The Frame

A powerful documentary about the aftermath of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Rihanna's new album had a surprise (or maybe not?) release this week; the L.A. Art Fair aims to be the nexus for art from the Pacific Rim.

Nate Parker spent seven years making "The Birth of a Nation," and his efforts paid off as the breakout hit at the Sundance Film Festival; prominent comedians take to the stage to benefit Bernie Sanders' campaign; Larry Klein's work with Joni Mitchell made him a go-to producer for a wide variety of singers.

The legendary R&B singer has a new album and an HBO documentary coming up, but don't expect this to be her swan song; a film about Nat Turner's slave rebellion has set a sales record at the Sundance Film Festival; actresses Alysia Reiner and Sarah Megan Thomas launched Broad Street to counter gender inequity in Hollywood.

With the top award from the Producers Guild, "The Big Short" is now frontrunner for the best picture Oscar. We chat with producers Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner; a Motion Picture Academy officer admits that the organization has been too slow to change; the band Foals has gone from playing house parties to arenas.

Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale has re-imagined an album from his long solo career, "Music For a New Society"; as the "X-Files" returns, we get the story behind its iconic theme music; even at the Sundance Film Festival, the talk of the town is #OscarsSoWhite.

Actor Matthew Spencer, who plays the lead in a new adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel, says the story has new resonance today; TV networks are casting doubt about the popularity of original programming on streaming services; Andrew Ahn passed up med school for a film career, and now his directing debut is at Sundance.

Carrie Brownstein, "Portlandia" co-creator and Sleater-Kinney co-founder, pulls back the curtain on her creative process; members of the U.K. punk band Savages reveal how they remain unpredictable on stage and in the recording studio; what's in store at this year's Sundance Film Festival?

In the two years since Lupita Nyong'o won an Oscar for "12 Years a Slave," no actor of color has been nominated for an Academy Award. Academy member Stephanie Allain says the Oscars reflect bigger problems in the industry; James Lecesne continues his advocacy for LGBTQ youth with "The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey."

Alicia Vikander's breakout year now includes an Oscar nomination for "The Danish Girl"; singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett deconstructs her song, "Depreston"; and we find out which new TV shows are on the must-watch list for the new year.

John Horn and Kyle Buchanan of Vulture.com dig into the snubs and surprises in the Oscar nominations, and the return of #OscarsSoWhite. And we hear from the directors nominated for "Room" and "The Revenant."

Movie ticket sales dropped five percent in 2014, worrying studios and theater owners; filmmaker Lee Daniels talks about his foray into TV production with his new Fox series, "Empire" (pictured); Shamir is one musician to watch in 2015.

Ranking various versions of the New Year's Eve tune, from Rod Stewart to Mariah Carey to ... cats!; Christmas came early for music lovers when an L.A. record store let customers cart off 25 albums for free; the City of L.A.'s former arts czar assesses the city's place in the cultural world.

The iconoclastic theater/opera director Peter Sellars (pictured) uses Los Angeles as his base while he travels the world to mount work with themes of social justice; a new investigation concludes North Korea wasn't behind the Sony hack; and a look at the top films of 2014.

We break down the Christmas weekend box office and video-on-demand numbers for the controversial film, "The Interview"; writer/director J.C. Chandor talks about his latest film, "A Most Violent Year," starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain (pictured); David Lynch's artwork is featured in a major museum exhibition.

Alamo Drafthouse cinema on convincing Sony to release "The Interview"; The screenwriter of ‘The Imitation Game’ always wanted to tell the true story of Alan Turing; Celebrating 10 years of The Black List, the place where Oscar winners “Argo,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” debuted; What television to binge-watch over the holidays.

Sony will allow "The Interview" to be seen after all! We talk to the founder of the Downtown Independent about his quest to get the film at his theater; The screenwriters of “Big Eyes” spent a decade trying to get their movie about kitschy art made —and it cost them dearly; Song Exploder dissects a tune from the rock band, The National; Meet the L.A. rabbi with a side job in television.

Playwright James Lapine compares the Hollywood and Broadway versions of "Into The Woods"; "Nightcrawler" writer/director Dan Gilroy weighs in on the Sony hack and "The Interview" scandal; and a Festivus for the rest of us.

Director Angelina Jolie talks about her personal commitment to bring Lou Zamperini’s story to the screen in the movie “Unbroken.” Seth Rogen and James Franco, the stars of “The Interview,” got a special shout-out from President Obama at a White House news conference.

Since you won't see "The Interview," we have a recap of the film, and two critics weigh in on whether the movie is worth all the drama; The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has the first solo U.S. museum exhibition of contemporary Cuban artist Esterio Segura; and we end our Colbert Countdown.

Sony won't release "The Interview" amid threats and the largest theater chains declining to screen the film; writer/director Judd Apatow weighs in on potential harm to the industry; Day 3 of our countdown to the end of 'The Colbert Report'; Rafe Fiennes on working with Wes Anderson.

The Japanese rock star Miyavi was picked by Angelina Jolie to play a WWII prison commandant for his first acting role; what makes Stephen Colbert geek-out, and what did an appearance on "The Colbert Report" do for author Gregory Rodriguez?; artist Ben Noam looks for inspiration in a park.

Dan Sterling talks about the genesis of "The Interview" (starring James Franco, left, and Seth Rogen, right) and how North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un made his way into the script; we launch our week-long farewell tribute to "The Colbert Report."