'Strange Darling' leads Best Thriller Film nominees with seven nominations

I told my readers to "stay tuned for more Saturn Awards coverage" today, but I didn't say which category. That's because the leading nominees for Best Horror Film and Best Thriller Film each have seven nominations and I wasn't sure if I would save the horror nominees for Friday the 13th. I probably will, so thriller films it is.

Best Thriller Film:
Blink Twice
Civil War
Saltburn
Speak No Evil
Strange Darling
Wolfs

As the subject line states, Strange Darling, which is ironically the one film in this field I hadn't heard of before the Saturn Awards were announced, leads with seven nominations. Civil War has two, and the rest each only have one. Normally, I'd vote for the most mainstream choice and the political thriller, Civil War, but I'll see if Strange Darling Exclusive Trailer (2024) can persuade me.

Check out the Official Trailer for Strange Darling starring Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald!

O.K., I'm persuaded. It looks more fun and more scary than Civil War, so I'm voting for it, especially after I renewed my Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Academy membership this morning.

Stay tuned for more Saturn Awards coverage, although tomorrow is Gingerbread House Day and I have a driving update to write, since Pearl's odometer rolled over another 1,000 miles yesterday. Decisions, decisions.

Previous posts about the 2024-2025 Saturn Awards

• 'Dune: Part Two' leads movie nominations at the Saturn Awards
• 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' leads fantasy films at the Saturn Awards with 13 nominations
• 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' 'Agatha All Along,' 'The Penguin,' and 'X-Men '97' — superheroes at the Saturn Awards

AI researchers among those recognized on Nobel Prize Day

Happy Nobel Prize Day! Take it away, National Day Calendar!


More from the website.

On December 10th, Nobel Prize Day recognizes the annual award established by Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel signed his third and last will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. When it was opened and read after his death, the will caused a lot of controversy both in Sweden and internationally, as Nobel had left much of his wealth to establish a prize. His family opposed creating the Nobel Prize, and the prize awarders he named refused to do what he had requested in his will. It was five years before the first Nobel Prize could be awarded in 1901.
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At the age of 17, Swedish Alfred Nobel spoke five languages fluently and became an inventor and businessman. At the time of his death on 10 December 1896, he had 355 patents worldwide – one of them was the patent on dynamite. Furthermore, he had started 87 companies all over the world. In his will, Nobel directed his enormous fortune to be used to establish prizes to award those who had done their best to benefit humankind. Each prize would recognize the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. In 1901, the Nobel Prize committee awarded the first prizes five years after Nobel's death. The committee added another prize in 1969: "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel."
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Each year on 10 December, a ceremony is held in Stockholm, Sweden on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. In 1901, the committee kept the first winners secret until the 10 December ceremony. Since then, the committee announces the Nobel Laureates in October each year. In December, they gather in Stockholm for the ceremony and receive their prizes from the Swedish King. The winners receive a Nobel diploma, a medal, and 10 million Swedish crowns per prize. All Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, with the exception of the Peace Prize. The recipient of the Peace Prize receives the award in Oslo, Norway. (When Alfred Nobel was alive, Norway and Sweden were united under one monarch. In 1905, Norway became an independent kingdom with its own king.)

Now for this year's Nobel Prize winners from India's Down to Earth.

The prestigious Nobel Awards for the year 2024, were announced last week. As Artificial Intelligence takes the centre stage across the globe, the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to two AI & ANN researchers/experts.
Along with that, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to an organisation of survivors of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings, highlighting the need for disarmament.
The duo — John Hopfield from Princeton University, United States and Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto, Canada — have been awarded for the “foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence and artificial neural network (ANN) — a machine learning programme designed to mimic the brain. The duo were awarded for laying the groundwork for machine learning in the 1980s which served as a prototype for the present-day advancements in artificial intelligence.

Hopfield and Hinton weren't the only winners recognized for using AI in their research.

Three scientists share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on proteins, the molecules that drive chemical reactions and perform essential functions.
Demis Hassabis and John M Jumper from Google DeepMind have been awarded the prize for using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the three-dimensional (3D) structure of almost all known proteins. Meanwhile, David Baker from the University of Washington has been honoured for designing a new protein that does not exist in nature.

Time declared Sam Altman 2023's CEO of the Year for leading OpenAI, so this has been quite the year for AI.

