2024 saw many noteworthy early access releases, including Palworld, Enshrouded, The Rogue Prince of Persia, and Hades 2. Supergiant Games ended the year with the massive Olympic Update, adding the final Nocturnal Arms, a new region, and tons of new voice lines. Fortunately, the wait for new content will be short.In a pre-Holidays Steam post, Supergiant confirmed that the next major update would arrive in early 2025 and feature the final confrontation of the alternate route. Another big update is coming later this year, expanding on the story and other various parts. However, you need to wait until Version 1.0 for the true ending.Unfortunately, a release date will depend on how our major updates progress. Suffice it to say that it isnt guaranteed for this year, though never say never. Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.Hades 2 is available for PC early access via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Check out our review for the launch of early access, which we gave a nine out of ten and described as a compelling, absurdly polished title that once again showcases Supergiants prowess in every possible way.

Between all the releases this year, big and small, indie developer Toby Fox reiterated on BlueSky that Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 are on track for 2025. He even described it as a new catchphrase, following a previous statement about both chapters 100 percent launching this year.As a sequel to the critically acclaimed Undertale, Deltarune launched in October 2018 with Chapter 1; Chapter 2 followed in September 2021. It offers a different setting but some returning characters and similar combat mechanics. The protagonist is Kris, who works with Susie and Ralsei on a quest to save the world. Though you can choose to be a pacifist and or annihilate all before you without remorse, Deltarune mixes things up with its party system and unique abilities for each character.Chapters 1 and 2 are free to download on PS4, PC, and Nintendo Switch. The remaining chapters require purchasing, though Fox has yet to announce pricing. Their launch timing depends on localization and console porting, so stay tuned for further updates. tobyfox (@tobyfox.undertale.com) 2025-01-02T00:27:37.760Z

Remember when Koei Tecmo announced the establishment of a new, unnamed studio last year that would deliver triple-A titles? Led by Yosuke Hayashi of Dead or Alive, Hyrule Warriors, Ninja Gaiden, Metroid: Other M and Fatal Frame fame, its gearing up to reveal its first title in 2025.In the recent end-of-year statements from various Japanese game developers by 4Gamer.net, Hayashi said (translation via Gematsu), 2025 should be a year where we can announce and deliver various titles, including the AAA studio title Im currently in charge of. I hope this year brings even greater excitement to the entertainment format that is video games.Nothing is known about the title in question, though Koei Tecmo said the studio would focus on developing new major titles and exists as a project independent from existing brands. It could very well be a new IP, not unlike last years Rise of the Ronin from Team Ninja, but well have to wait for more details.Speaking of Team Ninja, president Fumihiko Yasuda said the developer hopes to announce and release titles befitting its 30th anniversary. A new Ninja Gaiden serving as a follow-up to the 3D action-adventure series? Time will tell, so stay tuned for updates, but at least theres The Game Bakers Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound to look forward to this Summer. Its a 2D side-scroller that pays homage to the series retro roots head here for more details.

Apple Fitness Plus is getting a fresh makeover in the Strava app. The two companies just announced theyre collaborating to revamp how Fitness Plus integrates with the popular fitness community, which includes more detailed workout summaries, Strava athletes appearing in Fitness Plus content, and a free three-month trial to the service for Strava subscribers.Starting today, youll be able to see a thumbnail of the Fitness Plus workout and information like episode number, music genre, trainer, metrics, and achievements. While mostly a design update, this brings Fitness Plus more in line with other Strava integrations from services like Peloton and Ladder.Technically, Apple Watch users have been able to import their workouts into Strava from the get-go. However, that integration has been limited with bare-bones workout summaries. While you could see the activity type, calories burned, and basic heart rate metrics, there wasnt any information about the class or instructor. (As you can see from this screenshot, youd be hard-pressed to know that my New Years Day yoga workout was even a Fitness Plus class.) How Fitness Plus workouts appeared in Strava before versus how theyll appear going forward. Image: AppleThe Fitness Plus and Strava integration goes in both directions. For starters, new and existing Strava subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia will get a free three-month trial of Fitness Plus regardless of whether they have an Apple Watch. (You do, however, need an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to access the service.) Popular Strava