2023 Oscars
How did Everything Everywhere All At Once sweep the Oscars?
By the time Everything Everywhere All At Once took the top prize this year, victory felt an inevitability. It had been leader of the pack for weeks. Then, once the Oscars finally began being handed out, those hot dog fingers were in all the pies, reports The Guardian’s Catherine Shoard.
Ke Huy Quan took the first, for supporting actor; producer Jonathan Wang the last, for best picture. In between, we saw Jamie Lee Curtis (supporting actress), both Daniels twice (screenplay and directing) and Michelle Yeoh (actress). It was almost everything, almost everywhere, over the course of almost four hours.
Yet when the film finished shooting this time three years ago, just as the world shut down, few movies would have seemed less likely to sweep the board at the Oscars.
The Academy does not like comedies. Nor does it like comic-book films or action movies or anything that looks like a superhero movie. And if it stars someone female and Asian and over 60…? Rarely a plus.
Hence the decision of distributor A24 to premiere not at Cannes or Venice, and not even at Sundance (where previous indie films that have broken through at the Oscars have started, such as Precious, Little Miss Sunshine and last year’s winner, Coda) but instead at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
The elephant in the room: How Hollywood handled ‘the slap’ one year on
A year ago, when Will Smith struck Chris Rock in the slap heard around the world, the producers of what would become the most talked about Oscar telecast in history could not hit the mute button fast enough, reports Nine Publishing’s Michael Idato.
A year later, on the champagne carpet – red is dead, in case you missed the memo – it was still the hottest topic of conversation: replaying what happened, debating how far Will Smith is along the road to reputation repair, and how this year’s telecast might respond to it.
They did not have to wait long.
From the producers’ perspective, it may have been the elephant in the room. But for the host of the telecast, veteran talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, it was a red rag to a comedy bull.
For a split second, it seemed like Kimmel might not even raise the topic, but of course, he did.
Academy Awards 2023: The best memes from this year’s Oscars prove the internet wastes no time
While most of us come to the Oscars for the movies, there are a whole lot of us that end up staying for the memes, reports News Corp’s Will Lennox.
With last year providing almost enough material for a lifetime with the slap heard round the world, Jimmy Kimmel instead ushered the show in his own direction this year, bringing his unique brand of late-night chatter, banning physical violence on stage, threatening a ‘Best Actor’ award and a long speech as punishment for anyone caught breaking the new golden rule.
Like that even needed to be said, but while the attendees at the Oscars hold their breath over and over to hear the recipients of the awards — the internet wastes no such time.
With the heavy Irish contingent at the awards, it was only fair someone brought out the famous dancing.
Business of Media
A tweet over asylum policy led to BBC sports presenter Gary Lineker’s suspension. What’s it about and why is the broadcaster in hot water?
The BBC is under fire over its decision to suspend broadcaster Gary Lineker from a long-running sports show, reports the ABC.
Late last week, the former England soccer captain made headlines around the world when he tweeted criticism of the British government’s asylum policy.
The controversy has impacted the BBC’s sports programs, with dozens of sports presenters and reporters walking out of their jobs in support of Lineker.
Here’s a look at who Lineker is, the debate surrounding his comments and how it had affected the BBC.
Gary Lineker to return to Match of the Day after BBC suspension
Gary Lineker is to return to presenting sport on the BBC after he was taken off air for criticising the language used by ministers when discussing the government’s asylum policy, reports The Guardian’s Mark Sweney.
Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, apologised on Monday for the widespread disruption to sports programming over the weekend, and announced an independent review of the corporation’s internal social media guidelines.
“Everyone recognises this has been a difficult period for staff, contributors, presenters and, most importantly, our audiences,” said Davie. “I apologise for this. The potential confusion caused by the grey areas of the BBC’s social media guidance that was introduced in 2020 is recognised. I want to get matters resolved and our sport content back on air.”
Executive producer confirmed at News Breakfast
ABC has appointed Tyson Shine as Executive Producer of News Breakfast, having previously been the programme’s Supervising Producer, reports TV Tonight.
Shine has been acting in the role for the past year while Emily Butselaar was seconded to various projects, including helping to run coverage of the Queen’s death and working with the Specialist Reporting Team, where Emily is now Deputy Editor.
Television
The Last Of Us season two: Here’s what we know about its cast and plot
After nearly nine weeks of tense and traumatic drama, season one of The Last of Us has reached its climax, report the ABC’s Angelica Silva and Velvet Winter.
It’s no shock that the internet’s reactions to the finale were nothing short of entertaining.
Based on the immensely popular video game of the same name, all eyes are on HBO and showrunners to learn the fate of our protagonists Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal).
Here’s what’s happening with season two and how the internet reacted to that ending.
Do Australian Survivor producers save their favourite players?
Diehard Australian Survivor fans, and even casual ones, have sometimes been suspicious of moves in which popular players voted out at Tribal Council are seemingly thrown a lifeline with a new twist, reports TV Tonight.
With the finish line not far off, last night two players were last night sent to ‘Survivor Islation’ a new concept which separates players and denies them food, water and information -unless shared by the remaining players- until the next Tribal Council. Nina was spared elimination, but sent to Isolation with Gerry and denied a chance to compete for the next Immunity.
Jonathan LaPaglia recently told TV Tonight, any ideas of favouritism via such lifelines was too hard to orchestrate.
“That may be true of other shows. There’s always online chatter when we have a twist and someone says ‘They saved you because they like you’ or he’s controversial or whatever,” he said.
“But the honest truth is our game is so big and so tight, that the schedule just doesn’t have that latitude. We can’t pull things up to try and save someone.”
Sports Media
Wayne Carey’s Channel Seven replacement revealed
Jobe Watson has been earmarked for a greater role on Channel Seven footy this season, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
The former Essendon champion will appear on the coverage a lot more, doing a few Thursdays, Sundays, major games like Anzac Day and Saturday nights commentating in place of Wayne Carey.
Watson will even commentate alongside his father Tim at times.
Managing Director Seven Melbourne and Head of Network Sport, Lewis Martin said: “Jobe Watson is a champion player and a champion person, and we look forward to hearing him more on Seven’s AFL coverage in 2023 on key matches across Thursday nights, Saturday nights and Sundays, where on occasion he will commentate alongside his father.
Two greats of the game with an unrivalled footy knowledge, together on Seven, Your Home of Footy.”
Also stepping up is Dale Thomas who will take on boundary riding duties, starting with Saturday night’s clash between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs.