That wasn’t an option this pandemic award season. Even if the list of 2021 Oscar contenders is smaller-scale and more independent than usual, the film that boasts wide appeal across the Academy’s 23 branches will finally take home the Best Picture Oscar. With six nominations including Best Picture, Actress, Director, Editor, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography, Chloé Zhao’s hybrid cinéma vérité “Nomadland” (Searchlight/Hulu) is the film that hits the lonely pandemic zeitgeist in this weird year — even if the film didn’t score the SAG Ensemble nomination that “Parasite” did in 2020....

The Academy Award winning actress joins the cast of “Prodigal Son” during the midseason finale, which airs Tuesday, March 2 on Fox, and Zeta-Jones spoke to reporters early Tuesday afternoon about her love of the part, the series, and its odd little family. “I was a fan of the show,” Zeta-Jones said during the series’ TCA presentation. “What’s so different and powerful about ‘Prodigal Son’ is that it’s a family drama with a twist of danger....

“I guess it’s kind ironic that the straightest role I’ve ever played lands me an Emmy for a comedy series,” Levy said when he won the prize during the virtual ceremony. “I guess I have to question what I’ve been doing for the past 50 years.” Youssef’s Hulu series was also up for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Mahershala Ali, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for Youssef himself, for the episode “Miakhalifa....

Here’s the official synopsis: “Inspired by the life of Erin Brockovich today, Annie ‘Rebel’ Bello is a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree. She’s a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves. When Rebel applies herself to a fight she believes in, she will win at almost any cost.” Fans of Steven Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich” from 2000 will remember the character’s famous blue humor and penchant for telling it like it is....

Register here to join Hernandez as a special guest for a live recording of IndieWire’s Screen Talk podcast this Thursday, September 17, at 2 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific). Hernandez will join his former colleagues, Screen Talk hosts Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson, to discuss the unusual challenges he faced in organizing the festival in the midst of the pandemic. He will also speak to the broader efforts underway to preserve the venues and community of Film at Lincoln Center, which has hosted the festival for over 50 years....

Other AAFCA winners this year include Regina King (Best Director, “One Night in Miami”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”). Veteran journalist Robertson founded AAFCA in 2003, and the group has grown into the largest African American film organization over the past 18 years. He will discuss the diversity of this year’s Oscar nominations, the impact of the past year on conversations about race in Hollywood, and other timely matters....

As far as season premiere traditions go, “title character’s hopeless feelings leads him down interdimensional path that ends up with him or his crush absorbing all knowledge of existence” is a good one to stick to. After months away, “Rick and Morty” makes a return with plenty of the show’s hallmarks. Still, as a jump-start to a new season, there’s enough in this time-jumping kickoff to make it feel like much more than a formula....