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It was another “magically beautiful” week at the German box office: Wunderschön, the homegrown dramedy about four women of all ages by Karoline Herfurth topped the charts once again, just ahead of newest release Death on the Nile which beat two other debuts, Moonfall and Marry Me by, respectively, one and four spots. It has to be said that German-speaking people come in a close second to the Brits in their love for all things Agatha Christie.

Ivan Reitman was a master of comedy, a director who excelled at marrying the bawdy with the sophisticated, and a man who practically invented the careers of some of our most beloved comedic actors.   It was the college fraternity romp National Lampoon’s Animal House that got Reitman started in Hollywood in 1978, and that introduced a then-little-known John Belushi to American audiences.

Despite the studios’ counterprogramming with new films by Jennifer Lopez and Gal Gadot, the Super Bowl weekend – traditionally a slow period for filmgoing – stayed true to form. Death on the Nile, which marks the return of Kenneth Branagh as Agatha Christie’s beloved detective, Hercule Poirot since 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, emerged on top even with only $12.

Jennifer Lopez started her career as a dancer, then transitioned into movies when Gregory Nava cast her for a supporting role in Mi Familia (1995), then for the leading role in Selena (1997), the biographical movie about the Tejano singer, which earned her the first of two Golden Globes nominations. She was directed by Francis Ford Coppola in Jack (1996) with Robin Williams, by Bob Rafelson in Blood & Wine (1997) with Jack Nicholson, by Oliver Stone in U-Turn (1997) with Sean Penn, by Steven Soderbergh in Out of Sight (1998) with George Clooney.

“We are all the forest and the world to someone,” says Eami, whose name means ‘Forest and World. ’ The five-year-old is not just an ordinary girl: she is Asojá, the bird-god-woman who carries the spirit of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode.

In early 2020, Tye White was accompanying his wife, actress Rania Nasreen, while she was getting her nails done when the actor got a notification on his phone that one of the producers of American Auto, NBC’s newest workplace comedy, followed him on Twitter. At the time he had just completed auditions to play Jack, one of its series regulars.

The transportive power of music is given a rich, affecting showcase in The Conductor, a documentary from director Bernadette Wegenstein. It centers on and celebrates the life and work of trailblazer Marin Alsop, the first woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States.

Part of the less popularly celebrated majesty of cinema lies in its collaborative nature compared to other art forms. Many directors, quite justifiably, may take a possessory filmmaker credit — after all, they are making literally thousands of decisions and molding a movie in their vision.

Neil Phillips, the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is an unapologetic optimist. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Phillips was raised in the Washington DC area and went on to study English and American Literature at Harvard University.

Directed by Gerald Mayer (nephew of Louis Mayer, powerful head of MGM), Bright Road was a simple, modest, but winningly compelling tale of the impact that one dedicated Black teacher bore on her pupils. The film was adapted from the Christopher Award-winning short story, "See How They Run," by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, which was published in the June 1951 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal.