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The Golden Trailer Awards: Hollywood’s ‘Oscars’ for Movie Previews

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
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The Golden Trailer Awards: Hollywood’s ‘Oscars’ for Movie Previews

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)
The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer. (Getty Images/AFP)

The Golden Trailer Awards, which recognize the people behind Hollywood's best-made movie previews, returned for its 26th edition Thursday.

The gala started in 1999 when co-founders Monica Brady and Evelyn Watters were looking for a team to produce a trailer, only to find that those who worked in the field were practically anonymous.

"Trailer editors, the people creating some of the most memorable moments of the moviegoing experience, were completely unrecognized," Brady told AFP.

"They weren't credited on trailers, they weren't credited in films, and there wasn't even a directory to find them."

The pair, who remain as executive producers on the award show, oversaw 19 prizes given out during the inaugural ceremony in New York.

The ceremony was held in Los Angeles and recognized achievements in more than 100 categories.

The night's most coveted statuette for Best of Show went to the trailer for sci-fi movie "Project Hail Mary", starring Ryan Gosling, which was created by Wild Card Creative Group.

But what makes one movie trailer stand out from the rest?

"What makes a great trailer, first and foremost, is a great hook," Watters said.

- 'A tempting appetizer' -

An honoree will likely have "a fresh storyline, compelling characters, an emotional moment, and something audiences haven't seen before," she explained ahead of the ceremony.

"A winning trailer is a tempting appetizer, it is not the whole meal."

Taylor Engel, a creative director at Create Advertising Group -- which received 16 nominations this year for the company's work on trailers for "Sinners,Tron: Ares" and "Only Murders in the Building" -- said editing a trailer is like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

"We get materials at the beginning of the project, and it could be anything. Sometimes you get the movie, sometimes you get just dailies, you know, just the scenes that they shot," Engel said.

The challenge lies in combining the audio, video and editing effects to "tell maybe a different story or showcase the movie in some way."

Like film editing, movie trailers have evolved over the decades in Hollywood, and the crowded marketplace for attention has led to fierce competition.

Sometimes, the trailer ends up being better than the movie itself -- something that has become its own category in the Golden Trailer Awards.

Dubbed the "Golden Fleece," this year's nominees include trailers for the horror film "Shell" starring Elisabeth Moss and "The Strangers: Chapter 3."

- No AI used -

Despite the intense competition and demand, Engel said that the work in making movie trailers is not under the same pressure to utilize artificial intelligence as other sectors of Hollywood.

"Every cut is very specific in why you pair a shot with a certain piece of music," Engel said.

AI tools "may get better at recreating what's been done in the past, but what's exciting about trailers is when you see something that you've never seen before, you see it done in a different way," the creative director said.

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Entertainment

Movie Review: Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds Star in Irreverent Cold War Action-Comedy ‘Mayday’

This image released by Apple TV shows Kenneth Branagh, left, and Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Mayday." (Apple TV via AP)
This image released by Apple TV shows Kenneth Branagh, left, and Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Mayday." (Apple TV via AP)
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Movie Review: Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds Star in Irreverent Cold War Action-Comedy ‘Mayday’

This image released by Apple TV shows Kenneth Branagh, left, and Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Mayday." (Apple TV via AP)
This image released by Apple TV shows Kenneth Branagh, left, and Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Mayday." (Apple TV via AP)

Somewhere along the way, Sir Kenneth Branagh developed a knack for playing Russians. He was the vindictive oligarch in “Tenet” and a villainous industrialist in “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” but “Mayday” may be the first time he’s been asked to use his very particular set of language skills for ... comedy?

His character, Nikolai Ustinov is a United States-loving, ex-KGB agent who has been living a solitary life in the woods until a U.S. Navy pilot crash lands in his backyard.