athletes will also feature as guests in Fitness Plus workouts. That includes a strength workout with runner Hellah Sidibe on January 13th and a treadmill workout with Kayla Jeter.So far, Apple has only offered free Fitness Plus trials with the purchase of a new Apple gadget. And while the service regularly features well-known athletes as guest hosts in its programming, its never sourced those guests from a third-party fitness community. Sidibe, for example, may not be quite as famous as two-time Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (who recently hosted a Fitness Plus series). However, if youre into running and on social media, theres a good chance youre familiar with Sidibes seven-year daily run streak and penchant for running with four smartwatches. Over the past 10 years, weve hugely admired what Strava has done to impact the fitness space, especially around community, says Jay Blahnik, Apples vice president of fitness technologies, acknowledging that Apple doesnt often partake in this sort of collaboration. RelatedBlahnik says working with Strava also presents a new opportunity for Fitness Plus reach. When the service first launched, there was an emphasis on making sure it was inclusive, motivating, and accessible for people of all levels. And in those early days, it often felt like Fitness Plus was like a fitness starter pack for the average person who might need a little encouragement something The Verge pointed out in its initial review. Thats not exactly the typical Strava user.They dont need us for motivation! Theyre already self motivated, says Blahnik. Instead, for seasoned athletes, Blahnik is pitching Fitness Plus as a supplemental resource for cross-training and discovering new activity types. Maybe theyre taking up running for the first time, and they want to make sure that they dont get injured, and they need to do the yoga and the strength, adds Zipporah Allen, Stravas chief business officer. Both Allen and Blahnik also note that the collaboration isnt a one-and-done type of deal, hinting that the integration could evolve further down the road. While both demurred on providing specifics, Blahnik noted the companies have bold ambitions for what [they] might be able to do down the road in terms of sharing.In the short term, its a beneficial move for both companies. Strava recently angered users by changing the terms of its API for third-party apps, leaving some disgruntled users questioning the value of a Strava subscription. A free three-month trial to Apple Fitness Plus could appease some of those users. Strava has long been a de facto fitness data hub for dedicated athletes, giving Fitness Plus easy access to long-term athletes who arent likely to quit their New Years resolutions.

Anthropic has made a deal to settle parts of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against the maker of the Claude AI model for allegedly distributing protected song lyrics. The agreement was signed off by US District Judge Eumi Lee on Thursday, requiring Anthropic to apply existing guardrails in the training of future AI models and to establish a procedure for music publishers to intervene when copyright infringement is suspected.In October 2023, several music publishers including Universal Music Group, ABKCO, Concord Music Group, and Greg Nelson Music filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Anthropic for allegedly training its AI system on lyrics from at least 500 protected songs. According to the complaint, when Claude was prompted for the lyrics to songs like Beyoncs Halo, Mark Ronsons Uptown Funk, and Moves like Jagger by Maroon 5, the chatbot provided responses that contain all or significant portions of those lyrics.While the music publishers acknowledged that platforms like Genius already distribute lyrics online, they noted that those sites pay a licensing fee to use the protected works. Anthropic intentionally removed or altered copyright management information from the impacted songs when ingesting data found on those sites to train its AI models, according to the lawsuit filing.Under the agreement signed by Anthropic on Thursday, the AI company says it will maintain the guardrails it has already implemented that aim to prevent its AI models from infringing on copyrighted content. Anthropic will also apply its existing guardrails to any future AI systems it develops. Music publishers and Anthropic will work together in good faith to resolve any instances where the guardrails are deemed ineffective, with the court ready to settle any disputes.Claude isnt designed to be used for copyright infringement, and we have numerous processes in place designed to prevent such infringement, Anthropic said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. Our decision to enter into this stipulation is consistent with those priorities. We continue to look forward to showing that, consistent with existing copyright law, using potentially copyrighted material in the training of generative AI models is a quintessential fair use.The music publishers behind the original complaint have requested a preliminary injunction to bar Anthropic from training future models on their protected song lyrics, with the court expected to issue a ruling in the coming months.

