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3 weeks ago | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
Since the pandemic, film festivals have struggled in a landscape where fewer films receive theatrical distribution and streamers have scaled back their spending on acquisitions. In 2021, Tribeca chose to move its festival from April to June—helping distance the event from both Sundance, where so many independent films premiere, and Cannes, the industry’s preeminent auteur-driven festival.
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1 month ago | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
God bless Jean Smart, but I don’t know if I can watch her win another Emmy. She’s already collected three for her delicious work on Hacks—she’s never been nominated for the series without winning—and this September she will likely be called to the stage for her fourth. John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, meanwhile, has won 30 awards in 11 years, and I can recite from memory his perennial speech thanking staff members in Brooklyn.
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1 month ago | 
currentaffairs.org | John Ross
The Vice Chair of the DNC wants to primary incumbents who are “asleep at the wheel” but still backs Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi. He’s offering the appearance of change without the substance. You might think that, after losing another election to Donald Trump in spectacular fashion, top Democrats would realize their party needs sweeping reforms. But apparently not.
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2 months ago | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
Parris Goebel, the New Zealand–born co-creative director and choreographer behind Lady Gaga’s Coachella performance, is no stranger to working with major pop stars. She was responsible for choreographing Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 and Doja Cat’s headlining set at last year’s Coachella.
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2 months ago | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
An A-list group of filmmakers and actors turned out in support of Francis Ford Coppola on Saturday night, as the legendary director received the 50th AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. At 86, Coppola joins an elite group of filmmakers who have received the honor that includes Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and Mel Brooks. The ceremony was a celebration of Coppola's career, the six decades over which he fundamentally reshaped American filmmaking.
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2 months ago | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
It’s official: China is reducing the number of Hollywood films allowed to play in the country as part of its ongoing trade war with Donald Trump. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that China was considering a full-out ban on all Hollywood films, so maybe movie executives here should feel lucky that it will only “moderately reduce,” as Bloomberg reports, the number of US movies it imports.
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Mar 27, 2025 | 
vanityfair.com | John Ross
It’s official: Starting in 2027, Sundance will move to Boulder, Colorado—and luckily, not Cincinnati, the possibility of which was a major concern for attendees this year. After an extensive search that started in April of 2024, the festival revealed Boulder, Cincinnati, and nearby Salt Lake City as its three potential new host cities. Of those, the Colorado hamlet won out.
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Mar 27, 2025 | 
currentaffairs.org | Stephen Prager |John Ross |Nathan J. Robinson |Kyle Kulinski
Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was given a once in a lifetime opportunity to show us how the powerful act when nobody is watching. Instead, he left the room. On Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that a member of the Trump administration unexpectedly added him to a group text chain in which top national security officials were discussing immediate plans to carry out airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah).
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Mar 21, 2025 | 
currentaffairs.org | Stephen Prager |Alex Skopic |Nathan J. Robinson |John Ross
Donald Trump is cynically using the idea of Jewish safety to launch a regime of political persecution. But he and his allies barely disguise their own antisemitism. [Content warning: Antisemitism, misogyny]The Trump administration has begun arresting political prisoners, and it’s using a supposed crackdown on antisemitism as a pretext to do it. Last week, ICE detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate of Columbia University who is in the United States as a lawful permanent resident.
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Mar 20, 2025 | 
currentaffairs.org | Alex Skopic |Nathan J. Robinson |John Ross
It’s a testament to human arrogance and cruelty that this is even being considered. Can you imagine what it would be like to kill an owl? To look down the barrel of a rifle or shotgun, pull the trigger, and watch a feathery body fall to the ground with a dull thud? Probably not. Owls are fascinating, beautiful creatures, and they’ve done nothing to harm humans, so the thought of murdering one in cold blood is repellent. But not, apparently, to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
