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Hitting on why many attendees see the event as a highlight of awards season, surprise speaker Al Pacino said early in his closing remarks, “I’m so happy that AFI didn’t have some envelope for me to open and say ‘The winner is…’” The Oscar-winning actor took one beat to make sure he got that right, confirming with the audience that all the talent in the room were AFI Awards 2022 recipients, and impressed, said “So I’m talking to winners now, OK!” Taking place at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, as is annual tradition, the AFI Awards 2022 Luncheon invited the creative teams from what the American Film Institute considered to be the 10 best films and 10 best TV shows (plus one special recipient) of 2022 to all gather together and...

Freddy, my boy, will now have a new face on “Frasier.” The beloved Emmy-winning NBC sitcom landed a revival at Paramount+, headed up by lead star Kelsey Grammer. However, while much of the original cast will not be part of the reboot, Deadline confirmed that some characters will be recast. Frasier Crane’s (Grammer) son Frederick will no longer be played by Trevor Einhorn, but instead portrayed by Jack Cutmore-Scott (“Oppenheimer,” “Tenet”). Cutmore-Scott as Freddy will also have a very different trajectory for Frasier’s son, blending traits from both his father Frasier and grandfather Martin (the late John Mahoney). His mother Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) will not be a part of the series as of print. The official character description for...

The cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” truly is living up to its name. Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu, who starred as a first generation family in the Daniels’ A24 award-winning film, reunite onscreen for upcoming Disney+ series “American Born Chinese.” Based on Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel of the same name, “American Born Chinese” is adapted by Kelvin Yu for the streaming platform. The series follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), the son of Chinese immigrants who struggles with assimilating in the U.S. Jin escapes into fantasy realms to grapple with his emotions and encounters spiritual creatures like Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, played by Yeoh. “On a visceral level, I’m a superhero fan,” author Yang told...

I know what we’re going to do this year: Watch more “Phineas and Ferb.” The popular Disney Channel animated series is coming back for a 40-episode revival, it was announced Friday during Disney Branded Television’s TCA winter press tour. The series returns as part of creator Dan Povenmire’s new overall deal with Disney Branded Television, which also includes a Season 2 renewal for Povenmire’s follow-up show “Hamster & Gretel.” Forty episodes of the series have been ordered, to be split into two seasons. It’s currently unclear whether the series will return to Disney Channel, spinoff channel Disney XD, or Disney+, where the spinoff film “Candace Against the Universe” premiered in 2020. “Dan is renowned for his ability to create...

Is it too soon to pick the best episodes of “Abbott Elementary,” which has been on the air for just over a year? It wasn’t too soon to put it on every end of year list IndieWire put together, so we say no. On December 7, 2021, ABC premiered the pilot of Quinta Brunson’s elementary school mockumentary, about a spirited and underfunded Philadelphia public school. Brunson stars as second-grade teacher Janine Teagues, a second-year teacher yet to be worn down by the administration. Her optimism clashes with but endears her to senior teachers Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter) as they band with fellow newbie Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti) and aspiring principal but current substitute Gregory Eddie (Tyler...

A movie sequel to “Zoey 101,” the 2005 Nickelodeon series starring Jamie Lynn Spears, is coming to Paramount+. The streamer announced the film, tentatively titled “Zoey 102,” on Thursday. The movie, which will premiere on Paramount+ later this year, stars Spears and several former cast members of the series, including Erin Sanders, Sean Flynn, Matthew Underwood, Christopher Massey, Abby Wilde, and Jack Salvatore. The original series, created and executive produced by Dan Schneider, aired for four seasons from 2005 to 2008 and focused on Zoey, a middle schooler who attends boarding school at the fictional Pacific Coast Academy in Southern California. The film will focus on a reunion between Zoey and her friends at a wedding. Although...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced the nominations for both their Motion Pictures and Television categories for the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards happening on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. As previously announced, the Producers Guild will also use the February ceremony to present special honors to powerhouse producers and leaders who have left their undeniable marks on the industry. Honorees this year include Tom Cruise (David O. Selznick Achievement Award), Mindy Kaling (Norman Lear Achievement Award), and Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy (Milestone Award). “Till” will receive the Stanley Kramer Award sponsored by Delta Air Lines. After strong showings at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards...