The self-attention mechanism is a building block of transformer architectures that faces huge challenges both in the theoretical foundations and practical implementation. Despite such successes in natural language processing, computer vision, and other areas, their development often relies on heuristic approaches, limiting interpretability and scalability. Self-attention mechanisms are also vulnerable to data corruption and adversarial attacks, which makes them unreliable in practice. All these issues need to be addressed to enhance the robustness and efficiency of transformer models.Conventional self-attention techniques, including softmax attention, derive weighted averages based on similarity to establish dynamic relationships among input tokens. Although these methods prove effective, they encounter significant limitations. The lack of a formalized framework hinders adaptability and comprehension of their underlying processes. Moreover, self-attention mechanisms exhibit a tendency for performance decline in the presence of adversarial or noisy circumstances. Lastly, substantial computational demands restrict their application in settings characterized by limited resources. These limitations call for theoretically principled, computationally efficient methods that are robust to data anomalies.Researchers from the National University of Singapore propose a groundbreaking reinterpretation of self-attention using Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA), establishing a comprehensive theoretical framework. This novel interpretation brings forward several key contributions. It mathematically restates self-attention as a projection of query vectors onto the principal component axes of the key matrix in a feature space, making it more interpretable. Furthermore, it is shown that the value matrix encodes the eigenvectors of the Gram matrix of key vectors, establishing a close link between self-attention and the principles of KPCA. The researchers present a robust mechanism to address vulnerabilities in data: Attention with Robust Principal Components (RPC-Attention). Utilizing Principal Component Pursuit (PCP) to distinguish untainted data from distortions in the primary matrix markedly bolsters resilience. This methodology creates a connection between theoretical precision and practical enhancements, thereby increasing the efficacy and dependability of self-attention mechanisms.The construction incorporates multiple sophisticated technical components. Within the KPCA framework, query vectors are oriented with the principal component axes according to their representation in feature space. Principal Component Pursuit is applied to decompose the primary matrix into low-rank and sparse components that mitigate the problems created by data corruption. An efficient implementation is realized by carefully replacing softmax attention with a more robust alternative mechanism in certain transformer layers that balance efficiency and robustness. This is validated by extensive testing on classification datasets like ImageNet-1K, segmentation datasets like ADE20K, and language modeling like WikiText-103, proving the versatility of the approach in various domains.The work significantly improves accuracy, robustness, and resilience on different tasks. The mechanism improves clean accuracy in object classification and error rates under corruption and adversarial attacks. In language modeling, it demonstrates a lower perplexity, which reflects an enhanced linguistic understanding. Its usage in image segmentation presents superior performance on clean and noisy datasets, supporting its adaptability to various challenges. These results illustrate its potential to overcome the critical limitations of traditional self-attention methods.Researchers reformulate self-attention through KPCA, thus giving a principled theoretical basis and a resilient attention mechanism to tackle the vulnerabilities of data and computational challenges. The contributions greatly enhance the understanding and capabilities of transformer architectures to develop more robust and efficient applications in AI.Check out the Paper and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our60k+ ML SubReddit. Aswin Ak+ postsAswin AK is a consulting intern at MarkTechPost. He is pursuing his Dual Degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is passionate about data science and machine learning, bringing a strong academic background and hands-on experience in solving real-life cross-domain challenges. Follow us on X (Twitter) to get regular AI Research and Dev Updates here...

Call of Duty players are flooding to Activisions privacy support page after a YouTuber showcased a method of finding out their hidden skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) rating.For years, SBMM has been the hottest of topics within the Call of Duty community, with some proclaiming it ruins the experience, others saying it helps level the competitive multiplayer playing field. High-skilled Call of Duty players often bemoan SBMM for chucking them into what they call sweaty lobbies full of similarly high-skilled players. All the while, Activision has kept players skill rating hidden from them, forcing them to speculate about where they might sit compared to others and how it fluctuates from game to game.However, popular Call of Duty YouTuber TheXclusiveAce exposed a method that will let players know their skill rating for every single Multiplayer game theyve played going all the way back to 2021s Vanguard. However, it involves jumping through a few hoops and youll have to wait a little while before you get the data.The method involves heading over to Activisions privacy page and submitting a new personal information access request. Youll need to log into your Activision account to automatically include the various Call of Duty games, but once done, you can submit a request. IGN has gone through this process and can verify its legitimacy, although you'll have to wait a day or two for the data to arrive via email.TheXclusiveAce