The movie featuring Melania Trump as herself surprised critics by making back roughly $7 million of the reported $75 million Amazon MGM Studios paid to launch the globally over the weekend, according to the studio. Melania is listed as a producer on the documentary that focuses on the days leading up to her becoming the nation's first lady for the second time.
Casting as an artistic discipline has been around in its current form for decades, despite the proliferation of Zoom and self-tapes. Meticulous research, intuition, collaboration, and creative ability to expand on the filmmakers' vision all go into the casting process. We see no reason IndieWire can't retroactively reward that effort - albeit with no statues or acceptance speeches, unfortunately - to build a sense of what could have been a list of the Best Casting Award Winners for the first quarter of the 21st Century.
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film tells the brutal survival story, based on true events, of a frontiersman in the 1800s who is left for dead and must survive a brutal winter in the wilderness before returning to avenge his son's death. "The Revenant" was released in 2015 and earned over $532 million at the global box office. It was honored with three Academy Awards: Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor, Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Best Director and Emmanuel Lubezki for Best Cinematography.
It's pride, gratitude, responsibility, Carter told The Associated Press. She previously won Oscars for Black Panther in 2018 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2023, becoming the first Black woman to win two Academy Awards. Carter is now a five-time nominee, surpassing Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis. She is tied with longtime collaborator Spike Lee and Morgan Freeman for the third-most nominations among Black creatives, behind the late Quincy Jones and Denzel Washington.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
The Voice of Hind Rajab has been nominated for an Academy Award for best international feature, a recognition for the Tunisian film that features the voice of a 5-year-old girl whose phone call begging for help was heard across the world before she was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. The film is a mix of a documentary and drama that weaves in the recordings of Hind's phone call along with scripted, dramatized scenes of Palestinian Red Crescent dispatchers as they agonized over trying to save her. It was nominated alongside four other films.
The 2026 Academy Award nominations were announced today, and with them, the contenders for Best Original Song. This year's nominees are Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner's "Train Dreams" (from the film of the same name), Huntr/x's "Golden" ( KPop Demon Hunters), Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson's "I Lied to You" ( Sinners), Dianne Warren's "Dear Me" ( Dianne Warren: Relentless), and Nicholas Pike's "Sweet Dreams of Joy" ( Viva Verdi!).
There aren't many actors who can boast seven Academy Award nods, but Ingrid Bergman wasn't just any actor. The Swedish star, born in Stockholm in 1915, took home three Oscars throughout her Hollywood career, for Gaslight, Anastasia, and Murder on the Orient Express. She is perhaps most famous for her leading role in the classic romantic drama Casablanca, but also took her talents to the stage, where she earned a Tony as the star of Joan of Lorraine.
Ladd's death was announced Monday by daughter Laura Dern, who issued a statement saying her mother and occasional co-star had died at her home in Ojai, California, with Dern at her side. Dern, who called Ladd her amazing hero and profound gift of a mother, did not immediately cite a cause of death. She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created, Dern wrote. We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.
On October 26, 2025, the actor and writer Emma Thompson joined the staff writer Helen Shaw for a discussion at the 26th annual New Yorker Festival, a weekend of conversations, screenings, performances, and more. The Festival, which is the magazine's signature event, was held in New York City and brought together leading voices in literature, film, comedy, television, politics, and medicine.
But since the pandemic shifted how so much of the industry operates, the past few years have seen unusual variation. Coda became the first best picture winner from Sundance, Everything Everywhere All at Once the first from SXSW, Oppenheimer the first non-festival premiere to win since The Departed in 2006 and the past six years has seen Cannes with more best picture wins than any other festival.
Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.
Jonathan Glazer stated, "All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then, rather look at what we do now." His remarks connect historical events to current social issues, emphasizing the continuity of dehumanization processes and the implications of occupation.