best movie i have ever watched essay

the best movie I have ever seen

In my personal opinion Avatar is the best movie I have ever seen. I loved everything about the movie, especially the state-of-the-art technology. When I first saw the trailer for Avatar there were no famous actors in it but the thing that did draw me into seeing it was the amazing scenery. Most of the scenery in the movie reminded me of a tropical rain forest except the rain forest literally jumps out at you. After I saw Avatar for the first time with my older brother and dad, I felt like walking outside and hugging a tree.

The director James Cameron has been working on this film for more than 15 years and a budget over 300 million. James Cameron’s Avatar is like nothing you have ever seen. The movie unfolds on a digitally created world called Pandora, the craziest world you can’t even imagine. Huge rock formations hang miles above the ground with waterfalls running off them into the air; flowers that look out of this world hide in the ground if you so much as touch them; little floating flowers that swim through the air like little jellyfish off the sacred tree.

Since the movie is in 3D most of this beautiful scenery dances before your eyes. On the beautiful plant of Pandora, humans seek to find mineral deposits of Petroleum which is worth more than diamonds. The problem is not finding the Petroleum it’s the native forest people called the Na‘Vi. The Na’Vi live in a tree that’s as big as a skyscraper, the huge tree is sitting on top of the richest Petroleum deposits. The military wants to take action to force the Na’Vi out of their homes but the scientists urge the military to let them try a more diplomatic approach before they take action.

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This is where the scientist recruits a young paraplegic soldier, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), to infiltrate them by linking his mind to one of their bodies, genetically bred by the army for the purpose. They put Jake in a device that lets him control one of the Na’Vi bodies so he can move among their people and earn their trust. While all this is happening Jake is safe at the military base sitting in this machine for hours like a vegetable.

The reason why they choose Jake for this assignment is because his older brother was on this mission but died. The military didn’t want to get rid of the avatar so they found his twin brother Jake to help. Jake acts as a spy for the humans learning the ways of the Na’Vi but in time falls in love with the Na’Vi princess, he starts to wonder if he’s really on the right side. Most movies that I see I can easily predict what was about to happen or going to happen in the future. But I could never have guessed most of the things that happened.

When I saw Avatar it was like I was in this futuristic dream that I couldn’t escape from, not that I wanted to even leave for a second to go to the bathroom. I remember having to go to the bathroom really bad after drinking a large coke; I held it in for most of the movie until I couldn’t any longer. Avatar has been nominated for 9 Oscar awards. Those nominations are best art direction, best cinematography, best directing, best film editing, best original score, best picture, best sound editing, best sound mixing and best visual effects.

There were no performance nominations; I’m not surprised at this because the visual effects and graphics are what draw you in to see the movie. In my opinion the acting wasn’t good or bad it was just ok. I think this movie would have done much better than it has if Cameron higher some better known actors such as Leonardo Dicaprio. Above all I would highly recommend going to see this big-budget mainstream film. If you can go to the loudest, biggest, brightest theater you can find and if you go deaf or blind from seeing this movie it will be well worth it.

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

A film analysis essay might be the most exciting assignment you have ever had! After all, who doesn’t love watching movies? You have your favorite movies, maybe something you watched years ago, perhaps a classic, or a documentary. Or your professor might assign a film for you to make a critical review. Regardless, you are totally up for watching a movie for a film analysis essay.

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However, once you have watched the movie, facing the act of writing might knock the wind out of your sails because you might be wondering how to write a film analysis essay. In summary, writing movie analysis is not as difficult as it might seem, and Custom-writing.org experts will prove this. This guide will help you choose a topic for your movie analysis, make an outline, and write the text.️ Film analysis examples are added as a bonus! Just keep reading our advice on how to get started.

❓ What Is a Film Analysis Essay?

• 🚦 Film Analysis Types

📽️ Movie Analysis Format

✍️ how to write a film analysis, 🎦 film analysis template, 🎬 film analysis essay topics.

• 📄 Essay Examples

🔗 References

To put it simply, film analysis implies watching a movie and then considering its characteristics : genre, structure, contextual context, etc. Film analysis is usually considered to be a form of rhetorical analysis . The key to success here is to formulate a clear and logical argument, supporting it with examples.

🚦 Film Analysis Essay Types

Since a film analysis essay resembles literature analysis, it makes sense that there are several ways to do it. Its types are not limited to the ones described here. Moreover, you are free to combine the approaches in your essay as well. Since your writing reflects your own opinion, there is no universal way to do it.

• Semiotic analysis . If you’re using this approach, you are expected to interpret the film’s symbolism. You should look for any signs that may have a hidden meaning. Often, they reveal some character’s features. To make the task more manageable, you can try to find the objects or concepts that appear on the screen multiple times. What is the context they appear in? It might lead you to the hidden meaning of the symbols.
• Narrative structure analysis . This type is quite similar to a typical literature guide. It includes looking into the film’s themes, plot, and motives. The analysis aims to identify three main elements: setup, confrontation, and resolution. You should find out whether the film follows this structure and what effect it creates. It will make the narrative structure analysis essay if you write about the theme and characters’ motivations as well.
• Contextual analysis . Here, you would need to expand your perspective. Instead of focusing on inner elements, the contextual analysis looks at the time and place of the film’s creation. Therefore, you should work on studying the cultural context a lot. It can also be a good idea to mention the main socio-political issues of the time. You can even relate the film’s success to the director or producer and their career.
• Mise-en-scene analysis . This type of analysis works with the most distinctive feature of the movies, audiovisual elements. However, don’t forget that your task is not only to identify them but also to explain their importance. There are so many interconnected pieces of this puzzle: the light to create the mood, the props to show off characters’ personalities, messages hidden in the song lyrics.

To write an effective film analysis essay, it is important to follow specific format requirements that include the following:

• Standard essay structure. Just as with any essay, your analysis should consist of an introduction with a strong thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The main body usually includes a summary and an analysis of the movie’s elements.
• Present tense for events in the film. Use the present tense when describing everything that happens in the movie. This way, you can make smooth transitions between describing action and dialogue. It will also improve the overall narrative flow.
• Proper formatting of the film’s title. Don’t enclose the movie’s title in quotation marks; instead, italicize it. In addition, use the title case : that is, capitalize all major words.
• Proper use of the characters’ names. When you mention a film character for the first time, name the actor portraying them. After that, it is enough to write only the character’s name.
• In-text citations. Use in-text citations when describing certain scenes or shots from the movie. Format them according to your chosen citation style. If you use direct quotes, include the time-stamp range instead of page numbers. Here’s how it looks in the MLA format: (Smith 0:11:24–0:12:35).

Even though film analysis is similar to the literary one, you might still feel confused with where to begin. No need to worry; there are only a few additional steps you need to consider during the writing process.

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Starting Your Film Analysis Essay

There are several things you need to do before you start writing your film analysis paper. First and foremost, you have to watch the movie. Even if you have seen it a hundred times, you need to watch it again to make a good film analysis essay.

Note that you might be given an essay topic or have to think of it by yourself. If you are free to choose a topic for your film analysis essay, reading some critical reviews before you watch the film might be a good idea. By doing this in advance, you will already know what to look for when watching the movie.

In the process of watching, keep the following tips in mind:

• Consider your impression of the movie
• Enumerate memorable details
• Try to interpret the movie message in your way
• Search for the proof of your ideas (quotes from the film)
• Make comments on the plot, settings, and characters
• Draw parallels between the movie you are reviewing and some other movies

Making a Film Analysis Essay Outline

Once you have watched and possibly re-watched your assigned or chosen movie from an analytical point of view, you will need to create a movie analysis essay outline . The task is pretty straightforward: the outline can look just as if you were working on a literary analysis or an article analysis.

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• Introduction : This includes the basics of the movie, including the title, director, and the date of release. You should also present the central theme or ideas in the movie and your thesis statement .
• Summary : This is where you take the time to present an overview of the primary concepts in the movie, including the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why)—don’t forget how!—as well as anything you wish to discuss that relates to the point of view, style, and structure.
• Analysis : This is the body of the essay and includes your critical analysis of the movie, why you did or did not like it, and any supporting material from the film to support your views. It would help if you also discussed whether the director and writer of the movie achieved the goal they set out to achieve.
• Conclusion: This is where you can state your thesis again and provide a summary of the primary concepts in a new and more convincing manner, making a case for your analysis. You can also include a call-to-action that will invite the reader to watch the movie or avoid it entirely.

You can find a great critical analysis template at Thompson Rivers University website. In case you need more guidance on how to write an analytical paper, check out our article .

Writing & Editing Your Film Analysis Essay

We have already mentioned that there are differences between literary analysis and film analysis. They become especially important when one starts writing their film analysis essay.

First of all, the evidence you include to support the arguments is not the same. Instead of quoting the text, you might need to describe the audiovisual elements.

However, the practice of describing the events is similar in both types. You should always introduce a particular sequence in the present tense. If you want to use a piece of a dialogue between more than two film characters, you can use block quotes. However, since there are different ways to do it, confirm with your supervisor.

For your convenience, you might as well use the format of the script, for which you don’t have to use quotation marks:

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ELSA: But she won’t remember I have powers?

KING: It’s for the best.

Finally, to show off your proficiency in the subject, look at the big picture. Instead of just presenting the main elements in your analysis, point out their significance. Describe the effect they make on the overall impression form the film. Moreover, you can dig deeper and suggest the reasons why such elements were used in a particular scene to show your expertise.

Stuck writing a film analysis essay? Worry not! Use our template to structure your movie analysis properly.

Introduction

• The title of the film is… [title]
• The director is… [director’s name] He/she is known for… [movies, style, etc.]
• The movie was released on… [release date]
• The themes of the movie are… [state the film’s central ideas]
• The film was made because… [state the reasons]
• The movie is… because… [your thesis statement].
• The main characters are… [characters’ names]
• The events take place in… [location]
• The movie is set in… [time period]
• The movie is about… [state what happens in the film and why]
• The movie left a… [bad, unforgettable, lasting, etc.] impression in me.
• The script has… [a logical sequence of events, interesting scenes, strong dialogues, character development, etc.]
• The actors portray their characters… [convincingly, with intensity, with varying degree of success, in a manner that feels unnatural, etc.]
• The soundtrack is [distracting, fitting, memorable, etc.]
• Visual elements such as… [costumes, special effects, etc.] make the film [impressive, more authentic, atmospheric, etc.]
• The film succeeds/doesn’t succeed in engaging the target audience because it… [tells a compelling story, features strong performances, is relevant, lacks focus, is unauthentic, etc.]
• Cultural and societal aspects make the film… [thought-provoking, relevant, insightful, problematic, polarizing, etc.]
• The director and writer achieved their goal because… [state the reasons]
• Overall, the film is… [state your opinion]
• I would/wouldn’t recommend watching the movie because… [state the reasons]
• Analysis of the film Inception by Christopher Nolan .
• Examine the rhetoric in the film The Red Balloon .
• Analyze the visual effects of Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero .
• Basic concepts of the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.
• The characteristic features of Federico Fellini’s movies.
• Analysis of the movie The Joker .
• The depiction of ethical issues in Damaged Care .
• Analyze the plot of the film Moneyball .
• Explore the persuasive techniques used in Henry V .
• Analyze the movie Killing Kennedy .
• Discuss the themes of the film Secret Window .
• Describe the role of audio and video effects in conveying the message of the documentary Life in Renaissance .
• Compare and analyze the films Midnight Cowboy and McCabe and Mrs. Miller .
• Analysis of the movie Rear Window .
• The message behind the film Split .
• Analyze the techniques used by Tim Burton in his movie Sleepy Hollow .
• The topic of children’s abuse and importance of trust in Joseph Sargent’s Sybil .
• Examine the themes and motives of the film Return to Paradise by Joseph Ruben .
• The issues of gender and traditions in the drama The Whale Rider.
• Analysis of the film Not Easily Broken by Duke Bill.
• The symbolism in R. Scott’s movie Thelma and Louise .
• The meaning of audiovisual effects in Citizen Kane .
• Analyze the main characters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .
• Discuss the historical accuracy of the documentary The Civil War .
• Analysis of the movie Through a Glass Darkly .
• Explore the core idea of the comedy Get Out .
• The problem of artificial intelligence and human nature in Ex Machina .
• Three principles of suspense used in the drama The Fugitive .
• Examine the ideas Michael Bay promotes in Armageddon .
• Analyze the visual techniques used in Tenet by Christopher Nolan.
• Analysis of the movie The Green Mile .
• Discrimination and exclusion in the film The Higher Learning .
• The hidden meaning of the scenes in Blade Runner .
• Compare the social messages of the films West Side Story and Romeo + Juliet .
• Highlighting the problem of children’s mental health in the documentary Kids in Crisis .
• Discuss the ways Paul Haggis establishes the issue of racial biases in his movie Crash .
• Analyze the problem of moral choice in the film Gone Baby Gone .
• Analysis of the historical film Hacksaw Ridge .
• Explore the main themes of the film Mean Girls by Mark Walters .
• The importance of communication in the movie Juno .
• Describe the techniques the authors use to highlight the problems of society in Queen and Slim .
• Examine the significance of visual scenes in My Family/ Mi Familia .
• Analysis of the thriller Salt by Phillip Noyce.
• Analyze the message of Greg Berlanti’s film Love, Simon .
• Interpret the symbols of the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
• Discuss the modern issues depicted in the film The Corporation .
• Moral lessons of Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond .
• Analysis of the documentary Solitary Nation .
• Describe the audiovisual elements of the film Pride and Prejudice (2005) .
• The problem of toxic relationships in Malcolm and Marie .

📄 Film Analysis Examples

Below you’ll find two film analysis essay examples. Note that the full versions are downloadable for free!

Film Analysis Example #1: The Intouchables

Raising acute social problems in modern cinema is a common approach to draw the public’s attention to the specific issues and challenges of people facing crucial obstacles. As a film for review, The Intouchables by Oliver Nakache and Éric Toledano will be analyzed, and one of the themes raised in this movie is the daily struggle of the person with severe disabilities. This movie is a biographical drama with comedy elements. The Intouchables describes the routine life of a French millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair and forced to receive help from his servants. The acquaintance of the disabled person with a young and daring man from Parisian slums changes the lives of both radically. The film shows that for a person with disabilities, recognition as a full member of society is more important than sympathy and compassion, and this message expressed comically raises an essential problem of human loneliness.

Movie Analysis Example #2: Parasite

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and is the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020. With its overwhelming plot and acting, this motion picture retains a long-lasting effect and some kind of shock. The class serves as a backbone and a primary objective of social commentary within the South Korean comedy/thriller (Kench, 2020). Every single element and detail in the movie, including the student’s stone, the contrasting architecture, family names, and characters’ behavior, contribute to the central topic of the universal problem of classism and wealth disparity. The 2020 Oscar-winning movie Parasite (2019) is a phenomenal cinematic portrayal and a critical message to modern society regarding the severe outcomes of the long-established inequalities within capitalism.

Want more examples? Check out this bonus list of 10 film analysis samples. They will help you gain even more inspiration.

• “Miss Representation” Documentary Film Analysis
• “The Patriot”: Historical Film Analysis
• “The Morning Guy” Film Analysis
• 2012′ by Roland Emmerich Film Analysis
• “The Crucible” (1996) Film Analysis
• The Aviator’ by Martin Scorsese Film Analysis
• The “Lions for Lambs” Film Analysis
• Bill Monroe – Father of Bluegrass Music Film Analysis
• Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’ Film Analysis
• Red Tails by George Lucas Film Analysis

Film Analysis Essay FAQ

• Watch the movie or read a detailed plot summary.
• Read others’ film reviews paying attention to details like key characters, movie scenes, background facts.
• Compose a list of ideas about what you’ve learned.
• Organize the selected ideas to create a body of the essay.
• Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

The benefits of analyzing a movie are numerous . You get a deeper understanding of the plot and its subtle aspects. You can also get emotional and aesthetic satisfaction. Film analysis enables one to feel like a movie connoisseur.

Here is a possible step by step scenario:

• Think about the general idea that the author probably wanted to convey.
• Consider how the idea was put across: what characters, movie scenes, and details helped in it.
• Study the broader context: the author’s other works, genre essentials, etc.

The definition might be: the process of interpreting a movie’s aspects. The movie is reviewed in terms of details creating the artistic value. A film analysis essay is a paper presenting such a review in a logically structured way.

• Film Analysis – UNC Writing Center
• Film Writing: Sample Analysis // Purdue Writing Lab
• Yale Film Analysis – Yale University
• Film Terms And Topics For Film Analysis And Writing
• Questions for Film Analysis (Washington University)
• Resources on Film Analysis – Cinema Studies (University of Toronto)
• Does Film Analysis Take the Magic out of Movies?
• Film Analysis Research Papers – Academia.edu
• What’s In a Film Analysis Essay? Medium
• Analysis of Film – SAGE Research Methods
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A critique paper is an academic writing genre that summarizes and gives a critical evaluation of a concept or work. Or, to put it simply, it is no more than a summary and a critical analysis of a specific issue. This type of writing aims to evaluate the impact of...

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What is an expository essay? This type of writing aims to inform the reader about the subject clearly, concisely, and objectively. The keyword here is “inform”. You are not trying to persuade your reader to think a certain way or let your own opinions and emotions cloud your work. Just stick to the...

Have you ever tried to write a story analysis but ended up being completely confused and lost? Well, the task might be challenging if you don’t know the essential rules for literary analysis creation. But don’t get frustrated! We know how to write a short story analysis, and we are...

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One of the most critical skills that students gain during their college years is assignment writing. Composing impressive essays and research papers can be quite challenging, especially for ESL students. Nonetheless, before learning the art of academic writing, you may make numerous common essay mistakes. Such involuntary errors appear in:...

You’re probably thinking: I’m no Mahatma Gandhi or Steve Jobs—what could I possibly write in my memoir? I don’t even know how to start an autobiography, let alone write the whole thing. But don’t worry: essay writing can be easy, and this autobiography example for students is here to show...

Some people know which profession to choose from childhood, while others decide much later in life. However, and whenever you come to it, you may have to elaborate on it in your personal statement or cover letter. This is widely known as “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” essay.

Assigned with an essay about friendship? Congrats! It’s one of the best tasks you could get. Digging through your memories and finding strong arguments for this paper can be an enjoyable experience. I bet you will cope with this task effortlessly as we can help you with the assignment. Just...

When you are assigned an autobiography to write, tens, and even hundreds of questions start buzzing in your head. How to write autobiography essay parts? What to include? How to make your autobiography writing flow? Don’t worry about all this and use the following three simple principles and 15 creative...

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Have you ever read a review and asked yourself how the critic arrived at a different interpretation for the film? You are sure that you saw the same movie, but you interpreted it differently. Most moviegoers go to the cinema for pleasure and entertainment. There’s a reason why blockbuster movies attract moviegoers – cinema is a form of escape, a way to momentarily walk away from life’s troubles.

It’s an interesting point of view. Thank you for your opinion, Sourav!

EXCELENT COVERAGE!

Thank you, Mike!

Hi Rebecca,

Glad you liked the post. Sure thing, feel free to share the link with your audience!

All the best.

What Makes a Movie the Greatest of All Time?

By Eric Grode ,  Weiyi Cai ,  Rumsey Taylor and Josh Williams Dec. 2, 2022

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The much-respected Sight and Sound poll of the best films ever shows that what is valued onscreen has changed over time, sometimes radically.

By Eric Grode . Produced by Weiyi Cai , Rumsey Taylor and Josh Williams . Dec. 2, 2022

What are the greatest films of all time? Everyone from IMDb to the American Film Institute to your favorite podcast has tried to answer this. But for many cineastes, a poll conducted once a decade by the British film magazine Sight and Sound has served as the gold standard since 1952.

Roger Ebert once described the survey as “by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies — the only one most serious movie people take seriously.”

And for a very long time, the same “serious movies” got taken seriously decade after decade. The new list , however, marks several radical shifts from the accepted wisdom — and maybe, just maybe, from the idea of a “canon” altogether.

1. “Bicycle Thieves”

1. Vittorio De Sica ("De" is capped per iMDB and Wiki)

At the start, when Sight and Sound asked 85 critics to submit their all-time Top 10 lists, just 63 responded. Top honors went to Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist drama “ Bicycle Thieves ,” which had been released a mere four years earlier.

Following it was a curious blend of the popular (two Charlie Chaplin films, “ City Lights ” and “Gold Rush,” tied for No. 2) …

the lavish (“ Intolerance ”) …

and the austere ( “The Passion of Joan of Arc” ).

The list even made room for “ Le Million ,” a French musical comedy about a missing lottery ticket.

In 1962 , Sight and Sound returned with a bigger set of respondents — and a drastically different set of winners.

“ Bicycle Thieves ” still made the cut, as did Sergei Eisenstein’s “ Battleship Potemkin .”

But no more lottery tickets or Little Tramps. And the top spot went to a newcomer that would get pretty comfortable as No. 1 …

“ Citizen Kane ,” Orson Welles’s paper-thinly veiled William Randolph Hearst biopic.

It would sit atop Sight and Sound’s rankings for the next half century. And during that time, a fairly sturdy canon of Great Films settled into place …

with such titans as Jean Renoir (“The Rules of the Game”)…

Yasujir o Ozu (“Tokyo Story”)…

and Federico Fellini (“8½”) taking up seemingly permanent residence on the survey.

If you took a Film 101 class in college in the late 20th century, there’s a decent chance your syllabus looked a lot like the 1972 Top 10 list .

The preponderance of certain directors added to the sometimes clubbish vibe: In 1972, Welles and Ingmar Bergman alone were responsible for more than a third of what the respondents considered the greatest films of all time.

In 1982 Alfred Hitchcock finally made his first appearance. Horror and suspense were (and still are) largely outsiders in Great Film discussions, but here we see “ Vertigo ” enter at No. 7 …

and creep north until, by 2012, it had supplanted “Citizen Kane” in the top spot, generating headlines around the world like Slate’s “Three Theories for How ‘Vertigo’ Dethroned ‘Kane.’”

Still, every film but one in the 2012 Top 10 had appeared on at least one previous list.

But when this year’s Sight and Sound list was unveiled on Dec. 1, the list featured surprises galore.

Nearly half of the elite Top 10 were newcomers , including No. 1 — a title that very few people saw coming …

Chantal Akerman’s “ Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles .”

It’s a pioneering work of slow cinema — in one unbroken shot, the title character makes a meatloaf for more than three minutes — and represents the first appearance of any female director in any Sight and Sound Top 10.

And she’s not alone. Claire Denis’s “ Beau Travail ” is joining her.

As it happened, those films made their first appearances in 2012, when Sight and Sound’s rankings went well beyond the Top 10.

That transparency was also evident this year, allowing the idiosyncrasies of individual lists to poke through. The two Top 100 lists make room for quirkier titles like “ Blade Runner ” …

and for influential short films like “ La Jetée .”

But the 2022 reshuffle also meant five films from the previous Top 10 list needed to go, among them the only title to have charted every single decade since 1952. Sorry, Renoir, that’s just “ The Rules of the Game .”

Early in the poll’s history, respondents were often willing to honor recently released titles. (You could only go back so far into film history in 1952!)

But not since 1992, when “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) made the Top 10, had any film less than 25 years old been charted.

That changed in a big way this year, with no fewer than three films from the last quarter-century in the Top 10: “ In the Mood for Love ” (2000), “ Beau Travail ” (1999) and “ Mulholland Drive ” (2001).

Those 63 Sight and Sound voters in 1952 have given way to more than 1,600 in 2022, and the more extensive vote tabulations allow for a deeper look into trends in the Top 100.

Akerman and Denis , the first women to ever appear on the list, made it into the Top 100 in 2012 …

and were joined this year by seven other women : Céline Sciamma, Julie Dash, Maya Deren, Agnès Varda, Vera Chytilova, Barbara Loden and Jane Campion. ( Akerman and Varda were recognized twice.)

Not a single Black American filmmaker made the Top 100 in 2012. This year there are five, led by Spike Lee and “ Do the Right Thing ” at No. 24.

And is directing the 60th-greatest film of all time not sufficient to land Julie Dash , the only Black woman on the list, funding for her subsequent projects?

The French new wave is well represented and Japanese films continue to make a strong showing.

But in addition to being more inclusive, this decade's list is more global, with new entries from New Zealand (“ The Piano ”), Czechoslovakia (“ Daisies ”), South Korea (“ Parasite ”) and Thailand (“ Tropical Malady ”).

The Thai film “ Tropical Malady ,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s enigmatic romantic drama, also reflects an increased recognition of L.G.B.T.Q.-themed films.

Two of those Japanese titles, both from Studio Ghibli, remain the only animated films to make the list. Maybe next decade, Disney and Pixar.

And horror is surprisingly well represented in 2022. (Don’t forget that dumpster scene in “ Mulholland Drive ”!)

For all the arguments over the greatest year in film history — 1939, 1999, etc. — it looks like strong cases could be made for 1960 and 1966 , based on this year’s list.

And if it’s any consolation to Hitchcock after losing the top spot, he is one of the two most honored filmmakers on the list, with “Rear Window” and “North by Northwest” joining “Vertigo” and “ Psycho ” in the Top 100.

He’s tied with Jean-Luc Godard , the “ Breathless ” director, who died in September. Godard once called Hitchcock the “greatest creator of forms of the 20th century.”

By contrast, Godard’s old nemesis Bergman saw three of his four Top 100 titles vanish this year. Only “ Persona ” remains.

Also gone from the Top 100 altogether: Welles’s famously mangled “ The Magnificent Ambersons ,” which was nestled in Top 10 lists as recently as 1982.

And whether it’s Frank Capra or Steven Spielberg, Werner Herzog or Ernst Lubitsch, Quentin Tarantino or Howard Hawks, we can probably all agree that somebody is missing.

(On a personal note, a world where “Dr. Strangelove” is neither a Top 100 film nor even one of Stanley Kubrick’s three best works is not one I care to inhabit.)

There’s always 2032. What will the next list bring? Well, 18 of the directors on this year’s list are still alive , which is encouraging. If this list is any indication, a handful of future entries haven’t been made yet.

And look down at No. 41, near “Rear Window” and “Rashomon.” “ Bicycle Thieves ” is sitting there patiently, perhaps waiting for its time back in the spotlight of serious movie people everywhere.

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of films on the 2012 Top 10 that had previously appeared on a list. Nine titles had ranked in earlier decades, not all 10.

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If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

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Pass the Time With Purpose: 5 Essential Film Essays

Talking about movies is one of our favorite pastimes, maybe even more than the movies themselves. It’s irresistible to critique someone’s work, point out flaws, and relive some of the key moments. But, for filmmakers, talking about movies isn’t just fun—it’s essential.

As all of us well know, nothing in a film happens by accident (ok, almost nothing). So, when we notice that a film looks, feel, or sounds a certain way, then there’s a great chance it’s worth talking about. Outside of making a film yourself, examining other filmmakers’ works is probably the quickest way to learn the craft.

Most of us have a little extra time on our hands these days. So, instead of falling into the abyss of the endless scroll or rewatching the entirety of The Office for the sixth time, we wanted to take an opportunity to provide you with some valuable alternatives. 

Here are 5 essential film essays for you to learn from, plus a few channels to explore.

Thomas Flight | Chernobyl – A Masterclass in Perspective

In case you missed what may be one of the best miniseries of all time, we highly recommend stopping everything to watch Chernobyl . Then, watch Thomas Flight’s incredible examination of how to tell a story through a character’s eyes. The lessons to learn here are essential for effective storytelling, and he uses key examples of how to do it and how not to do it (sorry, Mark Wahlberg).

Nerdwriter | Mandy: The Art of Film Grain

“Time has no meaning anymore. Every aesthetic of the past is a pallet of the future.” That’s a pretty bold statement, but in this video from Nerdwriter, they do a pretty good job of backing it up. Now, there’s a lot to talk about with Mandy , but this examination of film grain is a great way to dive into how we connect with things, how aesthetics can play a role in filmmaking, and why it matters at all.

The Discarded Image | Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood | Tarantino at his Most Meta

This great essay from our friends at The Discarded Image has more “I never thought of that” moments than we can count. The video uses Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood as a launching point to explore Quentin Tarantino’s career, and how he uses our preconceived notions to subvert our expectations. There are some mind-blowing moments here, including how Tarantino casts actors based on our pop-culture awareness of them. Crazy stuff.

Hurlbut Academy | Parasite | The Look Of… 

Parasite is destined to be a “film school” film, and for good reason. Director Bong Joon-ho’s instant classic is one of the most intentional movies we’ve ever seen. Literally every decision was made to tell a story, either consciously or unconsciously, and in this essay from the Hurlbut Academy, they explore the visual decisions behind its production. They break down everything from camera choice to set creation, and how they all worked together to make a masterpiece.

Anna Catley | Die Hard: A Christmas Movie

There aren’t a whole lot of lessons to learn from this one, but this essay from Anna Catley settles the timeless debate: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? With her characteristic humor and wit, she breaks down her argument while also reminding us why we love to talk about movies in the first place—because it’s fun. Do we really need a better reason than that?

Channels to Follow for more Film Essays

These are just a few recent examples of film essays for you to check out, but there are countless others. And, just like the classic films they explore, they’re pretty timeless as well. We can always learn lessons from the masters, which makes these channels worth revisiting time and time again. Here’s a short list of some essential video essay channels:

• Every Frame a Painting
• Thomas Flight
• The Discarded Image
• Hurlbut Academy
• Lindsay Ellis
• Anna Catley
• We Need to Talk About Film
• Lessons from the Screenplay

Still have some extra time on your hands? Check out our recommendations on 10 Movies Directed by Women You Should Watch .

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Variety’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time: How Many Have You Seen?

By Variety Staff

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For the first time in its more than a century-long history, Variety has selected a list of the 100 best movies of all time , based on input from more than two dozen critics, writers and editors. The choices range from timeless classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Singin’ in the Rain” to comedies like “The Apartment” and “Bridesmaids” to horror and cult movies like “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Pink Flamingoes,” as well as contemporary titles like “Moonlight” and “ Parasite .”

How many movies that landed on Variety ‘s Best Movies of All Time list have you seen? Make your selections below.

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Lesson 7: Task: Write a film review

This is the lesson where you put everything together. We want you to write a review of a film.

Writing a Film Review

This is the lesson where you put everything together. We want you to write a review of a film. You will see two examples of film reviews which you can use to help you write your own review. When you’ve finished your review, post it in the comments section and read other participants reviews and tell them what you think. In lesson one we looked at film vocabulary, in lesson three we gave you some advice about using film to improve your English and gave two short reviews of films about football, in lesson four we focussed on the passive which is a common form to use when writing about films, and in lesson six we showed you some websites where you can read lots of film reviews. While you are writing your review, you can go back to these lessons for some help.

What should I include in my film review?

It's up to you! Here is a list of some common things that you see in film reviews. Have a look at the Bend It Like Beckham film review and match the five colours to the things in this list. Is there anything extra included in the review? Is there anything missing?

• The film's title.
• An eye-catching heading.
• The genre (type of film). 
• The audience. Who is the film for?
• The director, main actors, when it was made, has it won any awards?
• The plot. A brief summary that doesn't mention the ending!
• Your opinion.
• Your evaluation.

Film Review 1

Bend it like beckham – brilliant and funny.

How can I describe Bend It Like Beckham? If I had to choose a genre, I would say it’s a romantic comedy-drama sports film!

The film was made in 2002 and directed by Gurinder Chandha who is well-known for films which explore the lives of Indians living in the UK. 

The film is set in London and stars Jess (Parminder Naghra) , who is an 18-year-old girl with Indian parents. One of the main storylines is the tension between Jess, who loves football, and her parents, who don’t allow her to play. Jess’s friend and teammate, Jules, who is played by Keira Knightly (Pirates of the Caribbean) encourages Jess to play despite her parent's wishes. 

The film deals with serious social problems such as sexism and racism, but the film is very funny at the same time! The acting is very good and of course, there is a happy ending! Oh, and David Beckham is in the movie, but you must wait until the end for that! I would give Bend It Like Beckham four and a half stars out of five and definitely recommend you watch it!

Now, look at the second film review. Is it a good review ? What does it include? Is there anything missing?

Film Review 2

Fever pitch – funny, dramatic and a perfect finish.

I love football and I love films, so Fever Pitch was the perfect movie for me. It tells the story of a school teacher who is mad about his football club – Arsenal! The film was made in 1997 and is based on a best-selling book of the same name. The film has also been remade for American audiences based on baseball.

The main role is played by Colin Firth (Paul) one of the UK’s most famous actors. Paul falls in love with a new teacher (Sally) at his school during the 1989/90 football season, one of the most important seasons in Arsenal’s history. The plot follows the ups and downs of Paul’s romance with Sally and the fortunes of Paul’s football team. But who does he love more? Sally or Arsenal? You’ll have to watch the film to find out!

There are strong performances by Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell (Sally) in this romantic comedy-drama. If you are a football fan you will love this film, but it definitely has a wider appeal, too! I will give it five-stars and not just because I’m an Arsenal fan!

Write a film review

Write a film review in the comments section below.

Write about a film you enjoyed or a film that you didn't like. It could be a recent film or a film that you watched a long time ago.

The film doesn't have to be about football.

Reply to other learners and tell them if you have seen the film. Did you like it? Do you agree with their opinions?

When you have finished, mark the page  complete  on the side of this page and go to the end of week quiz!

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I would say that An Angel at my table is one of my top ten most favourite films. It’s a drama film which directed by Janet Campion and shot in 1990. The film is based on Janet Frame’s three autobiographies. Kerry Fox plays the role of Janet Frame, a famous New Zealander writer and poet. The film is about the life of Janet Frame who was a very clever child until, as a teenager, she was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a mental institution……… The story takes place in Australia, New Zealand and the UK in the different parts of Janet’s life. It ’s a flawless masterpiece. The storyline is so beautiful and inspiring and Kerry Fox’s acting is just incredible. I was mesmerized by that shy, intelligent and lonely girl and could totally relate to her. Besides, his movie makes New -Zealand look like the most gorgeous place on earth Another thing I loved about Another thing I loved about the movie was the excellent music score.

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The other side of the door-thriller

the other side of the door is a horror movie that was made in 2016-the stars is Sarah Wayne and Jeremy Sisto and it is directed by Johannes Roberts the movie is set in India and it tells the story of maria whose her son died in an accident and she blame herself because she is the one who caused this accident and therefore she is doing a spell ritual to bring her son back to life Or feel his presence which causes harm to her and her family

I love this film because the plot was interesting as it means don't try to life in past and accept the situation you are in trying to adapt.

That isn't a just horror movie but actually it is a movie Know the consequences of what you do so if you are fan of wisdom movie ,I recommend this movie to you, I give it four star of five Don't miss it .

El Ruby House

El Ruby House is a comedy-drama Movie that was made in 2023. the stars are Kareem abdelaziz and Nour, and directed by Peter Mimi.

The movie is set in Boston and it tells the story of private family event gets leaked on social media, Ibrahim Al Ruby decides to live in a village with his wife and children, far from people and the pressure of modern life. After his younger brother, Ihab, convinces Ibrahim to go back to the city for some important paperwork, the family embarks on a trip full of surprises that is bound to change the lives of the "Rubies".

The film deals with serious social problems, but the film is very funny at the same time! The acting is very good and of course, there is a happy ending!, I love this movie because the plot was interesting. I am also a big fan of Kareem abdelaziz

I would give It four and a half stars out of five and definitely recommend you watch it!

Assel Aswad dramatic - comedian Aseel Aswad is a drama - comdey film. The film was made in 2010 . it tells the story of an Egyptian person (masry) he was live in America along his life .then came back home(Egypt).he surprised about deferent between the life in America VS Egypt. he discovered that deference when he dose some files in government interests school transportation . The main role is played by Ahmed Hilmy(masry) one of Egyptian famous actors share with Anaam Salosa ' Edward 'Lotfy Labib ' Emy Samir ghanim. The film directed by KHaled maray. I would give Asel Aswad four stars out of five and definitely recommend you watch it!

Hatchi: a dog's tale It's a drama film The film was made in 2009 and directed by ( lasse hallstrom ) and the stars are (Richard Gere ) ,( Jason Alexander) and ( Joan Allen) The story is based on Barker who works as a professor and he goes to the university by the train And one day he found a little dog at the train station, he took it home with him and called it ( hatchi ) Then ( hatchi) grown up and it's attachment to the professor ( Barker ) increased, the dog used to drive the professor every day to the train station and wait until his return The dog was very popular with the people at the train station And on day the professor didn't come back to take ( hatchi) home with him So what's happened to the professor and hatchi ?!! Watch the film to know the end This is one of my favorites movies Definitely recommend you to watch it ❤️

Pride and prejudice It's a romance and drama film. It's directed by (Joe Wright) in 2005 the story is based on (Jane Austin's) novel. The film is set in United States . the stars Mr.Darcy (Matthew Macfady) and his best friend Bingley( Simon Woods) Jane (Rosamund Pike), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley),Mary (Talulah Riley),Kitty (Carey Mulligan)and Lydia Bennet (Jena Malone) . The story tells about Mr and Mrs Bennetts five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr . Darcy and his best friend Mr . Bingley have moved into their neighborhood. While Mr . Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter Elizabeth ,Jane and Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly. You must wait until the end to know what will happen! I like Pride and prejudice and I would like to give Pride and prejudice eight and half stars out of ten and definitely recommend you to watch it ♡

Work it It’s dance comedy film that was made in 2020 . The stars Sabrina carpenter and Liza koshy and Jordan fisher , and it directed by Laura Terruso . The film talk about quinn Ackerman she is a nerd and she want to Join in college duke because was dreaming her like her father because father Quinn joined this college but she can’t because they won’t accept her , she has to do something different, so she will apply to a dance competition and be her team . But my favorite character is jake Taylor in this film . Watching a jake Taylor dance is very funny and fantastic. I recommend this film to watch it who wants to laugh and exciting watch this film , so go to see it with your friends. I give jake Taylor 5 stars because he deserve this 5 stars . Don’t miss it.

I agree with you ♡

John Wick 3. It is an action film directed by Chad Stahelski and the cast includes Keonu Reeves and Scott ADKINS SET IN 2023. The plot is about Johnwick taking his fight against the high table global as he seeks out the most powerful players in the underworld. The performance of the cast was thrilling and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats from the beginning to the end. I would give it a four rating and strongly recommend others to watch it.

John Wick 4. It is an action film directed by Chad Stahelski and the cast includes Keonu Reeves and Scott ADKINS SET IN 2023. The plot is about Johnwick taking his fight against the high table global as he seeks out the most powerful players in the underworld. The performance of the cast was thrilling and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats from the beginning to the end. I would give it a four rating and strongly recommend others to watch it.

I would like to give a film review about 'Titanic.' It was written, directed and also produced by James Cameron. It is a genre of romance and drama. The film was made in 1997. It's about two characters falling in love during a voyage. The plot was remarkable and brilliant. It was first-rate and I would give it five stars and also strongly recommend those who missed this film to watch it.