received his data and, in his video on the subject, showed off just how extensive it is. It shows every single Multiplayer match in detail, down to the mode played, the map played, the operator and skin you used, and even the execution you had equipped. You can see the number of hits you landed in the match, your longest streak, damage done and taken, and, if you're interested, the percentage of time moving. Many more data points are included, but it's the skill stat that's of most interest here.With his data, TheXclusiveAce was able to chart his Black Ops 6 skill rating, showing how it changed over time. TheXclusiveAce, who will be one of the better Multiplayer Call of Duty players around relative to the overall player base, has a skill rating of around 400 through the course of his time with Black Ops 6, although there are occasional sharp drops and rises.Unfortunately, this data in isolation doesnt help players understand how their skill rating compares to others'. It also doesnt reveal the skill rating of the lobby or why a player's skill rating changed from game to game. However, TheXclusiveAce compared his K/D ratio to his skill rating to try to draw conclusions on Black Ops 6s SBMM. From what he can tell, poor play relative to previous performance does reduce skill rating, and improved play relative to previous performance increases skill rating, although it can take some time to kick in either way. TheXclusiveAce suspects lobby skill rating impacts changes in individual skill rating; if the SBMM expects you to perform at a certain level relative to the lobby skill rating and you fail to meet that expectation, your skill rating might drop even if you had a good game.Last year, Activision explained how Call of Dutys SBMM works in somewhat vague terms. Skill is determined based on a players overall performance," Activision said. This includes kills, deaths, wins, losses, as well as mode selection, and recent matches as an overall metric across all Multiplayer experiences. This is a fluid measurement thats consistently updating and reacting to your gameplay, Activision explained. Skill is not only a factor in matchmaking players against appropriate enemies, but also when finding teammates.Activision went on to say skill in matchmaking means all players (regardless of skill level) are more likely to experience wins and losses more proportionately. We use player performance to ensure that the disparity between the most skilled player in the lobby and the least skilled player in the lobby isnt so vast that players feel their match is a waste of time, Activision said.The question now is whether the Call of Duty community will work together to track skill ratings at scale. If it does, not only will players finally get a sense of their skill rating relative to the wider community, but they will start to learn exactly what influences skill rating changes over time.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Atari has teased a re-reveal of its handheld console at CES 2025 next week.In a tweet, below, Atari showed off the GameStation Go device, a portable video game player with extra buttons and a widescreen.While the Gamestation Go comes complete with the d-pad, face buttons, and shoulder buttons you'd expect on a retro handheld, what makes this stand out is the inclusion of a Trak-BallTheres little else to go on at this stage, but the GameStation Go looks like the final design for a product Atari revealed a year ago. At the time the handheld was called the Atari Gamestation Portable and was due out during the fourth quarter of 2024 priced $149. This earlier version came with the Atari Trak-Ball, Paddle, and Keypad controllers, and we can see a refined design for these in the GameStation Go.The Atari Trak-Ball is commonly used with arcade classics Centipede and Missile Command, with the Paddle used for the likes of Breakout. Atari games such as Brain Games and Codebreaker use the Keypad. The My Arcade logo is on the bottom of the device, which confirms the maker of the product under official license from Atari.You'd expect the Gamestation Go to play a long list of retro games bolstered by Atari's recent aquisition of the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. The purchase included the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks.Thats all we have for now. Expect more when CES 2025 kicks off from January 7.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Happy New Year! Yep, it is again that time when the culture wakes back to life, groggily wiping away the mist left by another long (and hopefully restful) holiday season. Yet if youre in the awards season game, either as a voter, prognosticator, or (Thalberg help you) a hopeful for nomination, its been anything but quiet. In fact, Oscars buzz has been burning bright for months and is now about to grow into a roaring fire.As miraculous as it sounds, the Golden Globes have survived their PR nightmares of a few years ago and are back to their weekend night perch as the first major televised awards show of the New Yearthis Sunday night, actually. The Critics Choice Awards follow shortly thereafter next week, and then comes the deluge of all the others: SAGs, PGAs, DGAs, BAFTAs, and more! All of them of course are building, inevitably, to the big one. Oscar night, which this year falls on March 2, 2025.And as ever, Oscar season comes with a whole new slate of films you might need to be reminded ofor encouraged to catch up on. So while it is still wildly early to make predictions about who will definitely win the big prizes, we at least have a decent idea of who is in contention, or even contending to become in contention. We have thus assembled 20 films for your perusal below. Theyre ranked in order of those most likely to be nominated for Best Picture, although in each section well note where else they might be most competitive for Oscar gold. In other words: Best Picture frontrunners are at the top, but most will have an opportunity somewhere else in the cycleA24The BrutalistIt was difficult picking which