Oscar-Nominated Doc ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ Headed to HBO, HBO Max March 19, Digital Feb. 28

The Oscar-nominated HBO documentary film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed debuts March 19 on HBO and on HBO Max.

The film will be available to rent or own digitally beginning Feb. 28.
 
From Participant, Neon and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras (HBO and Participant’s Citizenfour), the film is an interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, interviews, photography, archival family snapshots and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid overdose crisis.
 
The critically acclaimed film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in the main competition, where it became the second documentary ever to win the Golden Lion for best film. It was the only film to play at Venice, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival in 2022. The film was only the second documentary to be selected as the centerpiece for New York Film Festival.
 
The political film interweaves Goldin’s past and present, from the actions of Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (P.A.I.N.) at renowned art institutions to Goldin’s photography of her friends and peers through her epic “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” and her legendary 1989 NEA-censored AIDS exhibition “Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing.” 

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In these works, Goldin captures her friendships with beauty and raw tenderness. These friendships, and the legacy of her late sister Barbara Holly Goldin, anchor all of Goldin’s art and are integral to the film. Goldin’s early experiences in suburbia and the effect of toxic families led to her ongoing resistance against a society that oppresses the most stigmatized.
 
The film follows P.A.I.N., a group Goldin founded to shame museums into rejecting Sackler money, destigmatize addiction, and promote harm reduction. Inspired by Act Up, the group orchestrated protests to expose the Sacklers and the crimes of their Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin.
 
The film garnered top film critic awards including Best Documentary from the New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and National Society of Film Critics. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed has also been nominated for the BAFTA, Independent Spirit, ACE Eddie, and DGA awards.

Apple Original ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ Wins BAFTA Award

Apple Original Films’ Academy Award nominee The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse won the BAFTA Award for Best British Short Animation.

The winners of the 2023 EE British Academy Film Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on Feb. 19.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, based on the book by Charlie Mackesy, follows the unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy’s search for home. The film, featuring Mackesy’s distinctive illustrations brought to life in full color with hand-drawn animation, stars BAFTA Award winner Tom Hollander as The Mole, SAG Award winner Idris Elba as The Fox, Golden Globe Award winner Gabriel Byrne as The Horse, and newcomer Jude Coward Nicoll as The Boy.

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The film was also recently honored with an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film, seven Annie Award nominations and an NAACP Image Awards nod for Outstanding Short Form (Animated) film.

Oscar-Lauded ‘Women Talking’ Due on Digital Feb. 21, Disc March 7

Orion Pictures’ Academy Award-nominated drama Women Talking will be available to own on digital Feb 21 from MGM, and on Blu-ray and DVD March 7 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

An adaptation of Miriam Toews’s internationally best-selling novel of the same name and inspired by true events, the film, about a remote colony’s fight for freedom against all odds, follows the women of an isolated religious community who grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith.

The film has been nominated for two Oscars, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and was named one of the top 10 films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and American Film Institute.
 
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Written and directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley, Women Talking stars Academy Award winner Frances McDormand (Nomadland, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Critic’s Choice Award winner Rooney Mara (Carol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Emmy Award winner Claire Foy (“The Crown,” First Man), BAFTA Award winner Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter, Wild Rose), and Sheila McCarthy (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Sing), along with Emmy Award winner Ben Whishaw (“A Very English Scandal,” No Time to Die).

‘The Whale’ Headed to Blu-ray and DVD March 14 From A24 and Lionsgate

The drama The Whale, which earned Brendan Fraser an Oscar nom for Best Actor, arrives on Blu-ray (plus digital) and DVD March 14 from A24 and Lionsgate.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, mother!), and based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale follows the story of a reclusive English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
 
The film has also earned Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Hong Chau, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley.

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The Whale also stars Academy Award nominee Samantha Morton (2003, Best Actress, In America), Sadie Sink (TV’s “Stranger Things”) and Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World, Avengers: Endgame, Iron Man 3, TV’s “The Guiding Light”).

Oscar Shortlisted Doc ‘Children of the Mist’ Due on Digital and DVD Feb. 14

Film Movement will release the documentary Children of the Mist, which was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination, on digital and DVD Feb. 14.

In a village hidden in the mist-shrouded Northwest Vietnamese mountains resides an indigenous Hmong community, home to 12-year-old Di, part of the first generation of her people with access to formal education. A free spirit, Di happily recounts her experiences to Vietnamese filmmaker Hà Lệ Diễm, who planted herself within Di’s family over the course of three years to document this unique coming of age. As Di grows older, her carefree childhood gives way to an impulsive and sensitive adolescence, a dangerous temperament for what will happen next; in this insular community, girls must still endure the controversial but accepted tradition of “bride kidnapping.” One night, when the young girl’s parents return home from celebrating the Lunar New Year, they are shocked to find their house is silent: Di has disappeared.

