Nobody expected Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man” to win Best Feature, and know what? I’m all here for it. Most predictions had this year’s voting committee picking either “Anora” or “Nickel Boys” for the top prize.

The review embargo has lifted on Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” and as expected, the reception is very positive, with only a handful of critics having some reservations.

Back in September, NEON acquired Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck.” A 2025 release date was being set up for the film, which meant that it wouldn’t take part in this year’s Oscar race, and that’s despite winning the coveted TIFF People’s Choice Award.

Less than three weeks after its release, Eli Roth‘s “Thanksgiving” was greenlit for a sequel. A 2025 release date had been set up. Roth is now giving us an update on its status.

Much has been made about Schrader’s turbulent time making this film, and he’s now looking back on the chaos, telling MovieWeb that he should have never gotten involved in the project, and that he wholly regrets doing it.

Kurzel is very militant about his idea of doing an instalment set in the early days of the fall of civilization before we encounter Mel Gibson’s Max Rockatansky. He is now seeking George Miller to pitch his project.

DuVernay isn’t done scorching NEON. Speaking at the Marrakech International Film Festival (via The Playlist), the filmmaker acknowledged that the film “had difficulties finding an audience.” DuVernay continued …

These days, Sharon Stone seems like a real peach to hang around with. The actress is now criticizing her “The Quick and the Dead” director Sam Raimi, nearly 30 years after the film’s release, for his lack of “loyalty” towards her.

Sean Penn, a two-time Oscar winner, received a career honor at the Marrakech Film Festival, and ended up using his acceptance speech to warn artists worldwide about the dangers of “political correctness.”

Cuarón isn’t the first A-list filmmaker to have been offered James Bond and either declined or dropped out during pre-production. Off the top of my head, the others include Alfred Hitchcock, Danny Boyle, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Jon Woo, and Peter Jackson.

The Thanksgiving holiday delivered a record-breaking $420M at the domestic box office. Although I personally didn’t care for the three most successful films, it’s nice to see audiences going back to theaters.

A promising update: James Laxton, most famous for lensing all four Barry Jenkins films, will be shooting this new season of “Beef,” which is set to star Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny, and Youn Yuh-jung.

At a recent press conference, Scott was asked by a reported on the status of “Gladiator III,” and whether the film’s current performance might impact the project; Scott seems to believe that “Gladiator III” is actually doing great at the box-office.

Mathieson is now trying to walk back those comments by going to the go-to trade for damage control narrative engineering, Deadline. Mathieson is telling them that his criticism was taken out of context, and that he wasn’t referring to Scott, but rather the industry as a whole.

Last year, Burton was asked by The Independent about Depp, but he refused to take the bait, instead comparing the actor’s controversies, and his ensuing industry shunning, to that of lynch mobs.

Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman has Doug Liman saying that his next film will be “Deeper,” starring Tom Cruise. If we go by the original intel, Warner Bros is set to helm the film which has been in development for the better part of 10 years now.

An interview with the great Ed Lachman has the cinematographer claiming that, before he was forced to bow out of the film, Todd Haynes’ “May December” was originally supposed to be shot in black and white as an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”

THR’s Seth Abramovitch has spoken to plenty of Oscar voters and he’s saying “they don’t just like Wicked — they love Wicked.” A week into its release, he claims, “Wicked” is “starting to shape up as a serious contender” to win Best Picture.