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While the Academy portal screens about 100 Best Picture candidates for its members (distributors pay a $12,500 fee), awards marketers email screening links (and sometimes, mail DVDs) for assorted documentaries, animated, foreign-language, and low-budget titles from, so far, Magnolia (“Collective,” “The Fight”), Neon (“Gunda,” “Ammonite”), A24 (“Minari,” “On the Rocks”) and IFC Films (“The Nest,” “MLK/FBI”). So where are the usual suspects? Don’t be fooled. While many major films pushed back, a few remain, including Paul Greengrass’s Tom Hanks vehicle “News of the World” (Universal, December 25), Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs....

Kolstad is writing the script to the previously announced “Streets of Rage” film based on the Sega video game franchise, which are vintage side-scrolling “beat ’em up” games that became hugely popular in the ’90s. And boy, was the game a product of the ’90s — playable character Eddie “Skate” Hunter whooped the endless baddies while wearing a pair of rollerblades. Kolstad is producing the film alongside Sega’s Toru Nakahara, dj2 Entertainment’s Dmitri M....

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay added, “As Bilbo says, ‘Now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey.’ Living and breathing Middle-earth these many months has been the adventure of a lifetime. We cannot wait for fans to have the chance to do so as well.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

For “Star Trek” fans during the ‘90s, there were no more thrilling words than those at the end of a “previously on” sizzle reel. They promised the epic second installment of a two-part episode to come, whether on “The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” or “Voyager.” The woman who said those words was not just the “voice” of “Star Trek” but its “First Lady”: Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the wife of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, and an omnipresent part of the series herself....

Here’s the official synopsis from Netflix: “From ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ creator Mike Flanagan, ‘Midnight Mass’ tells the tale of a small, isolated island community whose existing divisions are amplified by the return of a disgraced young man (Zach Gilford) and the arrival of a charismatic priest (Hamish Linklater). When Father Paul’s appearance on Crockett Island coincides with unexplained and seemingly miraculous events, a renewed religious fervor takes hold of the community — but do these miracles come at a price?...

In “Mo,” Mo Najjar (Amer) straddles the line between two cultures, three languages and a ton of BS as a Palestinian refugee constantly living one step away from asylum and on the path to U.S. citizenship. His family — including his resilient and spiritual mother, sister and older brother — flee to Houston, Texas. Laughing the pain away, Mo learns to adapt to his new world, though getting ahead in life comes with several setbacks....

The show is the first project to come from Mara Brock Akil’s 2020 overall deal with Netflix to develop new content for the streamer. Akil, best known as the creator of the popular 2000 UPN comedy series “Girlfriends,” will showrun and executive produce the series. “Judy Blume’s ability to capture the real emotions we experience during the various rites of passage of our youth influenced my life choices and writing voice,” Akil said in a statement on Thursday....