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Diễm’s documentary debut is a tender portrait of a community on the cusp between tradition and modernity, and one girl tragically stuck in the middle.

The film was the winner of the Best Directing award at IDFA and Best International Film at DocAviv.

 

Oscar-Lauded ‘Cyrano’ Headed to Blu-ray and DVD April 19

Cyrano, nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Costume Design, will be released on Blu-ray and DVD April 19 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

A re-imagining of the timeless tale of a heartbreaking love triangle, the film follows Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage), who dazzles with both ferocious wordplay and brilliant swordplay but is convinced that his appearance makes him unworthy of the love of his devoted friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett). Roxanne has fallen in love at first sight with Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.).

Special features include a making-of featurette.

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Samba TV Data: ‘Don’t Look Up’ Most Viewed, ‘Nightmare Alley’ Posts Biggest Post-Nom Viewership Jump Among Best Picture Oscar Contenders

Netflix’s Don’t Look Up has tallied the most views, while Nightmare Alley — streaming on both Hulu and HBO Max — has garnered the most views post nomination, according to a Samba TV analysis of the streaming patterns of films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Don’t Look Up has swept the others with nearly double the viewership of runner-up Dune since it premiered. The darkly comic satire has been viewed by 10.3 million households vs. 5.3 million households for the sci-fi film based on the Frank Herbert novel. (Note: Data does not take into account the fact that some titles were available for longer periods of time.)

CODA, streaming on Apple TV+, tallied the highest increase in percentage of viewership from pre-Oscar announcement to post, although it trailed in overall viewership.

Meanwhile, viewers in  Los Angeles, where many of the Oscar voters live, preferred West Side Story, which started streaming March 2 on HBO Max and Disney+.

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While Don’t Look Up has garnered the most views, only 6% of its views occurred post-nominations, while every other title clocked more than twice that percentage uptick (averaging 15%) during that time. 

“There is a tight race forming for this year’s best picture,” Cole Strain, Samba TV’s VP of measurement products, said in a statement. “While much of the media attention has focused on frontrunners like CODA and The Power of the Dog, if streaming audiences decided the winner, then we might be in for an upset for either Nightmare Alley, which has picked up streaming momentum since February, or Don’t Look Up, which has been streamed by more households than any other best picture nominee. If Academy voters who live in Los Angeles have their way, we might see another upset, as Los Angeles seems to have embraced West Side Story as the only movie to overindex in the market, perhaps giving Steven Spielberg the inside track to pick up another best picture win.”

Samba TV tracks 46 million addressable TV devices globally.

Whip Media: ‘Don’t Look Up’ Most-Viewed Best Picture Oscar Nominee

Netflix’s Don’t Look Up is the most-viewed Best Picture Academy Award nominee, according to data from Whip Media’s TV Time app.

Ahead of the Oscars March 27, Whip Media gathered data on the Best Picture nominees with the most views. 

The analysis is based on data insights from Whip’s TV Time app, which has 21 million registered users globally following their favorite shows and movies on the app. 

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The 10 Best Picture nominees ranked based on view share according to Whip Media’s TV Time app:

1. Don’t Look Up
2. Dune
3. West Side Story
4. Nightmare Alley
5. The Power of the Dog
6. King Richard
7. Licorice Pizza
8. CODA
9. Belfast
10. Drive My Car 

Fandango Survey: ‘Dune’ Top Best Picture Pick

Warner Bros.’ Dune was the top pick for Best Picture and for Best Adapted Screenplay in a Fandango consumer survey taken in anticipation of the 94th Academy Awards taking place March 27.

Fandango and Vudu surveyed more than 2,000 film fans, asking them which movies and performers are most deserving of Oscar’s top honors this year. Many of the awards contenders can be found on Fandango’s transactional VOD service Vudu at its curated awards section.

Among the other picks of those surveyed, “Spider-Man” vets Andrew Garfield (tick, tick … BOOM!), Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog), and J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos) were chosen for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, while Kristen Stewart (Spencer) was chosen as Best Actress.

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Steven Spielberg (West Side Story) was chosen as Best Director, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast led for Best Original Screenplay, and Disney’s Encanto was the top choice for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Dos Oruguitas”).

Dune is grand-scale entertainment that marvelously transports you to another place and another time, introducing characters who are instantly memorable and a story that is unforgettable,” said Fandango managing editor Erik Davis in a statement. “Fans love Dune the most because of its big ideas and its incredible visuals. This was very much a film that reminded audiences of the power of big-screen moviemaking, and deserves top honors.”

The Academy Awards air March 27 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.

Oscar-Nominated ‘Parallel Mothers’ Headed to Digital March 22, Disc April 5

The Oscar-nominated Parallel Mothers, written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, will be released on digital March 22 and on Blu-ray and DVD April 5 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The film has garnered nominations for Best Actress (Penelope Cruz) and Best Original Score (Alberto Iglesias).

In the film, two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and become pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way.

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