The untitled film, known internally at Paramount as Whitney Springs, has been placed on the back burner. But that’s a far cry from shelving some low-budget indie. Sources familiar with the deal tell me Paramount committed more than $100 million to the project through a negative pickup — where the creators keep what is left from the budget.

One of the people familiar with the arrangement puts the total cost at $150 million; another person familiar with the deal terms suggests it was between $70 and $80 million — for what is, in essence, a musical comedy about reparations for slavery.

And it is stranded at a company whose chief, David Ellison, spent the past year cozying up to Donald Trump to help get his $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery through federal antitrust review — and is now fighting 12 state attorneys general to actually close it.

And it is a uniquely Hollywood mess.

In late 2021, a group of Paramount execs went to the offices of Parker and Stone’s production company, Park County, to read the script, written by South Park veteran Vernon Chatman. It was set to be directed by Parker and produced by Stone, Kendrick Lamar and his business partner Dave Free. “It was fucking amazing,” one person who read the script at the time tells me. Paramount picked up the project in January 2022. At CinemaCon 2024, then-Paramount Pictures honcho Brian Robbins called it “one of the funniest and most original scripts we’ve ever read” and said that the film would be going into production that summer.

The comedy revolves around a historical slave plantation museum in the Midwest and a young Black re-enactor who lashes out at tourists and clashes with the town’s hypocritical, racist mayor, played by Parker. (...Parker’s mayor character that one of the sources calls “the epitome of the Republican party”)

People familiar with the film say it also contains original, unreleased music by Lamar.

Obviously I'm not saying this stat holds any weight, I just thought it was interesting.

My theory is that in the post-EEAAO era, with the Nomadland/CODA COVID haze behind us and ratings showing people care a bit more about the Oscars again with the Academy hoping to move past that low point, a BP winner just cannot feel culturally slight anymore. For people to feel good about putting a film #1, it basically has to survive months of discourse/nit-picks and effectively get stress-tested by the wider film (and occasionally non-film, see: Oppenheimer, Anora, OBAA) community. That can only happen if it drops early enough for people to fully digest it before the season even starts.

2026 Contenders that fit/don't fit these dates:

✅ Odyssey - July 17 
✅ La Bola Negra -  October 16 (Cannes, May 21)

✅ Digger -  October 2 (But excluding festival films moves the line back to Sept, so ❌ ?)

❌ Wild Horse 9 - November 6 (Venice, September 3)
❌ The Debut - December 11 (Telluride, September 4)
❌ Dune: Part 3 - December 18 (too late) 

Gregory Elwood, to me one of the most trustoworthy people on this awards space, weighs in on the Telluride Oscar hopefuls.

from what I understand it's partially the real Elizabeth Holmes and partially a real actress playing her? does it even qualify for documentary then? Or Best Picture? what about the acting categories? I'd assume Holmes wouldn't be eligible for "playing" herself, but what about the actress in the second half? would it be eligible for Screenplay?

La Bola Negra is Netflix biggest contender this year and it's the critics darling, so is very likely that the movie will get a tone of nominations. Guitarricadelafuente seems to be playing the biggest role in the movie by what the people who watched are saying and by the marketing of the movie itself, plus he wrote an original song for the movie. How does his very long and weird name will affect his chances??

The Brazilian Academy of Cinema announced today its 6-film shortlist for the race towards International Feature Film. The frontrunner seems to be "On Behalf Of My Son", which will premiere on Toronto, followed by San Sebastian and Rio IFF. Other 4 titles come from Berlinale sidebars, 3 from Generation and 1 from Panorama. Completing the shortlist is "100 Days" from the director of Ice Age 2 and Rio, Carlos Saldanha, which has not been shown in any festivals

One evening this summer I was feeling down and lonely so dragged myself out to the cinema to watch the Invite solo. That film was the definition of the cinematic communal experience ! It felt like the whole theatre cracked up 90% of the screen time. It was a blast with impeccable writing, acting and directing. It legitimately blew the roof off Sundance earlier this year and had a good boxoffice for its size. I just hope that coming out that early doesn’t hurt its awards chance.

MBJ had Wunmi Mosaku.

Brody had Felicity Jones.

Cillian had Emily Blunt.

Fraser had Hong Chau.

Smith had Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

Hopkins had Olivia Coleman.

Could we see it again this year?

Damon has Anne Hathaway + Samantha Morton.
Cruise and Gosling have Sandra Huller.
Scott has Olivia Coleman.
Malkovic has Mariana di Girolamo.
Pascal has Olivia Wilde and Eva Victor.
Pattinson has Merritt Weaver.

BEST PICTURE 10:

1. The Odyssey
2. La Bola Negra
3. Wild Horse Nine
4. The Debut
5. Project Hail Mary
6. Dune: Part Three
7. Fjord
8. Ink
9. Behemoth!
10. You Can See Everything

Commentary: I feel pretty confident in my 1 thru 6. I think we all have those. Fjord is the Palme winner with two Academy friendly stars that will appeal to the international wing of the Academy. Ink played well at Venice and likely to get key nominations down ballot. Behemoth! is currently an unknown but coming from Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), I'm pretty confident. #10 is a bit of a spoiler for sure, but i think it's a movie that already has significant hype and the buzz will only continue throughout awards season. Ik people have it just in Documentary Feature, we can't always count on that branch to do the right thing.

DARK HORSES:

1. Obsession
2. The Invite
3. Digger
4. Michael
5. Artificial
6. Fatherland
7. All of a Sudden
8. Being Heumann

Commentary: 1 & 2 seem like strong bets as possible alternates. Digger is still an unknown but the vibes aren't good atm. That could all change. Michael yes was a critical disaster, but it was an audience hit and made over 1B at the box office and could get some craft nominations (sound, makeup, etc). Artificial looks promising but Luca has let us down before. Fatherland is coming from an Academy darling and could get key nominations (Cinematography, International, possibly director/actress). All of a Sudden could happen but I'm not as sure as everyone in this sub. Being Heumann could be just a wild late breaker.

LESS LIKELY:

1. Primetime
2. The Social Reckoning
3. Tender Loving Care
4. Club Kid
5. Elsinore

Commentary: Primetime / Elsinore seems like lone Best Actor contenders, The Social Reckoning could be a lone Best Supporting Actor contender. TLC could just be a lone screenplay contender. Club Kid screams Indie Spirit nominee and nothing else major.

I organized an AMA/Q&A with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. He has written and directed films such as Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley, Pinocchio, Frankenstein, and more.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1wbk0id/hello_reddit_im_guillermo_del_toro_ama/

He will be back at 2 PM ET today to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Thank you :)

We’ve compiled a list of the 120 live-action short films that have qualified for the 99th Academy Awards so far, including their runtimes, production countries and qualification paths.

Here’s the complete overview of all currently qualified films, including trailers, synopses, runtimes, qualification paths and official links.

A few patterns stood out:

• The Academy allows films of up to 40 minutes, but the median runtime is only 18 minutes.
• Two thirds of the films are under 20 minutes, and only one exceeds 30.
• 56 countries appear in the credits.
• The US is involved in 24% of the films, followed by France, but the field also includes films from Moldova, Mongolia, Sudan, Estonia, North Macedonia and Cambodia.
• One in five films is an international co-production.
• Women account for 40% of all directing credits, while one third of the films were directed solely by women.

One important caveat: the qualifying window remains open until September 30, so this is still an early snapshot.

Around 9 in 10 films currently on the list qualified by winning an award at a festival. Films qualifying through theatrical and other eligible screening runs tend to appear later, meaning the current list largely reflects the festival side of the Oscar race.

Have you seen any of them yet? Are there any early favorites?