Chatting With Beauty and the Beast Director Bill Condon

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which opens this week, is  a many-splendored thing. The studio’s latest supersized live-action 3-D rendering of an animated classic is a digitally gilded feast for the eyes. It’s also a family blockbuster  that provides Emma Watson with her best acting showcase since the Harry Potter franchise. And this brand-name fairy tale about a romance that blossoms between spirited bibliophile Belle and a rage-filled prince turned into a hulking creature by a curse is poised to become a box-office record breaker if pre-sales and trailer views are any indication.

Celebrating Reel Women: Directors

From gripping films like The Hurt Locker and Selma to groundbreaking documentaries like 13th and Blackfish, to horror films like XX and The Invitation (their contribution to the genre is staggering), women in film are consistently leading the industry in new and refreshing directions. 

Our Complete 2017 Oscars Coverage

And here it is, the complete guide to our 2017 Oscars coverage. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool.

Know Your 2017 Oscar Nominees: Director

We’ve gone big for our Oscars coverage this year. Our annual "Know Your Nominee" series once again looks at every category, giving you the information you need to conquer your Oscars pool. Learn more about the nominees for Lead Actor, Foreign Language Film, Costume Designers, Documentary Short, Editing, Live Action Short, Actress in a Supporting Role, 

Berlinale 2017: Chavela is a Potent, Timely Portrait of a Nearly Forgotten Icon

The tale of a hard-drinking, androdgynous-outfitted, wild singer and musician debuted at the Berlinale on Friday, and it was hardly the stuff of aging white male rocker biopic dreams. Far better, Chavela, from directors Catherine Gund and Danesha Kyi, is a moving documentary of the life of Chavela Vargas, an icon of 20th century Latin music.

Born Isabel Vargas Lizano in Costa Rica in 1919, Chavela left for Mexico as a teenager to pursue a musical career and escape a stifling small-town childhood that never accepted her latent homesexuality.

XX & the new Female Voices of Modern Horror

For about as long as the genre’s been around, women have played a large part in traditional horror storytelling. Whether it’s the virginal Mina in Tod Browning’s Dracula, beset by the hypnotic forces of the titular vamp, the tough as nails Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Rosemary, the helpless young mother at the center of Roman Polanski’s iconic demonic tale.

American Fable‘s Writer/Director Anne Hamilton on her Gothic Fever Dream

American Fable, which is available today, is an American gothic style fairy tale set against the farm crisis of the Reagan era that manages, without overt effort, to speak directly to today’s anxieties. The heroine of the story is Gitty (Peyton Kennedy), a soulful, intelligent young girl who finds herself in a major predicament when her father, pushed to the brink financially, makes a desperate decision that could spell doom for the entire family.

Oscar Watch: Why Ted Melfi Passed on Spider-Man: Homecoming to direct Hidden Figures

Before he became an award-winning TV commercial director, before he lured Bill Murray out of semi-retirement to star in his St. Vincent film, before he earned Oscar nominations for co-writing and producing this year's most popular Best Picture nominee Hidden Figures, Ted Melfi launched his creative journey in unlikely fashion by serving as child sports columnist for the M.A.F.I.A. Bulletin Board.

Melfi's volatile father,

How Lion Director Guided a Child to Inspire Two Oscar-Nominated Adults

For a man whose previous experience draws largely from award-winning TV commercials, Australian director Garth Davis demonstrates a remarkable touch with actors in his feature film debut Lion. For the Academy Award Best Picture nominee, Davis not only steered Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman to Oscar-nominated star turns; he also coaxed a deeply moving performance from a seven-year old boy with no previous acting experience.

In the fact-based movie,

The Path Creator Jessica Goldberg on Finding Religion

If you haven't watched Hulu's The Path, now's your time to catch up before the second season begins tonight. The show, created by Jessica Goldberg, is a rarity for TV: a twisting, intriguing deep dive into the pitfalls of belief, the difficulties of marriage, and the risks of zealotry. 

