Oscars

In a bit of a shocker, Apple Original Film F1: The Movie earned a Best Picture nomination plus three other nods when the 98th Academy Awards nominations came out Thursday. Four out of Apple TV’s six nominations went to the racing drama, while the documentary film Come See Me in the Good Light and the wildfire drama The Lost Bus drew two others.

“With F1, Joe, Jerry, Brad, Lewis and the entire creative team delivered something only they could — the most authentic, visceral and entertaining racing film ever made,” said Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video. “They pushed technical boundaries at every turn, and it’s been a privilege to partner on a project of this ambition. Seeing F1 nominated for Best Picture is a testament to their remarkable artistry, vision and unwavering passion.” 

Nothing produced by Apple Original Films for Apple TV+ can win an Oscar this year. The nominations went out Thursday, and Apple TV+ didn’t score a single one.

Films that seem like Oscar bait — including Fancy Dance and Blitz — got totally snubbed.

No Apple TV+ film won an Academy Award on Sunday, despite 10 nominations for Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon — including Best Picture — and three for Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon.

Despite the final results, Apple made it clear that it is honored to be nominated. And both films have drawn large audiences since they debuted on Apple’s streaming service.

After Killers of the Flower Moon attracted 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Apple and Paramount Pictures agreed to rerelease the historical crime drama in theaters starting Friday.

The film, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by him and Eric Roth, will see a limited run in 1,000+ locations worldwide, Apple said.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Apple TV+ its latest Oscar win, this time for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. It is hand-drawn animation, and it therefore took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

The Oscar was awarded Sunday night at the 95th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Both Apple TV+ and Netflix pulled out of a bidding war over a movie about Will Smith’s life amid controversy following the actor slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars.

In addition, Apple TV+ owns a $120 million film starring Smith entitled Emancipation. Already shot and being readied for release in time for next Oscars season, the movie could become a problem for Apple TV+.

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony shows why Apple should go back to doing live events.

No, not because we need to see deranged audience members assaulting Apple execs onstage. However, the mere possibility that something can go seriously sideways gives live events an undeniable advantage over the type of canned productions Apple began cranking out during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’m sure this goes against Cupertino’s deeply ingrained cultural bias toward controlling absolutely everything within its power. But if Apple doesn’t get back to putting on live events, its product launches will drift deeper into the uncanny territory of the overproduced infomercial. That’s boring — and it’s bad for both Apple and Apple fans.

Apple TV+ became the first streaming service to bag an Oscar for Best Picture, thanks to CODA‘s strong showing Sunday night at the Academy Awards. The movie won a trio of the prestigious awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

Troy Kotsur, who nabbed the latter of the three, also made history by becoming the first deaf man to pick up an Academy Award.

Taking the top film prize at Saturday’s Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards puts Apple TV+ drama CODA in good stead to win the Best Picture prize at the upcoming Academy Awards. The prize the movie took has been a major predictor of Best Picture winners for decades.

Along with CODA’s win at the PGA Awards, the hit Apple TV+ comedy series Ted Lasso took home a prize.

In celebration of CODA‘s Oscar nomination for Best Picture, Apple TV+ said Friday it will celebrate by re-releasing the indie hit in theaters next weekend. And you’ll be able to watch it for free.

You can see the film for free in theaters from Friday, February 25 to Sunday, February 27.

The nominations are out for the 94th Academy Awards, and Apple TV+ films are up for six Oscars. Two movies from Apple’s streaming service attracted the attention of the Academy: CODA and The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Both films have already garnered a bevy of awards and nomimations.

Apple TV+ may not be the only place to enjoy Apple’s original movies. Sources say Cupertino wants to bring its content to theaters in an effort to attract top Hollywood directors.

The move would also make Apple’s movies eligible for big awards.

Apple’s followed Netflix into developing its own original TV shows. Now it wants to follow it by making its own movies, too.

According to a new report, Apple plans to finance six original small-budget movies per year. Each project would be made for $5 million to $30 million, which is pretty much a micro-budget by Hollywood standards. However, Apple wants to appeal to prestige talent with the goal of making Oscar-winning movies.

