The nominations for the 2022 Indie Spirit Awards are out; meet Red Rocket star Bree Elrod; The Hollywood Reporter examines the box office’s power on awards chances. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
Awards, Awards, and More Awards: The 2022 Indie Spirit Award nominations were announced this morning. The nominees for Best Feature include A Chiara, C’mon C’mon, The Lost Daughter, The Novice, and Zola. The latter film leads the nominations with a total of seven.
Speaking of Awards: Some of the filmmakers who were nominated for Indie Spirit awards this morning have written for us or been interviewed by us here at MovieMaker, and we’d like to give them a shout-out. Check out this story by I Blame Society director Gillian Horvat-Wallace, who was nominated for the Someone to Watch Award. Luzzu director Alex Camilleri was also nominated in the Someone to Watch category — I spoke with him about how he’s changing Maltese cinema here. Oh, and check out our story on Test Pattern director Shatara Michelle Ford, whose film was nominated in three categories — Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay, and Best Female Lead.
No Turning Back Now: In honor of awards season, which will not release its terrifying grip on us until February, I have a T-shirt that says “Nominated for nothing, winner of no awards” that I will be wearing every day until the Academy Awards.
Will I Wash it?: I cannot promise this.
Meet Bree Elrod: As a “glorified extra” in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Bree Elrod made such an impression that Scorsese had Leonardo DiCaprio move over so he could see more of her acting, writes our own Tim Molloy, who interviewed Elrod about her new role in Red Rocket.
I Am Covering My Eyes: Because the third season finale of my favorite show, Succession, aired Sunday night and I haven’t watched it yet. I’ve been busy! It’s not even safe for me to open Twitter without risking rogue spoilers, so for those of you who did watch and need to unpack this — or for you brave souls who say “spoilers be damned!” — you may go ahead and process what you saw over here with The New York Times’ recap. Just don’t tell me what happens.
First Look: Variety has the first look at Mads Mikkelsen’s Gellert Grindelwald in David Yates’ trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the next film in the never-ending Harry Potter franchise. Jude Law returns as Dumbledore, of course, but Mikkelsen replaces Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. Watch the trailer below.
I Say Never-Ending: Not because I dislike Harry Potter — on the contrary, I adore Harry Potter and it was a huge part of my childhood. However, I do think Hollywood often refuses to let a good thing die in peace and will instead prolong its moneymaking life until it’s unrecognizable.
But Hey: Far be it from me to speak for the other billions of Harry Potter fans. More wizard stuff is clearly what the people want!
How Powerful is the Box Office?: Gregg Kilday from The Hollywood Reporter wrote a really interesting story about whether box office earnings have the power to affect a film’s Oscar chances, the high expectations for King Richard when it premiered at Telluride versus diminished expectations after its disappointing box office. It aired on HBO Max at the same time it premiered in theaters, which may have kept people home.
Still a Great Movie, Though: Gentle reminder that awards aren’t everything. Just like earning a Grammy doesn’t mean one song is any better than another, an Oscar or a Golden Globe or a SAG award or an Indie Spirit award is just that — an award.
Main Image: Indie Spirit Awards nominees (L-R) Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Taylour Paige in Zola, Gaby Hoffmann and Joaquin Phoenix in C’mon C’mon.