In the opening moments of 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s chilling account of the siege of the Ukrainian port city, a Russian tank marked with the ominous ‘Z’ swivels its turret toward a hospital. On an upper floor of the building, Chernov and his small team record as the cannon slowly rotates towards them, preparing to fire.
“The tank did shoot the hospital right above the floor we were at,” he says. “It hit between the fifth and sixth floors and a patient was killed with that shell.”
It was one of many times he put his life at risk to show the Russian army’s destruction of the city and its systematic targeting of civilians. He remembers feeling his life was about to end.
“Exactly in that moment in the film, this moment of uncertainty, the moment when tanks are shooting at the residential areas, when the hospital...
“The tank did shoot the hospital right above the floor we were at,” he says. “It hit between the fifth and sixth floors and a patient was killed with that shell.”
It was one of many times he put his life at risk to show the Russian army’s destruction of the city and its systematic targeting of civilians. He remembers feeling his life was about to end.
“Exactly in that moment in the film, this moment of uncertainty, the moment when tanks are shooting at the residential areas, when the hospital...
- 2/21/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Cph:forum, the financing and co-production section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (also known as Cph:dox), will showcase 32 projects, including new works from producers such as Sidsel Lønvig Siersted, Signe Byrge Sørensen (“Flee”), Diane Becker (“Navalny”) and Mandy Chang, the creative director of Fremantle label Undeniable and former head of BBC documentary strand Storyville, as well as directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (“Writing With Fire”), and Mads Brügger (“Cold Case Hammarskjöld”).
Other projects include those by directors Sky Hopinka (“Kicking the Clouds”), Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”), and Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche (“Advocat”), and producers Lindsey Dryden (“Trans in America”), Mila Aung-Thwin (“Midwives”) and Kat Mansoor (“Cow”).
Cph:forum will bring together more than 65 filmmakers and producers from 26 countries between March 18-21.
The selected projects will compete for a number of long-standing as well as newly-introduced awards at Cph:Industry, the professional section of the festival.
Other projects include those by directors Sky Hopinka (“Kicking the Clouds”), Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”), and Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche (“Advocat”), and producers Lindsey Dryden (“Trans in America”), Mila Aung-Thwin (“Midwives”) and Kat Mansoor (“Cow”).
Cph:forum will bring together more than 65 filmmakers and producers from 26 countries between March 18-21.
The selected projects will compete for a number of long-standing as well as newly-introduced awards at Cph:Industry, the professional section of the festival.
- 2/8/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar documentary branch voters can’t be accused of parochialism. They ventured far and wide to select their shortlist of feature documentaries for 2023, tapping films from countries as varied as a U.N. roll call: Ukraine, Uganda, Poland, Denmark, Tunisia, Canada and the United States.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”
Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.
- 1/14/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When the last American transport plane left the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport in August 2021, ending a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and marking an unceremonious conclusion to what had been known as the “forever war,” the U.S. left more than unfulfilled promises and unanswered questions in its wake: Also left behind was more than $7 billion in military equipment, now in the hands of an Islamist government that rose to power not at the ballot box, but at the barrel of a gun.
What would become of all that sophisticated weaponry is a question that hung over the heads of the war-weary Afghan people, who after two decades of American occupation and brutal Taliban insurgency saw their dwindling hopes of democracy fade to black. It is a question, too, that hangs over “Hollywoodgate,” an arresting, verité portrait of the Taliban’s transition from a fundamentalist militia to a military...
What would become of all that sophisticated weaponry is a question that hung over the heads of the war-weary Afghan people, who after two decades of American occupation and brutal Taliban insurgency saw their dwindling hopes of democracy fade to black. It is a question, too, that hangs over “Hollywoodgate,” an arresting, verité portrait of the Taliban’s transition from a fundamentalist militia to a military...
- 8/31/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The Sundance Institute has named the 2023 grantees of its Documentary Fund, supporting the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe, with 23 projects being selected for unrestricted grant funding totaling just over $1M.
Six of the selected projects are in development, with 14 in production and three currently in post. Notable filmmakers recognized as part of the group include Oscar and Emmy nominee Lourdes Portillo (with Looking at Ourselves), artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins (with Adam’s Apple), and Anayansi Prado (with Untitled Uvalde Documentary). Also represented are such sophomore filmmakers coming off strong debuts as Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) with Life After, Sky Hopinka with Powwow People, and Tali Yankelevich (My Darling Supermarket) with Girl-Tubers.
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Fund prioritizes supporting and empowering historically marginalized voices and providing a platform for integral stories to be amplified. Many of the...
Six of the selected projects are in development, with 14 in production and three currently in post. Notable filmmakers recognized as part of the group include Oscar and Emmy nominee Lourdes Portillo (with Looking at Ourselves), artist and filmmaker Amy Jenkins (with Adam’s Apple), and Anayansi Prado (with Untitled Uvalde Documentary). Also represented are such sophomore filmmakers coming off strong debuts as Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) with Life After, Sky Hopinka with Powwow People, and Tali Yankelevich (My Darling Supermarket) with Girl-Tubers.
Sundance Institute’s Documentary Fund prioritizes supporting and empowering historically marginalized voices and providing a platform for integral stories to be amplified. Many of the...
- 8/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Talal Derki was born in Damascus, Syria in 1977, studied film directing in Athens and has lived in Berlin since 2013. His short films and documentaries have won numerous awards at festivals, with Return to Homs and Of Fathers and Sons both winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Of Fathers and Sons was also nominated for an Oscar and won Lolas at the 2019 German Film Awards for Best Documentary and Best Editing.
On the occasion of his latest film, “Under the Sky of Damascus”, screening in Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, where it won the Golden Alexander, we speak with him about the story and the motivation behind the movie, patriarchy and the place of women in Syria, the incident with the line producer, the current situation in the country, and other topics.
The first question that must have come to everyone's mind, is how this whole thing came to be?...
On the occasion of his latest film, “Under the Sky of Damascus”, screening in Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, where it won the Golden Alexander, we speak with him about the story and the motivation behind the movie, patriarchy and the place of women in Syria, the incident with the line producer, the current situation in the country, and other topics.
The first question that must have come to everyone's mind, is how this whole thing came to be?...
