Oscar News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

This Sunday will be the 96th Oscars, or Academy Awards, presentation. While many people are, of course, interested in seeing what movie will win the coveted Best Picture, there is a lot of excitement regarding the Animated Film category this year. Studio Ghibli's film The Boy and the Heron has been nominated alongside Western-produced English-language films, which has anime and Ghibli fans around the world excited about the possibility of an anime movie winning an Oscar (and not even in the foreign film category).

Perhaps two good American Horror Story seasons in a row was too much to ask for.

Coming up with a list that englobes the “best actors of all time” is no easy undertaking. It might be a highly subjective endeavour, in fact, seeing as everyone has their own tastes and requirements to be called the “best.” That said, there have been some great actors who shine just a little bit brighter than your everyday Hollywood celebrity, and that’s a fact. Knowing full well that this list is as subjective as they come, we’ve come up with a listing of the 20 actors who we believe are among the best artists to ever grace the silver screen.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

The people of Tokyo have honored Godzilla in the best way they know how... by making him chief of a police station for 24 hours. 

Greetings, Polygon readers!

Hot off winning the award for Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars, you can get Oppenheimeron 4K Blu-ray for $19.99 at Amazon and Walmart. If you’re a first-time shopper at Gruv, you can get 20 off that $19.99 sale price. No matter where you buy the film, this is the cheapest price we’ve seen it selling for.

After an amazing year of film, it is no surprise the Oscars 2024 was a wild ride, giving us some stellar fashion moments, tearful speeches, and, most importantly, some seriously hilarious moments.

Animation was the butt of the joke at this year's Oscars ceremony, but one high-profile director/producer had the perfect response to the poorly received joke from host Jimmy Kimmel. 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse went home empty-handed at this year’s Oscars, with one of its stars proclaiming it was "robbed."

The Oscars is one of the biggest — if not the biggest night in the American entertainment industry every year, and the 2024 Oscars were no different. All the stars were out tonight, from best actor nominees like Jeffrey Wright, Paul Giamatti, and Cillian Murphy to best director nominees like Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, and Jonathan Glazer.

The Dark Knight was absolutely snubbed for a Best Picture nomination back in 2009, but oh well, at least the Academy Awards wised up on Christopher Nolan. On Sunday night, the purveyor of big-screen entertainment finally won his Oscar for directing the hell out of Oppenheimer. The biopic, which picked up awards throughout the night, was well-positioned going into the ceremony while Nolan’s directing win was anticipated by fans and awards prognosticators alike. But the win was a long time coming for a director who has gone surprisingly overlooked by the industry.

During the 2024 Oscars ceremony, Ryan Gosling took to the stage with everyone from Simu Liu to Slash to perform “I’m Just Ken” — one of the breakout (and award-nominated) songs from Barbie.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue for the 2024 Oscars started out pretty run-of-the mill. There were jokes about how Killers of the Flower Moon was long enough to “drive to Oklahoma and solve the murders yourself,” a Madame Web shoutout, and a pretty good topical gag about the viral Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address last week. But then Kimmel ended his monologue on something remarkable: a quippy, yet sincere and full-throated speech in support of Hollywood’s labor unions.

The 96th Academy Awards kick off in just a few hours, and thanks to our Oscars 2024 watch guide, you won't miss out on even a moment of the glitz and glamour. 

Now, let's chat how you can actually watch the show.

After a winter barrage of award shows — the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Grammys — the grandaddy of them all, the Academy Awards, are around the corner. The 96th Oscars may be a coronation for “Oppenheimer,” which comes in with a leading 13 nominations, though other films, including “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things” are in the mix.

A Dune fan has spotted a fascinating detail about the posters for both movies – and it's something that spoils a major part of the plot. Naturally, that means we'll be getting into spoilers below, so look away now if you're not up to speed on Dune: Part Two. 

Happy March, Polygon readers. The weather is warming up, winter is closing up shop, and the Oscars are around the corner. But first: new movies for you to watch on your streaming services in March.

February is coming to a close, and with it, more awards contenders are heading to streaming services with the Oscars around the corner.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark comedy Poor Things, releasing on digital platforms on Tuesday, is in the running for 11 Oscars — and while it’s up for the big ones, like Best Director and Best Motion Picture, it’s no surprise that it got nods in the design categories as well. One of 2023’s most deliriously lavish, visually over-the-top movies, Poor Things puts its female Frankenstein figure Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) in puffy sleeves bigger than her head, surrounds her with stitched-together duck-and-dog hybrid creatures, and situates her in a house that feels like a creepy design wonderland.

Dracula is making another return to the big screen as Luc Besson sinks his teeth into the immortal vampire. The director of Léon and The Fifth Element will helm the origin story based on Bram Stoker’s novel.

