Film Academy’s Submissions Site Opens, Paving Way for Oscar Hopefuls to Hit Members-Only Streaming Service

Film Academy’s Submissions Site Opens, Paving Way for Oscar Hopefuls to Hit Members-Only Streaming Service

by | Jul 21, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles

Film Academy’s Submissions Site Opens, Paving Way for Oscar Hopefuls to Hit Members-Only Streaming Service

Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: start your engines — or at least your members-only streaming service!

The Oscars submission site, through which film companies upload streaming assets to the Academy Screening Room, opened on Monday, and if past is prologue, members will soon be able to check out some of the year’s top films from the comfort of their home.

Film companies will have to go through a few hoops — and write a check — to take advantage of this pipeline, though.

There are two submission deadlines for general entry/feature film, which are based on when a film is released. The Academy must receive both an Oscars Submission Form (OSF), signed by all credited producers, and a copy of the complete screen credits by Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 5 p.m. PT, for films released between Jan. 1 and June 30, and by Thursday, Nov. 13, by 5 p.m. PT, for films released between July 1 and Dec. 31.

Beginning this year, all credited individuals with a “producer” or “produced by” credit are required to sign the General Entry form to ensure that all parties are properly informed of the criteria and deadlines regarding the film’s eligibility and potential designated award recipients. (This follows an Oscar nominations announcement earlier this year in which the producing nominees for an unusually high number of nominees for best picture and best documentary feature had not yet been adjudicated.)

In addition, the following award categories have additional or separate entry requirements and deadlines: Animated feature film, animated short film, best picture, documentary feature film, documentary short film, international feature film, live action short film, music (original score, original song), visual effects.

Complete rules, additional qualification criteria and FAQs for all award categories are posted here.

‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Eyes ‘Supergirl’ Scribe Ana Nogueira

‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Eyes ‘Supergirl’ Scribe Ana Nogueira

by | Jul 21, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles

‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Eyes ‘Supergirl’ Scribe Ana Nogueira

DC Studios is taking one step closer to a Wonder Woman movie, with the studio in talks with Ana Nogueira to pen the script.

Nogueira is a favorite at the studio, where she has a blind deal and wrote next summer’s Supergirl movie and is working on a live-action Teen Titans movie for the Warner Bros.

Wonder Woman is a crown jewel of the DC Universe, and along with Superman and Batman, makes up part of the Trinity of its key heroes. Gal Gadot previously starred in a pair of Wonder Woman films, with 2017’s Wonder Woman breaking ground for female led superhero films and earning both acclaim $822 million globally. She also starred in Wonder Woman 1984 and appeared in Justice League, The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The role will be recast for the new DC Universe.

DC Studios co-head James Gunn recently addressed speculation that the film was being fast-tracked. “It’s a priority but I wouldn’t call that fast-tracked,” he wrote on Threads last week. “Nothing is going to be shot unless we’re as sure as we can be that the script is good.”

DC is coming off of the success of Superman, which introduced Milly Alcock’s Supergirl. The character will bow in her own film on June 26, 2026, with DC also bringing Clayface to the big screen on Sept. 11, 2026

DC Studios has also spent time developing a Wonder Woman-centric TV show, Paradise Lost, a prequel described as its answer to Game of Thrones. Its status is unclear.

The Wrap first reported the news.

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:45:00

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:45:00

by | Jul 21, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:45:00

“Alien” franchise was going to crossover into “Predator: Badlands” in its first teaser, now they can be sure that Weyland-Yutani is going to be all over the upcoming sequel, thanks to the arrival of a brand new trailer. Revealing more of Elle Fanning’s wise-cracking android that comes with a few loose wires, and an epic showdown between a very aggressive lifeform and a Powerloader at the end, one thing that might have caught the attention of die-hard fans of both franchises is the small squad of soldiers that our heroic (yep, you read that right) Predator is up against.

Around the 1:26 mark, the aforementioned army is seen wandering through what looks like a storage facility, most likely on the hunt for our young Yautja (confirmed as Dek and played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who’s out for something to prove. What’s interesting about this particular squad is that, thanks to a quick pause, we can see that these soldiers aren’t even human and appear to be multiple models of the same android. This brief glimpse marks a first in “Alien” film history, given that no milk-blooded bot in that franchise has ever come initially armed and dangerous – but why would they? As Lance Henriksen’s Bishop points out in “Aliens,” “It is impossible for me to harm or, by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being.” But of course, it’s not a human that they’re after now, is it?