I love the Long Shadow movie, an animated series, a comic series about the story of an orphan girl named Judy Abbott, who got a scholarship to Lincoln High School, by someone she doesn't know named John Smith, Judy called him the Long Shadow Owner, because she had never seen anything but his shadow . Her story contains sad clips, but she overcomes all misfortunes. Her story ends with a happy marriage with the owner of the long shadow.

Django Unchained-Action,romantic and comedy.

Django is a action movie and a one of the best movies have directed and it was made in 2012.The stars are Jamie Foxx (Django),Christoph Waltz (Dr.Schultz) and the infinite Leonardo Dicaprio(Candie) and it is directed by Tarantino.The story tells about Django the slave whose wife was kidnapped by Englishmen then Django try to find his wife with Dr.schultz.So can he find his wife ?

I was interested in this movie because the plot is wonderful and graphics is outstanding and i am a big fan of Dicaprio but my favorite characters in this movie is Dr.s schultz .

I think this movie is not for children because there is blood and screenshots +18. I recommend this movie to adults .I give the movie four stars Don`t miss it.

Enchanted - Real world and the animated world collide I am fond of princesses and fantasy world , so enchanted is my favourite film i would say it's animation adventure comedy family romance film it was made in 2007 at New York City it's related PG for some scary images and mild innuendo. It was produced by Alan menken and stephen schwartz and performed by Amy Adams and james marsden its story line is about the beautiful princess Giselle is banished by evil queen narissa from her magical land shocked by this strange new environment,but when Giselle begins to fall in love with a divorce lawyer, Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?. I think it's a great choice for a movie night. I would give it five stars.

Jumanji is an amazing adventure movie and its comedy at the same time that was made in2017. The stars are (dwayne Johnson)and (Karen Gillian) and it’s directed by (Jake Kasdan) while a group of teenagers were in detention at school one of them found a video game which took them inside it and they stuck at that video game until they complete the missions I am in love with this movie because it’s make me laugh and excited to watch the end This movie for children and adults so I recommend it for a family night. I give jumanji five stars

Marvel Age of Ultron Its my favourite film cause i like the gerne and from all marvel films its my favourite. i like the characters and i like the plot and everything that happends in the film

avenger is an amazing action superhero film that is made in 2012 in United Kingdom it is directed by Joss Whedon its cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the Avengers, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. i am abig fan of this film and i recommened the all to see this film

Africano Africano is an amazing adventure, comedy movie I have ever seen. It was made in 2001.Ahmed El Sakka and Mona Zaki played the leading role, Hassan Hosny was in it. The movie was directed by Amr Arafa. It was set in South Africa and it tells the story of Badr who workes as a vet. His wish is tragically granted when his uncle who lives in Africa dies and Badr travels to get his inheritance as he meets his cousin Gamila. I love this movie because, the plot was interesting. I am also a big fan of Ahmed El Sakka. Hoever my favourite character in this movie is Gamila . Also the music is fantastic. I highly reccommend this movie, So go see it with your friends. I give it three stars, Do not miss it.

Spider man is my favourite movie

My fav is marvel movies

yes that is a good movies company

World war Z is my favorite movie , It has been my favorite movie since I watched it , it's my favorite movie cause i love zombie movies and every one liked it ; The film was made in 2013 and the director is Marc Forstar He is a German film producer and screenwriter , The film won an Empire award. U.K .The film is set on U.S.A and the star is Brad pett (Gerry Lane), Former United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop a zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatens to destroy humanity itself. it is the best film i had watched it ever I would give it five stars and I recommend everyone to watch it!.

Spiderman no way home It's my favourite superhero and the actor who role the Peter parker is Tom Holland and the other actors played the role very well also i like the genre of this movie it's action. Finally, I think that this movie can watch it teenagers and adults but I don't think youngers can't watch it.

yes its a good one too

Marvels: Endgame is my favorite movie, It has been my favorite movie since 2019, and it has been my favorite because everyone loved Avengers: Endgame, but it’s not just any other superhero flick. It’s actually the best film in the MCU. It’s emotionally resonant. Endgame has a sense of beauty behind all of the action and violence. At the center of the film, it really is a love story. Thor goes back to see his mother before she is murdered by the Dark Elves, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) reconciles with his father, and Steve Rodgers reunites with his wife back in his original time.

The equalizer the equalizer is a realistic action film, where Denzel Washington, plays Robert mccall , the film talks about how robert faked his death in order to live a quiet life, but when he sees a young woman being abused by a Russian gang, he comes out of his retirement to fight crime and reinforce justice, the movie is set in Salisbury, Hamilton, Chelsea, Haverhill, and Boston, Massachusetts and is directed by Antoine fuqua it was released in 2014 has an interesting story, the acting is fantastic, and the special effects are impeccable, to me this movie is perfect, 10/10, i recommend it to everyone, but be warned since it has a lot of violence

end game if you like action movies this movie will be perfect for you the film is talking about the marvel universe Thanos has come to the earth and he wants to take all of the infinity stones and destroy the world then the avengers came to kill him and they make many wars two on earth and one in the space the film was made in 2019 and directed by Anthony Russo The film stars are Robert Downey Jr(iron man) and Chris Evans(Captain America) I would give this film five stars because the film is very Interisting

interstellar 2014 this is an amazing sci-fi movies that was made 2014.Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway & Jessica Chastain. And its director is Christopher Nolan. the movie revolves around the Earth when it becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans. I love this movie because the poly is amazing. I'm also a big fan of Christopher Nolan's works. I recommend this movie to everyone I'm sur that you gonna love it, don't miss it

i had to watch it twice to understand the idea

Twilight Saga

I loved this saga, I saw it many times and today in summer I saw it again and I can't get enough of it. I love the story, the characters and the villains, everything was well done. When I finished the saga for the first time, I did a lot of research on the characters, their lives, relationships etc. I saw a news that they will make a new movie based on Edwar Cullen's point of view, I hope they make it soon.

Mamma Mia! - Who is my father?

If you like musicals and the popular Swedish group ABBA, this is a perfect film for you. Dona is a single woman managing a small family hotel on a little Greek island. Her daughter, Sophie, is getting married and she decides to invite her father to the wedding. The tricky thing is that she doesn‘t know who her father is. The film was made in 2008 and directed by Phyllida Lloyd. It stars Meryl Streep (Donna), Amanda Seyfried (Sophie), Pierce Brosnan (Sam), Colin Firth (Harry) and Stellan Skarsgard (Bill). There is fabulous music, excellent acting and singing and a lot of funny scenes. The plot is funny on one side but there is a serious overtone. I would give Mamma Mia! five stars because I think the film has positive vibes and it is more important than anything else.

Films title: Mission Impossible Fallout is an action movie and is for a person that like action and tension. The Director is Christoper Mcquarrie, the main actors is Tom Cruise,Henry Cavill , Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and more. The film was made in 2018 and it has won Prizes. My little review is that it is nice, entertaining and it´s so nice to watch. The film is about after a mission After a mission to recover a deadly weapon goes wrong, IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his team are forced to work alongside CIA agent Augustus Walker as they must race against time to continue their assignment. When Lane escapes from prison, Hunt must do whatever it takes to capture him once more.

Hello, I'm at school and have to write answers, I think it's good

So I like what you wrote

I am going to talk about Frozen. I don´t like the most of films but i thinked that i wanted to take one that i hated the most, why i hate it is becuse they sing those bad songs all the time and its just annoying.

The Twilight Saga, a franchise you've probably all heard of. But it is actually that good? Here's what I think:

The movies are based on the book series with the same name, written by Stephenie Meyer. I would describe them as your high school-dream books: you've got the romance, the rivalry, the drama, and an amazing story! What more could you ask for. In the first movie from 2008, we see Bella (Kristen Stweart), Edward (Robert Pattinson), and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) live out their triangle-drama just the way we imagined from the books we already know and love!

If you, like me, love watching a cheesy, teenage drama and would like to fall in love with your new favorite vampire family over and over again - I suggest you watch and/or read the amazing Twilight saga, written by the one and only Stephenie Meyer, brought to life by Melissa Rosenberg.

The Bourne identity is really good action spy movie. The main actor Matt Damon is just perfect for his role. This movie is about a good-looking young man suffering from amnesia, trying to find out his identity. On the beginning we can see a fisherman on a boat spots a body floating … When they got him on board, the body turns out to be alive. The friendly fisherman rescued him, gave him some money to go to Switzerland, because he has a capsule embedded under his skin, contains the code to a Swiss bank account. He was welcome in that country, he took a lot of money despite lacking a name or any form of personal identification. Also, he finds several passports, one saying his name is Bourne. The problem was that he really wanted to know why he was in the sea, and his real name, because he noticed about himself that he is not like everyone else. He speaks several languages, has highly trained power observation and memory, know all the spy tricks and was perfect driver. In a fact he was a special agent, he was hired by special service to kill important political people. When he finds out who he really is, he decided to leave his job, because he was a good person, he did not want to kill anyone anymore. And of course, there was a girl, why helped him a lot and he was in love with her. In the end of that movie, he has found his girl Maria and decided to live with her a simple normal life… far away from his past life. I like that movie a lot it has everything. I would definitely recommend that movie.

The book of life It is an animated film directed by Jorge Gutiérrez with a duration of 95 minutes, released in the United States in 2014. It is a legend-like story of two young men, Manolo and Joaquín, who live in a traditional Mexican town and compete for the love of María. Behind that bet are also two spirits, La Muerte and Xibalba, who will take part for each young person, tipping the balance for one of them to know who will conquer the sweet Maria? From that moment on, a very dizzying adventure begins that takes the viewer into the world of the living and the dead with fantastic colors and definition. It amazes so much level of detail and authenticity. The movie offers unique universes. The Book of Life is an entertaining animated film, suitable for children from the age of seven (more or less), it is a fairly elaborate film, with easy and simple content to digest. For me, the film also has authenticity, it is that although there is a stamp of the producer, it does not go beyond the creativity of the author.

I'm not a big fan of superhero films, but the movie Black Panther really caught my attention. It was directed by Ryan Coogler and it came out on February 16, 2018. The film is about a young man name T'Challa, play by the late Chadwick Boseman, who returns home to the African country of Wakanda to take his rightful place as king. But when he's tested by a sudden enemy, Erik Killmonger play by non other than the talented Michael B Jordan, he must resolved this conflict because the fate of Wakanda and the world is at risk. With that said, he must gather an army, the Dora Milaje(adore ones) and the lead Okye (Danai Gurria), his wife to be Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and his brilliant little sister Shuri(Letitia Wright) that must fight with him till the end to defeat their enemy and keep their country safe. Overall the movie was amazing. I like that it appreciated the cultures of blacks in the United States and African cultures. Also the actors and actresses put their heart, soul, mind and body into each of their roles. Last but not least, the customs changes and effects was flawless.

Film title "Eddie the Eagle" Directed by Dexter Fletcher.This movie based on real life of British first ski-jumper Eddie Edwards. Film gives us an idea about the power of encouragement, dedication and passion. All the person should have a target and must try to pass barriers.Then "the light will appear at the end of the tunnel" In my opinion this movie must be watched by all the students who at the beggining of their life journey. Don't give up and try and try again. This is motto of this film.

I learnt about the genre of film. props that characters use to make the movie realistic.

Five feet apart Romance This film is a 2019,directed be Justin Baldony.The stars are Cole Sprouse,Geyly Lu Richardson,Emily Baldony. The movie tells about girl Stella,who was sick on cystic fibrosis.She met a guy Will.He was also ill.But they weren’t allowed to approach each other’s,because they could infecting deadly viruses. But they didn’t heed all the bons... This film is very interesting and exciting. I highly recommend watching this movie to everyone.This story won’t leave anyone indifferent.

The Theory of Everything Drama/melodrama/biography, 2014 This film directed by James Marsh. The stars are Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones. This movie is based on a book. This is the story of the life of the famous physicist Stephen Hoging. Stephen goes to university, where he meets Jane. She became his wife in the future. Then, he learns of his incurable illness. His friends and wife support him. Man tries to fight. They are born children and all are happy in the family. But his health is deteriorating. Stephen makes great discoveries in physics. He becomes known worldwide. This film is very moving and romantic. The most touches is the love of Steven and Jane. I recomend this film everyone because it's very interesting and good. It has strong points.

my favourite film is THE DARK KNIGHT i think is action and drama and crime, itis the most brilliant movie made by nolan, it was awsom movie, full of shoking seens.

Skills: Writing a film review

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Describe a Film you Watched: IELTS Cue Card Sample Questions Answers

For cue card questions, the task lasts for 3-4 minutes, plus a scheduling period of 1 minute. During the one minute that is given to you in the IELTS speaking test to practise and then continue speaking, you are required to write down your thoughts and points. You do not have time to write the whole speech down in order to express and place your thoughts in good order to not try to blow up the number.

The IELTS speech cue card is one of the sections that most students are struggling with. This is the element that judges you on your ability to communicate, how well you can express your ideas, and how cohesively you can structure your feelings.

Read the paragraphs below for the topic “Describe a Film you Watched”

This blog contains two samples for this topic along with the question points which will be needed when you are speaking after thinking for a minute

IELTS Exam Questions- Cue Card Topics Describe a Film You Watched

You should say these following points:

• When and where did you watch the film?
• What was the film about?
• Why did you choose to watch the film?
• How did you feel about the film? And explain why it made you ponder a lot?

IELTS Exam Cue Card Sample Answer One: Describe a Film you Watched

The movie that I really liked and would like to talk about is named Parasite, which is a dark comedy suspense film produced by Bong Joon-ho in South Korea in 2019. Song Kang-ho, Lee Sunkyun, Cho Yeo-Jeong, Choi Woo-Shik, and Park So-dam starred in this movie and gave it the edge it needed.

Also Read: Describe a Good Decision that You recently Made: IELTS Exam Cue Card Questions and Answers

IELTS Exam Cue Card Topic Sample Question Part One

At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, it earned universal worldwide recognition and secured the Palme d’Or, making it the first Korean movie to win this award. It also made it in the 92nd Academy Awards, and it was chosen as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film.

Right on the day it debuted, I watched this movie in the theatre because I was completely mesmerized by the enigmatic teaser and the film’s unusual name. Also satisfying was the experience at the theatre, with a large projector, the mega audio system, the dark environment, and the varied reaction.

IELTS Exam Cue Card Topic Sample Question Part Two

This movie Parasite makes its way into our conscious awareness. Initially, we giggled at its slanting of fact and the sheer temerity of its protagonists. But giggling quickly gives way to anxiety and then to grief, so I want those really sentimental feelings to be shared by my buddy. As Bong’s most sophisticated province declaration after Memories of Murder in 2003, Parasite is typically compelling and beautifully made, making a stand easily. I’m sure I’m not going to be selling any surprises here, but it’s enough to tell you’re not going to presume any of the details because once the plot heads into the blind alley, it’s going to remain really dark until the climax.

IELTS Exam Cue Card Topic Describe a Film You Watched Sample Answer Two

IELTS Exam Questions: Cue Card Topics

Also Read: Describe a Risk that You Have Taken which has a Positive Result: Cue Card Sample Answer

Sample Two: Describe a Film you Watched

During one’s free time, I’m extremely enjoyable to watch films and I normally watch 7-8 movies a month. The very last film that helped me be aware I was watching a bunch was Article 15, on a platform for streaming movies. The dream of viewing films in a cinema is completely forgotten due to the ongoing pandemic. This is, nevertheless, the reality where everyone’s fortress is their den. This, summer break, following the urging of my colleagues, I agreed to watch a movie called “Article 15.” That’s a feature film in 2019 based on some real-life incidents featuring Ayushman Khurana and it got me thinking a lot about all this. The film deals with Article 15 of the Constitution Of India, where it forbids discriminate on the basis of religion, colour, caste, sex or place of birth.

IELTS Exam Cue Card Question Part One

A criminal investigation is what starts this movie, where three young girls disappear from a remote village and this is the plotline of this movie. Article 15 is a tale about violence. It is considered-provoking and brings the prevailing raging social challenges in many parts of the nation and it brings all that to light. In addition, the interactions have had an eternal influence on the audience and it has also helped me consider objectively about societal inequalities. The plot of the movie mixed with strong and poignant scenes and several occasions gave me a lot to think about. But again, I was awestruck by the performances of dynamic and seasoned performers.

Also Read: Describe a Mistake that You Have Made: Cue Card Sample Answer for IELTS

IELTS Exam Cue Card Question Part Two

Even in recent decades, as India is developing, it is surprising to see such events occurring. This movie Article15 throws lights to a very important stigma and throws light on the social unjust that still occurs.  This exposes a true and bitter reality about our underdeveloped parts of our countries. In conclusion, this film got me thinking that that’s the kind of film that the country deserves and every Indian should experience such appreciation for what it is and what it tried to convey.

A significant feature of the IELTS speaking evaluation module is IELTS cue card topics. This is the second of the three IELTS exam tasks that aspirants have to conduct when they arrive. This part of the test requires a range of skills gained over time to be able to cope with this effectively. During the one minute that is given to you in the IELTS speaking test to practise, you are required to write down your thoughts and points, and then keep speaking. You do not have time to write down the whole speech in order to express and place your thoughts in good order and do not mess up the total. Before giving the main IELTS test, practise a number of sample cue card topics.

Also Read: Describe an Ambition That You have for a Long Time: IELTS Exam Cue Card Questions

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• Titanic The Best Film I Have Ever Seen

Titanic The Best Film I Have Ever Seen - Essay Example

• Subject: Media
• Type: Essay
• Level: Masters
• Pages: 2 (500 words)
• Downloads: 24
• Author: marilouhettinge

Extract of sample "Titanic The Best Film I Have Ever Seen"

THE BEST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN I rate James Cameron’s 1997 epic disaster “Titanic” as the best film I have ever seen due to its impressive and harmonious combination of a legendary tale, gripping love story, fabulous performances by cast members, extraordinary visual effects, impressive soundtrack and awe-inspiring climax. As the foundation of the story, the magnificent ocean liner – the subject of legend and lore ever since its death in 1912 – is re-created by Cameron so meticulously and historically accurately that viewers feel they are personally walking the decks of the mighty ship.

Cameron weaves the tale of the ill-fated voyage around an intense love relationship between two mismatched and star-crossed protagonists whose affair seems doomed to failure because of class differences. Handsome Leonardo DiCaprio as the poor artist Jack Dawson and beautiful Kate Winslet as the American debutante Rose DeWitt Bukater give stellar performances, ably supported by outstanding acting by Billy Zane as Rose’s cold-hearted fiancé Cal Hockley, Frances Fisher as Rose’s financial ruin-facing mother Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and Bernard Hill as the imposing ship captain Edward John Smith.

By ensuring the tragic sinking of the Titanic does not eclipse the protagonists who are in priority focus from start to end, Cameron adroitly sidesteps a common failing in most epic disaster films – too many sub-plots interwoven around too many supporting characters. Two other contributors to the gripping nature of the film are its powerful visual effects whereby computer-simulated realities are used with devastating effect, and the outstanding soundtrack, especially “Hymn to the Sea” and the super-hit number by Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On.

” Although 80 per cent of the 3-hour plus film comprises flashbacks, Cameron’s use of genuine documentary images traverses the thin line between illusion and reality so effectively that viewers do not just watch the film, but vibrantly experience it right from the day the ship was launched in Southampton to the time it sinks. The climax of the film is undoubtedly the overwhelming scenes of the mighty ‘unsinkable’ ship in its death throes as it slowly but surely sinks into a cold watery grave.

After viewing ‘Titanic,’ I was so awe-struck that it seemed James Cameron went to great lengths to specially construct a brand new ‘Titanic’ ocean liner, launch it with grand pomp and fanfare, and then let it sink with terrible grandeur……I have no doubt ‘Titanic’ is the best film I have ever seen; such is its absolute magnificence, that it is highly unlikely to be surpassed by any other film, ever. References used:Berardinelli, James. “Titanic (1997).” Reelviews.net. 1997. 11 Nov. 2007. Cameron, James “Titanic.

” Paramount. 1997.

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Describe your Favorite Movie or Film IELTS Cue Card

Describe your favorite movie or film ielts cue card topic.

You should say

• when you watched it
• what it is about

and explain why this is your favorite movie.

Note:  You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

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Sample Answer 1:

Describe a film you would like to recommend to a friend

There are movies which we watch and then forget about them completely after a few days, if not any sooner. Then, there are movies like “Forrest Gump”, which we never exactly get tired of watching again and again because they make us think and experience our lives in some new light.

A simple-minded (some would say with “low IQ”), but kind-hearted, Alabama boy, named “Forrest Gump” grows up with his best friend – a beautiful girl called Jenny. His supportive mother teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny.

Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends, winning medals, starting a multi-million dollar shrimp fishing business, writing bumper stickers and songs, donating to people, meeting the president several times and doing many other things. However, this all becomes irrelevant to Forrest because he can’t seem to save his childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran, who has messed up her life.

The underlying theme of the movie is that it advises a person to run from all the negative thoughts, influences and bullies of life as fast as he can, no matter how others around him try to “degrade” him physically and intellectually.

Why do I like the movie so much? Well, I like this movie primarily because it teaches us to find out on our own what exactly life is all about instead of paying attention to what others say about it. Besides, I like this movie also because it asks us to show “respect” to people, who seem rather “simplistic” in their thoughts and actions, because they also have their own dreams, and that they also chase their dreams very successfully in life. Finally, I like this movie also because of some of its “simple yet powerful” dialogues (ie. “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.”), which are really difficult to forget.

Sample Answer 2:

Your Favourite Movie IELTS Speaking Cue Card

Well, there are a variety of movies and TV shows that are broadcast on Television through many channels. Some shows or films are funny which makes you laugh but some are other types of shows or movies such as motivational and educational. But here I would like to talk about a film named “Phir Hera Pheri ” which made me laugh a lot.

Even though it was released in 2002, last Sunday I got a chance to watch this movie on television. Actually last Sunday, neither my internet connection was working nor did I have any important things to do. So, out of boredom, I decided to watch this movie on television with my family.

Coming to the movie, it has 3 main characters namely Raju, Shyam, and babu bhaiya. They all were already rich but wanted to become more reach so they invested 50 crore rupees in a company called Anuradha chit fund. That investment company claimed to double their investment in 21 days. But, after 21 days when they went to their office, there was no such company available and they realized that they have become a victim of fraud. The story revolves around these three, who, because of the greed of doubling their money get trapped and land in serious trouble.

Apart from this, it is an epic with numerous rib-tickling moments that make one laugh until his sides aches. Moreover, the comic timing and dialogue delivery both are astounding and outstanding. The climax of this movie is hilarious and I vividly remember we all had a belly laugh after watching it. Watching this movie with my family gives me immense pleasure and it rejuvenates me.

It is the best comedy movie of Bollywood till date. I think everyone should watch it once.

Also Check:  Describe a situation when you were bored – IELTS Cue Card

Sample Answer 3:

IELTS Speaking Cue Card Favourite Movie

Movies are indeed a great source of entertainment. My family is a die-hard fan of movies and we hardly skip any weekends without watching a movie. So today, I would take this opportunity to talk about my favourite film – A walk to remember.

Actually, last Sunday, me and my cousins gathered at my Aunt’s place for a family reunion and we watched the movie there on her brand new 4k television. As a matter of fact, we made no such plan for a movie night. It was all impromptu.

The movie was a love story, but a sad one. There was something intrinsically sweet about the characters that gradually seemed to take over the movie. It was also the only movie that made me cry while watching.

It was about an outwardly plain Christian girl named Jamie, and Landon, an aimless, reckless guy who breezed through school on looks and popularity. The two develop a powerful and inspirational relationship in which they discover truths that take most people a lifetime to learn.

I like this movie for many reasons. The lead character, Jamie was not afraid of letting people know that her faith was the most important part of her life. That was very awe-inspiring to me. Besides this, The film also manifested that it is possible for people to mend their ways. Above all, it was a love story and that is my favourite kind of genre.

In the end, I would just say that… These great love stories show us that it all comes down to who is by your side and who is willing to stand up for love even when it seems impossible.

Sample Answer 4:

Describe a Movie That made you think a lot

To be honest, I only watch movies once in a blue moon since I don’t have a lot of free time. However, there’s one movie that really moved me and which I consider my greatest inspiration every time I feel like giving up and that’s the 2006 movie, The Pursuit of Happyness.

That movie was released more than a decade ago but I got the chance to watch it sometime last year when a friend of mine insisted on me watching it. The movie was starred by a high-caliber actor Will Smith, together with his real-life son, Jaden Smith who acted as his young son in the movie and who was only eight years old then.

Well, it’s still vivid in my memory how the movie left me teary-eyed witnessing the struggle of Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith. To give you a synopsis of that movie, Chris became a single father after his wife left him because of financial instability. He was evicted from his apartment with his son for failing to pay the rent, and because of that, they ended up sleeping in a restroom at a station and in homeless shelters. Life’s a struggle for Chris but he refused to give in to despair and did his very best to create a better life for himself and his son. Because of his persistence, he’s able to get a job as a stockbroker and eventually became the owner of a multi-million dollar brokerage firm.

The story was really inspirational, I remember after watching that movie, I thought about my life – I thought about the personal struggles that I’d gone through and told myself that everything would be alright. Since then, that movie became my reminder to not lose hope whenever I face some difficulties that test my strength or when the time comes that I doubt myself. Like recently, I’ve just got laid off from work because of the pandemic and here I am taking this IELTS exam several times now for the sole purpose of chasing my dream. Honestly, I can’t help myself but sometimes feel like giving up, thinking that perhaps, my dream to work abroad isn’t meant for me. However, the moment when I feel I’m on the brink of quitting, that movie reminds me to keep going.

If my friend hadn’t recommended that film and if I hadn’t spared time watching it and learned the valuable life lessons, I would have given up long before.

Sample Answer 5:

Cue Card on Topic Movie or Film

When I watched the movie “Titanic” for the first time almost twenty years ago, I was pretty much occupied with the tragic love story of two teenagers who met on the biggest ship yet on the earth in 1912. But when I saw the movie once again before about 10 years, I was actually more interested in finding the “Titanic” ship itself and its historical relevance in today’s world. So, if one asks me today why I watched the movie, I would simply say that it perfectly and very boldly portrayed the “demise” of a group of people who thought that they were simply “invincible” and “indestructible” under even the worst of the circumstances.

Having a dominant theme of the power of love to thrive in every situation, the “Titanic”, as one of the greatest movies of all time with 11 academy awards under its name, has tried to reveal that a man can find love in any kind of situation and from any woman in spite of their agonizingly different socio-economic classes. But, of course, their dramatic love had ended when the allegedly ‘unsinkable’ ship, with 2200 people on board including the two love bugs, was drowned unexpectedly after hitting the iceberg and thus killing 1500 people.

This is one of my most favourite movies of all time simply because every aspect of the movie, whether it is with the casting or scene selection, everything has been done so flawlessly for its theme to come out perfectly and clearly. This film was written, directed, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron, who is one of the most talented movie-makers in the world. Big movie stars, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Gloria Stuart and Bill Paxton made it worth enjoying. Interestingly, the film includes portrayals of several historical figures which makes it more fascinating and enlightening.

Besides, in my opinion, very few movies have managed to inspire so much emotion as Titanic. Having reconstituted such a mesmerizing historic event in such an aesthetic fashion, the soundtrack of this movie is simply outstanding. Then, there is, of course, finally the sinking part of the ship which just looked too surreal for anyone’s imagination.

Sample Answer 6:

Describe a Movie You Recently Watched IELTS Cue Card

Lately, I haven’t had much time to go out for a movie since I’ve been up to my eyeballs in reports and presentations. Hence, to relax and boost my mood, I rented some good old movies and made myself some healthy snacks for a late-night treat. “Silver Linings Playbook” is one of my all-time favorites and I’ve lost count how many times I replayed it.

The last time I watched it was a week ago on Saturday night. Oscar-nominated movies were usually not my taste due to their complexity and lack of entertainment but Silver Linings Playbook was an exception. I’ve always preferred something a little sentimental, light-hearted, yet meaningful and this movie had it all. Silver Linings Playbook was an adaptation from the novel written by Matthew Quick, starring two incredibly talented actors Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

This romantic comedy movie was about two wounded souls who once again found beauty in the most unexpected place. Pat (Bradley), a former teacher, was just released from a mental institution and trying to reconcile with his cheated wife despite his family’s protest. He met Tiffany (Jennifer), a woman with problems of her own, and things got complicated. Two people bearing hidden scars with no hope in the future finally had lights in their lives again.

The movie was not heavy at all but extremely entertaining with some laugh-out-loud moments. No matter how many times I’ve watched it, I still got emotional every time I replayed it. The underlying message was also a shout-out to anyone who believes they have hit rock bottom: “When one door closes, another door opens”. Therefore, keep moving forward and don’t lose hope. If anyone runs out of movies to watch, I highly recommend the “Silver Linings Playbook” as a change of appetite.

Sample Answer 7:

Describe A Movie You Watched at Home or Cinema

As a frequent moviegoer, I watch a lot of films. One of the movies that I enjoyed the most recently was The Martian.

The movie was based on a novel of the same title by Andy Weir. Just like many other sci-fi films, it was about a man travelling in space, however, this time, our main character was stuck on Mars due to a dust storm that nearly killed him. All of the crewmates thought that he was dead, so they went back to Earth without him. But fortunately, he was still alive, thus two and a half hours of the movie told the story of how he fought for his life in the brutal environment of Mars until NASA devised a plan to rescue him.

My best friend is a big fan of astronomy, so she had read [2] the novel before. That’s why she insisted on me going to see the movie with her. After watching the trailer and reading the plot, I was hooked. It was maybe the best two and a half hours of my week so far.

After watching the movie, I was amazed at how ingenious and strong humans can be when it comes to a life and death situation. Mark Watney, the hero of the movie, was a perfect portrayal of a young, humorous, brilliant and skillful engineer cum botanist. Although the hostile environment of Mars threatened his existence many times, he relentlessly refused to quit. Instead, he overcame one problem at a time until he was successfully rescued. The message that I learned from the film is never to give up, however hopeless things seem to be

Sample Answer 8:

IELTS Cue Card Topic About Movie

Thank you very much for letting me talk about this cue card topic. Interestingly, I initially thought that it would be so easy to talk about my favourite movie but then I realised it is not because there are so many things to talk about but the time is limited! However, I will try.

Well, my favourite movie is ‘Citizen Kane’, – an American mystery drama by Orson Welles which is often considered the best movie ever made. Orson Welles was also its director, producer, co-screenwriter, and the protagonist. This movie won an Academy Award for Original Screenplay and I believe the screenplay of the movie makes it so distinctive and brilliant. Considered by many critics, filmmakers, and fans to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane is especially appreciated for its cinematography, music, editing and narrative structure, which have been considered innovative and precedent-setting.

Orson Welles’s epic tale of a publishing tycoon’s rise and fall is entertaining, poignant, and inventive in its storytelling, earning its reputation as a landmark achievement in the movie industry. When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane’s dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane’s friend and colleague Jedediah Leland and his mistress, Susan Alexander shed fragments of light on Kane’s life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man’s final word, “Rosebud.”

The film was absolutely a masterpiece and I had several reasons to like it. Acting, production, cinematography, music, editing and narrative structure, which have been considered innovative and trend-setting, are the main reasons anyone would enjoy this movie. It’s a kind of movie that we do not watch quite often and for me, I consider it the best movie I have ever watched.

At the end of the movie, the reporter – who was assigned to reveal Kane’s last word, concludes that he is unable to solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane’s last word, “Rosebud”, and it will forever remain a mystery. As the film ends, the camera reveals that “Rosebud” is the trade name of the sled on which the eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day that he was taken from his home in Colorado. Thought to be junk by Xanadu’s staff, the sled is burned in a furnace. The innocence of childhood and happiness in simple thing are incomparable and often hold the secret of life, is something I learned from the movie.

Sample Answer 9:

Describe a Movie Cue Card Topic

To be honest, I am not that big fan of watching movies. Hence, I don’t watch movies that often. Having said that, I do watch some movies occasionally to relax myself and relieve the work stress that I have. Hence, I love to watch more educational movies from which we get to learn something.

There are some amazing ones being made in India these days. One such movie that I can think of right now is the bollywood movie named Mission Mangal. I watched it somewhere around a year ago, probably last January. It was Sunday that day and luckily all my family members were at home that day and were in a mood to enjoy. So, my cousin suggested we watch this amazing movie. So, we connected Hotstar to our home theater and watched it at home itself with the whole family.

It is a very educational and motivational film. As it is based on true events which happened during India’s mission to Mars and how India became the only country to successfully land on Mars in her first attempt itself. So, it’s basically about India’s manned mission to planet Mars. The whole plot revolves around the hard work, dedication and determination of Indian scientists to make this mission successful. This movie also explains the actual meaning of women empowerment as most of the scientists depicted in the movie are women. Plus, it also sheds light on the hardships that our Indian team of scientists had to face to make this mission a grand success.

Hence, it’s my favourite film as I feel really proud of our space organisation ISRO for accomplishing such a feat despite facing so many problems. I have watched this movie many times as it motivates me to work hard and be focused on my goals and dreams no matter what. Plus, being a girl it makes me feel empowered in the right way and encourages me to study more as I too aspire to get my doctorate and become a scientist.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 :

Describe a Movie or Film Cue Card – Follow up Questions

Here are some examples of follow-up questions that you may get during your speaking part 3 by the examiner related to cue card “Describe a Movie or Film”.

Q. Do you think (watching) films have (has) any educational benefits?

Oh, yes. Watching the right kind of movies can have many benefits, especially for the younger generation. Movies are known to create a great and lasting impression on the minds of young people. For instance, documentary movies give us a lot of knowledge about different aspects of life and other things.

Q. In what ways are documentary films and films only for entertainment different?

Well, entertainment films are only meant for enjoyment and mean nothing in general, whereas documentaries are meant to be informative and knowledgeable. Further, feature films are mostly fictionalized and dramatized to a great extent. On the other hand, documentaries are mostly based on true events and occurrences to a great extent.

Q. Why do you think documentary films are not so popular?

Well, they lack the big budget and the publicity that big-budget entertainment movies usually get. Plus, many people love drama and exaggeration, which are not there in documentaries.

Q. How are movies and real-life different?

Actually, they are totally different and poles apart. They are just imaginary stories depicted in an overly dramatic manner as opposed to real-life where we have to deal with things in real life.

Q. Do men and women like to watch the same kinds of films?

Not necessary. But there is a prejudice that women prefer romantic, emotional and high drama movies and men have action and comedy movies as their primary preferences.

Q. Do different age groups like the same kinds of films?

In my opinion, small kids and toddlers mostly enjoy cartoons and animated films. As they grow up they get attracted more towards action and rom-com and older people watch more historical and family movies.

Q. What kinds of films are popular? I think the most popular movies are the ones that have a happy ending. This is what most moviegoers expect and anticipate, and to see something else would be quite jarring for most.

I think Hollywood has bred this kind of expectation that everything should work out in the end in spite of the challenges and difficulties that are faced along the way. Personally, I quite like this notion, and I believe that this kind of optimism is great for society. It motivates people to keep trying in the face of adversity.

Second to this, entertaining movies. There are some movies that are really dry and are a challenge to sit through because they’re so boring. But people love to laugh and the ones that are the funniest are usually the biggest box office successes.

Q. What kind of films do young people like to watch? I suppose it depends on how young they are. If they’re children, they’re more likely to enjoy watching animated movies with talking animals or films that feature superheroes. I think adults like those movies too, but they’re definitely geared towards kids.

Teenagers would probably like the same kinds of movies as adults. Movies that used to be taboo for them are likely to be more appealing though. Horror movies and movies with adult themes are inappropriate for children, as they may be overwhelmed by what they see. However, as a person matures they’re better equipped to deal with such content and make informed choices about what they consume. As such, they’re going to want to test the waters and watch movies with content they’ve never seen before.

Q. Do fewer people watch films at the cinema nowadays? Maybe, it’s not something I’ve thought about before. Going to the cinema is expensive and not as convenient as watching a movie at home. Also, not every cinema is super clean, and there might be popcorn left on the seats and floor.

However, there’s something about seeing a movie in a cinema that’s hard to recreate at home. Even the best home theaters aren’t going to be able to match the quality that’s available at a cinema, although in some people’s eyes, it comes close.

I think people tend to see movies at a cinema because it’s where they’re able to see the latest releases. Some people do choose to pirate new movies, and this is one way that someone would be able to watch a new movie at home, although it’s not very ethical.

Q. Do you think cinemas will disappear in the future? Probably not. Although it’s hard to make predictions about the future, I think cinemas will be around for the foreseeable future. For as long as movies are first released to cinemas, and for as long as it’s perceived as a social activity, cinemas will still be a thing.

I think that movies will be available for people to buy and stream at home in the future, and home cinema technology will advice to such a level that it will parallel most cinemas, so it’s possible that the number of people going to the cinema will dwindle, but not to the point where cinemas will disappear completely.

I do think that cinemas will have to become more competitive to stay relevant. People will want a more immersive experience, perhaps using some form of virtual reality that they can’t readily emulate at home.

Q. Do you like any particular film star? Why?

Um, yes. I really like Akshay Kumar. He is an actor par excellence. Apart from his movies his lifestyle and attitude are also very inspirational. He wakes up early and sleeps early just like me and is a fitness inspiration for millions. We can learn a lot about discipline and self-control from him. So, he’s my favourite as I find him very inspirational and motivating.

Q. Describe a war movie you like. Answer: I’m going to tell you about ‘Braveheart’, a war movie directed by Mel Gibson, who was also the leading character. The movie was released in 1995 and was written by Randall Wallace. In the 14th century, William Wallace, a Scottish warrior, leads his people in a rebellion against the tyranny of the English King, who has given English nobility the ‘Prima Nocta’ – a right to take all new brides for the first night. The Scots were not pleased with the brutal English invaders, but they lack the leadership to fight back. Wallace creates a legend of himself, with his courageous defense of his people and attacks on the English. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards and won five: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Editing.

Other war movies you can say about: The Pianist, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Apocalypse Now, Good Morning Vietnam, War Horse, Downfall, Lincoln, and Imitation Game.

Q. What’s the difference between the movies in your country and Hollywood movies? Answer: I believe that the movies in my country aren’t that good as Hollywood movies are. First of all, the budget is really low for local movies and that is why there are very limited opportunities. Not all scenes are impressive and there are no special effects, something that dominates in Hollywood. Furthermore, the actors in local movies aren’t so famous and talented, on the contrary in Hollywood they are of worldwide fame. There is a large variety of topics and themes in Hollywood movies. However, our local movies do not deal with a wide range of themes. Finally, Hollywood movies are released and enjoyed worldwide while our local movies are mostly made for us except for some very few movies that get international attention.