- 4/5/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Purchasing and shooting on celluloid film, especially in this age of closing processing labs, is expensive for large and smaller productions alike: the documentary movement got its first legs in the ‘60s as its practitioners worked with the more economical 16mm film gauge, and a second burst of momentum in the early ‘00s with the advent of digital video. And their byword is quantity: the camera needs to roll and roll, so nary anything vital in the “actuality” shooting process is missed.
Under the Sky of Damascus is yet another testimony to what the camera can pick up, and the bevy of uncontrollable variables put into motion by any documentary project, especially if the filmmakers seem to be on the lookout for quite something else. This Berlinale-premiering work, by Syrian co-directors Talal Derki, Heba Khaled (the main deviser and narrator of the project), and film critic Ali Wajeeh, has a fractal dimension,...
Under the Sky of Damascus is yet another testimony to what the camera can pick up, and the bevy of uncontrollable variables put into motion by any documentary project, especially if the filmmakers seem to be on the lookout for quite something else. This Berlinale-premiering work, by Syrian co-directors Talal Derki, Heba Khaled (the main deviser and narrator of the project), and film critic Ali Wajeeh, has a fractal dimension,...
- 3/2/2023
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival kicks off its 25th edition Thursday at a time when the nonfiction genre has arguably reached unprecedented heights.
This year’s festival, which takes place March 2 – 12 in the seaside Mediterranean city, unfolds just days after veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary about a Paris mental health care facility, “On the Adamant.” The award capped a fortnight in which Sean Penn’s gonzo doc about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Superpower,” also generated plenty of buzz (albeit lukewarm reviews).
Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou took home Rotterdam’s Tiger Award just a few weeks earlier for “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” a riveting view of terrorism seen through children’s eyes. And one summer ago, Laura Poitras triumphed on the Lido with “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” her docu-portrait of the photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which won the...
This year’s festival, which takes place March 2 – 12 in the seaside Mediterranean city, unfolds just days after veteran French docmaker Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his documentary about a Paris mental health care facility, “On the Adamant.” The award capped a fortnight in which Sean Penn’s gonzo doc about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “Superpower,” also generated plenty of buzz (albeit lukewarm reviews).
Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Cyrielle Raingou took home Rotterdam’s Tiger Award just a few weeks earlier for “Le Spectre de Boko Haram,” a riveting view of terrorism seen through children’s eyes. And one summer ago, Laura Poitras triumphed on the Lido with “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” her docu-portrait of the photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which won the...
- 2/28/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
A sense of foreboding haunts Under the Sky of Damascus, a sobering documentary directed by Syrian filmmakers Talal Derki, Heba Khaled and Ali Wajeeh.
The film opens with a vindicating interview: The Syrian actress Sabah Al-Salem takes a long drag of her cigarette before recounting how her refusal to sleep with a high-ranking military officer landed her in prison. She looks down at the dining room table as she answers the gentle prodding of her interviewers. “You must have heard of the problems I encountered,” she says in response to their inquiries.
The interviewers — Farah and Souhir — respond with nods. Yes, they have heard of the abuse Al-Salem faced. They know that she was abandoned by friends in the film industry and all but disappeared from public life. They also understand, on a personal level, how their deeply misogynistic country offers no recourse or salvation for women. When Al-Salem says...
The film opens with a vindicating interview: The Syrian actress Sabah Al-Salem takes a long drag of her cigarette before recounting how her refusal to sleep with a high-ranking military officer landed her in prison. She looks down at the dining room table as she answers the gentle prodding of her interviewers. “You must have heard of the problems I encountered,” she says in response to their inquiries.
The interviewers — Farah and Souhir — respond with nods. Yes, they have heard of the abuse Al-Salem faced. They know that she was abandoned by friends in the film industry and all but disappeared from public life. They also understand, on a personal level, how their deeply misogynistic country offers no recourse or salvation for women. When Al-Salem says...
- 2/24/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Though the world watched — often in silence — as a decade-long civil war tore Syria apart, exiled filmmakers Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”) and Heba Khaled say an equally brutal but less visible war is still raging.
In “Under the Sky of Damascus,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama strand of the Berlin Film Festival, the duo shifts the lens to the silenced majority of Syrian women who routinely face sexual harassment, violence and abuse in their patriarchal society.
The film follows a tight-knit group of young Syrian women who embark upon on a radical project to produce a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations.
Fanning out across the war-weary Syrian capital, they record testimonies from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers, revealing how women from across Syrian society share the same harrowing tales of abuse,...
In “Under the Sky of Damascus,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama strand of the Berlin Film Festival, the duo shifts the lens to the silenced majority of Syrian women who routinely face sexual harassment, violence and abuse in their patriarchal society.
The film follows a tight-knit group of young Syrian women who embark upon on a radical project to produce a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations.
Fanning out across the war-weary Syrian capital, they record testimonies from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers, revealing how women from across Syrian society share the same harrowing tales of abuse,...
- 2/20/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake that recently struck the Turkish-Syrian border, becoming the deadliest disaster in the region’s modern history, is not reverberating much at the Berlin Film Festival.
At least not according to the co-chiefs of Turkey’s Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
“The festival’s opening ceremony started with Ukraine, ended with Ukraine and touched on Iran. But I don’t think they ever mentioned Turkey,” said Ahmet Boyacıoğlu, president of the fest that has historically always been the country’s prime local cinema catalyst.
The Berlinale points out that its invitation to the opening ceremony had a written appeal to make donations for the Turkish earthquake relief effort to the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders.
“While I’m here, if a meeting doesn’t start with mention of the earthquake, I feel particularly depressed. And unfortunately that is happening,” noted Antalya’s artistic director, Başak Emre. “And...
At least not according to the co-chiefs of Turkey’s Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
“The festival’s opening ceremony started with Ukraine, ended with Ukraine and touched on Iran. But I don’t think they ever mentioned Turkey,” said Ahmet Boyacıoğlu, president of the fest that has historically always been the country’s prime local cinema catalyst.
The Berlinale points out that its invitation to the opening ceremony had a written appeal to make donations for the Turkish earthquake relief effort to the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders.
