Awards season is underway – and in a year with few clear-cut front runners, and lots of the movies out late in the day in the UK, the race is looking pretty unpredictable.
Here’s a whistle-stop tour of some of the movies you’ll be hearing lots more about and where to watch them.
Image: Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascon in Emilia Perrez. Pic: Netflix
It’s 22 years since a musical took best picture at the Oscars but now, like buses, two come along at once.
First there’s Emilia Perez – a mostly Spanish musical from a French director about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, played by trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon.
The most nominated foreign-language film in Oscar history with a whopping 13 nods – just one short of the all-time record – Gascon’s personal bid for Oscar glory has nose-dived after problematic tweets she sent resurfaced.
The movie also stars Zoe Saldana, who as a darling of blockbusters including Guardians Of The Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War and the Avatar franchise, is taking a punt on a more unusual film this time around.
She told Sky News: “We understood the assignment. We felt like, OK, it’s the niche of the niche of the niche film.”
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Selena Gomez, who also stars, told Sky News that acting in Spanish was a joyful challenge: “Doing this movie has given me a little bit of a pat on the back and I felt encouraged,” she said.
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Selena Gomez has ‘no regrets’ over new movie
While the movie won four Golden Globes earlier this year, including best motion picture in the musical and comedy category, it’s proved divisive for some Mexican viewers who say it reduces them to crude stereotypes.
Large parts of the trans community have also said its treatment of transitioning feels regressive.
Plus, its reported use of AI to tweak some of Gascon’s high notes has not gone without comment.
Image: Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave. Pic: Focus Features 2024
Conclave is all about choosing a new Pope – a papal X Factor if you will.
In the film, more than 100 high-ranking clergymen, each with their own chequered past, elect the next Catholic figurehead while sealed off from the public in the secretive voting process.
The most nominated film at this year’s BAFTAs, with plenty of star power and Ralph Fiennes at the helm, it’s a study of the Catholic Church – warts and all.
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‘It’s not a facile takedown of the Catholic Church’
“There’s obviously corruption. There are all kinds of transgressions we know about that have taken place, but it exists because the Catholic Church also offers, I think, a sort of support to communities. It’s a foundational place to go where the community has a structure, so I think it’s a big thing to sort of open up and discuss.”
Conclave, which also stars Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini, is available to rent or own on demand, including on Sky Store.
Image: Nickel Boys stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson (L-R). Pic: Orion Pictures
It’s a disorientating drama that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
The film’s director, RaMell Ross, told Sky News it was a “multiple fold” movie, exploring the conventional representation of black people as victims in cinema as well as an expression of trauma.
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Depicting trauma in The Nickel Boys
Ethan Herisse who plays Elwood, one of the film’s two leads, told Sky News: “While we were making it, it felt like we were doing something special and there was so much love from all the people that were working on that set. So, I was just hoping that it was able to come across when it was all said and done.”
Nickel Boys is in cinemas now.
Image: Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya in Dune: Part Two. Pic: Warner Bros. Pictures/Niko Tavernise
We’ll call this the Timothée Chalamet section – flying the flag for two very different films.
Firstly, saving the universe in sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two.
Dune Two, which also stars Zendaya and Florence Pugh, is available to rent or own on demand, including on Sky Store.
Image: Chalamet is Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Pic: Searchlight Pictures
Chalamet’s second punt in the awards offerings sees him pick up the guitar and give it some mumbling Bob Dylan energy in A Complete Unknown, playing the Nobel prize-winning folk hero regarded by many as a lyrical genius.
Image: Chalamet at the Complete Unknown UK premiere. Pic: AP
Chalamet spent five years working on his singing, harmonica and guitar skills. Will the awards reward him for his efforts? Or will he be on his bike?
A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now.
And then there’s the female-led movies – from gritty, to horror, to devastating real life.
Image: Mikey Madison in Anora. Pic: Neon/Augusta Quirk
Anora stars newcomer Mikey Madison as a sex worker from Brooklyn who marries into money.
Think Pretty Woman but without the sugar coating.
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Mikey Madison on preparing to play a sex worker
Madison told Sky News she was “grateful” to have had the experience, adding that the “sex work community is amazing and I’ve made so many incredible friends”.
Anora is available to rent or own on demand, including on Sky Store.
I’m Still Here sees a mother of five fighting Brazil’s authoritarian military regime in the 1970s after her husband is forcibly “disappeared”, leaving her to search for the truth and rebuild her life.
Based on a true story, this Portuguese-language film is creating an unexpected buzz, with three Oscar nods and one Golden Globe win for its star, Fernanda Torres.
The Brazilian drama’s chances in the international category at the Oscars is better than fair.
I’m Still Here is due to go on limited release in cinemas on Friday 21 February.
Image: Demi Moore re-evaluates her worth as an older woman in The Substance. Pic: Mubi
Lastly, body horror movie The Substance has given its star Demi Moore a career reboot like no other.
The timely narrative about an older actress refusing to fade into obscurity, with horrifying consequences, is one voters are likely to lap up.
It saw Moore take best actress in a musical or comedy at the Golden Globes, and her acceptance speech in which she spoke about being written off as a “popcorn actress” early on in her career laid the ground for further wins including a Critics’ Choice gong.
Image: Which movies will win awards at this year’s BAFTA and Oscar ceremonies, and which will leave empty-handed?
Will Moore win best actress at the BAFTAs and Oscars? If the buzz is to be believed, she may well nab them.
The Substance, which also stars Margaret Qualley, is available to rent or own on demand, including on Sky Store.
The competition’s wide open – may the best movies win!
The BAFTA ceremony will be held at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday, 16 February.
The Academy Awards ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, 2 March.
Actor Michael Madsen, who starred in Reservoir Dogs and Thelma & Louise, died from heart failure, his cardiologist has said.
The 67-year-old was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, last Thursday and pronounced dead.
His doctor said heart disease and alcoholism will be listed as factors which contributed to the star’s death, reported NBC Los Angeles.
With no suspicious circumstances and the death listed as being from natural causes, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department considers the case closed.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Madsen’s film credits include Free Willy, Donnie Brasco and Sin City.
He was also known for his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino, including in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
The Chicago-born actor also linked up with Tarantino when he played Mr Blonde in 1992’s Reservoir Dogs.
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Image: Madsen played numerous roles, including Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs. Pic: THA/Shutterstock
His sister, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, paid tribute to her brother in a statement to Variety.
She wrote: “My brother Michael has left the stage.
“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother – etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.”
Madsen was preparing to release a new book called Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts And Poems.
A statement by managers Susan Ferris and Smith, and publicist Liz Rodriguez, said the book by “one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors” was currently being edited.
Horse-drawn carriages, picturesque gardens and endless cups of tea are just some of the stereotypical tropes that have shaped America’s romanticised image of England before even stepping foot on the island.
Thanks to classical literature and a steady stream of period dramas, Lena Dunham was no exception.
“I had so many fantasies,” she tells Sky News about growing up slightly obsessed with British culture.
“I loved Jane Austen, I loved Charlotte Bronte, I love British film, I was one of those little Anglophile kids.”
The writer and director believed it would be that area of classically depicted England that would fill her time when she first moved to “jolly old London” as a teenager with her mother for a brief time.
Instead, her attention was taken by another, and possibly equally influential group of artists.
“There was a pop show about S Club 7 and all I did was just sit in the hotel and obsessively watch things relating to [the group],” she said.
“So, I didn’t go home with all this cultural British knowledge. I went home with a deep abiding love of S Club 7 and came back to school when everyone was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.
“For me, I was literally like, ‘Guys, you got to hear this hot track right off the presses, it’s called Reach For The Stars’.”
Image: Pic: Netflix
It wasn’t until her 30s, when the actress moved again to the city, that reality took hold and she quickly learned the difference between the imagined London and the real city.
Some stereotypes hold true, like the universal love for Paddington. Still, TV tropes like renting a flat on a single income in the city does not necessarily mean you’ll be treated to lavish rooms and a picturesque garden.
She says it was social cues she found most challenging to adjust to, as well as the different dictionaries used when speaking, technically, the same language.
“You come to a new country and even though you speak the same language, you’re totally absent from those tools,” she says.
“And I found that really striking as an adult in my 30s, trying to make friends, trying to date. I found it confusing enough to be a person in my own city of origin, so this was extra confounding.”
Too Much, her new Netflixseries, is loosely inspired by her own London chapter and follows a workaholic New Yorker in her 30s who is sent across the Atlantic to work on a new project.
The 10-episode show is produced by Working Title – the company behind Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, About A Boy and Love Actually – and stars Hacks breakout actress Megan Stalter and The White Lotus actor Will Sharpe.
Image: Pic: Netflix
Dunham says she always wanted to write about her time in the UK, but it was a conversation with Irish actor Andrew Scott that got the ball rolling.
“Actually, he’s the reason that I came to know Meg as an actor because he loved her on Hacks and he loved her videos, and he said: ‘Have you watched this woman’s work? I feel like there’s a real connection between you two’, and I started watching because of him and built a show around her.”
In a full circle moment, Scott appears in the series briefly as an arrogantly odd man who crosses paths with Megan Stalter’s character Jessica.
