Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 332nd installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Oscar winners 2018: The list.

Oscars: Jordan Peele Becomes First African-American Winner for Best Original Screenplay.

Oscars: Why ‘The Shape of Water’ Won Best Picture (and Other Speculation).

Social Issues, Not Trump, Take Center Stage at Oscars.

Woman behind ‘inclusion rider’ explains Frances McDormand’s Oscar speech.

90th Academy Awards: THR TV Review.

Does It Matter If This Year’s Oscars Were the Least-Watched Ever?

The Most Ridiculous Things That Happened During Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars Movie-Theater Bit.

‘La La Land’ Producer Jordan Horowitz Laughs Off Best Picture Mix-Up a Year Later at 2018 Oscars.

The Highs and Lows of the 2018 Oscars Ceremony.

The Biggest 2018 Oscars Snubs and Surprises.

Frances McDormand’s Best Actress Oscar Was Stolen From Her and Returned During After Party.

Michael Shannon Watched ‘The Shape of Water’ Win Best Picture at a Chicago Pub.

Oscar Voters Dismissing ‘Get Out’ Without Having Even Seen It.

The Oscars always get it wrong. Here are the real best pictures of the past 42 years.

Which Movies Will Be Talked About for Next Year’s Oscars?

2018 Independent Spirit Awards Winners: Full List Here.

Dee Rees Brought a Flamethrower to the Indie Spirit Awards.

Harvey Weinstein’s Downfall Made the Independent Spirit Awards Better Than Ever.

The Must See Movies of SXSW 2018.

Don’t forget how the movement that changed Hollywood started: With great reporting.

‘Florida Project’ Director Sean Baker Urges Filmmakers to Keep Shooting on Celluloid.

Wes Anderson Explains Hayao Miyazaki’s Influence on ‘Isle of Dogs’ and Stop-Motion Challenges.

‘Call Me By Your Name’ Sequel Details Revealed, Actors Apparently Confirmed to Return.

How ‘Black Panther’ Fixed the Marvel Formula.

Beyond ‘Black Panther’ Box Office: 5 Ways Its Success Changed the Movie Business.

What ‘Black Panther’ Means to My Black Son.

20 Kid and Teen Books Hollywood Should Adapt After ‘A Wrinkle in Time’.

A24: The Little Movie Studio That Could.

Disney CEO Bob Iger Rules Out Rebrand for Fox Searchlight.

‘Star Wars’: Lucasfilm’s False Promise for Behind-the-Scenes Diversity Continues With Jon Favreau TV Series.

Diversity in Film Is Abysmal — but There’s an Easy Way to Fix One Big Problem.

Fandango Study Investigates What Women Want at the Movies.

Music Festivals Are Pledging Gender-Equal Lineups, So Why Aren’t Film Festivals?

REPORT: 5 Ways Hollywood Sidelines Black Screenwriters.

Minhal Baig: Making Movies After #MeToo.

Female-Led Investment Group Buys the Weinstein Company Assets.

‘Coco’ Producer Darla K. Anderson Leaves Pixar After 25 Years.

The Female Body In Film: Rethinking What’s Normal.

The Chick Flick is Dead — Long Live the Chick Flick.

The Tepid Relationship between Romantic Comedies and the Oscars.

New Alamo Drafthouse Video Store Will Offer Free VHS Rentals.

MoviePass Courts Hollywood A-Listers.

MoviePass Takes Steps to Improve Customer Experience as Subscriber Base Doubles.

Falling Down’s Mental Breakdown Structured As Video Game Levels.

‘The Sopranos’ prequel movie forthcoming, written by series creator David Chase.

Black Female Comedy Writers Talk The Whitewashing Of American TV.

Will Univision Spin Off Assets or Sell as a Whole?

Netflix’s Secrets to Success: Six Cell Towers, Dubbing and More.

Netflix Reportedly In Talks with the Obamas to Produce TV Shows.

Twitter CEO Wants to Open Up Verified Accounts to Everyone.

Read: Interview with Marvel chief Kevin Feige.

Listen: Playback (Episode 64) — Interview with Ava DuVernay.

Watch: Dee Rees 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards Robert Altman Award winning speech.

Watch: The 2018 Academy Awards Montage.

Watch: All of the 2018 Academy Award Ceremony Montages.

Watch: The Lonely Island’s OSCAR SONG DEMO — “Why Not Me?”

Watch: Is Billy Wilder The Best Screenwriter Of All Time?

Watch: Jordan Peele’s Oscar 2018 Acceptance Speech for Best Original Screenplay.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Workshop your story’s central character in my 1-week online course: How to Create a Compelling Protagonist.

In almost every movie, the most critical character is the Protagonist.

• Typically the story is told through their perspective.
• Their goal usually dictates the end point of the plot.
• All the other primary characters are somehow linked to the Protagonist.
• Normally they go through the most significant metamorphosis.
• And the Protagonist acts as the main conduit into the story for a script reader and moviegoer.

So guess what? You need to create a Protagonist that grabs a reader’s attention and keeps it for 100+ pages.

How to do that?

That’s what we will be exploring in my upcoming 1-week online class “Create a Compelling Protagonist”.

Go beyond writing a ‘sympathetic’ Protagonist. Dig deeper than giving your Protagonist a ‘flaw.’ That is surface level writing. In this class, you will learn an approach that will help you immerse yourself into this key character, and craft a Protagonist worth writing… and reading.

This class not only explores proven ways to help you create a compelling character, it also lays out an approach you can use as the groundwork for developing the rest of your story.

Seven lectures, 24/7 forum feedback, insider tips, 90-minute teleconference, and the opportunity to workshop your story’s Protagonist [or Protagonists].

Plus if you’re a fan of the movies Bridesmaids, The Social Network and Up, we’ll be using those as our study scripts. They offer a diverse set of Protagonists and yet the approach we will study next week shows how a writer can craft such compelling and different lead characters.

It all starts Monday, March 19. You can learn more and sign up here.

Here are some observations from writers who have taken the class with me:

“One week of Creating a Compelling Protagonist challenged me in ways I couldn’t challenge myself. If you want to develop your ideas, this is a rare opportunity at great value. Thank you, Scott!” — Brianna Garber

“I’ve taken a ton of classes, both inside and outside film school, and this was one of the best. The material provided a ton of inventive ways to approach the development of a solid, three-dimensional protagonist, and helped me dig deeper into the character’s internal world — forcing me to reject easy solutions, the first ideas that came to mind.” — Jason Young, 2016 Black List Feature Writer Lab selectee

“Scott generously offers up his knowledge, insight, time and resources, so that in just one week a fully formed character can begin to lead you into your story.” — Ellen Musikant

“A class that is perfect for anyone looking to learn the primary character archetypes, their psychology, and how they relate to the protagonist. The lectures provide thorough examples of these character archetypes in modern and classic movies, and the online forums were a hotspot to ask questions about the material or anything related to screenwriting. Scott’s style of teaching is highly accessible to anyone, as he creates an environment of easy, open discussion on the subject of character and welcomes any other questions you may have along the way.” — Kristen Vincent, sold spec script “Fetch”

This 1-week Craft course is coupled with another class: Write A Worthy Nemesis. That begins Monday, April 2. For information on that session, go here.

This is the only time I will be offering these Craft classes in 2018, so take this opportunity and sign up now!