| | | | | | What's news: A huge weekend for awards saw prizes handed out at the SAG Awards, Spirit Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Berlin Film Festival, and more. The AP is suing three members of the Trump administration. MSNBC is set to shake up its programming lineup. Captain America: Brave New World slipped 68 percent in its second weekend. James Watkins will direct DC Studios' Clayface. — Abid Rahman
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SAG Awards 2025 ►🏆 Big night for Muad'Dib 🏆 The 31st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were handed out Sunday night. In the film categories, Conclave won the award for best performance by a cast. Timothée Chalamet was named best leading actor for A Complete Unknown, and Demi Moore won best actress in a leading role for The Substance. Kieran Culkin won the award for best supporting actor in a film for A Real Pain, with Zoe Saldaña winning best actress in a supporting role for Emilia Pérez. On the TV side, Shogun nabbed three awards, including best drama series ensemble. In addition, Anna Sawai won best actress in a drama series, while Hiroyuki Sanada was named best actor in a drama series. The winners.
—What it all means. THR's executive editor of awards Scott Feinberg offers his analysis of the SAG Awards and delves into the significance of Timothée Chalamet's victory over Adrien Brody and Demi Moore's victory over Mikey Madison, and whether the ensemble win for Conclave leaves Anora vulnerable. The analysis.
—Snubs, surprises and shutouts. After Anora's series of high-profile wins lately, including top prizes at the Critics Choice, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Writers Guild and Independent Spirit Awards, not to mention wins by star Mikey Madison at the BAFTAs and Spirit Awards, the Sean Baker-helmed Palme d’Or winner was surprisingly shut out at the SAG Awards. Wicked went into the SAG Awards with a leading five nominations but failed to win a single award for which it was nominated. The snubs.
—Most memorable moments. THR rounds up the best (and worst) moments from Sunday's SAG Awards, most of which were caught on the live stream on Netflix. The moments.
—Best-dressed. THR's Laurie Brookins writes that the style at the 2025 SAG Awards truly ran the gamut, from chic and largely unadorned gowns to classic elegance among men and a few looks in which feathers and fringe ruled. Laurie picks out Ariana Grande, Adrien Brody, Selena Gomez and Colman Domingo as among the night's most stylish attendees. The looks. |
'Anora' Nabs 3 Independent Spirit Awards Wins ►🏆 Momentum 🏆 Anora took home the top award of best feature at the 40th annual Independent Spirit Awards, which were handed out Saturday afternoon. In addition, the film nabbed two other awards: Sean Baker was named best director, while his star Mikey Madison won best lead performance. Elsewhere, Jesse Eisenberg won best screenplay for A Real Pain, while Kieran Culkin won best supporting performance for his role in the film. No Other Land was named best documentary. Maisy Stella won the Spirit for best breakthrough performance, for her role in My Old Ass. Flow was named best international film. Didi won for best first feature, with the film’s writer-director Sean Wang taking home the award for best first screenplay. The winners.
—🏆 "I’m just shocked. I’m shocked" 🏆 Keke Palmer took home entertainer of the year and The Six Triple Eight won two awards, including best motion picture, at the 2025 NAACP Image Awards Saturday night. The Tyler Perry-directed Netflix film also won for best actress in a motion picture, with a truly shocked Kerry Washington accepting that prize. In the TV categories, Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson won best actress in a comedy series. The winners.
—🏆 Glückwunsch! 🏆 Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud won the 2025 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear for Dreams, a queer love story that completes his verbally explicit, but visually chaste Sex, Love, Dreams trilogy. Rose Bryne and Andrew Scott won top acting honors at this year’s Berlinale, with Bryne winning the best leading performance honor for her barnstorming performance in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, and Scott taking the best supporting performance honor for playing Broadway composer Richard Rogers in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. The winners.
—🏆 Lachman's year, finally 🏆 The American Society of Cinematographers Awards were handed out Sunday night, with the film prize going to Edward Lachman for Maria. This is Lachman’s first ASC win. He was previously nominated for Far From Heaven (2003), Mildred Pierce (2011), Carol (2016) and El Conde (2024). He received the ASC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. On the TV side, Richard Rutkowski won for Sugar in the episode of a half-hour series category, and Sam Mccurdy won for Shogun in the one-hour regular series category, while the limited or anthology series of motion picture made for television award went to Robert Elswit for Ripley. The winners.
