We bumped Friday’s usual weekly news recap to make space for our Better Man film review, so here are the pop culture highlights of the period instead.
As usual, we start with notable industry deaths, and during the past week, news broke that Dame Joan Plowright had passed, aged 95. British actress Plowright was a highly respected figure of both stage and screen. Notably the third wife and widow of Sir Laurence Olivier, Plowright’s standout movie roles include The Entertainer, Enchanted April (which earned her an Oscar nomination), and the live-action 101 Dalmatians. She had been retired for a decade before her death, due to vision deterioration.
Film
Despite a couple of shock snubs, like the exclusion of Pamela Anderson (for The Last Showgirl), Angelina Jolie (for Maria), Nicole Kidman (for Babygirl), Denzel Washington (for Gladiator II), and director Denis Villeneuve (for Dune: Part Two), this year’s announced Oscar nominations generally tracked with the decisions made by other awards bodies.
The movies with the most nominations at the 97th Academy Awards are:
- Emilia Perez – 13
- Wicked – 10
- The Brutalist – 10
- A Complete Unknown – 8
- Conclave – 8
- Anora – 6
For the record, Nosferatu scored four nods, for Production Design, Cinematography, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Costume Design; while animated film Flow popped up in both the Animated Feature and International Feature categories.
Results will be announced at the awards ceremony taking place 2 March at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Conan O’Brien is hosting the show for the first time.
While industry eyes may be on the Oscars, trailer drops during the past week have been more crowd-pleasing than pedigreed, with an emphasis on chills. For example, looking like the most A24 of A24 horror thrillers is Opus. Ayo Edebiri stars as a writer surprisingly invited to experience the first publicly released music of a reclusive pop icon (John Malkovich) in thirty years. That invitation takes our heroine to a remote compound with an eclectic mix of guests, but, of course, something there is very, very wrong.
Opus comes to cinemas from 14 March.
We love a good summer camp slasher film (or game in the case of The Quarry). Out on 18 April, Hell of a Summer is a campy tribute to the genre, from the duo of Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard, who not only co-wrote and directed the film, but star in it too.
Hell of a Summer follows 24-year-old camp counsellor Jason Hochberg (Fred Hechinger), who arrives at Camp Pineway thinking his biggest problem is being out of touch with his teenage co-workers. What he doesn’t know is that a masked killer is lurking on the campgrounds.
And if you still haven’t had enough thrills, check out this trailer for upcoming Drop, a Carry-on-esque thriller where a woman on first date starts receiving messages on her phone to kill her date… or else. Happy Death Day and Freaky filmmaker Christopher Landon is behind the camera.
A new more movie tidbits:
- Nosferatu director Robert Eggers has lined up his next project, and he’s keeping it in the horror genre: Werwulf is a 13th Century thriller, and promises to use authentic Old English from the time period (much like the filmmaker’s The VVitch did with Puritan dialogue), except this time with subtitles. Phew. The film is currently set for a 25 December 2026 release.
- We’re not sure how many times it is now, in pursuit of its particular charm, but there’s a new Resident Evil movie on the horizon. Before you groan, though, Barbarian director Zach Cregger is behind the reboot, which means it could actually be unpredictable and uncomfortable.
- Finally, there’s a first teaser image from the set of Supergirl, which has just started filming in the UK. House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock plays a grittier, more tormented Kara Zor-El.
Series
Much like a Xenomorph, Alien: Earth has been quietly creeping up on us. This FX-made sci-fi horror series comes to Hulu and Disney+ during the Northern Hemisphere Summer, and brings the Alien franchise to, you guessed it, humanity’s home world.
Alien: Earth is a reportedly eight-part prequel series, set two years before the original Alien (dated 2122). When a compromised spacecraft crashlands on Earth, a young woman (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of soldiers find themselves face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.
What’s interesting about Alien: Earth is that it has Noah Hawley as its showrunner, writer and director. Hawley is responsible for the Fargo series adaptation as well as superhero spin-off Legion.
Gaming
Your top gaming news of the past week? Xbox delivered their first hour-long Developer Direct of 2025 last week Thursday. With it came the reveal of release dates for a handful of highly anticipated games. The biggest surprise is that two of them are already out in the first half of this year.
New third-person action adventure South of Midnight comes to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, cloud, and Game Pass on 8 April. The game is made by Compulsion, the studio behind the stylish We Happy Few and Contrast, and is set against a macabre and magical Southern Gothic backdrop.
Meanwhile, it’s time to rip and tear again. FPS prequel DOOM: The Dark Ages, from id Software, launches on 15 May for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, and Game Pass.
Catch up on everything announced during the Developer Direct with this recap article.