Q. What do you think of violent films? Answer: I would say that it depends on the type of violence. To be more precise, I like movies with violent scenes because they’re interesting and include more actions. In those movies, the good wins over the bad. It’s a kind of vindication and the message that good prevails over bad. I don’t like movies that involve rapes. In particular, I hate these movies. I would not say that it’s something that isn’t happening, but I think that promoting women’s humiliation and debasement is not a good thing. So, I would come to the conclusion that I partly like violent movies and specifically, it depends on the story. However, unnecessary violence is not liked by all and I am no exception.

Q. Why do movies need computer techniques? Any example of movies using computer techniques? Answer: Well, computer techniques should be used to add some characteristics to movies so that they can be more impressive and believable. Especially nowadays this opportunity is much more in use than in the past. Many things that were unfeasible are attainable now with computer technology in the movie industry. A remarkable example could be ‘Avatar’, a movie that was critically acclaimed and had a million views worldwide. The groundbreaking visual effects used to make humans look like extraterrestrial beings were amazing and that was the primary reason that the film broke several box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time in England, Canada and the USA.

Q. Which parts of a movie are the most important and how to improve it? Answer: It is an undeniable fact that all the parts of a movie are extremely important, but it seems to me that more attention should be given to the finishing of a movie. There are many examples of movies that were very interesting but the end was extremely boring and disappointing. In this case, I totally believe that the end negates all the good things that happened in the rest of the movie and leaves a bad impression on the viewers. So, my opinion is that the last part/ finishing part of a film should be of paramount importance and it can be achieved by providing a distinct and not vague message to the viewers and making things clear in their minds.

Also Check:   Talk About a Book You Read Recently IELTS Cue Card

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Best movies that I have ever watched

• Instant Watch Options
• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Solace (II) (2015)

R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Psychic John Clancy (Sir Anthony Hopkins) works with the F.B.I. in order to hunt down a serial killer.

Director: Afonso Poyart | Stars: Anthony Hopkins , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Abbie Cornish , Colin Farrell

Votes: 68,482

2. Django Unchained (2012)

R | 165 min | Drama, Western

With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx , Christoph Waltz , Leonardo DiCaprio , Kerry Washington

Votes: 1,682,310 | Gross: $162.81M

3. The Hunger Games (2012)

PG-13 | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death.

Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence , Josh Hutcherson , Liam Hemsworth , Stanley Tucci

Votes: 998,495 | Gross: $408.01M

4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Fantasy

A reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home, and the gold within it from the dragon Smaug.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Martin Freeman , Ian McKellen , Richard Armitage , Andy Serkis

Votes: 869,010 | Gross: $303.00M

5. Man of Steel (2013)

PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

An alien child is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.

Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Henry Cavill , Amy Adams , Michael Shannon , Diane Lane

Votes: 809,021 | Gross: $291.05M

6. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Steve Rogers, a rejected military soldier, transforms into Captain America after taking a dose of a "Super-Soldier serum". But being Captain America comes at a price as he attempts to take down a warmonger and a terrorist organization.

Director: Joe Johnston | Stars: Chris Evans , Hugo Weaving , Samuel L. Jackson , Hayley Atwell

Votes: 892,740 | Gross: $176.65M

7. The Conjuring (2013)

R | 112 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.

Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson , Vera Farmiga , Ron Livingston , Lili Taylor

Votes: 551,410 | Gross: $137.40M

8. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

PG-13 | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Ian McKellen , Martin Freeman , Richard Armitage , Ken Stott

Votes: 701,502 | Gross: $258.37M

9. Skyfall (2012)

PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig , Javier Bardem , Naomie Harris , Judi Dench

Votes: 728,616 | Gross: $304.36M

10. Shutter Island (2010)

R | 138 min | Mystery, Thriller

Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio , Emily Mortimer , Mark Ruffalo , Ben Kingsley

Votes: 1,444,253 | Gross: $128.01M

11. Gran Torino (2008)

R | 116 min | Drama

After a Hmong teenager tries to steal his prized 1972 Gran Torino, a disgruntled, prejudiced Korean War veteran seeks to redeem both the boy and himself.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood , Bee Vang , Christopher Carley , Ahney Her

Votes: 811,814 | Gross: $148.10M

12. Spider-Man (2002)

PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

After being bitten by a genetically-modified spider, a shy teenager gains spider-like abilities that he uses to fight injustice as a masked superhero and face a vengeful enemy.

Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Tobey Maguire , Kirsten Dunst , Willem Dafoe , James Franco

Votes: 874,018 | Gross: $403.71M

13. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

PG-13 | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

When the Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, Thor must embark on a perilous and personal journey that will reunite him with doctor Jane Foster.

Director: Alan Taylor | Stars: Chris Hemsworth , Natalie Portman , Tom Hiddleston , Stellan Skarsgård

Votes: 721,810 | Gross: $206.36M

14. Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

Director: Rupert Sanders | Stars: Kristen Stewart , Chris Hemsworth , Charlize Theron , Sam Claflin

Votes: 301,445 | Gross: $155.33M

15. Cloud Atlas (2012)

R | 172 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

Directors: Tom Tykwer , Lana Wachowski , Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Tom Hanks , Halle Berry , Hugh Grant , Hugo Weaving

Votes: 373,470 | Gross: $27.11M

16. The Fast and the Furious (2001)

PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

Los Angeles police officer Brian O'Conner must decide where his loyalty really lies when he becomes enamored with the street racing world he has been sent undercover to destroy.

Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Vin Diesel , Paul Walker , Michelle Rodriguez , Jordana Brewster

Votes: 417,263 | Gross: $144.53M

17. Battleship (2012)

PG-13 | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.

Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Alexander Skarsgård , Brooklyn Decker , Liam Neeson , Rihanna

Votes: 256,488 | Gross: $65.42M

18. War Horse (2011)

PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeremy Irvine , Emily Watson , David Thewlis , Benedict Cumberbatch

Votes: 165,090 | Gross: $79.88M

19. Final Destination (2000)

R | 98 min | Horror, Thriller

After getting a premonition about a plane crash on his school trip, Alex, a student saves a few of his classmates. However, their situation gets complicated when death starts chasing them.

Director: James Wong | Stars: Devon Sawa , Ali Larter , Kerr Smith , Kristen Cloke

Votes: 277,807 | Gross: $53.33M

20. Half a Chance (1998)

104 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Two legends of the past have equal chances of becoming the father of a young beautiful girl. But before they find out which one exactly, they are forced to join efforts for saving her from the Mob.

Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo , Alain Delon , Vanessa Paradis , Eric Defosse

Votes: 2,866

21. The Changeling (1980)

R | 107 min | Horror, Mystery

After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.

Director: Peter Medak | Stars: George C. Scott , Trish Van Devere , Melvyn Douglas , Jean Marsh

Votes: 39,728

22. The Amityville Horror (2005)

R | 90 min | Horror

Newlyweds are terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a large house that was the site of a grisly mass murder a year before.

Director: Andrew Douglas | Stars: Ryan Reynolds , Melissa George , Jimmy Bennett , Jesse James

Votes: 117,067 | Gross: $65.23M

23. Spectre (I) (2015)

PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

A cryptic message from James Bond's past sends him on a trail to uncover the existence of a sinister organisation named SPECTRE. With a new threat dawning, Bond learns the terrible truth about the author of all his pain in his most recent missions.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig , Christoph Waltz , Léa Seydoux , Ralph Fiennes

Votes: 464,386 | Gross: $200.07M

24. Change of Plans (2011 TV Movie)

125 min | Comedy, Drama, Family

Sally and Jason Danville's life are turned upside down when a tragic accident suddenly names them the caretakers of four young children.

Director: John Kent Harrison | Stars: Justin Kelly , Brooke White , Joe Flanigan , Phylicia Rashad

25. Changeling (2008)

R | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

After Christine's son goes missing, she reaches out to the LAPD to find him. But when they try to pass off an impostor as her son to quieten public protests, she refuses to accept him or give up hope.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Angelina Jolie , Colm Feore , Amy Ryan , Gattlin Griffith

Votes: 264,660 | Gross: $35.74M

26. Grumpy Old Men (1993)

PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A lifelong feud between two neighbors since childhood only gets worse when a new female neighbor moves across the street.

Director: Donald Petrie | Stars: Jack Lemmon , Walter Matthau , Ann-Margret , Burgess Meredith

Votes: 53,615 | Gross: $70.17M

27. Grumpier Old Men (1995)

PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Romance

John and Max resolve to save their beloved bait shop from turning into an Italian restaurant, just as its new female owner catches Max's attention.

Director: Howard Deutch | Stars: Walter Matthau , Jack Lemmon , Ann-Margret , Sophia Loren

Votes: 29,615 | Gross: $71.52M

28. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

PG | 152 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world.

Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Rupert Grint , Emma Watson , Richard Harris

Votes: 851,376 | Gross: $317.58M

29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

PG-13 | 130 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Harry, Ron, and Hermione search for Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes in their effort to destroy the Dark Lord as the final battle rages on at Hogwarts.

Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Michael Gambon

Votes: 942,486 | Gross: $381.01M

30. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

PG-13 | 157 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Harry Potter finds himself competing in a hazardous tournament between rival schools of magic, but he is distracted by recurring nightmares.

Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Eric Sykes

Votes: 677,605 | Gross: $290.01M

31. It Follows (2014)

R | 100 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.

Director: David Robert Mitchell | Stars: Maika Monroe , Keir Gilchrist , Olivia Luccardi , Lili Sepe

Votes: 267,005 | Gross: $14.67M

32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

PG-13 | 146 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

As Harry, Ron and Hermione race against time and evil to destroy the Horcruxes, they uncover the existence of the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world: the Deathly Hallows.

Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Bill Nighy

Votes: 595,548 | Gross: $295.98M

33. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

PG | 142 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Richard Griffiths

Votes: 687,310 | Gross: $249.36M

34. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

PG | 161 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy

An ancient prophecy seems to be coming true when a mysterious presence begins stalking the corridors of a school of magic and leaving its victims paralyzed.

Votes: 688,400 | Gross: $261.99M

35. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Family

With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.

Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson , Rupert Grint , Brendan Gleeson

Votes: 629,431 | Gross: $292.00M

36. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

PG | 153 min | Action, Adventure, Family

As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he discovers an old book marked as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.

Votes: 592,003 | Gross: $301.96M

37. Wish You Were Here (I) (2012)

R | 89 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Two Australian couples, two sisters, are on vacation in Southern Cambodia. Jeremy goes missing. What happened? Were drugs involved? Secrets are slowly revealed after the 3 return to Sydney.

Director: Kieran Darcy-Smith | Stars: Joel Edgerton , Teresa Palmer , Felicity Price , Antony Starr

Votes: 6,137 | Gross: $0.05M

38. Die Hard (1988)

R | 132 min | Action, Thriller

A New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Bruce Willis , Alan Rickman , Bonnie Bedelia , Reginald VelJohnson

Votes: 940,740 | Gross: $83.01M

39. A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

R | 98 min | Action, Thriller

John McClane travels to Russia to help out his seemingly wayward son, Jack, only to discover that Jack is a CIA operative working undercover, causing the father and son to team up against underworld forces.

Director: John Moore | Stars: Bruce Willis , Jai Courtney , Sebastian Koch , Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Votes: 214,626 | Gross: $67.35M

40. Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

PG-13 | 128 min | Action, Thriller

John McClane and a young hacker join forces to take down master cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel in Washington D.C.

Director: Len Wiseman | Stars: Bruce Willis , Justin Long , Timothy Olyphant , Maggie Q

Votes: 419,772 | Gross: $134.53M

41. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

R | 128 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

John McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building.

Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Bruce Willis , Jeremy Irons , Samuel L. Jackson , Graham Greene

Votes: 406,713 | Gross: $100.01M

42. Die Hard 2 (1990)

R | 124 min | Action, Thriller

John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Bruce Willis , William Atherton , Bonnie Bedelia , Reginald VelJohnson

Votes: 381,824 | Gross: $117.54M

43. Careful What You Wish For (2015)

R | 91 min | Drama, Thriller

A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.

Director: Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum | Stars: Nick Jonas , Kiki Harris , David Sherrill , Graham Rogers

Votes: 8,627

44. The Dark Knight (2008)

PG-13 | 152 min | Action, Crime, Drama

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale , Heath Ledger , Aaron Eckhart , Michael Caine

Votes: 2,851,937 | Gross: $534.86M

45. Death Wish: The Face of Death (1994)

R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Paul Kersey is back at working vigilante justice when his fiancée, Olivia, has her business threatened by mobsters.

Director: Allan A. Goldstein | Stars: Charles Bronson , Lesley-Anne Down , Michael Parks , Chuck Shamata

Votes: 8,727 | Gross: $1.70M

46. Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey takes on the members of a vicious Los Angeles drug cartel to stop the flow of drugs after his girlfriend's daughter dies from an overdose.

Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Charles Bronson , Kay Lenz , John P. Ryan , Perry Lopez

Votes: 11,041 | Gross: $6.88M

47. Death Wish 3 (1985)

R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.

Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson , Deborah Raffin , Ed Lauter , Martin Balsam

Votes: 17,260 | Gross: $16.12M

48. Death Wish II (1982)

R | 89 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Architect Paul Kersey once again becomes a vigilante when he tries to find the five street punks who murdered his daughter and housekeeper, this time on the dark streets of Los Angeles.

Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson , Jill Ireland , Vincent Gardenia , J.D. Cannon

Votes: 17,995 | Gross: $16.10M

49. Death Wish (1974)

R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad after his wife is murdered by street punks. In self-defense, the vengeful man kills muggers on the mean streets after dark.

Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Charles Bronson , Hope Lange , Vincent Gardenia , Steven Keats

Votes: 43,728 | Gross: $22.00M

50. Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)

PG | 94 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy

The life of a businessman begins to change after he inherits six penguins, and as he transforms his apartment into a winter wonderland, his professional side starts to unravel.

Director: Mark Waters | Stars: Jim Carrey , Carla Gugino , Angela Lansbury , Ophelia Lovibond

Votes: 105,142 | Gross: $68.22M

51. Trading Places (1983)

R | 116 min | Comedy

A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.

Director: John Landis | Stars: Eddie Murphy , Dan Aykroyd , Ralph Bellamy , Don Ameche

Votes: 164,938 | Gross: $90.40M

52. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure

Indiana Jones becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford , Cate Blanchett , Shia LaBeouf , Karen Allen

Votes: 489,769 | Gross: $317.10M

53. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Katniss and a team of rebels from District 13 prepare for the final battle that will decide the fate of Panem.

Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence , Josh Hutcherson , Liam Hemsworth , Woody Harrelson

Votes: 370,182 | Gross: $281.72M

54. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure

In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford , Karen Allen , Paul Freeman , John Rhys-Davies

Votes: 1,032,553 | Gross: $248.16M

55. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure

In 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford , Kate Capshaw , Ke Huy Quan , Amrish Puri

Votes: 533,127 | Gross: $179.87M

56. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure

In 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford , Sean Connery , Alison Doody , Denholm Elliott

Votes: 807,454 | Gross: $197.17M

57. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.

Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence , Josh Hutcherson , Liam Hemsworth , Philip Seymour Hoffman

Votes: 717,665 | Gross: $424.67M

58. Heist (III) (2015)

A father is without the means to pay for his daughter's medical treatment. As a last resort, he partners with a greedy co-worker to rob a casino. When things go awry they're forced to hijack a city bus.

Director: Scott Mann | Stars: Robert De Niro , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Dave Bautista , Kate Bosworth

Votes: 32,457

59. The Terminal (2004)

PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

An Eastern European tourist unexpectedly finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Chi McBride , Stanley Tucci

Votes: 492,976 | Gross: $77.87M

60. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

PG-13 | 105 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.

Director: Rupert Wyatt | Stars: James Franco , Andy Serkis , Freida Pinto , Karin Konoval

Votes: 555,379 | Gross: $176.76M

61. Deadly Impact (2010)

R | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

A police officer with a painful past returns home to help the FBI track down a mastermind assassin.

Director: Robert Kurtzman | Stars: Sean Patrick Flanery , Joe Pantoliano , Carmen Serano , Greg Serano

Votes: 2,674

62. The Gift (VI) (2015)

R | 108 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A married couple, Simon and Robyn, run into Gordo, an old classmate. Things take a turn when Gordo begins to drop in unannounced at their house and inundates them with mysterious gifts.

Director: Joel Edgerton | Stars: Jason Bateman , Rebecca Hall , Joel Edgerton , Allison Tolman

Votes: 170,820 | Gross: $43.77M

63. No Escape (I) (2015)

R | 103 min | Action, Thriller

In their new overseas house, an American family soon finds themselves caught in the middle of a coup, and they frantically look for a safe escape from an environment where foreigners are being immediately executed.

Director: John Erick Dowdle | Stars: Lake Bell , Pierce Brosnan , Owen Wilson , Thanawut Ketsaro

Votes: 92,185 | Gross: $27.29M

64. Crimson Peak (2015)

R | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.

Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Mia Wasikowska , Jessica Chastain , Tom Hiddleston , Charlie Hunnam

Votes: 157,676 | Gross: $31.09M

65. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

PG-13 | 178 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood , Ian McKellen , Orlando Bloom , Sean Bean

Votes: 1,994,353 | Gross: $315.54M

66. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

PG-13 | 201 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood , Viggo Mortensen , Ian McKellen , Orlando Bloom

Votes: 1,966,284 | Gross: $377.85M

67. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

PG-13 | 179 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood , Ian McKellen , Viggo Mortensen , Orlando Bloom

Votes: 1,772,681 | Gross: $342.55M

68. Memento (2000)

R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller

A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce , Carrie-Anne Moss , Joe Pantoliano , Mark Boone Junior

Votes: 1,315,630 | Gross: $25.54M

69. Self/less (2015)

PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A dying real estate mogul transfers his consciousness into a healthy young body, but soon finds that neither the procedure nor the company that performed it are quite what they seem.

Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Ryan Reynolds , Natalie Martinez , Matthew Goode , Ben Kingsley

Votes: 103,635 | Gross: $12.28M

70. Momentum (I) (2015)

Not Rated | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

Four criminals steal diamonds from a safety deposit box in Cape Town, including a drive containing a US senator's evil plans. He'll do anything to get it back from Alexis.

Director: Stephen S. Campanelli | Stars: Olga Kurylenko , James Purefoy , Morgan Freeman , Greg Kriek

Votes: 16,876

71. Welcome to the Punch (2013)

R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

When a notorious criminal is forced to return to London, it gives a detective one last chance to take down the man he's always been after.

Director: Eran Creevy | Stars: James McAvoy , Mark Strong , Andrea Riseborough , Peter Mullan

Votes: 34,668 | Gross: $0.01M

72. Felon (2008)

R | 104 min | Crime, Thriller

Locked up for killing an intruder in self-defense, a family man must cope with life in the violent penal system.

Director: Ric Roman Waugh | Stars: Stephen Dorff , Marisol Nichols , Vincent Miller , Anne Archer

Votes: 83,308 | Gross: $0.04M

73. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

PG-13 | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

Ethan and his team take on their most impossible mission yet when they have to eradicate an international rogue organization as highly skilled as they are and committed to destroying the IMF.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Rebecca Ferguson , Jeremy Renner , Simon Pegg

Votes: 408,905 | Gross: $195.04M

74. Next (2007)

PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A Las Vegas magician who can see into the future is pursued by FBI agents seeking to use his abilities to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack.

Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Nicolas Cage , Julianne Moore , Jessica Biel , Thomas Kretschmann

Votes: 165,717 | Gross: $18.21M

75. The Next Three Days (2010)

PG-13 | 133 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.

Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Russell Crowe , Elizabeth Banks , Liam Neeson , Michael Buie

Votes: 205,948 | Gross: $21.15M

76. The Transporter Refueled (2015)

PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Thriller

In the south of France, former special-ops mercenary Frank Martin enters into a game of chess with a femme-fatale and her three sidekicks who are looking for revenge against a sinister Russian kingpin.

Director: Camille Delamarre | Stars: Ed Skrein , Loan Chabanol , Ray Stevenson , Lenn Kudrjawizki

Votes: 44,650 | Gross: $16.03M

77. Bag of Bones (2011)

Not Rated | 163 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

After his wife's sudden death, a bestselling author returns to his cabin retreat, where he receives paranormal visitations and becomes involved in a custody battle.

Stars: Pierce Brosnan , Melissa George , Annabeth Gish , Anika Noni Rose

Votes: 9,370

78. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

In the early 1960s, CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin participate in a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization, which is working to proliferate nuclear weapons.

Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Henry Cavill , Armie Hammer , Alicia Vikander , Elizabeth Debicki

Votes: 330,614 | Gross: $45.45M

79. Dark Places (2015)

R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Libby Day was only eight years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Almost thirty years later, she reluctantly agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner | Stars: Charlize Theron , Nicholas Hoult , Christina Hendricks , Chloë Grace Moretz

Votes: 47,681

80. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

R | 100 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.

Director: Josef Rusnak | Stars: Craig Bierko , Gretchen Mol , Armin Mueller-Stahl , Vincent D'Onofrio

Votes: 76,836 | Gross: $15.50M

81. Taken 3 (2014)

PG-13 | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

Accused of a ruthless murder he never committed or witnessed, Bryan Mills goes on the run and brings out his particular set of skills to find the true killer and clear his name.

Director: Olivier Megaton | Stars: Liam Neeson , Forest Whitaker , Maggie Grace , Famke Janssen

Votes: 203,307 | Gross: $89.26M

82. Poltergeist (2015)

PG-13 | 93 min | Horror, Thriller

A family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces must come together to rescue their youngest daughter after the apparitions take her captive.

Director: Gil Kenan | Stars: Sam Rockwell , Rosemarie DeWitt , Kennedi Clements , Saxon Sharbino

Votes: 60,897 | Gross: $47.43M

83. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

R | 88 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror

Brother/sister duo Hansel and Gretel are professional witch-hunters who help innocent villagers. One day they stumble upon a case that could hold the key to their past.

Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: Jeremy Renner , Gemma Arterton , Peter Stormare , Famke Janssen

Votes: 216,130 | Gross: $55.70M

84. Jurassic World (2015)

A new theme park, built on the original site of Jurassic Park, creates a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, which escapes containment and goes on a killing spree.

Director: Colin Trevorrow | Stars: Chris Pratt , Bryce Dallas Howard , Ty Simpkins , Judy Greer

Votes: 676,478 | Gross: $652.27M

85. Jurassic Park (1993)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Sam Neill , Laura Dern , Jeff Goldblum , Richard Attenborough

Votes: 1,060,343 | Gross: $402.45M

86. The A-Team (2010)

PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

A group of Iraq War veterans look to clear their name with the U.S. Military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed.

Director: Joe Carnahan | Stars: Liam Neeson , Bradley Cooper , Sharlto Copley , Jessica Biel

Votes: 268,378 | Gross: $77.22M

87. The Glass House (2001)

PG-13 | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

An orphaned teenager is taken in by a Malibu couple but discovers they aren't the caring friends they seemed to be.

Director: Daniel Sackheim | Stars: Diane Lane , Leelee Sobieski , Stellan Skarsgård , Bruce Dern

Votes: 39,696 | Gross: $18.00M

88. Furious 7 (2015)

PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

Deckard Shaw seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto and his family for his comatose brother.

Director: James Wan | Stars: Vin Diesel , Paul Walker , Dwayne Johnson , Jason Statham

Votes: 413,213 | Gross: $353.01M

89. Focus (II) (2015)

R | 105 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

In the midst of veteran con man Nicky's latest scheme, a woman from his past - now an accomplished femme fatale - shows up and throws his plans for a loop.

Directors: Glenn Ficarra , John Requa | Stars: Will Smith , Margot Robbie , Rodrigo Santoro , Adrian Martinez

Votes: 273,404 | Gross: $53.86M

90. Traitor (2008)

PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama

When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn.

Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff | Stars: Don Cheadle , Guy Pearce , Archie Panjabi , Saïd Taghmaoui

Votes: 59,019 | Gross: $23.53M

91. Survivor (I) (2015)

PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

A Foreign Service Officer in London tries to prevent a terrorist attack set to hit New York City, but is forced to go on the run when she is framed for crimes she did not commit.

Director: James McTeigue | Stars: Milla Jovovich , Pierce Brosnan , Dylan McDermott , Paddy Wallace

Votes: 35,611

92. The Ring Two (2005)

PG-13 | 110 min | Horror, Mystery

6 months after the incidents involving the lethal videotape, new clues prove that there is a new evil lurking in the darkness.

Director: Hideo Nakata | Stars: Naomi Watts , David Dorfman , Sissy Spacek , Simon Baker

Votes: 100,564 | Gross: $76.23M

93. The Ring (2002)

PG-13 | 115 min | Horror, Mystery

A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.

Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Naomi Watts , Martin Henderson , Brian Cox , David Dorfman

Votes: 373,095 | Gross: $129.13M

94. Alex Cross (2012)

PG-13 | 101 min | Action, Crime, Mystery

A homicide detective is pushed to the brink of his moral and physical limits as he tangles with a ferociously skilled hired killer who specializes in torture and pain.

Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Tyler Perry , Matthew Fox , Rachel Nichols , Edward Burns

Votes: 35,342 | Gross: $25.89M

95. Fracture (2007)

R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

After shooting his wife, Ted confesses his crime and asks the court to move his case to trial. He represents himself against Willy, a successful lawyer. But there's more to the case than meets the eye.

Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Anthony Hopkins , Ryan Gosling , David Strathairn , Rosamund Pike

Votes: 218,064 | Gross: $39.02M

96. All Good Things (2010)

David Marks, a real estate scion, is suspected of killing his wife Katie, who disappeared in 1982.

Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Ryan Gosling , Kirsten Dunst , Frank Langella , Lily Rabe

Votes: 59,616 | Gross: $0.58M

97. Rose Red (2002)

PG-13 | 254 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

A college professor and a team of psychics investigate mysterious deaths and disappearances at an old abandoned mansion.

Stars: Nancy Travis , Matt Keeslar , Kimberly J. Brown , David Dukes

Votes: 26,916

98. The Pyramid (2014)

R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

An archaeological team attempts to unlock the secrets of a lost pyramid only to find themselves hunted by an insidious creature.

Director: Grégory Levasseur | Stars: Ashley Hinshaw , James Buckley , Denis O'Hare , Christa Nicola

Votes: 27,080 | Gross: $2.76M

99. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)

R | 110 min | Drama, Thriller

After her sex offender husband gets caught in the act and kills himself, an embittered pregnant widow loses her child, and embarks on a mission of vengeance against one of her husband's victims and the woman's family.

Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Annabella Sciorra , Rebecca De Mornay , Matt McCoy , Ernie Hudson

Votes: 48,637 | Gross: $88.04M

100. Beyond the Reach (2014)

R | 91 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

In the Mojave Desert, a naked and unarmed hunting guide runs from a wealthy hunter who wants to ensure his silence in the death of an old man.

Director: Jean-Baptiste Léonetti | Stars: Michael Douglas , Jeremy Irvine , Martin Palmer , Hanna Mangan Lawrence

Votes: 11,045 | Gross: $0.04M

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My Favorite TV Show, Essay Example

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American Broadcasting Company has done it again, making those of us who love watching TV be glued to our screen when this program appears on our screens. You might be wondering, what is this program that has made so many people wag their tongues whenever they speak of their best TV programs? Stop wondering because the answer is LOST. This program is an American Drama series that premiered on September 8th 2004. Based on an original screenplay entitled nowhere by Lieber Jeffery, this six series piece is a master piece of Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams. It is saddening for me that this magnificent masterpiece will end after the sixth and final season which premiered on February 2, 2010.

This series recaps the past, present and future lives of the survivors of a passenger plane bound for Los Angeles from Sydney. The plane named Oceanic Flight 815 tears apart in mid-air forcing it to crash on a pacific Island. It also recaps the lives of people who are already living in the island at the time of the plane crash.  Each episode has a standard storyline on the present and future lives of the characters. The numerous clip shows that recap the previous episodes makes one want to find more about what is going to happen at later stages of the drama.

Through my observation, the shooting of this piece must have cost the directors and casts a whopping amount of money. The background and the sound tracks are so captivating to the viewers; grab a copy of this powerful drama which can be found in DVDs from your nearest movie library. I guarantee that you will enjoy this drama because it has lots of charisma and excitement. However, I am going to give you an insight into this play before you go out there and grab a copy of your own.

The survivors get to meet other people who have either faced the same fate as them or are the natives of the island. Through flash back and flash forwards, the viewers have the chance of knowing the past and the future of the many characters who cast in this drama. This drama highlights the theme of survival for the fittest; every character has to demonstrate an inner strength none of them ever knew he/she had.  The island is filled with many secrets that the characters have to discover over time, first off, the character discover a mysterious smoke that keeps on appearing to individuals at different times throughout the drama.  Nobody knows the significance of this smoke in the island until later on when they interact with people from the other side of the island. This smoke has its roots to a mysterious man named Jacob. This man is a spirit that appears in the form of a smoke. His mission is to protect the inhabitants of this strange island and do away with those people who try to do harm to the island.

The survivors are also set to task of tracing and killing polar bears that are out to kill and maul any of them. These grizzly bears have been living in this island for many years, whenever they encounter a human being; they kill him/her instantly. The mysterious island was surrounded with an ocean, thus, finding clean water was a problem. However, the survivors eventually discover a hidden location where fresh, cold water is running. After living in the island for some days, the Oceanic flight 815 survivors discover signs that showed that the island had been explored by people, who had reached it before them. The  discovery of the ruins of a 19th century ship named The Black Rock, the remains of an ancient statue and the banker belonging to the Dharma Initiative were enough evidence that showed that this island  was discovered long before they crashed into it.

I can compare this presentation to a tree; the tree will represent the entire plot, its branches represent the sub plots while the leaves and twigs represent the other story lines. The directors of this drama have brilliant minds that always blow the minds of the audience each time a new episode is released. The characters have blended well with the setting of this drama; the airplane had 324 passengers on board before the crash. From the 324 passenger on board only 71 survive, after the plane crashed, these survivors are the ones who create the characters of this movie. The first season of the drama had 5 outstanding casts played by the following characters; Mathew Fox plays Jack Foster, a brilliant spinal surgeon. In his former life, Jack has to deal with personal issues affecting his father before he dies while on a trip to Australia. While taking his father’s body from Australia to America, hell breaks loose after the plane crashes in the mysterious island.

After the plane crash, many survivors come off the wrecks of the plane wounded; therefore, medical attention is needed. Jack fits remarkably well in this task because of his expertise as a doctor; he uses his skills to administer first aid to the survivors. Later on, Jack takes on the unofficial role of the leader to the survivors; this is because other survivors found it easy to bond with him. Coincidentally, jack falls in love with one of the survivors called Kate Austen played by Evangeline Lilly. This woman is a fugitive who is on the run after killing a man she thought was her step father. This man was constantly abusing Kate’s mother and she was not comfortable with this, unknown to her, she had killed her biological father. In this drama, Kate develops feelings for both jack and another survivor called Sawyer. Of all the women who survived, Kate strikes out as a mother figure to the rest of the survivors.

Sayid Jarrah, played by Naveen Andrews is an ex-soldier, who used to torture prisoners; he is also an accomplished electrician who could fix anything. In this drama, this character uses his expertise to salvage the other survivors. He uses his ego as torturer to solicit for information from a fellow survivor. He therefore, has to leave the camp after this act because he had sworn never to torture another person ever again. Through Jarrah, the survivors try to leave the island but this plot fails after they discover the signal they were tracking was a recorded signal and had no significance.

The most lovable character in this drama is Hugo Rayes played by Jorge Garcia; he is a dependable team player who has the interests of all the survivors at heart. In his previous life, Hugo had won enormous sums of money with the synonymous number of the mysterious island. The disaster struck when he was heading home, back from Australia, where he had gone to pay a visit to a woman whose husband had used the synonymous number. According to Hugo, the winning number is cursed and their presence brings a sour taste into his mouth. James Sawyer, played by Josh Holloway is another character that is fascinating to watch, at a tender age of 8, Sawyer lost his parents. He adopted this title from a man who had caused the death of his parents and used it to con his victim’s money. During one of his endeavors of conning unknowing citizens off their hard earned money, Sawyer is arrested and deported back to the US from Australia. It was during this trip that his flight crashed to the mysterious Island. Throughout the drama, Sawyer‘s cocky and stubborn attitudes are evident. He tries to create tension between Jack and Kate; however, this trick goes against him as other survivors including Jack and Kate isolate from him. Other characters have also played an integral part in this drama to make it one of the best dramas I have ever seen.

In conclusion, I want to encourage those of you who enjoy watching movies to go and have a copy of this piece because it can be found in DVDs in movie stores near you. This captivating drama series is one of the best movies I have ever watched, try and experience the captivating themes and settings highlighted in this drama. If you do so, I am sure that many of you will be joining me every evening to watch this breathtaking drama.

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Short Essay on the Movie I Like Most

• March 5, 2019
• No Comments

The following movie review is provided by a professional academic writer from a short essay writing service which helps students with academic writing. Watching a movie is a pastime that plenty of people across the world really enjoy. While many people prefer to watch their movies on the big screen at the cinema, advancements in technology enable us to stream movies at home or on the go. The cinema, as well as our mobile or tablet devices, have made it easy for us to see some documentaries and stories portrayed on screen.

Personally, the cinema is the place to be when it comes to watching a movie due to the big screen and amazing sound. The one movie that stands out in my mind, as well as the minds of many people that I like most, is “Titanic”.  This movie does not only tell us what happened on 15 April 1912, but it also features some of the best actings I have ever seen.

It is a captivating and incredibly produced movie that is seen as a classic till this very day. Many people across the world have heard of this movie in some way shape or form because of its historical references. Released way back in 1997, James Cameron’s “Titanic” is a movie that successfully tells an emotional love story of two people who bumped into each other on board the ship.

The story follows lovebirds Jack Dawson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose Bukater, played by Kate Winslet. The ship was sailing from the south coast of England, heading to America. Jack and Rose come from two very different social classes but nothing stopped their love from blossoming.

Jack comes from a very poor background and is a struggling article while Rose is a beautiful woman married to a rich man who does not her. This movie brought to life a relationship that is present in this day and age. It is possible now for a young lady from a wealthy background to wed a man who comes from a poor background if they love each other so much.

The movie proves that love can indeed be found anywhere in this world, even on a ship as big as the Titanic. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet had amazing chemistry which is clear to see especially when they shared screen time. One amazing moment in the movie is when the crew on the ship are drawn to the two teenage lovers making love.

By diverting their attention to them, no one is paying attention to the ship and it hits an iceberg. The horrible death of over 1500 people onboard the ship as well as the efforts to save as many people as possible is what makes this movie amazing. While the ship is sinking and Rose on board a life board with her mother, she decides life cannot go without Jack and jumps back onto the sinking ship.

When they two love bird eventually get united, there are no lifeboats left on the ship and passengers are dying all around them. As the ship falls apart, Jack helps Rose get on a wooden panel that can only hold one person to prevent her from drowning. In one of the most powerful scenes ever captures, he tells her she will die an old woman and Jack pays the ultimate price at the end.

He dies of hypothermia for being in the cold icy water for too long thus sacrificing his own life and saving Kate. Seeing and hearing Kate say “come back, come back” to Jack knowing her lover has passed away is one of the most emotional and touching scenes I have ever seen. It is a scene that not only brings tears to my eyes but the eyes of everyone who watches it play out.

You cannot help but feel for the poor lover especially Jack who loses his life. The reason is you become emotionally attached to Jack and Rose, their love story, their rebellious nature and to see a tragic ending like this is heartbreaking. A lot of credit has to go to the actors, writers, director, composers, and producers of this amazing film.

The script, the music and camera angles were all on point and tell a story that is experienced today. It comes as no surprise to see that the movie was well received by both critics and fans when it was released. The Titanic was a ship that cannot be sunk according to various allegations and not even God could sink it.

What I love about this film from the first time I watched it is I wanted to know if this is the case. Is the Titanic really a boat that cannot be sunk by God or any other force of nature. There are not many movies out there that can captivate an audience the same way that “Titanic” has. This movie is a timeless classic, a masterpiece and has a special place in my heart.

It is till this day remains one of my favorite movie ever made and the 5 th highest grossing movie of all time in the USA and Canada. The movie has won 4 golden globe awards for best original song, best motion picture drama, best original score, and nest direction. It was nominated for an amazing 10 BAFTA awards however, it didn’t win any which came as a surprise to many people.

• Roper, G. (2017) The History of the Book in the Middle East. Routledge. 39 – 76
• Arsan, A. (2015) The Routledge Handbook of the History of the Middle East Mandates. Routledge. 31 – 41
• Choueiri, Y. (2008) A Companion to the History of the Middle East. John Wiley & Sons. 51 – 67
• Cronin, S. (2012) Subalterns and Social Protest: History from Below in the Middle East and North Africa. Routledge. 35 – 46
• Nisan, M. (2015) Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression, 2d ed. McFarland. 5 – 12
• Cleveland, W (2010) History of the Modern Middle East. ReadHowYouWant.com. 67 – 72
• Dumper, M (2007) Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. 87 – 100

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The best video essays of 2021

An escape from the most popular to the most captivating

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As coronavirus cloistered the world, the genre of video essays continued to augment in popularity on Youtube. Despite the homogeny of the creator space being apparent from a cursory glance, 2021 saw POC video essayists gaining momentum on the platform. From behemoths like D’Angelo Wallace to humble creators like myself, there is a gradient of experiences that are finally being represented thanks to YouTube’s algorithm “apparently” being an equalizer. That being said, this article hopes to shed light on some of gems you may have missed.

Beyond the players, the format of video essays has also evolved. Gone are the days when a midwestern man could aggregate thousands of views on a video about why water is wet. (OK, jk, that still happens.) But most of today’s video essays now amalgamate several genres of YouTube videos. Whether it’s the commentary crossovers à la Tara Mooknee , or the stand-up comedy stylings of Chill Goblin , there is a variety of variations to find. Here are a few that surprised us in the last year. —Ransford James, aka Foreign

[ Ed. note: This list is ordered chronologically rather than ranked by preference, meaning everything is worth checking out. And if you need more to watch, check out last year’s list .]

“Your Island is a Commune pt. 1,” Nowhere Grotesk

I first discovered this touching series on Animal Crossing: New Horizons via the social posts on F. D. Signifier’s YouTube channel — more on him later, but credit where credit’s due. Nowhere Grotesk’s bio on social media reads, “We’re two visual artists that create and examine art through a utopian leftist lens,” and that feeling permeates this series.

