In 2020, what is a "theatrical film"?

by Juan Carlos

2020 is the year that altered the face of cinema as we know it. After cinemas closed all over the world, films were either delayed or released in modified platforms like virtual cinemas and VOD. Indoor gathering restrictions also led to a resurgence of drive-in theaters. Meanwhile, streaming became an even more vital way for films to reach audiences. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu all have Oscar contenders this season.

This shift in movie-watching was further validated by the Academy’s decision earlier this year to allow films released via streaming and VOD to be eligible for the Academy Awards, provided that they were previously intended for theatrical release and that they will be available in the Academy Screening Room. This amendment to the eligibility rules is major, especially given the Academy’s previous adherence to the traditional definition of what a “theatrical film” is. Pre-COVID eligibility rules state that...

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Let Them All Link

• New York Times Agents, stars, and production companies are pissed at Warner Bros for their HBO Max same day as theatrical plans... which they apparently announced without warning any of their financial partners who will likely lose millions as a result. Ouch
• TFE in case you missed my despondency when the Warner Bros plan was announced
• Daily Beast Steven Soderbergh interview on why he's working with HBOMax and his chemistry with Meryl Streep and his new film Let Them All Talk

More after the jump including Gucci, Spider-Man 3, Oscar Producers, and Top Ten List season...

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Links

• IndieWire offers up a guide to explaining various characters and events in Mank
• FilmSchoolRejects 20 movies to watch if you loved Mank
• Instagram Elliot Page (Juno, The Umbrella Academy, Inception) has come out as trans
• HuffPost Ariana DeBose is making her (movie) name with the musical resurgence: Hamilton Live, The Prom, and West Side Story

More after the jump including ranking the films of David Fincher, EW's Entertainers of the Year, an imaginary Ratatouille musical, new Emmy rulings, and more...

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The day moviegoing died?

by Nathaniel R

What is that old line. 'Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice?' Who would've expected that our particular world (i.e. moviegoing) would end due to an exceptionally incompetent cruel government's mishandling of a worldwide pandemic? There's no poetic ring to that!

Movie theaters have been closed here in NYC since late March. Moviegoing as we knew it might have died months ago while we were busy stupidly thinking of it as an induced coma that we would all purposefully awake from once treatment options improved. We were not expecting the movie studios themselves be the ones urging us to pull the plug and plan a funeral. As you probably heard today, Warner Bros, one of the last standing behemoth movie studios, has announced that they'll be premiering the entirety of their 2021 slate day and date on HBOMax and in movie theaters...

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Links

• THR Malcolm & Marie, that COVID-filmed two-hander with John David Washington and Zendaya, is now joining Netflix's stable of current Oscar contenders with a February release; as if they didn't have enough already!
• Deadline Spike Lee keeps us guessing. He's doing a Viagra musical next. WTF?
• The Verge Wonder Woman 1984 is now going direct to streaming on Christmas day (the same day it opens in theaters). It'll be on HBOMax at no additional cost for one month after which it will only be in theaters. We haven't believed the worst premonitions about the future of movie theaters up till now. But if the big studios are now willing to give up their surest billion dollar theatrical titles to streaming (where those same titles can't earn them any additional revenue other then arguably more subscribers -- but how many are required to make those regular $200 million budgets for superflicks affordable? --  then all bets are off.  *cries hysterically*