The year is 1987, Tony Scott’s “Top Gun,” released the year prior, looms large for both servicemen and former Russian agents, and Lieutenant Troy “Assassin” Kelly (Ryan Reynolds) has found himself in a very bad situation after being shot down on a black ops mission in a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in the heart of the Soviet Union.

Nikolai fights like Jason Bourne, has a beard like Grizzly Adams and loves “Top Gun” with every ounce of his being. Somehow, he’s obtained a bootleg VHS of the movie which he has watched “over 100 times,” he tells Troy. That movie, he says, confirmed “all of my beliefs about your people.” Because of that, he takes it upon himself to help Troy get out of Russia — and thus another mismatched buddy action comedy is born.

Troy is a very quintessentially Reynolds character while also being fairly generic: Snarky and sarcastic and full of himself. In classic “Top Gun” fashion he’s sure he’s the best pilot. He also has a hang-up about faces he deems unpleasant including those of the Cabbage Patch Kids, the pilot leading the black ops mission (it’s one you don’t often see outside of nightmares, he tells him to his face) and a Russian child whose guardians have taken them in for the night. His Reynolds-isms really only work when playing against Branagh, however. It’s hard to say whether anyone intended for Branagh to be the real star of this film, or if that’s just what happened, but he is the one with the arc, with the comedy, with the soul. Reynolds is mainly there to react to whatever Branagh is doing.

Filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the directing team behind “Game Night” and “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” have made a career out of making genre fare with an irreverent twist. They seem to be both skeptics and fans of macho 80s action movies — playing up the practical hand-to-hand combat and embracing the inherent goofiness of it all.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that it is a strange time to be releasing a movie with a sense of humor about Russia and geopolitical tensions. “Mayday” has a bigger point to make about the one-sided relationship of patriotism, wherever that loyalty lays. And yet it still seems like poor timing to have Marcin Dorociński playing a KGB officer, Alexander Volkov, who is hunting Troy on behalf of the motherland with the zeal of a Terminator. At one point his colleagues, content to wait for help to retrieve Troy’s boot and dog tag from a very tall tree, watch in awe as Volkov strips down to his undershirt to effortlessly do it himself.

Even so, “Mayday” is still pretty fun within its slick and self-aware packaging. It also doesn’t exactly transport you to a credible 1987, though, no matter how hard the soundtrack and references may be working. But in the end, it knows what it is, and that’s not a serious exploration of anything, least of all individuals being used as political cogs during the Cold War.

Entertainment

30 Years on, ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Sees Lara Croft Through a ‘Modern Lens’

A visitor poses at the "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" video game of Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog during at the Gamescom video games trade fair on the fair grounds in Cologne, western Germany, on August 26, 2026. (AFP)
A visitor poses at the "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" video game of Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog during at the Gamescom video games trade fair on the fair grounds in Cologne, western Germany, on August 26, 2026. (AFP)
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30 Years on, ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Sees Lara Croft Through a ‘Modern Lens’

A visitor poses at the "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" video game of Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog during at the Gamescom video games trade fair on the fair grounds in Cologne, western Germany, on August 26, 2026. (AFP)
A visitor poses at the "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" video game of Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog during at the Gamescom video games trade fair on the fair grounds in Cologne, western Germany, on August 26, 2026. (AFP)

Thirty years after bursting onto the video game scene, Lara Croft returns in a new "Tomb Raider" that plays up the pistol-wielding architect's "complicated" character.

Taking on the most famous heroine in video game history is a "tremendous responsibility", Raul Siqueira, director of "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis", told AFP in an interview at the Gamescom video game convention in Cologne, Germany.

Journalists and influencers were given a preview of the new game -- a remake of the very first "Tomb Raider" -- that is scheduled for release on February 12.

In the 20-minute gameplay sequence, Lara Croft -- still in her famous blue top and brown shorts -- explores an abandoned tomb in Greece, battling panthers and dodging giant swords falling from the ceiling.

The British adventurer makes her acrobatic moves against a background of realistic graphics, complete with her trademark sarcastic quips.

