By Jonathan Landrum Jr., Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Jack Harlow, Lil Nas X and Kendrick Lamar are top contenders with seven nominations at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.
MTV announced Tuesday that Lil Nas X and Harlow earned multiple nominations for their collaborative hit "Industry Baby," which is nominated for video of the year. Both performers along with Drake, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Lizzo will compete for artist of the year.
Lamar, who is nominated for the first time since 2018, has two songs "family ties" and "N95" that will vie for best cinematography. The rapper was also nominated for best hip-hop, direction, visual effects, editing and video for good.
Styles and Doja Cat received the second-most nominations with six. Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Tayler Swift and The Weeknd each pulled in five.
Madonna, who is the most awarded artist in MTV history with 20 wins, becomes the only artist to receive a nomination in each of the VMAs five decades. She earned her 69th nomination for her 14th studio album "Madame X."
The awards will have 26 first-time nominees including Baby Keem with four along with Kacey Musgraves, GAYLE and MaÌŠneskin – who each have two nominations.
The VMAs will take place Aug. 28 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Fan-voting begins Tuesday across 22 categories at vote.mtv.com.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More