QPORIT

THE 2026 OBIE AWARDS

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 4 Feb 2026 18:17:00 -0500

On January 31, 2026, the American Theatre Wing announced the winners of the 69th Annual Obie Awards, continuing its mission to honor the boldest and most innovative work in Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theater.

In a stunning and important departure from traditional gala ceremonies, this year’s awards prioritized direct financial support for artists.

Thanks to a generous anonymous donation, the winners were awarded grants totaling over $250,000, with individual prizes ranging from $3,000 to $15,000.

These grants are intended to provide a "new path forward" by funding the future work of the creators who make New York theater so vibrant.

2026 OBIE AWARD WINNERS: THE PLAYS

Play	Creative Team	Producers / Theater	Plot & Notable Facts
Bowl EP Outstanding New Play	Writer: Nazareth Hassan Director: Nazareth Hassan Cast: Felicia Curry, Oghenero Gbaje, Essence Lotus	Producers: Vineyard Theatre, National Black Theatre, The New Group Theater: Vineyard Theatre	The Plot: Two aspiring rappers bond in a literal skatepark at the "edge of the galaxy." Fact: The production featured live skateboarding on a stage-built half-pipe.
Can I Be Frank?	Writer: Morgan Bassichis Director: Sam Pinkleton	Producers: Mike Lavoie & Carlee Briglia Theater: SoHo Playhouse	The Plot: A comedian investigates the life of Frank Maya, one of the first openly gay comics on TV. Fact: Director Sam Pinkleton won for both this and ta-da! this year.
The Wind and the Rain	Writer: Sarah Gancher Director: Jared Mezzocchi	Producers: En Garde Arts, Vineyard Theatre Theater: Waterfront Museum Barge / Sunny’s Bar	The Plot: A site-specific history of Red Hook’s "Sunny’s Bar" through the lens of a hundred years. Fact: The show began on a barge and ended in the actual Sunny’s Bar.
ta-da!	Writer: Josh Sharp Director: Sam Pinkleton	Producers: Mike Lavoie & Carlee Briglia Theater: Greenwich House Theater	The Plot: A frantic solo comedy about childhood magic, identity, and survival. Fact: The performance is synchronized with a manic 2,000-slide PowerPoint presentation.
Rheology	Writer/Director: Shayok Misha Chowdhury Cast: Bulbul Chakraborty	Producers: The Bushwick Starr, HERE, Ma-Yi Theater Co. Theater: The Bushwick Starr	The Plot: A physicist mother and her artist son explore the science of sand and their relationship. Fact: Bulbul Chakraborty is a real-life theoretical physicist.
The Great Privation	Writer: Nia Akilah Robinson Director: Kellie Williams Cast: Crystal Lucas-Perry	Theater: SoHo Rep / Playwrights Horizons	The Plot: A drama exploring the historical theft of Black bodies for medical science. Fact:** Crystal Lucas-Perry won for her work in two different shows this season.
Grangeville	Writer: Samuel D. Hunter Director: Jack Serio Cast: Paul Sparks	Theater: Signature Theatre	The Plot: Two estranged half-brothers reconnect while caring for their dying mother in Idaho. Fact: Paul Sparks received the Sustained Achievement award for his performance.
Chiaroscuro	Writer: Aishah Rahman Director: abigail jean-baptiste	Theater: National Black Theatre	The Plot: Six Black singles on a cruise ship navigate love, isolation, and colorism. Fact: This was a major revival of a "jazz aesthetic" play originally written in 2002.

Play

Creative Team

Producers / Theater

Plot & Notable Facts

Bowl EP

Outstanding New Play

Writer: Nazareth Hassan

Director: Nazareth Hassan

Cast: Felicia Curry, Oghenero Gbaje, Essence Lotus

Producers: Vineyard Theatre, National Black Theatre, The New Group

Theater: Vineyard Theatre

The Plot: Two aspiring rappers bond in a literal skatepark at the "edge of the galaxy."

Fact: The production featured live skateboarding on a stage-built half-pipe.

Can I Be Frank?

Writer: Morgan Bassichis

Director: Sam Pinkleton

Producers: Mike Lavoie & Carlee Briglia

Theater: SoHo Playhouse

The Plot: A comedian investigates the life of Frank Maya, one of the first openly gay comics on TV.

Fact: Director Sam Pinkleton won for both this and ta-da! this year.

The Wind and the Rain

Writer: Sarah Gancher

Director: Jared Mezzocchi

Producers: En Garde Arts, Vineyard Theatre

Theater: Waterfront Museum Barge / Sunny’s Bar

The Plot: A site-specific history of Red Hook’s "Sunny’s Bar" through the lens of a hundred years.

Fact: The show began on a barge and ended in the actual Sunny’s Bar.

ta-da!

Writer: Josh Sharp

Director: Sam Pinkleton

Producers: Mike Lavoie & Carlee Briglia

Theater: Greenwich House Theater

The Plot: A frantic solo comedy about childhood magic, identity, and survival.

Fact: The performance is synchronized with a manic 2,000-slide PowerPoint presentation.

Rheology

Writer/Director: Shayok Misha Chowdhury

Cast: Bulbul Chakraborty

Producers: The Bushwick Starr, HERE, Ma-Yi Theater Co.

Theater: The Bushwick Starr

The Plot: A physicist mother and her artist son explore the science of sand and their relationship.

Fact: Bulbul Chakraborty is a real-life theoretical physicist.

The Great Privation

Writer: Nia Akilah Robinson

Director: Kellie Williams

Cast: Crystal Lucas-Perry

Theater: SoHo Rep / Playwrights Horizons

The Plot: A drama exploring the historical theft of Black bodies for medical science.

** Fact: Crystal Lucas-Perry won for her work in two different shows this season.

Grangeville

Writer: Samuel D. Hunter

Director: Jack Serio

Cast: Paul Sparks

Theater: Signature Theatre

The Plot: Two estranged half-brothers reconnect while caring for their dying mother in Idaho.

Fact: Paul Sparks received the Sustained Achievement award for his performance.

Chiaroscuro

Writer: Aishah Rahman

Director: abigail jean-baptiste

Theater: National Black Theatre

The Plot: Six Black singles on a cruise ship navigate love, isolation, and colorism.

Fact: This was a major revival of a "jazz aesthetic" play originally written in 2002.

** Crystal Lucas-Perry was also honored for her performance in Pericles: A Public Works Concert Experience (The Public Theater)

SPECIAL CITATIONS & DESIGN AWARDS

Design Awards: Afsoon Pajoufar (Sets), Kate McGee (Lighting), and Frank J. Oliva (Sets).

Sustained Achievement in Design: Cha See (Lighting) and David Bengali (Video).

Special Citations: On The Rocks Theatre Co. (for The Beastiary); the Ensemble of Bowl EP; Troy Anthony (Music/Lyrics for Pericles); the Ensemble of Prince Faggot; and the collaborative team of I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan.

Lifetime Achievement: Performance artist Carmelita Tropicana and Kate Valk of The Wooster Group.

Ross Wetzsteon Award ($15,000): Pregones / Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

ELIGIBILITY & JUDGING

The 2026 Process:

The judges evaluated over 300 in-person productions that opened between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2025. Unlike other awards, the Obies have no nominees—they simply announce the winners of excellence.

The 2026 Judging Panel:

Co-chaired by Wilson Chin (Scenic Designer) and Ryan J. Haddad (Playwright/Actor), the panel included: Stephanie Berry, Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, Jonathan McCrory, Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, Aya Ogawa, Barbara Samuels, and Whitney White.

Eligibility Rules for 2027:

Eligibility Window: September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2026.

New Co-Chairs: Taylor Reynolds and Heather Alicia Simms will lead the 70th Annual Obies.

How to Enter: Producers must invite the judges to see their shows by emailing obieinvites@americantheatrewing.org.

VIEWING

If you missed the live announcement on Spectrum News NY1’s "On Stage," you can still catch the celebration:

ObieAwards.com

Features the full list of winners and recorded acceptance speeches

https://www.obieawards.com/

NY1 YouTube Channel

Often hosts segments and highlight clips from the broadcast

https://www.youtube.com/@SpectrumNewsNY1

Spectrum News App

Available on-demand for Spectrum subscribers

via mobile, Roku, and Apple TV

https://www.spectrumnews1.com/app

2026 THEATER AWARDS CALENDAR

Outer Critics Circle Awards

Winners announced May 11, 2026; Ceremony May 21, 2026.

http://outercritics.org

Lucille Lortel Awards - Celebrating Off-Broadway
Early May 2026

http://lortelaward.com

Drama League Awards
Friday, May 15, 2026.

http://dramaleague.org

Drama Desk Awards
Sunday, June 1, 2026.

http://dramadeskawards.com

79th Annual Tony Awards
Sunday, June 7, 2026 (Live from Radio City Music Hall)

http://tonyawards.com

The Obie Awards demonstrate that the heart of New York theater isn't just in the big theaters and big prices and big stars of midtown, but also in the basements, barges, and community centers of the village and all the boroughs of NYC.

*** *** ***

By trading a red carpet for direct grants, the American Theatre Wing powers the independent spirit of Off-Broadway to remain financially sustainable for

creative rule-breakers.

98th OSCARS 2026

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 22:37:00 -0500

THE 98^TH OSCARS 2026

ABC

SUNDAY MARCH 15, 2026

5 PM PC / 7 PM ET

HOST CONAN OBRIEN

From the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

RED CARPET

ABC - STARTING AT 3:30 PM PC / 6:30 PM ET

STREAMING ON VARIETY YOUTUBE AND HULU LIVE AT 6:30

RECORDING STREAMS ON HULU MONDAY MARCH 16 - IN THE MORNING

Ryan Coogler’s "Sinners" secured a staggering 16 nominations, the most for any single film in the history of the Academy Awards. It broke the long-standing record of 14 held by Titanic, All About Eve, and La La Land. Closely trailing is Paul Thomas Anderson’s "One Battle After Another" with 13 nods

OFFICIAL OSCAR SITE

Oscars.org

IMDB OSCAR CENTRAL

IMDb.com/oscars

VARIETY (click LIVE)

https://www.youtube.com/user/Variety

THE GOLDEN GLOBES

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-golden-globes-2026.html

NOMINEES

Below is the complete list of Oscar nominees. Any nominee who was a Golden Globe winner in their corresponding category is highlighted and tagged with

{ bold italics, brackets & GG }.

FILMS

Best Picture

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
{ Hamnet — GG (Drama) }
Marty Supreme
{ One Battle After Another — GG (Musical or Comedy) }
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

Animated Feature Film

Arco
Elio
{ KPop Demon Hunters — GG }
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

International Feature Film

{ The Secret Agent (Brazil) — GG }
It Was Just an Accident (France)
Sentimental Value (Norway)
Sirāt (Spain)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

Documentary Feature Film

The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

Documentary Short Film

All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only with a Camera
Children No More
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Animated Short Film

Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Live Action Short Film

Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva

ACTING

Actor in a Leading Role

{ Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme — GG (Musical or Comedy) }
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
{ Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent — GG (Drama) }

Actress in a Leading Role

{ Jessie Buckley, Hamnet — GG (Drama) }
{ Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You — GG (Musical or Comedy) }
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia

Actor in a Supporting Role

Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
{ Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value — GG }

Actress in a Supporting Role

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
{ Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another — GG }

Best Casting (Inaugural Category)

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners

CREATIVE

Best Directing

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
{ Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another — GG }
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Original Screenplay

Blue Moon
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
{ Sinners — GG }

Adapted Screenplay

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
{ One Battle After Another — GG }
Train Dreams

Original Score

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
{ Sinners — GG}

Original Song

“Dear Me”, Diane Warren: Relentless
{ “Golden”, KPop Demon Hunters — GG }
“I Lied to You”, Sinners
“Sweet Dreams of Joy”, Viva Verdi!
“Train Dreams”, Train Dreams

Cinematography

Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Film Editing

F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

TECH AND DESIGN

Production Design

Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister

Best Sound

F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt

Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

THE GOLDEN GLOBES 2026

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:48:00 -0500

THE GOLDEN GLOBES

Sunday, January 11, 2026.

THE RED CARPET (Digital Pre-Show)

CBS AT 7:00 pm

Variety’s YouTube LIVE channel & FIRE TV

6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT.

THE AWARDS

CBS

STREAMING ON PARAMOUNT + FOR SHOWTIME SUBSCRIBERS

8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT.

Nikki Glaser made history last year as the first solo female host in the show's history. She returns for her second consecutive year.

Born in 1984, Glaser is a veteran stand-up comedian and actress who has hosted everything from FBoy Island to her own Comedy Central talk show, Not Safe with Nikki Glaser. She is a self-proclaimed "Swiftie" and recently taped a sold-out comedy special for Hulu.

Nikki Glaser IMDb

Nikki Glaser Wikipedia

The film side is dominated by Paul Thomas Anderson’s "One Battle After Another," with 9 nominations, including a Best Actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio. Closely following is the Norwegian drama "Sentimental Value" with 8 nominations. On the television side, the third season of "The White Lotus" is the clear frontrunner with 6 nominations, including multiple nominations for its supporting cast.

