Latest in The Contenders

The fifth annual Deadline Contenders Television is set to take place Sunday, June 7, but this time with a difference. For the first time in the history of any of our Contenders events, whether in Oscar season or Emmy season, it will all be done virtually, with a livestream beginning at 8 AM PT and continuing all day…

Deadline's series of Contenders events will expand this year with the addition of Contenders International. The event will take place October 17 in Poland, focusing on foreign-language Oscar aspirants. The event will be held annually in a different European country each year. This expands a full contingent of…

Deadline's second annual?The Contenders New York kicked off at the Director's Guild of America on Saturday by hosting panel guests including Bong Joon Ho of Parasite, Lupita N’yongo of Us and Laura Dern of Marriage Story among many others. Click on the photo above to launch the gallery. Stay tuned for more galleries…

Deadline's second annual The Contenders New York kicked off at the Director’s Guild of America on Saturday by hosting panel guests including Quentin Tarantino of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Greta Gerwig of Little Women and Wesley Snipes of Dolemite Is My Name among many others. Click on the photo above to launch…

DreamWorks Animation films How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Abominable set out to tell a story of transformation, growth, and individuality as the characters embark on their perspective journeys. For How to Train Your Dragon 3, that journey has spanned over a decade. The final installment finds…

Warner Bros. brought the unjustly accused, wrongly convicted and left-behind to Deadline’s Contenders New York on Saturday with close-up looks at Joker, Richard Jewell and Just Mercy. Todd Phillips, Joker co-writer, director and producer, said star Joaquin Phoenix lost an astonishing 52 pounds in three months for the…

Filmmakers behind the slate of Sony's awards hopefuls this year took unique and fascinating paths to creating a sense of meaning in complicated worlds. Those messages were central to their films covered Saturday afternoon at Deadline’s The Contenders New York event at the DGA Theater. For Quentin Tarantino and Once Upo…

Lionsgate brought the disturbing and the funny to Deadline’s Contenders today with a look at Bombshell and Knives Out. Producer Margaret Riley said the Bombshell script blew her away. "As a woman who has come up in Hollywood, I realized there had never been a movie about sexual harassment." "We have all had to deal…

Amazon Studios brought three striking iterations of true grit to Deadline’s Contenders New York with a look at The Aeronauts, The Report and Honey Boy?that kicked off Saturday’s event. Tom Harper, director and producer of The Aeronauts, said the set was kept below freezing and actors plunged their hands in ice water…

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o was just named Best Actress of the year by New York Film Critics Circle for her performance in Jordan Peele’s Us. But despite her much-acclaimed performance as matriarch Adelaide Wilson and her tethered counterpart Red, as well as the film’s overall commercial and critical success…

Two high-profile entries vying for Best International Feature Oscar nods were the jewels of Neon's slate covered at The Contenders New York event at the DGA Theater. Alejandro Landes' war drama Monos, Colombia's official entry for the 92nd Oscars, looks at a group of teenage terrorists (known as the Monos), commanded…

The determined struggles of true-life heroes, whose tales look to resonate loudly this awards season, were at the heart of Focus Features' Contenders NY presentation Saturday at the DGA Theater in New York City. For Harriet writer/director Kasi Lemmons (who helmed both Eve's Bayou and Talk To Me) the task was to offer…