“While I’m here, if a meeting doesn’t start with mention of the earthquake, I feel particularly depressed. And unfortunately that is happening,” noted Antalya’s artistic director, Başak Emre. “And...
- 2/20/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”
See 2023 Sundance Film Festival concludes: Highlights and studio acquisitions include ‘Past Lives,’ ‘A Little Prayer,’ ‘Flora and Son’
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s honorees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and...
See 2023 Sundance Film Festival concludes: Highlights and studio acquisitions include ‘Past Lives,’ ‘A Little Prayer,’ ‘Flora and Son’
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s honorees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and...
- 1/31/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City, Utah. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s nominees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and manned flight to Mars are only a few of the subjects addressed by this year’s eclectic non-fiction slate.
Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s nominees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and manned flight to Mars are only a few of the subjects addressed by this year’s eclectic non-fiction slate.
- 1/31/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
In the past decade, the inclusion of streaming services in the documentary market has made it increasingly harder for smaller docus struggling with funding to break into the nonfiction feature Oscar race. But in spite of the deep pockets they are up against, a number of cash-strapped docs inevitably make it onto the shortlist every year. This year was no exception.
Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”, Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia.
As the field narrows and lobbying and marketing takeover, it’s clear that money and brand recognition are key factors in the race for Oscar gold, which makes “Faya Dayi,...
Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”, Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia.
As the field narrows and lobbying and marketing takeover, it’s clear that money and brand recognition are key factors in the race for Oscar gold, which makes “Faya Dayi,...
- 1/20/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
The Oscars are no stranger to current events when it comes to Best Documentary Feature. The award has often gone to films that address pressing social or political issues, and in 2020 you could hardly get more pressing than the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected just about every industry on Earth, including the film business. “76 Days” takes an especially close look at the pandemic, chronicling the weeks when the disease locked down Wuhan, China, the city where the novel coronavirus was thought to have originated. Voters may be impressed by that journalistic and cinematic achievement, especially when the subject matter hits so close to home.
Over the last 20 years the motion picture academy has awarded several nonfiction films that spoke to pressing societal concerns, from gun violence (2002’s “Bowling for Columbine”) to climate change (2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), torture (2007’s “Taxi to the Dark Side”), the Great Recession (2010’s “Inside Job...
Over the last 20 years the motion picture academy has awarded several nonfiction films that spoke to pressing societal concerns, from gun violence (2002’s “Bowling for Columbine”) to climate change (2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), torture (2007’s “Taxi to the Dark Side”), the Great Recession (2010’s “Inside Job...
- 12/30/2020
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Munich-based sales agent Global Screen closed major European deals for drama “Veins of the World,” the fiction feature film debut of director-screenwriter Byambasuren Davaa, whose “The Story of the Weeping Camel” was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary, and sold to more than 60 territories.
“Veins of the World,” which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and will also be screened at the Marché du Film Online, has been picked up by Les Films du Preau for France, Surtsey Films for Spain, Angel Films for Scandinavia and Filmcoopi for Switzerland. Further deals are in negotiation. The drama will be released in Germany by Pandora Film later this year.
The film centers on Amra, an 11-year-old boy who lives the traditional life of a nomad with his mother Zaya, father Erdene and little sister Altaa in the Mongolian steppe. While Zaya takes care of the flock, Erdene works as a mechanic,...
“Veins of the World,” which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and will also be screened at the Marché du Film Online, has been picked up by Les Films du Preau for France, Surtsey Films for Spain, Angel Films for Scandinavia and Filmcoopi for Switzerland. Further deals are in negotiation. The drama will be released in Germany by Pandora Film later this year.
The film centers on Amra, an 11-year-old boy who lives the traditional life of a nomad with his mother Zaya, father Erdene and little sister Altaa in the Mongolian steppe. While Zaya takes care of the flock, Erdene works as a mechanic,...
- 6/22/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
New projects also selected from Oscar nominees and a Venice-winning duo.
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
Cph:dox has unveiled the 34 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event from March 24-26.
Scroll down for full list of titles and descriptions
The selection includes new projects from Oscar-nominated Laura Nix (Walk Run Cha-Cha) and Talal Derki (Of Fathers And Sons), Berlinale winner Adina Pintilie (Touch Me Not), Sundance winners Jialing Zhang (Born In China) and Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (The Law in These Parts) and Venice winning team Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosolowski (The Prince and the Dybbuk).
Titles include Her, a documentary about...
- 2/13/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
From 2018’s feature doc Oscar winner Icarus, to 2019’s Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary recipient Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, to the Sundance Grand Jury Prize nabbing Of Fathers and Sons and Dina, Impact Partners has been behind some of the most critically acclaimed nonfiction work of recent years. The company’s winning streak, however, actually goes back a decade, all the way to 2010’s Academy Award for Documentary Feature recipient The Cove. And Impact Partners itself goes back even further. Founded in 2007 by Dan Cogan and Geralyn Dreyfous with a mission to bring […]...
- 1/25/2020
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
From 2018’s feature doc Oscar winner Icarus, to 2019’s Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary recipient Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, to the Sundance Grand Jury Prize nabbing Of Fathers and Sons and Dina, Impact Partners has been behind some of the most critically acclaimed nonfiction work of recent years. The company’s winning streak, however, actually goes back a decade, all the way to 2010’s Academy Award for Documentary Feature recipient The Cove. And Impact Partners itself goes back even further. Founded in 2007 by Dan Cogan and Geralyn Dreyfous with a mission to bring […]...
- 1/25/2020
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Buoyancy,” the Australian-made story that has gathered momentum as a powerhouse depiction of human trafficking, is set to be released in North American theaters. Rights were acquired by specialty distributor Kino Lorber, which will give it a cinema opening in Spring 2020 ahead of video on demand and home video outings.
The rights sale was handled by Paris-based sales agent Charades.
The film portrays the desperate journey of two Cambodian teenagers who are unwittingly signed up to join Thailand’s commercial fishing fleet. There the labor is forced, and the trawlers only rarely return to port.
“Buoyancy” had its premiere nearly a year ago as part of the Berlin film festival, and has since played at the Mumbai, Melbourne and Macao festivals. It has picked up multiple accolades including the best youth feature prize from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
It was directed by documentary maker Rodd Rathjen as his first feature-length fiction film.