The BAFTA 2024 Film Awards are here as one of the most glamorous awards season events kicks off. The stars have arrived in London for the annual ceremony, hoping to get some final successes in before the Oscars next month.

Cillian Murphy has received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as the titular nuclear physicist in Oppenheimer. So, with his first star-studded Oscars ceremony on the horizon, Murphy was asked if he gets starstruck – and he had a totally understandable response.

The Oscar nominations are in, and there’s something missing from the Best Director and Best Picture nominees — or is there? None of us at Polygon quite expected Barbie to make it, nor Greta Gerwig to snag a Best Director nom, but… should she have? And why not?

These days, a “water cooler” conversation can flare up and burn out in days. It’s rare to see any movie or TV show still spark any kind of unifying online discussion more than a week after its debut on a new platform, or after the final episode airs. For every Barbie or Oppenheimer or Barbenheimer, where critics, fans, reactors, streamers, podcasters, and others keep talking about the project for months after its debut, there are dozens of Netflix shows where the conversation stops after release weekend, or would-be blockbusters that make some money at the box office, but that viewers seem to have forgotten before the final credit rolls.

2024 might be the Academy Awards’ biggest year in ages. The Oscar nominations, set for announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 23, are primed to honor highly regarded films from around the world, performances that premiered in theaters and on streaming, and a few of the biggest movies of the year — including the Barbenheimer double feature of Oppenheimerand Barbie. It’s been a slow crawl back from the hazy pandemic era where movies that kinda sorta came out in time won Best Picture, but here we are, with a set of nomations that stands to be both predictable and electrifying.

The first look at Cillian Murphy's next movie, Small Things Like These, is here. As well as starring, Murphy is also producing, along with his Oppenheimer co-star Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck is on board as executive producer. 

Jordan Peele says his mysterious next film might be his favorite.

Fortnite fans think they've spotted some hints that indicate that Chapter 5 is actually a remake of Chapter 2, from the strange focus on Peely again to a mineral-based villain.

It's the end of the year, which means it's almost time for The Oscars. Shortlists for potential nominations have recently been making their way onto social media, including the award for Original Song, which many thought could be won by The Super Mario Bros. Movie for Bowser's very silly yet memorable love song 'Peaches'. Unfortunately, it's been snubbed entirely.

On a recent episode of The Howard Stern Show, Stern asked nine-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper which he’d prefer — to win Best Director and Best Actor at the 2024 Academy Awards, or for the Eagles to win the Super Bowl. Without missing a beat, Cooper answered, “Eagles Super Bowl victory.”

The Game Awards has come and gone again, with 2023's show proving somewhat contentious, depending on who you ask. Something that became increasingly apparent as the show progressed was the pressure winners appeared to be under to wrap things up. Even Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, who managed to snag Game of the Year with Baldur's Gate 3, appeared to be whisked off the stage after around 30 seconds, surprisingly spry in a suit of armour.

The Game Awards 2023 broke the event’s viewership record with an estimated 118 million livestreams.

Welcome to the busiest moviegoing season of the year, when films in theaters are actually worth trekking out to see and everything hitting VOD and streaming is… the movies that came out a few months ago that are also super worth checking out. Ack!

Another weekend means another batch of streaming recommendations, and there's plenty of variety to choose from this week. Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali star in new Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind, while Todd Haynes' May December, which is already generating Oscar buzz for actor Charles Melton, has made its way to the UK via Sky Cinema. If you're in the mood for something a little more festive and lighthearted, try animated movie Merry Little Batman or Christmas rom-com Your Christmas or Mine 2, both on Prime Video.

Until very recently, Robert Downey Jr. has been tipped to win the Best Supporting Actor award at the upcoming Oscars ceremony for his incredible turn as Lewis Strauss in director Christopher Nolan's much acclaimed epic Oppenheimer. However, a new contender has arrived on the scene, one who could be set to take home the golden gong.

Meryl Streep may have received an Oscar nomination for her performance in The Devil Wears Prada, but her casting was initially an unpopular choice.

Jodie Foster doesn't think her True Detective and The Silence of the Lambs characters have anything in common – but the show isn't shying away from comparisons.

Max has unveiled the first look at its upcoming It prequel series Welcome to Derry.

Greta Gerwig isn’t ruling out a Ken-focused Barbie spin-off just yet. Speaking in a new interview, the director shared how they had so much content for Ryan Gosling’s Ken that they didn’t end up using in the final movie.

Fortnite just dropped their 28th season, Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1. And, I’m telling you, it’s epic! With new maps, tools, and passes, the season will run from December 3rd, 2023 till March 8th, 2024.