The story follows Eddie Lane (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), who lives in upstate New York with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) and their two children,

Oscar Watch: Shortlisted Docs Stretch Non-Fiction Format

Gun violence. Poverty. Disease. Racism. As expected, documentary topics explored by this year's shortlist of Oscar contenders skew dark. The big surprise comes from the way some filmmakers have chosen to tell their stories. While movies like front runner 13th artfully blend talking head interviews and archival material in the grand PBS tradition, low-budget, high-concept documentaries Tower, Gleason and Cameraperson experiment with non-fiction formats in fresh ways.

Writer/Director Vincent Perez on his Timely, Devastating new Film Alone in Berlin

A somber, restrained World War II picture, Alone in Berlin, opens this week from director/actor Vincent Perez. Swiss by birth and of Spanish and German ancestry, Perez optioned the rights to Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel, Every Man Dies Alone, two years before an English translation in 2009 became a surprise bestseller in the UK and US. The story of Nazi resistance from a working class Berlin couple,

Director Chris Wedge on the Joys of Making Monster Trucks

Unlike Scrat, the nutty cartoon rodent who has shared his voice for nearly 15 years, Chris Wedge, 59, has claimed more than a few choice acorns throughout his career. He is the Academy Award-winning director of Bunny, a ground-breaking computer-animated short from 1999.  He co-founded  Blue Sky Studios, whose movies are distributed by 20th Century Fox. He directed the company’s first feature, 2002’s Oscar-nominated Ice Age, as well as 2005’s Robots and 2013’s 

Orange is the New Black Director Lev Spiro Talks Crazy Eyes

Lev Spiro has been behind the camera on some of the most successful shows on television. The impressive list includes Modern Family, Wizards of Waverly Place, Dawson’s Creek, and Arrested Development. In season 4 of Orange is the New Black, he had the high-pressure task of directing the backstory for fan favorite, Crazy Eyes.

Writer/director Mia Hansen-Løve on Things to Come

French actress Isabelle Huppert is reaping awards from critics’ groups for her roles in two films this year:  Elle, from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, and the quietly poignant Things to Come, from young French writer/directer Mia Hansen-Løve.

While Huppert’s audacious performance in Elle jut might earn the actress her first Oscar nod, it’s the delicate blend of youth and wisdom, melancholy and joy,

Writer/Director Garth Jennings Mixes Legendary Music & Animation in Sing

If you have ever watched American Idol or The Voice and wished that the contestants were animals instead of humans, then Sing is definitely playing your tune – or should that be ‘toon?  Writer/director Garth Jennings – the British filmmaker whose quirky vision graced the cult hit Son of Rambow as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy –takes his first stab at an animated feature,

Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 2

In Part 2 of an interview with writer/director Kenneth Lonergan about his latest release, Manchester by the Sea, which opens Friday, the New York City native speaks about his penchant for acting in his own films, his choice of classical music to accompany a drama like Manchester by the Sea that is set in a working-class milieu and how the current political climate might affect his artistic vision in the future –

Talking to Manchester by the Sea‘s Writer/Director Kenneth Lonergan—Part 1

At 54, Kenneth Lonergan has experienced the highs and lows of the movie biz. The filmmaker has basked in the glow of having his directorial debut, 2000’s You Can Count on Me,  bestowed with rave reviews and two Academy Award nominations – one for his screenplay and the other for his leading lady, Laura Linney. And he has dealt with the frustration when  the running time of his more ambitious sophomore effort,

Oscar Watch: La La Land‘s Director Damien Chazelle & Star Emma Stone on Their Moving Musical

Oscar-nominated writer/director Damien Chazelle set out to make a genre film with La La Land.  Inspired by classic song-and-dance movies such as Singin’ in the Rain and Swing Time, he wanted to create an old-fashioned musical but “keep it grounded” in realism and contemporary Los Angeles.

“It was about trying to use real locations, use a lot of real spaces,

Mark Duplass on Stripping Away Artifice For Blue Jay

Mark Duplass readily admits he’s “a schmaltz hound.”

“I have it deep in me. I can put on Same Time, Next Year or Somewhere in Time and just go for it,” he says. “I’m a nostalgic and melancholic person and I normally try to curb that in my art because I feel like if I don’t, it’s going to run rampant over everything. With this movie,