Day For Night Highlights

Day For Night wows with Kendrick Lamar, New Order, Philip Glass, trippy art and hip designer

Day For Night, the inaugural Free Press Houston winter art and music festival, had Houstonians' heads spinning with so many exciting musical acts and mind-boggling visual installations presented over the weekend. Held in and around Silver Street Studios, it featured three massive stages and acres of immersive installations, leaving festival goers perpetually entertained.

Delivering on its promise to provide Houston with an exciting new winter festival in addition to the organization's popular Free Press Summer Fest, the weekend-long event drew thousands of art and music fans, leaving them intrigued to see what next year's event will bring.

Here are some of my favorite moments:

Kendrick Lamar gets some help from the audience

As the last performance of the festival, superstar hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar wowed a crowd of thousands with a performance that rivaled (or even topped) any headliner from Free Press Summer Fest. The 28-year-old sensation — nominated for more 2016 Grammy Awards than any other performer — drove the sea of fans wild as he walked on stage before launching into "For Free?" from To Pimp A Butterfly, an album that has repeatedly been deemed as the best of the year.

Jazzed by a live band that featured electric guitars, the crowd hung on Lamar's every rhyme and danced vigorously during his performances of chart-topping tracks like "Alright" and "King Kunta." Only a minute or so into "m.A.A.d. city," he decided to show some Houston love and get help from the audience, bringing up several fans to perform the song along with him.

Before exiting the stage, Lamar led the crowd in chanting, "I will be back." Given his stellar performance, I certainly hope so.

New Order gets some help from Alexander Wang

The Saturday night performance by New Order was surrounded with hype as it was the first Houston performance by the famed English rockers since they performed at AstroWorld's Southern Star Amphitheater in 1989. As it was the band's only tour stop in North America, even hip designer Alexander Wang was drawn to Houston to watch the legendary group perform. Wang was spotted backstage casually attired in Converse tennis shoes.

As the more pop-influenced reincarnation of '80s post-punk band Joy Division, New Order has fans that span generations, leading to an older crowd than one would expect to find at a Free Press Summer Fest headlining show. While the band played a number of songs from their recently released album Music Complete, fans of their classic hits were delighted to hear songs like "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Temptation."

As the final act of the night on Saturday, fans cheered riotously for an encore after the two-hour set, leading to a powerful version of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" before the electrifying performance's finale of the 1983 hit "Blue Monday."

The Infinity Room makes everyone feel a little trippy

A huge line of festival goers could be seen throughout the weekend as they waited patiently to experience Turkish artist Refik Anadol's immersive installation, "The Infinity Room." With swirling visual projections reflected by a mirrored floor and ceiling, visitors felt as if they were surrounded by an infinite abyss seething with white light. In spite of the long line that had visitors waiting up to an hour, people were still clamoring to experience the installation and take photos inside.

Whether you found the experience to be soothingly meditative or even a bit disorienting, there's no question that "The Infinity Room" was one of the most exciting and unique offerings.

Philip Glass draws the most diverse crowd

In spite of an early time slot on Saturday, the Philip Glass Ensemble drew one of the largest crowds of the festival for their afternoon performance on the Green stage inside Silver Street Studios. As one of the most influential musicians and composers of the late 20th century and known for his signature minimal repetitive stylings, Glass performed on keyboard with the ensemble that he founded in 1968. The ensemble — composed of Glass and six other talented musicians — performed six of his compositions in front of an incredibly excited and diverse crowd that ranged in age from 16 to 65.

Perhaps the most notable — and recognizable — piece the group performed was "The Grid" from Glass' score for the 1982 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi, which had the enormous crowd rapt with attention. As the only orchestral group at Day For Night, the immersive performance was quite a departure from many other artists at the festival.

Nonotak is Strobe City

As one of several international visual artists presenting works at the festival, Paris-based artists Nonotak created "Volume," a massive light and sound installation that occupied the entirety of an expansive warehouse across from Silver Street Studios. With bright strobe lights mounted on a maze of scaffolding, the lights flashed in the darkness to create a 'zooming' effect as they turned on and off around the vast structure. Visitors were able to walk through the scaffolding of the installation, which also featured a rather ominous droning sound accompanying the lights, creating a truly unique experiential environment.

Flying Lotus creates a dazzling visual display

As one of the last performances of the weekend-long festival, experimental artist Steven Ellison — known by his stage name Flying Lotus — knew he really had to impress the crowd, and he certainly followed through. With a multi-genre style that often blends hip-hop and electronic music, he sat behind a projection scrim, allowing the audience to see Ellison through a dazzling visual display. With chill electronic jams like "Zodiac Shit" and "Massage Situation," his set was the perfect calm-before-the-storm needed prior to the high energy set by Kendrick Lamar, with whom Ellison recently collaborated on his 2014 album You're Dead.

"The Infinity Room" by Refik Anadol.

Photo by Julian Bajsel

"The Infinity Room" by Refik Anadol.

