Category: media

The scene comes from Avengers: Endgame, when Thanos says “I am inevitable” and snaps his fingers in an attempt to destroy all existing life in the Universe, only to discover his gauntlet no longer has the power. The responses on Twitter included one from historian and author Kevin M Kruse, who noted: “You’ve made Trump a supervillain and depicted him in the scene where his plan to kill everyone in the universe falls apart due to his arrogance and incompetence.” – BBC

NPR has kept speaking with many voices that would sound out of place on the air anywhere else. Many, if not most, have been female. As hosts and anchors, correspondents and reporters, women have played a key role in giving NPR its distinctive sound. – The Conversation

“A recent study by Northwestern University … found that 26% of independent Arab filmmakers are women … In Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon, 25% of all new directors are women. In Egypt, this year’s Cairo International Film Festival became the first Arab festival, and second African festival, to pledge 50-50 gender parity by 2020.” – BBC

“Ana Subeliani arrived at the film premiere for And Then We Danced by foot, but left in an ambulance, blood running down her face. … Before screenings in November, far-right protesters and members of the Georgian Orthodox Church, some holding religious icons aloft, tried to stop moviegoers entering theaters” screening the film, which depicts a romance between two male members of the country’s national dance troupe. – The New York Times

The Clint Eastwood film looks at the media circus that broke out around Jewell, a security guard who came under suspicion for orchestrating the Centennial Olympic Park bombing before being exonerated. Scruggs, an employee at the paper, broke the story that Jewell was under investigation by the FBI. The film shows Scruggs, portrayed by Olivia Wilde, sleeping with an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) to get the story. Scruggs died in 2001 at the age of 42. The paper has maintained that there is no evidence that Scruggs slept with anyone involved in the Jewell investigation. – Variety

It was a crowning moment for Netflix, and not just for the jeweled one on Queen Elizabeth’s head. The streaming service, which dominated the Globe nominations overall, edged out HBO to win the most TV nods on Monday. Netflix got 17 TV nods, to go with its 17 on the movie side. HBO was a close successor at 15. – Washington Post

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Killing Eve received nominations this chilly L.A. morning, as did the apparent final season of Amazon’s Emmy-winning Fleabag and the first season of the star-studded The Morning Show on AppleTV+. – Deadline

Justin Chang is prepared for the inevitable backlash over some of the choices the LAFCA made. Prepared, but not pleased: “I’ve always been struck by the recurring phenomenon of LAFCA and other critics’ groups getting attacked online for the elitist snobbery of their allegedly out-of-the-box choices. To accuse us of snobbery, I think, gets the situation exactly wrong; championing work that falls outside the usual awards-season conversation, informed by the fact that we spend 52 weeks a year watching and writing about new movies from all over the world, strikes me as a pretty good definition of egalitarianism in action.” – Los Angeles Times

And not just any blog is closing, but Feministing, one of the only remaining feminist blogs from the heyday of the 2000s. One of the site’s former editors says, “It was unclear how we could have such a ferocious audience and not be onto something. … Many of us involved in the feminist blogosphere are now in mainstream media, and that’s exciting. That said, we need independent media because they’re an important check.” – The New York Times

And Greta Gerwig’s new movie version of it makes an attempt to reflect that. “We may these days … be surrounded by books containing extraordinary girls – Lyra, Hermione, Katniss – but it is striking that they are exceptions, and often alone; groups of girls in, say, the Gossip Girl books are toxic and destructive. Little Women is about ‘a world of women, of value in and of itself.’ It is also, Gerwig has said, ‘one of the few books about childhood that isn’t about escape. There is bravery, but it’s a hero’s journey contained inside the home.'” – The Guardian (UK)