Announcing itself as “a true story, set in the future,” Oreck’s film largely eschews action in favor of entropy, its plot simple enough to sound like a premise: As millions of people starve to death in a frigid city that was deprived of food for 900 days, two high-cheekboned workers at the world’s first seed bank fight to preserve a priceless collection of genetically diverse plant life. Eating the produce would feed a small handful of extremely hungry people for a few days, but harvesting the seeds might allow for the possibility of restoring the world’s agriculture when the war ends....

The two-month delay for the Oscars has allowed ShortsTV, now in its 16th year of presenting the short films nominated in three Oscar categories, to still play in a wide range of theaters. However, with many usual locations still closed, the program will add virtual cinemas along with approximately 350 indoor venues. That’s down from 536 last year (just before theaters shut down), which was the most ever included. This year, some of the leading grossing locations will not be open (including at least three of the five best grossing locations last year aren’t, although New York’s premier IFC Center is)....

Other big names didn’t fare quite as well — and this year’s joke song is barely worth a smirk — but any category that puts Sparks in the same conversation as Reba McEntire while still making room for the acoustic indie sweetness of “CODA” can’t be all bad. Here are all 15 songs still eligible for Best Original Song at the Oscars next March, ranked from worst to best. Related Oscars 2023: Best Original Song Predictions ‘Lift Me Up’ Rises to Frontrunner Status in Best Original Song Race Related The Best Film Sound of 2022 The 15 Best Vampire Movies Ever Made...

After winning the VES top prize, “The Midnight Sky” is now the favorite. The Framestore team created high-level CG facial replacements, built the Aether ship and interior. To emulate zero-G and help to sell a pregnant astronaut floating in space (Felicity Jones was actually pregnant at the time of shooting), digital face replacements were required for the wide, full CG shots required for the walk in space. For the Arctic observatory exteriors, Industrial Light & Magic provided a pop-up version of StageCraft, its LED volume stage used on “The Mandalorian....

Let it never be said that “Outer Banks” isn’t full of surprises. Those out-of-nowhere touches don’t always land as intended, but over the course of a pair of seasons, this Netflix series built around adventure-seeking teens has rarely gone for the uninteresting choice. It’s a show that’s often as baffling as it is entertaining, largely because one of those tends to accompany the other. With seemingly no room for it to one-up itself after its freshman season culminated in a centuries-brewing hunt for a giant trove of shipwreck gold, “Outer Banks” Season 2 quickly turns its attention overseas....

Per Apple, “Physical,” which is set in the idyllic but fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego, is a half-hour dark comedy following Sheila Rubin (Byrne), a quietly tortured, seemingly dutiful housewife supporting her smart but controversial husband’s bid for state assembly. But behind closed doors, Sheila has her own darkly funny take on life she rarely lets the world see. She’s also battling a complex set of personal demons relating to her self-image…....

The cast features Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Frances Conroy, and Keith Carradine. Here’s the synopsis shared by the New York Film Festival: “Campion reaffirms her status as one of the world’s greatest — and most gratifyingly eccentric — filmmakers with this mesmerizing, psychologically rich variation on the American western. Adapted from a 1967 cult novel by Thomas Savage that was notoriously ahead of its time in depicting repressed sexuality, ‘The Power of the Dog’ excavates the emotional torment experienced at a Montana cattle ranch in the 1920s....