Discussing Animal Crossing: New Horizons through the lens of communal living and pastoral nostalgia, Nowhere Grotesk pushes back on the easy joke that Tom Nook is a greedy capitalist. Instead, this series shows how Animal Crossing: New Horizons conveys the concept of community as directly in conflict with urbanization and capitalism, thriving only when everyone’s needs are met without the turmoil of work. Even the addition of the Happy Home Paradise DLC , which gives players the option to work for additional outcomes, doesn’t nullify the anticapitalist argument here; working is a choice you can but don’t have to make. The island even meets more of the players’ needs by providing free healthcare. Animal Crossing isn’t the apolitical fluff many seem to think; instead, it’s a lovely, immersive argument for anarcho-communism, mutual aid, and rooting our politics in community. —Wil Williams

“The Market of Humiliating Black Women,” Tee Noir

This offering is far from obscure, but by the off chance that Tee Noir has evaded your eyes and eluded your ears, consider my favorite video from her so far: “ The Market of Humiliating Black Women .” Without spoiling this masterpiece, Tee breaks down what is such an innocuous experience that not many people even notice: How quotidian Black women’s pain is in popular media. From high-budget Tyler Perry movies to grainy WorldstarHipHop videos, the parodying of pain that Black women face on the daily is rewarded with thousands of millions of views and thousands of shares.

This is an experience that is far from second-hand with regard to Tee Noir, as she faces scrutiny that men don’t, simply by virtue of being a Black woman on this platform — let alone her queerness. —RJ

“The Day Rue ‘Became’ Black,” Yhara Zayd

After hitting shelves in 2008, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games was praised for the way it conveyed real-life modern class struggles in a strange, borderline fantastical world. The Hunger Games was clear about what it was saying and referencing, but apparently, some readers didn’t get the memo — or perhaps they refused to.

In this video, Zayd pulls on the Hunger Games fandom’s history to dissect what made some readers so shocked when Amandla Stenberg, a young Black actress, was cast as Rue, a young girl who is ... canonically Black. This isn’t just about people reading a book wrong, though; it’s about why audiences felt less protective of Rue the moment she “became” Black “in casting.” It’s also about why most of those comments have since been scrubbed from the internet.

Yhara Zayd’s work has been featured on all of my video essay lists , and for good reason. Her sharp, concise, passionate analysis is scored by a low-key (but not necessarily relaxed) aesthetic and narration style. Her occasional breaks to make a joke or loosen up her script emphasize what’s so important about the topic at hand: the humanity. —WW

“Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate,” Shanspeare

Unironic ASMR, charismatic candor, and witty humor are but a few of Shanspeare’s calling cards. Despite the myriad of channels dedicated to analyzing pop culture, none do it quite like Shanspeare. “ Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate ” is one of the most eye-opening videos that I have encountered, and it has provoked me — a cishet Afro-Caribbean man — into thoroughly addressing my own contributions to the subject matter. This deep dive into how the world incentivizes childlike behavior from women is as unnerving as it is necessary to watch. From the way I speak to women, to my subconscious preference of nicely shaven legs, Shanspeare details how all of that is essentially the product of a purposeful inculcation that was underway far before I was even a thought. I cannot emphasize to you enough that you should watch this masterpiece and all of her other ones as well. —RJ

“Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos,” CJ the X

Thanks to my specific symptoms of ADHD, it can be really hard for me to devote time to watch video essays that are over an hour long, and even harder for me to really fall in love with them. I hope this will help convey the gravity with which I am saying that I watched this two-and-a-half-hour video more times than any other video on YouTube this year. What starts as an analysis of Bo Burnham’s Inside slowly morphs into something else, then something else, then something else . This video transitions so gracefully between discussions of posthumanism, the internet, online fame, and what makes something funny, all while being punctuated with CJ the X’s hallmark near-absurdist blink-and-you’ll-miss-it humor. What makes this video an instant classic of the medium, though, is how it lands: a deep, sincere, vulnerable love letter to empathy and human connection, wound up in a personal anecdote that makes the thesis feel even more real.

I struggled to have basic hope or faith in humanity this year. I struggled to tell myself that everything is worth it. No piece of media helped me more with those struggles than this video. I wrote a piece on my read of Inside before seeing this video, and after watching it, my read on Inside has changed. And I’m so grateful. — WW

“The Reign of the Slim Thick Influencer,” Khadija Mbowe

I hope that this creator needs no introduction, because I feel woefully unequipped to introduce them myself. Khadija Mbowe walks the walk, and the walk is an onerous one. Being a feminine-presenting nonbinary creator of an obsidian hue, they brazenly break down some of the most nuanced topics with empathy and levity. Moreover, they pay it forward by promoting creators that the algorithm may have missed — much like myself, and in the same way Tee Noir promoted them a year ago.

“ The Reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer ” is arguably my favorite Khadija Mbowe video this year. It’s a discussion of the trend of Brazilian butt lifts , how influencers like Kim Kardashian perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, and the awful origins of commodifying the Black woman’s body. This is a must-see for everybody who consumes social media, which is … everybody. — RJ

“make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?,” voice memos for the void

An installment of Voice Memos for the Void’s Romance in Media series, “make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?” does what it says on the tin. This video analyzes the strange state of bisexual characters in media, pointing out how rarely bisexual characters get to fall in love. Not have sex, but fall in love. Voice Memos for the Void effortlessly combats rebuttals to this idea that we hear every time we ask for more representation and romance: “Why do they need to be queer?” “Why do they need to be in love?” It also dives into different depictions of masculinity, a history of Byronic heroes, and the troubling tropes that follow bisexual characters around in media, like that of the Magical and/or Hedonistic Bisexual . Forgive the glitchy camera in this video; equipment is expensive, and the commentary more than makes up for the video fidelity. We can thank F. D. Signifier’s feed for putting this video on my radar, too. — WW

“The Black Right Wing,” Anansi’s Library

While Tee Noir enjoys (?) a visibility that many POC creators don’t, Anansi boasts a dedicated 15,000 subscriber count but is deserving of far more. They stay closer to the format that many video essays have in the past of concealing their face in their videos, relying more on the merit of their musings than the luster of their looks. Many of us simply create and comment on the actions of others, but Anansi, for lack of a better term, is really in the field. They are deeply entrenched in American activism, which makes their videos simply an accompaniment to a much larger concerted effort.

This video on The Black Right Wing is redolent of the very fight that they have fought on many occasions. It details this unique subset of Black Americans that embraces the Trumpian conservatism that still plagues the United States to this very day. If you are fascinated by the neurosis necessary to align oneself with a party that is antipodal to your existence, then this is the video for you! — RJ

“On Leftist Disunity,” St. Andrewism

By now you must see the peaks and valleys that this list is riding, from creators who have passed the 100,000 mark to those who are still in the 10,000s. The themes that combine in all of them are apparent: their marginalized status, the video essay format, and most of all, the quality. Over the last year, the Trinibagan St. Andrewism has amassed over 50,000 subscribers, and his video On Leftist Disunity is a highlight. This video is the quintessential love letter to the leftist community that encourages the embrace of the many differences it has within it. Instead of approaching this with the pessimism that many people do, St. Andrew seems gleefully optimistic that this diversity of thought will end up saving not only the United States but the world. —RJ

“Break Bread,” F. D. Signifier

OK, now we can talk about F. D. Signifier in earnest. In my video essay list for our Masterpieces of Streaming series, I gave a brief history of video essays through the lens of educational videos. In “Breaking Bread,” F. D. Signifier offers an uncomfortably accurate parallel history: the rise of video essays from rant reviewers like The Nostalgia Critic. The trend of debate bros and, in F. D. Signifier’s words, every LeftTuber making a video about Ben Shapiro, isn’t just rooted in the medium’s history, though; it’s also rooted in whiteness. That lens and style of video stays prominent thanks to the YouTube algorithm, and while the homogeneity of video essays has been critiqued many times, “Break Bread” breaks down the issue with an astounding level of complexity, research, and guests from all over the video essay ecosystem. How much of a video essayist’s success comes down to talent? How much comes down to luck? And how much comes down to the algorithm knowing that what keeps people watching is simply who looks familiar? — WW

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10 best Oscar-winning movies ever, ranked (and where to watch them)

This weekend, the 96th Academy Awards will name a new winner for Best Picture. And while we suspect that Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will walk away with the top prize, there’s always room for an upset. The truth is that there are plenty of great movies that didn’t win Best Picture, including Citizen Kane , which is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

10. On the Waterfront (1954)

9. lawrence of arabia (1962), 8. amadeus (1984), 7. no country for old men (2007), 6. the french connection (1971).

• 5. Schindler’s List (1993)

4. Unforgiven (1992)

3. the godfather part ii (1974), 2. the godfather (1972), 1. casablanca (1943).

We’ve recently shared our list of the worst movies to win Best Picture , so now it’s time to reveal our picks for the 10 best Oscar-winning movies of all time. There may be some disagreement with the order in which we placed these films, but few could convincingly argue that they aren’t among the greatest movies ever made.

Marlon Brando was already an established actor before On the Waterfront , but this is the movie that turned him into a cinematic legend. Brando plays Terry Malloy, a former boxer who has never gotten over how his career ended in disgrace. While working as a longshoreman for a mobster, Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), Terry is tricked into being complicit in the murder of Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), a man who dared to testify against Friendly.

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Joey’s sister, Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), seeks justice for her fallen brother, which shames Terry into confessing his role after he emotionally bonds with her. Even then, Terry fears the consequences of crossing Friendly, but he can only be pushed so far before he starts pushing back.

Rent or buy On the Waterfront on Prime Video .

When it comes to epic movies , few films have ever come close to topping director David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia , which was based on the real-life exploits of T. E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole). During the First World War, Lawrence is sent by the British military to assess whether Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) can successfully lead his rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. Rather than simply staying on the sidelines, Lawrence fights alongside Faisal and wins the respect of the Arab warriors.

As the war drags on, Lawrence feels his loyalty to his country and his newfound comrades tested when their agendas pull away from each other. But eventually, even Lawrence will have to pick a side as the British hide their plans to claim part of Arabia for their own empire.

Rent or buy Lawrence of Arabia on Prime Video .

Most of the discussion about the Best Picture winners of the ’80s is about the movies that didn’t win. Raging Bull , Raiders of the Lost Ark , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , The Big Chill , Dead Poets Society , and Field of Dreams were all nominated, and they all came up short at the Academy Awards despite being some of the greatest films of the decade. But in 1984, the Academy got it right when Amadeus was named Best Picture.

This is one of the few films with two nominees for Best Actor, with the prize ultimately going to F. Murray Abraham for his towering performance as composer Antonio Salieri. Despite Salieri’s own musical talents, he feels overwhelming rage and jealousy towards Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce, the other Best Actor nominee in this film), an ungodly genius with an over-the-top personality and enough vices to send him to an early grave … assuming Salieri doesn’t kill him first.

Rent or buy Amadeus on Prime Video .

The Coen brothers didn’t win an Academy Award for Fargo , but just over a decade later, the duo finally got their Oscar gold for adapted screenplay, directing, and Best Picture for No Country For Old Men . Javier Bardem also won Best Supporting Actor for his chilling portrayal of Anton Chigurh, a hitman widely regarded as one of the all-time great movie villains .

Chigurh is hired to retrieve drug money from a deal gone bad that winds up in the hands of Llewelyn Moss ( Josh Brolin ), who doesn’t want to give up the cash even when his life is on the line. Tommy Lee Jones plays Ed Tom Bell, an aging sheriff who feels overwhelmed by the violence that Chigurh leaves in his wake. This is haunting crime story and one of the best films of the 21st century.

Watch No Country For Old Men on Paramount+ .

There’s a car chase sequence in The French Connection that is so riveting that it’s almost more famous than the rest of the film. Director William Friedkin creates incredible tension as Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) recklessly tries to keep up with an elevated train to catch a hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi), before he can get away.

Popeye and his partner, Detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider), are NYPD cops on the trail of Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), who plans to smuggle a great deal of heroin into the United States. When Popeye gets too close to the drugs, Charnier’s personal assassin, Nicoli, tries to take him out. However, Nicoli severely underestimates Popeye’s willingness to do whatever it takes to bring them down.

Watch The French Connection on Max .

5. Schindler’s List (1993)

Steven Spielberg was already considered one of the all-time great directors before Schindler’s List , but this film may be his most important work to date. A pre-action hero Liam Neeson stars as Oskar Schindler, a German war profiteer who makes his fortune just as World War II fully gets underway. With the help of his right-hand man, Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), Schindler bribes Nazi officials into letting him divert Jewish workers to his factory instead of sending them to concentration camps.

When faced with the horrifying scope of the Nazi atrocities, Schindler changes his focus to saving as many lives as possible, even if it means giving up all of the wealth that he’s acquired. Yet that sacrifice may not be enough for Schindler to live with the enormous burden of what he witnessed.

Rent or buy Schindler’s List on Prime Video .

Before he became a director, Clint Eastwood made his name in Hollywood in a series of unforgettable spaghetti westerns, including The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly . Decades later, Eastwood returned to the Western genre with Unforgiven , which he helmed and headlined as William Munny. Fifteen years after the Civil War, Munny is a former outlaw who struggles to provide for his children.

A would-be gunslinger calling himself the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) and William’s friend, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), coax Munny out of retirement to claim the bounty on cowboys who disfigured a prostitute, Delilah Fitzgerald (Anna Thomson). Standing in their way is Sheriff “Little” Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), a man who doesn’t care if Delilah gets justice or not. This battle of wills can end in only one way, with plenty of blood spilled on both sides.

Watch Unforgiven on Tubi .

Is The Godfather Part II better than the first film? That’s a hotly debated question even 50 years after the sequel’s release. Both movies rank among the greatest films ever. Unlike the first movie, The Godfather Part II takes place in two timeframes. Robert De Niro plays a young Vito Corleone in the flashback sequences set in the 1910s and 1920s, while Al Pacino plays Vito’s grown son, Michael Corleone, in 1958 and beyond.

Michael’s side of the story is particularly compelling as he attempts to solidify his hold on the family business while coming to the realization that he’s been betrayed by someone close to him. There’s only one true solution for all of Michael’s problems, and it usually involves his enemies meeting grisly fates.

Watch The Godfather Part II on Paramount+ .

As great as The Godfather Part II is, we’ve ranked it just slightly below the original because The Godfather is a towering achievement all by itself. Francis Ford Coppola brought Mario Puzo’s crime epic to life thanks to the incredible performances of Pacino as Michael, Marlon Brando as Vito, and the rest of the impeccably well-cast performers.

In the mid-40s, Vito’s refusal to take the Corleone family’s business into narcotics reveals that the other crime families plan to do so with or without Vito’s approval. After Vito narrowly survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael, is thrust into the family business. Michael never wanted to be a killer, but he’ll have to get his hands dirty to become the leader that the Corleone family needs in their most desperate hour.

Watch The Godfather on Paramount+ .

There are aspects of Casablanca that haven’t aged well, but the same could be said of any film over eight decades old. Regardless, Casablanca’s story and performances have withstood the test of time. It should also be noted that this is the most enduring World War II movie that was actually made and released during the war.

Humphrey Bogart gave his most iconic performance as Rick Blaine, a cynical man waiting out the war by running his own bar in the neutral city of Casablanca. A world of possibilities opens up for Rick when he is given two Nazi letters of transit that could be worth a fortune. Shortly thereafter, Rick is reunited with his former lover, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Victor is a resistance fighter who badly needs the transit papers to escape from the Nazis, but Rick is less than eager to help the couple until Ilsa tells him why she had to leave and reminds him of the love they once shared.

Casablanca isn’t just one of the all-time classics, it’s the best film awarded Best Picture at the Oscars. Nothing else comes close.

Watch Casablanca on Max .

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The 2024 Oscars are here, and it's not too hard to predict who will emerge victorious next Sunday. Oppenheimer is poised to sweep the ceremony, with projected wins for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. Barbie, meanwhile, will win Best Song, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will likely snag Best Animated Feature.

There's one category, however, that remains a bit of a toss-up. This year's Best Actress race has five intriguing nominees, and while I won't predict who will win, I will list who deserves to win, from least to most, and explain why their performances either failed to move me or still keep me thinking about them months after I've watched them.

Let's face it: the Oscars aren't for everyone. Even some movie fans can't stand all the superficial pageantry, the endless thanking of people you haven't heard of, and the inane interviews that occur on a red carpet that's probably more expensive than your house.

Want some alternatives? You can do worse than watch some movies on Hulu. In fact, you should watch the five movies on the list below. Some are past Oscar nominees, some were box office hits, and all of them are a guaranteed fun time.

Here's a hard truth: the Oscars aren't for everyone. The speeches, the inane interviews, the chintzy dance numbers -- it's a bloated ceremony that is as off-putting to some people as it is appealing to others.

If you're one of those people who isn't going to be watching the 2024 Oscars, you probably need some suggestions for what to do instead. And you can do worse than watch some movies on Max. You should watch the three movies on the list below. One is a 2023 hit starring a Dune: Part Two lead actor, another is an underrated fantasy, and the last is a modern comedy classic.

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The 50 Greatest Western Movies Ever Made

A hard look at one of cinema’s oldest genres..

This article was originally published September 4, 2019 and has been updated to include additional movies.

America can only claim a few art forms as its own. Jazz, for sure. Comic books, certainly . It’s probably safe to add the Western to that list, too, even if — like jazz and comics — the Western has roots around the globe and has since been adopted in many lands.

The history of movie Westerns more or less begins with the end of the Old West itself. Westerns thrived in the silent era, and though the genre’s popularity has ebbed and flowed ever since — largely fading from view in the ’80s but enjoy several resurgences in succeeding decades — it’s never threatened to fade away. The Western is a vital genre with the habit of reinventing itself every few years that doubles as a way to talk about America’s history while reflecting on its present. A strand of violent, psychologically complex Westerns that appeared in the 1950s, for example, captures both changing attitudes toward the settlement of the West and the treatment of Native Americans while channeling the spirit of a country still recovering from a devastating World War. And while there are certain themes and elements that define the genre, it’s also proven to be flexible, capable of playing host to many different stories and an infinite variety of characters. In Paul Greengrass’s film News of the World , for instance, Tom Hanks plays a traveling newsreader whose attempt to return a girl to her family doubles as a tour of a country whose divisions look like clear roots to some of our current national troubles.

This list of the 50 greatest Westerns reflects that wide legacy from the very first entry, a film directed by a Hungarian and starring a Tasmanian. It’s been assembled, however, working from a fairly traditional definition of the Western: films set along the America frontier of the 19th and the first years of the 20th century. That means no modern Westerns, no stealth Westerns starring aged X-Men , and no space Westerns with blasters instead of pistols. (We did, however, make an exception for a certain comedy that concludes with its stars attending its own premiere.)

That, of course, still leaves a lot of great Westerns. More, of course, than could possibly fit on a top-50 list interested in capturing the full scope of the genre. As such, not every John Ford film made the list. Anthony Mann and James Stewart made eight Westerns together. Any of them could have been included, but not all of them have been. This list is designed to double as a guide to the genre’s many different forms in the hopes it will send readers to corners they might not know and reconsider some classics they might not have seen before.

So with all that said, let’s kick it off with a trip to an especially rowdy Old Western town.

50. Dodge City (1939)

Some of the greatest Westerns ever made tweak the genre’s traditions and expectations — traditions and expectations created by countless films that like their good guys to wear white hats, their bad guys to be instantly identifiable villains, their saloons to play host to barroom brawls, and their climactic shoot-outs to be rousing. Dodge City has no interest in subverting any of that. Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland — a team that had recently enjoyed great success with films like Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood — the film wants nothing more than to be a traditional Western on the grandest scale imaginable. Flynn plays a man compelled to clean up the lawless cattle town of Dodge City. De Havilland plays the woman who loves him (eventually), and Bruce Cabot plays a lawless tough guy. The rest, as the saying goes, writes itself, but the film’s so entertaining that the familiarity of it all doesn’t matter. Flynn and de Havilland transport the chemistry of their swashbuckling adventures to the Old West, while Curtiz makes brilliant use of Technicolor and a big budget. Anyone new to the Western or just wanting to see a Hollywood Western in its most basic form executed at the highest possible level should start here. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

49. The Sisters Brothers (2018)

At the other end of the spectrum lies what back in the ’60s used to be called “the revisionist Western,” though its influence has so permeated the genre that it’s hard to tell where traditionalism ends and revisionism begins. Put simply, the revisionist Western steers away from, or plays against, formula, refusing to romanticize the Old West or depict it as a place with clear good guys and bad guys. It also tends to emphasize the grimier, more unpleasant aspects of life in the American West. One litmus test: If you see flies buzzing around a corpse, you’re probably watching a revisionist Western.

There’s grime aplenty, but also unexpected sweetness, in The Sisters Brothers , in which John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play brothers who work as hired assassins, despite being temperamentally unsuited for the job. Hired by a rich man to take out an inventor named Warm (Riz Ahmed), they run into mission drift as they get to know both their target and the other man tracking him down, a private detective named Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). Adapted by Jacques Audiard from a novel by Patrick deWitt, the film didn’t find much of an audience when it played in theaters. But it’s a cult classic waiting to happen, a cockeyed look at a time and place in America when the rules hadn’t yet hardened and seemingly anything could happen — for good and for ill. It also features a breathtaking ending that’s unlike anything another Western has dared. (Available to stream on Pluto TV , Tubi , and Plex .)

48. Buck and the Preacher (1972)

Watch enough classic Westerns and it’s easy to conclude — leaving out a few exceptions — that African-Americans rarely had a role to play in the Old West, or at best kept to the margins of the stories that defined it. That doesn’t square with history, and Sidney Poitier’s directorial debut shines a light on just one underrepresented Old West story via the tale of some Black migrants fleeing the brutality of Reconstruction life to find a new life in unsettled territory — only to find that prejudice and other perils await them on their journey. Poitier stars as Buck, a former soldier who escorts wagon trains for pay but comes to find he has a deeper stake in the well being of those he protects. A virtually unrecognizable Harry Belafonte co-stars as Preacher, a scraggly, traveling man of God/con man who, eventually, throws in with Buck. Joined by Ruby Dee, they make a fun buddy team. Their chemistry provides a light counterbalance to the film’s exploration of the complicated racial dynamics that defined the West, including the party’s tense arrangement with the Native Americans who never let the migrants forget they’re only visitors as they pass through their territory. (Available to rent on Amazon, Apple TV , and Google Play. )

47. Day of Anger (1967)

The Western genre got a shot of new ideas starting in the early ’60s thanks to the proliferation of European Westerns, many of them made by Italian directors using stretches of Italy and Spain that mostly looked like the Old West — not to mention a mix of American and European stars . The master of what would come to be known as Spaghetti Westerns was Sergio Leone, whose breakthrough film, 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars , made a movie star out of a TV actor named Clint Eastwood and helped spark a boom that would lead to hundreds of such films in the decades that follow. (More on Leone, Eastwood, and A Fistful of Dollars below.) With their askew takes on the American mythos, twisted characters, inventive scores, vivid imagery, and florid violence, the Spaghetti Western developed into a rich subgenre that could easily fill a top 50 list of its own, one that rewards those who venture away from Leone. One example: Day of Anger , directed by Leone’s former assistant director Tonino Valerii. Giuliano Gemma stars as Scott, a lowly street sweeper whose status starts to change when Frank Talby (Lee Van Cleef, an American actor whose career got a second act thanks to Spaghetti Westerns) takes him under his wing. But he soon learns that there’s a price to be paid by those who would use a gun to move up in the world. Clearly inspired by Leone — they’d work together again on the fun My Name Is Nobody in 1973 — Valerii mixes cutting black humor with scenes of violence, blending enthrall with revulsion as we see what it means to make one’s reputation by shedding blood. (Available to stream on Plex and Tubi ).

46. The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Consider this: When Edwin S. Porter made The Great Train Robbery , using New Jersey as a stand-in for the American frontier, the Old West wasn’t even that old. Most historians use 1912, when Arizona and New Mexico became states, as the closing of the frontier. But, as with the dime novels that made heroes and legends out of its inhabitants, the West was already passing into myth when Porter made this violent, crisply edited film in which bandits meet a bad end after robbing a telegraph office (but not before thrilling audiences with their daring and ruthlessness, like so many heroes and villains to follow them). The final shot, in which the lead bandit takes aim at the audience, is its own kind of wonder, implicating viewers in both the threat and the thrill of what they’d just seen. (Available to stream on Pluto TV and Tubi .)

45. Broken Arrow (1950)

If the Western genre has an original sin, it’s the portrayal of Native Americans, treated by many films alternately as buffoons and subhuman savages. The demeaning depictions have ties to some of the ugliest chapters in American history. And just as the country at large is still reckoning with the consequences of its conquest of the West, the Western genre will always have to grapple with its most thoughtless and hateful portrayals. Some films tried to offer correctives, though they usually weren’t without their own sorts of awkwardness. Directed by Delmer Daves, Broken Arrow loses points for casting white actors in most of its Native American roles, a once-common practice that now seems baffling. But it scores points for weaving a message of tolerance into an effective, fact-inspired adventure story in which James Stewart plays Tom Jeffords, an ex-Army scout who befriends the Apache chief Cochise (Jeff Chandler) and works to defuse tensions in the area. The film both helped nudge the Western’s depiction of Native Americans in a more sympathetic direction (though not every film responded to that nudge) and — with Winchester ’73 , released the same year — helped confirm Stewart as one of the key stars of the new decade, thus bringing about a more complex, conflicted sort of Western hero. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

44. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Marlon Brando only directed one movie and it didn’t exactly do his career any favors. He went over schedule, and over budget with One-Eyed Jacks , which premiered to mixed reviews and commercial indifference. The release of a restored print in 2016 — shepherded by admirers like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg — helped confirm what the film’s partisans had argued all along: Brando knew what he was doing behind the camera. Scorsese described it as “represent[ing] a sort of bridge between two eras in moviemaking: the production values of old Hollywood and the emotional values of the new Hollywood,” an apt summation of a classic-looking Western anchored by Brando’s tortured performance as Rio, an outlaw determined to exact revenge on an older partner he calls Dad (Karl Malden) who’s gone straight and become a lawman — a plan made all the more complicated when Rio falls for Dad’s stepdaughter (Pina Pellicer). The production was dogged by stories of Brando wasting time waiting for just the right waves to appear for a shot, but the film itself bears out his instincts. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right wave to suggest the roiling emotions of a bad guy trying to decide if he wants to follow his instincts to their violent ends. (Available to stream on Pluto TV , Tubi, and Plex .)

43. Little Big Man (1970)

Few revisionist Westerns took the task of demythologizing the West as literally as Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man , which is narrated by the 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman, under extremely impressive aging makeup) who tries to set the record straight by telling a historian what really happened in the Old West. Crabb has an unusual perspective. A white kid raised by the Cheyenne, he bounces back and forth between the white and Native American worlds over the course of the film, finding abundance of absurdity on both sides but an overabundance of hypocrisy and cruelty on only one. Penn balances comedy against tragedy, depicting Crabb bungling his way through stints as a gunslinger and a soldier then refusing to look away from the massacres he witnesses, scenes Penn fills with echoes of the Vietnam War. Even those who remember the past sometimes live long enough to see it repeated. (Available to stream on Prime Video .)

42. The Left Handed Gun (1958)

Speaking of Penn, years before he made Bonnie and Clyde sympathetic outlaws, he did much the same for Billy the Kid with The Left Handed Gun . As played by Paul Newman, William Bonney is a trigger-happy hothead who’s more misunderstood than evil. Taken in by a cattle boss, he becomes enraged when a competing bunch of cattlemen kill his mentor. The anger ultimately leads to his downfall, but not before he starts to see his own short life start to become legend. Working from a take on Bonney originated by Gore Vidal, Penn and Newman treat him as a rebel with an overdeveloped sense of justice and underdeveloped impulse control. It serves as a showcase for a complex, twitchy performance for Newman, who was just coming into his own as a major movie star, and for Penn, whose directorial debut captures a director ready to question received American myths from the start. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV, and Google Play .)

41. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

A similar impulse drives Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford , but rather than fill the film with restless energy, as Penn did, Dominik opts for a more meditative approach. Brad Pitt plays James opposite Casey Affleck as Robert Ford, an admirer and gang recruit who ultimately turns against his idol. Aided by stunning Roger Deakins cinematography and an entrancing score from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Dominik’s film locks into the rhythms of another time, letting sharp moments of violence interrupt long, slow passages that wouldn’t be out of place in a film by Terrence Malick (one of Dominick’s obvious reference points). The film had a difficult journey to theaters where it drew only small but devoted audiences, yet even then it seemed destined to be regarded as a classic unappreciated in its time. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

40. The Shootist (1976)

John Wayne might not have known the end was near when he agreed to make The Shootist for Don Siegel, but he must have had his suspicions. Wayne, who died in 1979, had fought cancer since the early ’60s and had been finding it increasingly hard to work due to his physical limitations. The story of a gunfighter facing down death, The Shootist didn’t begin as an elegiac tribute to the star — a number of other, younger actors passed on the part — but it works beautifully as Wayne’s swan song, giving him a character who’s lived long enough to become a Western legend only to learn that that status has more detriments than benefits. Filled with familiar faces — James Stewart and John Carradine among them — and set in 1901, it also captures the passing of one era and the coming of another. Wayne’s character, J.B. Books, becomes the idol of a teenage boy named Gillom (Ron Howard), but the film’s ultimately about how the sort of life Books lived has no place in the world that’s coming. Nor did Wayne, but Siegel’s film gives him a fitting good-bye. (Available to rent on Amazon, Apple TV , and Google Play .)

39. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Filled with deep knowledge of and affection for the classic Western, and a willingness to blow raspberries at it anyway, Blazing Saddles finds Mel Brooks (and a writing team that included Richard Pryor and Andrew Bergman) deploying every sort of gag known to comedy, from dark, anachronistic asides (“I must’ve killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille”) to a concerto of bean-assisted farts. But it might just have been a fun romp were it not for the social commentary central to the story of Bart (Cleavon Little), a black man sent by the corrupt Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) to stir up trouble in the town of Rock Ridge so it can be demolished to make way for a railroad line. It’s silliness with a purpose, and the film weaves the jokes and the pointed jabs together brilliantly. Brooks directs with an understanding of how classic Westerns work, but the film is driven by a need to tell the sort of story they never could. (Available to stream on Netflix .)

38. The Tall T (1957)

Between 1956 and 1960 director Budd Boetticher, writers Burt Kennedy and Charles Lang, and star Randolph Scott teamed up for six films that came to be known as the Ranown Cycle — tough, tight, morally complex stories of the Old West and the difficulties of being a person of conscience while living within it. All beautifully crafted and carefully considered, any of them would make a fine addition to this list (and there’s one more a little further up the line). Adapted from a story by Elmore Leonard, The Tall T casts Scott as a down-on-his-luck cowboy who ends up in the middle of a scheme to ransom a wealthy woman (Maureen O’Hara) newly wed to a coward. Boetticher keeps the suspense high in a film deeply interested in what it means to be an honorable man under impossible circumstances, a struggle Scott depicts less through words than actions and the emotions he feels but never expresses. (Available to stream on Plex , Starz , and Tubi .)

37. Django (1966)

Undoubtedly the most influential Spaghetti Western not directed by Sergio Leone, Django takes the ugliness and violence of Leone’s films up several notches for a story that pits an ex-Union soldier named Django (Franco Nero) against the Klan and other foes. Sergio Corbucci — who also contributed memorable entries like Navajo Joe and The Great Silence to the Spaghetti canon — directs like Leone without the lyricism, putting the emphasis squarely on violence and absurdity. But his approach, and Nero’s performance, serve the lean, mean, bloody story well. The film has one official sequel but dozens of unofficial follow-ups with titles like Django, Prepare a Coffin and A Few Dollars for Django . It also has even more imitators who found varying degrees of success by combining a mysterious hero with ever-escalating violence. The original, however, remains a dark delight. (Available to stream on Starz .)

36. The Magnificent Seven (1960)

The ’50s and ’60s found international filmmakers engaging in a fascinating cultural exchange. For his 1954 classic Seven Samurai , Akira Kurosawa looked to the American Western — especially the films of John Ford — for inspiration. The American Western repaid the tribute with this remake of Seven Samurai directed by John Sturges. Sturges’s film lacks some of the surprise and depth of Kurosawa’s film, but it’s as entertaining as big Hollywood Westerns get, putting Yul Brynner in charge of a mismatched band of gunfighters (whose ranks include Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn) as they defend a Mexican village plagued by bandits under the command of a sadistic leader played by Eli Wallach. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

35. Bend of the River (1952)

The West held the promise of reinvention, serving as a place where those who wanted to start a new chapter in their lives could forget the past. But does a fresh start always change the contents of a person’s heart? That’s the question at the center of this Anthony Mann Western in which James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy both play former border raiders who, in the years after the Civil War, have started to create new lives for themselves on the frontier. For Stewart’s character, that means helping a wagon train find its way to Oregon. For Kennedy’s that maybe means the same thing. But maybe not. Mann’s film explores what it takes to redeem the bad actions of the past while depicting the corrupting influence of wealth, watching as the discovery of gold turns almost everyone into monsters and the Edenic Oregon Territory into a land ruled by greed. It’s a complex, gripping drama that’s unafraid to send some likable characters down dark paths, and it all plays out against stunning Pacific Northwest scenery (some less-convincing-than-usual soundstage sequences aside). (Not currently available on streaming.)

34. A Bullet for the General (1966)

The Spaghetti Western’s offshoots include the Zapata Western, which set stories against the background of the Mexican Revolution. This often provided filmmakers the chance to offer coded (and sometimes not so coded) commentary on the politics of the 1960s. Among the first of its type, Damiano Damiani’s A Bullet for the General mixes rousing action with a story of betrayal and political assassination that ends with an unambiguous call for the underclass to take up arms. Unsurprisingly, its screenwriting team includes Franco Solinas, the Marxist co-writer of The Battle of Algiers , but Damiani effectively folds the film’s political agenda into an exciting narrative filled with memorable action scenes that exemplifies how popular entertainment can often be the best way to deliver a message. (Available to stream on Plex and Tubi. )

33. Vera Cruz (1954)

Spaghetti Westerns didn’t come out of nowhere. Their precursors include this Robert Aldrich film, in which a financially struggling plantation owner named Ben (Gary Cooper) seeks to bail himself out any way he can by seeking his fortune in Mexico. There he teams up with Joe (Burt Lancaster), the morally suspect leader of a band of outlaws (a band that includes Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and others), to make off with a fortune in gold coins. Aldrich brings a surplus of visual flair to a sweat-soaked film in which Cooper’s character looks like a good guy only in contrast to the even worse guys around him. Cooper’s tight-lipped performance leaves Lancaster plenty of room to play the colorful rogue, a man who can keep up a charm offensive up to the moment he puts a bullet in your back. (Available to stream on MGM+ , Pluto TV, and Tubi .)

32. Ride the High Country (1962)

Budd Boetticher moved on from movie Westerns after Comanche Station in 1960, focusing instead on TV work and a documentary about matador Carlos Arruza. Randolph Scott, on the other hand, made one more Western, the 1962 film Ride the High Country . The first Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, it plays a bit like the passing of the torch. Scott and Joel McCrea co-star as aging cowboys who take on the job of guarding a gold shipment. They’re men past their prime in a world that’s passing them by, and they know it, but they’re determined to make the most of their last ride. Peckinpah would soon make movies that would upend the Western genre with their balletic violence and dirt-caked vision of the West. Ride the High Country finds him exploring some of his pet themes — particularly the end of the West and what it means to be a man out of time — via a much more traditional style and using major stars of a not-quite-but-almost-bygone era. A lovely, quietly mournful film, it, too, would be one of the last of its kind. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

31. The Shooting (1966)

Some films never fully give up their mysteries. The Shooting , one of two low-budget Westerns that Monte Hellman made back-to-back in Utah for an uncredited Roger Corman, is one such film. Working from a script by future Five Easy Pieces writer Carole Eastman (working under a pseudonym), Hellman turns the story of two gunslingers (Warren Oates and Will Hutchins) accompanying an unnamed woman (Millie Perkins) through an unforgiving desert while being trailed by a man in black (a menacing Jack Nicholson). Artful and at times almost abstract, it strips the Western down to its fundamental elements and then strips away some more as it builds to an ending as mysterious in its own way as the end of Don’t Look Now (or Hellman’s own Two-Lane Blacktop ). For a long time, The Shooting seemed almost more like a rumor than a film. It never played theaters and aired just a few times on TV. But those who saw it kept its flame alive, and it’s rightfully received a second life thanks to home video. The film’s more conventional companion piece, Ride in the Whirlwind , also starring Nicholson and Perkins, is also very much worth a look. (Available to stream on Peacock and Tubi. )

30. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Clint Eastwood’s fifth film as a director has tangled origins. It began as a film by Philip Kaufman, who took on the job of adapting a book by a man who called himself Forrest Carter, who’d later write the memoir The Education of Little Tree recounting his upbringing in the Cherokee tradition. Kaufman lost his job while shooting the film and Carter would later be exposed as a fraud — a former member of the Klan and a speechwriter for George Wallace. Despite how it got started, The Outlaw Josey Wales ended up as very much a Clint Eastwood film, and a more mature consideration of the genre than he’d managed with its dark, violent, and deeply satisfying predecessor High Plains Drifter . Trading in a story of revenge for one of reconciliation, Eastwood stars as Josey Wales, a member of a pro-Confederate militia who heads West to escape a bounty on his head. Having lost his wife and child to pro-Union forces, he expects his journey to be a lonely one, only to pick up a kind of surrogate family that includes an aged Cherokee man (Chief Dan George), a mute Navajo woman, and others. Eastwood doesn’t skimp on the violence, but the film ultimately cares more about what happens after violence ends, and how a country patches itself together after a divisive war, a theme that resonated with mid-’70s America. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play. )

29. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

A tight, chilling cautionary tale about the dangers of mob mentality and rushed judgment, this William Wellman film stars Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan as cowboys who drift into a new town and find themselves drawn into a posse seeking justice for the murder of a rancher. They find some likely suspects, or at least suspects that seem likely enough to a bloodthirsty crowd. Always efficient, Wellman’s film is short and to the point, but it moves to deliberate rhythms, conveying the speed and urgency of the posse’s hunt but slowing down as their suspects endure the torture of knowing that their time on Earth may have reached an end. In a genre with no shortage of blazing guns and casual killing, The Ox-Bow Incident makes every death sting. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV, and Google Play .)

28. For a Few Dollars More (1965)

The middle entry in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy — we’ll be hitting the others a little further up the list — For a Few Dollars More sometimes gets overlooked, sandwiched as it is between the tight, revelatory breakthrough A Fistful of Dollars and the sweeping The Good, the Bad and the Ugly . In many respects, it falls squarely between those two poles, but it’s also the most emotionally rich of the three. Eastwood returns, this time playing a bounty hunter who joins forces with a former Army colonel who keeps his reasons for seeking revenge to himself until the film’s finale, reasons that add a poignant undercurrent to a film that ups the violence and grunginess of its predecessor and sets up an even more ambitious follow-up. (Available to stream on Max .)