So far, (8:36 PM Jean Smart, last), I do not know why, the last person on each list, alphabetically, has won.

83rd Annual Golden Globes

MOTION PICTURE CATEGORIES

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Frankenstein (Netflix)
>> Hamnet (Focus Features)
It Was Just an Accident (NEON)
The Secret Agent (NEON)
Sentimental Value (NEON)
Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)
Bugonia (Focus Features)
Marty Supreme (A24)
No Other Choice (NEON)
Nouvelle Vague (Netflix)
>> One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Best Director – Motion Picture

>> Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein)
Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident)
Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

>> Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love)
Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)
Julia Roberts (After the Hunt)
Tessa Thompson (Hedda)
Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams)
Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein)
Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine)
Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
>> Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

>> Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)
Cynthia Erivo (Wicked: For Good)
Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)
Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another)
Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee)
Emma Stone (Bugonia)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

>> Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
George Clooney (Jay Kelly)
Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)
Jesse Plemons (Bugonia)

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in any Motion Picture

Emily Blunt (The Smashing Machine)
Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)
Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good)
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
Amy Madigan (Weapons)
>> Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in any Motion Picture

Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)
Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
Paul Mescal (Hamnet)
Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)
Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly)
>> Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

Best Motion Picture – Animated

Arco
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle
Elio
>> KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language

It Was Just an Accident (France)
No Other Choice (South Korea)
>> The Secret Agent (Brazil)
Sentimental Value (Norway)
Sirāt (Spain)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
KPop Demon Hunters
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
>> Sinners
Weapons
Wicked: For Good
Zootopia 2

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

>> One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Marty Supreme (Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie)
Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
Sentimental Value (Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier)
Hamnet (Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell)

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat)
>> Sinners (Ludwig Göransson)
One Battle After Another (Jonny Greenwood)
Sirāt (Kangding Ray)
Hamnet (Max Richter)
F1 (Hans Zimmer)

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

“Dream as One” – Avatar: Fire and Ash (Miley Cyrus, Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, Simon Franglen)
“The Girl in the Bubble” – Wicked: For Good (Stephen Schwartz)
>> “Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters (Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Ido, 24, Teddy)
“I Lied to You” – Sinners (Raphael Saadiq, Ludwig Göransson)
“No Place Like Home” – Wicked: For Good (Stephen Schwartz)
“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams (Nick Cave, Bryce Dessner)

I. TELEVISION CATEGORIES

Best Television Series – Drama

The Diplomat (Netflix)
>> The Pitt (HBO Max)
Pluribus (Apple TV+)
Severance (Apple TV+)
Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
The White Lotus (HBO Max)

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Abbott Elementary (ABC)
The Bear (FX on Hulu)
Hacks (HBO Max)
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
>> The Studio (Apple TV+)

Best Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television

>> Adolescence
All Her Fault
The Beast in Me
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
The Girlfriend

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

Kathy Bates (Matlock)
Britt Lower (Severance)
Helen Mirren (Mobland)
Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us)
Keri Russell (The Diplomat)
>> Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

Sterling K. Brown (Paradise)
Diego Luna (Andor)
Gary Oldman (Slow Horses)
Mark Ruffalo (Task)
Adam Scott (Severance)
>> Noah Wyle (The Pitt)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This)
Ayo Edebiri (The Bear)
Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building)
Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face)
Jenna Ortega (Wednesday)
>> Jean Smart (Hacks)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Adam Brody (Nobody Wants This)
Steve Martin (Only Murders in the Building)
Glen Powell (Chad Powers)
>> Seth Rogen (The Studio)
Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building)
Jeremy Allen White (The Bear)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for TV

Claire Danes (The Beast in Me)
Rashida Jones (Black Mirror)
Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River)
Sarah Snook (All Her Fault)
>> Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex)
Robin Wright (The Girlfriend)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for TV

Jacob Elordi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
Paul Giamatti (Black Mirror)
>> Stephen Graham (Adolescence)
Charlie Hunnam (Monster: The Ed Gein Story)
Jude Law (Black Rabbit)
Matthew Rhys (The Beast in Me)

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television

>> Ricky Gervais (Mortality)
Brett Goldstein (The Second Best Night of Your Life)
Kevin Hart (Acting My Age)
Kumail Nanjiani (Night Thoughts)
Sarah Silverman (Postmortem)

also...

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television

>> Owen Cooper - Adolescence

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television

>> Hannah Einbinder - Hacks

Best Podcast (Inaugural Category)

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Call Her Daddy
>> Good Hang with Amy Poehler
The Mel Robbins Podcast
SmartLess
Up First (NPR)

The 2026 Special Honorary Awards

This year, the Golden Globes introduced "Golden Eve," a separate primetime special (aired Jan 8) to dedicate more time to these legends.

The Cecil B. DeMille Award (Film): Helen Mirren. Presented by her 1923 co-star Harrison Ford, Mirren was honored for a lifetime of daring performances, from The Queen to her current role in MobLand.
The Carol Burnett Award (TV): Sarah Jessica Parker. Presented by her husband Matthew Broderick, Parker was celebrated for her indelible impact on television history, specifically her decade-defining role as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City.
The Omar Sharif Award: Hend Sabry. A new international honor recognizing significant contributions to Arab cinema.
The Golden Globes Horizon Award: Alia Bhatt. Honoring a rising global star who has made a significant impact on the international stage.

Official Golden Globes Site

GoldenGlobes.com

Red Carpet Stream

VarietyYouTube (LIVE)

Official Streaming Platform

Paramount+ Showtime

SPECIAL PROSECUTOR JACK SMITH'S TESTIMONY ABOUT DONALD TRUMP'S ACTIONS RELATED TO CLAIMS OF ELECTION FRAUD

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 16:13:00 -0500

JACK SMITH'S testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was made public on New Year's Eve. In the testimony he says that in his opinion he had evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of possibly criminal acts by Donald Trump in connection with Trump's claims of election fraud, and the events on January 6.

Here is a link to the testimony:

TESTIMONY

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26450308-jack-smith-deposition/

LINKS TO THE EPSTEIN MATERIALS RELEASED BY THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 03:54:00 -0500

The Epstein information released by the House Oversight Committee can be found HERE:

https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-releases-additional-epstein-estate-documents/

To get to the documents from this page, look at "The documents can be found here.

That will take you where you can look through them yourself HERE:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hTNH5woIRio578onLGElkTWofUSWRoH_

THE NEW SAMSUNG GALAXY XR HEADSET LOOKS TERRIFIC!

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:22:00 -0400

The new Samsung Galaxy XR headset with Android XR operating system (SGAXR) looks terrific from the demo presentation. It is at least $1,000 cheaper than the AVP. It comes with 256 GB, considerable software, and a a free year of Google AI Pro and YouTube Premium; plus a few other introductory free or inexpensive content packages.

I have not had a chance to test it. It is available for order today in the US & South Korea. Delivery should be about a week. Demos are available at Samsung stores.

https://www.samsung.com/us/

SPECS

Memory

16 GB Memory
256 GB Storage

Display

3,552 x 3,840, 27 Million pixels Micro-OLED
6.3‑micron pixel pitch
95% DCI‑P3
Refresh rates: 60 Hz, 72 Hz (Default), 90 Hz (Up to, upon service request)
Field of View: 109 degrees horizontal and 100 degrees vertical

Chip

Snapdragon® XR2+ Gen 2 Platform

Camera

Supports 3D Photo & video capture
18 mm / F2.0
6.5 MP*
* Resolution may vary depending on use case.

Sensors

Two High-resolution Pass-through cameras
Six World-facing tracking cameras
Four Eye-tracking Cameras
Five Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs)
One Depth sensor
One Flicker sensor

Optic (Iris)

Supports Iris recognition
* Use iris recognition to unlock the device and to enter passwords in certain apps.

Audio and Video

Two, 2 Way speaker (Woofer + Tweeter)

Six Microphones array
- Multiple microphones among the six microphones support beamforming feature depending on the use case

Audio Playback
- Codec : MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/ AAC+/ eAAC+, Vorbis, FLAC, Opus, Dolby Digital (AC3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) , Dolby ATMOS (E-AC3 JOC, AC4)

Video Playing Resolution
UHD 8K (7680 x 4320)@60fps

Video Playback (Supports HDR10 and HLG)
- Codec : H.263, H.264, HEVC, MV-HEVC, MPEG-4, VC-1, VP8, VP9, AV1

Battery

Up to 2 hours of general use
Video watching up to 2.5 hours
Galaxy XR can be used while charging the battery

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Bluetooth 5.4 (Up to)

Interpupillary Distance (IPD)

54~70mm
Vision Correction
Galaxy XR supports vision correction through separately purchasable optical-inserts

Weight

1.20 lb (w/ forehead cushion)
Weight may vary depending on whether light shield is attached or not.
Separate battery weighs 0.67 lb

THE 2025 MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:27:00 -0400

The Montclair Film Festival is getting more interesting every year!

The 2025 Montclair Film Festival runs from Oct 17 to Oct 26.

Opening night, tonight! will include an Opening Night Party after the Opening Night Feature, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and a Q&A with composer Nicholas Britell.

Additional centerpiece films include

Ryan White’s intimate documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light; and
HIKARI’s Tokyo-set Rental Family with Brendan Fraser, who will participate in a Q & A moderated by Stephen Colbert.

Additional highlights of the ten day event include:

Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet ,
Rebecca Miller’s two-part portrait Mr. Scorsese and
Closing night’s Christy with Sydney Sweeney and Ben Foster.

In addition to many genres of full-length films and short films, the festival features conversations with Pamela Abdy; and another with Spike Lee moderated by Stephen Colbert. AND…

Montclair Film’s signature onstage series returns on December 7 with Stephen Colbert in conversation with Conan O’Brien at NJPAC.

The Film Festival is the annual highlight event of Montclair Film, an organization that provides multiple, excellent film opportunities for high school students (and others). I've been following them ever since I posted in QPORIT about the 2019 event with Stephen Colbert interviewing Julia-Louis Dreyfus.

SOME LINKS

OPENING NIGHT EVENT

https://montclairfilm.org/events/jay-kelly/

MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE - BY DATE

https://montclairfilm.org/

MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE GUIDE - BY GENRE, VENUE, DATE

https://montclairfilm.org/ (SELECT “BROWSE AND BUY TICKETS”)

TICKET INFO

https://montclairfilm.org/festival-information/tickets/

MONTCLAIR FILM

https://montclairfilm.org/about/mission/

MONTCLAIR FILM + EDUCATION

https://montclairfilm.org/education/

STEPHEN COLBERT & CONAN O’BRIEN

https://www.njpac.org/event/stephen-colbert/

SPIKE LEE

https://montclairfilm.org/events/in-conversation-spike-lee/

BRENDAN FRASER

https://montclairfilm.org/events/rental-famly/

PAMELA ABDY

https://montclairfilm.org/events/in-conversation-pamela-abdy/

NICHOLAS BRITELL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Britell

STEPHEN COLBERT & JULIA-LOUIS DREYFUS (2019)

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2019/09/colbert-julia-louis-dreyfus.html

APPLE VISION PRO UPDATE

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 02:52:00 -0400

Apple just announced an upgrade to the Apple Vision Pro (AVP) with no special fanfare. Fair enough: there is little new in the AVP to hype. The primary change is that the M2 chip has been replaced with an M5 chip, making everything more powerful, but not different. It also has a new headband.

On the negative side, the weight is slightly increased, and there is no trade-in or allowance to buy the new AVP. The base price with 256 GB storage is about $3,500, not counting extras like a service contract. With 512 GB add $200. And 1 TB begins at about $3,900. A free demo is available at Apple Stores: Click on the button on the AVP page below, or call for an appointment.

The AVP (as before) includes a Spatial Video camera. “Spatial Video” is Apple’s term for 3D 180 video in its proprietary format . A Spatial Video uses approximately 300 MB per minute or 2 GB per hour at 2200x2200 pxls / 30 fps (and records Spatial Audio well as Video). Meta Quest 3 now does support the Apple format. For other 3D players, there is a MAC program that can assist in converting the Apple format to a standard side-by-side (SBS) 3D ready format. The AVP also includes software that displays 2D photos and videos in 3D as they play.

LINKS

HOME PAGE:

https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/

ANNOUNCEMENT

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-vision-pro-upgraded-with-the-m5-chip-and-dual-knit-band/

APPLE STORE

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-vision/apple-vision-pro

SPECS:

https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/specs/

DEVELOPER’S SITE FOR APPLE VISION OS

https://developer.apple.com/visionos/

THE M5 CHIP

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unleashes-m5-the-next-big-leap-in-ai-performance-for-apple-silicon/

NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL #63 2025

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0400

63RD NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

MAIN SLATE SELECTIONS

2025-09-26 thru 2025-10-13

The lineup of 34 films in the Main Slate celebrates global cinema with world, North American, U.S., and New York premieres from 26 countries.

NYFF63 runs from September 26 through October 13, 2025

Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) will presents 34 films in the Main Slate of the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF63), taking place September 26 through October 13, 2025.