movie to begin this list with because unlike last years Oppenheimer juggernaut, there is no clear cut frontrunner. In fact, we suspect this is the most open the Best Picture race has been since CODA took home the Oscars top prize three years ago (more on that comparison in a moment). Still, in a relatively wide open field, the best place to begin is probably with the presumed frontrunner for Best Picture: Brady Corbets pensive and mournful The Brutalist.An epic that runs at three and a half hours in length when you tack on the intermission, The Brutalist is a throwback to type of monumental Hollywood moviemaking that filled roadshows back in the mid-20th century which is all the more astonishing when you know Corbet made this for indie studio A24 on a budget of about $10 million (it turns out your dollar goes a lot further when you film in Hungary and just say its Connecticut!). That old-fashioned sense of scale and stately grandeur will appeal to the Academy, as will the subject matter. This is a Jewish American immigrant story following an architect (Adrien Brody), who attempts to start again in New York City and thereabouts after surviving the death camps of the Holocaust.But while the concept might appeal to Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences, the movies fairly bleak and ultimately cynical view of Americas ability to assimilate and embrace immigrants will not. Admittedly, that sense of fatalism might appeal to the current political climate, but traditionally Oscar voters have preferred films that champion and seek to lift up the human experience, particularly when mythologizing Americas own contributions to it. Decrying the capitalistic lie in that myth might win over critics, with The Brutalist being already declared Best Picture by the New York Film Critics Circle, but the AMPAS is not the NYFCC.The films ultimately romantic views on the power of artistic achievement and legacy will speak to the Academy, still we we think the film is too heavy (and long) to win the top prize. With that said, expect Brody to be the real frontrunner in Best Actor, as well as Brady Corbet being able to plausibly take home Best Director even while missing Picture. Guy Pearce should also land a Best Supporting Actor nod, Felicity Jones maybe also showing up in Best Supporting Actress, and the movie doing well in Best Cinematography and Film Editing nominations.Focus FeaturesConclaveIf The Brutalist is the presumed Best Picture frontrunner on New Years Day 2025, then Conclave is the one I personally feel has, at this point, the momentum and narrative to triumph with Academy voters. A straight down the middle political thriller with the tantalizing wrinkle of being set during the highly secretive (and highly fictionalized) election of a new pope, Focus Features and director Edward Bergers ConclaveStarring Ralph Fiennes as a priest wracked with doubt (is there any other kind at the movies?), his Father Lawrence is forced to oversee a conclave of cardinals as they select the next pontiff in Vatican City. Conclave is a movie about faith, but also raw power, and its easy to see any 21st century political struggle between progressivism and reactionary conservatism in this films depiction of squabbling white collars, egos, and, above all, men.Its also a crowdpleaser that won over audiences at every festival it played at. Admittedly, it didnt win the top prize in Venice, but now on the other side of a brutal U.S. election, we suspect Conclaves highly implausible but entertaining melodrama now looks like wish fulfillment. That is important during moments of anxiety. Recall that the CODA won Best Picture at the tail end of the COVID crisis, triumphing over critical darling The Power of the Dog, another highly regarded but misanthropic film that won Best Picture with the NYFCC, the CCAs, and a slew of other critics groups, but got shut out at the Oscars beyond Jane Campion for Best Director. Meanwhile the Best Picture category rewards consensus on second or even third picks by way of the preferential ballot voting system. In other words, Conclave could win by being a lot of folks second choice.Beyond Best Picture, expect Ralph Fiennes to be Brodys biggest competition in Best Actor, and Peter Straughans adaptation of the Robert Harris novel to be a slam dunk in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Isabella Rossellini will definitely be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Stanley Tucci might be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and the film should also pick up a number of technical nominations, including nods for cinematography and production design.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!NetflixEmilia PrezWe suspect Film Twitters new sworn enemy will find plenty of friends come the morning of Oscar nominations. Aye, this daring, galaxy-brained swing of a musical about a Mexican drug cartel leader transitioning into a woman with a greater sense of hope and empathy transgresses a lot of lines. Its also ticked off plenty of social media users. But it is still a genuinely one-of-a-kind original that lands its high emotions for viewers who tend to skew older, European, and/or not terminally online.Emilia Prez has already won the coveted Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as seen its quartet of lead female performances, including Karla Sofa Gascn as the renamed Emilia Prez and Zoe Saldana as her lawyer of flexible morality, win Best Actress at that festival. We suspect the pictures audacity and sentimentality will likewise win over Oscar voters perhaps even enough for Best Picture, although the fact the film was released on Netflix (with a token theatrical window to qualify at the Oscars) will be a handicap, as might some cries of the film not being progressive in the right way. But then that hardly stopped the far more problematic and actually antiquated Green BookAlso expect to see Gascn be nominated for Best Actress and Saldana to likely win for Best Supporting Actress, even though she definitely is giving a