The page has turned on another chapter of Fortnite Battle Royale, with Chapter 5 Season 1 beginning today after the conclusion of the game's hugely successful 2018 throwback season. The new season brought not only a new map and weapons, but also a somewhat contentious revamp of the game's movement animations. I'm just stuck on the Peter Griffin boss fight, though.

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1: Underground has arrived and it comes with a ton of changes and additions, including a new island, a train that goes all across the map, weapon mods, over 1,200 LEGO Style outfits, bosses, a new Battle Pass with Peter Griffin and Solid Snake, and much more.

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Maestro is a movie about Leonard Bernstein. It’s also a movie about Bradley Cooper’s career. In its bravura peaks and moments of rest, the film becomes an ouroboros of art and artist, a current creator channeling a historical one and wrestling with the same questions he faced, struggling in the same way to not let their passions subsume them, unsure whether they’re successful. It’s mesmerizing.

Awards season is officially upon us, and former Riverdale actor Charles Melton seems like a shoo-in to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. 

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Martin Scorsese has added to his filmography with another TikTok, courtesy of his daughter Francesca. 

James Cameron's 1989 sci-fi thriller The Abyss is getting a special 4K theatrical re-release.

Multiverses are everywhere, from the Oscars to The Flash; they’ve defined Rick and Morty for years, and of course they’re all that’s left of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the return of Invincible for its second season, yet another superhero story has ventured into alternate realities — but this time around, the series is actually doing it right. After just the first episode of season 2, which premiered on Friday, Invincible is already using its multiverse to teach us new things about the characters we already care about.

Max has gone through quite a transformation since the days of its initial launch in 2020. Following the unprecedented day-and-date release of the studio’s entire film slate in 2021, Max’s reach has continued to grow thanks to its direct-to-streaming releases and ongoing TV series like House of the Dragon, Succession, Westworld,The Rehearsal. And, thanks to the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, it’s also courted controversy.

One Piece co-showrunner Matt Owens really wants Jamie Lee Curtis to join the One Piece crew. 

It's not just One Piece fans who want Jamie Lee Curtis in the recently announced season 2 – the series showrunner Matt Owens is also on board with the fan-casting.

The Oscar winner expressed interest in the role of Dr. Kureha, but only after the strike had ended.

Chris Evans has no plans to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon, but he's definitely not against it.

The first trailer for Ferrari, the new motorsport biopic directed by Michael Mann, is one you won’t forget in a hurry. The unsettling, gripping trip down memory lane for Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) even offers hope that this is a film that could be in awards contention come Oscars season.

A live-action drama based on Pokémon will be starting in Japan in October.

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is set for a wide theatrical and IMAX release.

Last year saw the comeback of two Hollywood actors in a major way – both Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan went from career lulls to Oscar wins for their roles in The Whale and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now, Reddit users have been debating which actors deserve a similar moment back in the spotlight after quiet periods in their careers.

X (formerly known as Twitter) has been going through a myriad of transformations ever since Elon Musk announced his acquisition of the microblogging platform. Several key changes have been brought on that have changed the platform experience for most users. The Musk-owned platform also recently underwent a major rebranding campaign where its iconic Larry The Bird logo was replaced with an X, while also changing its name to the same. In the last few months, X has also suffered from various disruptions, such as temporary restrictions placed on unverified accounts, discontinuing browsing access for users without accounts, and more.

X, the site formerly known as Twitter, appears to have deleted all of the images that were uploaded to the site between 2011 and 2014.

Happy August, Polygon readers.

David Gordon Green has opened up about coaxing Ellen Burstyn into returning to The Exorcist franchise after fifty-some years.

William Friedkin, best known as the director of the highly influential horror movie The Exorcist, has died in Los Angeles aged 87. The death was confirmed by a family friend and Friedkin is survived by his wife, Lansing, and two sons.

Barbie is consistently hilarious, but it might not have been the case if Greta Gerwig snuck in a joke that she thought was “really funny” – and no one else agreed.

Oppenheimer may be taking the box office by storm, but Christopher Nolan's new movie isn't the only recent Hollywood take on the birth of the atomic bomb. 

Following Oppenheimer's global theatrical release, one moviegoer spotted a minor historical error.

Ed Boon has confirmed that J.K. Simmons will return to reprise his role as Omni-Man when he eventually joins Mortal Kombat 1 as part of the first Kombat Pack.

Based on the shooter series of the same name, the Borderlands film now has an official release date: August 9th, 2024. The action-comedy adaptation wrapped principal shooting in 2021, but it’s been somewhat stuck in post-production limbo ever since with several rounds of reshoots pushing out the release further than expected.

Samuel L. Jackson has said a cut scene from A Time to Kill could have won him an Oscar.