—🏆 Wicked evening 🏆 Also on Sunday night, the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards revealed its 2025 winners. The 15th annual ceremony was held at The Wiltern in L.A.’s Koreatown and honors the year’s best work in songs and scores for screen. Wicked’s music supervisor Maggie Rodford earned the award for best music supervision in a major budget film, meanwhile A Complete Unknown’s Steven Gizicki grabbed the award for best music supervision in a mid-level budget film. Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist behind Wicked and its stage musical, accepted the guild’s Icon Award. The winners.
—🏆 JW the GOAT 🏆 A Complete Unknown, The Wild Robot and Music By John Williams were the motion picture winners at the 61st Annual Cinema Audio Society Awards on Saturday. The celebration of excellence in sound mixing across film, television and non-fiction programming also honored Masters of the Air, Shogun and The Bear in its TV categories. The winners.
—🏆 Adapting to succeed 🏆 The writers behind the feature film Conclave and TV series Say Nothing took home top honors at the USC Scripter Awards, which were handed out Saturday night. The Scripter Awards honor the best adapted projects of the year. Both the original authors and the screenwriters share the award. Conclave was adapted by Peter Straughan from the novel by Robert Harris. Say Nothing was honored for the episode “The People in the Dirt,” written by Joshua Zetumer. The winners. |
'Apprentice' Director Apologizes After Groping Claim ►"I fully understand that my action made someone uncomfortable." The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi addressed an alleged groping incident that reportedly happened at CAA’s Golden Globes party earlier this year. On Saturday, one day after the news broke, the filmmaker took to social media to apologize and explain his side. “I want to address the recent articles about me directly and openly,” he wrote. "I fully understand that my action made someone uncomfortable, regardless of my intent, and for that, I am truly sorry." THR reported on Friday that Abbasi was no longer represented by CAA and Entertainment 360 following the groping accusation. However, Abbasi previously cited a new direction in his career path for his exit. The story.
—"Make art great again." Why did Donald Trump fire many of the board members of the Kennedy Center, and name himself chairman and his former Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell as president? According to Grenell, it was to “make art great again.” Grenell was interviewed at the CPAC conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday by Politico‘s Dasha Burns, and his appointment to the Kennedy Center was one of the big questions. Grenell, who also served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence in his first term, framed the shake-up at the arts institution as being about its financial health. The story.
—Fighting back. The Associated Press is suing three members of the Trump administration after being banned from Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One. As the suit states, the ban came after the AP continued to use the phrase “the Gulf of Mexico” after Trump said he had renamed it “the Gulf of America.” The AP claims the ban violates the First Amendment as well as the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. The news organization is now seeking a court order to declare the barring of its reporters from those areas unconstitutional and to rescind the action. The story.
—Exiting. Gerry Rich has resigned as head of theatrical marketing at Amazon MGM Studios. Rich had been the marketing head of United Artists Releasing, which was formed from the union of MGM and Annapurna in 2019. Then he segued to a top marketing job at Amazon when the company closed its deal to buy MGM for $8.5b in 2022. In the last six years, Rich oversaw the rollout of a wide range of movies, from No Time to Die, Creed III, Challengers, Beekeeper, and Nickel Boys . The departure is being characterized as amicable. The timing is prescient, although unrelated, according to sources. The exit occurs when Amazon has solidified its grasp of the Bond franchise, announcing a deal that creatively sidelined producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. The story. |
'The Baldwins' Addresses 'Rust' Shooting ►"Opening your home to an entire television production, however, is not a habit of normal people." TLC's new “celebreality” show The Baldwins premiered on Sunday, and THR's Mikey O'Connell threw himself on the grenade and watched for all of us. In a bizarre premiere, Mikey writes that tributes were paid to the late Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer on Rust who tragically lost her life in an on set accident, although the episode mostly dwells on the size of Alec Baldwin's family and defends Hilaria Baldwin's fondness for Spanish. The recap.
