ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  JANUARY 31, 2020 Coronavirus and Contagion For a few weeks now, the world has been rocked by the news of a novel coronavirus—an illness of the respiratory tract like SARS or MERS—that has, to date, sickened over 7,700 people worldwide and killed 170. The outbreak, which began in Wuhan, China, has since spread to every province of that country, and beyond. No wonder, then, that since last week, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 outbreak thriller, Contagion—starring (among others) Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet—has gotten a drastic boost on the iTunes movie rental chart, where it apparently peaked at number 10. Why does this film resonate at this particular moment—above and beyond any other outbreak-centric thriller? We can probably thank its verisimilitude, writes K. Austin Collins: “This is an epic story told on an unnervingly intimate scale, vast enough to make the virus seem completely inescapable, no matter where you are, but contained enough that its depiction of the ease with which a virus spreads from person-to-person proves vivid and terrifying.” Elsewhere in HWD, the directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary American Factory detail their awards-season journey to Yohana Desta; Taika Waititi explains what inspired his Oscar-certified Jojo Rabbit; Karen Valby swoons over The Good Place’s fittingly bittersweet finale; and Ashley Spencer looks back at Sally Field’s second best-actress acceptance speech, and how it became a primordial meme.

Going Viral In the wake of the coronavirus crisis sweeping China and beyond, iTunes users have been flocking to Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 outbreak thriller, Contagion. What is it that we hope to learn? READ MORE » True Story American Factory directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar are already at work on another film—in between schmoozing with Al Pacino and fielding congratulatory messages from their producers Barack and Michelle Obama. READ MORE » Inside Jojo For Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit is not just an anti-war satire inspired by the Holocaust and the Bosnian War—but an exploration of childhood and a tribute to mothers. READ MORE » This Must Be the Place NBC’s The Good Place makes a bid for immortality by indicating perpetual bliss isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. READ MORE » Field Notes Thirty-five years after Sally Field gave one of the most ridiculed Oscar speeches of all time, why is it still so hard for women to win at the Oscars? READ MORE »