I remain with an Indian source, The Hindu, to examine the Nobel prize science winners 2024 | All you need to know.

The 2024 Nobel Prizes in the sciences have recognised groundbreaking research spanning artificial intelligence, gene regulation, and protein structures.

In this video, we will look at the recipients and their contributions.

That's it for this year's winners. I plan on examining the IgNobel Prize winners on April Fools Day. In the meantime, stay tuned for more Saturn Awards coverage tomorrow.

'Deadpool & Wolverine,' 'Agatha All Along,' 'The Penguin,' and 'X-Men '97' — superheroes at the Saturn Awards

I told my readers "I'm planning on covering the Best Action Film nominees Monday" as part of my conclusion to 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' leads fantasy films at the Saturn Awards with 13 nominations. Here are the nominees for Best Action/Adventure Film.

Best Action / Adventure Film:
Argylle
Deadpool & Wolverine
Fall Guy The
Fly Me to the Moon
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Twisters

As Deadline reported and the Saturn Awards excerpted, "Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine had 10 nominations." Twisters has two, and the rest have only this one category nomination. Based on those criteria, I expect Deadpool & Wolverine will win and I'm voting for it, although I'm not entirely happy to vote for it in this category over Twisters. I was hoping to vote for each movie in separate categories. Time to revisit my predictions, beginning with one from Jason Momoa's message for World Oceans Day.

I predicted that "I'm looking for Aquaman 2 to earn a nomination at the next EMA Awards" in The 2023-2024 Environmental Media Association Awards nominees. I'm also looking forward to seeing the movie on the next Saturn Awards ballot. Too bad it's almost certain to get crushed by Deadpool & Wolverine. The Marvel streak will continue.

I griped about the change in categories in 'Dune: Part Two' leads movie nominations at the Saturn Awards.

This year, there is no Best Superhero Film category. If it still existed, it would probably have had a full field of six nominees, Deadpool & Wolverine, Venom: The Last Dance, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Joker: Folie à Deux, Madame Web, and The Marvels, so lack of superhero films is not the issue; lack of quality superhero films is. In addition to the two Saturn Awards nominees, two were good or at least O.K. films with so-so box office numbers, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Marvels, and two are likely Razzie nominees, Joker: Folie à Deux and Madame Web. I'm pretty sure both of them will be nominated for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and one of them will almost certainly win. I suspect the Saturn Awards didn't want to recognize such mediocrity during a down year for superhero films. That didn't stop them from nominating other potential Razzie nominees, such as Megalopolis, but the absence of a superhero movie category stands out.

That foiled my prediction of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom being on the ballot. On the other hand, my prediction from Bill Maher's 'New Rule: The Great Garbage Election' plus the EMA Awards winners came true.

I also expect to see Twisters nominated for Best Action/Adventure Film at the upcoming Saturn Awards. So far, it has my vote.

Not any more, not against Deadpool & Wolverine.

While they didn't recognize Superhero Films this year, the Saturn Awards are still recognizing Superhero Television Series, so I'm doing something I haven't done since 'Birds of Prey' and 'The Flash' lead comic-book and superhero movies and television nominees — DCEU and Arrowverse at the Saturn Awards three years ago, examine superhero nominees on both the big and medium screen. Follow over the jump.

Matt Gaetz, Hunter Biden, and Juan Soto visit the Church Lady on 'SNL'

Happy Sunday! It's time for highlights of last night's Saturday Night Live beginning with Church Chat 2024 Cold Open.

Church Lady (Dana Carvey) interviews Matt Gaetz (Sarah Sherman), Hunter Biden (David Spade) and Juan Soto (Marcello Hernández).

Yes, Satan had a good year, and it's not over yet.

I haven't featured Weekend Update since 'SNL' reacts to the election and Weekend Update: Manhunt for CEO Assassin, President Biden Pardons Son Hunter shows what a busy news week it's been.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the ongoing manhunt for the man who assassinated the CEO of United Healthcare.

I don't recall ever seeing so little sympathy for a murder victim, which SNL still managed to make light of successfully. Even so, it looks like the writers couldn't make a joke out of "deny, delay, depose," which echoes Delay, Deny, Defend, the title of a book outlining how insurance companies refuse to play claims. The killer couldn't have made his motive any clearer.

