Alexander Payne Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Put your pencils down, and pass your ballots to the front. The nominations voting period for the 96th Academy Awards is now closed. The latest influences on the race came from the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, where Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” topped both groups.

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is set in the last weeks of 1970 and, if attention is paid, you’ll see Da’Vine Joy Randolph pay homage to Isabel Sanford, particularly how the tv legend wore her hair when she played Louise “Weezy” Jefferson in the classic TV comedy The Jeffersons.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” continued its reign over the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.2 million ($2.8 million), according to numbers from Comscore. After six weekends at the box office, the Timothée Chalamet starrer has a sweet total of £56.1 million.

Ethan Shanfeld The American-Canadian Critics Choice Association has descended upon awards season for the 29th year, voting on the year’s finest in cinematic achievement. Hosted this year by Chelsea Handler, the Critics Choice Awards are broadcast live on The CW on Sunday, Jan.

The Directors Guild of America unveiled their final nominees for the 76th DGA Awards and there were few surprises. Making the cut were Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”).

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Holdovers” production designer Ryan Warren Smith pieced together five school locations for Alexander Payne’s latest. In the retro movie, set in the early 1970s at the fictional prep school Barton Academy, Paul Giamatti’s grumpy teacher Paul Hunham is left to look after students who have no place to go over the Christmas break. Smith studied Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord” and “The Last Detail,” both released around that period, while creating the production design for “The Holdovers.” He observed everything in those films were stripped down, at least when it came to production design.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The 29th annual Critics’ Choice Awards, honoring the year’s best in film and television, are set to air Sunday evening. The ceremony will broadcast live on the CW starting at 7 p.m.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The SAG Awards nominations provided an exciting blend of usual suspects and stunning omissions. For some awards season strategists — particularly the ones behind critically adored films like “Anatomy of a Fall” and “May December” — there’s no choice but to ask, “what happened?” The SAG Awards’ pearl anniversary brought expected mentions for Oscar contenders such as the two summer smash hits “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” leading the tally for all movies with four nominations each. In addition, the crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” and the satirical dramedy “American Fiction” managed three mentions.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbenheimer” forever! Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan, the filmmakers behind last summer’s blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” are among the best feature film director nominees at the 76th annual DGA Awards. The Directors Guild of America nominated five directors in total, including Martin Scorsese for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Yorgos Lanthimos for “Poor Things” and Alexander Payne for “The Holdovers.” “In a year full of so many extraordinary films, DGA members have nominated an incredible group of gifted storytellers,” Directors Guild of America president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement.

The Directors Guild of America has nominated Barbie‘s Greta Gerwig, Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan, Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos, Killers of the Flower Moon’s Martin Scorsese and The Holdovers’ Alexander Payne for the top feature film prize at its 76th annual DGA Awards. See the full list below.

The Directors Guild of America unveiled their final nominees for the 76th DGA Awards and there were few surprises. Making the cut were Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Alexander Payne (“The Holdovers”).

BreAnna Bell “The Holdovers” star Paul Giamatti, Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) and “Rustin” star Colman Domingo were among the stars reacting to their Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations on Wednesday morning. Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani revealed this year’s noms via an early morning Instagram Live video. The awards cycle comes following the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, giving the guild a chance to celebrate after spending much of last year on the picket line.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Awards Circuit Column: It’s decision time. After months of campaigning, festivalgoing, splashy premieres, magazine profiles and morning-show appearances, Academy voters will finally get their ballots this week (Thursday, Jan. 11).

Jaden Thompson The Advanced Imaging Society revealed the Special Honors for the 2024 Lumiere Awards, which will be held on Feb. 9 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “The Holdovers” director Alexander Payne will receive the Harold Lloyd Award for filmmaking while Darren Aronofsky and Sphere Entertainment will accept Earthday.org’s Voices for the Earth Award for their film “Postcard from Earth.” The Lumiere Awards celebrate creative and technical achievements in film and television; voting has commenced and will be open until Wednesday.

Jaden Thompson AARP The Magazine has announced the nominees for the annual Movies for Grownups (MFG) Awards. “Barbie,” “The Color Purple,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro” and “Oppenheimer” will contend for best picture/best movie for grownups.