co-lead performance. Jacques Audiard will almost be certainly nominated for Best Director and probably for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well. It should dominate in the Original Songs category.NEONAnoraSome folks will tell you Anora is the real frontrunner this year. After all, it won the other, even more prestigious big prize at Cannes and became the first American movie to take home the Palme dOr in over a decade. Id like to believe them since I count Anora as my second favorite movie of the year. But the films frank and candid exploration of the life of a sex worker is always going to be a tough sell for a certain, aging segment of the Academys voting body.Truly though, Anora is terrific. Writer-director Sean Baker crafts a unique character study that is also a stealth screwball comedy with untold depths beneath the laughs. Its made a star out of Mikey Madison, who arguably gives the best performance of the year as Ani Anora Mikheeva, a sex worker from deep Brooklyn with the accent and attitude to match. So theres a decent chance that I am not giving the Academy enough credit. Maybe they are hip enough to award Anora Best Pictureat this point in 2020, I was still skeptical about them getting past the foreign language thing with Parasitebut too many more conventional-minded viewers are likely to turn off their screeners in the first 20 minutes before getting to the much richer allegory at play about class and exploitation.Still, Madison is the one to beat in the Best Actress race, and as with Corbet, Sean Baker could excel in the Best Director race where voting is not done by preferential ballot. Anora will also be neck and neck with another film further down on this list for Best Original Screenplay. And hopefully, Yura Borisov will surprise folks and fight his way into a Best Supporting Actor nomination.Universal PicturesWickedFinally rounding out the real Best Picture frontrunners that have a real shot at winning Best Picture is this years populist pick, and boy if it isnt a high-flying one. Jon M. Chus WickedWicked raises the question of whether this is the year they give Best Picture to a movie most audiences saw?To be fair, they kind of did that last year with Oppenheimer, but that was also a brooding, three-hour historical drama about World War II and supposed great men doing terrible things. Wicked, by contrast, is a big earnest-hearted, goofy-grinning toe-tapper about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. But not that long ago, musicals were winning Best Picture, and this one has an unintended but nonetheless potent political punch after last years election. Oscar winner and Academy favorite Adam McKay has even given permission to others to take the films messaging seriously by calling it one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made.It also boasts a barn-burning performance by Cynthia Erivo, which should earn her a Best Actress nomination. Ariana Grande likewise looks like a lock in the Best Supporting Actress race, with the multi-talented pop star being the biggest threat to Saldana in winning the trophy. It will also do well in technical categories like Best Hair and Makeup, Costumes, and Production Design.WBDune: Part TwoTiming is a strange thing. When Dune: Part One was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, some quarters speculated it could be a covert dark horse. Most, however, favored the assumption that like with Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Academy would honor the achievement of conquering an unadaptable genre novel after the filmmaker stuck the landing. But here we are three years later, and Denis Villeneuve stuck the landing with a Part Two most consider even better than the first film (including us!) but all the populist momentum has shifted to Wicked.Part of that might be snobberywith many Academy voters only wanting to allow one blockbuster as a serious contender for the top prizeand part of that is probably recency bias, with Dune: Part Two opening way back during the last Oscar season in March and Wicked debuting over the Thanksgiving holiday. Whatever the case, while Dune: Part Two will almost certainly be nominated for Best Picture, Villeneuve looks like a dark horse for even getting a Best Director nod, and Chalamet is going to be nominated for another movie (though personally, we think he was far better as MuadDib). Also wheres the love for Austin Butlers wicked work as an evil space albino Commodus? The movie should still at least do well in technical categories like Best Film Editing, Production Design, Costumes, Cinematography, and Visual Effects.Searchlight PicturesA Complete UnknownWhile some critics, including this one, had issues with the formulaic qualities at work in the Bob Dylan biopic, it is still largely well-received by reviewers and celebrated by audiences. James Mangolds ode to the voice of a generation earned the coveted A CinemaScore and is doing good business for a mid-budget prestige film from a studios speciality label, in this case Disneys Searchlight Pictures.All of which paints the picture of a successful crowdpleaser that honors a Boomer icon, aka an idol to the Academys largest generational voting bloc. Its getting into Best Picture and possibly Best Adapted Screenplay, even if it wont win either prize. Timothe Chalamet should also pick up another Best Actor nomination while Monica Barbaro has a decent chance of getting into the Best Supporting Actress race for her turn as Joan Biaz.Searchlight PicturesA Real PainSimply a very poignant dramedy and character study about two brothers on a fateful, if not necessarily life-altering, holiday in Europe, A Real Pain is the kind of quiet and sophisticated character work that appeals to the Academy. It makes you laugh, maybe cry, and is easily accessible for mainstream audiences, provided they ever give it a chance.That poignancy makes it highly competitive in our estimation for getting into the bottom five of the Best Picture race. Jesse Eisenbergs direction of longtime friend Kieran Culkin will also probably result in Culkin winning Best Supporting Actor. We also think Eisenbergs work as a writer on A Real Pain is Anoras biggest completion in the Best Original Screenplay category.Paramount PicturesSeptember 5Another smaller film that could theoretically play well to most audiences, and definitely the Academy, is Tim Fehlbaums breathless thriller September 5. Set during the 1972 Summer Olympics terrorist crisis in Munich, Germany, where Israeli athletes were taken hostage and ultimately murdered by a terrorist group, September 5 drops you into a narrow prism of the nightmare: the ABC Sports newsroom that inadvertently ended up covering the breaking news in real time.Ultimately as much as parable for all the ethical, moral, and legal challenges that would confront (and some might say cloud) news organizations in the 50 years that followed, September 5 is a brutally effective 95-minute teeth-gnasher which emulates the fly-on-the-wall quality of some of the 1970s best films, many of them directed by Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin. Were willing to wager it gets into Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and perhaps Best Film Editing.A24Sing SingIf you are keeping count, you might notice we have reached the 10th entry on this list. Only 10 films can be nominated for Best Picture, which means we suspect this one (as well as probably the one or two above it) are on the bubble. And in the case of Sing Sing that is a shame, because it really is one of the three best movies of the year in my estimation, and an absolutely ebullient film.Inspired by the real theater program enacted at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and populated with former inmates now acting in this movie, Greg Kwedars Sing Sing is a tribute to the resilience of the soul, as well as the power of the arts to feed and even heal it. It treats its characters with empathy, honesty, and humanity, and also provides star Colman Domingo with the opportunity to create one of the most textured and beautiful performances of this decade. He should win Best Actor. Hell at least be nominated in that race though, and perhaps could still upset Brody and/or Fiennes. Meanwhile Clarence Maclin could get into the Best Supporting Actor shortlist.MUBIThe SubstanceAnother of my personal top five films on the bubble is The Substance, writer-director Coralie Fargeats blistering and delightful body horror satire of the expectations placed on womenespecially those of a certain age and in certain industries. Say, for instance, Demi Moore, who in The Substance plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a former Oscar winner and current daytime television personality who cannot even hang onto that gig when her boss (Dennis Quaid) finds out she just turned 50. But salvation (or damnation?) might arrive in the mail and at the bottom of a magic bottle containing a substance that allows Elisabeth to birth H.R. Giger-style a younger, more nubile version of herself (Margaret Qualley).The metaphor is not subtle, nor does it need to be. It is however perversely amusing as Moores Elisabeth and Qualleys Sue slowly vie for dominance while time-sharing the same life, and both quickly see things descend into a queasy, blood-soaked fantasia. Its one of the best movies of the year, and one of the bigger indie hits to boot. Alas, it is also a horror movie, so count us among those skeptical about the Academy giving The Substance its due in the Best Picture race. Even so, Fargeat will be nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and Moore and Qualley hold outside chances of getting in to Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. And its definitely the frontrunner for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.Amazon MGM StudiosNickel BoysAnd here is yet another bubble film I consider one of the bestor in this case the bestmovie of the year. RaMell Ross Nickel Boys is a groundbreaking masterpiece that tackles perception, race, and even how to use the camera in American cinema. You probably have heard about the premise of the movie being told mostly from the POV of two Black teenagers in at Nickel Academy, a fictionalized reform school based on the real-life horror show of the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. But this technique is more than just a gimmick. In Nickel Boys, switching between the eyes of young Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) becomes an immersive innovation that places you in the characters shoes and limited brushes with grace and injustice in 1960s America. The narrative becomes as slippery and haunting as childhood memories 40 years after the fact.It is a beautiful film that should be a frontrunner for Best Picture and Best Director. And to be fair, it could get into both races, but we suspect it will just miss out. Still, its definitely getting into Best Adapted Screenplay and, if theres any justice, Best Cinematography.NEONThe Seed of the Sacred FigAnother bubble film, and one were pretty confident will just miss out, is Mohammad Rasoulofs gripping political thriller, The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Set in Tehran and following an investigating judge and member of the Revolutionary Court who is tasked with facing political unrest and protests after the death of a young woman in the custody of the governments morality police, Seed stares into the abyss of real-life repression and the tools abused by authority. We imagine it will be a frontrunner in the Best International Film category as well, although it will be facing off Emilia Prez there. It also has a dark horse chance at getting into that coveted fifth spot for Best Original Screenplay.Paramount PicturesGladiator IIRidley Scott is a legend with definitely his share of boosters in the AcademyChristopher Nolan prominently among thembut while Gladiator II was a solid hit and expansion on Scotts Best Picture Oscar winner from 25 years ago, it is generally recognized as a step down from that 2000 films grandeur and heavy-hitting emotionality. Even