Both films by first-time documentarians, “Ascension” and “Summer of Soul” lead this year’s nominations with six each. “Ascension,” a look at the Chinese dream across social classes, is also up for Documentary Feature, Director (Jessica Kingdon), First Feature, Cinematography, Editing, and Score. Meanwhile, “Summer of Soul” is up for Documentary Feature, Best Director (Ahmir “Questlove’ Thompson), First Documentary, Editing, Archival Documentary, and Music Documentary. “Becoming Cousteau” and “The Rescue” also picked up five nominations each....

The film stars Rowan Blanchard as an aspiring high school artist who’s been nursing the same crush since fifth grade. The twist — if it even can be called that anymore — is that she’s queer and her crush is another girl. But unlike the try-hard mom, “Crush” definitively lays to rest any of those pesky tropes we’re so used to seeing in queer fare: There’s no tired coming out drama, no pining after a seemingly straight paramour, and certainly no kill your gays ending to this uplifting teen comedy....

In a series of remarks first reported by the Daily Mail (via The Guardian), Boyle expressed his belief that filmmaking isn’t England’s strong suit. While there are certainly exceptions, he thinks the nation is better suited to producing theatre and pop music. “It’s a terrible thing to say at the home of British film but I am not sure we are great film-makers, to be absolutely honest,” Boyle said. “As a nation, our two art forms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it....

FX announced on Monday that Boyle, the director behind praised films such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Steve Jobs,” and “Trainspotting,” will direct and executive produce “Pistol,” a six-episode limited series about the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. The series is created by Craig Pearce, who serves as co-writer alongside Frank Cottrell Boyce. “Pistol” stars Toby Wallace (“Babyteeth,” “Acute Misfortune”) as Steve Jones, Anson Boon (“Crawl,” “1917,” “Blackbird”) as John Lydon, Louis Partridge (“Enola Homes,” “Medici”) as Sid Vicious, Jacob Slater as Paul Cook, Fabien Frankel (“The Serpent,” “NYPD Blue”) as Glen Matlock, Dylan Llewellyn (“Derry Girls”) as Wally Nightingale, Sydney Chandler (“Don’t Worry Darling”) as Chrissie Hynde, Emma Appleton (“The Witcher,” “Traitors”) as Nancy Spungen, and Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) as punk icon Jordan....

According to Deadline: “The story is set in the dead calm of the open sea, where a fishing boat discovers an abandoned yacht with a strange distress call. A deckhand agrees to take lone control of it while it’s towed into port, but he soon discovers why the rest of his more experienced crew members call it a ‘Ghost Ship.’” “Adrift” will mark Aronofsky and Leto’s first feature film collaboration since their breakthrough “Requiem for a Dream....

But in a new interview with The Daily Beast to promote “Apollo 10 1/2,” Linklater was not in a particularly nostalgic mood about “Dazed and Confused.” When asked about the film’s big anniversary, Linklater had a simple response: “where’s my money?” The filmmaker went on to say that he has still not received any residuals from the film or its iconic soundtrack, and compared himself to countless other artists in the entertainment industry who never saw profits from their early hits....

Let Walter Hill take you back to the Old West and diplomacy, 1897-style, where differences are figured out with card games and bullwhips, and folks have itching powder all over their trigger fingers. Shooting someone dead is presented as a go-to for how to resolve an argument in this world. References to guns are made with such regularity that it becomes unclear whether this is a straight Western or a pastiche....