The lack of human targets in Predator: Badlands is a bloodless blessing, not a burden

Look, we know that when it comes to the “Predator” franchise, some of the best films have involved watching these alien hunters rip apart humans like pulled pork. Seeing them wave spines in the air like they just don’t care is as essential to the beloved movie series as watching them laugh maniacally before rage-quitting their hunt in an extreme fashion. With that in mind, though, swapping out splashes of red for white, thanks to both the android Dek is paired with and the ones taking him on, could send “Badlands” into more creative territory.

It was confirmed a while back that Dan Trachtenberg’s new chapter in the “Predator” universe would make Dek the hero, not the monster, of the movie. What better way to sell this concept than by having him more dehumanized than he already is as an alien lifeform and fighting for survival against an army of androids okay with taking him down? It establishes an interesting dynamic that could provide our Predator protagonist not just with wilder methods of neutralizing his opponents, but potentially having droves of them to fight his way through for whatever journey he finds himself on here. 

We’ll see just how messy things get when “Predator: Badlands” arrives in theaters on November 7, 2025.

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:40:47

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:40:47

by | Jul 21, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

Dan Trachtenberg’s live-action follow-up to 2022’s much-acclaimed “Prey.” While that movie took things back to the distant past, this new entry in the franchise will take us deep into the future. It also, very evidently, is going to deliver a big sci-fi crossover, possibly even building out a new cinematic universe. Get ready for a new “Alien”/”Predator” shared universe.

The first “Badlands” trailer introduced us to Elle Fanning’s character, an android named Thia. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that her eyes featured a Weyland-Yutani logo, referencing the company that produces androids in the “Alien” universe. That seemed to be laying the groundwork to bring these universes together for the first time since the “Alien vs. Predator” movies in the early 2000s. This latest trailer makes it unquestionably clear that’s exactly what’s happening.

For one, we see Thia in bad shape with the words “Weyland-Yutani” appearing on screen in plain sight. The final shot of the trailer also features Thia and her young Predator friend squaring off against a big robot machine not unlike the loader from the end of “Aliens.” Without coming right out and saying it, it’s obvious what’s happening here. The studio is also keeping the specifics largely under wraps, as the official synopsis, which reads as follows, keeps things pretty vague:

“Predator: Badlands,” which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

The Predator and Alien universes are about to collide

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There are other hints within the latest “Badlands” trailer that suggest more is going on as well. At one point, Thia says, “You’ve come to the most dangerous planet in the universe” while speaking to the unnamed young Predator at the center of the story. She then adds, “You’re after a creature that can’t be killed. The definitive apex predator.”

The planet remains unnamed and there are quite a few big, dangerous creatures in the trailer. But reading between the lines, it very much seems like Thia could be talking about a Xenomorph, as opposed to anything we’re actually seeing on screen. Whether or not a Xenomorph appears in this movie, though, the outcome is the same: the “Alien” movies and the “Predator” movies clearly exist in the same universe. That carries major implications.

“Alien vs. Predator” was a solid box office hit in 2004, leading to the much-maligned sequel “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.” These movies are not part of the “Alien” canon any longer, but there has always existed a belief amongst fans that they are canon in the “Predator” universe. With what Trachtenberg is doing here, it seems likely that Disney would excise those movies from the canon entirely.

The other important thing to discuss is last year’s “Alien: Romulus.” Directed by Fede Alvarez, the ending of “Romulus” saw Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and Andy (David Jonsson) heading off to some unknown world. Without diving too far into speculative territory here, could their final destination involve Predators and Xenomorphs? The evidence is mounting that a more meaningful crossover is in the cards.

Is Disney building up to a new Alien vs. Predator movie?

Elle Fanning as Thia sitting in a chamber beat up from battle in Predator: Badlands

20th Century Studios

So what is that endgame, exactly? Another “Alien vs. Predator” movie? That would make sense, but 20th Century Studios head Steve Asbell addressed that very question in an October 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, suggesting it wouldn’t be so simple as that. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called Alien vs. Predator or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with and those characters will combine…perhaps.”

Where does that leave us? We know for sure that an “Alien: Romulus” sequel is already in the works. That could help further build a bridge to this “Predator” crossover, whatever shape that takes. As Asbell says, it wouldn’t be as reductive as an “AvP” reboot. Doing any more speculating regarding the specifics seems like a fool’s errand. We’ll likely know a lot more once “Badlands” comes out.

The other key thing is that the animated “Predator: Killer of Killers” added some crazy s*** to the lore, making it clear that just about anything is possible in this universe. If Xenomorphs exist in the same galaxy as the Yautja, they’ve undoubtedly come across one another’s paths before. We’ll have to wait and see how Trachtenberg decides to connect those dots.

“Predator: Badlands” hits theaters on November 7, 2025.

