Brazil’s telenovela industry is the secret agent behind powerful films at the Oscars

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Hollywood actors might rule the silver screen — as Sunday’s Academy Awards are poised to prove — but Brazil’s path to stardom often starts under the bright lights of a TV studio rather than a sprawling movie set.

Since at least the 1960s, the telenovelas, Latin American TV series often compared to soap operas, produced by Brazil's leading broadcaster TV Globo have evolved from simple daily dramas into a multi-million-dollar industry with 13 studios, three set towns, 122 edit bays and reaching up to 60 million of Brazil's 213 million people every week.

Many Brazilian actors associated with Oscar-contending films — such as “Central Station” (1998), “I’m Still Here” (2024) and this year’s four-category nominee “The Secret Agent” — first became household names via TV Globo. Actors like Wagner Moura and Fernanda Torres gained broad national visibility through telenovelas.

In contrast, Brazil only has about 3,500 movie theaters, mostly located in major cities and where U.S. blockbusters feature prominently. This creates an ecosystem where success on TV may lead to big cinema roles, which then circle back to popular telenovelas, and then on to movies again.

Minimalist horror ‘Undertone’ uses audio and soundscapes to scare you

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alfred Hitchcock famously claimed he didn’t watch his films in theaters. When asked if he missed out on hearing the audience scream, he said, “No. I can hear them scream when I’m making the picture.”

While Ian Tuason, the mind behind the buzzy new auditory horror “Undertone,” reveres and references Hitchcock as much as the next horror filmmaker, he has to disagree with him on this one. For Tuason, the real screams are the point.

“My favorite thing about this whole process is just watching it with audiences. I think that’s probably why I wanted to make a horror film … just to kind of witness the reactions,” Tuason said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “The same way as when you tell a ghost story at a campfire, it doesn’t feel that great unless you see your friend scared.”

His debut film “Undertone,” which opens in theaters on Friday (yes, the 13th), is already doing just that. After playing at the Sundance Film Festival, it had some calling it the “scariest movie you’ll ever hear.”

After years of growth, Georgia’s film industry hits a painful reset

ATLANTA (AP) — Chris Ratledge used to make as much as $9,500 a week working on film sets around Atlanta. Now, he’s on food stamps.

The 48-year-old digital imaging technician moved from Indiana to Georgia in 2017 as studios — lured by generous tax credits — turned Atlanta into the “Hollywood of the South,” the backdrop for hundreds of productions like “The Hunger Games,” “Stranger Things” and more than a dozen Marvel blockbusters.

Ratledge said the work was grueling — 70-hour weeks were normal — but the $72-an-hour pay was transformative. “I paid off three years of back taxes in one year, just from the money I made,” says Ratledge, who worked on the Netflix movie “Red Notice,” as well as shows like TBS’ “Miracle Workers” and Starz’s “P-Valley.”

Those times are long gone: Ratledge has worked just four days on set since May 2024.

Ass backwards: How a Canadian donkey documentary is defying Oscars conventions

When Montreal filmmaker Alison McAlpine first noticed a group of donkeys ambling around an observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, she couldn’t help but wonder what they were thinking.

“I just asked, how do they see this world?” she recalls.

That question became the starting point for “Perfectly a Strangeness,” McAlpine’s mesmeric short film following three donkeys grazing around towering telescopes scanning the cosmos. It’s now up for an Oscar on Sunday.

But while the film is nominated in the documentary short category, its dreamlike, stylized approach has stirred a debate: what exactly counts as a documentary?

Sentencing delayed for ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor convicted of sexual assault

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The sentencing for Nathan Chasing Horse following his conviction for sexual assault of Indigenous women and girls has been delayed by a week.

The sentencing was scheduled to take place Wednesday, but Judge Jessica Peterson agreed to move the hearing to March 18. It will bring to a close a case that sent shock waves through Indian Country.

The sentencing of the “Dances With Wolves” actor comes about a month after a Nevada jury convicted him on 13 of the 21 charges he faced. Most related to his conduct with a victim who was 14 when he began assaulting her. Chasing Horse was acquitted of some sexual assault charges.

