While mainstream Hollywood struggles to address human sexuality in any meaningful way, these four recently-released short films explore sex and desire with a refreshing playfulness. Whether it’s a feminist genre take on actual bloodlust, or a comedy about an erotic encounter where the two people never touch, these films celebrate the full spectrum of human desire. They’re all available online, though you’ll have to head over to YouTube for the more explicit titles, and each one has its own unique vibe....

“Several autistic actors, myself included, responded to these tweets. We all said we could have acted in it on short notice. These excuses are just that- excuses,” tweeted one user. “The fact of the matter is zero effort was made to include anyone who is actually autistic. #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs” “Maybe you’re just a bad actor,” Sia wrote in response. Directed by Sia, “Music” is co-written by the pop icon with Dallas Clayton, with Sia writing and performing all of the songs....

“Star Wars” producer Kathleen Kennedy reflected on 2018’s prequel film “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which dove into the origin story for Han Solo, played by Alden Ehrenreich as a precursor to Harrison Ford’s iconic iteration of the character. The film was plagued with reshoots after co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller unexpectedly left the film due to creative differences. Lead star Ehrenreich reportedly also was highly encouraged to work with an acting coach on set....

The movie was praised for its creative approach to Spider-Man and helped set the stage for the success of “No Way Home.” A sequel was immediately announced and went into production in 2020. In December, Sony revealed that it would be an epic story told in two parts, beginning with this year’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part I).” If that wasn’t enough to excite Spider-Man fans, a new interview with executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller revealed that the new films will continue to push the boundaries of animation....

That said, there are few trends obvious enough to discuss with only a cursory glance at the assembled nominations honoring some of the finest TV from 2021. Now, let’s dispense with the pleasantries and get down to the business of big winners. Winner: Superheroes and Wars in Stars Taking in the nomination information as a whole, it’s near impossible to miss the proliferation of Marvel, DCU, and Star Wars properties. In that sense, it’s Disney+ who really came out on top, with “WandaVision” receiving five nominations (two for sound mixing, two for sound editing, and one more for production design), “The Book of Boba Fett” receiving two nominations (sound mixing and sound editing), “Loki” receiving two nominations (sound editing and production design) as well as an additional nomination — in sound mixing — for “Hawkeye....

Not only did “Stranger Things” Season 4 not require the full four weeks to shatter the previously-held English-language TV record (with a whopping 1.65 billion hours viewed with in own first four weeks, the Korean “Squid Game” is still by far Netflix’s biggest show ever), it also didn’t need its final two supersized episodes to do it. Those, which include the nearly two-and-a-half-hour season finale, drop July 1; the first seven episodes of the penultimate season landed on Netflix May 27....

She will also lead the Documentary Film Program’s team, including labs director Feeley and film fund director Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs. She will report to the Institute’s executive director, Keri Putnam. Lozano is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. She joins the Institute from the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Documentary Fund; she co-founded and oversaw the program, which supported dozens of filmmakers over the last four years, with an emphasis on journalistic rigor, diversity, and inclusion....