In addition to the main slate, the NYFF contains several other programs, including “Currents”, “Spotlight”, Live “Talks”, "Revivals" and "Artists & Critics Academies". (Links below!)

This year’s Main Slate showcases films from 26 countries, among them two world, eight North American, and 13 U.S. premieres.

Acclaimed films from festivals worldwide include

· Cannes prizewinners:

o Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (Palme d’Or);

o Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Grand Prix);

o joint Jury Prize winners

§ Oliver Laxe’s Sirât and

§ Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling;

o Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (Best Director, Best Actor); and

o Bi Gan’s Resurrection (Special Award).

· At this year’s Berlinale,

· Rose Byrne won the Silver Bear for best leading performance for Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and
·Radu Jude won the Silver Bear for best screenplay for Kontinental ’2

Of the Main Slate films, 11 premiere at the 82nd Venice Film Festival across various sections—including

· Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly,
· Kent Jones’s Late Fame, and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice.

NYFF63 world premieres include

· Gavagai by Ulrich Köhler (In My Room, NYFF56), an astute drama in which a film adaptation of Medea becomes the center of cross-cultural tensions, and

· Closing Night selection Is This Thing On?, a keenly observed comedic drama by Bradley Cooper (Maestro, NYFF61 Spotlight Gala) about a couple navigating their recent separation.

Filmmakers making their Main Slate debut are

· Mary Bronstein,

Bradley Cooper,

· Kent Jones – (who was the Director of the NYFF some year ago),

· Kahlil Joseph,

· Milagros Mumenthaler,

· Mark Obenhaus,

· Hlynur Pálmason,

· Pedro Pinho,

· Mascha Schilinski, and

· Francesco Sossai.

This year’s program explores a wide range of themes that reflect the complexities of the world today.

· Family dynamics are the focal points of

o Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother,

o Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,

o Hlynur Pálmason’s The Love That Remains,

o Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3,

o Carla Simón’s Romería,

o Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, and

o Hong Sangsoo’s What Does That Nature Say to You.

· A gamut of social and political concerns—from economic precarity to life under authoritarian rule—emerge in

o Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident,

o Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25,

o Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice,

o Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, and Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors,

· Revolving around colonial histories and legacies are

o Claire Denis’s The Fence,

o Pedro Pinho’s I Only Rest in the Storm,

o Lucrecia Martel’s Landmarks, and

o Lav Diaz’s Magellan .

· In a lineup that features dramas, comedies, documentaries, thrillers, and forays into horror and science fiction, several films test the limits and subvert the conventions of genre—like

o Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite,

o Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, and

o Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada

· And several films could be said to invent genres of their own, such as

o Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions,

o Bi Gan’s Resurrection, and

o Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.

NYFF63 films are screened in theaters at Lincoln Center and at four venues across the city: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (Staten Island), AMC Bay Plaza Cinema (Bronx), BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) (Brooklyn), and the Museum of the Moving Image (Queens).

The Opening Night selection is the North American premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt.

The North American premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother is the Centerpiece selection.

The world premiere of Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? is the Closing Night selection.

The NYFF Main Slate selection committee is chaired by Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director, and includes Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen. Violeta Bava, Michelle Carey, Leo Goldsmith, and Antoine Thirion are NYFF program advisors.

NYFF TICKETS

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff/tickets-and-passes/

FLC MEMBERSHIP

https://www.filmlinc.org/membership/

NYFF ARCHIVE

featuring Main Slate lineups, never-before-published photographs, and official posters from all past editions.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff/new-york-film-festival-editions/

CURRENTS

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2025/daily/63rd-new-york-film-festival-currents-lineup-announced/

SPOTLIGHT

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2025/daily/63rd-new-york-film-festival-spotlight-selections-announced/

LIVE TALKS

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2025/daily/nyff63-talks-lineup-features-jafar-panahi-claire-denis-lucrecia-martel-and-more/

REVIVALS

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2025/daily/63rd-new-york-film-festival-revivals-announced/

ARTISTS AND CRITICS ACADEMIES

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff/daily/2025-flc-artists-and-critics-academy-programs-participants-announced/

THE MAIN SLATE OF FILMS

NYFF63 2025

OPENING NIGHT

AFTER THE HUNT
Luca Guadagnino, 2025, U.S., 135m
North American Premiere

A drama of sexuality, race, gender and academic privilege.

In his razor-sharp new drama, the prolific Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, NYFF55; Queer, NYFF62) plunges with refreshing abandon into the murky seas of contemporary morality—and gives Julia Roberts one of the most complex and gratifying starring roles of her career. Roberts embodies chilly, seemingly self-assured Yale philosophy professor Alma Olsson, whose comfortable professional career and domestic life with her mercurial husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) are thrown into chaos after her PhD candidate protégée Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s longtime colleague and friend Hank (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. As a result, the air of rarefied academic privilege on campus begins to dissolve, and Alma must navigate minefields of gender, sexuality, race, and institutional power, all while trying to reconcile her own difficult choices with the demons of her past. From a trenchant, tightly plotted script by Nora Garrett, and with the aid of a sensational cast (also including Chloë Sevigny as Kim, a colleague of Alma’s), Guadagnino teases out a genuine provocation with no easy answers, inquiring where our true selves lie when every decision we make is thrown into the court of public opinion.

An Amazon MGM Studios release.

Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32159989/

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8R6DMlDtxk

CENTERPIECE

FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER

Jim Jarmusch, 2025, U.S., 110m

North American Premiere

For years, Jim Jarmusch has written, directed, and produced delicate, character-driven films, including Stranger Than Paradise, Only Lovers Left Alive, Paterson, and Down by Law.

Father Mother Sister Brother is a perceptive study in familial dynamics, a feature film carefully constructed in the form of a triptych. The three chapters all concern the relationships between adult children reconnecting or coming to terms with aging or lost parents, which take place in the present, and each in a different country. Siblings Jeff and Emily (Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik) check up on their hermetic father (Tom Waits) in rural New Jersey; sisters Lilith and Timothea (Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchett) reunite with their guarded novelist mother (Charlotte Rampling) in Dublin; and twins Skye and Billy (Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat) return to their Paris apartment to address a family tragedy. Father Mother Sister Brother is a kind of anti-action film, its subtle and quiet style carefully constructed to allow small details to accumulate—almost like flowers being carefully placed in three delicate arrangements. As always, Jarmusch brings his worlds to life with the essential assistance of his collaborators, including two masterful cinematographers, Frederick Elmes and Yorick Le Saux, and the brilliant editor Affonso Gonçalves.

A MUBI release.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: YouTube

CLOSING NIGHT

IS THIS THING ON?

Bradley Cooper, 2025, U.S., 124m

World Premiere

In a pair of galvanizing, deeply honest performances, Will Arnett and Laura Dern play Alex and Tess Novak, whose marriage has reached an impasse.

With amicable sorrow, the couple—parents of two young boys—mutually agree to split up. Yet in director Bradley Cooper’s keenly observed comic drama, their separation leads to unpredictable midlife self-reckonings, most dramatically in Alex’s wild career pivot to become a confessional stand-up comedian in New York City’s West Village, where he finds new direction and camaraderie. This seemingly outlandish scenario—in a script by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell inspired by the true story of British comedian John Bishop—is never played for easy laughs, while Cooper uses his penchant for naturalism to give the actors space to find their complicated centers. In his beautifully lived-in third feature following A Star Is Born and Maestro (NYFF61), Cooper confirms his dexterity for representing the complexities of human relationships, constructing a film that is both lacerating and sweet-souled, funny and tender. Is This Thing On? features a stacked, stellar supporting cast, including Andra Day, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Sean Hayes, Peyton Manning, and Amy Sedaris, as well as charming assistance from New York stand-up standbys such as Chloe Radcliffe, Reggie Conquest, and Jordan Jensen, supplying the film its downtown authenticity.

A Searchlight Pictures release from Lea Pictures and Archery Pictures.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: YouTube

BELOW THE CLOUDS / SOTTO LE NUVOLE

Gianfranco Rosi, 2025, Italy, 114m

Italian, Arabic, Japanese, and English with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

The great Italian documentarian Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno, NYFF58) specializes in kaleidoscopic portraits of people living amid anxiety and uncertainty.

Among his most striking and monumental works, his latest details with pointillist precision and unnerving beauty a region in Naples living under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius and above the simmering Campi Flegrei volcanic caldera, which has in recent years experienced increasingly frequent and alarming tremors. In this volatile environment, Rosi finds archeologists reckoning with both uncovered ancient artifacts and the wreckage of tomb raiders, squads of diggers descending into long abandoned tunnels, emergency centers already at breaking points, and a populace experiencing a generalized daily disquietude, fearful of an eruption like the one that buried Pompeii in 79 A.D. Linking modern and ancient life, Below the Clouds alights on a specific region yet feels connected to everyone’s contemporary moment—the contemplation of the unimaginable nestled within our daily existence.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: YouTube

BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS

Kahlil Joseph, 2025, U.S., 107m

New York Premiere

Visual artist and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph’s video installation BLKNWS debuted in galleries and museums across the country in 2019, immersing viewers in the imagined world of a television news network from a Black perspective.

After expanding this concept into a short film, Joseph has developed it even further into a feature film, and the result is a celebration of Black life that reconceptualizes and remediates common, corporate notions of journalism. Joseph’s sprawling film is an uninterrupted gush of ideas, mixing newly shot footage and extant media, leaping from fantastical images to historical narratives, collapsing boundaries that often separate documentary and fiction. A multidimensional work of vision and ambition, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions offers an alternately riotous and meditative compendium of the Black experience.

A Rich Spirit release.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: YouTube

COVER-UP

Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, 2025, U.S., 117m

English, Vietnamese, and Arabic with English subtitles

New York Premiere

For the past six decades, Seymour Hersh has been at the front lines of political journalism in the United States. Hersh’s breakthrough reportage has brought to the public’s attention many of the most damning constitutional wrongdoings and cover-ups, from the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam to the CIA’s involvement in plots to assassinate foreign leaders to the Iraq invasion and systematic tortures at Abu Ghraib. In many cases, the revelations of his work have led to governmental reckonings and legal ramifications, yet Hersh, now 88 and surrounded by boxes of files from decades of tireless work, sees himself not as a crusader but as a citizen just doing his job. In this arresting documentary, Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, NYFF60) and Mark Obenhaus tell the wide-ranging story of Hersh (whose career has not been free of controversy itself). Though a decades-gestating project for the filmmakers, Cover-Up couldn’t have come at a more crucial moment, when freedom of the U.S. press is increasingly under fire by those in power.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: Not currently available

THE CURRENTS / LAS CORRIENTES

Milagros Mumenthaler, 2025, Switzerland/Argentina, 104m

Spanish with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

While on a work trip in Switzerland, where she’s being fêted for her storied fashion career, designer Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola) plunges herself, without warning, into an icy winter lake. After surviving the shocking ordeal, Lina returns to her hometown of Buenos Aires, yet a transformation has taken place within her, and she finds it impossible to readjust to her former life as a wife, mother, and artist, distancing herself from her husband (Esteban Bigliardi) and career. Acclaimed Argentinean filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler (Back to Stay) has constructed a compelling existential puzzle, a work of psychological interiority that, with its oblique narrative and complexly layered soundscape evoking a woman’s enigmatic dissociation, recalls the work of Lucrecia Martel and Todd Haynes, yet with its own singular emotional perspective and aesthetic sophistication.

CREDITS: IMDb

PREVIEW: YouTube

DUSE

Pietro Marcello, 2025, Italy, 123m

Italian with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Bringing the same intellectual and muscular energy to the historical biopic as he did with his momentous Jack London adaptation Martin Eden (NYFF57), Pietro Marcello depicts the late career of legendary Italian actress Eleonora Duse, incarnated by the wondrously expressive Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The diva emerges vulnerable yet undeterred from the cataclysm of World War I, taking the stage again in her sixties despite a tubercular condition and a knotty relationship with her resentful daughter (Noémie Merlant), even as world politics and the aesthetics of theater itself are on the verge of changing forever. Epitomizing the full-bodied emotional materiality of his subject, Marcello goes beyond the formal and structural limitations of the biographical film, examining how acting itself can be a reflection of modernity and how performing brought Duse closer to becoming a radical political being. As always, Marcello brings both great flourish and historical realism to his work, incorporating mesmerizing early-20th-century archival color footage into this fictionalized portrait of the life of the artistic mind.

THE FENCE / LE CRI DES GARDES

Claire Denis, 2025, France, 92m

English and Yoruba with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

The absorbing new drama from Claire Denis (Beau Travail, NYFF37) is centered around a fascinating, intractable tête-à-tête. On a white-run construction site in an acrid, dust-strewn town in West Africa, a local man named Albouny (the riveting Denis regular Isaach De Bankolé) has arrived to demand the immediate return of the dead body of his brother Nouofia, killed in a mysterious work accident. The site’s anxious foreman, Horn (Matt Dillon), protected behind the perimeter fence, yet ruffled by Albouny’s defiance and unflappability, is clearly hiding a terrible truth from the man. Set primarily over the course of one unrelenting night, Denis’s film, based on Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play Black Battles with Dogs, also drifts on the neurotic vibrations of Horn’s alienated younger wife (Mia McKenna-Bruce), just arrived from London, and his live-wire right-hand man (Tom Blyth), to whom Horn owes a secret debt. All these simmering tensions converge in Denis’s unpredictable and intimate film, with which the French director returns to the subjects of colonialism and racial segregation so central to her unparalleled filmography.