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Awards Season

CultureMap critic's guide to the 2026 Oscar Best Picture nominees

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Sinners leads all films at the 2026 Academy Awards with a stunning 16 nominations.

The nominations for the 2026 Academy Awards have been announced, with 10 films vying for Best Picture. Leading the way is Sinners with an astonishing 16 nominations, the most in Oscars history.

The other top films include One Battle After Another, which earned 13 nominations, and Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sentimental Value, which each got 9 nominations.

As a refresher, below are links to the full reviews for each of the nominees covered by CultureMap in the past year, as well as brief thoughts on the films and their various nominations.

Movie fans will have plenty of time to catch up with each of the nominees, as this year's Oscars ceremony will not take place until Sunday, March 15.

Here's the list of Best Picture nominees, in alphabetical order:

Bugonia
Yet another off-the-wall film from director Yorgos Lanthimos features two great performances by Emma Stone (nominated for Best Actress) and Jesse Plemons at its center. Written by Will Tracy (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), the conspiracy theory film is alternately brutal and funny as the characters played by Stone and Plemons use their form of power to try to manipulate the other. With a fair amount of intrigue and two great actors going head-to-head for much of its running time, it gives even more Oscar pedigree to its filmmakers and stars.

F1
The biggest surprise among the Best Picture nominees has to be the racing movie F1. It was a technical marvel, to be sure, as its nominations in Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Affects attest. But the fact that it has no other nominations in any of the above the fold categories indicates that its other qualities are lacking. As a showcase (aka advertisement) for the sport it depicts, the film works relatively well. As a complete movie, though, there’s not much to recommend, to the point that it almost negates any of the positives that come from the racing scenes.

Frankenstein (not reviewed)
Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay) loves himself a monster movie, and he takes on one of the classics with his new version of Frankenstein (now streaming on Netflix). Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, who brings to life The Creature, played by Jacob Elordi (nominated for Best Supporting Actor). With a slew of nominations in technical categories, there's a chance this film goes home with a lot of awards at this year's ceremony.

Hamnet (not reviewed)
Writer/director Chloé Zhao (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay alongside co-writer Maggie O'Farrell) gets back to her Oscar-worthy skills for the first time since 2020's Nomadland (after the unfortunate detour into the MCU with Eternals). A story about love, loss, and grief involving William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, the film is most notable for the performances of its two leads, Jessie Buckley (nominated for Best Actress) and Paul Mescal.

Marty Supreme
There was no other movie this year, or maybe even this century, like Marty Supreme. Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Ronald Bronstein), the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives. At its center is the fast-talking, powerhouse performance by star Timothée Chalamet (nominated for Best Actor), who cements his status as his generation’s movie star one year after playing the polar opposite role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Look for the film to be a strong contender in the inaugural Best Casting category, as Safdie fills the film with non-actors who are crucial to the film's success.

One Battle After Another
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) has an acclaimed career going back 30 years, but has yet to actually win an Oscar. That will change this year, as One Battle After Another is one of the favorites to win Best Picture thanks to Anderson's stellar filmmaking, as well as multiple great performances that earned the film four acting nominations (Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor, Teyana Taylor for Best Supporting Actress, and Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor). Add in a story with a very timely political critique (that's getting more relevant by the day) and you have the recipe for a big winner on Oscar night.

The Secret Agent (not reviewed)
No foreign country has quite the influence on the Oscars as Brazil, which for the second straight year has gotten one of its films nominated for both Best International Feature Film and Best Picture. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the film is anchored by the performance of Wagner Moura (nominated for Best Actor) as a technology expert in the late 1970s who flees from a mysterious past to try to find peace in his hometown.

Sentimental Value (not reviewed)
For the third year in a row, two international films made the cut in the Best Picture race (but whither It Was Just an Accident?). Directed and co-written by Joachim Trier (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Eskil Vogt), the film is tied for the most acting nominations this year, earning nods for Renate Reinsve for Best Actress, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Best Supporting Actress, and Stellan Skarsgård for Best Supporting Actor.

Sinners
It takes a special kind of filmmaker to make movies that are both popular and Oscar-worthy, and writer/director Ryan Coogler (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay) has done it again, seven years after helming the Oscar-winning Black Panther. Both a tribute to Black music history and a gnarly vampire movie, the film is led by Michael B. Jordan (nominated for Best Actor) in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack. With a story infused with all manner of subtext and a bunch of great supporting performances, including Best Supporting Actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku, the film demonstrates Coogler's great filmmaking abilities that should keep him in demand for years to come. Amazingly, there was only one category for which it was eligible in which it did not receive a nomination.

Train Dreams (not reviewed)
The second Netflix movie this year to be nominated, Train Dreams is a contemplative film about a logger (played by Joel Edgerton) in early 20th century America who tries to adapt to a rapidly-changing world. Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the script by director Clint Bentley and co-writer Greg Kwedar, the film is most notable for the work done by Adolpho Veloso (nominated for Best Cinematography), who showcases the Pacific Northwest in all its glory.

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