The rights sale was handled by Paris-based sales agent Charades.
The film portrays the desperate journey of two Cambodian teenagers who are unwittingly signed up to join Thailand’s commercial fishing fleet. There the labor is forced, and the trawlers only rarely return to port.
“Buoyancy” had its premiere nearly a year ago as part of the Berlin film festival, and has since played at the Mumbai, Melbourne and Macao festivals. It has picked up multiple accolades including the best youth feature prize from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
It was directed by documentary maker Rodd Rathjen as his first feature-length fiction film.
- 1/16/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
At the 2018 Oscars, Frances McDormand, who’d just won her second Best Actress Academy Award for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” asked all the female nominees to stand. Ten women will always be nominated by the academy: five for Best Actress and another five for Best Supporting Actress. Besides these other nine women, how many others were on their feet in the Dolby Theater?
Forty-seven women other than actresses were nominated for those 90th Academy Awards. Of these, only four won Oscars. By comparison, 151 men other than actors were nominated and 32 took home statuettes. Of the 20 non-gender specific categories, women were contenders in 17 of them; they were shut out of Original Score (5 men), Sound Editing (9 men) and Visual Effects (20 men).
At last year’s Academy Awards, 53 women other than actresses were nominated as were 159 men. Women make up 25% of the nominees in the non-gender specific categories compared to 23.73% in 2018. Thirteen...
Forty-seven women other than actresses were nominated for those 90th Academy Awards. Of these, only four won Oscars. By comparison, 151 men other than actors were nominated and 32 took home statuettes. Of the 20 non-gender specific categories, women were contenders in 17 of them; they were shut out of Original Score (5 men), Sound Editing (9 men) and Visual Effects (20 men).
At last year’s Academy Awards, 53 women other than actresses were nominated as were 159 men. Women make up 25% of the nominees in the non-gender specific categories compared to 23.73% in 2018. Thirteen...
- 1/1/2020
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
The distributor carefully targeted a demographic of women over the age of 40, in particular parents, educators, teachers and care professionals.
German director Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher, a drama about a troubled nine-year-old girl who is caught in an overstretched social welfare system, was a highlight at the Berlinale in February.
It impressed the Juliette Binoche-led Competition jury, which handed Fingscheidt’s debut feature the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize for a film that “opens new perspectives”. Even more portentously for its commercial prospects, System Crasher won the readers’ jury award of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
The film has...
German director Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher, a drama about a troubled nine-year-old girl who is caught in an overstretched social welfare system, was a highlight at the Berlinale in February.
It impressed the Juliette Binoche-led Competition jury, which handed Fingscheidt’s debut feature the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize for a film that “opens new perspectives”. Even more portentously for its commercial prospects, System Crasher won the readers’ jury award of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
The film has...
- 11/5/2019
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominees for its annual awards on Wednesday morning. The 10 films nominated in the Best Feature category were culled from the group’s short list announced earlier in the month.
Last year the group previewed four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature, including the winner “Free Solo” as well as Ida champ “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and “Of Fathers and Sons.” They predicted two nominees in 2017, four in 2016 and three in 2015.
Among this year’s Ida nominees are five that were also nominated by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards in Best Documentary Feature: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.” The Ida’s list also includes seven films to be screened in Doc NYC’s eighth annual Short List: Features program: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,...
Last year the group previewed four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature, including the winner “Free Solo” as well as Ida champ “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and “Of Fathers and Sons.” They predicted two nominees in 2017, four in 2016 and three in 2015.
Among this year’s Ida nominees are five that were also nominated by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards in Best Documentary Feature: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.” The Ida’s list also includes seven films to be screened in Doc NYC’s eighth annual Short List: Features program: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,...
- 10/23/2019
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
John Chester’s “The Biggest Little Farm,” a film about a husband and wife trying to establish a small farm in Southern California, led all films in nominations for the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, the Critics Choice Association announced on Monday.
The film received seven nominations in 16 categories, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Director. Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” which used 50-year-old footage to reconstruct the moon mission, received six, as did Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old,” which used enhanced 100-year-old footage to bring World War I to movie screens in special-event engagements.
Other films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category are “American Factory,” “The Cave,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker,” “Knock Down the House,” “Maiden” and “One Child Nation.” And because the Bfca has given up trying to draw a line between film and television docs, the HBO two-part series “Leaving Neverland” was...
The film received seven nominations in 16 categories, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Director. Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” which used 50-year-old footage to reconstruct the moon mission, received six, as did Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old,” which used enhanced 100-year-old footage to bring World War I to movie screens in special-event engagements.
Other films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category are “American Factory,” “The Cave,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker,” “Knock Down the House,” “Maiden” and “One Child Nation.” And because the Bfca has given up trying to draw a line between film and television docs, the HBO two-part series “Leaving Neverland” was...
- 10/14/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Exclusive: U.S. art house distributor Kino Lorber is launching film and TV VOD streaming platform Kino Now, we can reveal. The service, which includes options to rent and buy, currently hosts 600 titles from the company’s catalog and includes early access to new releases. The number of titles is set to double by the end of the year.
Kino Lorber, which will unveil the platform at a stateside event this evening, tells us the service will be annually refreshed with more than 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber’s first-run and repertory divisions and more than 500 yearly additional titles as “festival direct” exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.
Movies will be generally available around 30-90 days after their theatrical release but some will also get day-and-date releases. Most titles will be $9.99 or less. New releases and certain films that are considered premium will be $14.99 or $19.99 if they are day-and-date releases.
Kino Lorber, which will unveil the platform at a stateside event this evening, tells us the service will be annually refreshed with more than 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber’s first-run and repertory divisions and more than 500 yearly additional titles as “festival direct” exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.
Movies will be generally available around 30-90 days after their theatrical release but some will also get day-and-date releases. Most titles will be $9.99 or less. New releases and certain films that are considered premium will be $14.99 or $19.99 if they are day-and-date releases.
- 9/30/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The civil war in Syria has led to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 21st century, and documentary filmmakers have been paying attention. For the last four years, films about the attacks on Syrian citizens by the Assad regime with the help of the Russian military, and about the resultant flood of refugees trying to flee the country, have surfaced at nearly every film festival that showcases nonfiction filmmaking.