Sean "Diddy" Combs earned mentions both here and the cold open, qualifying this as the Sunday entertainment feature, and there will be more about movies over the jump, but I'm moving on to sports in the next segment, A Mom Whose Son Just Got Famous.

A mom (Heidi Gardner) whose son (Marcello Hernández) just got famous stops by Weekend Update to discuss navigating her son’s overnight success.

In case you think Heidi Gardner isn't realistic as Marcello Hernández's mother, you should see his real mom; Heidi isn't far off. Also, Marcello does a good parodic impression of an athlete, both here and in the cold open.

Follow over the jump for the rest of last night's highlights.

'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' leads fantasy films at the Saturn Awards with 13 nominations

I ended 'Dune: Part Two' leads movie nominations at the Saturn Awards with today's topic.

Stay tuned for Best Fantasy Film and Best International Film nominees tomorrow. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice vs. Godzilla!

Here are the nominees for Best Fantasy Film.

Best Fantasy Film:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
My Old Ass
Poor Things
Wonka

As Deadline reported and the Saturn Awards excerpted, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice earned 13 nominations, followed by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire with four, Wonka with three, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with two, and one each for My Old Ass and Poor Things. Seeing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with only two nominations makes me re-evaluate what I wrote about the movie in 'Godzilla Minus One' wins two Critics Choice Super Awards plus an entertainment retrospective.

As for Godzilla Minus One, I'm looking forward to seeing it on my Saturn Awards ballot later this year, where I have it penciled in as my vote for Best International Film, along with Poor Things and The Boy and the Heron, which are my current choices for Best Fantasy Film and Best Animated Film, respectively. That written, I already think Poor Things will lose to the kaiju movie currently in theaters, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire for Best Fantasy Film. In addition Godzilla will face friendly fire, as I would not be surprised if both Godzilla Minus One and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire both earn nominations for Best Fantasy Film. Only if the kaiju fans split their votes in this category does Poor Things stand a chance of winning at the Saturn Awards, given that "the Saturn Awards are about entertainment not art, they don't care for subtle, and they love to stick it to the experts."

I can brag about all of the films I predicted would be on the Saturn Awards ballot making it there: Godzilla Minus One is nominated for Best International Film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Poor Things are nominated for Best Fantasy Film, and The Boy and the Heron earned a nomination for Best Animated Film. I think I'm also still right about Poor Things, but for the wrong reasons. It may lose to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire for Best Fantasy Film, but no one except the tabulators will know this; instead, I'm sure that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will win this award. I didn't consider it in my calculations because I wasn't sure about the eligibility period, which I figured would extend until about October 1, 2024, but didn't know Beetlejuice Beetlejuice's release date. Had I known, I might have adjusted my prediction. Speaking of release dates, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is available for streaming on Max today and my wife and I are planning on watching it. If it lives up to my expectations, I'm voting for it in this category and Jenna Ortega as Best Younger Performer in a Film.

On the other hand, I was wrong about some other predictions, but I'm not whining; I'm relieved. The movie committee did not nominate Godzilla Minus One for Best Fantasy Film, so it and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are not competing with each other in that category. Also, they could have nominated The Boy and the Heron for Best International Film as well. They didn't, so the two Oscar winners aren't competing against each other. I think the selection committee made the right decisions, so I'm not complaining.

Since I mentioned both Best International Film and Best Animated Film, follow over the jump for the nominees in those categories and my opinions of them.

'Dune: Part Two' leads movie nominations at the Saturn Awards

I expected to be busy with the Saturn Awards later this month. Later turned out to be now.

Tentpoles Dune: Part Two, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Deadpool & Wolverine and TV series including Fallout and Agatha All Along lead nominations for the 52nd Saturn Awards, which recognize the year’s best genre movies and series.

Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two topped the overall noms list with 14 including Best Science Fiction Film and acting noms for Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya among others, followed by studio stablemate Beetlejuice 2 with 13 noms including Best Fantasy Film; Warner Bros topped all studios with 35 noms.

Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine had 10 nominations.

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films published that excerpt from Deadline yesterday after announcing the nominations on their main website Wednesday, where they also declared voting had opened and would close December 15th. Time to get cracking on covering these awards, beginning with Best Science Fiction Film!

