glazer
BEST DOCUMENTARY (TIE)
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL WINNER: AMERICAN SYMPHONY
BEYOND UTOPIA
FOUR DAUGHTERS WINNER: SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD
BEST ANIMATED FILM WINNER: THE BOY AND THE HERON – Hayao Miyazaki
NIMONA – Troy Quane and Nick Bruno
ROBOT DREAMS – Pablo Berger
SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE – Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES – Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears
BEST ACTRESS WINNER: Lily Gladstone – KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Sandra Huller – ANATOMY OF A FALL
Greta Lee – PAST LIVES
Margot Robbie – BARBIE
Emma Stone – POOR THINGS
BEST ACTRESS, SUPPORTING
Danielle Brooks – THE COLOR PURPLE
America Ferrera – BARBIE
Sandra Huller – THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Rosamund Pike – SALTBURN WINNER: Da’Vine Joy Randolph – THE HOLDOVERS
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper – MAESTRO
Paul Giamatti – THE HOLDOVERS
Cillian Murphy – OPPENHEIMER
Andrew Scott – ALL OF US STRANGERS WINNER: Jeffrey Wright – AMERICAN FICTION
BEST ACTOR, SUPPORTING
Sterling K Brown – AMERICAN FICTION
Robert Downey Jr – OPPENHEIMER WINNER: Ryan Gosling – BARBIE
Charles Melton – MAY DECEMBER
Mark Ruffalo – POOR THINGS
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST AND CASTING DIRECTOR (TIE) WINNER: AMERICAN FICTION – Jennifer Euston WINNER: BARBIE – Lucy Brava and Allison Jones
THE HOLDOVERS – Susan Shopmaker
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Ellen Lewis
OPPENHEIMER – John Papsidera
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY WINNER: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Rodrigo Prieto
MAESTRO – Matthew Labatique
OPPENHEIMER – Hoyte Van Hoytema
POOR THINGS – Robbie Ryan
THE ZONE OF INTEREST – Lukasz Zal
BEST EDITING
ANATOMY OF A FALL – Laurent Senechal WINNER: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Thelma Schoonmaker
MAESTRO – Michelle Tesoro
OPPENHEIMER – Jennifer Lame
THE ZONE OF INTEREST – Paul Watts
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
ANATOMY OF A FALL – France
FALLEN LEAVES – Finland
PAST LIVES – South Korea
THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE – Germany WINNER: THE ZONE OF INTEREST – UK and Poland
EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS
BEST WOMAN DIRECTOR
Ava DuVernay – ORIGIN
Emerald Fennell – SALTBURN
Greta Gerwig – BARBIE
Celine Song – PAST LIVES WINNER: Justine Triet – ANATOMY OF A FALL
BEST FEMALE SCREENWRITER
Samy Burch – MAY DECEMBER
Emerald Fennell – SALTBURN
Greta Gerwig (with Noah Baumbach) – BARBIE WINNER: Celine Song – PAST LIVES
Justine Triet (with Arthur Harari) – ANATOMY OF A FALL
BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Ariana Debose – WISH – Asha
Ayo Edebiri – TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM – April; Neil
Leah Lewis – ELEMENTAL – Ember
Chloe Grace Moretz – NIMONA – Nimona WINNER: Hailee Steinfeld – SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE – Gwen Stacy
BEST WOMEN’S BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Abby Ryder Fortson -ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET WINNER: Lily Gladstone – KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Greta Lee – PAST LIVES
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – THE HOLDOVERS
Cailee Spaeny – PRISCILLA
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT BY A WOMAN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
WINNER: Fran Drescher – for leading SAG-AFTRA through the actors’ strike and standing strong for an equitable contract.
• Ava DuVernay – For creating a new financing model, for consistently supporting women in film and for focusing her work on social justice.
• Greta Gerwig – For all that is BARBIE.
• Lily Gladstone – For championing Native American stories, advocating for diversity and authenticity, and for starring in two exceptional films in 2023.