27. Winchester ’73 (1950)

James Stewart didn’t have the easiest time returning to work after World War II. The charming comedic parts he’d specialized in before his time in the Air Force, an experience he had difficulty discussing, didn’t seem to suit him anymore, and his first film back, It’s a Wonderful Life , flopped even though it showcased a skill at playing troubled characters rarely glimpsed before. However, 1950 was a breakthrough year. He dazzled in Harvey , but it was a pair of Westerns that confirmed that he’d be a major force in the genre for years to come: Broken Arrow (see above) and this first pairing with Anthony Mann. Here Stewart plays Lin McAdam, the central figure in the story of a rare, coveted gun’s journey through the Old West, as it passes from Lin’s hands to that of an outlaw, a Native American (Rock Hudson), and others. It’s a clever device that allows Mann to explore several corners of the West and, in the process, tell a variety of stories while setting up both director and star as important voices in the genre. (Available to stream on Starz .)

26. True Grit (2010)

John Wayne shook up his image with the 1969 film True Grit , an adaptation of a Charles Portis novel in which Wayne played the cantankerous, usually drunk U.S. Marshal “Rooster” Cogburn. It’s a fine film in its own right, but Joel and Ethan Coen’s second pass at the story is even better. Jeff Bridges takes on the Cogburn role, playing him as equal parts curmudgeon and hero as he helps the spirited, teenaged Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) track down the villain (James Brolin) who killed her father — with some help from a boastful Texas Ranger (Matt Damon). The results, which bring more of the novel’s eccentric touches to the screen, suggest Portis’s book was always meant to be a Coen brothers movie, creating a vision of the West as a weird, darkly comic place, one that requires an almost inhuman amount of dedication to bend it to its will. It gets points for keeping Portis’s bittersweet ending, too. (Available to stream on MGM+ .)

25. The Power of the Dog  (2021)

In an instantly infamous interview with Marc Maron, Sam Elliott likened the cowboys of  The Power of the Dog  to “those dancers, those guys in New York that wear bowties and not much else.” He meant Chippendales dancers, and though Elliott was generally wrong in his assessment of Jane Campion’s haunting, darkly funny adaptation of the 1967 Thomas Savage novel, he’s onto something by suggesting the film’s cowboys are playing a role. The brilliance of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as the sadistic, ultra-macho Phil Burbank is in Phil’s phoniness. He’s not a cowboy by birth, but — in attempting to live up to the cowboy ideal of his idol, the late Bronco Henry — he’s determined to live (and overplay) the part to the bitter end. In Peter Gordon (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the effete stepson of Phil’s brother George’s (Jesse Plemons) new bride, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), he finds a target for his brutality: someone who’s not quite helpless as he appears against the backdrop of a Montana that’s reluctant to embrace the 20th century and say good-bye to the ways of the Old West. (Available to stream on Netflix .)

24. The Gunfighter (1950)

“Well, there was this movie I seen one time about a man riding ’cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck,” Bob Dylan sings on his 1986 track “Brownsville Girl,” a song co-written by Sam Shepard. Then, without warning, he goes on to spoil the plot of this 1950 Henry King film, in which Peck plays a gunfighter whose prowess with a gun has made him a legend while putting a target on his back for any young gun hoping to make a name for himself. Dylan can’t quite remember the name of the movie, but it’s clearly made a deep impression on him anyway, no doubt in large part thanks to Peck’s haunted performance as a man for whom fame has become a trap and the reasons for that fame a source of shame that stands between him and the righteous, settled life he wants to live. It’s yet another 1950 Western that signaled a shift in the genre. Drawing on noir, it helped set the stage for a decade filled with haunted men shadowed by a past they can only dream of escaping. (Available to stream on Peacock and Tubi .)

23. Dead Man (1995)

That same sense of fatalism hangs over every frame of Jim Jarmusch’s journey through an old, weird American West, which alternates between gritty revisionist sequences and increasingly surreal passages as it sends a Cleveland-born accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) on a journey toward death. Along the way he encounters everyone from a pitiless industrialist played by Robert Mitchum to a cross-dressing trader played by Iggy Pop — and, most importantly, a Native American man named Nobody (Gary Farmer) who guides him on his journey in part because he suspects Blake is the reincarnation of the poet who shares his name. A languorous Neil Young score sets the tone for a film in which Jarmusch uses starkly beautiful black-and-white images, dry humor, and Depp’s deadpan performance to create a dreamlike journey beyond the boundaries of Old West myths. (Available to stream on Max .)

22. 7 Men From Now (1956)

The first Budd Boetticher, Burt Kennedy, and Randolph Scott collaboration set the pattern for those that followed, and a high standard for them to match. Boetticher reportedly described their unifying feature as common setup: “Here comes Randy. He’s alone. What’s his problem?” Here Randy’s problem’s especially tough. Once the sheriff of Silver Springs, he now hunts for the seven men responsible for a robbery that left his wife dead, a pursuit that puts him in conflict with a tough character played by Lee Marvin and a young married couple whom he suspects might not survive their journey West without his help. Whether or not that’s his problem proves central to the plot, and more complicated than it first appears. The subsequent twists allow Boetticher and his collaborators to explore the complex matter of what it means to live justly in a dangerous world while still surviving to see the next day — a question they try to answer with this and the brisk, action-packed, but always reflective films that followed, rarely arriving at any easy answers. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

21. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

The film that made Clint Eastwood a movie star, revealed Sergio Leone as a peerless stylist, and inspired hundreds (thousands?) of imitators, this breakthrough Spaghetti Western offers a bloody, enthralling reinterpretation of the American Western as viewed from afar, with a plot on loan from Akira Kurosawa’s samurai hit Yojimbo . (The cultural exchange between Kurosawa and the Western didn’t end with The Magnificent Seven .) Eastwood plays the Man With No Name (though he’s known here as “Joe”), the character he’d spin variations on in the film’s two (loosely connected) follow-ups. A drifter and gifted gunslinger, he strolls into a town controlled by two warring factions and proceeds to play them against each other to his own benefit, saying as little as possible and letting them make assumptions about his plans. Though he ultimately takes a stand for good, the Man With No Name seems happily amoral for much of the film, less a white-hatted good guy than a disillusioned anti-hero with no interest in propping up a corrupt system or the men who run it. It’s no wonder the ’60s embraced him and Leone’s irreverent, thrilling take on the genre, one scored by Ennio Morricone’s equally groundbreaking music. (Available to stream on Max .)

20. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Playing older than his years, John Wayne stars in the middle chapter of John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy (sandwiched between Fort Apache and Rio Grande ) as a soon-to-retire captain whose final days in service find him reflecting on what it all meant as he tries to prevent a new outbreak of fighting in the days after Custer’s defeat at Little Bighorn. Shooting in stunning Technicolor in his favorite location, Utah’s Monument Valley, Ford fills the film with lyrical passages while valorizing a soldier whose primary concern is preventing bloodshed rather than facilitating it. Short on plot but no less memorable for it, the film inspired critic Dave Kehr to call it “perhaps the only avant-garde film ever made about the importance of tradition.” (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

19. Shane (1953)

The fundamental conflict at the heart of the classic Western pits civilization against lawlessness and the notion that might makes right against order and justice. But not all those who fought to make the West safe for law-abiding citizens got to live in the world they helped shape. Characters who realize they have no place in the changing West float through many of the greatest Westerns (including a bunch further up, and atop, this list).

If there’s an archetypal version of that character, it’s Shane, the hero of George Stevens’s film of the same name. Played by Alan Ladd, Shane has a past he’d rather not talk about but sees the possibility of a better future in the Wyoming Territory, where settlers find themselves harassed by a land baron with no respect for their legal claims on the land. It’s there Shane befriends a local family (headed by Van Heflin and Jean Arthur) and tries to put his gunfighting ways behind him but is forced to call upon his old skills for the sake of his new friends and the life they’re trying to forge.

Stevens makes beautiful use of location photography while asking whether it will be a plough or a gun that defines the West in the years that come. A veteran of World War II, Stevens returned from the conflict determined never to make movies that glorified violence. Even while making Shane’s choices seem unavoidable, Ladd brings a tragic heaviness to his defense of the settlers and a sense that even necessary violence goes against what’s best in the human spirit. The final shot is one of the Western’s most famous images — and one of its saddest. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

18. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

A similar conflict between a desire to live a quiet, settled life and the need to do whatever it takes to survive plays out in Delmer Daves’s 3:10 to Yuma (the first adaptation of an Elmore Leonard story that inspired a strong remake in 2007). It even shares a cast member with Shane , Van Heflin, who plays Dan, a rancher who witnesses a stagecoach robbery but just wants to stay out of it. He’s desperate for money, however, and thus susceptible to the promise of a reward for helping ensure that Ben Wade (Glenn Ford, leering but charming) doesn’t escape before boarding a train that will take him to jail for his crimes. As they wait for the train, and the arrival of henchmen determined to set Wade free, the film explores the nature of justice and morality in an untamed land and the possibility of redemption for even the worst of men, all building to an explosive finale that takes some unexpected turns. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV, and Google Play .)

17. High Noon (1952)

One of the most divisive of all the classic Westerns, High Noon inspired Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo because he “didn’t think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help.” (You’ll find Hawks’s film a little higher on this list, but don’t take that as a slight to High Noon .) Others’ reasons for disliking it were more complicated, wrapped as they were in the politics of the day, which led screenwriter Carl Foreman to leave the country for Britain before its release, rightly assuming he’d soon be blacklisted for failing to cooperate with HUAC. That same political environment undoubtedly inspired the film, in which Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper), just as he’s about to retire, discovers that no one will help him against a gang of outlaws out for revenge. Letting the action unfold in something close to real time, director Fred Zinnemann builds the tension slowly, letting Kane’s mounting desperation, rather than gunfights and acts of heroism, push the film along. By the climax, it’s become a drama about a brave man — never mind Hawks’s reading — who learns just how cowardly everyone else can be when they have something to lose, and how quickly a nice town can revert back to savagery no matter how much work has been put into taming it. (Available to stream on MGM+ , Paramount+ , and Prime Video )

16. Forty Guns (1957)

Director Samuel Fuller loved big emotions and shocking imagery. Forty Guns unites those passions, pitting a former gunslinger named Griff (Barry Sullivan) against a local landowner who holds power by controlling a cadre of men, the 40 guns of the title. It’s a classic Western setup complicated by the landowner being the commanding and beautiful Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck), who inflames Griff’s passions and he hers. Fuller fills the film with heated drama and bold flourishes — like a dinner table where Jessica shares a meal with all 40 of her enforcers — as well as some deeply Freudian gun talk with a beautiful gunsmith, a tracking shot that seemingly runs the length of a town, and a showdown filled with extremely tightly close-ups. (Leone was doubtlessly taking notes.) It’s brash and satisfying on every level, from the action scenes to the complex, sexually charged central romance. (Available to stream on Plex and Tubi .)

15. Johnny Guitar (1954)

Then again, when it comes to sexual chemistry and fluid gender roles, Forty Guns looks pretty tame compared to Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar , released a few years earlier. Joan Crawford plays Vienna, a saloon owner who dominates everyone she meets with her imperious attitude. (“I never met a woman who was more man,” her bartender says.) Well, almost everyone. The film puts Vienna up against Ward Bond’s John McIvers, but McIvers mostly seems to act as a cat’s-paw to Emma (Mercedes McCambridge), who hates and obsesses over Vienna. It’s all quite overheated even before the arrival of the eponymous Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), when director Nicholas Ray turns up the heat even further — almost literally in a fiery climax. The film confused audiences at the time, but it’s rightly emerged as one of Ray’s most daring attempts to push the boundaries of film drama via heightened emotions and brash visuals. In a 2008 appreciation , Roger Ebert dubbed it “one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western.” Ray discovered just how beautifully the two could fit together. (Available to stream on Pluto TV .)

14. My Darling Clementine (1946)

Westerns tell some stories again and again, few as often as the confrontation between the Earps and the Clantons at Tombstone’s O.K. Corral. Though John Ford claimed to have based the fight on Earp’s account, an account Ford heard from Wyatt Earp himself, My Darling Clementine fudges a lot of the details in the interest of good storytelling. Starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp, Ford regular Ward Bond as his brother Morgan, and Victor Mature as “Doc” Holliday, it’s very much a “print the legend” version of the Tombstone story, to borrow a phrase from a later Ford film.

But what a legend: In Ford’s hands, Earp’s story embodies the clash between order and chaos at the heart of the Western, a tale in which the courage of a few brave souls makes the West safe for civilization. Ford shapes it into a film filled with rousing sequences, but also lyrical asides and gentler moments that establish why the struggle matters. The title reveals a lot. Where other versions of the story bear names like Tombstone and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , Ford’s emphasizes the character who symbolizes civility and the possibility of a better world to come, even if that world might have no place for men like Earp in it. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Some films were even more explicit about how changing times left some with nowhere left to call home. Released at the end of a tumultuous decade and deeply concerned with how eras end, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid brings a light touch to a story of a pair of outlaws who find themselves headed toward a dead end they didn’t see coming. Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) have grown accustomed to living well as renegades but find that the closing of the frontier and the arrival of powerful businessmen with the deep pockets to fight back against outlaws have limited their options. Directed by George Roy Hill from a script by William Goldman, it’s a film so charming — those stars help a lot — that its fatalism sneaks up on you. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

12. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

The final entry in Leone’s Dollars trilogy takes everything that’s come before and makes it bigger, bolder, meaner, and even more breathtakingly exciting. Telling the story of three men — played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach — who alternately team up and betray each other in the hunt for a fortune, the film finds Leone seeing how far he can take his trademark aesthetic. Sometimes it plays like a pop-art Western, reducing the genre’s iconography to its splashiest imagery. Sometimes it plays like the Western as opera, building arias of violence and suspense with editing timed to the rhythms of Ennio Morricone’s score. It’s also ridiculously entertaining from start to finish, packing seemingly everything Leone ever wanted to do with the Western into one movie. Leone wasn’t quite done with the genre, however, as this list will attest. (Available to stream on Max .)

11. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

John Ford made all sorts of movies, but he kept circling back to the Western. Maybe that’s because he kept finding more to say with the genre, and finding more ways to express himself through it. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance feels like no other Ford film. A return to black-and-white photography on soundstages, it’s a more intimate, psychological drama than Ford’s other Westerns. The choice suits the material, a study in contrasts between two men trying to tame the West: Ranse Stoddard (James Stewart), an idealistic young lawyer, and Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), a tough rancher. Both find themselves at odds with local cattle barons who hire the blackhearted gunfighter Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) to prevent Stoddard’s attempts to earn statehood for the unnamed Western territory that serves as the film’s setting. The film lets Ford pair two of the Western’s most iconic stars as they play their personas off one another while considering how the stories that shape our understanding of history get written, and who gets forgotten in the process. (Available to stream on MGM+ , Paramount+ , and Prime Video . )

10. Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

Kelly Reichardt’s radically unromantic tale of survival on the Oregon Trail sweats the details, focusing on the arduous day-to-day routines involved in moving across the Oregon high desert in search of a better life. It’s a tough existence even when things are going well, and in Meek’s Cutoff they’re not going well at all. A party led by Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) starts to suspect that their leader doesn’t know what he’s doing but does nothing until the situation has already started to spin out of control. Reichardt makes their lives look exhausting, conveying the high stakes that play into every decision and the panic that sets in when those decisions seem to be leading everyone astray. In her second collaboration with Reichardt, Michelle Williams delivers a complex performance as Emily, a woman who seemingly has no say in her fate — at least at first. Reichardt’s film works both as the story of a specific wrong turn with terrible consequences and as an expression of the awful feeling created by following leaders who seem to have lost their way. (She wasn’t done with the genre, either: Reichardt returned to the West just this year with the excellent First Cow , a story of friendship and hardship among two marginal characters watching civilization take over the far frontier.) (Available to stream on Tubi. )

9. The Naked Spur (1953)

In Anthony Mann’s The Naked Spur , Ralph Meeker plays a character dishonorably discharged from the cavalry on the grounds of being “morally unstable.” (That’s a label that might easily apply to most of the characters in the film, not to mention Mann’s other Westerns.) Meeker plays one of several characters drawn into bounty hunter Howard Kemp’s (James Stewart) attempt to collect an enormous bounty on Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), a murderer and rapist wanted for killing a marshal. Vandergroat’s awful, but Kemp’s no less twisted up inside, driven by revenge, manipulating others into helping him, and unsure what to do about his attraction to Vandergroat’s companion Lina (Janet Leigh), who has conflicts of her own. No one’s purely on the side of good here, and the characters torture each other as Kemp’s obsession grows more intense and his chances to start over begin to dim. Mann and Stewart made eight raw, psychologically complex Westerns together, but none quite match The Naked Spur in intensity, or embody so thoroughly how Mann’s ’50s work transformed the genre. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

8. Rio Bravo (1959)

Howard Hawks worked in virtually every imaginable film genre, but in each he tended to favor stories about camaraderie between disparate groups of people united for a common cause. In Rio Bravo he found a story he liked so much that he more or less remade it two more times, as El Dorado and Rio Lobo , both of which also starred John Wayne and both scripted, like Rio Bravo , by Leigh Brackett. Here, Wayne plays the wonderfully named Sheriff John T. Chance, whose defense of his drunken friend Dude (Dean Martin) pits him against some less-than-law-abiding ranchers. The film builds to an exciting climax but takes its time getting there, letting Chance and Dude rebuild their relationship as Dude crawls out from under the bottle; bringing in colorful supporting characters played by Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, and others; and occasionally pausing the action for a song or two. Yet Hawks never wastes a moment. It’s the time spent getting to know Rio Bravo ’s characters that lets us worry about their fates, and that reveals what matters most to them in the life they’re fighting to protect and the laws they’re determined to uphold. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

7. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Released the same year as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , a far more genial if no less doom-laced story of outlaws facing the end of the road as the Old West era draws to a close, Sam Peckinpah’s landmark Western attracted controversy for its graphic violence, some of it depicted in agonizing detail through slow motion. Was he making audiences consider the ugliness of taking a life? Making bloodshed look disturbingly beautiful? Could he be doing both at once? Ugly, brutal, but not without its dark allure, this was the vision of the West that Peckinpah had been building toward since Ride the High Country . Here he populates the film with a band of outlaws, led by William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, charming enough to make it easy to forget — at least for long stretches — how they make their living and why they’ve come into such dire straits as they try to make one last score before calling it a day. Yet beneath the violence and gritty atmosphere — aspects of the film that would be much imitated in the years that followed — The Wild Bunch builds a story about how honor matters even to those on the wrong side of the law, and the ways even bad men can be haunted by the moments during which they’ve let greed and fear overwhelm their sense of duty. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play .)

6. Red River (1948)

Like Rio Bravo , Red River is a film only Howard Hawks could have pulled off. Set largely during a long, troubled cattle drive from Texas to Abilene, the film stars John Wayne as Thomas Dunson, a cattle rancher with a tragic past who grows increasingly stern and unforgiving as the drive progresses. As he threatens to turn into an Old West Ahab, his adopted son Matt (Montgomery Clift) grows increasingly concerned, and more resistant to his authority, until a confrontation becomes inevitable and a tragedy the likely outcome. Ultimately, however, Hawks has other plans, and it’s Red River ’s humanity — in addition to its sweeping action — that makes it extraordinary. Hawks plays with Wayne’s persona, drawing out the shadows beneath his heroic persona while also emphasizing its tender side via Dunson’s relationship with Matt. It’s one of the most complex characters Wayne would ever play, and here he gets to play it against a backdrop of tremendous danger that threatens to destroy everything he’s built — or push him to tear it apart himself. (Available to stream on MGM+ , Pluto TV , and Tubi .)

5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Many of Robert Altman’s films, particularly in his first run of success in the early ’70s, find him putting his own spin on famous genres, be it the detective film or the war movie. With McCabe & Mrs. Miller Altman turned his attention to the Western and made one like no other before, a wistful, funny, heartbreaking film about one man’s doomed pursuit of happiness in the remote Washington town of Presbyterian Church. Warren Beatty plays McCabe, a drifter and fast-talker who falls in with, and falls in love with, Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie), a madam who offers to improve business at his low-rent brothel. They find success, but their newfound wealth attracts the attention of a mining company that initially wants to buy him out but uses even stronger tactics to take what it wants. Filmed in snowy Vancouver and set to some of the most melancholy songs Leonard Cohen ever recorded, the film lets a sense of fatalism hang over even its lightest moments. Beatty plays McCabe as a character too charming to lose all the time, but destined to lose big when he does. His short time on top in Presbyterian Church captures the freedom and possibilities of the American frontier, and the promise of America itself. His fate suggests that there might be less to that promise than advertised. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play. )

4. Stagecoach (1939)

Is there such a thing as a perfect movie? If not, Stagecoach comes pretty close. John Ford’s film made a star of John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, a fugitive from the law who’s called upon to protect a stagecoach traveling through dangerous territory. That it contains nothing less than a cross section of Old West humanity — from an alcoholic doctor to pregnant Army wife to a prostitute and so on — suggests that Ford has ambitions beyond merely staging an exciting story. Stagecoach works first as just that, but it brilliantly weaves its characters’ personal journeys into the action as the journey becomes ever more perilous. This was Ford’s first trip to Monument Valley, which would become his favorite Western location, and his first important collaboration with Wayne, whose onscreen presence he’d help shape and change over the years, giving him more complicated characters as he aged. Here he lets him play the white-hatted hero to tremendous effect in the middle of one of the most influential Westerns ever made, a tremendously entertaining, richly realized film that laid the groundwork for Ford’s future efforts in the genre and inspired countless others to take the Western in new directions. (Available to stream on Pluto TV and Tubi. )

3. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

After completing the Dollars trilogy, Leone returned to the Western minus his signature star but with a renewed sense of ambition, twisting together an epic story of greed and revenge bigger than anything he’d attempted before. Charles Bronson plays a gunslinger known only as Harmonica (thanks to his musical instrument of choice) who’s locked into a battle of wills with Frank (Henry Fonda), a merciless hired gun with whom Harmonica has a mysterious history. Without losing his trademark dark humor, Leone couples the stylistic bravado of the film’s predecessors to a sense of tragic somberness, focusing on the sacrifices asked by the West and what gets lost as history moves on. He also brings a sense of patience, letting the story play out at a stately pace (at least in the director’s preferred cut) and giving space to co-stars Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards to develop what might otherwise have been stock characters. It’s audacious, too, casting Fonda as not just a bad guy but a sadist and opening with a wordless showdown for which the term “slow burn” is an understatement. It’s Leone’s masterpiece, the film in which he packed everything he wanted to say about the West and its myths. (Available to stream on Showtime .)

2. Unforgiven (1992)

In his Best Picture–winning 1992 film, Clint Eastwood plays William Munny, a gunfighter who, inspired by his late wife, has abandoned his old ways for the righteous life of a farmer. Financial troubles compel him to again take up bounty hunting so he can collect a reward posted by a group of prostitutes, who are seeking justice after a pair of ranch hands mutilate one of their own. Working from a screenplay that he’d held on to until he had aged enough to play Munny, Eastwood delivers a meditative, morally complex Western filled with characters who sometimes commit awful acts for righteous reasons, those who commit horrific crimes for no reason at all, and those who just do what they have to do to survive. Munny has been, at varying points, all of the above, and he’s haunted by each experience. It’s left him wondering what all the killing he’s seen and done means, if it means anything at all. Eastwood dedicated Unforgiven to the two directors who’d most shaped his career: Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, neither a stranger to this list. But while their influence can still be seen in Unforgiven , it’s an Eastwood film in every frame, the culmination of his career-long relationship with the genre, and his mixed emotions about the way it mixes heroic iconography, violence, and the sense that a man with a gun can deliver justice. (Available to stream on Tubi .)

1. The Searchers (1956)

John Wayne and John Ford made great movies — together and apart — after The Searchers , but that doesn’t make it any less of a culmination. Both had worked in, and thought about, the Western for years by the time they shot this haunting film. Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a man driven by a hate that’s inflamed when Comanches murder Ethan’s brother and other members of his family before kidnapping his two nieces. Ethan and his companions soon find one, Lucy, dead. The other, Debbie (Natalie Wood), they can’t find at all, leading Ethan to scour the West for her as he becomes increasingly twisted by his rage.

Wayne delivers a terrifying performance as a lost soul who uses revenge to excuse the darkness and prejudice already inside him. Through that prejudice, Ford began to address the genre’s treatment of Native Americans, not by softening the actions of the Comanches but by having Ethan respond to monstrous acts with even more monstrous behavior. In one chilling scene, he mutilates a corpse, thus condemning his victim, by Comanche belief, to travel the afterlife blind. But as Martin Scorsese observes in his documentary A Personal Journey Through American Movies , Ethan is just placing his own curse on the corpse because “he’s a drifter, doomed to wander between the winds.”

Can a hero so awful really be called a hero at all? A few years later, Ford would contribute a segment to the Cinerama omnibus film How the West Was Won , but The Searchers , and Ford’s best films, and the most enduring Westerns made by anyone treat that title less as a statement than a question. How was the West won? What did it mean? What can we learn from it? Who profited? Who suffered? How did the stories we created from it shape our understanding of it all? They’re questions that lead to no answers, only more questions, and that’s part of the reason why the Western has proved so enduring. It’s a place where searchers go. (Available to rent on Amazon , Apple TV , and Google Play. )

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2024 Oscars | Highlights, winners, red carpet looks

A look at the highlights from the 96th Academy Awards. The bio-pic “Oppenheimer,” which became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned best picture and Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. also took home acting honors for the film. (March 11)

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The 2024 Oscars may be over, but there’s lots to catch up on. See what you missed below and follow the AP’s latest coverage.

“Oppenheimer,” the biopic that became an unlikely box-office sensation, was crowned best picture at the 2024 Oscars — and took home six other awards, including best actor for Cillian Murphy , best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and best director for Christopher Nolan .

Here’s what else we covered:

• Winners: “Poor Things” was next behind “Oppenheimer” with four wins, including a best actress title for Emma Stone . See the AP’s full list of winners.
• Performances: Ryan Gosling delivered hilarious surprises while singing “I’m Just Ken.” A dozen drummers danced in a circle for “Wahzhazhe.” And in a memorable presenters’ bit, John Cena crossed the stage wearing only an envelope.
• Red carpet looks: A show of black , red and metallics dominated as stars arrived for Hollywood’s big night . Check out a few of the AP’s favorite candid photos.

The Academy Awards were full of sure-things, long-awaited anointments and easy predictions. The “Oppenheimer” romp . Ryan Gosling’s Ken stealing the show. That put even more focus on the category that was hardest to call: best actress.

When Emma Stone was announced as the winner , a ceremony light on surprise got a genuine shock, perfectly illustrated by Stone’s stunned expression. Stone’s win, for her sensational performance in “Poor Things,” was hard not to cast as a defeat for Lily Gladstone. The “Killers of the Flower Moon” actress had been picked by most prognosticators and — as everyone knew — history hung in the balance. Her win would have been the first for a Native American in the nearly century-long history of the Oscars.

It was a difficult to define result. It wasn’t quite an upset — Stone’s performance, equally favored, was too good to call it that. But it still stung, particularly for Native Americans watching across the country – a community that has watched Hollywood for most of its existence overlook its stories and performers.

▶ Read more on the result and ramifications of the best actress contest.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy in a scene from “Oppenheimer.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

We have you covered with where to watch and stream the movies that clinched gold at the Oscars.

Pedro Pascal arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Pedro Pascal arrives at the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Pedro Pascal accepts the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a drama series for “The Last of Us” during the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Pedro Pascal, left, and Lux Pascal arrive at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Pedro Pascal, left, and Bella Ramsey arrive at the AFI Awards on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024, at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Pedro Pascal, a cast member in “Freaky Tales,” poses at the premiere of the film at Eccles Theatre during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Few could make an arm sling as sexy as “The Last of Us” star did. At the Golden Globes, Pedro Pascal’s sling came with nail art that spelled “ouchy,” the best accessory of the night. He wore the sling, actually for a shoulder injury, with black trousers and a matching turtleneck that had a white yarn knot design, all by Bottega Veneta. Swipe to see some of his best recent looks.

▶ Read more about Pascal’s style and see our other MVPs.

Essence Senior Content Director Nandi Howard shares her take on the best Oscars fashion including Colman Domingo, Gabrielle Union and Emma Stone. (March 11)

Barry Keoghan arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Barry Keoghan arrives at the Governors Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, at the Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Barry Keoghan arrives at the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Barry Keoghan arrives for the Givenchy Spring/Summer 2024 womenswear fashion collection presented Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023 in Paris. (AP Photo/Vianney Le Caer)

Barry Keoghan poses for photographers upon arrival at the Burberry Winter 2024 fashion show on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024 in London. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Callum Turner, from left, Barry Keoghan, and Austin Butler pose for photographers upon arrival at the UK premiere of the television series ‘Masters of the Air’ in London, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Micheal Ward, left, and Barry Keoghan attend the Burberry Spring Summer 2024 fashion collection on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023 in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Callum Turner, left, Barry Keoghan, center, and Austin Butler, cast members in “Masters of the Air,” pose together at the world premiere of the Apple TV+ miniseries, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Adventurous is the “Saltburn” star’s middle name when it comes to fashion. Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Givenchy were among Barry Keoghan’s go-tos. He mixed patterns in a red Vuitton evening jacket and trouser set for the Golden Globes. Keoghan loves his bling, accessorizing his red-on-red moment with a golden belt chain, pearl necklace and Tiffany & Co. jewel earring. A little punk. A lot fab. Swipe for his best reecnt looks.

▶ Read more about Keoghan’s style and see our other MVPs.

Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday night.

Ayo Edebiri accepts the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for “The Bear” during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri poses in the press room with the awards for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series and outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series for “The Bear” during the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ayo Edebiri poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a television series, musical or comedy for “The Bear” at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Charles Melton, left, and Ayo Edebiri attend the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jeremy Allen White, left, winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a television series, musical or comedy for “The Bear,” and Ayo Edebiri, winner of for best performance by an actress in a television series, musical or comedy for “The Bear”, pose in the press room at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ayo Edebiri arrives at the BAFTA Tea Party on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, at The Maybourne Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ayo Edebiri accepts the award for best actress in a comedy series for “The Bear” during the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The co-star of “The Bear” was on a red-hot fashion streak, earning official “It” girl status. There was her black 3D molded custom Louis Vuitton petal dress for the Emmys. And her smashing red custom Prada strapless gown with a floor-length train at the Golden Globes. The dress fell playfully, and youthfully, just above her ankles. Never underestimate young Hollywood. Swipe to see some of her best looks.

▶ Read more about Edebiri’s style and see our other MVPs.

Jessica Lange, right, adjusts Emma Stone’s dress during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

From a late start to a killer speech to gratitude for a “terrible childhood,” here are the moments that stood out at the Oscars.

Greta Lee arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Greta Lee arrives at the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Greta Lee arrives at the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Greta Lee, left, and Andrew Scott presents the award for best international film during the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Greta Lee arrives at the BAFTA Tea Party on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, at The Maybourne Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Greta Lee attends the Academy Women’s Luncheon on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Greta Lee arrives at the Governors Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, at the Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

In the color of the season, red, and with lots of help from Loewe and some from Bottega Veneta, the co-star of “Past Lives” was a fashion sensation. The latter designed Greta Lee’s futuristic red sculptural mood for the Governors Awards. She paired the dress with silver metallic heels. Swipe to see some of her best recent looks.

▶ Read more about Lee’s style and see our other MVPs.

Ryan Gosling performs the song “I’m Just Ken” from the movie “Barbie” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The same woman was behind two of the most iconic concerts of our recent times: Ryan Gosling and many Kens’ performance of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars — and Taylor Swift’s ongoing Eras tour.

The choreographer for both is Mandy Moore , not to be confused with the “This Is Us” actor of the same name.

Moore has three Emmys and, according to her bio, became the first to choreograph the Golden Globes, Oscars, Emmys and Grammys all in the same year (2017). She’s also worked with Gosling before, having choreographed him and Emma Stone in “La La Land.”

Cillian Murphy poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the film ‘Oppenheimer’ on Thursday, July 13, 2023 in London. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Actor Cillian Murphy poses at the 76th DGA Awards, Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Cillian Murphy arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Yvonne McGuinness, left, and Cillian Murphy arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Cillian Murphy poses for a portrait during the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Cillian Murphy, winner of the leading actor award for ‘Oppenheimer’, poses for photographers at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Cillian Murphy, winner of the awards for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role and outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture for “Oppenheimer,” poses in the press room during the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Cillian Murphy, from left, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr. arrive at the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, at The Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Is the “Oppenheimer” star the anti-Ken? Look no further than Cillian Murphy’s sheer shirt and black pinstripe Saint Laurent suit at the film’s London premiere. More dark pinstripes from the same design house followed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, this time with a loose bow at the neck. The man loves a pinstripe. In lots of neutrals, he’s been the perfect counter to all that sugary pink over at “Barbie.” Swipe for his best looks from this awards season.

▶ Read more about Murphy’s style and see our other MVPs.

Volodymyr Nikulin, Mariupol police officer who helped AP journalists during the siege of the city said “I am very happy for my friends, for the team that received an Oscar, for our country.” (AP video shot by Anton Shtuka)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for “The Holdovers” at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph poses with the award for the breakthrough performance for “The Holdovers” in the press room at the 35th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Palm Springs, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrives at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrives at the Governors Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, at the Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in any motion picture for “The Holdovers” at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, recipient of the Supporting Actress Award - Film for her performance in “The Holdovers,” poses at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph poses for photographers upon arrival at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph accepts the award for best supporting actress for “The Holdovers” during the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrives at the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Da’vine Joy Randolph poses in the press room with the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for “The Holdovers” during the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Da’vine Joy Randolph attends the Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

It was a draped ivory mermaid gown with 3D roses at the neck at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for this longtime lover of fashion and co-star of “The Holdovers.” It was by Valdrin Sahiti. At the British Film Academy Awards, Da’Vine Joy Randolph wowed in a colorblock peach-and-black body-hugger by Robert Wun. The fashion spotlight has been soaking up Randolph and the drama she has provided. She picked up a supporting actress Oscar in a custom Louis Vuitton gown in pale blue with oversize, fringed sleeves. Swipe to see some of her best looks.

▶ Read more about Randolph’s style and see our other MVPs.

The humble In-N-Out burger.

Just won an Oscar? Want to let loose in an almost ... animal style? The Vanity Fair afterparty might be the perfect stop for you, with its overflowing trays of Southern California’s beloved In-N-Out burgers.

AP’s Andrew Dalton is a regular attendee of the fetes through the years, and makes sure to note the easily scarfable staple’s presence in his dispatches.

Stars including Christopher Nolan, Florence Pugh, Margot Robbie, Michelle Yeoh, Cardi B, Charlize Theron, Chris Evans, Camila Cabello hit up the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars. (March 11)

This year, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas found a couch near the dance floor with their two children and their statuettes in tow. They were immediately met by a woman bearing a tray of burgers, Dalton reported.

Last year, he saw Daniel Scheinert , with none of the three Oscars he won nor his partner Daniel Kwan in sight, standing outside and eating a burger as he bopped up and down to House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”

Back in 2018, Dalton bore witness to best actress winner Frances McDormand struggling to get through her burger because of well-wishers that included a fawning Jon Hamm. Her husband, Joel Coen, had an easier time chowing down nearby.

Lily Gladstone arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Lily Gladstone, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio arrive at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Lily Gladstone arrives at the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Actor Lily Gladstone poses at the 26th Costume Designers Guild Awards at NeueHouse Hollywood, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Lily Gladstone presents the Robert Altman award during the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Best actress honoree for “Killers of the Flower Moon” Lily Gladstone attends the New York Film Critics Circle Awards at Tao Downtown on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Lily Gladstone accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for “Killers of the Flower Moon” during the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone is photographed during a celebration of the 10-time Academy Award-nominated film “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Lily Gladstone arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Robert De Niro, from left, Martin Scorsese, Lily Gladstone, and Leonardo DiCaprio, winners of the vanguard award for “Killers of the Flower Moon”, pose in the press room at the 35th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Palm Springs, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Lily Gladstone arrives at the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

The Indigenous actor and recent British Vogue cover star has approached her red carpet coming-out with intention, supporting Indigenous jewelry designers while promoting “Killers of the Flower Moon.” At the Golden Globes , Lily Gladstone paired her Valentino gown and cape with beaded earrings by Lenise Omeasoo, who is Blackfeet and Cree. Swipe to see her best looks from this awards season.

▶ Read more about Gladstone’s style and see our other MVPs.

Al Pacino presents the award for best picture during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

His Oscars presentation may have seemed to some a little off this year, but Al Pacino has had plenty of time to polish up a long-awaited project.

The celebrated actor has a memoir coming out Oct. 8, Penguin Press announced Monday.

The publisher is called the book “an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full,” including his account of such classics as “The Godfather,” “Serpico” and “Dog Day Afternoon.”

Pacino, 83, said in a statement, that he wanted “to express what I’ve seen and been through in my life.”

Colman Domingo arrives at the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Colman Domingo arrives at the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Colman Domingo arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Colman Domingo arrives at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Colman Domingo, winner of the spotlight actor award for “Rustin”, left, and Lenny Kravitz pose in the press room at the 35th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Palm Springs, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Colman Domingo, left, and Fantasia Barrino pose for photographers upon arrival at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Colman Domingo arrives at the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Hannah Waddingham, left, and Colman Domingo present the Governors Award during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Colman Domingo arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Whether it’s a textured gold coat and mustard yellow suit by Valentino Haute Couture at the Critics Choice Awards or a custom black Louis Vuitton tuxedo and brooches at the Emmys, the star of “Rustin” has left no fashion crumbs. Colman Domingo has offered a new vision of how a leading man can dress. Swipe to see his best looks from this awards season.

▶ Read more about Domingo’s style and see our other MVPs.

Emma Stone was out in the lobby bar with a glass of champagne in hand when her film “Poor Things” won best production design. She yelped out and jumped up and down and attentively watched the speech.

She then turned to Florence Pugh, standing nearby and the two talked animatedly about Pugh’s “sprinkled dress.”

John Cena presents the award for best costume design during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

All of a sudden, Pugh laughed and looked up at the monitor to see an almost naked John Cena. “Oooh it’s because he looks like the Oscar!”

A few seconds later “Poor Things” also won for costume design and Stone jumped and screamed again.

“I’m missing all of them,” she cried. “It’s not OK, it’s bad, I’m going home.”

▶ Read more about what you couldn’t see on the telecast, as well as the craft that went into “Poor Things.”

So you took a spin through our film writers’ Oscars prediction interactive before the big show. Maybe you used it to fill out your own ballot. Let’s see how our predictions stacked up with the results.

Of the 23 categories, Lindsey Bahr correctly predicted 16 and Jake Coyle correctly predicted 18. While their picks mostly aligned with each other, Lindsey alone correctly called best actress, animated film and sound. Jake got the edge on the screenplay categories, production design, visual effects and documentary short. The only misses for both were in makeup and hairstyling and animated short.

