Author Byron Burton

Byron Burton

Founder, Awards Editor

Byron Burton is the Awards Editor and Chief Critic at Awards Focus and a National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award winning journalist for his work at The Hollywood Reporter.

Byron is a voting member of the Television Academy, Critics Choice Association, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists (the SCL) for his work on Marvel's X-Men Apocalypse (2016). Working as a journalist and moderator, Byron hosts Emmy and Oscar panels for the major studios, featuring their Below The Line and Above The Line nominees (in partnership with their respective guilds).

Moderating highlights include Ingle Dodd's "Behind the Slate" Screening Series and their "Spotlight Live" event at the American Legion in Hollywood. Byron covered the six person panel for Universal's "NOPE" as well as panels for Hulu's "Pam & Tommy Lee" and "Welcome to Chippendales" and HBO Max's "Barry" and "Euphoria."

For songwriters and composers, Byron is a frequent moderator for panels with the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) as well as The ArcLight's Hitting the High Note Oscar series.

Byron's panels range from FX's Fargo to Netflix's The Crown, The Queen's Gambit, The Witcher & Bridgerton; HBO Max's The Flight Attendant, Hacks, Succession, Insecure, & Lovecraft Country; Amazon Studios' The Legend of Vox Machina, Wild Cat, & Annette; and Apple TV+s Ted Lasso, Bad Sisters, and 5 Days at Memorial.

In February of 2020, Byron organized and hosted the Aiding Australia Initiative; launched to assist in the restoration and rehabilitation of Australia's wildlife (an estimated 3 billion animals killed or maimed and a landmass the size of Syria decimated).

Participating talent for Aiding Australia includes Robert Downey Jr., Michael Keaton, Jeremy Renner, Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Josh Brolin, Bryan Cranston, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, JK Simmons, Tobey Maguire, Alfred Molina, James Franco, Danny Elfman, Tim Burton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Tim Allen, Colin Hay, Drew Struzan, and Michael Rosenbaum.

Film Review: ‘Sinners’ Delivers with Genre-Elevating Masterpiece

After deliver two "Black Panther" films for Marvel and netting the studio its first Best Picture Oscar nomination, Ryan Coogler is hanging his hat at Warner Bros. with "Sinners." The filmmaking on display is a... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Warfare’

After collaborating with acclaimed director Alex Garland ("Ex Machina," "Annihilation") on 2024's "Civil War," military veteran and film advisor Ray Mendoza built a creative partnership that would evolve into ... Read More...

Film Review: ‘The King of Kings’

In "The King of Kings," Korean visual effects master Seong-ho Jang makes his directorial debut with an animated feature distributed by Christianity-centered Angel Studios. Loosely inspired by Charles Dickens' ... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Opus’

Writer-Director Mark Anthony Green makes his feature directorial debut with "Opus," a psychological thriller starring Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder, Young Mazi... Read More...

Black Bag

Film Review: ‘Black Bag’

Steven Soderbergh's "Black Bag" brings this tense narrative to life with his signature fast-tempo editing and soft-focus cinematography, creating a powerful atmosphere of danger from intense settings to even t... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Last Breath’

"Last Breath" delivers a modern survival thriller at the bottom of the ocean which is a setting rarely explored outside the bulk of James Cameron's film. The fresh layer to this story is that it's inspired by ... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Love Hurts’

After being a stunt director on many films, including Bryan Singer's first "X-Men" film, Oscar winning actor Ke Huy Quan enters the leading man category as an action star with "Love Hurts" from the team behind... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Flight Risk’

There was a time when Mel Gibson was a box office guarantee, enthralling audiences in front of the camera in the 1980s and 1990s with hit after hit — while slowly building his pedigree as an auteur director. I... Read More...

Film Review: ‘Nosferatu’

Focus Features continues their collaboration with auteur writer-director Robert Eggers with Nosferatu. The film is one of many adaptations of Bram Stoker’s 127-year-old novel. The film immediate transfixes aud... Read More...

‘Small Things Like These’ Director Tim Mielants Explores the Dark Side of 1980s Ireland With Cillian Murphy

When Cillian Murphy won the Oscar for Best Actor this past March for his work in “Oppenheimer,” it felt like the culmination of a long journey: he had gone from a respected character actor to an A-list star ca... Read More...