Best Science Fiction Film:
Dune: Part Two
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Megalopolis
Venom: The Last Dance

As the Deadline excerpt above stated and I double-checked, Dune: Part Two earned 14 nominations to lead not only science fiction films, but all movie nominees. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ranked second with eight nominations, followed by The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with five, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga with three, and Megalopolis and Venom: The Last Dance with one each. Those totals alone make Dune: Part Two the favorite to win this category. I already penciled this movie in as my vote in this category and its lead in nominations just made me ink it in.

Speaking of double-checking, I wanted to see if Deadline not including 20th Century Studios and Searchlight productions in Disney's total nominations would have had an effect. It didn't; all Disney properties together have 28 movie nominations. Warner Brothers still leads with 35 film nominations. That's one less error than usual.

Before I go on to the rest of Dune: Part Two's nominations, I'm making an observation about the inclusion of Venom: The Last Dance among science fiction film nominees. It's a comic-book/superhero movie, and would usually have been in that category. This year, there is no Best Superhero Film category. If it still existed, it would probably have had a full field of six nominees, Deadpool & Wolverine, Venom: The Last Dance, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Joker: Folie à Deux, Madame Web, and The Marvels, so lack of superhero films is not the issue; lack of quality superhero films is. In addition to the two Saturn Awards nominees, two were good or at least O.K. films with so-so box office numbers, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Marvels, and two are likely Razzie nominees, Joker: Folie à Deux and Madame Web. I'm pretty sure both of them will be nominated for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and one of them will almost certainly win. I suspect the Saturn Awards didn't want to recognize such mediocrity during a down year for superhero films. That didn't stop them from nominating other potential Razzie nominees, such as Megalopolis, but the absence of a superhero movie category stands out.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations for Dune: Part Two and the other science fiction films.

Colbert on Ron DeSantis possibly replacing Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary nominee

Yesterday, I covered Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow reacting to the Hunter Biden pardon. Today, it's Stephen Colbert's monologue, Trump Considers DeSantis Over Hegseth | Zuckerberg Dines At Mar-A-Lago | South Korea’s Six Hour Coup.

President-elect Trump's support for his Defense Secretary nominee may be teetering as Pete Hegseth's colleagues at Fox News say he frequently showed up drunk at work, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is working to gain influence in Trump's incoming administration, and Stephen looks into the wild details of an attempted coup by South Korea's president.

I think that Ron DeSantis becoming Secretary of Defense, like the nominations of Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr., to be a case of failing upwards. To be fair, it would also be like Pam Bondi replacing Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, an improvement, someone terrible but at least competent replacing someone terrible who also has no qualifications beyond loyalty. I'm sure I'll have more to say about all of them in the future.

In the meantime, I want to riff off of Stephen's final topic, which didn't make either the title or description, airline travel. I know what Delta One is like, as the final flight I took before the pandemic was first class flying Delta to the final in-person board meeting of the Coffee Party. That happened because I waited too long to book a flight, during which time the cost of a coach ticket rose to within $100 of a first-class seat. For $100 more, I flew first class. I have to admit, it spoiled me, although I got a blood clot in my leg, which wasn't diagnosed until I was hospitalized for diabetes, but that's a story for another day. ETA: I got confused yesterday because of having to rush out the door; the blood clot happened two years earlier. Flying first class was part of the solution to that problem.

Speaking of fanciful airline safety videos, I'm surprised Stephen, who is a Lord of the Rings fan, didn't mention Air New Zealand's. Watch The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made #AirNZSafetyVideo to see what I mean.

As the official airline of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand has gone all out to celebrate the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Starring Elijah Wood and Sir Peter Jackson; we're thrilled to unveil The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made. #airnzhobbit

Special cameos by Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. Directed by Taika Waititi.

Check out the Air New Zealand Facebook page to see behind the scenes pics from ‘The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made’ and see firsthand Hollywood stars on the set of Middle-earth including Elijah Wood, Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman, John Rhys-Davies (as Gimli) and New Zealand’s own Sir Peter Jackson.

As Sir Peter said, "That's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed it."

Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow react to the Hunter Biden pardon

I told my readers to "Stay tuned for topical non-holiday programming..." I'm following through with Jon Stewart's monologue from Monday, Trump Nominates Kash Patel for Head of FBI & Hunter Biden’s Last Minute Pardon, on The Daily Show.