—Cleaning house. MSNBC is set to shake up its programming lineup across all dayparts in a dramatic reworking of the left-leaning cable news channel’s slate. Shows in primetime, dayside and the weekends will be impacted, with some notable cancelations, elevations, and new additions expected. The moves will be an opening salvo from Rebecca Kutler, who was named MSNBC’s president earlier this month. Among the expected changes are the cancelation of Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show, which is likely to be replaced by a panel show featuring the co-hosts of The Weekend morning program: Symone Sanders, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez. And in primetime, Jen Psaki is expected to secure additional hours during the week. The story.
—"It’s time for the next evolution." The 50th edition of Survivor is enlisting the help of a new tribe — the show’s viewers — to help determine how the game plays out. Host and executive producer Jeff Probst announced Saturday that the CBS competition’s 50th season, slated to air in February 2026, will be guided partly by votes from viewers. The show is calling the theme “In the Hands of the Fans.” Viewers will be able to vote on certain elements of the season, including whether idols will be part of the game, if the final four’s traditional fire-making challenge stays or goes and whether to have live finale and reunion show in Los Angeles or on location in Fiji. Voting will open when season 48 of Survivor premieres Feb. 26 on CBS. The story.
—Going out on a high. ABC's High Potential's Feb. 11 season finale tied the show’s season high in total viewers and set a new high in the key ad-sales demographic of adults 18-49. After seven days of multi-platform viewing, the episode — which introduced a potential ongoing nemesis for Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) — drew 13.2m viewers, tying the mark the show set in mid-January. Among adults 18-49, the finale scored a 2.59 rating (equivalent to about 3.47m people in the demographic), about 6 percent higher than High Potential’s previous best. The ratings.
—New record. The third season premiere of Yellowjackets drew about 2m viewers in its opening weekend — nearly all of them from streaming. The series gathered 2.03m viewers worldwide in the three days after its Feb. 14 premiere on Paramount+ With Showtime. That’s a slight improvement on the season two opener, which came in just under 2m. The tally includes the show’s on-air premiere on Feb. 16, but that accounted for only 92,000 viewers, according to Nielsen figures. That leaves about 1.94m viewers via streaming, which is a record for any episode of Yellowjackets. The ratings. |
Neon's 'The Monkey' Opens to Impressive $14M ►Too good Perkins. Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World stayed atop the domestic box office in its second outing with $28.3m despite slipping a concerning 68 percent. This weekend, Cap 4 earned another $35.3m overseas for a global tally of $289.4m. Coming in No. 2 with a dazzling $14.2m was Osgood Perkins‘ The Monkey, the intensely graphic horror pic about a pair of twins and their childhood toy. The R-rated $10m movie is loosely based on a short story by Stephen King. The Monkey marks the second-best opening in the history of special distributor Neon, and is Perkins’ follow-up to Longlegs, the Neon horror hit that soared to a $22.4m debut. The box office report.
—Ready to get molding. After several months of searching, Speak No Evil helmer James Watkins has been chosen to direct DC Studios' Clayface, the feature based on the Batman villain, which has a script from horror maestro Mike Flanagan. The character Clayface was first introduced in 1940 and known for his ability to shape-shift. Sources say the film is budgeted at $40m and is a Hollywood horror tale centering on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay. The story.
—🎭 More humans! 🎭 Delroy Lindo has closed a deal to join the cast of Legendary’s latest installment of its Monsterverse movie franchise. Kaitlyn Dever, who is new to the franchise, is headlining the human cast that also includes Jack O’Connell and Dan Stevens, who played laid-back monster veterinarian and dentist Trapper in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Plot details from the David Callaham-written script are being kept under wraps, but Legendary has said the story will feature “several new human characters alongside the beloved and iconic Titans Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat.” I Am Mother filmmaker Grant Sputore is directing the creature feature. The story.