Alejandro González Iñárritu isn’t holding his breath for an apology from star Robert Downey Jr. Seven years after Downey first commented on Iñárritu’s “bright” English vocabulary as a native Spanish speaker, “Bardo” director Iñárritu does not “expect” Downey to be remorseful or issue a retroactive apology. “Of course not. Of course not. I don’t expect that,” Iñárritu told The Independent. “I honestly could not care at all. I am completely against what he said but I will defend his right to say whatever he wants. Anything he wants to say is fine, but for me it reads completely the wrong way.” In 2015, Iñárritu told a reporter that Marvel movies were a form of “cultural genocide,” to which Downey responded in a separate interview, “For...

British actress Bella Ramsey used curse words to master an American accent. The “Last of Us” actress and “Game of Thrones” alum revealed during “The Late Late Show with James Corden” that it was key swear words that helped her transform into post-apocalyptic video game character Ellie for the upcoming sci-fi series. “I had a dialect coach which was helpful,” Ramsey said of her American accent for the role. “The first phrase I mastered was ‘olive oil.’ It’s really hard, like, ‘olive oil.'” The next word Ramsey learned to say sans British accent was a curse word bleeped out on the “Late Late Show” broadcast. The Leicestershire, England-born star was praised by fellow interviewee Regina Hall, who said “that’s really all you need” in...

Love it or hate it, it’s kind of impossible to escape “Yellowstone.” The Paramount Network Western series, co-created and written by Taylor Sheridan, is one of the most popular series currently on television (and is a primetime Emmy nominee for Best Production Design). The series follows the Duttons, a Montana ranching family led by patriarch John (Kevin Costner). Alongside his three children, he’ll do whatever he has to in order to maintain his family’s ranch. Because of how ubiquitous the show, which just wrapped the first part of Season 5, has become, it’s a good time to look back and celebrate the episodes that made “Yellowstone” the series it is today. Here are the 10 best episodes of “Yellowstone.” 10. “Daybreak” (Season 1...

The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in television, new media, news, radio/audio, and promotional writing for 2022. Winners will be honored at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 5, 2023. Scoring multiple nods across the categories were “Andor,” “Abbott Elementary,” “The Bear,” and “Severance,” all nominated in their respective drama and comedy categories as well as for New Series. See the full list below. TELEVISION, NEW MEDIA, AND NEWS NOMINEES DRAMA SERIES “Andor,” Written by Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Schiff, Beau Willimon; Disney+ “Better Call Saul,” Written by Ann Cherkis, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould...

The awards campaign for S.S. Rajamouli’s South Indian Tollywood breakout “RRR” continues to cajole voters to catch up with the global juggernaut ($150 million worldwide), which won the Golden Globe for Best Song and is a longshot candidate for Best Picture and Director. The three-hour movie plays best in a theater, and the film’s distributors instantly sold out a January 9 reprise screening at the Chinese on Hollywood Boulevard, repeating the rousing, cheering, and dancing event for 950, which went viral last fall. (Similar screenings were mounted recently in New York.) This time, after the Chinese screening, J.J. Abrams introduced the two Indian superstars of the VFX-packed period action adventure for a Q&A and they were met with a...

Dealt an impossible hand, Jerrod Carmichael did just about everything right. To kick off the 2023 Golden Globe Awards — the first ceremony since NBC canceled last year’s telecast following a slew of accusations against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — the lead of “The Carmichael Show” and Emmy-winning stand-up special “Rothaniel” slowed things down (telling the crowd of celebrities to “settle”), took a seat (onstage!), and called it like it is: “I’ll tell you why I’m here,” he said. “I’m here because I’m Black.” While recounting how and explaining why he agreed to host — lingering questions for the discerning comedian’s fans, as well as fair questions for anyone watching — Carmichael laid the situation out plainly, in case...