• Margot Robbie – For producing and starring in BARBIE, and for continued support for women in film via her LuckyChap production company.
EDA SPECIAL MENTIONS
GRAND DAME FOR DEFYING AGEISM WINNER: Annette Bening – NYAD
Julia Louis Dreyfus – YOU HURT MY FEELINGS
Jodie Foster – NYAD
Helen Mirren – GOLDA and FAST X
Julianne Moore – MAY DECEMBER
MOST EGREGIOUS LOVERS’ AGE DIFFERENCE
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY – Harrison Ford (81) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (38)
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON – Leo DiCaprio (49) and Lily Gladstone (37)
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART ONE – Tom Cruise (61) and Hayley Atwell (41) WINNER: OPPENHEIMER – Cillian Murphy (47) and Florence Pugh (27)
POOR THINGS – Mark Ruffalo (56) and Emma Stone (35)
SHE DESERVES A NEW AGENT (TIE)
NOTE: This is not a put-down. On the contrary, it suggests that the actress is better than the role(s) she’s been given.
Ana de Armas – GHOSTED WINNER: Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen – BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER WINNER: Toni Colette – MAFIA MAMMA
Nia Vardalos – MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3
Reese Witherspoon – YOUR PLACE OR MINE
MOST DARING PERFORMANCE
Annette Bening – NYAD
Sandra Huller – ANATOMY OF A FALL
Sandra Huller THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Julianne Moore – MAY DECEMBER WINNER: Emma Stone – POOR THINGS
TIME WASTER REMAKE OR SEQUEL WINNER: THE EXORCIST BELIEVER
THE EXPENDABLES 4
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE
The 2024 Sundance Film Festival Jury (Photo Credit: Sundance)
The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is welcoming back festival alumni to serve as members of the jury. All 16 members selected to serve on the competition jury have personal experience bringing films to the festival.
“For our 40th Festival, the jury members this year are all artists who have had films at prior Festivals. They know what it is to introduce new work to the Sundance community and we are so pleased to be able to welcome them back to Sundance to take in the films our programming team has curated. We can’t wait to see what resonates with them,” stated Kim Yutani, Director of Programming.
This year’s jury includes Debra Granik, Adrian Tomine, and Lena Waithe for U.S. Dramatic Competition; Shane Boris, Nicole Newnham, and Rudy Valdez for U.S. Documentary Competition; Jennifer Kent, Mira Nair, and Rui Poças for World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Mandy Chang, Monica Hellström, and Shaunak Sen for World Cinema Documentary Competition; Christina Oh, Danny Pudi, and Charlotte Regan for Short Film Program Competition; and Zal Batmanglij for the NEXT competition section.
“The Sundance Film Festival is known for discovering and platforming visionary emerging artists. We cannot do this without our jury, who so thoughtfully help us recognize and amplify the next generation of independent storytellers,” said Eugene Hernandez, Festival Director. “We are thrilled to announce the talented, accomplished artists who comprise this year’s jury.”
The 2024 festival takes place January 18-28th in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Feature film awards will be announced on Friday, January 26th during a ceremony at The Ray Theatre in Park City. Short film winners will be revealed on January 23rd during the Shorts Awards & Party.
Additionally, Dr. Mandë Holford, Dr. Nia Imara, Matt Johnson, Theresa Park, and Courtney Stephens serve as jurors for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which is given to a feature film “focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.” The jury selected Love Me, directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero and starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, as this year’s recipient.
(Pictured Above: Top L–R: Mandë Holford, Theresa Park, Lena Waithe, Rudy Valdez, Nicole Newnham, Monica Hellström, Rui Poças. Center L–R: Courtney Stephens, Nia Imara, Adrian Tomine, Jennifer Kent, Mandy Chang, Charlotte Regan, Danny Pudi. Bottom L–R: Matt Johnson, Debra Granik, Shane Boris, Mira Nair, Shaunak Sen, Christina Oh, Zal Batmanglij. Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.)