Image: Pic: Netflix
The Ridley actor isn’t the only famous face joining the cast in a cameo role. Dunham put a call out to most of Hollywood, and luckily lots were on board.
To name just a few, guest stars include Jessica Alba, Stephen Fry, Adwoa Aboah, Kit Harington, Rita Wilson, Rita Ora, Richard E Grant, Emily Ratajkowski, Andrew Scott, Prasanna Puwanarajah and Jennifer Saunders.
“It was one of those situations where you just reach for the stars, literally, and then you can’t believe when they appear,” says Dunham.
“It was just a non-stop parade of people that I was fascinated by, wanted to be around, completely enamoured of.”
Image: A whole host of high-profile cameos feature in Lena Dunham’s Too Much
She adds: “I remember asking Naomi Watson, thinking, there’s absolutely no way that you’re going to want to come play this slightly demented woman. And she’s so playful and she’s so joyful and she just wanted to come and engage.
“Also, Jennifer Saunders has meant so much to me for so long, I had the AbFab box set as a kid, and I just think Patsy and Edina are the ultimate kind of messy women.
“She really showed me what comedy could be and… the space that women could occupy in comedy, and so having her come and join the show was really incredible.
“That was an episode that someone else was directing, Alicia McDonald, an amazing director, so I just got to sit and watch at the monitor like I was watching a movie, and it was very surreal for me.”
Former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has vowed he will “not go quietly”, amid reports that he has been sacked by the BBC.
It comes after the TV hostfaced an investigation, commissioned by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK, into alleged inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC.
In November, the 60-year-old stepped back from presenting the cooking show after accusations that he made sexual comments towards staff and celebrity guests on a range of programmes over 17 years.
Image: Gregg Wallace received an MBE for services to food and charity in 2023. Pic: PA
Broadcaster Kirsty Wark, author and actor Emma Kennedy, and presenter Kirstie Allsopp, were among the high-profile figures who made claims of inappropriate behaviour against Wallace.
In a statement, released ahead of the publication of the summary of a report into the claims, the 60-year-old said he had been “cleared of the most serious and sensational accusations” made against him.
However, he said the report, carried out by independent law firm Lewis Silkin, had found him “primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018”.
Wallace’s statement, published on Instagram, came hours before the BBC News reported that 50 more people had made claims to the corporation against the presenter, including allegations he groped one MasterChef worker and pulled his trousers down in front of another.
In his statement, Wallace labelled BBC News’s claims as “uncorroborated tittle-tattle”.
Wallace wrote: “I have taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkin’s report – a decision I do not take lightly.
“But after 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.
“I have now been cleared by the Silkin’s report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me.
“The most damaging claims (including from public figures which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.
“To be clear, the Silkin’s report exonerates me of all the serious allegations which made headlines last year and finds me primarily guilty of inappropriate language between 2005 and 2018.”
Image: Gregg Wallace on MasterChef. Pic: BBC/ Shine TV 2024
‘I was hired as the cheeky greengrocer – now that’s a problem’
Wallace said he recognised that “some of my humour and language” was at times “inappropriate” and, for that, he apologised “without reservation”.
“But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks,” Wallace, who also referred to his recent diagnosis of autism, added.
“I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges, and all.
“For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand. Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem.”
Image: Wallace and his partner Anna Wallace, pictured in 2014
Wallace: Complaints from ‘middle-class women of a certain age’
Shortly after the allegations first emerged, Wallace recorded a video where he dismissed his accusers as “middle-class women of a certain age”.
His remarks were met with huge criticism – including from Downing Street, where a spokesperson for the prime minister described them as “completely inappropriate and misogynistic”.
Wallace responded by posting a follow-up clip where he apologised and said he “wasn’t in a good space” when he posted the comments.
In April, Wallace spoke to the Daily Mail, denying all accusations against him and saying he had contemplated suicide following the allegations.
Wallace’s lawyers have previously called allegations that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature “entirely false”.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”
A Banijay spokesperson told Sky News: “We won’t be commenting until our report is published.” They have signalled the report will be published later this week or next.
Banijay previously said Wallace is “committed to fully co-operating” with the external review.
Alongside MasterChef, Wallace presented Inside The Factory for BBC Two from 2015 to 2023.
He also featured on various BBC shows over the years, including Saturday Kitchen, Eat Well For Less, Supermarket Secrets, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, as well as being a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2014.
More recently, Wallace has been promoting his health and lifestyle website, offering one-to-one coaching from both himself and a team of experts, which includes nutritionists and doctors, and his wife Anna in the role of recipe curator.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.