Jon Stewart on Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Biden’s last-minute pardon for his son Hunter, and how Democrats can't seem to hold the high ground no matter how low Republicans sink.

While Stewart succeeded in finding the comedy in this news, I don't completely agree with him about the hypocrisy in it. I also think that the announcement of Kash Patel's nomination for a position that isn't open yet — Christopher Wray's term doesn't expire for another three years — and Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter are more closely connected than he lets on. Patel might just have gone after Hunter even after he had gone to prison just to please convicted criminal Donald Trump. I have more to say, but Rachel Maddow said it better in Trump's shameless abuse of pardons, nepotism disqualifies him from criticizing Biden pardon on MSNBC.

Rachel Maddow looks at Donald Trump's shameless abuse of the presidential pardon power and the disgraceful level of nepotism in the early staffing of his second administration, in comparison to President Biden's pardoning of his son, Hunter, to spare him further politically motivated prosecution by Trump's acolytes.

Looking at the list of people Trump has pardoned reminds me of what I first wrote in MSNBC examines Project 2025, part 1: "Jailbirds of a feather flock together."

Giving Tuesday in Michigan 2024

Happy Giving Tuesday! Since this is a Michigan-based blog and I believe in shopping local, I also believe in giving local. To that end, I'm sharing three local news reports from the Great Lakes State about the day, beginning with WILX News 10's Giving Tuesday tips to avoid scammers.

Giving Tuesday donations can mean a lot for local charities.

Not only do I believe in giving locally, I believe in giving safely and effectively.

Moving to the west side of the state, I'm sharing Fox 17 WXMI asking and answering Giving Tuesday? One movement is opening doors to impact Grand Rapids nonprofits.


That was fun and informative, but let's see how long it remains here, as WXMI disabled embedding on the video I used for Cyber Monday. Enough of that and I'll stop using their YouTube uploads, just like I did WXYZ's. Instead, I use WDIV's clips, like Tips to avoid holiday-season scams in Metro Detroit.

[Here] are some tips to avoid holiday-season scams in Metro Detroit.

Good advice from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

If my readers want to give nationally instead of locally to affect the political environment, I can vouch for the organizations that belong to Bridge Alliance, since I'm a volunteer for them. One of them, the 92nd Street Y, created Giving Tuesday!

This concludes the long holiday weekend. Stay tuned for topical non-holiday programming tomorrow.

Shop safely online for Cyber Monday plus Black Friday sales figures

Happy Cyber Monday! I'm kicking off today's celebration of online shopping by sharing WUSA9 warning its viewers to Shield Yourself: 'Cyber Monday' Cybersecurity Protection Tips.

WUSA9 interviewed Lance Hoffman, founder of GWU's Cyber Security Institute, about protecting personal identities during online shopping.

All good advice. FOX 17 WXMI had more, along with some consumer horror stories, in HOW TO SHOP SAFELY online ahead of Cyber Monday.

According to the National Retail Federation, 57% of people are heading to the web to buy gifts. Norton created a cyber safety checklist ahead of Cyber Monday, which shoppers should look over it before Monday.

Don't be like Caroline Richards before she fell victim to a scam; be like her now, as she's much more vigilant about who she buys from online.

10 Tampa Bay had the number one result when I searched for this topic, Cyber security expert urges caution amid rise in holiday shopping scams.

The busy holiday shopping season is upon us as Black Friday, the busiest day of the year for in-person shopping, gives way to Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and the on-going "retail rush" before the holidays.

On Friday, crowds flooded the International Plaza in Tampa to try to score deals.

Again, more good advice, plus some person on the street (well, in the mall) interviews that added more action. They also provided a segue to checking the Black Friday sales figures I promised on Small Business Saturday as WCNC reported Black Friday results in record-setting shopping numbers with Cyber Monday still ahead.

Estimates show around $11 billion was spent online during Black Friday.

One trillion dollars in holiday sales for the U.S. might just happen. I might check the total holiday sales figures at the end of the month, but I think I will be busy with my end of year retrospectives and probably the Saturn Awards nominees then. May you stay tuned for those, but first return to read about Giving Tuesday as I complete the extra-long holiday weekend.