The latest is “The Cave,” which opened the documentary program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
“The Cave” follows on the heels of 2017’s “Cries From Syria,” “City of Ghosts,” “Hell on Earth” and the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo,” 2018’s “Of Fathers and Sons” and of the Oscar-nominated short docs “Lifeboat,” “Watani: My Homeland,” “4.1 Miles” and “The White Helmets” (which won), as well as “For Sama” which provoked a strong response at this year’s Cannes film festival in May.
The latest is “The Cave,” which opened the documentary program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
“The Cave” follows on the heels of 2017’s “Cries From Syria,” “City of Ghosts,” “Hell on Earth” and the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo,” 2018’s “Of Fathers and Sons” and of the Oscar-nominated short docs “Lifeboat,” “Watani: My Homeland,” “4.1 Miles” and “The White Helmets” (which won), as well as “For Sama” which provoked a strong response at this year’s Cannes film festival in May.
- 9/5/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Towards the beginning of Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama” — a bracingly horrific yet resiliently beautiful documentary about al-Kateab’s experience as a woman, a patriot, and a mother living in the ruined heart of Aleppo during the ongoing war in Syria — a few medical volunteers are seen messing around in a hospital during a break from the shelling. They’re young and smiling and you would never know what they were living through if not for the blasted concrete on the floor and the wet blood on their clothes. A few years earlier, they were regular university students pursuing regular careers; now, a normal day consists of avoiding bombs and burying friends.
Why don’t they leave? How could they stay? What inspires someone to scrap for the ashes of a country where local jihadists, foreign warplanes, and even their own president are competing to exterminate them? The...
Why don’t they leave? How could they stay? What inspires someone to scrap for the ashes of a country where local jihadists, foreign warplanes, and even their own president are competing to exterminate them? The...
- 7/26/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
January’s Sundance Film Festival is the most effective launchpad for any documentary Oscar hopeful. With a field overloaded by competitive non-fiction, it’s essential to get a head start, a distributor, an early release date and build a profile before narrative features grab the media attention in an overcrowded fall.
Some high-profile non-fiction features, like Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s box-office star and eventual Oscar-winner “Free Solo,” break out of fall festivals like Telluride, Toronto, and New York. However, titles like those are the outliers.
Sundance 2018 yielded four out of the five 2019 Oscar nominees: $14 million-grossing Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc “Rbg,” Sundance breakthrough filmmaker prize-winner Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” which follows three young skateboarders in the Rust Belt, photographer RaMell Ross’ languorous poetic portrait of a time and place, “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening,” and Talal Derki’s Sundance World Documentary Grand Jury Prize-winner “Of Fathers and Sons.
Some high-profile non-fiction features, like Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s box-office star and eventual Oscar-winner “Free Solo,” break out of fall festivals like Telluride, Toronto, and New York. However, titles like those are the outliers.
Sundance 2018 yielded four out of the five 2019 Oscar nominees: $14 million-grossing Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc “Rbg,” Sundance breakthrough filmmaker prize-winner Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” which follows three young skateboarders in the Rust Belt, photographer RaMell Ross’ languorous poetic portrait of a time and place, “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening,” and Talal Derki’s Sundance World Documentary Grand Jury Prize-winner “Of Fathers and Sons.
- 6/15/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
January’s Sundance Film Festival is the most effective launchpad for any documentary Oscar hopeful. With a field overloaded by competitive non-fiction, it’s essential to get a head start, a distributor, an early release date and build a profile before narrative features grab the media attention in an overcrowded fall.
Some high-profile non-fiction features, like Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s box-office star and eventual Oscar-winner “Free Solo,” break out of fall festivals like Telluride, Toronto, and New York. However, titles like those are the outliers.
Sundance 2018 yielded four out of the five 2019 Oscar nominees: $14 million-grossing Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc “Rbg,” Sundance breakthrough filmmaker prize-winner Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” which follows three young skateboarders in the Rust Belt, photographer RaMell Ross’ languorous poetic portrait of a time and place, “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening,” and Talal Derki’s Sundance World Documentary Grand Jury Prize-winner “Of Fathers and Sons.
Some high-profile non-fiction features, like Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s box-office star and eventual Oscar-winner “Free Solo,” break out of fall festivals like Telluride, Toronto, and New York. However, titles like those are the outliers.
Sundance 2018 yielded four out of the five 2019 Oscar nominees: $14 million-grossing Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc “Rbg,” Sundance breakthrough filmmaker prize-winner Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” which follows three young skateboarders in the Rust Belt, photographer RaMell Ross’ languorous poetic portrait of a time and place, “Hale County: This Morning, This Evening,” and Talal Derki’s Sundance World Documentary Grand Jury Prize-winner “Of Fathers and Sons.
- 6/15/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The Oscars sometimes measures the worth of real artistic achievement, but attending the ceremony always provides a close-up glimpse into how the Academy Awards can mess with even the smartest artists’ heads. While this year was no different, it also offered evidence of a deeper frustration with the system.
Standing in the lobby of the Dolby Theater, I watched tux-laden stars trudge across the crowded room. A few giddy figures celebrated the Best Picture win for “Green Book,” but every other face in this slo-mo exit march emanated with disappointment for the missed opportunity to award “Roma” — a most unorthodox Best Picture nominee, and one that came within spitting distance of making history as the first non-English winner of the category.
I spotted a high-profile Spanish-language actor in the crowd. “It’s sad,” he said. “The support was there, but at the end of the day, the thinking must be...
Standing in the lobby of the Dolby Theater, I watched tux-laden stars trudge across the crowded room. A few giddy figures celebrated the Best Picture win for “Green Book,” but every other face in this slo-mo exit march emanated with disappointment for the missed opportunity to award “Roma” — a most unorthodox Best Picture nominee, and one that came within spitting distance of making history as the first non-English winner of the category.
I spotted a high-profile Spanish-language actor in the crowd. “It’s sad,” he said. “The support was there, but at the end of the day, the thinking must be...
