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‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Vice’ and ‘Roma’ among big end-of-year movie releases
From Oscar hopefuls to feel-good family fare, Hollywood goes big with late-year rollouts
Ella Hunt in ‘Anna and the Apocalypse.’ (Photo by Gerardo Jaconelli; courtesy Orion Pictures)
With 2019 just around the corner, it’s time for the final cinematic rush toward Oscar glory and box office gold.
D.C.’s holiday film season gets off to a classy start with AFI’s European Film Festival. Running Nov. 30- Dec. 19, the festival features 49 films from 25 EU member states, including 12 films that have been submitted for consideration as Best Foreign Language Film.
The Festival opens with “Cold War,” a 1950s romance set in Poland and filmed in black and white, and closes with “Stan & Ollie,” the British biopic about comedians Laurel and Hardy starring John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan.
Among the queer films in the festival line-up are “Girl,” a Belgian drama about a young ballet dancer who is transitioning both from her assigned gender and into adulthood; “Knife+Heart,” a campy French thriller set in the seedy milieu of the gay porn demimonde of Paris in the 1970s; “Sorry Angel,”a Parisian romance between an HIV-positive writer and a university student set in the early 1990s; “Euphoria,” an Italian film about two brothers (one gay, one straight) reunited by an unexpected illness; and “Consequences,” a Slovenian drama about teenage angst, sexuality and toxic masculinity set in a youth detention center.
For something completely different, the Festival also includes “Diamantino,” a nominee for the Queer Palm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. After an Italian soccer star makes an unforgivable mistake at the 2018 World Cup, he embarks on a surreal odyssey and a delightfully unconventional romance.
For more information on tickets, passes and glittering receptions, go to silver.afi.com.
AFI Silver will also host its Holiday Series Nov. 30-Dec.24. Its annual celebration mixes traditional holiday fare with more unconventional films of the season. This year’s offerings include “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and “A Christmas Story”; several versions of “A Christmas Carol” and such non-traditional fare as “Krampus” (which will be shown on Krampusnacht on Dec. 5); “Christmas Evil,” which John Waters has declared the best seasonal film of all time; and of course the annual AFI screening of the ultimate Christmas movie, “Die Hard.”
Already generating significant Oscar buzz, “The Favourite” is a sumptuous but irreverent period drama that gleefully mocks traditional depictions of gender, sexuality and politics. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Lobster” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”), this lesbian love triangle is set in the court of England’s Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), where Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and down-on-her-luck aristocrat Abigail (Emma Stone) battle for the frail Queen’s affections and the right to wield her power. “The Favourite” opens in D.C. Nov. 30.
Reel Affirmations will commemorate World AIDS Day by screening the historic AIDS drama “Buddies.” Directed by Arthur Bressan Jr., one of the pioneers of independent gay cinema, the 1985 film tracks the growing friendship between an AIDS patient and the “buddy” who volunteers to help take care of him. The movie will be presented Dec. 6 at the HRC Screening Room (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). Tickets are available at thedccenter.org.
Dec. 7 marks the premiere of a new kind of holiday movie: the zombie Christmas musical. In the zom-com musical “Anna and the Apocalypse,” the small Scottish town of Little Haven is attacked by zombies right before Christmas. Anna and her friends must slash and sing their way through the zombie hordes to save their loved ones. Ella Hunt plays the intrepid Anna and Sarah Swire plays her lesbian friend.
A different kind of threat is the subject of “Divide and Conquer: The Roger Ailes Story,” which also opens Dec. 7. The documentary tracks the rise and fall of the bombastic media mogul from his work with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to his controversial tenure at Fox News.
Another leading Oscar contender is slated to open in D.C. on Dec. 14. “Roma” is a semi-autobiographical tale that chronicles the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City during the turbulent early 1970s. The movie is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón who is known for his work on “Gravity,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” the dystopian thriller “The Children of Men,” and the homoerotic road movie “Y Tu Mama Tambien.” Yalitza Aparicio has already been widely acclaimed for her breakout performance as the family’s maid.
Another tale of royal intrigue unfolds in “Mary Queen of Scots,” which opens Dec. 14. The movie was written by Beau Willimon (“House of Cards”) and is directed by Josie Rourke, head of London’s renowned Donmar Warehouse theater company. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I; both women were nominated for Best Actress Oscars earlier this year.
Saoirse Ronan in ‘May Queen of Scots.’ (Photo by Liam Daniel; courtesy Focus Features)
Also opening on Dec. 14 is “Ben Is Back” starring Lucas Hedges as Ben Burns, a recovering addict who unexpectedly leaves his rehab program to spend Christmas with his family. Julia Roberts plays Ben’s anxious mother and the movie is written and directed by Lucas’ real-life father Peter Hedges who wrote “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” and “About A Boy.”
On Dec. 19, everyone’s favorite nanny flies back into cinemas everywhere. Emily Blunt takes over the magical parrot head umbrella from Julie Andrews and Lin-Manuel Miranda plays her chimney sweeper sidekick Jack. “Mary Poppins Returns” is set 35 years after the original in Depression-era London. Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) is a widower raising his three young children with the help of his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) when the mischievous nanny returns to bring singing and dancing back to 17 Cherry Tree Lane.
Dick Van Dyke is the only actor from the original movie to appear in the sequel; he plays the son of one of his original characters. There are appearances by Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Julie Waters and Colin Firth. Rob Marshall (“Chicago” and “Into the Woods”) directs and choreographs (with John DeLuca and Joey Pizzi). The new songs are by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the openly gay songwriting team who won a Tony Award for “Hairspray.”
Emily Blunt in ‘Mary Poppins Returns.’ (Photo courtesy Disney)
Following in Mary Poppins’ wake, Jason Momoa moves from supporting actor (“Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League”), to leading man in “Aquaman” (Dec. 21). Amber Heard plays his love interest Mera and Patrick Wilson plays his half-brother and rival Orm.
Movie theaters will be very busy on Dec. 25 when the last of the big releases finally open.
Felicity Jones plays Ruth Bader Ginsburg in “On The Basis of Sex” which follows the early career of the famous Supreme Court Justice. Armie Hammer plays her husband Morty. The notorious RBG herself appears in the movie.
Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in ‘On the Basis of Sex.’ (Photo by Jonathan Wenk; courtesy Focus Features)
Barry Jenkins, director of the Academy Award-winning “Moonlight,” returns to the big screen with “If Beale Street Could Talk,” a straight romance based on the novel by openly gay author and activist James Baldwin.
Finally, Adam McKay (“The Big Short”) directs Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in “Vice,” the story of the ultimate Washington insider. D.C. audiences will be enjoy watching Hollywood celebrities play Washington notables. The supporting cast includes Alison Pill (“American Horror Story”) as Cheney’s lesbian daughter Mary; Amy Adams (Lynne Cheney), Lily Rabe (Liz Cheney), Steve Carell (Donald Rumsfeld), Sam Rockwell (George W. Bush), Justin Kirk (Scooter Libby), Lisa Gay Hamilton (Condoleezza Rice) and Tyler Perry as Colin Powell.
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New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
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Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
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Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
Calendar: April 10-16
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