He faces a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Movie Review: In ‘Undertone,’ a paranormal podcast turns perilous

Writer-director Ian Tuason’s feature debut, the sonic-driven horror “Undertone,” has, at least at the outset, an appealingly stripped-down quality.

The 30-something Evy Babic (Nina Kiri) lives with her dying, comatose mother (Michèle Duquet). The movie never leaves their small, two-story home. Upstairs, Evy’s mother lies wordlessly in a bed. Downstairs, Evy, at 3 a.m. puts on headphones, sits in front of a microphone and calls up her paranormal podcast co-host Justin (Adam DiMarco’s voice) to talk “all things creepy.”

It’s a testament to Tuason’s evident filmmaking talent that, with these bare bones, “Undertone” swells into a gripping and unsettling experience. This is a movie that summons many of its scares with a sudden boost in audio levels, the thunderous tick of a clock or the scream of … a tea kettle. It's even rated “R” not for bloodcurdling violence or satanic ghouls but, simply, “language.”

It’s these subtle qualities that make “Undertone” a spare but deftly dense film and Tuason a filmmaker to watch. It’s the movie’s disappointing second half, though, that breaks its quiet spell. After conjuring a tapestry of tension through narrative drips, as well as literal ones, Tuason throws in the whole kitchen sink, drowning out “Undertone” with a cacophony of genre cliches. Ancient Christian lore is invoked, as are children’s lullabies, and the riveting nuance of “Undertone” slips away in all the feedback.

33 years since Oscar nom, Montreal filmmaker Joyce Borenstein feels sense of closure

MONTREAL -  Joyce Borenstein spent hours in her Montreal-area apartment, surrounded by the paintings of her famous artist father, carefully watching every Oscar-nominated film from 2025.

As a newly minted member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Borenstein was able to vote in all 24 categories, helping choose who will take home the bronze statuettes plated in 24-karat gold on Sunday for the 98th Academy Awards.

Her role ahead of this weekend in Los Angeles was small — she is one of thousands of Academy members eligible to vote for Oscar nominees — but its symbolic importance is immense for her. This year's awards ceremony is a homecoming of sorts for the Montreal animator and filmmaker, whose short documentary detailing the life of her dad, famed painter Sam Borenstein, called "The Colours of My Father," was nominated for an Oscar in 1993.

Oscar nominees are automatically asked to join the Academy, the body of film industry professionals that runs the awards. But Borenstein was not invited in the 1990s because despite being the writer and director of the documentary, only the film's two producers were part of the credited team. She was introverted at the time, she said, and didn’t push back.

Best cat? Funniest prop? Ahead of the Oscars, the AP hands out its own awards

Awards season has a way of diminishing the movie year into a handful of films that are talked about ad nauseam for months. But as good as some of this year's Oscar nominees are, you have to go outside the consensus — and the same old categories — to remember the best of 2025.

So ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, Associated Press Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle have selected their own awards, because while a movie year might be celebrated for its best film or best performances, dishing out honors for the best cat or funniest prop is just as important.

Most pure display of movie-star charisma: Keke Palmer, ‘One of Them Days’

Keke Palmer has been good in many things (especially Jordan Peele’s “Nope”), but she’s a sensational dynamo in “One of Them Days.” The movie, in the spirit of “Friday,” takes place across a desperate day in Los Angeles, and Palmer carries it throughout. Theatrical studio comedies are practically extinct but Palmer in “One of Them Days” reminds you what we’ve been missing. —J.C.

Toronto Film Critics Association aims to bring members back after mass resignations over Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ edited speech

TORONTO - The Toronto Film Critics Association says it will make changes to its awards process in an effort to bring back members who resigned en masse over the editing of a speech by actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers at its gala.

In a statement Monday, acting president Pat Mullen apologized to Tailfeathers after her recorded acceptance speech was edited, which the previous president said was done for length. 