- 2/25/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
At this year’s Academy Awards, 15 women won while 36 men (some multiple times) made their way to the stage of the Dolby Theater (these figures include the two men and two women are always guaranteed to win the acting awards). That marks a big increase from last year when the gender gap saw just 6 women winners versus 34 men. Scroll down to see the names of the 13 women who won at the 2019 Oscars besides actresses Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) and Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”).
This year, 53 women other than actresses were nominated at the 91st Academy Awards. With 159 men in contention, this meant that women make up 25% of the nominees in the non-gender specific categories (there will always be 10 women and 10 men nominated for the acting awards). At last year’s Oscars women represented 23.73% of the nominees in the 20 non-gender specific categories. Forty-seven women numbered among the contenders in those 17 races.
This year, 53 women other than actresses were nominated at the 91st Academy Awards. With 159 men in contention, this meant that women make up 25% of the nominees in the non-gender specific categories (there will always be 10 women and 10 men nominated for the acting awards). At last year’s Oscars women represented 23.73% of the nominees in the 20 non-gender specific categories. Forty-seven women numbered among the contenders in those 17 races.
- 2/25/2019
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
The 91st annual Oscars is officially in the books. Speaking of books, “Green Book” won Sunday’s final trophy — the coveted Best Picture Oscar. The film also brought Mahershala Ali another Best Supporting Actor statuette. “Green Book” won the Best Original Screenplay award as well.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” actually won the most Academy Awards with four. Like “Green Book,” “Black Panther” and “Roma” won three Oscars apiece.
Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) and Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) earned Sunday’s top acting honors. Alfonso Cuarón was named best director for “Roma.” See all of the winners and nominees below.
Also Read: Will 2019 Oscars Have A(nother) Record Low Audience?
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “Vice” Marina de Tavira, “Roma” Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” *Winner Emma Stone, “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”
Best Documentary Feature
“Free Solo” *Winner “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” “Minding the Gap” “Of Fathers and Sons...
“Bohemian Rhapsody” actually won the most Academy Awards with four. Like “Green Book,” “Black Panther” and “Roma” won three Oscars apiece.
Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) and Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) earned Sunday’s top acting honors. Alfonso Cuarón was named best director for “Roma.” See all of the winners and nominees below.
Also Read: Will 2019 Oscars Have A(nother) Record Low Audience?
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “Vice” Marina de Tavira, “Roma” Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” *Winner Emma Stone, “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”
Best Documentary Feature
“Free Solo” *Winner “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” “Minding the Gap” “Of Fathers and Sons...
- 2/25/2019
- by Tony Maglio
- The Wrap
The 91st annual Academy Awards (Oscars) was a night of incredibly well-deserved wins, first time wins, and shocking wins. See the full list of nominees and winners below.
Performance by an actress in a supporting role Regina King in “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Winner) Amy Adams in “Vice” Marina de Tavira in “Roma” Emma Stone in “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite” Best documentary feature “Free Solo” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill (Winner) “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim “Minding the Gap” Bing Liu and Diane Quon “Of Fathers and Sons” Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert “Rbg” Betsy West and Julie Cohen Achievement in makeup and hairstyling “Vice” Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney (Winner) “Border” Goran Lundstrom and Pamela Goldammer “Mary Queen of Scots” Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and...
Performance by an actress in a supporting role Regina King in “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Winner) Amy Adams in “Vice” Marina de Tavira in “Roma” Emma Stone in “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz in “The Favourite” Best documentary feature “Free Solo” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill (Winner) “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim “Minding the Gap” Bing Liu and Diane Quon “Of Fathers and Sons” Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert “Rbg” Betsy West and Julie Cohen Achievement in makeup and hairstyling “Vice” Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney (Winner) “Border” Goran Lundstrom and Pamela Goldammer “Mary Queen of Scots” Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and...
- 2/25/2019
- by Andrew Wendowski
- Age of the Nerd
“Free Solo” has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The nonfiction film, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, chronicles rock climber Alex Honnold’s death-defying quest to perform a free solo (no harness or safety ropes) climb up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Considering the Academy often leans on the most politically relevant film, “Free Solo” faced stiff competition from “Rbg” – as the health of 85 year old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the direction President Trump (following the controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh) is taking the courts have both been huge news stories and a source of concern for Democrats in Hollywood.
Yet since premiering to rave reviews at the Telluride Film Festival this fall, “Free Solo” has become one of the most successful documentaries of all time. The National Geographic release has grossed over $16 million during its five month theatrical run. Meanwhile, Honnold,...
Considering the Academy often leans on the most politically relevant film, “Free Solo” faced stiff competition from “Rbg” – as the health of 85 year old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the direction President Trump (following the controversial nomination of Brett Kavanaugh) is taking the courts have both been huge news stories and a source of concern for Democrats in Hollywood.
Yet since premiering to rave reviews at the Telluride Film Festival this fall, “Free Solo” has become one of the most successful documentaries of all time. The National Geographic release has grossed over $16 million during its five month theatrical run. Meanwhile, Honnold,...
- 2/25/2019
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
The big night is finally here. All of the precursors, predictions, speculation, and overall insanity has led to this. The 91st Academy Awards are only a few hours away. By the end of the night, we won’t be guessing what the telecast will be like, and more importantly, we’ll have a whole new crop of Oscar winners. I’ve spent almost a full year trying to figure this race out, which is perhaps the most unpredictable in memory. It all comes down to this. There’s nothing left to do but sit back and try to enjoy the craziness we’ll undoubtedly experience this evening. One more time, the Academy Award nominees: Best Picture: “Black Panther” “BlacKkKlansman” “Bohemian Rhapsody” “The Favourite” “Green Book” “Roma” “A Star Is Born” “Vice” Lead Actor: Christian Bale, “Vice” Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate” Rami Malek,...
- 2/24/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
In recent years, Film Independent Spirit Award voters have more often than not gone for the movies most likely to win at the Academy Awards the next day. But they didn’t have that option with this year’s Best Feature nominees, none of which had even been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.
So they went with the closest thing they could find to an Oscar movie: Barry Jenkins’ exquisite love story “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which was nominated for three Oscars but woefully left out in the top category.
The film was named Best Feature, Jenkins took the award for directing, and the 2019 Spirit Awards ended up feeling sort of like an alternative to the Oscars, but sort of like the closest thing that Spirit voters could conjure up.