Arthur Harari, left, and Justine Triet accept the award for best original screenplay for “Anatomy of a Fall” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Of the six couples up for Oscars together, two pairs came away with statuettes. Here’s how these marriage (or, in one case, partnership) stories played out:

• Original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, the longtime partners and co-parents behind “Anatomy of a Fall”
• Best picture: Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, the married producing partners of “Oppenheimer.” Nolan also won best director, making it a couple of trophies for the couple

OTHER NOMINEES

• Adapted screenplay: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for “Barbie”
• Best picture: Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley for “Barbie”
• Original screenplay: Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik for “May December”
• Animated short: Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess for “Ninety-Five Senses”

America Ferrera, left, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph take a selfie during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

There is a whole other show that happens offscreen at the Oscars that the home audience doesn’t see on television. Here’s a selection of what The Associated Press saw :

• Martin Scorsese, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were among the last to take their seats, while Carey Mulligan missed the cutoff and spent the beginning of the show standing off to the side.
• At the first commercial break, longtime friends Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence found each other, while Greta Gerwig beelined to her stars Robbie and America Ferrera .
• About a half hour before Gosling turned the Oscars into a wildly fun concert, the Kens were out in the lobby warming up. Clad in cowboy hats, some were stretching, some running in place, and all were finding their Kenergy.
• On the way to the Governors Ball, Cord Jefferson was beaming as he walked through the lobby, jumping and clutching his Oscar. Kate McKinnon had a moment with Marlee Matlin and Steven Spielberg made his way out in a mask.

▶ Read more about what you missed inside the Oscars.

Ukraine awoke Monday to another day of war — Russian drones blasted buildings in the Kharkiv and Odesa regions — but also the news it had won its first Oscar.

The best documentary victory for Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing first-person account by The Associated Press journalist of the early days of Russia’s invasion in 2022, was bittersweet.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “The horrors of Mariupol must never be forgotten. The entire world must see and remember what the inhumane Russian invasion brought to our people.”

Volodymyr Nikulin, a police officer featured prominently in the film: “Right now, we may be facing a similarly challenging moment. But this film has shown that we can defend our country, that we are united.”

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights chief: “This awards ceremony is an opportunity to address millions of people. This is what the film director did by mentioning the occupation, prisoners of war, killing of Ukrainians by Russia, and illegal abduction of civilians.”

▶ Read more on the reaction inside Ukraine to the Oscar win.

Lily Gladstone arrives at the Oscars. (AP Photo/John Locher)

This year’s red carpet season failed to disappoint, fashion-wise. There was plenty of drama, personal style and new takes on Old Hollywood.

Among the standouts were Colman Domingo, Lily Gladstone, Ayo Edebiri and Greta Lee. Each made their fashion moments their own, with many collecting trophies along the way.

▶ See who else stood out on the red carpet

Mark Ruffalo arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

On the red carpet, Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, Ava DuVernay and others donned red pins in support for a cease-fire in Gaza.

The bold design features a single hand holding a heart and was organized by the group Artists4Ceasefire.

▶ Read more about the moments that made this year’s Oscars.

The “Oppenheimer” crowd were hardly the hardest partiers at the Vanity Fair post- Oscars party on Sunday night, but they hardly needed to be, their hardware did all the preening for them.

Christopher Nolan, fresh off his best director win for “Oppenheimer” and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, holding her own statuette for best picture , found a couch near the dance floor with their two children. They were immediately met by a woman bearing a tray of In-N-Out burgers, the signature food at the signature Oscars after-party where end-of-award-season decadence is the norm.

Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lawrence, and Camila Alves arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

The party’s guest list always extends well beyond Hollywood into music, fashion, literature and sports.

Serena Williams and LeBron James , who both have had a hand in producing in recent years, each hung out on the party’s patio.

▶ Read more about the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party.

Messi the dog from the film “Anatomy of a Fall” appears in the audience during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Was Messi there? Was Snoop?

The Oscars on Sunday were probably the only place in the world where one would have been disappointed to see arguably the world’s most famous footballer or a beloved rapper as an answer to those questions.

In the leadup to the awards, the question was whether awards season darling Messi, who played Snoop in “Anatomy of a Fall,” would grace the Dolby Theatre with his presence. There were rumors he was unwelcome after stealing the show at the Oscars luncheon.

But there were gasps of delight, at least in this newsroom, when the cameras cut to the border collie in the audience during host Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue. And it wasn’t a trick of CGI. The canine star himself was there.

(We spent a considerable amount of time trying to divine what exactly was happening in the second photo, only to realize we were seeing the movie magic behind the paw clap. We were going to ask for your theories, but now we will welcome your amusing captions at [email protected] . They may be included later today in this very blog.)

Scroll through this live feed — or read our story wrapping up the night: ‘Oppenheimer’ crowned best picture at an Academy Awards shadowed by war

FILE - In this May 11, 2003, file photo, protesters lie on the pavement opposed to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility and weapons testing after crossing the line into the Nevada Test Site at Mercury, Nev., and were arrested for trespassing about 70 miles north of Las Vegas. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is renewing the push to expand a federal compensation program for radiation exposure following uranium mining and nuclear testing carried out during the Cold War. Advocates have been trying for years to bring awareness to the lingering effects of nuclear fallout surrounding the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, where more than 30 million tons of ore were extracted over decades to support U.S. nuclear activities. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta,File)

With the victories notched by “Oppenheimer” on Oscar night, expect a renewed interest in the real-life fallout of the Manhattan Project.

In July, ahead of the movie’s release, New Mexico correspondent Susan Montoya Bryan wrote a story about the impact on the community downwind from the testing site.

“They’ll never reflect on the fact that New Mexicans gave their lives. They did the dirtiest of jobs. They invaded our lives and our lands and then they left,” Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor and founder of a group of New Mexico downwinders, said of the scientists and military officials who established a secret city in Los Alamos during the 1940s and tested their work at the Trinity Site some 200 miles (322 kilometers) away.

FILE - This photo shows an aerial view after the first atomic explosion at the Trinity Test Site near Alamogordo, N.M., on July 16, 1945. The New Mexico site where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated is expecting thousands of visitors Saturday due to the popularity of the movie, “Oppenheimer.” Trinity Site, a designated National Historic Landmark, only opens to the public twice a year. (AP Photo, File)

While film critics celebrated “Oppenheimer” and officials in Los Alamos prepared for the spotlight to be on their town, downwinders remained frustrated with the U.S. government — and the movie’s producers — for not recognizing their plight.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders planned to protest outside the gates of the Trinity Site in October, when a record turnout was expected amid the success of “Oppenheimer.”

Just last week, though, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that would compensate Americans exposed to radiation by the government by renewing a law initially passed more than three decades ago, AP’s Mary Clare Jalonick and Jim Salter wrote.

“You know, we are ground zero,” Cordova said then. “We’re where it all started. The origins of the whole nuclear program are in New Mexico, and we were the first people exposed to radiation as a result of an atomic bomb and to be left out for 79 years is just truly unacceptable.”

“People have been waiting for justice for far too long, and it’s just simply time to do the right thing,” she added.

Emma Stone had a dress mishap (it was repaired), Al Pacino might have forgotten to list a few best picture nominees (we all knew who the winner was anyway), and John Cena took the stage wearing sandals and evidently nothing else (it was planned).

These Oscars had moments.

But no slaps — and not even a reference to The Slap, either.

Will Smith’s strike of Chris Rock toward the end of the Oscars two years ago wasn’t even mentioned Sunday night, despite being invoked five times during last year’s telecast. There was perhaps one cryptic reference — host Jimmy Kimmel referred to how a streaker at the Oscars 50 years ago “used to be the craziest moment in Oscar history.” He didn’t say what replaced the streaker as the craziest moment; everyone knew what he meant.

But he never said slap. And nobody else on stage did, either. Maybe everyone has moved on.

Michelle Yeoh describes the scene outside the Oscars, where protesters took to the streets calling for a Gaza cease-fire.

Forty acting performances were recognized at this year’s Oscars, but there were a host of other standouts you may have missed last year, thanks to a combination of the dual strikes and a plethora of great movies.

Here are some non-nominated performances worth revisiting from last summer and last fall :

• Greta Lee in “Past Lives”
• Xolo Maridueña in “Blue Beetle”
• Pom Klementieff in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part I”
• X Mayo in “The Blackening”
• Jake Ryan in “Asteroid City”
• Molly Gordon in “Theater Camp”
• Dominic Sessa in “The Holdovers”
• Jamie Foxx in “The Burial”
• Gael García Bernal in “Cassandro”
• Eve Hewso n in “Flora and Son”
• Aaron Pierre in “Foe”
• Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich in “Fair Play”
• Marshawn Lynch in “Bottoms”

Finneas, left, and Billie Eilish perform “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

There was talk of war — past conflicts, and current ones — and pleas for peace. There was a painful reminder of the recent death of Alexei Navalny. There were protests outside the Dolby Theatre, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. And there was a bit of election-year politics, too, from host Jimmy Kimmel.

But the Oscars telecast is always a chaotic mix of moods and tones, and so even on a night ruled by somber themes, where the academy crowned a film about the the atomic bomb, there was also a jolt of joyful silliness when Ryan Gosling took the stage (with a slew of fellow Kens) to sing “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie.”

▶ Read more about the highlights from the 2024 Oscars

Stars and creators - incuding Cilian Murphy and Zendaya - gathered on the red carpet Sunday for Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards (March 11)

Hollywood’s big night in Los Angeles included few fashion risks, with many sticking to classic silhouettes, black and other standard colors. Others offered an under-the-sea-vibe in soft seafoam colors with mermaid crystals and shell-like designs.

▶ Read our fashion roundup here.

Raney Aronson-Rath, from left, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Michelle Mizner, and Derl McCrudden accept the award for best documentary feature film for “20 Days in Mariupol” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline” each won their first Oscar with the victory of “20 Days in Mariupol” in the best documentary category.

Here, read some of the coverage from the besieged Ukrainian port city that won the Pulitzer Prize and formed the basis for the now Oscar-winning documentary.

20 days in Mariupol: The team that documented city’s agony

‘why why why’ ukraine’s mariupol descends into despair, ap evidence points to 600 dead in mariupol theater airstrike, captive medic’s bodycam shows firsthand horror of mariupol.

Cillian Murphy, winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for “Oppenheimer,” from left, Robert Downey Jr., winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for “Oppenheimer,” Da’Vine Joy Randolph, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for “The Holdovers,” and Emma Stone, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for “Poor Things,” pose in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Robert Downey Jr., winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for “Oppenheimer,” from left, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for “The Holdovers,” Emma Stone, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for “Poor Things,” and Cillian Murphy, winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for “Oppenheimer,” pose in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows director Christopher Nolan, center, and Cillian Murphy, right, on the set of “Oppenheimer.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)

It’s no secret that Christopher Nolan made “Oppenheimer” to be seen on the big screen . But not all big screens are created equal.

That’s part of the reason why Universal Pictures has made “Oppenheimer” tickets available early for over a thousand “premium large format” (or PLF) screens, with options including IMAX 70mm, 70mm, IMAX digital, 35mm, Dolby Cinema and more.

Knowing that even those words can get overwhelming and technical, Nolan went a step further: In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, he offered a guide to his favorite formats, explaining why it matters and even where he likes to sit so that audiences don’t feel like they need a film school degree (or one in theoretical physics) before settling on a theater.

▶ Read Nolan’s tips for movie-watching.

Martin Scorsese, left, and Francesca Scorsese arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” was shut out at the Oscars after receiving 10 nominations. It’s not an unfamiliar feeling for the legendary director: His 2019 Netflix film “The Irishman” and his 2002 “Gangs of New York” similarly went 0-for-10 at the Academy Awards.

Celine Song’s “Past Lives” and Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” were similarly shut out, despite earning best picture nods.

Kylie Jenner arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Jeff Goldblum, left, and Emilie Livingston arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Lauren Sanchez, left, and Jeff Bezos arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Riko Shibata, left, and Nicolas Cage arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Kylie Minogue arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Jessica Lange arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Chloe Sevigny arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Cameron Douglas, left, and Michael Douglas arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Joan Collins arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Emily Ratajkowski arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Jessica Biel, left, and Justin Timberlake arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

John Waters arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Kerry Washington arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Sabrina Carpenter arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Monica Lewinsky arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Usher arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Jennifer Coolidge arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Emily Blunt, left, and John Krasinski arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Salma Hayek, left, and François-Henri Pinault arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Swipe to see arrivals from the likes of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez to an amorous Jeff Goldblum to a nonchalant John Waters to Chloë Sevigny to Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel to Joan Collins — and more.

Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday. A joint production of The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline,” statuettes were awarded to Chernov, producer and editor Michelle Mizner and producer Raney Aronson-Rath. The Oscar — and nomination — was a first for both Chernov, an AP video journalist, and the 178-year-old news organization.

President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang, left, and CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Bill Kramer poses for a portrait during the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

For a few years, the Oscars looked to be hanging on by a thread. Viewership was plummeting . The pandemic didn’t help. And the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind Hollywood’s biggest night, kept finding itself on the wrong side of the conversation, whether it be #OscarsSoWhite , envelope-gate , the blip that was the popular Oscar , the untelevised awards or the slap .

Then a funny thing happened: Interest started increasing both in and outside the academy. It seemed people were excited about the movies and, they hope, the Oscars again.

“It’s been an amazing year for film in general,” film academy CEO Bill Kramer said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Our art form has never been more relevant.”

▶ Read more about the film academy’s renaissance.

Emma Stone said she “blacked out” after winning best actress for her role in “Poor Things.” It was her second career victory in the category.

Watch as Taiwanese American filmmaker Sean Wang celebrates with his team and grandmothers as his “Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó" is nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary short category. (Jan. 23)

That would be 96-year-old Yi Yan Fuei and 86-year-old Chang Li Hua, the stars of the Oscar-nominated documentary short “Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó.”

The film, made by up-and-coming filmmaker Sean Wang, documents his maternal and paternal grandmothers living together. They’re in-laws but act more like sisters — singing songs, arm wrestling, watching “Superbad.” In an earlier interview, they said they thought their grandson was just joking around.

Sean Wang, from left, Chang Li Hua, Sam A. Davis, and Yi Yan Fuei arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

“But now that we made this movie and it’s going to the Oscars,” said Chang, “we do kind of feel like movie stars.”

▶ Read more about the documentary short.

There is a whole other show that happens offscreen at the Oscars that the home audience doesn’t see on television.

Among the moments The Associated Press saw that the cameras did not capture: the prep for the epic “I’m Just Ken” performance and how late arrivers like Carey Mulligan were left waiting in the wings to take their seats.

Although “Barbie” didn’t take home many awards (just original song), the film and its stars were a force at the Oscars. Director Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera were frequently seen chatting with other guests during breaks in the show.

On her way out of the show, Gerwig offered her review of the “I’m Just Ken” performance, calling it “legendary.”

Lindsay Lohan arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

At the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party, Christopher Nola n stood casually holding his best director Oscar and accepting waves of congratulations. His wife, “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas, held her best picture statue and did most of the talking for the pair.

They found a couch near the dance floor with their two children and were immediately met by a woman bearing a tray of In-N-Out burgers, the signature food at the party where end-of-award-season decadence is the norm.

The party in Beverly Hills was in full swing earlier than usual after the ceremony started an hour early and ran on time.

At the entrance, Anya Taylor-Joy greeted Matteo Bocelli, who sang during the ‘In Memoriam’ segment with his father Andrea.

“Were you nervous to sing you did such a beautiful job,” she said.

“Grazie,” he answered.

Others at the party included Usher , Jason Bateman , and John Mulaney and partner Olivia Munn , who held hands as they walked the carpet.

Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, Ava DuVernay and other celebrities wore red pins at the Oscars in support for a cease-fire in Gaza. The design featured a single hand holding a heart and was organized by the group Artists4Ceasefire.

Robert Downey Jr., winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for “Oppenheimer,” attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Cillian Murphy, winner of the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for “Oppenheimer,” left, poses with Mstyslav Chernov, winner of the award for best documentary feature film for “20 Days in Mariupol” at the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Greta Gerwig, center, attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Mark Ruffalo, center, and Sunrise Coigney attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Holly Waddington, left, winner of the award for best costume design for “Poor Things,” and Shona Heath, winner of the award for best production design for “Poor Things,” attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Steven Spielberg attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

James Price, winner of the award for best production design for “Poor Things,” attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Emma Stone, left, winner of the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for “Poor Things,” and Dave McCary attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Ben Proudfoot, left, and Kris Bowers, winners of the award for best documentary short film for “The Last Repair Shop,” attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Colman Domingo attends the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Tatsuji Nojima, from left, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, and Masaki Takahashi, winners of the award for best visual effects for “Godzilla Minus One,” attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Mstyslav Chernov, winner of the award for best documentary feature film for “20 Days in Mariupol,” left, and Christopher Nolan, winner of the awards for best director and best picture for “Oppenheimer” pose at the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Scroll through for photos of Greta Gerwig taking a selfie, Mstyslav Chernov with Cillian Murphy , Emma Stone getting a kiss from husband Dave McCary , and more.

Michelle Yeoh, left, and Ke Huy Quan take a selfie during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jennifer Lawrence, left, and Emma Stone speak during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Colman Domingo, from left, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Danielle Brooks speak during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Lily Gladstone, left, and America Ferrera take a selfie during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Charlize Theron, center, and Issa Rae speak during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Robert Downey Jr. reacts as the cast and crew of “Oppenheimer” accept the award for best picture during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

▶ Read more about how AP Photographer Chris Pizzello gets the perfect shot , every Oscars.

Cillian Murphy took home his first-ever Oscar on Sunday after winning best actor for his role in “Oppenheimer.”

Emma Stone cheers for the Phoenix Suns. Turns out, the Phoenix Suns cheer for Emma Stone as well.

The NBA team sent the now two-time best actress winner a congratulatory post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday night after she won her Oscar. It was a video clip of Stone, wearing a Suns hat, sitting courtside at a game between Phoenix and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Congrats, Emma Stone, on winning Best Actress at the #Oscars ! pic.twitter.com/52LAmhaG99 — Phoenix Suns (@Suns) March 11, 2024

The fandom makes sense. Stone is from Scottsdale, Arizona — and hasn’t been shy about cheering for the Suns and making it known which team she backs. She has personalized jerseys, has grabbed photos with Suns stars and even got some on the team bench to giggle when she waved goodbye to Phoenix guard Grayson Allen when she left a game earlier this season.

FILE - Elton John performs on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Sept. 23, 2022. John has achieved EGOT status. The famed British singer-pianist secured an Emmy Award on Monday night, Jan. 15, 2024, for best variety special (live) for “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium,” a three-hour concert documentary that streamed on Disney +. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

There are no newly minted EGOT winners tonight, but there couldn’t have been any, anyway.

The feat that summarizes winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony is rarely achieved and a prized club. No one nominated tonight would have closed the gap on the grand slam.

There was an EGOT forged this year — that would be for Elton John, who won an Emmy to claim his title back in January.

FILE - In this July 12, 2021 file photo Bill Murray, from left, Owen Wilson, director Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton, and Adrien Brody pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘The French Dispatch’ at the 74th international film festival, Cannes, southern France. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Wes Anderson thanked the family of Roald Dahl, the team at Netflix and the cast and crew in a statement on behalf of himself and Steven Rales.

“And also I would have said: If I had not met Owen Wilson in a corridor at the University of Texas between classes when I was 18 years old, I would certainly not be receiving this award tonight — but unfortunately Steven and I are in Germany and we start shooting our new movie early tomorrow morning, so I did not actually receive the award or get a chance to say any of that.

“20 Days in Mariupol” director Mstyslav Chernov says the film shows the “reality” and “urgency” of the war in Ukraine.

Jada Pinkett Smith, from left, Willow Smith, Will Smith, Jaden Smith and Trey Smith arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

AP entertainment writer Andrew Dalton is a regular attendee of the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars. Here are some of his highlights from years past:

Often, the biggest news from the Vanity Fair party is which Oscar losers are hugging which winners. But some bring notable moments.

Partygoers in 2017 got to sympathize with best-picture presenter Faye Dunaway after the “La La Land”-“Moonlight” fiasco .

In 2018, well-wishers mobbed Frances McDormand , partly because she’d won best actress and partly because the Oscar she’d had stolen earlier that evening was back in her hands.

And in 2022, the slap was in the air, as it was everywhere. Will Smith grooved to his own songs on the dance floor, along with his family and best actor Oscar.

The scene after the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julie Pace)

Julie Pace, AP’s executive editor and senior vice president, is attending the Oscars for the first time in support of “20 Days in Mariupol.” She has been providing occasional updates from a guest’s perspective:

Following the show, nominees like Lily Gladstone and previous winners including Nicolas Cage joined the rest of the crowd to wait for their cars. Some huddled by heaters that dotted the red carpet and recapped the night.

“Ticket 1221! You win a ride to wherever you’re going. Have a blast,” an announcer called out as a lucky group headed to their waiting car.

Christopher Nolan won his first Oscar on Sunday night for directing “Oppenheimer” and then another for best picture. The 53-year-old British filmmaker has garnered critical acclaim throughout his career, but had never won at the Oscars until now.

Emma Thomas, left, and Christopher Nolan accept the award for best picture for “Oppenheimer” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“I think any of us who make movies know you kind of dream of this moment … but it seemed so unlikely that it would ever happen,” “Oppenheimer” producer Emma Thomas said.

Thomas is Christopher Nolan’s producing partner — and also his wife.

When nominations were announced back in January, she was asked whether “Oppenheimer” felt like the culmination of the couple’s collaboration.

“It definitely feels like a film that was made with all the things we’ve learned together over the years. It all came together on this film,” she told the AP. “But I’m hoping it’s not the culmination. I’m hoping that we’ll get to make another one. (Laughs) We’re at the midway point!”

Emma Stone accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for “Poor Things” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Backstage, best actress winner Emma Stone says she was sewn back into her dress after it broke.

She explained her dress had come apart in the opening to her acceptance speech.

“I think I blacked out,” Stone said of her win. “I’m very surprised.”

▶ Read more about Stone’s best actress win.

Of the four acting winners, three were newly minted Oscar honorees.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph , Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy each claimed their first statuettes. Downey, though, had been nominated twice before.

Emma Stone was the only repeat winner, picking up her second career Oscar and second best actress trophy. Stone joins Frances McDormand and Hilary Swank as the only two-time best actress winners this century.

“American Fiction” ★★★ “Anatomy of a Fall” ★★★★ “Barbie” ★★★ “The Holdovers” ★★★.5 “Killers of the Flower Moon” ★★★★ “Maestro” ★★.5 “Oppenheimer” ★★★★ “Past Lives” ★★★.5 “Poor Things” ★★★.5 “The Zone of Interest” ★★★★

Michelle Yeoh, left, winner of the Oscar for lead actress, and Florence Pugh arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Oscar winners, and even stars who aren’t at the ceremony, flock to the Vanity Fair party after the show is over.

The AP will livestream stars arriving beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Vanity Fair throws the afterparty of afterparties after the Oscars.

The guest list at the magazine’s Beverly Hills bash is AAA-list, with athletes, authors and rock stars joining movie stars and newly minted Oscar winners, who earn an instant invite.

The dress code could be called “loosened black tie.” Many remain in ceremony finery, but you might see Jason Momoa in a tuxedo jacket over a bare chest , or Greta Gerwig kicking off high heels and pulling on checkered Vans.

The food is high-end lowbrow, or low-end highbrow. In-N-Out Burger abounds, often chased with Dom Perignon.

With the best picture win for “Oppenheimer,” it’s the highest-grossing best picture winner since “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2003.

According to distributor Universal, it’s also the first best picture winner released theatrically in July since 1994’s “Forrest Gump” and the first film to win Oscars for best picture, actor and supporting actor in more than 60 years. The last film to do that was “Ben-Hur” in 1960.

The reviews are in ... and Al Pacino got some attention for how best picture was unveiled at the end of the Oscars.

“I have to go to the envelope for that. And I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see ‘Oppenheimer,’” Pacino said.

It seemed to catch the Dolby Theatre off-guard, as if the other nine nominees were to be announced as well.

One social media post that quickly went viral simply said: “Al Pacino should have given out every award tonight.”

This image released by ABC shows Quinta Brunson in a scene from “Abbott Elementary.” (Ser Baffo/ABC via AP)

It wasn’t nominated for the Oscars only by virtue of being a television show. But awards darling “Abbott Elementary” is still making its presence felt on Oscar night, with a brand-new episode following the telecast on ABC.

There was no new episode this past Wednesday, it’s usual airdate.

And the episode opened with an Oscars — and Philadelphia — tie-in: a guest spot from multiple nominee Bradley Cooper .

AP photographer Chris Pizzello has been shooting the Oscars for more than a decade. Here, he describes the background work that goes into getting the historic shots:

It’s very helpful to follow the entirety of awards season and have a feel for the likely winners at the Oscars.

Mark Ruffalo reacts in the audience after “Spotlight” won the award for best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

You should take note of where the big nominees are sitting in the audience. When they are about to announce the winner of a category, you should have your lens trained on the nominee you think is going to win. If you guess right, that person’s instant reaction upon realizing they just won an Oscar usually makes for a great photo.

Several acceptance speeches — from animated short to best picture — referenced the fact that it’s Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom.

If any Americans are panicking, Mother’s Day in the U.S. isn’t until May 12.

It was slated to start an hour earlier, and despite a late start, it did have a slightly shorter runtime than last year’s telecast.

The credits rolled by 7:25 p.m. PDT. Last year’s telecast hovered around 3.5 hours.

It was the year of” Oppenheimer” at the Oscars, and the final prize was no surprise.

“Oppenheimer” won best picture, the last statuette awarded during the show and capping a seven-Oscar haul for the story of a theoretical physicist who oversaw the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

“I think any of us who make movies know you kind of dream of this moment … but it seemed so unlikely that it would ever happen,” producer Emma Thomas said.

Oppenheimer also won for best director (Thomas’ husband Christopher Nolan), best actor (Cillian Murphy), best supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), best cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), best film editing (Jennifer Lame) and best original score (Ludwig Göransson).

Emma Stone acknowledged each of her fellow nominees for best actress, through tears.

“The other night I was panicking as you can kind of see happens a lot, that maybe something like this could happen. And (‘Poor Things’ director) Yorgos (Lanthimos) said to me, ‘Please take yourself out of it and he was right, because it’s not about me. It’s about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts and that is the best part about making movies.”

Guys, make sure we tear up that envelope so there’s no confusion with best picture.

Infamously, an extra envelope with Stone’s best actress win was responsible for the confusion over the best picture win in 2017. That trophy belonged to “Moonlight” but “La La Land” was initially called.

Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in “Barbie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP, File)

Biggest box office: “Barbie” by far. Its $1.4 billion global total was more than the other nine combined, even counting co-blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” which itself made more than the bottom eight combined.

Lowest box office earner: “Maestro,” probably. The low-end figures are murky, but it got only a tiny theatrical release before dropping on Netflix

Longest: “Killers of the Flower Moon,” 3 hours, 26 minutes

Shortest: “Past Lives” and “The Zone of Interest,” 1 hour, 46 minutes apiece

Greta Lee in “Past Lives.” (Jon Pack/A24 via AP)

Earliest U.S. release: “Past Lives,” June 2

Latest U.S. release: “American Fiction” and “The Zone of Interest,” Dec. 15

Only Christmas movie: “The Holdovers,” arguably the first in the category since “It’s a Wonderful Life” in 1947

Only film with a dog in a major role: “Anatomy of a Fall”

Only film with dog-goose hybrids: “Poor Things”

Ranked choice voting, also known as preferential voting, is only employed at the Oscars to select the best picture winner.

Voters order the 10 nominees by preference: Their favorite is ranked first, their runner-up second and so on, with their least favorite at 10.

If one movie manages to capture more than 50% of the first-place votes in the first round, the contest is over. That’s the winner.

But if no movie crosses that threshold, the one with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated and the votes for that movie are reallocated to those voters’ second choices. On it goes until one movie wins a majority.

Proponents of the voting system, which is used in some other elections, argue it’s more representative.

Oscars statue cutouts rest on a table along the red carpet ahead of the 96th Academy Awards Friday, March 8, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

AP entertainment writer Andrew Dalton has reported from many an Oscars ceremony. He even used to occupy a perch above the fray.

The first thing you’ll notice is how many people you don’t recognize.

The 3,000-or-so people at the Dolby Theatre are mostly industry insiders and others who are plenty prominent, but not famous.

The closer you get to the stage, the higher the percentage of household names. You often end up in a restroom stall next to a Denzel , a Meryl , a Tom or a Tom .

You’ll be part of a Hollywood crowd that is outstanding at playing the role of “audience,” not needing applause signs to know when to start and stop clapping, or when an ovation is merited.

My dress is broken. I think it happened during ‘I’m Just Ken.’

Ascending the stage to claim her second best actress trophy, Stone turned around, pointing to her back as she motioned to the presenters, who looked to see if they could help.

She then opened her speech by explaining what happened.

“Don’t look at the back of my dress!” she said, closing the speech.

Christopher Nolan has won his first Oscar, and it’s the sixth of the night for “Oppenheimer.”

Nolan was his usual staid-and-subdued self when he accepted, thanking the cast and crew.

He showed a bit of emotion when he thanked his wife and producing partner “Emma Thomas,” laughing after calling her “producer of all our films and all our children.”

Lily Gladstone is named after her great-grandmother.

The elder Lily bore many similarities to Gladstone’s character in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Mollie Burkhart. Both women, born 10 years apart in the late 19th century, were traditional in nature, well-loved by their Native communities and devout Catholics.

Growing up between Seattle and the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, Gladstone was familiar with the stories of older generations of Native women — of their encounters with a fast-modernizing America and the brutal attempts to extract resources from tribal lands.

(Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

The Osage murders of the early 20th century , a reign of terror in which the Osage were targeted for the headrights to their oil-rich land, took place many miles away, in Oklahoma. But as a tragedy about the sinister exploitation of Native people, “Killers of the Flower Moon” told a tale Gladstone knew intimately.

“I carry my family’s legacy. And I’m expected to carry my family legacy, in a way,” Gladstone said in a recent interview. She added: “Even though I’m not Osage, it did very much feel like it was in my blood.”

▶ Read more from our profile of Lily Gladstone, one of AP’s 2023 Breakthrough Entertainers.

Actor Cillian Murphy said he was a “little overwhelmed” when he took the stage after winning an Oscar for his portrayal of the title character in the movie “Oppenheimer.”

The movie is about the man who drove the creation of nuclear weapons.

“For better or for worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world so I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere,” said Murphy.

The five past winners presenting the category:

• Sally Field
• Jennifer Lawrence
• Michelle Yeoh
• Charlize Theron

Christopher Nolan accepts the award for best director for “Oppenheimer” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

▶ Read more about Nolan’s win.

Lily Gladstone reflected on the chaotic awards circuit and the ways she’s been able to find friendships throughout it, including with “Poor Things” star Emma Stone, a competitor in the Oscars best actress category.

The best actress Oscar to be awarded shortly is seen as a tight race betwee n Lily Gladstone for “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Emma Stone for “Poor Things.”

Most experts have given the slight edge to Gladstone , who won the SAG Award, but say it could easily go to Stone, who won the BAFTA.

The two have become friends during award season. Gladstone says they call themselves “The Infinity Stones.”

It would be the first Oscar for Gladstone and the second for Stone, who won best actress for “La La Land.”

The other nominees are Annette Bening for “Nyad,” Sandra Hüller for “Anatomy of a Fall” and Carey Mulligan for “Maestro.”

Cillian Murphy accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for “Oppenheimer” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

It’s 7:01 p.m. PDT, which is just over three hours after the Oscars were slated to began (they did get off to a late start).

There are still three categories to go.

Andrea Bocelli, left, and Matteo Bocelli arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

On a stage bathed in blue Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang his signature song “Time to Say Goodbye” along with his son Matteo during the Oscars’ memorial segment.

The Bocellis and a string quartet paid tribute to movie luminaries who died since the last Oscars, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Reubens, Tina Turner, Ryan O’Neal, Carl Weathers and Robbie Robertson, a nominee this year for best score for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

The montage also included several people best known for TV, including Matthew Perry and Richard Lewis.

The telecast included a QR code for a longer list of the dead.

The five past winners presenting best actor:

• Nicolas Cage
• Matthew McConaughey
• Ben Kingsley
• Forrest Whitaker
• Brendan Fraser

This grab taken from video shows flowers and a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny that Lyudmila Navalnaya, mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, put to pay tribute to her son at the at the memorial to victims of political repression, in Salekhard, 1937 km (1211 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Russians across the vast country streamed to ad-hoc memorials with flowers and candles to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny, the most famous Russian opposition leader and the Kremlin’s fiercest critic. Russian officials reported that Navalny, 47, died in prison on Friday. (AP Photo)

A clip of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny opened the in memoriam segment.

Navalny, who died last month while imprisoned, was the subject of the eponymous documentary directed by Daniel Roher that won the Oscar for documentary feature last year.

“Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love,” his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said at the 2023 ceremony.

Navalny had learned of the Oscar win during a court hearing, something his spokesperson at the time called “the most remarkable announcement of an (Oscar) win in history.”

▶ Read more about Navalny’s life and death.

The best actor Oscar will be handed out soon, and most prognosticators will be very surprised if it’s not handed to Cillian Murphy for “Oppenheimer.”

The 47-year-old Irish actor got his first nomination for playing the title role in Christopher Nolan’s film, and won most of the major precursor awards.

If anyone is expected to challenge him, it’s Paul Giamatti for “The Holdovers.” It would also be his first Oscar.

The other nominees are Bradley Cooper for “Maestro,” Colman Domingo for “Rustin” and Jeffrey Wright , “American Fiction.”

It was Barbie vs. Barbie. And, well, Barbie won.

Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell won the best song Oscar for “What Was I Made For?” which was widely expected to grab the statuette.

“I had a nightmare about this last night,” Eilish said. She added, “I just didn’t think this would happen.”

The only song most thought could beat it also was from “Barbie,” that being Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt’s “I’m Just Ken.”

Ryan Gosling, reprising his role as Ken, got into his pink suit and performed Ronson and Wyatt’s song just before the winner was introduced — getting a standing ovation, just as Eilish did when she performed her song about an hour earlier.

Billie Eilish is the youngest person by far to have won two career Oscars. She took her trophy for best original song for “What Was I Made For” from “Barbie” at age 22.

That beats a very old record set by Luise Rainer, who won her second best actress Oscar at 28 in 1938.

The second youngest is now Eilish’s 26-year-old brother and co-writer Finneas. The pair won their first Oscar for “No Time to Die” in 2021.

Hilary Swank and Jodie Foster — a best supporting actor nominee this year — are the only others to win two before 30.

In this Nov. 15, 2018 photo, Swedish composer Ludwig Goransson poses for a portrait in New York (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)

Ludwig Göransson won the Academy Award for original score for his work on “Oppenheimer.” It is his second Oscar and third nomination, having previously won in the category in 2019 for “Black Panther.”

“Oppenheimer” is director Christopher Nolan ’s own adaptation of Martin J. Sherwin and Kai Bird’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2005 book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” chronicling the Manhattan Project and its fallout. The film starring Cillian Murphy “is poised between the shock and aftershock of the terrible revelation, as one character calls it, of a divine power,” AP film writer Jake Coyle assessed in his review .

Naturally, the score accomplishes something similar: Göransson composing from a first-person perspective for the first time, using his characteristic plays with rhythm and tempo to make one man’s history-altering endeavors feel larger than life.

Andrew Wyatt, left, and Mark Ronson, accept the award for best song for “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” during the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Up for best original song:

• Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
• Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson for “It Never Went Away’’ from “American Symphony”
• Scott George for “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon″
• Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
• Diane Warren for “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”

That’s what we call white-hot competition. A few of the nominees in this category called The Associated Press the day they found out they were nominated. Here’s what they said :

Warren: “I’m thrilled. Beyond. And now the number of Oscars I’ve been nominated for has caught up to my emotional age, which is (15). I’m just kidding. Kind of.”

Ronson: “It’s a huge honor... in the film, it is this 11-minute prog rock dream ballet, shred fest that (director) Greta (Gerwig) and Ryan (Gosling) made people fall in love with all these beautiful touches.”

Composer Ludwig Goransson poses for a portrait at his music studio in 2022 (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The best original score category is a competitive one this year: vying for the trophy are 54-time Oscar nominee and now five-time winner John Williams (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”), Ludwig Göransson (“Oppenheimer”), and three first-time nominees, Jerskin Fendrix (“Poor Things”), Laura Karpman (“American Fiction”) and the late Robbie Robertson (“Killers of the Flower Moon”).

A few of the nominees called The Associated Press the day they found out they were nominated. Here’s what they said :

Göransson: “To be recognized on this score especially, it was a very personal score. It was also obviously extremely challenging to achieve these emotions and to tell the story of this complicated man’s feelings, his ambition and what he’s going through in his journey and from his perspective because the only way to do that is, I’ve had to go to some to some uncomfortable places.”

Karpman: “What can I tell you? I’m 64 years old, and I’ve spent my life doing this, and I have never, ever, ever thought that this — first of all, I didn’t think it would ever be available to me, much less accessible. But, you know, this is a very, very special project. The movie is a gem. I knew it the moment I saw it.”

Fendrix: “It feels so surreal. I don’t think it’s entirely settled yet.”

Ryan Gosling reacts as the true winner of best picture is announced at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. It was originally announced that “La La Land” won, but the winner was actually, “Moonlight.” (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

But it is the first time he performed at the Oscars.

Neither he nor Emma Stone performed when “La La Land” was nominated for its music at the 2017 Oscars.

AP photographer Chris Pizzello is shooting the Oscars again tonight. Here’s what he looks for in between awards:

Another cool aspect of the Oscars is the mingling between celebrities both before the show and during commercial breaks. It is the world’s greatest cocktail party and you can capture some priceless combos.

But it’s very, very dark in the seats so it’s a real test of the low-light performance of your cameras. Sometimes the shots are just too dark and blurry to run but it’s important to try because you may never see those particular combos ever again.

Ryan Gosling performs “I’m Just Ken” from the movie “Barbie” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

It is the moment “Barbie” fans have been waiting for: Ryan Gosling performed “I’m Just Ken,” the huge ‘80s power ballad from the film.

Gosling began in the audience, his face obscured by a cowboy hat before heading to the stage to meet Mark Ronson, the executive producer of the “Barbie” soundtrack, and a group of dramatic dancing Kens — including fellow Kens Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Later, Slash appeared, taking over lead guitar — a hilarious surprise. Then Gosling jumped into the crowd and had Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, and America Ferrera sing along.

“I’m Just Ken” turned Gosling into a Billboard Hot 100 artist. It also won the 2024 Critics’ Choice Award for best song.

Hoyte van Hoytema accepts the award for best cinematography for “Oppenheimer” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Hoyte van Hoytema thanked director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas while accepting his Oscar for cinematography for the film “Oppenheimer.”