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:30:00

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:30:00

by | Jul 21, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

Steven Spielberg’s magnum opus “Schindler’s List” is an unflinching depiction of the Holocaust’s atrocities, and there are many scenes that rattle you to the core. One of these is the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto, where SS officers tear through the Jewish men and women’s homes, toss their belongings off balconies, yank them onto the street, and line them up to shoot in a firing squad. 

The scene is shot with a handheld camera, which mirrors Schindler’s wandering eye. We see everything from a distance as Oskar Schindler watches from a hilltop while on a horseback ride. The framing also reinforces his elevated station as a wealthy man and member of the Nazi party himself. Since Schindler observes from so far away and with such a wide scope, the Jewish men and women appear like dollhouse figures, giving their slaughter an uncanny detachment. From the shock and sadness on his face, we realize that Schindler is confronted with the disturbing reality of what is happening in his country for the first time.

Amid the chaos and carnage, a little girl wanders the cobblestone streets, surprisingly unnoticed by the Nazi soldiers. The camera zooms in to match Oskar Schindler’s narrowed focus on her. Her red coat is easy to spot because it stands out against the drab sea of black and white. A palpable, voyeuristic tension builds as she avoids the melee around her, and we fear that this small, innocent girl could be killed at any moment. The scene is deeply moving, but it also raises the question: why did Steven Spielberg choose the color red and this one character to stand out in an otherwise monochrome film?

A warning the world couldn’t ignore

A girl in a red coat (Oliwia Dąbrowska) walks with a concentrated expression, hands in her pockets, surrounded by Jewish men in coats and armbands marked with Stars of David, as an SS officer glares at them while walking in Schindler's List

Universal Pictures

For “Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg set aside his blockbuster techniques to approach this serious material with reverence. Despite studio protestations, Spielberg was adamant that “Schindler’s List” be filmed in black-and-white because it evoked historical material, such as the famous liberation photographs taken by Allied soldiers after they entered the horrific concentration camps. This makes the decision to add a splash of color stand out. In the oral history of “Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg explained his intentions with the red coat:

“I thought it meant much more than just an observation by Oskar. For me, it was like waving a red flag at a world that, because of their own antisemitism, refused to pay much attention to the Holocaust, including Roosevelt, Churchill and Eisenhower, who knew about the death camps because word had come down from the World Jewish Council. It was as obvious as a little girl in red.”

During this scene, Oskar is finally paying attention. He collaborates with his accountant, Itzhak Stern, to bring over 1,000 Jewish people into his factory as workers, keeping them safe from genocide. 

The bold color also brings to mind Little Red Riding Hood: an innocent girl cloaked in red, being stalked by a monster. When the little girl in “Schindler’s List” ends up hiding under a bed, her coat turns gray, and she becomes just another victim. The next time she appears on screen, it is a stomach-churning image of her small, lifeless body being wheeled on a cart; her red coat blares against the black-and-white pile of corpses that surround her. Now, red symbolizes the spilled blood of millions. In its many forms, red is a blazing reminder of the individual lives lost in this devastating chapter of history.

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:11:48

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-21 17:11:48

by | Jul 21, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles

Disney’s live-action remake of the 2002 animated masterpiece “Lilo & Stitch” crash-landed into theaters this past summer, millions of families learned the meaning of “Ohana means family.” Translating the original film’s watercolor backdrops to the real islands of Hawai’i, “Lilo & Stitch” opened on Memorial Day weekend to a gargantuan $145 million haul and eventually cleared the $1 billion mark that every big budget blockbuster dreams of. That’s a nice chunk of change for a film that was intended to be released directly onto Disney+, where it’s impossible it could have generated that same amount of profit in new subscribers.

So if you are one of the only people in the universe who didn’t see “Lilo & Stitch” in theaters and you’re curious to see how the remake remains faithful to the original and where it diverts from the animated film to tell its own story, you’ll soon be able to welcome Stitch into your home.

Lilo & Stitch comes to home video loaded with out-of-this-world special features

Stitch takes the wheel of the car while Nani gasps in shock and Lilo covers her face as she laughs in "Lilo & Stitch"

Disney

The live action “Lilo & Stitch” will be available to rent and buy digitally on July 22 at all your favorite digital platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Then, on August 26, the film will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD, along with a shiny exclusive SteelBook that can barely contain Stitch’s rambunctious attitude. The film’s original soundtrack, featuring new music by Hawaiian musicians like Iam Tongi, Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu, Nyjah Music & Zyah Rhythm and the original score by Dan Romer, is also available to stream now on Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Families who bring home the Blu-ray or DVD will be rewarded with a bevy of special features, including a selection of scenes featuring commentary from none other than Stitch himself. These special features include:

Any ohanas out there who can’t wait for “Lilo & Stitch 2” will want to bring this disc home. And of course, the original animated version of “Lilo & Stitch” is currently available to watch on Disney+.