Also Read: Independent Spirit Awards 2019: Complete Winners List (Updating Live)
The Spirit nominating committee had given voters a real challenge,...
So they went with the closest thing they could find to an Oscar movie: Barry Jenkins’ exquisite love story “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which was nominated for three Oscars but woefully left out in the top category.
The film was named Best Feature, Jenkins took the award for directing, and the 2019 Spirit Awards ended up feeling sort of like an alternative to the Oscars, but sort of like the closest thing that Spirit voters could conjure up.
Also Read: Independent Spirit Awards 2019: Complete Winners List (Updating Live)
The Spirit nominating committee had given voters a real challenge,...
- 2/24/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Film Independent Spirit Awards have come to a close in sunny Santa Monica, with “If Beale Street Could Talk” winning Best Feature, Best Director for Barry Jenkins, and Best Supporting Female for Regina King. The love was spread fairly evenly across the other major prizes, with Glenn Close of “The Wife” taking home Best Actress, Ethan Hawke earning Best Actor for his performance in “First Reformed,” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” winning Best Screenplay (Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty) and Best Supporting Male (Richard E. Grant).
“We the Animals” led all films with five nominations, followed by “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” and “You Were Never Really Here” with four apiece. There will be excitingly little overlap between today’s ceremony and tomorrow’s — for the first time since 2008, no movies are up for the top prize at both shows.
Aubrey Plaza hosted the ceremony, which aired on IFC. Full...
“We the Animals” led all films with five nominations, followed by “Eighth Grade,” “First Reformed,” and “You Were Never Really Here” with four apiece. There will be excitingly little overlap between today’s ceremony and tomorrow’s — for the first time since 2008, no movies are up for the top prize at both shows.
Aubrey Plaza hosted the ceremony, which aired on IFC. Full...
- 2/23/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Winners of the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by Aubrey Plaza, were revealed on Saturday, February 23, one day before the Oscars. Unlike years past, when many Best Feature nominees coincided with the Academy Award choices, the 34th edition of the Spirit Awards, which celebrates indie fare, had no cross-over in the Best Picture category.
The biggest winner of the night was “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which took home Best Feature, Best Director for Barry Jenkins and Best Supporting Female for Regina King, who is likely to repeat at the Academy Awards. And Glenn Close, whose little white dog Pippi stole the show, is pretty much a lock to repeat her win for Best Female Lead at the Oscars as well. Otherwise, the Spirits were pretty much spread out, save for two honors granted to the horror remake “Suspiria,” the Robert Altman Award along with cinematography, and two wins, Best Screenplay...
The biggest winner of the night was “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which took home Best Feature, Best Director for Barry Jenkins and Best Supporting Female for Regina King, who is likely to repeat at the Academy Awards. And Glenn Close, whose little white dog Pippi stole the show, is pretty much a lock to repeat her win for Best Female Lead at the Oscars as well. Otherwise, the Spirits were pretty much spread out, save for two honors granted to the horror remake “Suspiria,” the Robert Altman Award along with cinematography, and two wins, Best Screenplay...
- 2/23/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
Saturday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards has a host, Aubrey Plaza, and will no doubt use that fact as a way to poke fun at their bigger competitor, the hostless Academy Awards.
But that’s far from the only way that the Spirit Awards will distinguish themselves from the Academy Awards during their afternoon shindig on the beach the day before the Oscars.
More than in most recent years, Saturday’s Spirit Awards won’t be an out-of-town tryout for Sunday’s Oscars, looser and less consequential but honoring many of the same films.
Also Read: Aubrey Plaza Dings Host-Less Oscars in Independent Spirit Awards Promo (Video)
Instead, this year’s Spirit lineup offers a real alternative to the Oscars. The Spirits’ five Best Feature nominees, for instance, were all overlooked by the Oscars in the Best Picture category: Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace...
But that’s far from the only way that the Spirit Awards will distinguish themselves from the Academy Awards during their afternoon shindig on the beach the day before the Oscars.
More than in most recent years, Saturday’s Spirit Awards won’t be an out-of-town tryout for Sunday’s Oscars, looser and less consequential but honoring many of the same films.
Also Read: Aubrey Plaza Dings Host-Less Oscars in Independent Spirit Awards Promo (Video)
Instead, this year’s Spirit lineup offers a real alternative to the Oscars. The Spirits’ five Best Feature nominees, for instance, were all overlooked by the Oscars in the Best Picture category: Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace...
- 2/23/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The 2019 Independent Spirit Awards will be handed out on February 23 during an afternoon ceremony on Santa Monica. These awards often preview the winners of the Academy Awards the following day. This year, we are predicting that both actress tipped to take home Oscars will win here first: leading lady Glenn Close (“The Wife”) and supporting player Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”). But for the first time in a decade, none of the five films up for Best Feature here number among the nominees for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Scroll down to see the full list of Indie Spirits nominations. This roster of contenders was determined by committees that included film critics, film programmers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, actors, past nominees and winners, and members of Film Independent’s Board of Directors. Only American-made movies with budgets under $20 million were eligible for consideration.
Winners will be revealed...
Scroll down to see the full list of Indie Spirits nominations. This roster of contenders was determined by committees that included film critics, film programmers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, actors, past nominees and winners, and members of Film Independent’s Board of Directors. Only American-made movies with budgets under $20 million were eligible for consideration.
Winners will be revealed...
- 2/23/2019
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
A German producer’s hopes to attend Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, where his film is up for an Oscar, look likely to be dashed by tightened U.S. Department of Homeland Security restrictions and increased bureaucracy.
Hans Robert Eisenhauer is one of the producers of “Of Fathers and Sons,” director Talal Derki’s film about a radical Islamist family in Syria, which is nominated for best documentary feature.
Eisenhauer, managing director of Berlin-based production shingle Ventana Film, produced the film with Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert of Basis Berlin Filmproduktion. While Derki and the other producers will be in Los Angeles for the Oscars, it looks increasingly likely that Eisenhauer’s past travels will keep him from entering the U.S.
Eisenhauer, a former senior commissioning editor at German pubcaster Zdf as well as deputy program director of Arte, spent three days in Iraq in 2016 as...