Simon Pierro presented an Oscar for a new category: best reaction to a magician pulling an actual golden statuette from an iPad.

Pierro, who travels the world as the iPad magician, capitalized on the buzz leading up to Sunday’s Academy Awards by strolling the Walk of Fame performing tricks for dumbfounded onlookers.

The battle for video streaming supremacy is already turning allies into rivals.

After making some of its best shows available on Amazon Prime since 2014, HBO revealed today that it does not plan to renew its licensing pact with Amazon once it expires next year.

Bringing its award season to a shuddering halt, Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic had a disappointing night Sunday at the Oscars — with its two nominations failing to turn into wins.

It’s the Oscars this weekend, and if you’re an Apple fan, one question that lingers in the mind is what exactly happened to all the early awards buzz for Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic.

Initially hailed as one of 2015’s crowning cinematic achievements, the movie bombed at the box office and even registered on some “worst movies of the year” lists. Although it has picked up Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Supporting Actress (Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet), the movie failed to get put forward for Best Picture, while Sorkin was also a notable absence in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

Having now seen Steve Jobs three times (twice at the theater and once on Blu-ray), here are my thoughts on why the flick was ultimately a disappointment.

Steve Jobs may have flopped at the box office, but the team responsible for it are still confident that they can make up for the dismal lack of earnings with an Oscar.

According to a new report, Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels (who plays John Sculley) and director Danny Boyle recently attended an “intimate brunch and Q&A” with a roomful of Academy voters at the St. Regis hotel.

Hollywood loves Apple almost as much as it loves itself.

The passionate affair burned for decades before Samsung came snapping celebrity selfies with Ellen at the Oscars and dishing out enough paid endorsements to finance the next Star Wars trilogy.

Apple plans to fight back with its own buzz marketer in New York to keep its products in the hands of the elite and glamorous. But Cupertino has never had a problem getting its products on the big screen and into the coolest TV shows — even though Apple swears it doesn’t pay a dime for product placements. Here are 18 of the most iconic Apple cameos to hit the screen.

Samsung may have flashed a bit of cash to get Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres to appear on-stage with a Galaxy Note, but it seems that DeGeneres ditched the device backstage, as she was spotted tweeting out selfies using an iPhone.

@parislemon she’s using an iPhone backstage. pic.twitter.com/eRZlAVwq3S

— Sammy (@sbanawan) March 3, 2014

Want to watch the Oscars this Sunday, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, no need to dust off the television: you can watch it right from your iPhone or iPad via the Watch ABC app. Unfortunately, though, there’s a catch, and a big one.

Ahead of the 86th Academy Awards show, the Heads Up! app dreamed up by this year’s host Ellen DeGeneres has received a timely update — offering questions related to the Oscars.

Joining existing game categories including Celebrities, Animals, Accents, and Characters, the new time-limited Oscars game deck offers users a chance to brush up on their movie trivia knowledge in the most time-pressured setting imaginable. “It’s perfect perfect for your viewing party, or preparing for the big night starring Ellen,” the app’s developers state.

What’d Samsung ripoff from Apple this week? Well, you may have heard that the Galaxy Gear just dropped a few days ago. The reviews have been less than stellar, but to promote its smartwatch Samsung released a commercial that looks a whole lot similar to the very first iPhone commercial Apple dropped at the Oscars in 2007.

The original iPhone ad featured tons of famous movie scenes with someone picking up a phone and saying “hello,” and then a shot of the iPhone was finally shown at the end. Samsung has taken inspiration from Apple and released their own take but all the scenes are people using smartwatches like in Star Trek, Predator, and Inspector gadget.

Take a look a look for yourself and tell us what you think:

Amazon Instant Video integration is one of a number of new features that has been added to the official IMDb app for iOS today, allowing users who have the Amazon Instant Video app to quickly jump from IMDb right into the movie or TV show they were just checking out. The update also brings a new Oscars section, recommendations, and more.