Names and faces
■ Matt Amodio, a doctoral student in computer science at Yale, won his 28th game of “Jeopardy!” on Friday, amassing more than $1 million. He’s just the third contestant to do so in regular-season play, after Ken Jennings, the contestant-turned-producer for the show, and James Holzhauer, the phenom who captured audiences with his winning streak in 2019. Amodio’s success has been a welcome distraction for the show, which has been struggling to permanently fill the role of host after Alex Trebek died last year. Actress Mayim Bialik and Jennings are doing the honors until the end of the year. Amodio, whose winnings stand at $1,004,001, researches artificial intelligence at Yale and says he’s been watching “Jeopardy!” since before he was “even able to understand the words.” According to the website The Jeopardy! Fan, he gets more than 90% of clues that he answers correct, and he’s first to the buzzer more than half the time. In betting, he tends not to take as many risks as Holzhauer, who surpassed $1 million in half the time as Amodio. But there’s another way Amodio can surpass his record-breaking rivals. If he wins five more games, then he’ll beat Holzhauer’s 32-game streak, though he has much longer to go before passing Jennings, who won 74 games. Because the show is taped ahead of time, it’s possible that Amodio’s fate has already been sealed, but audiences won’t know until this week’s episodes air.
■ Jessica Chastain was honored Saturday at the 69th edition of the San Sebastian film festival in Spain for her portrayal of Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” The American actress and producer shared the best leading performance award with 16-year-old Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, who starred in the Danish film “As in Heaven” (“Du som er i himlen”). Tea Lindeburg received the best director award for the same film. Female actors and filmmakers swept the top awards, with the Golden Shell for the best film going to “Blue Moon” (“Crai Nou”) by Romanian director Alina Grigore. It was the first time the festival gave out gender-neutral awards, without separate categories for men and women. Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen” (“Noche de fuego”) won for best Latin American film. Claire Mathon captured the cinematography award for “Undercover” (“Enquete sur un scandale d’etat”), and Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s “Earwig” earned her the festival’s special prize, an honor she also received in 2015.