"Lara is a very complicated character with a lot of nuance. So yes, we've adapted and changed some of the lines, but we didn't go as far to change the story," Siqueira said.

Released in November 1996, the first "Tomb Raider" delighted a generation of players with its 3D graphics -- cutting edge at the time -- and its fearless heroine, who came to personify the entire games industry.

- 'Not an object' -

Siqueira, 36, said the first "Tomb Raider" had a big impact on him personally.

"There was a lot of cool elements... the fact that Lara was a different protagonist, the first female protagonist of a game that I had ever played," he said.

Lara may have beaten a path for more female heroines and encouraged young women around the world to pick up a controller, but in the early days the publicity for the game leaned heavily on her shapeliness.

With the market for video games now expanded well beyond the stereotype of adolescent boys, the team behind the new game says this time they are focusing on Lara as a strong character.

"The way we're rebuilding Lara, we're trying to respect the fact that she's female, and we're just trying to make her powerful, not as an object of physical attraction," said the game's art director Arek Tomaszewski.

Eight years after the last instalment "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and ahead of an all-new entry planned for 2028, "Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis" aims to revisit the original adventure "through a modern lens", Siqueira said.

Published by the video game division of Amazon, the game was developed jointly by US firm Crystal Dynamics and Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, both owned by the Swedish group Embracer.

It took more than three years of work, including a complete rewrite of the script and Croft's dialogue, now voiced by the British actress Alix Wilton Regan.

- Same old Lara -

The new game aims to draw a new audience to discover a title that has felt the passage of time.

Gamers of 2026, accustomed to modern controls and graphics, would find it very difficult to play the original, Tomaszewski said.

Created by the British company Core Design, the "Tomb Raider" series lost its luster as the quality of new editions declined over time.

It was restarted from scratch in 2013 with a new trilogy dubbed "Survivor", chronicling the adventures of a younger, less experienced Lara.

The latest outing continues that story, Siqueira said: "The Lara that we saw in the 'Survivor' trilogy is the Lara in 'Legacy of Atlantis'," he said.

"It's just the beginning of her career as a Tomb Raider was 'Survivor', that's how we show her first adventure's beginning, and this is her much later in life at the top of her game."

Entertainment

Venice Jury Head Maggie Gyllenhaal Questions Lack of Women Directors

Venezia 83 Competition Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
Venezia 83 Competition Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
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Venice Jury Head Maggie Gyllenhaal Questions Lack of Women Directors

Venezia 83 Competition Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
Venezia 83 Competition Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal poses at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)

The head of this year's Venice Film Festival jury Maggie Gyllenhaal questioned Wednesday why only two women directors had been selected for the main competition at the Italian event this year.

"There's a systemic problem," the American actress-turned director told reporters at a press conference on the opening day of the festival, sitting next to Venice supremo Alberto Barbera.

"I do think it's much harder for women to get their films financed. Also, could it be possible that the things that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world, want to make movies about are not always deemed high art. Who decides what's good? Who decides what's valuable?

"That's also a question I have, and it's a legitimate one," she added.

"Woman Unknown" by Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy was the only woman-directed film in the initial 20-strong field of films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion in Venice's top competition.

The late addition of "NAZA" about Israel's targeting of civilians in Gaza improved the gender balanced slightly -- it is co-directed by a woman, Oscar-winning Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor.

Barbera said this year's selection had been made "without prejudice".

At a press conference to announce the selection in July, he said that the quality of submissions from women directors "was not enough to put them into the competition" -- which led to a critical open letter from campaign and industry groups in Italy.

Although her remarks appeared to be an implicit criticism of Barbera's choices, Gyllenhaal stressed that her role as head of the jury was also significant.

"I really am walking in with a question as to why there's so few women in the main competition as filmmakers this year. But I think ... asking me to be the head of the main jury competition after the two films that I have made is a very important thing to consider too," she added.