so, Denzel Washington is a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. He might even be a dark horse candidate to beat Culkin. The film will also likely be nominated for Production Design, Costumes, and Visual Effects.Focus FeaturesNosferatuRobert Eggers formidable and foreboding films are an acquired taste. Their deliberate pacing and obsession with historical fidelity creates unique feats of period immersion, but theyre not for everyone. It seems this perhaps includes the Academy, which snubbed even the obvious technical achievements in The Lighthouse and The Northman.Thus the element probably most in Nosferatus favor is that it turned out to be an over-performing mega hit for a middle-budgeted, adult-oriented Christmas release. The film is doing amazing business. That could move the needle, and personally wed love to see it. But alas, we dont think that will push Nosferatu out of the technical categories due to a continued snobbery toward the horror genreespecially in a year where the Academy is already considering lowering itself to nominate The Substance. To date, there have only been six horror films nominated for Best Picture, the last in 2018 (Get Out), and never two in a single year. In that vein, serious considerations for Picture, Directing, and Best Actress are probably out. Sigh. Still, expect the film to have a good chance of being nominated for Best Costume Design, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, and Cinematography. Of course it should win Cinematography, but that is a whole other discussionRead more NetflixMariaPablo Larrans heartfelt if reserved Mariaa biographical film about legendary opera singer Maria Callasalso has little chance of getting a Best Picture nomination, but star Angelina Jolie is a strong contender to be nominated for Best Actress (although it is not guaranteed). The film will also probably be nominated for Best Costume Design and maybe Best Cinematography.Amazon MGM StudiosChallengersAbout 25 or 30 years ago, Challengers would have been the type of movie that would be a lock for a Best Picture nod. Its a thrilling, propulsive middle-brow drama with charismatic, good looking people getting meaty lines to chew on in a genuine crowdpleaser that made money. Its inability to even be on the bubble is perhaps an indictment of modern Academy instincts. Luca Guadagninos frothy spectacle should at least possibly be nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Score, two categories where in a better world itd be a frontrunner. It also has an outside, if remote, chance of snagging a Best Original Screenplay nomination.StudioCanalHard TruthsMike Leighs bittersweet character study of a depressed, middle-aged woman navigating (or sinking) her relationships with family and friends can be a hard if rewarding watch. It also is built entirely around a haymaker performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the woman in question. Some critics are calling it the best performance of the year, but shes on the bubble of getting in for Best Actress, with the fourth and fifth spots in that category coming down to Jean-Baptiste, Jolie, Moore, and Nicole Kidman for a film further down on this list. Hard Truths is similarly on the bubble for a Best Original Screenplay nod.A24BabygirlHalina Reijns throwback to 1980s erotic thrillers turned out to be probably too earnest in its desire of mimicking the lurid thrills of its influences, albeit from a distinctly feminine point-of-view. Still, Nicole Kidman gives a fearless performance as a successful and happily married CEO who still finds herself drawn into a sordid affair with an intern only too eager to play her dominant (Harris Dickinson). Kidman is also a favorite of the acting wing of the Academy (and everyone else, really), so she might get into the fifth Best Actress spot.A24QueerLuca Guadagninos other frothy 2024 film is a lot less mainstream and easy-to-please as Challengers. It is, after all, based on a William S. Burroughs novel. The film, however, does feature a gregarious performance by Daniel Craig as William S. Burroughs in all but name. He plays an American ex-pat writer in Mexico who is bored, bitter, and all too ready to become enamored with a much younger man. Craig will likely get nominated for Best Actor, but probably not much else for this one.

Apple Fitness+ today announced a slew of new content to kick off the year, as well as a new integration with the popular social fitness app Strava. Fitness+ users will now be able to easily share their completed workout sessions to Strava, with rich details like episode image, music genre, and metrics. Strava subscribers will also be able to redeem a free trial of Fitness+.Apple says Fitness+ offers the largest library of 4K fitness and wellness content in the world, with more than 6,500 workouts and meditations across twelve workout types.New content for 2025 includes new programs for progressive strength training, and a conditioning program for pickleball. The new strength training program guides users through the process of building and maintaining their strength, with a three week program that addresses every major muscle group. The program is composed of twelve 30 minute workouts.The pickleball-centered program is presented by pickleball champion Catherine Parenteau. The workout revolves around strength, endurance and agility exercises. Theres also a new Yoga Peak Poses series, helping users build confidence with yoga in intimate sessions, with each video focused on a particular pose. A new Introduction to Breath Meditation program also guides users to manage stress, boost energy and improve focus, with a range of breathing exercises. The Artist Spotlight series continues this year, with music playlists featuring Janet Jackson, Coldplay, Bruno Mars and more. New episodes of Time to Walk will start on January 13, with Severance star Adam Scott featuring in the first episode. Later episodes will feature Steve Aoki, Tiffany Haddish, Rita Ora and others.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel