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“Space Jam: A New Legacy” (Warner Bros.) and “Black Widow” (Disney) — the #1 and #2 films this weekend — both can be seen at home, although in very different ways. “Space Jam,” as with all Warners releases this year, is free for HBO Max subscribers from its first week. “Widow” costs $29.99 to view, and then only for Disney+ subscribers. “Space” is a surprising #1, both for its better-than-expected performance — and because “Black Widow” took such a steep plunge, dipping 67 percent in its second weekend....

These films include some of IndieWire’s favorites from the past few weeks, including both new and established talents, exciting features for distributors looking for awards contenders or simply to get into biz with bright talents on the rise (or, why not both?), and much more. Open up those pocketbooks, and take a chance on these standouts. Jude Dry and Siddhant Adlakha also contributed to this article. “A Night of Knowing Nothing” A dreamlike documentary that magnifies the personal until it reveals a lucid political collage, Payal Kapadia’s feature debut “A Night of Knowing Nothing” is composed of archival footage, student chronicles of contemporary protests, and letters whispered aloud to an absent lover....

On Thursday, the streaming giant officially released its “Basic with Ads” tier in the United States. The cheap(er) subscription plan includes four to five minutes of ads per hour, with each ad being about 15-30 seconds long. These spots play both before titles and in the middle of films and TV episodes. There’s certain exceptions; when new Netflix original films coming to the streamer, like “Knives Out 2,” all ads play before the movie starts....

“I totally did [come close to walking away],” Jenkins said. “I started to walk away. I was going to walk away. I even said, ‘I would be happy to go to another studio and make a quarter as much because it’s not a sequel on principle. No problem.” Jenkins called it “uncomfortable” when news originally leaked about behind-the-scenes tensions with Warner Bros. over her “Wonder Woman 1984” salary as she never wanted the money side of the job to go public....

“The Book of Boba Fett” has attracted positive attention for its portrayal of Tusken Raiders, the Indigenous people of Tattooine. In the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the Tusken Raiders were largely portrayed as unsophisticated side characters. “The Book of Boba Fett” expanded their role, showing them as competent main characters with rich traditions, and fans have praised the new Disney+ show for fleshing them out. So when the characters were unexpectedly killed off in an early episode, fans expressed some frustration....

Also, director Don Hall was adamant that Splat couldn’t shape shift. For the animators, it was like playing charades with balloon animals. “I was hopeful that it would be a fun, pantomime character, but they took it to a whole other level,” Hall told IndieWire. Splat makes a great entrance, slapping teenager Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) in a dark cave after the two characters antagonize one another. But they soon become fast friends, with the blue blob helping Ethan’s family of explorers fight off the giant, tentacled Reapers so they can solve their energy crisis and find their way back home....

There are plenty of reasons why limited series is so often the horse race to watch when it comes to the Emmy Awards. For one thing, like film and the Oscars, there’s no chance of repeat winners mucking up the category, making each year’s showdown a blank slate, pitting new project against new project, with marquee actors facing off against complete unknowns in categories increasingly difficult to predict. It’s a reality made even more glaringly obvious this year by the slightly underwhelming offerings that will almost certainly populate the comedy and drama categories, where disrupted production schedules saw a lot of contenders fold, hoping for a better hand come the 2021-2022 awards season and all but guaranteeing some truly unconventional series nab nominations....