Amid the flood of awards-season nominations comes AARP, whose Movies for Grownups Awards noms arrived today. Oppenheimer leads the way with six mentions, followed by Killers of the Flower Moon with five. Both will vie for Best Picture alongside Barbie, The Color Purple and Maestro.

After winning best actor in a musical or comedy at Sunday Night’s Golden Globes, Paul Giamatti wanted to make sure that the profession that he portrays in his film The Holdovers was not forgotten

The Golden Globes shook up the supporting actress race by awarding Da’Vine Joy Randolph the prize for her scene-stealing work in The Holdovers. Randolph has quickly become the actress to watch after her vulnerable and hilarious performance as Helen in the 1970s-set drama.

Stuart Miller Da’Vine Joy Randolph had grown weary of scripts that offered her shallow or one-dimensional characters. “I’ve felt like I had to fight for fully realized characters with complexities or even start writing or producing myself,” she says. Then she was sent David Hemingson’s script for “The Holdovers,” for the role of Mary Lamb, who works in the cafeteria of a prep school for the wealthy, soldiering on even as she mourns the death of her sonin Vietnam. “I was so overjoyed to read this character, someone who was really struggling, but also trying to persevere in spite of her situation,” says Randolph, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2012 for her performance in “Ghost: The Musical.” She has since appeared in everything from “Dolemite Is My Name,” “High Fidelity” and “Only Murders in the Building” to “The United States vs.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director While January is often a slower month in movie theaters, it’s usually when major Oscar contenders start hitting streaming platforms. That’s definitely the case this year as 2024 kicks off with the long-awaited arrival of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” on Apple TV+.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, has become a crucial indicator on which films and performances could garner support for the Academy Awards due to the huge overlap of voting members. Over the years, its influence on the Oscars has been undeniable, with many of its winners often helping to shape a narrative. After getting ignored by all the major guilds, last year’s German-language film “All Quiet on the Western Front” made a big showing before going on to nab nine Oscar nominations and winning four.

2023 was a transformative year for Dominic Sessa. Sure, he filmed his first big break, Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” almost two years ago while still in High School, but over the past four months he’s seen that movie become a critical and audience darling all while attending Carnegie Mellon University as an everyday theater major.

The indie box office busted out this year, hitting is stride post-Covid with an eclectic string of releases that made a splash artistically and financially.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Oppenheimer” may not be streaming on Peacock until the new year, but “Barbie” is ready to watch from home right this second courtesy of Max. And it’s far from the only great movie in 2023 to find itself available on streaming as the year comes to a close. From Netflix’s Oscar contenders to Hollywood tentpoles such as “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” there’s no shortage of great 2023 titles streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Max and more platforms.

Don’t expect to learn the secret behind Paul Giamatti‘s lazy eye in the movie The Holdovers, because he doesn’t want you to know.

Barack Obama has published his annual list of his favourite films of 2023 – check out the full list below.The former president has long been publishing his personal lists of favourite music, films and books at the end of every year.In a post on X, Obama introduced his list by writing: “Earlier this year, writers and actors went on strike to advocate for better working conditions and protections. It led to important changes that will transform the industry for the better.”Earlier this year, writers and actors went on strike to advocate for better working conditions and protections.

“Discomfort and joy,” what a tremendously fitting tagline for “The Holdovers,” the new Alexander Payne film that takes place over the holidays. We haven’t updated our Best Christmas Movies of All Time list in a while—it was created years ago—but Payne’s “The Holdovers” would be a fitting addition to it.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Oscar voters tend to be big-screen enthusiasts. But the reality is that not every awards contender will be seen in the cinema — and that’s especially true during the holiday season, when all the family commitments, shopping and big meals can turn even a movie theater evangelist like Christopher Nolan into a couch potato. The allure of a theater’s dim, cool ambience and sharing the experience with strangers is what many filmmakers envision for their creations.

Alexander Payne’s 3x Golden Globe nominated, 8x Critics Choice nominated dramedy The Holdovers will stream on Peacock on Friday, Dec. 29.

Back in 2004, during a press tour for Sideways — Alexander Payne’s wine-soaked buddy movie starring Paul Giamatti as a depressive divorcé — the filmmaker and the actor were in Omaha in front of an audience.