Of course, "there is the question of who actually gets the Oscar. Is it the stunt artists? The choreographer? The film’s director? Is the award for best stunt? Best sequence? Best performer?" - The Guardian (UK)
Union president Fran Drescher to her SAG-AFTRA members: "We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you." Now, what about the writers? - Los Angeles Times
As lawmakers race to finish the budget, a deal has been struck: "Hollywood studios will get a lucrative tax benefit they have long sought and workers on film productions will get new safety protocols they’ve wanted since the deadly Rust shooting." - Los Angeles Times
Riley, on parts of I'm a Virgo: Writers are "showing the world that, hey; this is where your power can come because it's not only a strike over wages, ... it's not only a strike over work conditions, but it's a strike about the very creation of culture." - NPR
In a furious and impassioned plea, Castillo writes, "I'm tired of hearing how much David Zaslav loves classic movies when his action scream otherwise. If he loves classic movies so much, then invest in the people who bring classic movies to the masses." - Monica Castillo's Patreon
"It is crucial to emphasize that while the AI component provided optimal results, AI is just one tool among the array of toolsets our artists used. No artists’ jobs were replaced by incorporating these new tools; instead, they complemented and assisted our creative teams.” - The Verge
Talk of such a move was a surprise, largely given the frostiness between the two rivals, which have been battling it out on the talent and awards front for the last few years, but optics aside, a deal, which was described as “groundbreaking” by one source, could be good for consumers and the town. - Deadline
In retrospect, it seems clear that “Inside Out” was when Pixar’s Silicon Valley brain trust began to peel off from the universe and float into the metaverse, borne aloft by a kind of totalizing cleverness. It was the moment when the studio’s narrative and emotional complexities became convolutions. - The New Yorker
"Gradually over the last decade, Reddit went from merely-embarrassing-but-occasionally-amusing, to actively harmful, to — mainly by accident — essential. … The internet's best resources are almost universally volunteer-run and donation-based, like Wikipedia and The Internet Archive. Every time a great resource is accidentally created by a for-profit company, it is eventually destroyed." - Defector
A poll of 79 film critics, with the results assembled and curated by J. Hoberman and Julian Epp. (There's also a separate reader poll.) And these are definitely not all "great"; there are a few that are downright despicable, but there's no question that they were significant. - The New Republic
Everyone's criteria will be different. (One critic declined to participate in TNR's poll by saying "Every film I care about is political.") And yet, writes J. Hoberman, "There is a consensual idea of what constitutes political cinema, if not a universal buy-in." - The New Republic
"The acquisition of the one-time media powerhouse by its three creditors — made up of Fortress, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital — is set to take place after Vice said in a legal filing Thursday that it received no other satisfactory bids as it explored a sale for the company." - CNN
To the average consumer, streaming companies have maneuvered with what appears to be only rapid growth and blind excess in mind. Sure, we reap the fruits of that near-impossible ethic, but is it what we want—or even need? - Wired
"It's a rough job, pushing and pulling a camera mounted on a dolly — a setup weighing up to 900 pounds — along hundreds of feet of track built for a scene, and Sanjay Sami has engineered, invented and refined it into an art form." - The New York Times
In an interview with Polygon on Wednesday, director Ali Selim confirmed that AI operated by a company called Method Studios produced the opening sequence to the new series, which stars Samuel L Jackson as Marvel fixture Nick Fury. - The Guardian
