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People don’t like corporations telling them what they should see and like.
Dear Valued Subscriber and Movie & Music Lovers,
The 97th Academy Awards (2025) drew 19.69 million viewers, marking a five-year high, aided by streaming on Hulu and a 1% increase from 2024. While viewership has slowly recovered from a 2021 low, it remains significantly below the 1998 peak of 55 million. People don’t like corporations telling them what they should see and like.
Michael B. Jordan won the Oscar for Best Actor at the 98th Academy Awards for his dual role as twins Smoke and Stack in the vampire drama Sinners. During his Oscar speech, Jordan paid tribute to previous Black acting winners, naming Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith. All of them were fan favorites long before Oscar acknowledged their hard work.
Sinners (2025) has become a major box office success, grossing over $369 million worldwide ($279.9M domestic) against a $100 million budget. The Ryan Coogler-directed horror thriller achieved the highest opening for an original film in 6 years ($48M), eventually becoming the highest-grossing original domestic release in 15 years.
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Michael B. earned three Actor Awards and a Producers Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Emmy Awards. An amazing accomplishment for a young man whose breakout film moment came with Fruitvale Station (2013) — Budget: $900,000. Box office: $17.4 million. The film debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He and his film were fan favorites, but ignored by the Academy.
The 2026 Sundance Film Festival, held in January, marks the final edition of the event in Park City, Utah, after a 40-plus-year run — closing a major chapter in independent film history.
“It’s hard not to feel a disturbance in the force,” said Ethan Hawke, whose acting career took off after his early movies appeared at the Utah festival in the 1990s.
End of an era for independent, heartland, artistic film discovery.
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This is exactly why we created the Heartland Awards™ [ [link removed] ].
With the Heartland Awards™ 2025 [ [link removed] ], you have a chance to show the artists you support them early in their careers.
Alongside the handmade and made-in-America statuettes the four winners will receive, they will know that you — the Heartland Journal subscriber — appreciate their hard work.
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Unlike corporate-driven spectacles, the Heartland Awards™ [ [link removed] ] put the power back where it belongs. Subscribers vote. Fans decide. No boardrooms. No sponsor agendas. No profit-first filters.
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Thank you for voting.
Steve Abramowicz
Editor-in-Chief
Heartland Journal
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Winners announced in April.
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