Van Hoytema was also nominated for his work on the Nolan-directed film “Dunkirk” but didn’t win that time.

“You’re by far the best thing that could have happened to my career, obviously,” said van Hoytema glancing down at the Oscar in his hand.

Robert Downey Jr. accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for “Oppenheimer” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Robert Downey Jr. is the first “Saturday Night Live” alum to win an Oscar with his best supporting actor victory for “Oppenheimer.”

Downey was a cast member for one season in 1985-86, regarded by many as the show’s worst year.

Other alums to have been nominated include Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, and Joan Cusack, who was in the same cast as Downey.

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Kingsley Ben-Adir, from left, Ryan Gosling and Ncuti Gatwa in a scene from “Barbie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP).

With two of the five best original song nominations (Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for “I’m Just Ken” as performed by Ryan Gosling and “What Was I Made For?” by sibling duo Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell), the music of “Barbie” is everywhere at the 2024 Oscars.

Last summer, Ronson told The Associated Press all about how the music of the movie came together . The soundtrack assignment began with two tracks: a pop song for a big dance number (what would become Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night”) and an ’80s power ballad for Ken. Name a genre with more “self-aware, bombastic silliness,” as Ronson says.

For the most part, Ronson works on instrumentals: When he wrote the Oscar-winning “Shallow” with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper for “A Star Is Born,” for example, he only contributed lyrics to fill in gaps — the “surface, don’t hurt us,” line, as he recalls. But for the song that would become Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken,” Ronson couldn’t shake the lyric: “I’m just Ken, anywhere else I’d be a 10.”

So he sent director Greta Gerwig a demo with a few lines — including a deliciously mouthy lyric about “blonde fragility.” She sent it to Gosling, who plays Ken in the film, and knew immediately he needed to sing it. What could have soundtracked any scene in the film became its own musical moment.

Robbie Robertson speaks during a press conference for “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band” in 2019 (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Robbie Roberston, known of his work in The Band and with Bob Dylan, received a posthumous original score nomination for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Robertson died last summer at 80. Director Martin Scorsese released a statement about his collaborator the day nominations came down.

“I only wish that Robbie Robertson had lived to see his work recognized,” the famed director wrote. “Our many years of friendship and Robbie’s growing consciousness of his own Native heritage played a crucial role in my desire to get this film onscreen.”

▶ Read more from the AP’s obituary of Robbie Robertson.

AP photographer Chris Pizzello has been shooting the Oscars, from inside the room, since 2013. Here are three memorable moments from over the years:

2013: Jennifer Lawrence slipping on the steps on her way to the stage.

Jennifer Lawrence stumbles as she walks on stage to accept the award for best actress in a leading role for “Silver Linings Playbook” during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

2017: Warren Beatty announcing the wrong best picture winner.

Jordan Horowitz, producer of “La La Land,” shows the envelope revealing “Moonlight” as the true winner of best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Presenter Warren Beatty and host Jimmy Kimmel look on from right. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

2022: The Slap.

Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Basically you have to be on high alert for all 3 ½ hours of the show. The Slap happened during one of the slower sections of the show, when Chris Rock was introducing the best documentary award. He made a couple of jokes, and suddenly I saw a fuzzy head approaching him onstage in my viewfinder. Before you knew what was happening, WHAP! Every single photographer in the projection booth initially feared they missed it because it happened incredibly fast.

So the lesson is that during the Oscars telecast you cannot ever lose focus, no pun intended.

Martin Scorsese reveals what helped him find the flow during the making of his latest movie “Killers Of The Flower Moon” and jokes about his dislike of emails. (Oct.17)

“I don’t use a computer because I tried a couple times and I got very distracted. I get distracted as it is,” Scorsese told the AP last year. “I’ve got films, I’ve got books, I’ve got people. I’ve only begun this year to read emails. Emails, they scare me. It says ‘CC’ and there are a thousand names. Who are these people?”

▶ Read more from AP’s feature on the Oscar nominee for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Becky G, center, performs the song “The Fire Inside” from the movie “Flaming Hot” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Becky G performed the fiery reggaeton track “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” written by Diane Warren. She was joined by a chorus of young girls.

“Flamin’ Hot” follows the story of Richard Montañez, who went from being a janitor at a Frito-Lay plant in California to a top executive when he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, assisting in introducing a Latin market to the snack food giant. “The Fire Inside” is up for best original song and is Warren’s 15th Oscar nomination.

This is Becky G’s second time performing at the Oscars — the first time was two years ago, when she joined Megan Thee Stallion and others for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto.”

Director Wes Anderson poses for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘The French Dispatch’ at the 74th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Wes Anderson finally has an Oscar. Not surprisingly, it’s a quirky one.

The first Academy Award for the 54-year-old Texan with the unmistakable film style came for best live-action short for his Roald Dahl adaptation for Netflix, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” He shared the award with Steven Rales.

It comes after Anderson directed 11 full-length features and got seven previous Oscar nominations without a win, starting with a screenplay nod for “The Royal Tenenbaums” in 2002.

Anderson wasn’t there to accept his Oscar. Presenters Issa Rae and Ramy Youssef accepted on his behalf.

“Congratulations, Wes. We knew you could make them long, but wow,” Youssef said.

Masaki Takahashi, from left, Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, and Tatsuji Nojima accept the award for best visual effects for “Godzilla Minus One” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kris Bowers stood up for teachers, when accepting the Oscar for best documentary short for “The Last Repair Shop.”

“‘The Last Repair Shop’ is about the heroes in our schools who often go unsung, unthanked and unseen,” Bowers said. “Tonight, you are sung, you are thanked and you are seen.”

Evgeniy Maloletka, from left, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Michelle Mizner, Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson-Rath and Derl McCrudden arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

“Cinema forms memories, and memories form history.”

“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honored,” an emotional Mstyslav Chernov said. “But probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

Speaking on the red carpet of the Academy Awards, Mstyslav Chernov - director of documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” - says its important the “world understands the seriousness of what’s going on and the urgency of what’s going on” in Ukraine. (March 10)

“20 Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing chronicle of the besieged Ukrainian city and the international journalists who remained there after Russia’s invasion, won The Associated Press its first Oscar in the 178-year-old news organization’s history.

The AP and PBS’ “Frontline” team behind the documentary feature received a standing ovation from the audience.

This aerial view shows Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

It’s a busy day in L.A.: the Clippers and the Lakers vs. the Oscars.

Los Angeles’ two NBA teams are both home on Sunday, with the Clippers playing a noon Pacific game against the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Lakers playing at 6:30 p.m. against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Lakers played on Oscar Sunday last year, too — against the Knicks, which led to Denzel Washington and Spike Lee going to that arena instead of the Dolby Theatre for the Oscars.

The Lakers and Clippers don’t go head-to-head with the Grammys. That show takes over the arena where those teams play; the Dolby Theatre is about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) away from Crypto.com Arena.

Spanish actor Javier Bardem accepts the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in “No Country for Old Men” at the 80th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

One person speaks for a group. Include a little heart, and a little humor. Relish the moment. And keep it under 45 seconds. That’s the often-disregarded annual acceptance-speech guidance Academy President Janet Yang gave Oscar nominees at their luncheon .

Not everyone ignores the advice. Yang showed a video of the platonic ideal of a speech — Javier Bardem’s 2008 acceptance of best supporting actor for “No Country for Old Men.”

Bardem thanked the writer-director Coen brothers, mocked his absurd haircut in the movie, gave his mother a heartfelt tribute in Spanish — and did it all in 37 seconds.

Awards show mainstay Jon Batiste performed “It Never Went Way” from “American Symphony,” a documentary that follows Batiste as he attempts to write a symphony while his wife battles leukemia.

Batiste has said that “It Never Went Away’’ ”began as a lullaby” for his wife “so she could have a restful aura in the hospital room.”

On the Oscar stage, he performed at a grand piano in front of a large screen depicting images of Batiste with his wife, the author Suleika Jaouad.

“Godzilla Minus One’s” victory for best visual effects is the first time in the creature’s long history he has won an Oscar. The Japanese film also pulled off the rare feat of having its director win a visual effects Oscar. It was last done by Stanley Kubrick for 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“The moment we were nominated we felt like Rocky Balboa,” the director and visual effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki said from the stage.

“Oppenheimer” has won for best film editing. It marks the first nomination and win for Jennifer Lame, who thanked her collaborators, including director Christopher Nolan, for the award.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito gave the award out, joking about how they both tried to kill Batman — portrayed by Michael Keaton — and lost, as Mr. Freeze and the Penguin, respectively.

▶ Read more about the craft behind “Oppenheimer.”

This image provided by Kino Lorber shows Ichraq Matar, Eya Chikhaoui, Hend Sabri, Nour Karoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui in the movie Four Daughters, filmed in Tunis, Tunisia. The film about a Tunisian family and the radicalization of two teenage daughters who joined the Islamic State is up for one of the most prestigious film awards in the world. (Kino Lorber via AP)

Olfa Hamrouni doesn’t know much about her granddaughter; not her favorite toy nor food — is it the pasta the child’s mother loves, or something else?

The Tunisian grandmother doesn’t even let her mind go there. “I don’t want to know. What for but more heartache?” she said.

For now, she just fights for 8-year-old Fatma. The child has spent virtually all her life with her mother and aunt — Hamrouni’s eldest daughters — raised in detention in Libya, where the women wound up after leaving home as teenagers and joining Islamic State group extremists.

The real-life story of Hamrouni and her children is the focus of “Four Daughters,” an Academy Award nominee for best documentary feature film. On camera, there are many layers to Kaouther Ben Hania’s film: It’s about the radicalization of two teenage girls; an intimate portrait of a chaotic, and often dysfunctional, family life; and reflections on generational trauma, patriarchy, motherhood and adolescence.

▶ Read more about the documentary feature.

Director Martin Scorsese acknowledges the proper grammar of Robert De Niro’s famous line in the movie “Taxi Driver”, which he directed, during a skit as he is honored by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals as their Man of the Year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro were all nominees, 47 years after “Taxi Driver” was nominated for best picture, best actor (De Niro), best supporting actress (Foster) and best score.

Scorsese, 81, is nominated for directing “Killers of the Flower Moon.” De Niro, 80, was up for best supporting actor in the same film. And Foster, now 61, was nominated for her performance in “Nyad.” She was just 14 when “Taxi Driver” was nominated.

Takashi Yamazaki poses for a portrait during the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Godzilla has been to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, San Francisco, Boston, Moscow, London and Hawaii. But before now, he’d never been to the Oscars.

And now he has one.

▶ Read more about Godzilla’s newest frontier.

Composer John Williams poses on the red carpet at the 2016 AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to John Williams in Los Angeles (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

At age 92, composer John Williams may very well make Academy Award history by becoming the oldest Oscar winner of all time . The 54-time Oscar nominee and five-time winner could break a record held by James Ivory, who, in 2018, took home the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for “Call Me by Your Name” at age 89. That is, if he wins for his “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” score.

In 2022, Williams told AP film writer Jake Coyle that he believed “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” may be his final score .

“At the moment I’m working on ‘Indiana Jones 5,’ which Harrison Ford — who’s quite a bit younger than I am — I think has announced will be his last film,” he said at the time. “So, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”

AP photographer Chris Pizzello has made photos at many an Oscars. Here’s how he captures the moments sure to go down in the annals of cinema:

In one sense, the Oscars is one of the easier shows to shoot because the lighting is generally classic and consistent, not constantly shifting like, say, the MTV Awards. But the fact that the Oscars is the biggest of them all plays on your mind a bit, because it’s really important that you not miss anything. You’re shooting entertainment history after all.

Harrison Ford, left, and Ke Huy Quan react onstage when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wins the award for best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The Oscar show photographers are up in a projection booth at the very top of the Dolby Theatre. Not only are we far away from the stage, but it is also surprisingly quiet up there. We are behind glass so the sound of the show is muted, which makes it difficult to follow the usual speaking cues of those onstage.

Elizabeth Banks, left, and an actor dressed in a costume from her movie “Cocaine Bear” present the award for best visual effects at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

For gear, I have two cameras set up on the same tripod, one with a 600mm lens for tight shots of the winners and another with a 100-400mm zoom for slightly wider shots and musical performances, where it’s important to show the scale of the production. A third camera around my neck is fitted with a 24-105mm lens for ultra-wide shots of the stage, which comes in handy for overall scene setters and the In Memoriam section.

“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the academy in that order,” he started his speech. “I needed this job more than it needed me.”

“I’m gonna thank my stylist in case no one else does,” he added.

Robert Downey Jr. says he came away from Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” thinking about how “context is so critical” to understand significant moments in history. The film tells the story of the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. Downey plays former chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss, a key figure in revoking Oppenheimer’s security clearance.

John Cena pointed out the importance of costumes — by not wearing one.

The wrestler-turned-actor was brought onstage by host Jimmy Kimmel for a bit where Cena was supposed to be nude, a nod to how the Oscars in 1974 was interrupted by a male streaker. Cena told Kimmel he decided at the last minute to not go ahead with the bit, as the audience kept laughing.

“The male body is not a joke,” Cena told Kimmel.

Responded the host: “Mine is.”

Cena — with an oversized envelope strategically placed over his midsection — eventually moved onto center stage, then realized he, uh, couldn’t open the envelope.

“Costumes, they are so important,” Cena said. “Maybe the most important thing there is.”

It’s Iron Man vs. the Hulk as Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo are up for best supporting actor.

Sterling K. Brown also played a small but important part in Marvel’s “Black Panther” as N’Jobu, Killmonger’s father.

Five past winners are presenting this category:

• Sam Rockwell
• Tim Robbins
• Ke Huy Quan
• Christoph Waltz
• Mahershala Ali

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows on the set of “Poor Things.” (Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

Of the 23 categories awarded tonight, several are “below-the-line” or technical awards. Here’s what voters are looking for:

Production design: Awards the creator of the overall look of a film, from the sets to the locations to the props.

Sound: Awards the work of the range of people who design, record, mix and edit the sound for a film.

This image released by Apple TV+ shows a scene from “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (Apple TV+ via AP)

Cinematography: Awards the film’s photographer for its lighting and camera work.

Best original score: Awards the writer of a movie’s background music.

Hair and makeup: Awards makeup artists and hairstylists, naturally, but with an emphasis on prosthetics and character transformations.

Robert Downey Jr. could soon win his first Oscar, coming more than 30 years after his first nomination, for “Chaplin.”

Downey has had a triumphant awards season for playing Lewis Strauss in “Oppenheimer,” and he’s expected to top it off with an Oscar.

Also nominated is Ryan Gosling in his epic turn as Ken in “Barbie.”

The others in the category are Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” who has won two acting Oscars and been nominated eight times, along with Sterling K. Brown for “American Fiction” Mark Ruffalo for “Poor Things.”

Jonathan Glazer accepts the award for “The Zone of Interest” from the United Kingdom, for best international feature film during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jonathan Glazer’s hands shook as he accepted the Oscar for best international feature for “The Zone of Interest.”

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads, at its worst,” Glazer said.

“Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims, this humanization, how do we resist?”

Glazer said he hopes the film will draw attention to current conflicts in the world.

“All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, Look what they did then, rather look what we do now, Glazer said. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”

The woman behind the fabulous, fantastic costumes in “Poor Things” says the staff of Hungarians and Brits hadn’t even met each other when they teamed up in Budapest for the movie.

They were wearing masks and communicating through translators but that didn’t seem to slow down the amazing look of the film.

“Somehow we all managed to make it work,” said Holly Waddington during her acceptance speech as she won the Oscar for costume design.

Emily Blunt, left, and Ryan Gosling speak during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have been blanked at the Oscars so far.

Five of the 13 categories “Oppenheimer” is up for have come up and so have four of the eight for “Barbie.”

Both have taken a back seat to “Poor Things,” which has already taken three awards.

Scott George, who wrote “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” performed the song alongside Osage performers. A camera panned above them, showing a group of musicians hitting the same drum, and dancers circling them in front of red and yellow lights.

George is the first Osage writer to be nominated for an Oscar — he is up for best original song.

Osage singers and dancers perform during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow” provides a fresh look at the 1972 Andes plane crash, a tragic tale that’s been told many times. Survivor Gustavo Zerbino praised the Netflix film.

When Gustavo Zerbino watched “La Sociedad de la Nieve,” the 1972 plane crash survivor felt as if he was being submerged “into boiling water,” reliving the roughly 70 days he and his teammates were stranded in the snow-covered Andes mountains.

Zerbino praised J.A. Bayona’s raw and unfiltered film, which was released as “Society of the Snow” on Netflix in the U.S. Bayona’s movie is based on Pablo Vierci’s book of the same title, and follows the story of the Uruguayan Air Force plane disaster.

▶ Read more from AP’s feature on “Society of the Snow,” nominated for best international feature.

J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow” provides a fresh look at the 1972 Andes plane crash. Uruguayan actor Enzo Vogrinic says the desire to tell the tragic story he grew up hearing about made him ready to “endure everything” during the film’s production.

Vanessa Hudgens opened the Oscars red carpet pre-show with news of her own: She’s expecting.

The 35-year-old actor-singer turned to the side, revealing a baby bump.

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2014, file photo, Hayao Miyazaki arrives at the 6th annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles. Miyazaki’s “The Boy and Heron,” is nominated for best animated feature. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Toshiko Suzuki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and close collaborator of Hayao Miyazaki, told reporters at the small animation studio in Tokyo that they both watched the award ceremony on TV.

Miyazaki, who did not attend the Los Angeles ceremony, had vowed earlier he wasn’t going to show joy too much “as a Japanese man,” but he was moved to tears, Suzuki said.

“These things are just luck. I am happy from the bottom of my heart. That’s the only way to put it,” Suzuki said.

Movies always reflect the times, Suzuki said.

“Miyazaki has not forgotten a film’s relations with the times,” he said.

When asked for plans on another film, Suzuki said they want to complete the global screenings and other work for the current film before tackling the next project.

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone on the set of “Poor Things.” (Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

“Poor Things” became the first multiple Oscar winner of the night with back-to-back-to-back wins for hair and makeup, production design and costumes.

The three victories have made it already a big night for Yorgos Lanthimos’ film with many big nominations to come, including best director for him and best actress for Emma Stone.

Not daylight savings time!

This is the second year in a row, for the record, in which the Oscars have fallen on the same day the clocks have sprung forward.

▶ Read more about daylight saving time.

John Cena, left, presents the award for best costume design to Holly Waddington for “Poor Things"during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

What is a film without an all-star hair and beauty team? What would be “Poor Things” without Willem Dafoe’s prosthetics? Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, the team behind “Poor Things,” won for makeup and hair.

Catherine O’Hara and Michael Keaton presented the award, joking that without those behind the scenes, the public would know what actors really look like. Shudder at the thought!

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimo on the set of “Poor Things.” (Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

“Poor Things” is a Frankenstein-esque fantasia about a young woman (Emma Stone) reanimated by a demented surgeon (Willem Dafoe), but the behind-the-scenes work that went into crafting the movie’s wildly warped world may be the film’s greatest act of mad science.

Though Yorgos Lanthimos’ earlier films — at least leading up to “The Favourite” — were more spare productions, “Poor Things” fuses all the tools of classic Hollywood filmmaking — grand sets, miniatures, sumptuous costumes — with subtler touches of modern technology. The movie is, itself, a Frankenstein.

Only the scars (not counting the ones on Dafoe’s elongated face) don’t show in the magpie design of “Poor Things.” The film’s style is rooted in an 1890s Victorian setting, but it expands surreally from there.

▶ Read more about the work that went into the film.

James Price, left, and Shona Heath pose in the press room with the award for best production design for “Poor Things” at the Oscars. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Cord Jefferson accepts the award for best adapted screenplay for “American Fiction” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Cord Jefferson implored the movie industry to take more risks during his acceptance speech for his Oscar for adapted screenplay for “American Fiction.”

“I understand that this is a risk adverse industry, I get it, but $200 million movies are also a risk,” he said.

Appearing to be doing some very quick math in his head, Jefferson called on the industry to try “making 20 $10 million dollar movies” or “50 $4 million dollar movies.”

He said the next Martin Scorsese or Greta Gerwig is out there and called on industry leaders to take a chance on them.

In this category, countries select their film of choice. France selected “The Taste of Things” as its Oscar submission over “Anatomy of a Fall,” provoking surprise.

“The Taste of Things” ended up falling short of a nomination.

In accepting the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, “Anatomy of a Fall” director Justine Triet spoke passionately about the protests that have roiled France this year over reforms to pension plans and the retirement age. Several protests were held during Cannes this year, but demonstrations were — as they have been in many high-profile locations throughout France — banned from the area around the Palais des Festivals. Protesters were largely relegated to the outskirts of Cannes.

“The protests were denied and repressed in a shocking way,” said Triet, who linked that governmental influence to that in cinema. “The merchandizing of culture, defended by a liberal government, is breaking the French cultural exception.”

Some speculated that was the reason for the country’s snub.

Director Celine Song’s acclaimed feature film debut “Past Lives” is a modern-day love story about two childhood friends who are reunited as adults years after one moves away from South Korea. In this extended interview, Song speaks with The Associated Press about her inspirations, building chemistry between her actors, and why it was essential to portray variations of Korean family dynamics.

Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell performed their “Barbie” ballad “What Was I Made For?” on a rotating neon pink stage. They were the first of five scheduled performances — every song nominated in the best original song category will receive the same treatment, which will include another “Barbie” cut: the Ryan Gosling-performed ‘80s power balled “I’m Just Ken.”

If Eilish wins in the category, she will become the youngest person to ever win two career Oscars at age 22.

A few moments into the performance, the curtains behind the sibling duo lifted to reveal a string orchestra — taking the soft, saccharine song and blowing it up to enormous size. Break out the tissues.

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari became the first of a half-dozen nominated couples to win an Oscar with their original screenplay victory for “Anatomy of a Fall.”

The longtime partners with two kids together co-wrote the movie during the coronavirus pandemic.

Triet, who is also nominated for best director for the film, said from the stage that in order to write the movie, “we hooked them up to cartoons for peace. There was no line between work and diapers.”

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Margot Robbie in a scene from “Barbie.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

“Barbie” is the first film since “La La Land” in 2017 to have two nominees for best original song: “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” was left out after the final cut.

Four films in the past have had three songs nominated: “Enchanted,” “Dreamgirls,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King,” but a rule installed in 2008 now allows for only two per movie.

“American Fiction” is the fifth movie to earn Black writers an Oscar for adapted screenplay. The first Black winner in the category was Geoffrey S. Fletcher, in 2009. Fletcher adapted the novel “Push” by “Sapphire” into “Precious.”

Jefferson adapted Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” a satire of urban literature. In it, the lead character is inspired to adopt a pseudonym and alter ego to release a novel that has some parallels to “Push,” an acclaimed and controversial novel about a pregnant teen from Harlem that begins in broken English, but becomes more traditional as the girl learns to read and write.

At the time, Sapphire (a pen name for Ramona Lofton) was a little-known poet who received a large advance and attracted the interest of Hollywood.

▶ Read more about urban lit authors’ reaction to the movie.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography to the annals of Mattel, here are the sources of this year’s Oscar nominees for best adapted screenplay:

“American Fiction” Filmmaker Cord Jefferson worked from Percival Everett’s 2001 satire “Erasure,” about a Black literary author who unexpectedly gets rich writing a parody of “urban fiction,” a hot genre at the time Everett’s book came out. ▶ Read more about urban lit authors’ reaction to the movie.

“Barbie” The source for “Barbie,” co-written by director Greta Gerwig and husband Noah Baumbach was ... Barbie — the doll, the icon, the product and, in the eyes of the academy, a preexisting character that made the film ineligible for the original screenplay category.

“Oppenheimer” Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” distills the 700-page “American Prometheus,” a biography of atomic bomb “father” J. Robert Oppenheimer that was written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and won the Pulitzer in 2006.

“Poor Things” “Poor Things,” written by Tony McNamara, is based on a 1992 novel by the late Alasdair Gray that sets a “Frankenstein”-like story in the author’s native Glasgow.

“The Zone of Interest” Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” reworks Martin Amis’ Holocaust novel of the same name, which the late British author had structured around infidelity among Nazis stationed at Auschwitz.

The two Oscars given to writers for screenplays are coming up. Here’s a look at the nominees.

For best original screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari for “Anatomy of a Fall,” Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik for “May December,” David Hemingson for “The Holdovers,” Celine Song for “Past Lives” and Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer for “Maestro.”

For adapted screenplay: Cord Jefferson for “American Fiction,” Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for “Barbie,” Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer,” Tony McNamara for “Poor Things” and Jonathan Glazer for “The Zone of Interest.”

This image released by GKIDS shows Mahito Maki, voiced by Luca Padovan in English and Soma Santoki in Japanese, left, and Grey Heron, voiced by Robert Pattinson in English and Masaki Suda in Japanese, in a scene from Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy And The Heron.” (Studio Ghibli/GKIDS via AP)

“The Boy and the Heron” is only the second hand-drawn animation winner in this category. The first was another Miyazaki film, “Spirited Away,” 21 years ago.

Miyazaki was not at the Oscars to receive his award. Presenters Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy accepted on his behalf.

“I could see maybe the boy not showing up, but the heron should be here,” Jimmy Kimmel said.

Miyazaki is also the oldest director to win in the category.

▶ Read more from our feature on the renaissance of older filmmakers.

The Oscar for best animated feature is coming up.The nominees include “The Boy and the Heron,” directed by legendary 83-year-old animator Hayao Miyazaki for his Studio Ghibli. He has said the World War II-era fantasy may be his last film.

Also up for the award is “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the trippy, web-slinging sequel to the film that won this Oscar in 2018.

Other nominees include Pixar’s fire-and-water tale “Elemental,” Netflix’s medieval-style sci-fi fantasy “Nimona,” and “Robot Dreams,” a wordless Spanish-French tale of the friendship between a dog and a robot. It hasn’t been widely distributed in the U.S. yet.

Dave Mullins, from left, Brad Booker, and Sean Ono Lennon accept the award for best animated short for “War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

It’s Mother’s Day in the U.K., and Sean Ono Lennon asked the audience to shout: “Happy Mother’s Day!”

Lennon was brought up by the filmmakers behind the winning animated short, “WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko.”

Listeners of Howard Stern’s show on Sirius XM know that he and Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel have a long friendship.

And Stern had to enjoy Kimmel dropping a reference to his longtime producer Gary Dell’Abate.

“Baba Booey to you sir,” Kimmel said coming out a commercial break. Baba Booey, as Stern fans know, is Dell’Abate’s nickname.

A second is quickly on its way, though.

Spike Lee already had several big moments with the Oscars by the time he finally won a competitive statuette in 2019.

His first came almost 40 years earlier, in 1983, when he was a film student at New York University. Lee submitted his master’s thesis film “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” starring Monty Ross, to the Student Academy Awards. And it won.

The Student Academy Awards may not be as glitzy or high profile as the Oscars, but in its 50 years it has proven to be a vital launching ground for emerging filmmakers. Inclusion and access may sound like recent buzzwords, but the film academy has been striving to break down barriers to entry for decades.

▶ Read more about the Student Academy Awards from November.

A woman walks past advertisements for the films “Oppenheimer,” from left, and “Barbie,” on Thursday, July 20, 2023, at the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

After years of smaller movies like “Nomadland” and “Coda” winning best picture, a blockbuster movie looks likely to win the top award.

“Oppenheimer,” the Christopher Nolan movie about the man who guided the creation of the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan in World War II, took in close to $1 billion at the box office. The pink-themed, box-office powerhouse “Barbie” movie is also in the mix.

▶ Read more about how movies that are more popular with the general public often translate into more people watching the Oscars show.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for “The Holdovers” during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph wept as she accepted the night’s first Oscar — and hers.

“God is so good,” she said through tears as she accepted best supporting actor for “The Holdovers” for her first Academy Award nomination.

“I’ve always wanted to be different,” she said, “now I realize I just have to be myself.”

In a format expected to be repeated all night in the acting categories, the Oscar was presented by five past winners: Mary Steenburgen, Regina King, Lupita Nyong’o, Jamie Lee Curtis and Rita Moreno. Each introduced one nominee they have a connection to with a long personal tribute.

The 148-day strike that shut down production in Hollywood last year was part of Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars monologue.

“For five months, this group of writers, actors, directors, the people who actually make the films said ‘We will not accept a deal‘ ... well, not the directors, you guys folded immediately,” Kimmel said. “But the rest of us said we will not accept a deal without protections against artificial intelligence.”

He quickly pointed out that actors can now stop worrying about being replaced by AI, and instead go back to fearing being replaced by more attractive actors.

Kimmel also thanked the behind-the-scenes workers in Hollywood who now have a labor fight going on of their own, bringing dozens of truck drivers, lighting workers, gaffers, grips and more onto the stage as a thank-you.

“Thank you for standing with us,” Kimmel said. “And also, we want you to know that in your upcoming negotiations, we will stand with you too. And I’m going to make sure this show goes really long tonight so you get a ton of overtime.”

First-time nominees could easily win three of the four acting categories, but the full field of actors is an even mix of Oscar vets and newbies.

Ten of the 20 nominated actors are first timers.

Four of this year’s first-time nominees are up for best supporting actress, alongside the very veteran Jodie Foster , who got the first of her five nominations at age 14 and has won twice.

The 10 men have a staggering 33 nominations collectively, but only one of them, Robert De Niro , has an Oscar (two, actually).

Last year, 16 out of the 20 acting nominees were first-timers.

Margot Robbie walks the Oscars red carpet

Mary Steenburgen, from left, Lupita Nyong’o, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rita Moreno, and Regina King present the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Five past winners in the category:

• Mary Steenburgen
• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Lupita Nyong’o
• Rita Moreno
• Regina King
• Kimmel pointed out that Robert DeNiro and Jodie Foster were both nominated 48 years ago for “Taxi Driver” and how they’re both nominated again this year. “In 1976 Jodie Foster was young enough to be Robert DeNiro’s daughter. Now she’s 20 years too old to be his girlfriend,” Kimmel said, as Foster nodded.
• Of course, Messi made the show. The border collie has an enormous fan base for playing Snoop in the Oscar-nominated film “Anatomy of a Fall.” He had a seat in the audience for the monologue. “I haven’t seen a French actor eat vomit like that since Gerard Depardieu,” Kimmel said.
• Bradley Cooper brought his mother Gloria Campano to the Oscars. She’s his regular date for such events, and co-star from T-Mobile commercials. Kimmel, however, couldn’t resist a jab about dating one’s mother. “Are you working on a movie about Freud right now and not telling us?” Kimmel asked.

That would be Emily Blunt and America Ferrera , of course.

Blunt played a beleaguered high-fashion magazine assistant in “The Devil Wears Prada,” while Ferrera played a ... beleaguered high-fashion magazine assistant in “Ugly Betty,” a TV show.

They’re nominated for “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” respectively. Both are first-time nominees.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph has swept through the supporting actress awards in recent months and she’s expected to do the same and become one of the first big winners at the Oscars for her role as a boys’ school cook who lost her son in Vietnam in “The Holdovers.”

The category is expected to be up first.

It would be her first Oscar, as it would be for three of her competitors, Emily Blunt for “Oppenheimer,” and Danielle Brooks for “The Color Purple.”

Rounding out the category is two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster for “Nyad.”

Despite reports that Messi, the dog who plays Snoop in “Anatomy of a Fall,” was not invited to the Oscars after a scene-stealing performance at the Oscars luncheon, the star of awards season appeared to be in the Dolby Theatre.

His owner did not respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on his attendance.

Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue started late. Welcome to the Academy Awards.

“Thank you for that partial standing ovation,” Kimmel said to begin his monologue, and in a nod to how the show tends to run long, the veteran emcee pointed out two facts.

One, the show was starting an hour earlier than usual. And two, he took the stage several minutes behind schedule.

As usual, his jokes didn’t miss. He pointed to “Barbie” stars Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie, complimented them on winning the genetic lottery and then asked Gosling to go camping with him.

“Look kids, it’s Barbie and Ken, sitting near each other,” Kimmel said.

Cillian Murphy arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph: The supporting actress favorite’s first name is pronounced DAY-vine.

Cillian Murphy: It’s KILL-ian, not Silly-ian.

Sandra Hüller: It’s HUEL-er, not HULL-er

Despite starting an hour earlier, the telecast didn’t kick off until about 4:07 p.m. PDT.

Julie Pace, AP’s executive editor and senior vice president, is attending the Oscars for the first time in support of the nominated “20 Days in Mariupol.” She will be providing occasional updates from a guest’s perspective:

The snack boxes under guests’ seat include pretzels and Sno-Caps.

Michelle Yeoh had a simple answer when asked to describe what attending these Oscars was like compared what she felt last year.

“Relaxed,” last year’s best actress winner said. “Very relaxed.”

The Malaysia-born Yeoh made history last year as the first Asian woman to win best actress in the Academy Awards’ 95-year history for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

No pressure this year. She’s going to enjoy this show.

“None of that craziness of being terrified and happy all at the same time,” she said.

Ariana Grande arrived at the 96th Academy Awards wearing a soft pink gown.

Sterling K. Brown said he wanted to walk to the Oscars ceremony but when he found out that wasn’t possible he and his wife, actress Ryan Michelle Bathe, spent 45 minutes in traffic getting to the Dolby Theatre.

He sounded pretty determined about walking home at the end of the night. So if anyone sees Brown on the streets of Los Angeles later, he’s just “saving time.”

Brown may or may not have a gold Oscar in his hands as he takes to the street. He’s up for best supporting actor for his role in “American Fiction.”

Cillian Murphy, nominated for his role in “Oppenheimer,” arrives at the 96th Academy Awards.

FILE - Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the Oscars on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Kimmel will host the 96th Oscars on Sunday. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is back for his fourth time hosting the Oscars. In an interview with the AP he joked about he usually steals an Oscar statue from the animated short winners: “I tell them I need to take it and I’ll get it back to them, and I just never do.”

He also riffed on his faux feud with Matt Damon, who’s in “Oppenheimer.” And don’t expect much in the way of pre-taped comedy bits in the show. Kimmel says viewers often blame them for the show running long.

▶ Read more from our Q&A with Kimmel.

The red carpet is wrapping up as showtime is just around the corner.

Still looking for a way to watch? The show will be available to stream via ABC.com and the ABC app with a cable subscription. You can also watch through Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV.

People walk by an Oscars statue on the red carpet ahead of the 96th Academy Awards, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The Oscars are starting an hour early this year, at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. PDT. That D is important — it’s the first day of daylight saving time in the United States.

ABC is available with an antenna or through cable and satellite providers. For cord cutters, the show can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV.

The Oscars are widely broadcast beyond the U.S. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a handy guide to the more than 200 international territories that have Oscar telecasts.

“The Zone of Interest” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” each nominated for five Oscars, are the first two films primarily in non-English languages to be nominated for best picture in the same year. Both films also star Sandra Hüller.

Diane Warren poses for a portrait at the 92nd Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Loews Hotel on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

After receiving a nomination for best original song for “The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot” — a reggaeton number performed by Becky G — will Diane Warren finally win her first Academy Award, after 15 career nods?

And technically, she already has one? In 2022, Warren received an honorary Oscar at the annual Governors Awards, alongside fellow recipients Euzhan Palcy , Peter Weir and Michael J. Fox, who received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Warren was the first songwriter to ever get the award.

Becky G, nominated for her song “The Fire Inside,” talks about Latino representation at the Academy Awards.

Greta Gerwig, left, and Noah Baumbach arrive at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

“Barbie” director Greta Gerwig and her husband, “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach , are nominated for best screenplay.

“Barbie” star Margot Robbie is nominated for best picture as producer with husband and co-producer Tom Ackerley. Naturally, they’re opposite “Oppenheimer” co-producers and spouses Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas .

Samy Burch and husband Alex Mechanik are nominated for best original screenplay for “May December.” So are “Anatomy of a Fall” writers Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, who are longtime partners and co-parents.

“Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess and wife Jerusha Hess are nominated for co-directing the animated short, “Ninety-Five Senses.”

Rita Moreno arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

In addition to starting an hour earlier than usual, here’s what else to expect from tonight’s telecast:

• A focus on jokes over big, highly produced comedy bits
• Live performances of all five Oscar-nominated songs, including Ryan Gosling singing “I’m Just Ken”
• A redesigned stage to show off the live orchestra
• An in memoriam sequence that promises to tug at heartstrings

▶ Read more about what producers have in store.

As a first-time Oscar attendee, one of the striking things is just how early everything starts. Our group, a nominee for best documentary, arrived around 1 p.m. local time — three hours before the show begins. We were funneled into a multi-floor reception, with drinks, passed canapés and snack bags to tuck into a pocket or purse for the main event.

With just under an hour to go until showtime, an announcement blared overhead encouraging guests to take their seats. Most appeared inclined to keep enjoying the reception, prompting increasingly urgent appeals from the announcer.

Actors Emily Blunt and John Krasinski both dazzled in white as they arrived at the 96th Academy Awards together.

Lily Gladstone is the anguished heart and compassionate conscience of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” She embodies not just Mollie Burkhart but generations of Native joy, grace and pain. The Associated Press named the 37-year-old actor one of its five Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023 for an indelible performance that deftly digs into one of American history’s darkest chapters. She sat down with AP to talk about carrying her family’s legacy, her heroes and collaborating with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.

Oscar statuettes are displayed during the Governors Ball press preview for the 96th Academy Awards, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 10. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

There are more than 10,000 members of the Academy, who each have a role in picking the winners.

Generally, people who work in a particular category decided the nominees in that category. Directors nominate directors, for example — but all voting members can nominate movies for best picture.

This year, the nominations were announced Jan. 23. Once the nominees are decided, everyone can vote for all categories in the final round of voting. Final voting started Feb. 22 and ended Feb. 27. All the voting happens online.

For most categories, the nominee with the most votes simply wins. But best picture employs ranked choice voting.

Only two people — partners of the accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers — know the winners before they’re announced Sunday.

Protesters line up holding letters and symbols reading “Eyes on Rafah,” during a demonstration in support of Palestinians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as the 96th Academy Awards Oscars ceremony is held nearby, Sunday, March 10, 2024, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Protesters blocked Sunset Blvd. and then Highland Ave. as Oscars attendees sat in black SUVs at a standstill for more than an hour. The LAPD cleared Highland by around 3:30 p.m. Pacific.

Protesters shouted “Shame!” as some attendees walked up Highland and through nearby streets, with some pushing and shoving as protesters tried to block them.

Police in helmets and wielding batons declared an unlawful assembly and threatened arrest.

Ryan Gosling, nominated for his role of Ken in “Barbie,” arrived in all-black on the Oscars red carpet.

Dwayne Johnson arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Forgive Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for stumbling a little bit over the pronunciation of the designer of his Oscars attire.

He eventually got it right: He’s wearing Dolce and Gabbana. It took the wrestler-turned-actor a couple of tries to get the wording out, but he got there.

And he had a good reason: “I’ve had a lot of tequila,” he said.

BEST ACTUALLY SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE: Cory Michael Smith, ‘May December’

This image released by Netflix shows Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry, left, and Cory Michael Smith as Georgie Atherton, in a scene from “May December.” (François Duhamel/Netflix via AP)

BEST FACE: Willem Dafoe, ‘Poor Things’

This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Willem Dafoe in a scene from “Poor Things.” (Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures via AP)

BEST USE OF EARTH WIND AND FIRE’S ‘SEPTEMBER’: ‘Robot Dreams’

This image released by Neon shows a scene from “Robot Dreams.” (Neon via AP)

BEST FIGHT: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, ‘You Hurt My Feelings’

This image released by A24 shows Tobias Menzies, left, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a scene from “You Hurt My Feelings.” (Jeong Park/A24 via AP)

BEST HAT: Michael Fassbender’s bucket hat, ‘The Killer’

This image released by Netflix shows Michael Fassbender as an assassin in a scene from “The Killer.” (Netflix via AP)

BEST DOG NOT NAMED SNOOP: Chaplin, ‘Fallen Leaves’

This image released by MUBI shows Alma Pöysti in a scene from “Fallen Leaves.” (MUBI via AP)

▶ See more of our awards and rationales.

Trying to submit your last-minute Oscars ballot?

▶ Read more about AP’s predictions for tonight’s winners.

AP photographer Chris Pizzello is usually on the other side of a red carpet step-and-repeat. But recently, he got to experience being in front of the camera. Here’s his take on the “surreal” experience of having the tables turned:

That was a first for me. My wife, Veronica, and I really got dressed to the nines for that event, which was the Hollywood Beauty Awards. What made it funny was that when we arrived for the red carpet, the photographers were the same people I work elbow-to-elbow with two or three nights a week. So I got razzed a bit, but it was all in good fun. I joked to my colleagues that I was going to require approvals on everyone’s pictures of us.

Actor Kurt Tocci leaps for photographers at the premiere of the AMC series “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

One thing I noticed was that it’s hard to see with the bright lights shining right in your face and you get a little confused by the simultaneous directives of all the photographers. Everyone is yelling at once, so you do naturally gravitate to the people with the loudest voices.

I also acquired a newfound respect for celebrities who can go onstage and deliver a great impromptu acceptance speech. The award I was up for, Photographer of the Year, was one of the final categories and I felt an increasing knot in my stomach as the night went on. When my category was finally announced by the presenters, my heart leapt into my throat. I had a speech ready in my tux pocket, but other winners were going up there sans notes and just killing it. But I didn’t ultimately win, and I have to admit I felt great relief that I didn’t have to speak in front of 300 people.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay arrived at the Oscars wearing a blue gown and a pin advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, Ava DuVernay and others donned red pins in support for a cease-fire in Gaza. The bold design features a single hand holding a heart and was organized by the group Artists for Ceasefire.

About a mile from the red carpet, protesters shut down a section of Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard calling for an end to the violence in Rafah, a dense city on Gaza’s border with Egypt. The 2024 award season has so far been a relatively quiet one for political statements.

In past years, celebrities and other marquee figures have worn pins to speak out against the war in Ukraine — and decades prior, in Iraq, and still before that, Vietnam.

This image released by Netflix shows Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre, right, and Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in a scene from “Maestro.” (Jason McDonald/Netflix via AP)

One thing you might not hear much during the show: Netflix wins. Though the streamer has been a perennial awards force and comes in with 19 nominations, there’s a chance it will come up empty for the first time since 2016.

Its best shot might be in best makeup and hairstyling for Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” or best live-action short for Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

After criticism of quantity over quality, Netflix is retooling its film operations. The streaming service is still seeking its first best picture win.

Best actress nominee Emma Stone went straight for the Dolby Theatre as a voice of god implored the red carpet stragglers to please take their seats. She paused to greet Netflix exec Scott Stuber who gave her a kiss on the cheek and his wife Molly Sims who made a bowing gesture to Stone.

Emily Blunt found her way over to give her “Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas a hug on the red carpet. Blunt’s husband John Krasinski chimed in that Nolan looked dapper. They posed for a photograph and laughed together for a long chat. “Oppenheimer” is widely expected to have a near sweep of the awards.

Danielle Brooks, nominated for her role in “The Color Purple,” shares the lessons she’s learned during this awards season.

For her first Oscars, Danielle Brooks went with a classic designer. She walked the red carpet in a custom Dolce and Gabbana.

“The story is this is my first Oscars dress,” Brooks said. “That’s the story. I hope to come back again and again and again. But this will forever be special to me.”

She’s a nominee for best supporting actress for her work in “The Color Purple.”

It’s not just the men playing it safe in black this year — the classic color choice is popular among the women, including a custom Schiaparelli for Sandra Hüller with extended shoulders and the perfect fit.

Among the risk-takers? Charlotte Kemp Muhl, who walked with Sean Ono Lennon in a backless and near sideless fit.

Sandra Huller arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Sean Ono Lennon, left, and Kemp Muhl arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Monet McMichael arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Eva Longoria arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Celine Song arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ava DuVernay arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Ted Danson, left, and Mary Steenburgen arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Danielle Brooks arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Christina Steinberg arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Debra O’Connell arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Jeffrey Wright arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Sony Pictures Chair Tom Rothman and “American Fiction” star Jeffrey Wright had other things to chat about than awards on the Oscars red carpet: Their days playing college sports.

Rothman said he’d read an interview in which the best actor nominee talked about the importance of exercise to his acting.

“I’m trying to get back there,” Wright said and gestures to his kids nearby. “Now that these guys are a little older I can focus on myself a little more.”

Gabrielle Union, left, and Dwayne Wade arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Dwyane Wade has won gold trophies before. He’s now chasing a gold statuette.

Wade is a three-time NBA champion, a Basketball Hall of Famer and now could be part of an Oscar winner. He was executive producer of “The Barber of Little Rock,” an Oscar nominee in the best documentary short film category. It tells the story of local barber Arlo Washington, who set out to try to combat the racial wealth gap and how it still seems to be widening in America.

“We’ve been systematically, financially shut out of the system,” Wade said. “What Arlo is doing trying to create the opportunities for our community to succeed. Without financial freedom, you have nothing.” Wade walked the red carpet accompanied by his wife, Gabrielle Union-Wade.

Kris Bowers grew up in Los Angeles, just a few minutes away from The World Stage performance space, and immersed in jazz. Music, he knew, was always his path.

“I told them (my parents) when I was 12, I want to go to school for jazz and tour as a jazz artist and then transition into film scoring,” the pianist-turned-composer says. “I never had a moment where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll do something else.’ I was always like, ‘Oh, that’s the path. And like, yeah, I’ll try to figure out how to make it happen.’”

Scarcely two decades after that preteen declaration, the 34-year-old is an Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer whose resume could fill pages. He’s created moving compositions for prominent filmmakers, including Ava DuVernay and Justin Simien, and Oscar-winning films like “King Richard” and “Green Book.”

▶ Read more from our profile of Kris Bowers, who co-directed the Oscar-nominated documentary short “ The Last Repair Shop.”

Colman Domingo matched his custom Louis Vuitton suit with cowboy boots.

Describing his fashion sense, Washington said he lives somewhere between “Cary Grant and Teddy Pendergrass.”

He says tonight, he feels like the “whole party.”

Domingo plays Bayard Rustin, a gay Black socialist and pacifist activist, who was the master strategist of the 1963 civil rights March on Washington.

He’s up for an acting Oscar. He called the role one of the “gifts” of his lifetime.

But he didn’t sound too tense about winning, saying he just feels like he’s here with colleagues and friends.

Stars weren’t the only ones shining bright on the Oscars red carpet. After many days of gray skies and unusual rain, the weather this Sunday in Hollywood is perfect: 69 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius) with tons of sunshine.

Apologies to the Grammys , where the rain-soaked carpet inspired more than a few memes.

The Oscars red carpet is tented, though, giving photographs more of a “night” feel.

Dominic Sessa arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

AP photographer Chris Pizzello is a veteran of awards shows — and their red carpets. Here’s how he gets the shot amid fierce competition: I am a naturally quiet person, so I’ve never been a yeller. Even when I do yell, everyone complains that they can’t hear me! So I try to concentrate on capturing what red carpet photographers call “moments.” A wave. A wink. A spontaneous burst of laughter. Or maybe a look back over the shoulder as the celebrity is walking away. It’s just a matter of always being attentive. I also occasionally like to focus on interesting details, like shoes or necklaces.

Kristen Stewart, a cast member in “Love Me,” is interviewed at the premiere of the film at Eccles Theatre during the Sundance Film Festival, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

At one of her Sundance premieres this year, Kristen Stewart was dressed down (for her) but still was the coolest-looking person in the room, the ultimate hipster. She was wearing these dice rings on one hand, one white and one black. I shot a tight detail shot of them and put it up on my Instagram — I couldn’t believe how many likes that shot got.

Emma Stone, nominated for her role in “Poor Things,” arrived at the Oscars in a light blue gown.

Emma Stone went for a soft pastel strapless look in mint with a wide peplum at the waist. It was Louis Vuitton.

Carol Littleton, from left, Mel Brooks, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Satter pose with their honorary awards during the Governors Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, at the Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Mel Brooks received his second Oscar back in January at a private dinner in the heart of Hollywood. The event, the 14th Governors Awards, was untelevised but the crowd was as starry as they come with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Penélope Cruz, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper and Jon Batiste in the audience.

“I promise not to sell this one,” Brooks said.

Hollywood’s awards season can start to feel a little gratuitously self-congratulatory, but the Governors Awards is a bit of a respite from the horse race and a chance to celebrate some of the industry’s living legends, including Brooks, Angela Bassett and film editor Carol Littleton, who all collected honorary Oscars at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, just steps from where the Academy Awards will be broadcast today. Michelle Satter, a founding director of the Sundance Institute, also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

▶ Read more about the Governors Awards.

Many men stuck to black in tuxedos and other looks, including a fashion star of the awards season, Colman Domingo in a double-breasted tuxedo look, a custom Louis Vuitton, paired with western boots. “I wanted to shine like a diamond″ he told E! “I’m having a great time.”

Colman Domingo said he wore a custom Louis Vuitton suit to the Oscars.

Among the men who opted out of black was Taylor Zakhar Perez in powder blue.

Taylor Zakhar Perez, left, takes a selfie with fans at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Simu Liu of “Barbie” brought the Kenergy. He rocked a black Fendi look with a wrap-around jacket closed with a brooch.

“It’s a fun situation, and I like brooches,” he said.

Simu Liu, left, and Allison Hsu arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Emma Stone’s third collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos is “Poor Things.” The 35-year-old star spoke about her trust in Lanthimos, his treatment of nudity in film, surrealism — and whether she’d ever become a director.

Kirsten Dunst, left, and Jesse Plemons arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons made a beeline to Cord Jefferson to say hello.

“Great to see you, man,” Plemons said giving a handshake and a hug. Soon others started swarming Dunst, asking for photos and all chatted about whether or not everyone was late.

The lack of the evening’s biggest stars on the carpet with only an hour until showtime has started to become the topic of the carpet.

Nearby, best actor nominee Paul Giamatti paused to pose next to an oversized Oscar statuette.

Protesters against the war in Gaza have shut down a major traffic artery in Hollywood about a mile from where the Oscars will be held.

Billie Eilish and America Ferrera hugged once they saw each other on the Oscars red carpet

America Ferrera stopped to post for a few selfies and even sign an autograph for a fan on the red carpet. She’s nominated for best supporting performance for “Barbie,” which none of the fans forgot shouting, “Hi Barbie! I love you!”

As she breezed by, the fans got even more excited as Nicolas Cage appeared.

Kingsley Ben-Adir shares his thoughts on ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ on the Oscars red carpet.

Issa Rae arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Issa Rae, a red carpet standout, stunned in plunging deep green. The top sparkled with sequins.

“I am wearing green for good luck,” she said. “I wanted to feel old Hollywood.”

From left, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Lily-Rose Depp arrive at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Sandra Huller arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Kristen Stewart arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Olivia Munn arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ava DuVernay arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Chloe Sevigny arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Usher arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Tessa Thompson arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

James Marsden arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Maya Rudolph arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Alexandra Shipp arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Havana Rose Liu arrives at Chanel’s 15th Annual Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

The night before the Oscars isn’t a time to rest in Hollywood. For quite a few nominees, including “Barbie” star Margot Robbie, it meant a stop at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel for the 15th annual Chanel and Charles Finch pre-Oscar dinner.

Robbie was in very good company, with other Oscar nominees including best supporting actress frontrunner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, as well as America Ferrera, Sandra Hüller, Justine Triet, Cord Jefferson, Jonathan Glazer and Celine Song, who all are expected at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday evening.

They packed into the picturesque patio of the storied Polo Lounge for cocktails before the private dinner on a clear, chilly night in Beverly Hills. Robert De Niro was among the earliest arrivals, but within no time the space was full of stars.

▶ Read more from our recap of the pre-Oscar dinner.

Colman Domingo, nominated for his role in “Rustin,” arrives on the Oscars red carpet.

Porché Brinker of “The Last Repair Shop” was in ethereal soft blue. Juliet Donenfeld of “Red, White and Blue” looked all-the-way grown up in a blinged-out strapless dress.

Juliet Donenfeld arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Katie Lowes, left, and Adam Shapiro eat pretzels on the carpet at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Not just any pretzels — Philadelphia-style soft pretzels, provided by actors and married couple Adam Shapiro and Katie Lowes. Shapiro is a Philly-area native and told Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate that he made 5,000 pretzels for the show.

Host Jimmy Kimmel arranged for the pretzels to be under the seats of the Dolby Theatre last year, telling the audience midway through the show that they were there.

“In the acting world, it’s all about a callback. This is a good callback,” Shapiro said.

Cord Jefferson’s first feature is up for best picture at the Academy Awards. Even surrounded by stars at the recent Oscar nominees luncheon, he still couldn’t believe it. Jefferson — who wrote, directed and produced the satire starring Jeffrey Wright — spoke with AP entertainment journalist Leslie Ambriz about the Hollywood awards circuit, insecurity and the significance of a third grade writing project.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from “Oppenheimer.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)

FanDuel Sportsbook has odds posted on many categories, and all signs point to a big “Oppenheimer” night.

“Oppenheimer” is a massive favorite to win best picture and is the pick to win at least seven other statuettes — Cillian Murphy (best actor), Robert Downey Jr. (best supporting actor), Christopher Nolan (best director), Ludwig Göransson (best original score), best cinematography, best sound, and best film editing.

Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) is a slight favorite over Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) for best actress, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (“Barbie”) are favored for best original song and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”) is the pick for best supporting actress.

Here’s how big a favorite “Oppenheimer” is for best picture. If someone bet $100 on Sunday morning, the odds were so low at that point that they would win … $1.25.

Rita Moreno wore a huge smile and a statement black gown, and Brittany Snow popped in bright yellow on the Oscars red carpet .

Rita Moreno arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Moreno, at 92, waved to photographers as she showed off her look.

Snow offered a refreshing show of color in a bright strapless custom Monot dress paired with a statement choker.

Brittany Snow arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Martin Scorsese’s says his epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” is “an internal spectacle.” The movie about the systematic killing of Osage Nation members for their oil-rich land in the 1920s also demonstrates his continued dedication to ambitious filmmaking. The legendary 80-year-old director sat down with The Associated Press to talk about staying focused and curious, the future of cinema and pushing boundaries: “There is no limit. The limit is in yourself.”

Brendan Fraser arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Brendan Fraser made a triumphant return to the red carpet after his best actor win last year, bypassing reporters and pausing only to say hello to Marlee Matlin.

He also ran into “The Whale” cinematographer Matthew Libatique (nominated this year for “Maestro”).

“We both wore blue!” Fraser said. He’s presenting an award at the show later.

Christopher Nolan celebrated the home video release of “Oppenheimer” by looking back at the film’s surprisingly successful theatrical run — and what it may mean for Hollywood. No one in the industry expected that a long, talky, R-rated drama released at the height of the summer movie season would earn over $900 million at the box office. Nolan deflected Bond rumors, called the Hollywood strikes “a very necessary realignment” — and considered the future of artificial intelligence in filmmaking.

A protester holds a poster during a demonstration in support of Palestinians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as the 96th Academy Awards Oscars ceremony is held nearby, Sunday, March 10, 2024, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Protesters against the war in Gaza — wearing black-and-white keffiyehs, watermelon yarmulkes, suits and ties, some splattered with fake blood — have shut down a major traffic artery in Hollywood about a mile (1.6 km) from the Dolby Theatre.

Flanked by palm trees along Sunset Boulevard, demonstrators are holding signs reading “While you’re watching, bombs are dropping” and “Eyes on Rafah ,” a city on southern Gaza’s border with more than 1 million displaced residents.

The coalition of activist groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace and SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire, drew attention to the ongoing violence at the start of Ramadan.

Many surprises await during the show including some special guests during the in memoriam.

Also lips are sealed on specifics around Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” performance but a person close to production who requested anonymity said “it’s a lot of people to fit on that stage.” Elsewhere Simu Liu made way down the carpet as fans in the bleachers shouted “Hi, Ken!”

Director Wim Wenders of “Perfect Days” arrived with his wife, Donata Wenders, who is wearing a dress made of VHS videotape of some of his movies.

Donata Wenders arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

The view from the secondary red carpet at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julie Pace)

Behind the red carpet you see celebrities and nominees walking on television is the secondary red carpet for, well, everyone else.

It’s a lower-stakes situation. No photographers, no reporters asking what you’re wearing — and no accessing the main carpet!

Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov is in Los Angeles as the movie he risked his life to produce is up for an Academy Award — but he says his heart is in Ukraine with other cities being bombed.

“20 Days in Mariupol” is being honored in the documentary category. Chernov says it’s a movie about “tough things” but it’s also “important to show the real picture” of life in Ukraine. He says it’s been inspiring to meet the other nominees in the documentary category.

Laverne Cox arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Laverne Cox, working the carpet for E!, is the epitome of Old Hollywood glam in an hourglass look of black and low-plunging gold, her hair piled high as she flutters a feather-light neck piece that trails behind. Her look is vintage Mugler.

Last year’s best picture and director winners Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” are getting quite the different Oscar experience this year and finding it’s kind of nice.

“We’re back on the circuit,” Scheinert said. “It’s really chill to be here and not have anything at stake.”

Kwan meanwhile was taking in the spectacle and appreciating the “Godzilla Minus One” team’s mini monster toys.

The “Godzilla Minus One” team brough mini monsters to the Oscars red carpet Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Brooke Lefferts)

Jack Quaid arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

“Oppenheimer” actor Jack Quaid (and proud member of the Oppenhomie group chat) decided to bypass interviews but still have a nice shoutout to some fawning fans in the bleachers.

“Jack, we love you!” one shouted.

“Thank you, you’re the best,” Quaid, who co-presented the nominees, responded.

Eugene Lee Yang arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Liza Koshy arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, left, and Quannah Chasinghorse arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Diane Warren arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Red, an “It” color of the awards season, has some early enthusiasts as arrivals are heating up.

Bobi Wine, left, and Barbie Kyagulanyi arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

The braintrust behind “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” took to the red carpet obviously unsure if they’d win the Oscar for best documentary feature film.

They were already happy, though. Simply telling the story of Wine — a popular Ugandan singer who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2021, losing to President Yoweri Museveni in an election Wine claimed was rigged against him — was reason enough to celebrate.

“Needless to say, being nominated for an Oscar is the highest accolade possible,” producer John Battsek said. “It brings this story to the world’s gaze, and that’s what we want.”

Erika Alexander arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Erika Alexander of “American Fiction” is wearing a white strapless gown with a black skirt trimmed in pastel tulle. The designer, Christian Siriano, said it was made in a miraculous four days.

David Leitch, left, and Kelly McCormick arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Filmmaker David Leitch doesn’t have a movie at the Oscars this year, but he was invited to attend for a very special reason: During the show, there is going to be a special celebration of the art of stunts.

He and many others have been long lobbying for a stunt award to be added to the Oscars. Though this isn’t quite a golden statuette, it is a gesture to one of filmmaking’s most essential crafts.

In Leitch’s upcoming film “The Fall Guy,” Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman.

Vanessa Hudgens arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Jamie Lee Curtis arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Jacqueline Stewart arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Sean Wang, left, and Chang Li Hua arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Brittany Snow arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Julianne Hough arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Osage singers and dancers arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

The carpet has only been open for about an hour, but it’s already star-studded. Stay tuned for more photos of the night’s best looks.

More than 1,000 costumes went into the period drama “Oppenheimer,” which details the making of the first nuclear weapons.

The movie’s costume designer Ellen Mirojnick told the AP on the red carpet ahead of the awards ceremony that the costumes were sourced from across the U.S. and Europe. She’s nominated in the costume design category.

She made her own fashion statement with long black leather gloves that went over her elbows and had gold nails for fingers.

“Oppenheimer” costume designer Ellen Mirojnick’s gloves on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday, March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brooke Lefferts)

The Associated Press journalists behind “20 Days in Mariupol” reacted after their chronicle about the besieged Ukrainian city received an Oscar nomination for best documentary. The film, a co-production between the AP and PBS’ “Frontline,” was shot during the first three weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The AP team has arrived at the Oscars.

Laura Karpman arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

American Fiction” composer Laura Karpman, head to toe in silver sequins, got the fan section especially excited, tossing Cadbury eggs to several lucky onlookers. Nominated this year for original score, Karpman last year wore a dress with Christine Blasey Ford’s congressional testimony.

Elsewhere, “Oppenheimer” cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema made a quiet entrance in some comfortable but festive silver sneakers. He’s expected to win in his category later.

Throughout the billion-dollar “Barbie,” an instrumental version of Billie Eilish’s hit “What Was I Made For?” weaves in and out, soundtracking the famous doll’s existential crisis. In the final scene — no spoilers! — Eilish’s falsetto is finally heard atop the familiar piano. Cue the waterworks. It is one of many standout musical moments in a movie stacked with them: The music of “Barbie” has become its own blockbuster, selling 126,000 copies in its first week and debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart.

“Barbie” music has also earned three Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe and two Academy Award nominations in the original song category – more than any other film. So, is “Barbie” an exception? Or are soundtracks back? It’s ... debatable. Read what experts have to say here.

Chef Wolfgang Puck goofs around with a crew from TV Azteca, who have a wig as a prop on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday, March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brooke Lefferts)

Reece Feldman arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

TikTok star Reece Feldman is feeling good on the red carpet at his third Oscars Sunday, but things were a little dicier a few hours ago.

“They couldn’t find my suit,” he said. “I was just sitting there in a robe.”

The wardrobe disaster was soon resolved though and his black, sleeveless Saint Laurent materialized just in time.

Also known as “guywithamoviecamera,” Feldman has over 2.3 million followers on TikTok.

Mark Ruffalo’s fourth Oscar nomination in the supporting actor category comes for “Poor Things.” The 56-year-old star spoke with the AP about passion projects, breaking out of boxes as an actor, and why the Yiddish theatre informed his blending of art and political activism.

Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy and a host of fellow Hollywood A-listers pose for photos at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon. (Feb. 13)

The event at the Beverly Hilton is a warm, feel-good affair where nominees in categories like best animated short get to rub shoulders and share tables with acting nominees like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone .

Casts gather alongside dozens of the famous and less so for handshakes, hugs, a huge group picture and instructions on nailing an acceptance speech. They also do interviews with attending press.

“Poor Things” star Emma Stone and screenwriter Tony McNamara are both Oscar-nominated for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “twisted fairy tale.” It’s the first best actress nod for Stone since her 2017 “La La Land” win. The two spoke with AP entertainment journalist Krysta Fauria about meeting fellow nominees, audience expectations — and staying humble during Hollywood’s awards season.

▶ Read more from last month’s luncheon.

Take a look at some of the most talked about omissions from this year’s Oscar nominations — and the surprises:

• The bar for “Barbie": Greta Gerwig was shut out of best director, though she has a shot at the adapted screenplay Oscar. Margot Robbie was left out of best actress, though she’ll get an Oscar if her production wins best picture. Ryan Gosling, who did make the cut for supporting actor, criticized their snubs.
• Academy still disappoints with Black women: Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” was completely overlooked. Halle Berry will continue to be the only Black woman to win best actress after “The Color Purple’s” Fantasia Barrino also missed out on a nomination.
• The “May December” gap: The lone nomination for Todd Haynes’ critically lauded movie was for Samy Burch’s original screenplay. Charles Melton won many accolades for his heartbreaking performance as the victim of an older woman’s grooming, but missed out on an Oscar nod. ▶ Read more about Melton’s breakthrough year.
• Farewell foreign features: The international feature category always has some heartbreakers: This year, Aki Kaurismäki’s acclaimed deadpan romantic comedy “Fallen Leaves” looked like it could have been a shoo-in for the Oscars, but it and France’s selection “The Taste of Things,” were shut out.

▶ See more snubs and surprises.

The Oscars are kicking off an hour earlier this year. The ceremony starts at 7 p.m. Eastern — but make sure those clocks are set right. Daylight saving time starts Sunday.

One of the show’s executive producers tells the AP that the earlier start time means people won’t be forced to stay up so late to find out the best picture winner, traditionally the last award given out.

“20 Days in Mariupol” director Mstyslav Chernov, an AP journalist, is photographed ahead of the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Julie Pace)

Julie Pace , AP’s executive editor and senior vice president, is attending the Oscars for the first time in support of the nominated “20 Days in Mariupol.” She will be providing occasional updates from a guest’s perspective:

Two years ago, a team of AP journalists was in Mariupol documenting Russia’s siege of the Ukrainian port city. Today, they’re at the Oscars, where their film “20 Days in Mariupol” is nominated for best documentary. The film was a collaboration between AP and PBS’ “Frontline.”

This is our first Oscar nomination in the AP’s 178-year history, and the cap to an incredible run of awards for the film. It’s always a bit surreal for the team to be at these celebrations, given the serious nature of the film and the ongoing war in Ukraine, their home country. But they hope it’s an occasion to draw attention to the people of Ukraine and the war.

Crew members prepare the red carpet area on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, for Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

With an earlier start time for the telecast, the Oscars red carpet will begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern/12:30 p.m. Pacific.

The Associated Press will have a livestream of stars’ arrivals and interviews in a pair of livestreams available on APNews.com and YouTube.

ABC will air its “Countdown to Oscars: On the Red Carpet Live!” beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern on ABC News Live .

A small demonstration near the site of the Oscars on the morning of Sunday, March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles (AP Photo/Jake Coyle)

Just before 10 a.m. PDT, a small group of demonstrators were chanting “Free Palestine” a block north of the Dolby Theatre, on Franklin Street.

While anti-war protests have been muted during this awards season, organizers have called a rally for 1 p.m. near the site of the Oscars, too.

Members of the Osage Nation arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The Osage singers and dancers made a grand entrance down the steps of the Dolby Theatre red carpet, posing solemnly for a photos, bedecked in colorful, traditional garb.

Onlookers could be heard saying “Wow” in awe. Their departure back up the stairs was just as musical, with bells wrapped around their knees. They’re performing the nominated song from “Killers of the Flower Moon” live on the show.

Crew members roll out the red carpet for Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre, Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The long, textiled stretch upon which celebrities trod is colloquially known as a “red carpet,” but lately not all have actually been ... red.

Earlier this year, the Emmys opted for a gray — or silver, if you’d prefer — carpet. And last year, the Oscars bucked decades of tradition by unfurling a champagne carpet.

This year, though, it’s back to tradition. Red, it is.

Watch what it’s like to walk the red carpet at the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

This image released by Apple TV+ shows, from left, JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers and Jillian Dion in a scene from “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple TV+ via AP)

With four hours until the Oscars telecast kicks off, you have time to watch at least one Oscar nominee — yes, even “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (It’s only 3 hours and 26 minutes.) Here’s our guide on how and where to find the Oscar-nominated films.

Danielle Brooks wants to “change the game.” Her performance in Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple” wowed critics and earned a best supporting actress nod from Academy Awards voters. Now the 34-year-old actor is basking in the glow of Hollywood’s awards season — and preparing for the Oscars ceremony on March 10. (Feb. 23)

Oscar statues stand outside Hollywood Boulevard in preparation for Sunday’s 92nd Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Trick question! While the Oscars announced they’d be adding an award for casting directors last month, the first statuette won’t be handed out until 2026.

▶ Read more about the casting Oscar.

Old age may be debated as a liability on the presidential campaign trail, but it’s not at this year’s Oscars. Nominees like Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki and Wim Wenders suggest we may be living in the golden age of the aged filmmaker.

Old age may be debated as a liability on the presidential campaign trail , but not at this year’s Oscars.

Hayao Miyazaki, 83, who fought through his concerns to make “The Boy and the Heron,” is the oldest director ever nominated for best animated film. If he wins, he’ll be the oldest winner by more than two decades. “Napoleon ,” nominated for visual effects and production design, is the latest from 86-year-old workaholic Ridley Scott. Wim Wenders, 78, put out one of his very best films in “Perfect Days” (nominated for best international film).

And, of course, Martin Scorsese, 81, had the Osage epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” up for 10 Oscars. Scorsese is the oldest filmmaker ever nominated for best director. At the recent Producers Guild Awards , where he was given a lifetime achievement award, Scorsese recalled seeing Alfred Hitchcock accept the same honor in 1965.

Is “Killers of the Flower Moon” as good as “Taxi Driver” or “Goodfellas”? That’s a hard question to answer and maybe not the right one to ask. Is it essential? Unquestionably.

“Barbie” director Greta Gerwig spoke with The Associated Press about the unexpected emotional punch of the movie, her roots in theatre and her sets using using all of the pink paint. (July 10)

This image released by Disney shows, from left, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in a scene from “The Marvels.” (Laura Radford/Disney-Marvel Studios via AP)

As 2023 drew to a close, no one sounded the death knell of the superhero movie. The Walt Disney Co.'s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made $845.6 million worldwide and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($691 million) was one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Marvel is still mightier than any other brand in the business.

But more than ever before, there are chinks in the armor of the superhero movie. Its dominance in popular culture is no longer quite so assured. A cycle may be turning, and a new one dawning.

For the first time in more than two decades, the top three movies at the box office didn’t include one sequel or remake: “Barbie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Oppenheimer.” The last time that happened was 2001, when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Shrek” and “Monsters, Inc.” topped the box office.

No, it’s not exactly a lineup of originality like, say, 1973, when “The Exorcist, “The Sting” and “American Graffiti” led all movies in ticket sales. “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros.,” based on some of the most familiar brands in the world, will generate spinoffs and sequels of their own.

But it’s hard not to sense a shift in moviegoing, one that might have reverberations for years to come for Hollywood.

▶ Read more about what the success of “Barbie” and the struggles of Marvel say about the state of cinema and the box office.

The casts of many Oscar-nominated films, from “Barbie” to “Oppenheimer,” gathered Monday for the annual Academy Award nominees luncheon. Oscar hopefuls came together for hugs, congratulations and a class photo. (Feb. 13)

This image released by MUBI shows Alma Pöysti, left, and Jussi Vatanen in a scene from “Fallen Leaves.” (MUBI via AP)

The Associated Press’ Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle’s picked the best movies of 2023. How did they stack up against the 10 nominees for the best picture Oscar?

Lindsey’s picks:

• “Oppenheimer” ✅
• “The Zone of Interest” ✅
• “Priscilla”
• “Asteroid City”
• “May December”
• “Fallen Leaves”
• “The Holdovers” ✅
• “Poor Things” ✅
• “A Thousand and One”

Jake’s picks:

• “The Eight Mountains”
• “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
• “Perfect Days”
• “La Chimera”
• “All of Us Strangers”

▶ Read more about Jake and Lindsey’s methods for picking AP’s top films of 2023.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, SAG Award winner for Female Actor in a Supporting Film Role for “The Holdovers,” talks about her responsibility to tell authentic stories. (Feb. 25)

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, explains how she connected to her character Mary in “The Holdovers.”

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, nominated for “The Holdovers,” is widely considered the frontrunner in the supporting actress category.

A poster for the Stanley Kubrick’s film “Eyes Wide Shut” (Polish Poster Gallery via AP)

The holiday season might be behind us, but it’s never too late to get the movie buffs in your life a present — or to treat yourself.

Among our recommendations:

• A 479-page book by Sofia Coppola
• Artistic interpretations of Hollywood marketing materials from Polish Film Posters
• A Criterion Channel subscription
• The Cinephile card game
• “Oppenheimer” in 4K

▶ Find more recommendations and details in our gift guide.

Need help filling out your Oscars ballot? With the 96th Academy Awards fast approaching, check out The Associated Press’ predictions on who and which films will win at this year’s ceremony.

Need help filling out your Oscars ballot? With the 96th Academy Awards nigh, check out The Associated Press’ predictions on who and which films will win at this year’s ceremony.

Steven Spielberg at the 94th Academy Awards nominees luncheon in Los Angeles on March 7, 2022 (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Steven Spielberg may be an Oscars veteran but that doesn’t mean he’s not superstitious about some things.

At rehearsals for presenters on Saturday, Spielberg went “off script” and announced a winner for a 1976 film. (While we can’t reveal what he said exactly, it was a real nominee at the 49th Academy Awards, but it did not win.)

When a stage manager told him that he needed to read the “for this rehearsal only” winners card, Spielberg shook his head: “No, because it’s bad luck.”

Oscars organizers have rolled out the red carpet in Hollywood ahead of Sunday’s ceremony. Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the 96th Academy Awards, which will air live on ABC in the U.S. (March 6)

“Barbie” stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling discuss going to the movies to watch a double bill of their movie and “Oppenheimer,” while “Oppenheimer” actor Cillian Murphy says he’ll be sure to catch a viewing of “Barbie” (July 13)

The very online showdown between Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” all started with a date: July 21.

It’s not uncommon for studios to counterprogram films in different genres on a big weekend, but the stark differences between an intense, serious-minded picture about the man who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb and a lighthearted, candy-colored anthropomorphizing of a childhood doll quickly became the stuff of viral fodder.

There’s even some disagreement over whether it’s “Barbieheimer” or “Barbenheimer” or “Boppenheimer” or yet another tortured portmanteau — a phenomenon on which the AP Stylebook has yet to offer guidance.

▶ Read more about the marketing behind the Barbenheimer phenomenon.

2023 was the year of “Barbenheimer,” the dual-Hollywood union strikes, and some unexpected hits at the box office. A look back at the year in movies with AP film writer Lindsey Bahr. (Dec. 6)

Tonight’s Oscars cap the story of 2023, at the movies. It was the year of “Barbenheimer,” the dual Hollywood strikes, and some unexpected hits at the box office.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Emotional 2024 Oscars Speech Will Make You Tear Up

Da'vine joy randolph couldn't hold back the tears as she accepted her first-ever academy award at the 2024 oscars for best performance by an actress in a supporting role..

And the  2024 Oscar  goes to...

Da'Vine Joy Randolph , who earned her  first-ever Academy Award , couldn't hold back the tears after presenters  Jamie Lee Curtis , Rita Moreno , Lupita Nyong'o ,  Regina King and  Mary Steenburgen announced she won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in The Holdovers .

( See all of the Academy Award winners here .)

"God is so good," the 37-year-old began her acceptance speech with tears in her eyes. "I didn't think I was supposed to be doing this as a career. I started off as a singer and my mother said to me, 'Go across that street to that theater department, there's something for you there.'"

The High Fidelity star also took a moment to honor those who've stood by her side as she navigated her career.

If anything, The Idol actress thought she had to be different to make it in Hollywood.

"I realize, I just need to be myself," she expressed. "And I thank you. I thank you for seeing me. Ron Van Lieu , I thank you. When I was the only Black girl in that class, when you saw me and told me I was enough. When I told you, 'I don't see myself,' and you said, 'That's fine, we're going to forge our own path. You're going to lay a trail for yourself.'"

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After thanking the rest of her team for cheering her on, she concluded, "I pray to God that I get to do this more than once. I thank you for seeing me. Have a blessed night."

Da'Vine was nominated alongside first-time nominees  Emily Blunt   ( Oppenheimer ),  Danielle Brooks  ( The Color Purple ) and  America Ferrera   ( Barbie ), as well as two-time Oscar winner  Jodie Foster   ( NYAD ).

In fact, The Lost City star swept awards season this year, as she not only won an Oscar but took home a Golden Globe, SAG Award, a Critics' Choice Award and a BAFTA Award.

Of course, she's not the only star to go home with an Academy Award.

Keep reading to see all of the celebrities who are taking home a golden statue.

Best Picture

American Fiction Anatomy of a Fall Barbie The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro WINNER: Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening,  NYAD Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall Carey Mulligan, Maestro WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper, Maestro Colman Domingo, Rustin Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple America Ferrera, Barbie Jodie Foster, NYAD WINNER: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer Ryan Gosling, Barbie Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Directing

Anatomy of a Fall , Justine Triet Killers of the Flower Moon , Martin Scorsese WINNER: Oppenheimer , Christopher Nolan Poor Things , Yorgos Lanthimos The Zone of Interest , Jonathan Glazer

Best Animated Feature Film

WINNER: The Boy and the Heron Elemental Nimona Robot Dreams Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Best International Feature Film

Io Capitano , Italy Perfect Days , Japan Society of the Snow , Spain The Teachers' Lounge , Germany WINNER: The Zone of Interest , United Kingdom

Best Documentary Feature Film

Bobi Wine: The People's President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Documentary Short Film The ABCs of Book Banning The Barber of Little Rock Island in Between WINNER: The Last Repair Shop Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó

Best Live Action Short Film

The After Invincible Knight of Fortune Red, White and Blue WINNER: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Best Animated Short Film

Letter to a Pig Ninety-Five Senses Our Uniform Pachyderme WINNER: War Is Over! Inspired by The Music of John & Yoko  

Best Production Design

Barbie Killers of the Flower Moon Napoleon Oppenheimer WINNER: Poor Things

Best Original Song

"The Fire Inside," Flamin' Hot "I'm Just Ken," Barbie "It Never Went Away,"  American Symphony "Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People),"  Killers of the Flower Moon WINNER: "What Was I Made For?," Barbie

Best Original Score

American Fiction Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Killers of the Flower Moon WINNER: Oppenheimer Poor Things

The Creator Maestro Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Oppenheimer WINNER: The Zone of Interest

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Golda Maestro Oppenheimer WINNER: Poor Things Society of the Snow

Best Costume Design

Best Original Screenplay

WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Maestro May December Past Lives

Best Adapted Screenplay

WINNER: American Fiction Barbie Oppenheimer Poor Things The Zone of Interest

Best Visual Effects

The Creator WINNER : Godzilla Minus One Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Napoleon

Best Film Editing

Anatomy of a Fall The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon WINNER: Oppenheimer Poor Things

Best Cinematography

El Conde, Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro WINNER: Oppenheimer Poor Things

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