Welcome to another edition of Midday at the Movies…
The 90th Annual Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday night, hosted once again by talk show host (and social activist) Jimmy Kimmel. Excitement about this year's awards is running high because of a notably diverse and independent crop of films, filmmakers and performers.
On today's Midday at the Movies, we preview a bit of that excitement by offering up some predictions of Oscar glory. Two of our favorite movie mavens join Tom in the studio:
Jed Dietz is the founder and director of the Maryland Film Festival,which runs the newly restored SNF Parkway Theater in Baltimore.
And Max Weiss is editor-in-chief and film critic for Baltimore magazine.
Before the conversation turns to the Oscars, however, Tom and his guests discuss the cinematic phenomenon that's swept not only U.S. theaters the past three weekends, but the international film market as well: Black Panther.
An Africa-centered sci-fi action-hero film produced by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther has been attracting massive global audiences. As of Tuesday this week, the movie's worldwide box office had reached $748.1 million, and it continues to chase records for domestic weekend ticket sales.
Tom will be taking a closer look at the social and cultural significance of the Black Panther movie next Tuesday on Midday's Culture Connections, with regular guest Dr. Sheri Parks, professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and special guest Dr. Stanford Carpenter, a cultural anthropologist, artist, comic book creator and head of The Institute for Comic Studies in Chicago.
