Oscar News

• The Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday with Wes Andersen’s Moonrise Kingdom, and will continue to show lots of awards hopefuls over the next two weeks.
• The Directors Guild of America relented last week to allow screeners to get sent to its membership in voting for its annual awards. They had previously resisted this in belief that their films should be seen on the big screen.

Review Round-Up

• The Avengers is a big summer blockbuster, but any pretensions that it would garner serious critical support fell by the wayside. With a 69 on Metacritic, though, it should stand tall enough to pick up some consideration in the technical categories.

Oscar Box Office

• The Avengers became the 11th film to hit the $1 Billion mark worldwide, and it is still doing very well in wide release. It previously had the biggest opening weekend in history.

Oscar Farewell

• Two-time Oscar nominee Joyce Redman passed away at the age of 96. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Tom Jones and Othello.
• Donna Summer, who sang 1978 Best Song winner “Last Dance,” died this week of lung cancer. She was 63.