—📅 On the move 📅 Sony Pictures' Spider-Man 4 is now set for theatrical release on July 31, 2026, a week later than previously scheduled. This change gives the project extra distance from the release of director Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which also stars Holland and hits theaters July 17, 2026. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton is helming Spider-Man 4 that is currently untitled. Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna penned the new Spider-Man film after previously writing No Way Home. The story. |
TV Review: 'Suits LA' ►"Suffers from a serious identity crisis." THR's Angie Han reviews NBC's Suits LA. Billed as a spinoff of the beloved USA Network dramedy, the series centers on a former federal prosecutor from New York who's pivoted to practicing entertainment law in California. Starring Stephen Amell, Lex Scott Davis, Josh McDermitt and Bryan Greenberg. The review.
—"Hardly a prize-winning bloom." Angie reviews NBC's Grosse Pointe Garden Society. AnnaSophia Robb, Melissa Fumero and Aja Naomi King play members of a club who become tangled up in a bloody and mysterious death. The review.
—"Beautiful, adorable and pretty thin." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews NBC's The Americas. From Alaska and Canada in the north to Patagonia in the south, the 10-part nature documentary series focuses on food-gathering mamas, adorable babies and stunning cinematography. The review. |
Film Review: 'Dreams' ►"Tender, captivating and often very funny." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Dag Johan Haugerud's Berlin competition entry (and eventual winner), Dreams. Haugerud follows Sex and Love with a drama about a teen’s dizzying infatuation with her teacher and the shifting responses to her candid written account of the experience. The review.
—"The fastest way to destroy a relationship." David reviews Hong Sang-soo's Berlin competition entry, What Does That Nature Say to You. A young woman inadvertently thrusts the poet she’s been dating for three years on her wealthy folks, who knew nothing of his existence, in the South Korean auteur's latest. The review.
—"Politics give way to historical pastiche." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Lionel Baier's Berlin competition entry, The Safe House. The Swiss director's latest follows a Jewish family bunkered down in an apartment while student protests rock the city of Paris. The review.
In other news...
—Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are officially divorced
—Tommy Dix, Best Foot Forward actor and singer, dies at 101
—Lynne Marie Stewart, Pee-wee’s Playhouse and It’s Always Sunny actress, dies at 78
—Voletta Wallace, Notorious B.I.G.’s mother, dies at 78
—Peter Jason, actor in Deadwood and films for Walter Hill and John Carpenter, dies at 80
What else we're reading...
—Nahal Toosi looks at what Germany’s election means for the U.S. — and the world [Politico]
—Rachel Pannett reports that Trump has incredibly picked conservative podcaster Dan Bongino as FBI deputy director [WaPo]
—Catherine Lucey, Meridith McGraw and Lindsay Wise report Republicans are taking the heat for Trump’s chaotic cuts at testy town halls [WSJ]
—Lucas Shaw talks to Ashley Flowers, creator of the popular Crime Junkie podcast, who has built a $250m empire and is looking to expand [Bloomberg]
—Benji Jones explains the crisis coming for U.S. national parks in two charts [Vox]
Today...
...in 2012, Lionsgate released Tyler Perry's Good Deeds in theaters. The romantic drama, which starred Perry, Thandie Newton, Rebecca Romijn, Gabrielle Union and Phylicia Rashad, received mixed reviews but was a big box office success. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Daniel Kaluuya (36), Edward James Olmos (78), Billy Zane (59), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (34), Benny Safdie (39), Dominic Chianese (94), Todd Field (61), Martha Kelly (57), Matthew Broome (24), Emily Rudd (32), Wilson Bethel (41), Ben Miller (59), Kate Mulvany (48), Beth Broderick (66), Bonnie Somerville (51), Helen Shaver (74), Tawny Newsome (42), Jenny O'Hara (83), Barry Bostwick (80), Bryce Papenbrook (39), Debra Jo Rupp (74), Emilio Rivera (64), Rob Morgan (52), Kasi Lemmons (64), Ramona Marquez (24), Crista Flanagan (49), Carolina Hoyos (47), Geoff Bell (62), Fala Chen (43), Tina Desai (38), Andy Berman (57), Stephen McFeely (55) | | | George Armitage, who co-wrote and directed the Alec Baldwin-starring Miami Blues and helmed another 1990s black comedy, Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack, has died. He was 83. The obituary. |
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