GAVAGAI

Ulrich Köhler, 2025, Germany/France, 91m

French, English, German, and Wolof with English subtitles

World Premiere

In this charged, unexpected metacinematic drama from German director Ulrich Köhler (In My Room, NYFF56), a radical new movie production of Medea, drastically altered from Euripides’s original play, becomes the center of a series of unresolvable contemporary tensions. Nourou (Jean-Christophe Folly) and Maja (Maren Eggert) embody Jason and Medea on-screen, tussling with the film’s high-anxiety director (Nathalie Richard) during the shoot in Senegal, all the while negotiating an adulterous romance off-set. Later, at the film’s premiere in Berlin, Nourou, unresolved in his personal and professional life, has a rattling run-in with a racist security guard, which throws his—and the film’s—world off its axis. Köhler specializes in cunning, tonally surprising films about cross-cultural disconnection, and Gavagai is his most ambitious and expansive film yet—a pinpoint-accurate account of moral crises and social biases, modern and ancient, internal and external.

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE

Kathryn Bigelow, 2025, U.S., 112m

North American Premiere

At a remote military outpost, an unidentified incoming missile is detected, setting in motion an escalating series of actions and reactions across all levels of the United States government. With her trademark dynamic kineticism, Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, NYFF33 Centerpiece) puts the viewer in the center of a crisis in which decisions must be made in limited time, based on incomplete and evolving information and untested protocols. Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim construct a frighteningly plausible scenario in which a multitude of dilemmas—practical and personal, bureaucratic and existential—overlap in real time and at a mounting rate. The film’s prismatic structure allows for a broad-scale thriller that entangles intimate dramas with an unfolding world-historic event, and the terrific ensemble cast, which includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, and Tracy Letts, conjures vivid characters with muscular efficiency, bringing emotional depth to this taut, thought-provoking exploration of an all-too-believable nightmare.

A Netflix release.

I ONLY REST IN THE STORM / O RISO E A FACA

Pedro Pinho, 2025, Portugal/Brazil/France/Romania, 211m

Portuguese and Creole with English subtitles

North American Premiere

The charming, well-meaning environmental engineer Sergio (Sérgio Coragem) has traveled from Lisbon to Guinea-Bissau to meet with locals and research the possibility of his European company constructing a road that will connect the city areas to rural villages. While drifting through his revelatory trip, Sergio tentatively makes friends and lovers, talks to people who either embrace or abhor the possible project, and falls into conversations and confrontations about his place in this world: friend or interloper, lover or enemy? Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Pinho’s epic yet scrappy—and sexually fluid—I Only Rest in the Storm is a playful and loose-limbed portrayal of the contemporary postcolonialist liberal mindset that cleverly cuts to the bone in one entertaining scene after another, and features an outstanding supporting performance by Cleo Diára (who won Best Actress in the Un Certain Regard section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) as a local businesswoman and bar owner who suffers no fools.

IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU

Mary Bronstein, 2025, U.S., 113m

New York Premiere

The nightmarish stresses of motherhood and work are pushed to their absurdist extremes in Mary Bronstein’s stellar piece of cinematic anxiety, starring a bravura Rose Byrne as a woman on the verge of something far beyond a nervous breakdown. A therapist whose life has become one crisis after another, Linda (Byrne) and her young daughter (who requires a feeding tube due to a mysterious illness) have had to relocate to a motel following a cataclysmic ceiling leak in their house. Meanwhile, her own therapist and colleague (Conan O’Brien, unlike you’ve ever seen him) has reached his own boiling point, her toughest patient (Danielle Macdonald) is a needy bundle of nerves that’s spilling over into Linda’s personal life, and her belligerent husband (Christian Slater) is unhelpfully away on a business trip. Bronstein’s breathless, pressure-cooker visual approach and Byrne’s fearlessly committed performance (which earned her the Silver Bear at this year’s Berlinale) contribute to a full-throttle film that depicts life as a series of never-ending fires—without losing its sense of fanciful humor.

An A24 release.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT / UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT

Jafar Panahi, 2025, Iran/France/Luxembourg, 105m

Persian with English subtitles

New York Premiere

Jafar Panahi (No Bears, NYFF60) reaffirms his status as one of this century’s great cinematic heroes with perhaps his bravest film yet, which won him the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Ever since he was arrested, imprisoned, and banned from making movies by the Iranian government 15 years ago, Panahi has found ways of producing films in secret and without official permission. Showing his political risk-taking as well as his confident command of craft, It Was Just an Accident is his most explicit attack on his country’s repressive regime, a cutting and darkly humorous thriller that concerns a mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who believes he has reencountered by chance the government intelligence officer, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who had tortured him while under detainment. As Vahid enlists the services of acquaintances whose lives were also forever altered by Eghbal’s cruelties, the thirst for revenge and the sense of danger escalate—as do questions of moral choice and culpability.

A NEON release.

JAY KELLY

Noah Baumbach, 2025, U.K./U.S./Italy, 132m

New York Premiere

In his most captivating film role in years, George Clooney is cast—fittingly—as the last great movie star. Jay Kelly is at a crisis point: uninspired by his work, reeling from the loss of his mentor, and tormented by a run-in with a haunting figure from his past, he does the unthinkable, backing out of a big new production at the 11th hour in order to run off to Europe and catch up with his college-bound daughter in France before attending a career tribute in Italy. Unable to entirely shed his Hollywood skin, he finds himself trailed by his entourage, including his long-suffering manager (played by a marvelously fragile Adam Sandler). At once introspective and raucous, the stellar character study Jay Kelly peeks at Hollywood narcissism with curiosity rather than judgment. Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, NYFF57 Centerpiece) and co-writer Emily Mortimer walk a delicate balance between industry parody and heartfelt sentiment, moving in and out of Jay’s past and present, fantasy and reality, probing the professional, familial, and moral life of a man for whom “all my memories are movies”—and who may be harboring more regrets than he cares to admit.

A Netflix release.

KONTINENTAL ’25

Radu Jude, 2025, Romania, 109m

Romanian with English subtitles

North American Premiere

Following his recent triumphs Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (NYFF59) and Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (NYFF61), Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude further confirms his status as the preeminent satirist of our contemporary sociopolitical miasma with this sly, gutting tale of a modern crisis of conscience. In the city of Cluj, located within the country’s Transylvania region, a bailiff named Orsolya (Eszter Tompa) evicts the homeless Ion (Gabriel Spahiu) from the unused cellar of a local house to make way for the construction of the Kontinental boutique hotel. Her fateful decision proves to have great consequences, and Jude tracks her subsequent guilt trip with merciless humanity, echoing Rossellini’s Europa ’51. Rather than rely on simplistic caricature, Jude tells this story of Eastern European economic expansion, berserk nationalism, and the inability to create meaningful change with crushing relatability. Jude won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at this year’s Berlinale.

A 1-2 Special release.

LANDMARKS / NUESTRA TIERRA

Lucrecia Martel, 2025, Argentina/U.S./Mexico/France/Netherlands/Denmark, 122m

Spanish with English subtitles

New York Premiere

In October 2009, Javier Chocobar, a member of the Indigenous Chuchagasta community in northwest Argentina’s Tucumán Province, tried to defend himself and his people from being forcibly evicted from their land by a local landowner and two police officers. As a result, the 68-year-old man was shot and killed, and two other community members were wounded. In her expansive and enlightening first feature documentary, the great Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (Zama, NYFF55) takes a sweeping approach to this tragic true story, triangulating the murder trial of the three men, the lives of Chocobar and his fellow Chuchagasta people, and the centuries-old, colonialist legacy of land and property theft across Latin America. With a ravishing, at times vertiginous visual approach to filming the natural beauty of the contested land, Martel pays cinematic tribute to people whom history has systematically tried to erase.

THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD / LE CITTÀ DI PIANURA

Francesco Sossai, 2025, Italy/Germany, 100m

Italian with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Aimlessly if coolly navigating the absurdities of middle age, Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla) and Carlo (Sergio Romano) make for delightful company in Italian director Francesco Sossai’s genial, wistful hangout movie. The two best friends, who can never seem to make that “one last drink” truly the last, imbibe and bicker and trade anecdotes as they traverse the Venetian countryside, befriending an anxious architecture student, Giulio (Filippo Scotti), who’s cramming for an upcoming design exam. Imparting their screwball wisdom to Giulio, and even roping the younger man into some of their half-baked capers, Doriano and Carlo are welcome emissaries from an increasingly lost generation, disillusioned and adrift in our mercenary world yet holding on to the fleeting joys of life. Sossai has created a freeform, energetic comedy that echoes work by Aki Kaurismäki and Richard Linklater yet has its own beautiful sense of rhythm and revelation.

LATE FAME

Kent Jones, 2025, U.S., 96m

North American Premiere

A wonderfully introspective Willem Dafoe lends his delicate gravitas to the role of Ed Saxberger, a once-upon-a-time New York poet who has worked at a post office for nearly four decades, his work now largely forgotten. After an eager and flattering young fan (Edmund Donovan) appears on his doorstep one night, Saxberger is welcomed into a new coterie of twentysomething admirers who hope to make him the central figure in an emerging literary salon. Intoxicated by the attention—and the presence of the wannabe tragedienne Gloria (a sinuous, Kurt Weill–crooning Greta Lee)—Saxberger nevertheless must reckon with the authenticity of this newfound circle of aspirants. Kent Jones’s thoughtful and marvelously witty second feature adapts Arthur Schnitzler’s recently rediscovered novella Late Fame (in a sly, hugely entertaining script by Oscar-nominated May December writer Samy Burch), updating the Austrian writer’s take on turn-of-the-century Vienna for a wistful yet unromantic look at a lost idea of downtown New York.

THE LOVE THAT REMAINS / ÁSTIN SEM EFTIR ER

Hlynur Pálmason, 2025, Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France, 109m

Icelandic, English, Swedish, and French with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Charting the gradual evolution of a family in the midst of an irreparable fracture, The Love That Remains is a poignant, crisply pointillistic domestic drama that observes life’s changes with humor and whimsy, set against the majestic, ever-shifting Icelandic landscape. Visual artist Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir) and fisherman Magnús (Sverrir Guðnason) were teenage sweethearts but have recently grown apart, and Magnús has moved out of the house. As long as the newly estranged parents put on a good face, the children—and their adorable sheepdog Panda (who won the prestigious Palme Dog award at Cannes)—seem to take the split in stride. Yet as Magnús becomes increasingly alienated from his domestic life, harsh reality can’t help but bubble to the surface. Hlynur Pálmason’s follow-up to his austere 19th-century drama Godland is a constantly surprising film with an immaculate sense of framing and pacing—and an evocative, dulcet piano score by Harry Hunt—dotted with idiosyncratic flights of fancy that never detract from the central emotional authenticity.

A Janus Films release.

MAGELLAN / MAGALHÃES

Lav Diaz, 2025, Portugal/Spain/France/Philippines/Taiwan, 160m

Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, and French with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

Every astonishing visual composition carries historical and political weight in the monumental new film from singular Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz (Norte, The End of History, NYFF51). Gael García Bernal brilliantly subordinates his stardom to Diaz’s discerning camera, disappearing into the role of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who, at the start of the 16th century, navigated a crew to Southeast Asia after convincing the Spanish crown to fund his journey. Rather than retell the mythical, received narratives of the Age of Discovery, Diaz mounts an impressive and absorbing story of colonial conquest and obsession, depicting Magellan’s charted course to the Malayan Archipelago as a pitiless reckoning with human frailty and brutal violence as much as an evocation of overwhelming natural beauty.

A Janus Films release.

THE MASTERMIND

Kelly Reichardt, 2025, U.S., 110m

New York Premiere

In early-1970s Framingham, Massachusetts, taciturn family man James (Josh O’Connor) makes the rash, largely inscrutable decision to orchestrate a heist at the local art museum, absconding with a selection of modern paintings—without much of a plan. This autumnal, restrained, and often quite funny anti-thriller from Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up, NYFF60) sets this low-key criminal enterprise against a Nixon-era backdrop of alienation and political disillusionment. As always, Reichardt’s impeccable craft is front and center: the film’s naturalism and remarkable period detail creating a portrait of unerring authenticity and psychological mystery. Whether driven by social apathy or artistic passion, James—effortlessly played by O’Connor with hangdog elegance—registers as a compelling update of the ’70s American male loner archetype for another dispiriting, directionless time.

A MUBI release.

MIROIRS NO. 3

Christian Petzold, 2025, Germany, 86m

German with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

In the haunting new film from esteemed German director Christian Petzold (Transit, NYFF56), his regular star Paula Beer plays Laura, a pianist from Berlin who finds herself in a transitory state. After surviving a violent car crash that kills her boyfriend, Laura is immediately taken in by Betty (Barbara Auer), a mysterious middle-aged woman who lives alone in an isolated house in the countryside. Strangers to one another, the two women build a quiet, respectful life together, though the reemergence of Betty’s estranged husband and son sheds light on the tragic past that explains the murky present. The pleasurable enigma of Miroirs No. 3, named for a Ravel piano suite, returns Petzold to the metaphysical ambiguity of earlier films like Yella (2007) and the themes of doubling in his cherished Phoenix (2014), yet with a distinctive ethereality all its own: It’s an economical and beautifully crafted work about the mystery of human interaction.

A 1-2 Special release.

NO OTHER CHOICE / EOJJEOL SUGA EOPDA

Park Chan-wook, 2025, South Korea, 139m

Korean with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

In his diabolical new thriller, Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave, NYFF60) crafts a dark fable about the cutthroat nature of contemporary work culture and the domestic desperation for material comfort. In a fine tightrope-walk of a performance, Lee Byung-hun brings humor and likability to the tricky role of Man-soo, a middle-aged husband and father who has been laid off from the paper manufacturing company to which he has devoted decades of his life. After an extended and increasingly worrisome period of unemployment, Man-soo begins to take merciless measures toward solidifying his standing with a potential new employer, leading to wild—and ever more absurd—acts of violence, crafted by Park in his inimitable and extravagant pitch-black comic style. Adapted from the Donald E. Westlake novel The Ax, updated for our precarious moment in time, Park’s No Other Choice is enthralling all the way to its brilliant bitter pill of an ending.

A NEON release.

PETER HUJAR’S DAY

Ira Sachs, 2025, U.S., 76m

New York Premiere

The photographer Peter Hujar, whose images exist in an important lineage and dialogue with the work of groundbreaking gay artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and David Wojnarowicz, forms the center of the latest movie by fearless independent American filmmaker Ira Sachs (Passages). Based on rediscovered transcripts from an unused 1974 interview by nonfiction writer Linda Rosenkrantz (played by Rebecca Hall), in which she asked Hujar (Ben Whishaw) to narrate the events of the previous day in minute detail, Sachs’s film is a mesmerizing time warp, an illustration of the life of the creative mind, the quotidian and the imaginative at once, fully and lovingly inhabited by its two brilliant actors. With this engrossing and wholly unexpected film, Sachs shuttles us back to a specific moment in New York queer cultural history and a still-influential art scene that lives on in words as much as images.

A Janus Films release.

RESURRECTION / 狂野时代

Bi Gan, 2025, China/France, 156m

Chinese with English subtitles

New York Premiere

This phantasmagoric dream machine from visionary Chinese director Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, NYFF56) is an elusive yet monumental love letter to a century of cinema. Unfolding over five chapters that feature a dazzling array of styles, Resurrection is a cascade of imagery united by a luminous mythopoetic conceit: in a sci-fi-coded world where people have lost the desire to dream in the hopes of prolonging life, rogue “fantasmers” continue to stoke their imaginations and exist within unreality. From this magical premise, the film sends its ever-morphing protagonist (Jackson Yee) through a series of genres, from Méliès-inflected silent fantasy to wartime thriller to con-artist buddy picture to millennial vampire romance—the latter depicted in one of Bi’s customary, and ever astonishing, single takes. Even within genre parameters, the director never takes the road well-traveled, offering jolts and marvels around every corner. Resurrection is one of the most audacious and ambitious gifts for cinematic thrill-seekers in many a moon.

A Janus Films release.

ROMERÍA

Carla Simón, 2025, Spain/Germany, 112m

Spanish, Catalan, and French with English subtitles

North American Premiere

Amidst the jagged cliffs and summery, sun-kissed shores of Vigo, on the Atlantic coast of Galicia in Spain, 18-year-old Marina (the arresting Llúcia Garcia) has arrived on a deeply personal mission. Having lost both of her parents at a very young age, the orphaned young woman has set off on a journey to meet her paternal grandparents and extended family for the first time. While connecting with her affectionate, teeming new clan, Marina also is forced to reconcile with the past, negotiating her idealized memories of her parents and difficult truths that have been long buried. Alternating between 2004 and the early 1980s, evoked in hallucinatory, grainy flashbacks, Romería achingly dramatizes the processes of creating new memories and holding onto fleeting ones. Carla Simón (Alcarràs, NYFF60) proves again with this delicate, naturalistic, and poignantly autobiographical film that she is an essential voice in international cinema.

ROSE OF NEVADA

Mark Jenkin, 2025, U.K., 114m

U.S. Premiere

The singular Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin (Enys Men, NYFF60) brings his distinctive and bold storytelling approach to his most expansive work yet. Again immersing the viewer in the uncanny environments of the small towns along the coast of Cornwall, Jenkin spins a sci-fi-tinged tale of dislocation and regeneration. In a tiny, sparsely populated fishing village, a boat that had been lost at sea 30 years ago, the Rose of Nevada, suddenly reappears portside, fully intact and without its long-missing crew. Two local neophyte fishermen desperate for work (George MacKay and Callum Turner) take jobs on the boat as it sets out for a good-luck return voyage. When they return, all is no longer what it once was. Shot on 16mm, this earthy, psychological portrait of a working-class community’s cyclical existence is an atmospheric plunge into the eerie.

THE SECRET AGENT / O AGENTE SECRETO

Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025, Brazil/France/Netherlands/Germany, 159m

Portuguese with English subtitles

New York Premiere

The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who has gifted us such breathtakers as Aquarius (NYFF54) and Bacurau (NYFF57), returns with a thrillingly unpredictable, empowering political fable about people swept up in forces beyond their control. A dynamic, shape-shifting epic set in Mendonça’s hometown of Recife during the late 1970s, The Secret Agent earned him the Best Director award at Cannes. Wagner Moura was also deservedly honored as Best Actor at the festival for his magnetic performance as a widowed former university researcher whose life has been violently upended by the greed and vengeance of a government bureaucrat. On the run and living under an alias during the country’s military dictatorship, he tries to escape, while also reconnecting with the young son he had to leave behind. Even this brief description cannot fully prepare the viewer for the zigzagging subplots and delights of Mendonça’s eccentric and affectionate ode to the movies and the Brazil of his youth—and to maintaining individuality amid abuses of power.

A NEON release.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE / AFFEKSJONSVERDI

Joachim Trier, 2025, Norway/France/Denmark/Germany, 134m

Norwegian and English with English subtitles

New York Premiere

In Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his beloved The Worst Person in the World (NYFF59), Renate Reinsve burrows to the steely core of Nora Borg, an acclaimed stage actress going through the first rumblings of a personal crisis after the death of her mother. She and her devoted therapist sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are suddenly forced to confront long-suppressed elements of their past when their estranged movie-director father, Gustav (a wonderfully restrained Stellan Skarsgård, conveying a world of regret in the smallest of gestures) returns with a script he has written for Nora. After she refuses the role, Gustav turns to an American movie star (Elle Fanning), further complicating his own attempt at reconciliation. Trier’s insightful and captivating adult drama, which won the Grand Prix at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, furthers the writer-director’s piercing exploration of the frayed ties that bind us to one another and to our creative selves.

A NEON release.

SIRÂT

Oliver Laxe, 2025, France/Spain, 115m

Spanish and French with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

The glorious and forbidding Moroccan desert provides the backdrop for this extraordinary psychological journey from Oliver Laxe (Fire Will Come, NYFF57), a Galician filmmaker of startling ambition. Sergi López plays middle-aged Luis, whose worry over the disappearance of his daughter Mar has brought him, along with his young son, to Morocco. He believes she has fallen in with a group of nomadic thrill-seekers who are in pursuit of the next big rave in the desert. Tagging along with them in a makeshift caravan in the hopes he will find Mar, Luis is pushed toward emotional and physical extremes that extend far past his everyday comprehension. Even beyond the pulsing techno soundtrack and the majestic desolation of the landscape, Sirât (the title referring to the Islamic term for the razor-thin bridge between heaven and hell) creates a sensory experience of audacity and shock that touches the sublime. Joint winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

A NEON release.

SOUND OF FALLING / IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN

Mascha Schilinski, 2025, Germany, 149m

German with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

You can feel the presence of ghosts in the rooms and environs of a rural farmhouse in German filmmaker Mascha Schilinski’s highly accomplished multigenerational saga. Sound of Falling skips back and forth through time, alighting on moments of both horror and grace across a century in the lives of four women—adolescent and adult—inhabiting the same unsettled spaces. Using a fragmentary, collage-like approach that unites characters from different eras, from the turn of the 20th century to the post–World World II era to the years of GDR rule and on to the present, Schilinski treats history like a constant haunting. Both sobering and dreamlike, with moments of genuine tenderness, her film bears witness to cycles of trauma and creates a devastating indictment of historical patriarchal abuse. Above all, it confirms the arrival of a major new talent, whose visionary narrative technique creates a fresh and striking cinematic grammar. Joint winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

A MUBI release.

TWO PROSECUTORS

Sergei Loznitsa, 2025, France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania, 118m

Russian with English subtitles

U.S. Premiere

The latest film from the great Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (My Joy, NYFF48) is a scalpel-precise tale of the horrors of totalitarian bureaucracy. Adapting a novel by Soviet writer and political prisoner Georgy Demidov, set in the Soviet Union in 1937, Loznitsa follows the attempts of an idealistic government-appointed prosecutor (Alexander Kuznetsov) to expose the mistreatment of a dissident Bolshevik writer who has been jailed and tortured without evidence of wrongdoing. As he gradually comes to realize, the lack of cause for the man’s imprisonment is hardly unique under Stalin’s regime, and the neophyte lawyer may be putting himself in danger by exposing his own moral righteousness. Loznitsa constructs his story with a patient yet unmistakable sense of mounting dread, focusing on the devastating minutiae that allows fascism to function in our world

A Janus Films release.

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU / 그 자연이 네게 뭐라고 하니

Hong Sangsoo, 2025, South Korea, 108m

Korean with English subtitles

North American Premiere

Over the winding course of one languorous day, a good-natured thirtysomething poet, Donghwa (Ha Seongguk), visits the suburban home of his girlfriend, Junhee (Kang Soyi), and is introduced to her parents (Kwon Haehyo and Cho Yunhee) and sister (Park Miso) for the first time. Dazzled by the size of the home and the beauty of its rural environs, Seoul-dweller Donghwa bonds with the family, especially the benevolent patriarch, for whom family, tradition, and filial devotion seem paramount. Yet as the hours drift by—and, of course, the makgeolli flows—Donghwa’s anxieties gradually surface. Combining the casual familiarity of a meet-the-parents scenario with the lo-fi visual experimentation of his recent work like In Water (NYFF61), Hong Sangsoo’s latest keeps revealing new emotional layers, finally offering a rich examination of economic anxiety and contemporary alienation.

A Cinema Guild release.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) is a nonprofit organization that celebrates cinema as an essential art form and fosters a vibrant home for film culture to thrive. FLC presents premier film festivals, retrospectives, new releases, and restorations year-round in state-of-the-art theaters at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. FLC offers audiences the opportunity to discover works from established and emerging directors from around the world with a passionate community of film lovers at marquee events including the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.

Founded in 1969, FLC is committed to preserving the excitement of the theatrical experience for all audiences, advancing high-quality film journalism through the publication of Film Comment, cultivating the next generation of film industry professionals through our FLC Academies, and enriching the lives of all who engage with our programs.

For more information, visit filmlinc.org and follow @TheNYFF on X, Instagram, and Bluesky.

77TH PRIMETIME EMMYS 2025

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 19:37:00 -0400

77TH PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS

Sunday, September 14, 2025, 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT

CBS, & Paramount+ with SHOWTIME.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/emmy-awards/

HOST: Comedian Nate Bargatze

LEADING WINNERS:

THE STUDIO (APPLE tv+)

THE PITT (HBO MAX)

ADOLESCENCE (NETFLIX)

& Stephen Colbert got the longest, strongest applause winning Best Talk Show

LEADING IN NOMINATIONS

Severance with 27 nominations across both main and Creative Arts Emmys.

The Penguin with 24

Tied at 23 each are The Studio (a debut comedy) and The White Lotus.

ALL LIVE BROADCAST CATEGORIES & NOMINEES

Here are the categories that will be presented during the main primetime broadcast,

SHOW AWARDS

Outstanding Drama Series
Andor; The Diplomat; The Last of Us; Paradise; The Pitt; Severance; Slow Horses; The White Lotus

Outstanding Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary; The Bear; Hacks; Nobody Wants This; Only Murders in the Building; Shrinking; The Studio; What We Do in the Shadows

Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
Adolescence; Black Mirror; Dying for Sex; Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story; The Penguin

ACTOR & PERFORMANCE AWARDS

Drama

Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Sterling K. Brown (Paradise); Gary Oldman (Slow Horses); Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us); Adam Scott (Severance); Noah Wyle (The Pitt)

Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Kathy Bates (Matlock); Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters); Britt Lower (Severance); Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us); Keri Russell (The Diplomat)

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Zach Cherry (Severance); Walton Goggins (The White Lotus); Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus); James Marsden (Paradise); Sam Rockwell (The White Lotus); Tramell Tillman (Severance); John Turturro (Severance)

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Patricia Arquette (Severance); Carrie Coon (The White Lotus); Katherine LaNasa (The Pitt); Julianne Nicholson (Paradise); Parker Posey (The White Lotus); Natasha Rothwell (The White Lotus); Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus)

Guest Actor / Guest Actress in a Drama Series

Guest Actress: Jane Alexander; Gwendoline Christie; Kaitlyn Dever; Cherry Jones; Catherine O’Hara; Merritt Wever (Severance)

Guest Actor: Giancarlo Esposito; Scott Glenn; Shawn Hatosy (The Pitt); Joe Pantoliano; Forest Whitaker; Jeffrey Wright

Comedy

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Jason Segel (Shrinking); Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building); Jeremy Allen White (The Bear); Seth Rogen (The Studio); Adam Brody (Nobody Wants This)

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba (The Residence); Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This); Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary); Ayo Edebiri (The Bear); Jean Smart (Hacks)

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Ike Barinholtz (The Studio); Colman Domingo (The Four Seasons); Harrison Ford (Shrinking); Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somewhere); Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear); Michael Urie (Shrinking); Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live)

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear); Hannah Einbinder (Hacks); Kathryn Hahn (The Studio); Janelle James (Abbott Elementary); Catherine O’Hara (The Studio); Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary); Jessica Williams (Shrinking)

Guest Actress: Olivia Colman; Jamie Lee Curtis; Cynthia Erivo; Robby Hoffman; Zoë Kravitz; Julianne Nicholson (Hacks)

Guest Actor: Jon Bernthal; Bryan Cranston (The Studio); Dave Franco; Ron Howard; Anthony Mackie; Martin Scorsese

Limited / Anthology

Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Colin Farrell (The Penguin); Stephen Graham (Adolescence); Jake Gyllenhaal (Presumed Innocent); Brian Tyree Henry (Dope Thief); Cooper Koch (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story)

Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie
Cate Blanchett (Disclaimer); Meaghann Fahy (Sirens); Rashida Jones (Black Mirror); Cristin Milioti (The Penguin); Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex)

Supporting Actor / Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem; Bill Camp; Owen Cooper (Adolescence); Rob Delaney; Peter Sarsgaard; Ashley Walters

Supporting Actress: Erin Doherty (Adolescence); Ruth Negga; Deidre O’Connell; Chloë Sevigny; Jenny Slate; Christine Tremarco

Creative Awards (Presented during Broadcast)

These are specific writing & directing categories that are part of the main show. (Not all technical/craft / design categories are televised.)

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

Amanda Marsalis (The Pitt)

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Joe Sachs (The Pitt)

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogan (The Studio)

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck & Seth Rogan (The Studio)

Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Philip Barantini (Adolescence)

Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Jack Thorne & Stephen Graham (Adolescence)

Other Awards

Talk Series: Outstanding Talk Series (The Daily Show; Jimmy Kimmel Live!; The Late Show With Stephen Colbert)

Reality Competition Program: Outstanding Reality Competition Program (The Amazing Race; RuPaul’s Drag Race; Survivor; Top Chef; The Traitors)

Television Movie: Outstanding Television Movie (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy; The Gorge; Mountainhead; Nonnas; Rebel Ridge)

Animated Program: Outstanding Animated Program (Arcane; Bob’s Burgers; Common Side Effects; Love, Death + Robots; The Simpsons)

GOOGLE FLOW, VEO 3, AND SCENEBUILDER - TESTS

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 14:13:00 -0400

This is a post in progress. We are testing Google Flow, Veo3, Imagen, Nano Banana (and other visual tools). More information on our testing to come...

TEST 1 -This is a test of characters using Google FLOW, Veo3-fast and SceneBuilder, for a video adaptation of The Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.

(Note: this test was created with text that was used by Flow/Veo3 TTS to generate synced, really excellent, speech. However, the goal is to use a live human performance of the poem, and sync the generated video to the audio track. I do not think Veo3 currently is able to do that.)

THE ANCIENT MARINER

A TEST - USING FLOW WITH VEO3-FAST AND SCENEBUILDER

https://youtu.be/ktfYaC2d_k0

*** ***** ***

TEST 2 -This is a test of anthroMdeemorphic* characters for a webXR series "MUDNEWS"** taking place in Higher Dimensions***.

(Note: The videos will be upscaled, extended to 360 FOV and converted to 3D equirectangular video; and eventually also converted to a Babylon.js powered volumetric experience.)

NOTES:

* anthroMdeemorphic - Appearing somewhat human in 3+1 space-time, although coming from Higher Dimensions.

** MUDNEWS- MUltiDimensional NEWS

(a newscast by anthroMdeemorphic characters.)

*** Higher Dimensions - N + M dimensional space-time, where, N is greater than 3 space dimensions, and M is 1 or more time-like dimensions

THE BUTTON

A TEST - USING FLOW WITH VEO3-FAST AND SCENEBUILDER

https://youtu.be/UZa47vZuOMY

*** ***** ***

1,000,000 VIEWS!

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 13:07:00 -0400

This website has just hit

ONE MILLION

views

All Time views (as of 2025-09-10): 1002623



Here are some highlights:

In 2015, we invented and introduced the term

eXtended Reality (XR)

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2015/09/some-variations-on-reality-extended.html

In 2012, we reported on

SLEEP NO MORE

and

DIANE PAULUS & RANDY WEINER

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2012/07/diane-paulus-and-randy-weiner.html

http://www.sleepnomorenyc.com/

We took some nice photos - here's a few from ~ 2013

http://qporit-index.blogspot.com/

We're currently testing

QPORIT XR

a webXR version of QPORIT

www.qporitxr.com

LOWER COURT POWERS CURTAILED BY SCOTUS & GOP BBB BILL

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 17:23:00 -0400

The DDT GOP omni bill provides tax breaks to the rich, and reduces services for the less wealthy. It imposes conditions on recipients of Medicare that will remove many current participants from assistance.

Less well known or mentioned are provisions that attempt to restrict the power of the Courts to restrain the actions of the Executive Branch.

The bill is expected to reduce taxes significantly for rich Humans and big Corporations. That is expected to increase inflation and raise the deficit by $$$ trillions . There is some candy (tax breaks) for less wealthy Americans, but they have strings attached, and are not expected to significantly compensate for the services that are being eliminated.

Here is a link to a draft of the whole bill. The Senate is modifying it. If passed by the Senate, the bill goes back to the House.

FULL TEXT

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text

Here is the text of the SCOTUS (6-3) decision curtailing the ability of lower court judges to block (except locally) implementation of Presidential orders they rule to be unconstitutional or unlawful: (6-3 = All 6 GOP appointed Justices concurring; all 3 Justices appointed by Democratic Presidents dissenting.)

TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL. v. CASA, INC., ET AL.

FULL TEXT -

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf

TONY AWARDS - 2025

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sun, 8 Jun 2025 23:53:00 -0400

Tony Awards 2025: Sunday 8 pm on CBS

With some help from Gemini, here are 3 lists of nominees for the TONY 1 - by category, 2 - by performer and 3 - by play.

Nominees

Here's a comprehensive look at the nominees for the 2025 Tony Awards, honoring the 2024-2025 Broadway season.

Awards by Category

Awards for Productions (Plays & Musicals)

Best Musical
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Dead Outlaw
- Death Becomes Her
- Maybe Happy Ending
- Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Best Play
- English
- The Hills of California
- John Proctor is the Villain
- Oh, Mary!
- Purpose
Best Revival of a Musical
- Floyd Collins
- Gypsy
- Just in Time
- Sunset Boulevard
Best Revival of a Play
- Eureka Day
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- Home
- Othello
- Thornton Wilder's Our Town

Awards for Performers

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
- Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending
- Jeremy Jordan, Death Becomes Her
- Adrian Lucas, Buena Vista Social Club
- Ben Platt, Death Becomes Her
- Denzel Washington, The Piano Lesson
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
- Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her
- Helen J Shen, Maybe Happy Ending
- Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard
- Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
- George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
- Jon Michael Hill, Purpose
- Daniel Dae Kim, Yellow Face
- Harry Lennix, Purpose
- Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
- Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California
- Mia Farrow, The Roommate
- LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose
- Sadie Sink, John Proctor is the Villain
- Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
- Brooks Ashmanskas, SMASH
- Jeb Brown, Dead Outlaw
- Danny Burstein, Gypsy
- Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
- Taylor Trensch, Floyd Collins
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
- Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
- Julia Knitel, Dead Outlaw
- Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time
- Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
- Joy Woods, Gypsy
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
- Kara Young, Purpose
- Tala Ashe, English
- Jessica Hecht, Eureka Day
- Marjan Neshat, English
- Fina Strazza, John Proctor is the VillainOther Categories (Representative Selection)

Best Book of a Musical
- Marco Ramirez, Buena Vista Social Club
- Itamar Moses, Dead Outlaw
- Marco Pennette, Death Becomes Her
- Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending
- David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
- David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
- Will Butler, Stereophonic
- Itamar Moses & Erik Della Penna, Dead Outlaw
- Will Aronson & Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending
Best Direction of a Musical
- Saheem Ali, Buena Vista Social Club
- Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending
- David Cromer, Dead Outlaw
- Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her
- Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Boulevard
Best Direction of a Play
- Knud Adams, English
- Sam Mendes, The Hills of California
- Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary!
- Danya Taymor, John Proctor is the Villain
- Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Rachel Hauck, Swept Away
- Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, Maybe Happy Ending
- Arnulfo Maldonado, Buena Vista Social Club
- Derek McLane, Death Becomes Her
- Derek McLane, Just in Time
Best Scenic Design of a Play
- David Bergman and Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Miriam Buether and 59 Productions, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Marsha Ginsberg, English
- Rob Howell, The Hills of California
- Scott Pask, Good Night, and Good Luck
Best Costume Design of a Play
- Brenda Abbandandolo, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Rob Howell, The Hills of California
- Holly Pierson, Oh, Mary!
- Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Jack Knowles, Sunset Boulevard
- Tyler Micoleau, Buena Vista Social Club
- Ben Stanton, Maybe Happy Ending
- Ruey Horng Sun and Scott Zielinski, Floyd Collins
- Justin Townsend, Death Becomes Her
Best Lighting Design of a Play
- David Bengali and Heather Gilbert, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Natasha Chivers, The Hills of California
- Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Natasha Katz and Hannah Wasileski, John Proctor is the Villain
- Nick Schlieper, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Sound Design of a Musical
- Jonathan Deans, Buena Vista Social Club
- Adam Fisher, Sunset Boulevard
- Peter Hylenski, Just in Time
- Peter Hylenski, Maybe Happy Ending
- Dan Moses Schreier, Floyd Collins
Best Sound Design of a Play
- Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Palmer Hefferan, John Proctor is the Villain
- Daniel Kluger, Good Night, and Good Luck
- Nick Powell, The Hills of California
- Clemence Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Orchestrations
- Marco Paguia, Buena Vista Social Club
- Kris Kukul, Dead Outlaw
- Ethan Pakchar, Maybe Happy Ending
- Orion Griffiths, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical

Nominees by Individual

Performers & Creatives with Multiple Nominations

Will Aronson (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
- Best Original Score (Maybe Happy Ending)
David Cumming (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
- Best Original Score (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
Felix Hagan (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
- Best Original Score (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
Marg Horwell (2 nominations)
- Best Scenic Design of a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- Best Costume Design of a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Rob Howell (2 nominations)
- Best Scenic Design of a Play (The Hills of California)
- Best Costume Design of a Play (The Hills of California)
Peter Hylenski (2 nominations)
- Best Sound Design of a Musical (Just in Time)
- Best Sound Design of a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
Natasha Hodgson (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
- Best Original Score (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
Derek McLane (2 nominations)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Just in Time)
Hue Park (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
- Best Original Score (Maybe Happy Ending)
Zoë Roberts (2 nominations)
- Best Book of a Musical (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
- Best Original Score (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)

Other Nominees (Alphabetical)

Brenda Abbandandolo - Best Costume Design of a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Knud Adams - Best Direction of a Play (English)
Saheem Ali - Best Direction of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Michael Arden - Best Direction of a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
Paul Arditti - Best Sound Design of a Play (Stranger Things: The First Shadow)
Brooks Ashmanskas - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (SMASH)
Tala Ashe - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (English)
Gregg Barnes - Best Costume Design of a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Natalie Venetia Belcon - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
David Bengali - Best Lighting Design of a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Jeb Brown - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Dead Outlaw)
Miriam Buether - Best Scenic Design of a Play (Stranger Things: The First Shadow)
Danny Burstein - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Gypsy)
Will Butler - Best Original Score (Stereophonic)
Natasha Chivers - Best Lighting Design of a Play (The Hills of California)
Jon Clark - Best Lighting Design of a Play (Stranger Things: The First Shadow)
George Clooney - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Darren Criss - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
David Cromer - Best Direction of a Musical (Dead Outlaw)
Jonathan Deans - Best Sound Design of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Laura Donnelly - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (The Hills of California)
Cole Escola - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Oh, Mary!)
Mia Farrow - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (The Roommate)
Adam Fisher - Best Sound Design of a Musical (Sunset Boulevard)
Eboni Flowers - Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Purpose)
Christopher Gattelli - Best Direction of a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Heather Gilbert - Best Lighting Design of a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Rachel Hauck - Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Swept Away)
Palmer Hefferan - Best Sound Design of a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Jessica Hecht - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Eureka Day)
Megan Hilty - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Jon Michael Hill - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Purpose)
LaTanya Richardson Jackson - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Purpose)
Jeremy Jordan - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Natasha Katz - Best Lighting Design of a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Celia Keenan-Bolger - Isabelle Stevenson Award Recipient (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Daniel Dae Kim - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Yellow Face)
Julia Knitel - Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Dead Outlaw)
Daniel Kluger - Best Sound Design of a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Jack Knowles - Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Sunset Boulevard)
Kris Kukul - Orchestrations (Dead Outlaw)
Gracie Lawrence - Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Just in Time)
Harry Lennix - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Purpose)
Jamie Lloyd - Best Direction of a Musical (Sunset Boulevard)
Adrian Lucas - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Justina Machado - Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Real Women Have Curves: The Musical)
Jak Malone - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical)
Arnulfo Maldonado - Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Louis McCartney - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Stranger Things: The First Shadow)
Sam Mendes - Best Direction of a Play (The Hills of California)
Tyler Micoleau - Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Itamar Moses - Best Book of a Musical (Dead Outlaw); Best Original Score (Dead Outlaw)
Marjan Neshat - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (English)
Marco Paguia - Orchestrations (Buena Vista Social Club)
Ethan Pakchar - Orchestrations (Maybe Happy Ending)
Scott Pask - Best Scenic Design of a Play (Good Night, and Good Luck)
Marco Pennette - Best Book of a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Holly Pierson - Best Costume Design of a Play (Oh, Mary!)
Sam Pinkleton - Best Direction of a Play (Oh, Mary!)
Ben Platt - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Nick Powell - Best Sound Design of a Play (The Hills of California)
Clint Ramos - Best Costume Design of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Marco Ramirez - Best Book of a Musical (Buena Vista Social Club)
Brigitte Reiffenstuel - Best Costume Design of a Play (Stranger Things: The First Shadow)
Nicole Scherzinger - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Sunset Boulevard)
Nick Schlieper - Best Lighting Design of a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Dan Moses Schreier - Best Sound Design of a Musical (Floyd Collins)
Helen J Shen - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
Jennifer Simard - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Sadie Sink - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Sarah Snook - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Ben Stanton - Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Maybe Happy Ending)
Fina Strazza - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Ruey Horng Sun - Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Floyd Collins)
Danya Taymor - Best Direction of a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Justin Townsend - Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Death Becomes Her)
Taylor Trensch - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Floyd Collins)
Denzel Washington - Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (The Piano Lesson)
Hannah Wasileski - Best Lighting Design of a Play (John Proctor is the Villain)
Clemence Williams - Best Sound Design of a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Kip Williams - Best Direction of a Play (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Joy Woods - Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Gypsy)
Catherine Zuber - Best Costume Design of a Musical (Sunset Boulevard)

Nominated Productions

Productions with Multiple Nominations

Buena Vista Social Club (10 nominations)
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Natalie Venetia Belcon)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Adrian Lucas)
- Best Direction of a Musical
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Best Costume Design of a Musical
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
- Orchestrations
Death Becomes Her (10 nominations)
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Megan Hilty)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Jennifer Simard)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Jeremy Jordan)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Ben Platt)
- Best Direction of a Musical
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Best Costume Design of a Musical
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Maybe Happy Ending (10 nominations)
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Original Score
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Darren Criss)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Helen J Shen)
- Best Direction of a Musical
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
- Orchestrations
Dead Outlaw (7 nominations)
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Original Score
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Jeb Brown)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Julia Knitel)
- Best Direction of a Musical
- Orchestrations
The Hills of California (7 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Laura Donnelly)
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
- Best Costume Design of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
John Proctor is the Villain (7 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Sadie Sink)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Fina Strazza)
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
Sunset Boulevard (7 nominations)
- Best Revival of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Nicole Scherzinger)
- Best Direction of a Musical
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Best Costume Design of a Musical
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
Floyd Collins (6 nominations)
- Best Revival of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Taylor Trensch)
- Best Lighting Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
Just in Time (6 nominations)
- Best Revival of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Gracie Lawrence)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
- Best Sound Design of a Musical
The Picture of Dorian Gray (6 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Sarah Snook)
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
- Best Costume Design of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
Purpose (6 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Jon Michael Hill)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Harry Lennix)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (LaTanya Richardson Jackson)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Eboni Flowers)
English (5 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Tala Ashe)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Marjan Neshat)
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
Good Night, and Good Luck (5 nominations)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (George Clooney)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Celia Keenan-Bolger)
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
- Best Costume Design of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
Gypsy (5 nominations)
- Best Revival of a Musical
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Danny Burstein)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Joy Woods)
Oh, Mary! (5 nominations)
- Best Play
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Cole Escola)
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Costume Design of a Play)
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (5 nominations)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Louis McCartney)
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
- Best Costume Design of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (4 nominations)
- Best Musical
- Best Book of a Musical
- Best Original Score
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Jak Malone)
- Orchestrations
BOOP! The Musical (3 nominations)
- (Details on nominations needed to list categories)
Yellow Face (3 nominations)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (Daniel Dae Kim)
- (Details on other nominations needed to list categories)
Eureka Day (2 nominations)
- Best Revival of a Play
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (Jessica Hecht)
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical (2 nominations)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Justina Machado)
- (Details on other nominations needed to list categories)
SMASH (2 nominations)
- Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Brooks Ashmanskas)
- (Details on other nominations needed to list categories)

Other Nominated Productions (Alphabetical)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1 nomination)
- Best Revival of a Play
Home (1 nomination)
- Best Revival of a Play
Othello (1 nomination)
- Best Revival of a Play
The Roommate (1 nomination)
- Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Mia Farrow)
Swept Away (1 nomination)
- Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1 nomination)
- Best Revival of a Play

OPEN AI, THE PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION (PBC)

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Tue, 6 May 2025 00:54:00 -0400

Open AI released today information about its new planned structure.

After several months of studying how to raise money to finance the development of AI, and a well-publicized lawsuit with Elon Musk, Open AI has changed its planned structure from going to a for profit company, to remaining a not-for-profit but one which controls a "Public Benefit Corporation" (PBC).

Here's the announcement from Open AI:

ANNOUNCEMENT 2025-05-05

https://openai.com/index/evolving-our-structure/

Here's an explanation of a PBC from Wikipedia:

"In business, and only in United States corporate law, a benefit corporation (or in some states, a public benefit corporation - PBC) is a type of for-profit corporate entity whose goals include making a positive impact on society. "

A PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION - WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation

Here's a link to an earlier article, with news about the studies Open AI was conducting, to help determine its future structure:

OPEN AI NEWS - QPORIT - 2025-04-16

https://qporit.blogspot.com/2025/04/new-products-and-reports-from-open-ai.html

THE KENTUCKY DERBY

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sat, 3 May 2025 03:03:00 -0400

Kentucky Derby 2025 – May 3 • Churchill Downs

The Kentucky Derby, first run in 1875, is the opening race of the Triple Crown. The 1¼‑mile race runs at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 3 - (The Kentucky Derby show starts in mid afternoon on NBC; the race itself begins about 7 p.m. ET -- NOTE: The race itself only lasts about 2 minutes, so do not tune in at 7:05!).

The Preakness (May 17) and Belmont Stakes (June 7) complete the series.

Since American Pharoah’s historic 2015 sweep and Justify’s repeat in 2018, no horse has worn the crown (won all three races).

(Ongoing improvements to training, track surfaces and veterinary oversight continue to try to improve the safety of the horses. I watched the Belmont in person some years ago. The horses are really working very very hard. It is not obvious how strenuous the race is, for the horses, when it is just watched on television.)

The signature drink for watching the Kentucky Derby is the Mint Julep.

THE MINT JULEP

Here's how you make a wicked MJ. (Note: Don't drive or ride a horse or operate heavy machinery after this; don't ingest with anything that will exceed your tolerance for total number of chemicals in the body!) Boil a little bit of water with some washed and dried, torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves, to create a strong mint tea and then put it in a cup . (Note: Mint leaves are not always that easy to get, and when you get a bunch, many leaves are often wilted, or blackened. It's important to select the best leaves even if that is only a fraction of the bunch of mint in the package.)
Add quite a bit of sugar. (Optionally -- ideally, in fact -- some sugar could be replaced with a half jigger of a sweet liqueur like Cointreau, Drambuie, or Grand Marnier.) Add about a half jigger of a good Kentucky Bourbon. (After trying quite I few, I found that my favorite is definitely Maker's Mark.) Add this mixture with some additional torn up, fresh, nice looking mint leaves to ice in a crusher.

Crush the mixture of sweetened mint tea, and bourbon to make a tall glass worth of flavored crushed ice. Take a tall, chilled glass, add a long straw, fill the glass with the crushed ice, and then pour in a jigger more bourbon to fill up the cracks. Turn on the pre-race show, and enjoy it!

It's matter of taste what you eat with the drink, if anything. My own preference is Greek or similar appetizers.

Update - Final Order of Finish

18 Sovereignty (5/1)
8 Journalism (3/1)
21 Baeza (13/1)
Final Gambit
Owen Almighty
Citizen Bull
Neoequos
American Promise
Admire Daytona
Luxor Cafe
Burnham Square
Flying Mohawk
East Avenue
Publisher
Tiztastic
Render Judgment
Coal Battle
Sandman
Chunk of Gold

Horses - ordered by Number

1 Citizen Bull – Trained by: Bob Baffert; Owned by: SF Racing LLC et al. — 20‑1
2 Neoequos – Trained by: Saffie A. Joseph Jr.; Owned by: C2 Racing Stable LLC et al. — 30‑1
3 Final Gambit – Trained by: Brad H. Cox; Owned by: Juddmonte — 30‑1
5 American Promise – Trained by: D. Wayne Lukas; Owned by: BC Stables LLC — 30‑1
6 Admire Daytona – Trained by: Yukihiro Kato; Owned by: Junko Kondo — 30‑1
7 Luxor Cafe – Trained by: Noriyuki Hori; Owned by: Koichi Nishikawa — 15‑1
8 Journalism – Trained by: Michael W. McCarthy; Owned by: Bridlewood Farm et al. — 3‑1
9 Burnham Square – Trained by: Ian R. Wilkes; Owned by: Whitham Thoroughbreds LLC — 12‑1
11 Flying Mohawk – Trained by: D. Whitworth Beckman; Owned by: Two Eight Racing et al. — 30‑1
12 East Avenue – Trained by: Brendan P. Walsh; Owned by: Godolphin LLC — 20‑1
13 Publisher – Trained by: Steven M. Asmussen; Owned by: Gus King & Estate of B.C. Jones — 20‑1
14 Tiztastic – Trained by: Steven M. Asmussen; Owned by: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC et al. — 20‑1
15 Render Judgment – Trained by: Kenneth G. McPeek; Owned by: Baccari Racing Stable LLC et al. — 30‑1
16 Coal Battle – Trained by: Lonnie Briley; Owned by: Norman Stables LLC — 30‑1
17 Sandman – Trained by: Mark E. Casse; Owned by: D.J. Stable LLC et al. — 6‑1
18 Sovereignty – Trained by: William I. Mott; Owned by: Godolphin — 5‑1
19 Chunk of Gold – Trained by: Ethan W. West; Owned by: Terry L. Stephens — 30‑1
20 Owen Almighty – Trained by: Brian Lynch; Owned by: Flying Dutchmen Breeding & Racing LLC — 30‑1
21 Baeza – Trained by: John A. Shirreffs; Owned by: CRK Stable LLC & Grandview Equine — 30‑1

