Honoring film and television writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way, the Humanitas Prizes were awarded on Friday (9/9) during a ceremony emceed by comedian Larry Wilmore at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Topping the Comedy and Feature Film categories, respectively, were writers Adam McKay for Don’t Look Up and Matt Harris for The Starling. Winning for best family feature film were writers Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush for Encanto.
On the TV front, the “If A Black Man Cries in the Woods…” episode of black-ish–penned by Robb Chavis–took the comedy series honor while the “Chapter One” episode of Pachinko written by Soo Hugh won for best drama teleplay.
Winning screenwriters took home awards and $10,000 cash prizes across 10 categories. Here’s a category-by-category rundown of the 46th annual Humanitas Prize winners:
46TH ANNUAL HUMANITAS PRIZE WINNERS:
Children’s Teleplay
El Deafo: Written by Cece Bell and Will McRobb
Comedy Feature Film
Don’t Look Up: Written by Adam McKay
Comedy Teleplay
black-ish: “If A Black Man Cries in the Woods…” – Written by Robb Chavis
Documentary
In the Same Breath: Nanfu Wang
Drama Feature Film
The Starling: Written by Matt Harris
Drama Teleplay
Pachinko: “Chapter One” – Written by Soo Hugh
Family Feature Film
Encanto: Written by Charise Castro Smith & Jared Bush
Limited Series, TV Movie, or Special
Women of the Movement: “Mother and Son” – Written by Marissa Jo Cerar
Short Film
Girls Are Strong Here: Written by Scott Burkhardt
Web Series
The Disappointments: Written by Rich Burns
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More