What Is Cinema?
The best movies feel as if they’d been born, not made. In a new series of articles and videos, Vanity Fair, in partnership with Rolex, starts a revealing conversation with—and among—filmmakers about their craft, their visions, and the art of paying inspiration forward. Technology and industry trends may change, but the drive to tell stories that mean something, and will last, does not. I think you’ll enjoy listening in.
—Radhika Jones, Vanity Fair Editor in Chief
Awards Insider!
Golden Globes Nominations 2024: The 10 Biggest Snubs and Surprises
Unexpected cheers for Beau Is Afraid and Slow Horses meet troubling misses for The Color Purple and Napoleon.
- VANITY FAIR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ROLEX
Rolex and Cinema: A Long-Term Partnership in Excellence
- What Is Cinema?
Sarah Polley and Ruben Östlund on Juggling Acting Ensembles and Pushing Their Audiences
In Vanity Fair’s series What Is Cinema?, the Oscar-nominated writer-directors behind Women Talking and Triangle of Sadness reveal their biggest challenges. - Vanity Fair In Partnership With Rolex
Rolex Supports the Transmission of Knowledge to Future Generations of Filmmakers Through Its Mentoring Program
For more than half a century, Rolex has partnered some of the world’s most talented artists and leading cultural institutions to celebrate excellence and contribute to perpetuating artistic heritage, creating a link between the past, present and future. - What Is Cinema?
The Art That Inspired 6 Major Filmmakers
A short story suggested by Martin Scorsese, a 1970s documentary, a photograph of the Blitz—inspiration came from many sources to create some of 2022’s best films. - What Is Cinema?
Rian Johnson and the Daniels on the Film Rules They Love to Follow—And Break
In Vanity Fair’s series What Is Cinema?, the directors of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Everything Everywhere All at Once talk craft. - What Is Cinema?
How 4 Directors Found a Way to Go Home Again
New movies from Steven Spielberg, James Gray, Joanna Hogg, and Alejandro González Iñárritu ask tough questions about their own pasts—and remind us of cinema’s power as a medium for memories. - What Is Cinema?
Directors Gina Prince-Bythewood and Halle Berry on Their “Very Small Sisterhood”
To kick off Vanity Fair’s new series, What Is Cinema?, the directors of The Woman King and Bruised connect on the “had-to-do” stories they brought to the screen.
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Review
There Are No Winners in Wrestling Drama The Iron Claw
Zac Efron does his best to lend a brutal story some real humanity.
Oscar Buzz
The Love Story of Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad
Batiste was being filmed for the documentary American Symphony when his wife learned that her cancer had returned. The result is full of beauty and pain.
Awards Insider!
Golden Globes 2024: See All the Nominations Here
Barbie and Oppenheimer reigned in the film categories, while Succession and Abbott Elementary continued their dominance on the TV side.
FROM THE MAGAZINE
The Talented Mr. Ripley at 25—Frank, Queer, and Ahead of Its Time
With Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law all at the peak of their star power, the thriller was an Oscar anomaly that became a touchstone.
FROM THE MAGAZINE
On Set With Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and More
Go behind the scenes with some of the year’s most celebrated Oscar contenders.
Awards Insider!
Nicolas Cage Is Almost Done Making Films: “I May Have Three or Four More Movies Left in Me”
In conversation with Vanity Fair, the Oscar winner reveals why he’s nearing the end of his big-screen career—and what he hopes to do next.
cover story
Robert Downey Jr.’s Third Act: “He’s Lived a Complicated Life. He Understands the Stakes”
Following an Oscar-worthy turn in Oppenheimer, Downey’s inner circle size up the man and his considerable legacy.
Year in Review
The Best Movies of 2023
Vanity Fair’s chief critic lists the best movies of 2023, from Past Lives and May December to Poor Things.
Awards Insider!
Saltburn Star Barry Keoghan on the Film’s Revealing Ending
“Without sounding cocky, it wasn’t the nudity. That was fine for me. It was the dancing.”
Exclusive
Fallout First Look: This Is How the World Ends—With a Smiling Thumbs Up
The globally popular video game has become an epic TV series from Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan.
IN CONVERSATION
Playing Murderous Alex Murdaugh Was Freeing for Bill Pullman
The actor knows it’s surprising to hear that he stars as the notorious killer in Lifetime’s Murdaugh Murders: “There was something that felt like, this is a challenge.”
Awards Insider Exclusive
Matt Bomer Takes His Dark, Sexy Turn: “I Got to Be the Bad Boy”
Between Fellow Travelers and Maestro, the Emmy nominee is having the biggest year of his career—and that’s after he walked away from Barbie. We discuss his enticing new chapter.
Reviews
The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Is the Rare Good Prequel
It’s possible, Francis Lawrence’s movie suggests, to do something as cynical as a brand extension with care and insight.
AWARDS SEASON
Sandra Hüller Steps—Cautiously—Into the Spotlight
With roles in two riveting films this awards season, the moral thriller Anatomy of a Fall and the Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest, the German actor is figuring out what to make of Hollywood’s sudden attention.
COVER STORY
After Barbie, Greta Gerwig Has No Plans to Rest
The director on her box office dominance, life with Noah Baumbach, and the grossest parenting story you’ve ever heard.
shot list
How the Warm, Elegant Look of The Holdovers Came Together
Director Alexander Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld needed a lot of snow, and actors up for the task, to tell the quiet, melancholy story of three people spending Christmas at a New England boarding school.
Character Building
How Cailee Spaeny Became Priscilla
Inside the endless fittings, giant wigs, intimate conversations, and single-take risks that went into the creation of an indelible heroine for Sofia Coppola’s new film.
Gobble Gobble
The 21 Best Thanksgiving Movies to Stream Right Now
Embrace one of Hollywood’s more undercelebrated holidays with Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Knives Out; or Spider-Man. Yes, Spider-Man!
Little Gold Men
Greta Lee on the High Stakes of Past Lives
“After 20 years of waiting for something like this, I didn't want to mess it up,” says the actor starring in Celine Song’s debut film.
Little Gold Men
With The Holdovers, Alexander Payne Faces His Admirers
The Oscar winner is back with his best-received movie in years. He’s still working out the reasons why people are responding to it.
video
Jacob Elordi’s Elvis Voice Stunned Priscilla Presley
“What struck her the most was how much his voice sounded like Elvis,” Priscilla filmmaker Sofia Coppola says of her real-life subject’s reaction to the film.
The Power of Christ Compels You
The Truth Behind the Hidden Demon in The Exorcist
A deep investigation into a single frame of film—and a bizarre mystery that’s lasted for decades.
Shot List
Inside Todd Haynes’s Twisted, Ingenious Vision for May December
The director and his cinematographer, Christopher Blauvelt, go deep into the images behind their Netflix dark comedy—and showcasing three of the best performances of the year.
Awards Insider First Look
Why Anthony Hopkins’s Whole Career Led Him to Freud’s Last Session
Hopkins plays a Sigmund Freud in deep reflection over his extraordinary life and impending death—an experience that compelled the actor to look inward himself.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Ari Aster Still Wants You to Consider Beau Is Afraid
The writer-director gets frank about the “stunted” release of his polarizing film: “You’re very excited by the idea of dividing people, but then it comes out…and you realize, ‘This is also functioning as a deterrent for people to even go see it.’”
onward
Nyad Is a Love Story
Screenwriter Julia Cox on structuring her sports movie like a romance, controversy around its real-life subject, and “the unbelievable tenacity and athleticism of Annette Bening.”
Awards Insider!
Leonardo DiCaprio Cements a Thrilling New Era in Killers of the Flower Moon
The Oscar winner’s insidious portrayal of a bystander to genocide fits the recent theme of his filmography—and marks perhaps his most interesting stretch as an actor.
The Sooner State
The Strange but True Story of the Pioneer Woman’s Link to Killers of the Flower Moon
Ree Drummond’s family hasn’t been directly implicated in the Reign of Terror depicted in Martin Scorsese’s new movie—but their present-day dynasty has an unmistakable connection to that years-long killing spree.
Little Gold Men
Behind Jamie Foxx’s Brilliant, Wild Performance in The Burial
“He’s almost frighteningly talented,” director Maggie Betts tells Vanity Fair. She reveals how Foxx’s all-timer performance in the new Amazon film came to be.
Cover Story
Malibu Barbra: Inside Barbra Streisand’s World
On the eve of her memoir, the legend invites VF to her home to talk music, dogs, pickup lines, and the movies she still wants to make.
COVER STORY
Barbra Streisand on The Way We Were and Her Fight to Get It Right
In an exclusive from her memoir, the legend talks about Robert Redford (“great teeth”) and the scenes Sydney Pollack should never have cut.
Witchy Women
How Practical Magic Pissed Off a Real-Life Witch
Twenty-five years later, the film’s director talks that famous midnight-margaritas scene—“Everybody got shit-faced”—and the magic consultant who threatened to sue Warner Bros. over the production: “They said, ‘Fuck this,’ and wrote her a check.”
Shot List
How The Royal Hotel Pulls Off the Most Potent Cinematic Tension of the Year
Kitty Green’s second feature explores everyday terrors on a scale so believably familiar you never know if she’s going to turn the screw into a full horror movie. Here’s how the film maintained its pressure-cooker tone.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Christine Vachon, Hollywood’s Greatest Anomaly
The legendary producer broke Hollywood barriers, changed American movies, and is behind two of 2023’s best films in Past Lives and May December. Her first Oscar nomination is finally in sight: “It would mean an extraordinary amount to me.”
Exclusive
Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa Steam Up the Spy Thriller Argylle
Actually, it’s all fake. Bryce Dallas Howard stars in director Matthew Vaughn’s send-up of his own action movies. “We’re having fun destroying these tropes.”
history
The Outsiders: Why Black Audiences Love Italian American Screen Icons
Tony Montana. Michael Corleone. Rocky Balboa. Beloved film tropes illuminate a history of race, whiteness, and the fallacy of the American dream.
Exclusive Excerpt
Marvel Secrets Revealed: Alternate Castings That Would Have Changed Everything
Chadwick Boseman as Drax. Alexander Skarsgård as Thor. John Krasinski as Captain America. An exclusive book excerpt dives into the formative days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Helen Mirren Confronts the Complex, Challenging “Career Milestone” of Golda
In an exclusive chat, Mirren gets frank with Vanity Fair about the controversy around her casting, the experience of using heavy prosthetics for the first time, and the decision to portray a divisive historical subject.
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Marty Without the Mob: Killers of the Flower Moon Joins Rich Scorsese History
The iconic crime sagas made him a legend, but he’s given us gems of all kinds along the way. Remembering The Age of Innocence, Raging Bull, and more.
New Directions
Nia DaCosta, Barrier-Breaking Director of The Marvels, on Navigating the Blockbuster Machine
“The thing I’ve been most surprised by lately,” says the filmmaker, who broke through with the horror hit Candyman, “is how much respect I’ve been getting from these middle-aged white dudes.”
The 31 Best Feel-Good Movies to Boost Your Mood
From silent-film classics to modern rom-com hits, the best feel-good movies have a timeless power to bring out smiles—and sometimes a few tears too.
Awards Insider!
The 14 Best Movies From the Fall Film Festivals
Venice, Telluride, and Toronto offered a wide range of titles worth anticipating. Our film festival correspondents pick their favorites.
Toronto Film Festival
Anna Kendrick Soars With Directorial Debut About True-Life Killer on a Game Show
Other actors turned directors have struggled to connect at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Patricia Arquette Makes a Bold Directorial Debut With Gonzo Girl
An aspiring writer falls into the chaotic world of a Hunter S. Thompson–like character in this coming-of-age tale.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Kate Winslet Embodies an Unsung American Icon in Lee
Winslet digs deep in her portrayal of groundbreaking wartime photographer Lee Miller. Inside the biopic that was two decades in the making.
Venice Film Festival
In Priscilla, a Complex True Story Is Gracefully Told
Priscilla Presley's marriage to the most famous man of her era is the subject of Sofia Coppola's measured film.
Excerpt
How Madonna Turned the League of Their Own Set Into a Three-Ring Circus
In this excerpt from the new book No Crying in Baseball, Erin Carlson reveals how the pop star’s hiring made an A-list actor drop out, how Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell became fast friends, and how a $10 tip stunned a Madonna-impersonating drag queen.
Awards Insider!
2023 Fall Preview: 46 Films to Watch Out For
From actors making their directorial debuts to cinema legends pushing the form even further, the moviegoing landscape is as exciting as it’s ever been this season.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Welcome to Saltburn’s Twisted Gothic Tale
“There has to be an element of revulsion,” says Emerald Fennell of her sophomore film about desire and obsession, starring Barry Keoghan.
Awards Insider Exclusive
With Maestro, Leonard Bernstein’s Legacy and Loves Finally Hit the Big Screen
His daughter Jamie Bernstein speaks for the first time about Bradley Cooper’s transformation to play her father, and the “portrait of a marriage” at the heart of the film.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Inside All of Us Strangers, Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal’s Metaphysical Love Story
Andrew Haigh’s new film All of Us Strangers parallels a steamy romance between Scott and Mescal with an aching reunion of the dead and the living. Together, they make for an emotional epic.
scotchy-scotch-scotch
“That Escalated Quickly”: Inside Anchorman’s Epic Battle Sequence
An excerpt from Saul Austerlitz’s Kind of a Big Deal: How Anchorman Stayed Classy and Became the Most Iconic Comedy of the Twenty-First Century.
Awards Insider Exclusive
First Look: Annette Bening Swims Toward the Role of a Lifetime in Nyad
Bening and costar Jodie Foster reveal the intensive training, tight bonding, and mental endurance that their stirring biopic required: “I don’t know how she did it.”
Awards Insider Exclusive
First Look: Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan Face a Dangerous Future in Foe
This twisty, apocalyptic marital thriller takes the two Oscar nominees on a wild ride—one that will keep you guessing until the film’s final seconds. We go inside the intense collaboration.
In Memoriam
The Film That Returned William Friedkin to Critical Acclaim
On the occasion of the director’s death, we take a look back at one of his most important works, the 1985 film To Live and Die in LA. In this darkly seductive portrait of Los Angeles in the 1980s, it is impossible to distinguish the lines that divide right and wrong.
Little Gold Men
The Elvis Presley We Didn’t See in Elvis
On this week’s Little Gold Men podcast, a discussion of Priscilla Presley’s memoir, Elvis and Me, and the upcoming Sofia Coppola movie it inspired.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Watch Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich Go to War in the Breathless Fair Play Trailer
Plus: Writer-director Chloe Domont on her actors’ on-camera explosion, that huge sale to Netflix, and conflicting opinions about her movie.
Little Gold Men
The Two Very Different Versions of Killers of the Flower Moon
The Little Gold Men book club series kicks off with a look at the 2017 book by David Grann, soon to be a film by Martin Scorsese.
JUST KIDS
Can You Name the (Great) Movie That Launched Brie Larson, LaKeith Stanfield, Rami Malek, and More?
The now famous cast of Short Term 12, as well as writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton, look back in amazement a decade later.
exclusive
Red, White & Royal Blue May Be “the Most Expensive Bit of Fan Fiction Ever”
In this VF photo exclusive, director and cowriter Matthew López talks about adapting a beloved queer beach read and getting energy from its impassioned fan base: “I knew that this was a story that I absolutely had to tell.”
Exclusive
“Jaws Became a Living Nightmare”: Steven Spielberg's Ultimate Tell-All Interview
“It was made under the worst of conditions,” the filmmaker reveals in a new book. “People versus the eternal sea. The sea won the battle.”
Awards Insider!
Oppenheimer—and, Yes, Barbie—Have a Real Shot at the 2024 Oscars
After a historic weekend at the box office, both Barbenheimer films are primed for strong awards campaigns.
bathroom breaks
Why Are Movies Sooooo Long? An Investigation
Despite groans from audiences and executives alike, new releases seem to keep getting longer. Can anyone make a 90-minute movie anymore?
Hi, Barbie!
Dreamhouse, Assemble: How Barbie Cast Barbie, Barbie, Barbie (and Ken)
Casting directors Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones sought a very specific quality: “We needed actors who could get the fact that our Barbies only knew pleasant things.”
Review
Barbie Is About as Good as a Barbie Movie Could Ever Be
Greta Gerwig’s film is more than an advertisement, but a little less than a dream.
Awards Insider Exclusive
Rustin First Look: Colman Domingo Is Bayard Rustin, the Man Who Turned MLK’s Dream Into a Reality
The star and director George C. Wolfe shine a spotlight on an unsung civil rights hero: “The more I was living with Bayard, I just became overwhelmed.”
in conversation
Lakota Nation vs. the United States and the Fight for the Black Hills
Directors Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli on their new documentary, which charts the Lakota quest to return to their most sacred place.
striking back
AI May Kill Us All, but It’ll Never Write a Good Movie
A member of the WGA’s AI working group reflects on screenwriting in the age of artificial intelligence—and explains why now is the time to stand up for human labor.
Old Hollywood Book Club
Beautiful Dreamer: Ali MacGraw’s Semi-Charmed Life
From the outside, MacGraw seemed to float into superstardom—but as she writes in her memoir, that apparently effortless celebrity came at a cost.
We Come to This Place for Magic
Barbie, Bombs, Blockbusters! Box Office Wars Return as a Spectator Sport
Hollywood needs to make $4 billion this summer to be truly in the pink.
Little Gold Men
Glenn Howerton, Oscar Contender
The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star really is that good in BlackBerry, one of the most dynamic films of the year. We go deep with him on hearing early awards chatter—and what it means to him to hear it.
Throw Me the Whip
The Unbelievable True Stories of the Real Indiana Jones
He hated snakes, looked great in a fedora, and had globe-trotting adventures that captivated the world. Roy Chapman Andrews set the template for the world’s most famous (fictional) archaeologist.
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giant
The Real Rock Hudson: A Moving New HBO Doc Claims Him as a Gay Icon
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed examines the star’s closeted career—and the significance of him going public with his AIDS diagnosis.
swan song
John Williams Always Settles the Score
Ahead of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we take stock of the 91-year-old who’s composed countless unforgettable movie themes—and arguably saved classical music in the process.
Little Gold Men
Ian McKellen Made Oscar History in 1999—And Shamefully, No One Else Has Repeated It
A look back at Gods and Monsters, to this day, the only film to earn an Oscar nomination for an openly gay male actor.
state of the union
The Flash Is the Past; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Is the Future
Viewed back-to-back, these dueling multiverse sagas show what’s gone wrong with superhero movies—and how the genre can be saved.
Exclusive
First Look: The Deepest Breath Tells a Heartbreaking True Story About Diving
The documentary about world champion Alessia Zecchini and her coach Stephen Keenan explores loyalty and obsession.
Take Care of Maya Tackles a Thorny, Heartbreaking Medical Mystery
Situations like that of Maya Kowalski—a kid whose chronic illness was just the beginning of her troubles—are “a nationwide pattern,” says doc director Henry Roosevelt.
Why Me?
Diane Keaton Asks Francis Ford Coppola a Question 50+ Years in the Making
Figuring she’s got job security now, the Oscar-winning actress pings her former director over Instagram.
Little Gold Men
Bryan Cranston on Returning to Walter White, Wes Anderson, and More
The Emmy winner talks with Little Gold Men about his Asteroid City role, reprising his Breaking Bad icon, and the mystery project he’s got up next.
Little Gold Men
A Groundbreaking Queer Oscar Winner and Its Very, Very Complicated Legacy
In 1986 William Hurt became the first actor to win an Oscar for playing an openly queer character. Did he start one of the Oscars’ worst trends?
Tribeca Film Festival
“I Have to Direct This”: 7 Actors Who Took the Camera Into Their Own Hands
A group chat with Tribeca Film Festival standouts David Duchovny, Jennifer Esposito, Hamish Linklater, Chelsea Peretti, Lily Rabe, Michael Shannon, and John Slattery.
INTO THE SNYDER-VERSE
Zack Snyder Goes Galactic: Exclusive First Look at Rebel Moon
The Netflix saga was once Snyder’s pitch for a Star Wars movie. Now it’s in a universe all its own.
Awards Insider!
Early Hollywood’s “Joyous Bisexual” and Her Most Daring Onscreen Roles
The Little Gold Men podcast kicks off a series of Pride flashbacks with 1932’s Shanghai Express, starring the inimitable Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong.
Cannes Film Festival
Did an Oscar Winner Premiere at Cannes?
The fest’s best range, from Scorsese’s Native American epic to a mesmerizingly grim Holocaust tale.
Cannes Film Festival
Natalie Portman and Todd Haynes Don’t Want to Be ‘Vampires on People’s Lives’
In Haynes’s May December, Portman plays an actor studying the life of a tabloid sensation.
cannes 2023
Wes Anderson Gets Back to Basics, Beautifully, in Asteroid City
The director’s layered latest is his best film in years.
Awards Insider!
“There’s a Movement”: Inside the Fight to De-gender Awards Shows
Nonbinary actors are withdrawing from consideration. Still more are calling for change. The industry may need to finally start listening.
Cannes 2023
Martin Scorsese Has Never Made a Movie Like Killers of the Flower Moon
Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone anchor a riveting American crime story.
Cannes 2023
The Zone of Interest Is a Bold, Terrifying Vision of the Holocaust
By focusing on an infamous Nazi commandant and his family, Jonathan Glazer takes an unflinching look at the banality of evil.
In Conversation
“She’s So F--king Funny”: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michaela Watkins’s Sister Act
They first worked together 15 years ago. Now the comic actors play sisters in Nicole Holofcener’s acclaimed movie You Hurt My Feelings.
Cannes 2023
13 Cannes Film Festival 2023 Premieres We’ve Got Our Eyes On
Killers of the Flower Moon, Asteroid City, and more of Richard Lawson and Rebecca Ford’s most anticipated titles.
Walking and Talking
Nicole Holofcener Isn’t Holding Back
The director of You Hurt My Feelings gets candid about her new film and life as an artist: “I feel like if I stick to doing what I love or really like, my career’s always in jeopardy.”
IN CONVERSATION
Jane Fonda on Marriage, Sex, and Succession—Plus Looking at Herself in the Mirror at 85
The Oscar winner also shares the parenting advice that’ll prevent you from making the mistakes she did, and why she prefers to be single: “I can get much more done when I’m on my own.”
old hollywood book club
The Contrarian: Marlon Brando’s Paradoxical Life
Troubled, righteous, callous, brilliant: A pair of biographies prove that the iconic actor was impossible to pin down.
Awards Insider!
Jemima Khan’s Had Enough of Fairy Tales
The writer of the rom-com What’s Love Got to Do With It? made a love letter to Pakistan that also questions how anyone finds love in the first place.
26 Summer Movies to Anticipate in 2023
Whether you want a massive blockbuster or a future Oscar contender, there’s much to choose from in what’s looking like the busiest summer movie season in years.
Dune: Part Two Trailer Reveals Austin Butler’s Dead-Faced Assassin
The Elvis star’s appearance has been closely shrouded, but a new teaser shows his fearsome transformation.
From the Magazine
Suddenly, Stephanie Hsu Is Everywhere
The Oscar nominee on her intense year, her love for Jamie Lee Curtis, and how her next movie, Joy Ride, defies stereotypes.
Little Gold Men
Michael Shannon on Music, the Apocalypse, and Keeping Up With Hollywood
The Oscar nominee goes deep on everything from his Emmy-bound critical darling, George & Tammy, to what lies ahead with The Flash and more.