Horses - ordered by (Friday evening) Odds

8 Journalism – Trained by: Michael W. McCarthy; Owned by: Bridlewood Farm et al. — 3‑1
18 Sovereignty – Trained by: William I. Mott; Owned by: Godolphin — 5‑1
17 Sandman – Trained by: Mark E. Casse; Owned by: D.J. Stable LLC et al. — 6‑1
9 Burnham Square – Trained by: Ian R. Wilkes; Owned by: Whitham Thoroughbreds LLC — 12‑1
7 Luxor Cafe – Trained by: Noriyuki Hori; Owned by: Koichi Nishikawa — 15‑1
1 Citizen Bull – Trained by: Bob Baffert; Owned by: SF Racing LLC et al. — 20‑1
12 East Avenue – Trained by: Brendan P. Walsh; Owned by: Godolphin LLC — 20‑1
13 Publisher – Trained by: Steven M. Asmussen; Owned by: Gus King & Estate of B.C. Jones — 20‑1
14 Tiztastic – Trained by: Steven M. Asmussen; Owned by: Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC et al. — 20‑1
2 Neoequos – Trained by: Saffie A. Joseph Jr.; Owned by: C2 Racing Stable LLC et al. — 30‑1
3 Final Gambit – Trained by: Brad H. Cox; Owned by: Juddmonte — 30‑1
5 American Promise – Trained by: D. Wayne Lukas; Owned by: BC Stables LLC — 30‑1
6 Admire Daytona – Trained by: Yukihiro Kato; Owned by: Junko Kondo — 30‑1
11 Flying Mohawk – Trained by: D. Whitworth Beckman; Owned by: Two Eight Racing et al. — 30‑1
15 Render Judgment – Trained by: Kenneth G. McPeek; Owned by: Baccari Racing Stable LLC et al. — 30‑1
16 Coal Battle – Trained by: Lonnie Briley; Owned by: Norman Stables LLC — 30‑1
19 Chunk of Gold – Trained by: Ethan W. West; Owned by: Terry L. Stephens — 30‑1
20 Owen Almighty – Trained by: Brian Lynch; Owned by: Flying Dutchmen Breeding & Racing LLC — 30‑1
21 Baeza – Trained by: John A. Shirreffs; Owned by: CRK Stable LLC & Grandview Equine — 30‑1

100 DAYS

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:36:00 -0400

Here is a list of a few of the actions of the Trump administration (#2) in the first hundred days and their likely consequences. It should be noted that all these actions are quite public, and appear to be actions that the administration is proud of:

Cast doubt on vaccines

Measles cases and deaths are growing

Provided frequently changes in plans for tariffs, while sharply raising them

Volatile stock market and rising prices
Anger among former(?) trading partners

Loss of a stable supply chain

Possible contribution to loss of US world economic leadership

Lots of lies and blaming Biden

Impossible to trust anything the White House says

Attacks on our allies

Possible contribution to loss of US world economic and military leadership

Snatching people off the streets without due process

Danger to the rule of law

Danger to the security of every citizen, and every tourist or visitor to the US

Deference to Russia: No tariffs; pre-negotiation concessions to Russia for Ukraine war talks

Russia continues to bombard Ukraine, despite “agreement” of Easter cease-fire, and despite Trump's promise to end the war by day one

The US loses credibility

Europe is in more danger and so is Taiwan

No progress in Gaza

Despite Trump's promise to end the war by day one

the fighting continues,
hostages are still being held,

and some hostages have died in captivity

Indiscriminate firing of government employees in many areas

Loss of expertise

Loss of services in

Social security

Veterans’ services

Emergency assistance (FEMA)

Weather reporting

Protecting Civil Rights

Detecting and prosecuting fraud

Detecting and prosecuting foreign interference

IRS

Maintaining the nuclear arsenal

Sudden dismantling of USAID services

Loss of International good will
Illness and death for some people who had been sustained by USAID

Cancelling research contracts in Universities and research groups in government

Possible destruction of US leadership in science and technology

In particular, a boost to possible future Chinese world leadership

CONCLUSION: THE US HAS BECOME LESS PROSPEROUS, LESS SAFE, LESS HEALTHY, LESS IMPORTANT, AND LESS HAPPY in just 100 days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, W S! -- IT'S SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 16:29:00 -0400

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE is believed to have been born on this day in 1564. He is known to have died on this day in 1616.

(There's an actual record of his death. There's no record of his birth, but there is a record of his baptism, from which the date of his birth is assumed.)

He lived through a tumultuous period, writing some of the greatest plays and poetry ever written in English, (and probably just... ever written).

Some (just a few!) of his most revered plays are:

Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Romeo & Juliet (tragedies); a series of historical plays leading up to the reign of Queen Elizabeth; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest (fantasies), and Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night (comedies).

This summer, the Public Theater will be presenting Twelfth Night free in NYC's Central Park Delacorte Theater (just renovated!).

THE PUBLIC THEATER: TWELFTH NIGHT - FREE IN CENTRAL PARK, NYC

https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2425/fsitp/twelfth-night/

Another great venue (also great workshops!) for Shakespeare in New York is

THE RED BULL THEATER

https://www.redbulltheater.com/

Here's a list from Google (AI) and other sources, of some of the many venues around the US and the world that produce Shakespeare's plays:

Shakespeare's Globe (London, UK): This is a modern reconstruction of the original Globe, built in 1599, near the site of the original theater. It's an open-air theatre in the round, similar to the original and still hosts performances and tours.
Allen Elizabethan Theatre (Ashland, OR): This theater, part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, offers a replica of an Elizabethan-era theater.
The Old Globe (San Diego, CA): The Old Globe is a well-known theater company and venue that performs Shakespearean plays and offers educational programs, says Wikipedia.
Curtain Theatre (Austin, TX): This theater company focuses on classical plays, including Shakespeare, according to Wikipedia.
Globe of the Great Southwest (Odessa, TX): A dedicated Shakespearean theater in Odessa, TX.
Adams Shakespearean Theatre (Cedar City, UT): This theater is part of the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, UT.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA): This theme park features a Globe Theatre replica for Shakespearean performances.
The Rose Playhouse (Twin Lake, MI): Part of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, The Rose Playhouse hosts Shakespearean plays and other theatrical productions.
Pop-Up Globe (Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY): A traveling pop-up Globe structure that performs Shakespearean plays.

The American Shakespeare Center in VA. (They also produce the Blackfriars' Shakespeare Conference every few years.) https://americanshakespearecenter.com/

Here is one of his sonnets. (notice that the imagery is interpretive of the deeper meanings of the poem).

SONNET 65 "SINCE BRASS..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4FRae1XRkI/

A performance of sonnet 65 with visual commentary.

In Shakespeare's sonnet 65, brass, rocks and steel are fragile, decaying with time, but love, art, beauty and poetry persist forever.

Here's an analysis of the sonnet: SONNET 65 - ANALYSIS

https://sonnetsbyshakespeare.blogspot.com/2006/06/sonnet-65.html

Here's more about Shakespeare's sonnets:

SONNETS AS DRAMA

https://sonnetsbyshakespeare.blogspot.com/2011/11/sonnets-as-dramatic-speech.html

SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE

WIKIPEDIA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES BY JAMES SHAPIRO

https://www.amazon.com/stores/James-Shapiro/author/B0034PH36C

NEW PRODUCTS AND REPORTS FROM OPEN AI

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:40:00 -0400

Open AI has released several new products and reports in the last few days.

NEWS

https://openai.com/news/

OPEN AI o3 & OPEN AI o4-mini ("Thinking!") -- 2025-04-16

https://openai.com/index/introducing-o3-and-o4-mini/

THE o3 & o4-mini SYSTEM CARD (EXPLANATION) -- 2025-04-16

https://openai.com/index/o3-o4-mini-system-card/

THE SYSTEM CARD -- 2025-04-16

https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/2221c875-02dc-4789-800b-e7758f3722c1/o3-and-o4-mini-system-card.pdf

OPEN AI NON-PROFIT INSIGHT COMMISSION ADVISORS (with audio) -- 2025-04-15

https://openai.com/index/nonprofit-commission-advisors/

UPDATED PREPAREDNESS FRAMEWORK -- 2025-04-15

https://openai.com/index/updating-our-preparedness-framework/

FULL DOCUMENT

https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/18a02b5d-6b67-4cec-ab64-68cdfbddebcd/preparedness-framework-v2.pdf

INTRODUCING GPT 4.1 IN THE API (with audio) -- 2025-04-14

https://openai.com/index/gpt-4-1/

OPEN AI PIONEERS PROGRAM -- 2025-04-09

https://openai.com/index/openai-pioneers-program/

NEW INSIGHT COMMISSION -- 2025-04-02

https://openai.com/index/nonprofit-commission-guidance/

BOOKER'S SPEECH

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Tue, 1 Apr 2025 22:47:00 -0400

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has, over the last 24 and more hours, delivered the longest speech in the history of the US Senate, elegantly and passionately calling attention to the great promise and reality of the US in history, and the dangers the US faces in the actions of the current Trump administration.

Attention drawing events are the most important tools of Democratic resistance to the GOP's attempts to concentrate power in the Executive Branch of government, and with that power to cut vital services, to eliminate equality and diversity in both the government and private sectors, to alter the priorities of the Department of Justice, and to dramatically alter the system of taxation from an income tax (which can and should be progressive) to a tariff based "external" tax, which is basically regressive. (Tariffs are paid by importers, who pass along the cost to consumers, resulting in inflation, with the greatest burden falling on the poorest consumers.)

SENATOR CORY BOOKER'S OFFICE

https://www.booker.senate.gov/

CRASH

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 17:40:00 -0500

A civil airplane and a military helicopter crashed over the Potomac. It was the first major commercial airlines in the US in 25 years.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

John Donne

1572 - 1631

COPILOT BLOCKS NEW WORD DOCUMENTS - SOLUTION

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 01:39:00 -0500

MS Copilot has started appearing and BLOCKING whenever a new Word Document is started/opened.

It took several trial prompts using copilot to solve this. Here's the right prompt and an apparently correct answer:

HOW CAN I STOP COPILOT FROM BLOCKING ME FROM WRITING WHEN I OPEN A NEW DOCUMENT

COPILOT:

I understand how frustrating that can be! To stop Copilot from blocking you when you open a new document in Word, you can disable the feature. Here's how:

Open Word and go to the File menu.

Select Options.

In the Word Options dialog box, go to the Copilot section.

Uncheck the box that says Enable Copilot.

Click OK to save your changes.

This should disable Copilot and allow you to write without interruptions. If you're using a different Office app, the steps might be slightly different, but the general approach is the same.

TIK TOK BAN UPHELD

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 21:53:00 -0500

Congress, last year, voted a bipartisan bill to ban TIKTOK (controlled by the Chinese company ByteDance) from the US, as of Sunday, 1/19/2024, unless it was divested from Chinese ownership. The ban was challenged and went to SCOTUS.

Unlike the partisan delay the GOP majority of the court imposed on the immunity case to assist T, the court, ruling extremely quickly, upheld the ban on TIKTOK in a unanimous decision.

This is a major decision on the conflict between free speech vs National Security (as a threat from potentially adversarial countries that own and control an application used by gazillions of Americans).

Here is the decision:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Nos. 24–656 and 24–657

TIKTOK INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS 24–656

MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL

BRIAN FIREBAUGH, ET AL., PETITIONERS 24–657

MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL

ON APPLICATIONS FOR INJUNCTION PENDING REVIEW

TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

[January 17, 2025]

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-656_ca7d.pdf

"... the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial," SPECIAL COUNSEL SMITH

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 05:25:00 -0500

The Department of Justice (aka, the Department of Justice Delayed) has released the report of the Special Counsel Jack Smith.

It is a year too late, and a volume short. (Release of Volume 2 on the Classified Documents has been delayed by Judge Cannon.)

The final conclusion of the report (p 137) is that "... the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."

HERE IS THE LINK:

https://www.justice.gov/storage/Report-of-Special-Counsel-Smith-Volume-1-January-2025.pdf

FINAL REPORT ON THE SPECIAL COUNSEL'S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS

VOLUME ONE:

THE ELECTION CASE REPORT ON

EFFORTS TO INTERFERE WITH THE LAWFUL TRANSFER OF POWER

FOLLOWING THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OR

THE CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE

HELD ON JANUARY 6, 2021

Special Counsel Jack Smith

Submitted Pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c)

Washington, D.C.

January 7, 2025

A TERRIFIC USE CASE FOR OPEN AI GPT o1

noreply@blogger.com (QPORIT) — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 03:37:00 -0500

In ancient times, if you had a problem with your computer or an application, the answer might be in the documentation. At that time, it was said that the cost and space requirements of the computer were dwarfed by the cost and space requirements of the documentation. If you could not find the answer in your wall sized bookshelves of documentation, a professional expert was needed, or the problem was just declared unsolvable.

Somewhat later, say mid 1990's, the idea of online help from someone sharing your computer screen on the young web appeared. (I helped invent one of the first systems like that at IBM.)

Later, if you had a problem, Google started making it possible to google it. If someone had encountered that earlier, you might find some kind of solution on the web. Still later, you might find an explanation posted on YouTube on the web. It was still hit-or-miss, and depended on what was already written down or had been explained on some video that search could find.

Now, OPEN AI GPT o1 will listen to your problem, and coach you through the answer. If you have a problem, it will give you more detail. The help can be amazing.

One example: In a multi-page sign-on/registration for an application, I was stuck. The NEXT button would not light up. I asked o1 for help. It explained how one of the terms on the page could not be seen unless the page was full screen, and that a button was looking for something quite different from what it seemed to me to be asking for. To make me feel better(?) o1 even pointed out that other people had the same problem!

The instructions from o1 were considerably more complete, easier to follow, and more correct, than the instructions from the application's own site!

I've had similar success getting HELP!!! using o1 a number of other times!