The cuts removed remarks in which Tailfeathers expressed support for Palestine, prompting her to return her TFCA Award for best supporting performance in "Sweet Angel Baby" last week, calling the edits “censorship” of her words.

So far, the controversy has led to at least a dozen members of the critics' group to resign, with several criticizing the organization for what they perceive as an attempt to silence the Canadian actor. 

Monster mashup never comes alive

A risky, ambitious and fabulous mess for the first half, an aimless and frustrating mess for the second, writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second feature is a fiercely feminist American gothic take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Gyllenhaal (who made her directorial debut with 2021’s The Lost Daughter) starts here with Mary Shelley herself (Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley), who may be long dead but has a lot more to say. To do so she takes possession of Ida (also Buckley), a gangster moll in 1930s Chicago.

Entertaining some hoods at a night club, Ida suddenly breaks into rolling British phraseology, speaking out for silenced, stifled and suffocated women everywhere. The mobsters not much liking this speech, Ida soon ends up buried in a pauper’s grave.

Meanwhile, Frankenstein’s monster — understandably, he prefers to be called Frank — is visiting the office of Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening). The immensely lonely Frank (Christian Bale in rather endearing prosthetics) is hoping the doctor will create a companion for him.

From alien warfare to playing Carl Weathers, Stephan James wants to keep you guessing

TORONTO -  

When Stephan James sat down to read the script for Netflix sci-fi action flick “War Machine,” he wasn’t prepared for a full cardio workout.

“My heart was racing the entire time,” the Scarborough, Ont.-born actor says. “I was sweating. The energy was very palpable in the script.”

For an actor known for prestige dramas and complex portrayals of historical figures, his latest role in the testosterone-fuelled, explosion-happy romp is a departure — and one he chose carefully.

Netflix orders new Alexander the Great series from ‘Heated Rivalry’ creator Jacob Tierney

TORONTO - Netflix has ordered a new series about Alexander the Great from "Heated Rivalry" creator Jacob Tierney.

Tierney is set to write, direct and executive produce "Alexander," a "high-stakes" period drama based on the novel "The Golden Mean" by Canadian author Annabel Lyon.

The show will explore the story of Alexander the Great and his friendship with his tutor, Aristotle, starting at the fall of the Athenian empire.

Netflix says Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan of Aggregate Films will executive produce the series, along with Tierney's producing partner Brendan Brady of Accent Aigu Entertainment.

Oscars presenters add a former host, three nominees and a famous father-son duo

It'll be big year for Pullmans at the Oscars. The show's producers said Wednesday that Bill Pullman and his son Lewis Pullman have joined the starry roster of presenters for Sunday's live broadcast of the 98th annual Academy Awards.

Also included in this batch are nominees Rose Byrne, Wagner Moura and Delroy Lindo, former Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel, as well as Pedro Pascal, Channing Tatum and Sigourney Weaver.

Oscars producers told The Associated Press that audiences should expect even more stars than have been announced, though. Showrunner and executive producer Raj Kapoor said the list is “jaw-dropping” and there will be plenty of surprises throughout the evening, including reunions and some appearances by people who haven't been on the stage in a long time.

Here's everything else you need to know.

Canadian remake of ’80s classic ‘Youngblood’ aims to rewrite hockey’s dated playbook

TORONTO -  

During the 2020 world junior hockey championship, as teen phenoms tore up the ice, Ashton James was on his couch feeling exposed.

He had just begun training to star in a Black-led Canadian remake of the 1986 cult hockey drama “Youngblood,” and every highlight reel only magnified how far he still had to go.

“All I felt was dread over how bad I was,” James says. “I was like, 'I can’t engage with this until I get better because every time I watch it, I get depressed.’"

Filmmakers’ first foray into fiction bares all in Manitoba

Two years after shooting a movie in the wilds near Lac du Bonnet, co-directors James McLellan and Alexandre (Sasha) Trudeau finally unveiled the dramatic feature Hair of the Bear last Thursday in Toronto, with Alexandre’s brother Justin Trudeau on hand to celebrate the première in advance of its opening Friday.