Hans Robert Eisenhauer is one of the producers of “Of Fathers and Sons,” director Talal Derki’s film about a radical Islamist family in Syria, which is nominated for best documentary feature.
Eisenhauer, managing director of Berlin-based production shingle Ventana Film, produced the film with Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert of Basis Berlin Filmproduktion. While Derki and the other producers will be in Los Angeles for the Oscars, it looks increasingly likely that Eisenhauer’s past travels will keep him from entering the U.S.
Eisenhauer, a former senior commissioning editor at German pubcaster Zdf as well as deputy program director of Arte, spent three days in Iraq in 2016 as...
- 2/21/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
This story about Oscar documentaries first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.
By lots of standards, 2018 was one of the greatest years for nonfiction filmmaking: the first year to have four documentaries top the $10 million mark and 15 make more than $1 million.
In this climate, Oscar voters sifted through the 166 eligible films and chose five films. Two were among the biggest moneymakers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Free Solo,” about Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan rock formation without ropes or safety equipment, and Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s portrait of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, “Rbg.”
Two were critically adored debut features: “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross’ meditative look at the inhabitants of a poor area of Alabama and how blacks are depicted in the media, and Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,...
By lots of standards, 2018 was one of the greatest years for nonfiction filmmaking: the first year to have four documentaries top the $10 million mark and 15 make more than $1 million.
In this climate, Oscar voters sifted through the 166 eligible films and chose five films. Two were among the biggest moneymakers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Free Solo,” about Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan rock formation without ropes or safety equipment, and Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s portrait of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, “Rbg.”
Two were critically adored debut features: “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross’ meditative look at the inhabitants of a poor area of Alabama and how blacks are depicted in the media, and Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,...
- 2/13/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
“I’ve made a career of filming and shooting expeditions and some of the top athletes in the outdoors,” says Oscar-nominated “Free Solo” co-director Jimmy Chin, so he has had “the great fortune of working with some of the best athletes at the peak of their career.” So when he first heard that his friend Alex Honnold was planning to climb Yosemite’s 3,000 ft. high El Capitan Wall without ropes or safety gear, he knew he had to document it. Watch our exclusive video interview with Chin above.
See Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi could collect Oscar Iou with ‘Free Solo’
A professional mountain climber himself, Chin thought what Honnold was attempting “almost seemed impossible. Even among the top echelon of climbers and athletes, we’d never really heard of or seen anybody do what Alex is doing, which is essentially executing perfection when the stakes are life and...
See Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi could collect Oscar Iou with ‘Free Solo’
A professional mountain climber himself, Chin thought what Honnold was attempting “almost seemed impossible. Even among the top echelon of climbers and athletes, we’d never really heard of or seen anybody do what Alex is doing, which is essentially executing perfection when the stakes are life and...
- 2/12/2019
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
To make his Oscar-nominated documentary “Of Fathers and Sons,” director Talal Derki lived with Syrian extremists and acted like an Al-Qaeda sympathizer for two and a half years. If Derki wanted to expose the toxic patriarchy in a war-torn Middle East, he either had to pull the best acting performance of his life, or risk losing his life altogether.
“Even before the cameras started, I was playing a role,” Derki told TheWrap Editor in Chief Sharon Waxman. “This is a war on ideology, and the only way to fight it is to understand.”
All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best documentary came together Thursday for a Q&A at TheWrap’s documentary features showcase. In attendance at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles was Derki, “Free Solo” producer Shannon Dill and editor Bob Eisenhardt, and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” director RaMell Ross. Joining via Skype...
“Even before the cameras started, I was playing a role,” Derki told TheWrap Editor in Chief Sharon Waxman. “This is a war on ideology, and the only way to fight it is to understand.”
All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best documentary came together Thursday for a Q&A at TheWrap’s documentary features showcase. In attendance at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles was Derki, “Free Solo” producer Shannon Dill and editor Bob Eisenhardt, and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” director RaMell Ross. Joining via Skype...
- 2/8/2019
- by Omar Sanchez
- The Wrap
Known as a notoriously unpredictable bunch, the Academy’s documentary branch has become rather predictable in the past two years.
The evidence lies in the films they choose not to recognize come Oscar time: Films such as Brett Morgen’s 2017 Jane Goodall docu, “Jane,” and two of last year’s biggest nonfiction box office successes — Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers.” Both Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc and Wardle’s film about identical triplets separated at birth premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Both films also went on to do the seemingly impossible and strike a chord with audiences all over the country. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” grossed $22.8 million domestically, making it the 12th-highest-grossing doc of all time. Meanwhile, “Strangers” also defied documentary theatrical odds when it drew in $12.3 million.
Morgen’s “Jane” grossed just...
The evidence lies in the films they choose not to recognize come Oscar time: Films such as Brett Morgen’s 2017 Jane Goodall docu, “Jane,” and two of last year’s biggest nonfiction box office successes — Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers.” Both Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc and Wardle’s film about identical triplets separated at birth premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Both films also went on to do the seemingly impossible and strike a chord with audiences all over the country. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” grossed $22.8 million domestically, making it the 12th-highest-grossing doc of all time. Meanwhile, “Strangers” also defied documentary theatrical odds when it drew in $12.3 million.
Morgen’s “Jane” grossed just...
- 2/6/2019
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
When Sundance Film Festival programmers assembled the most diverse selection of features and documentaries in their history, they weren’t thinking about big buys or awards appeal. Nevertheless, a range of online and theatrical buyers plunked down unprecedented millions for a raft of cross-cultural movies with global playability. Mainstream crowdpleasers “Blinded By the Light” and “Brittany Runs a Marathon” (which won the dramatic audience award) aren’t necessarily heading for awards consideration — until and unless they score rave reviews and boffo box office. Both New Line and Amazon will go for maximum summer play to make their money back, and then see where they are.
While “Manchester By the Sea,” “The Big Sick,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Whiplash,” and “Get Out” are among the narrative Sundance breakouts that went all the way to the Oscars, in recent years it’s documentaries that tend to go the Oscar distance. The...
While “Manchester By the Sea,” “The Big Sick,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Whiplash,” and “Get Out” are among the narrative Sundance breakouts that went all the way to the Oscars, in recent years it’s documentaries that tend to go the Oscar distance. The...
- 2/2/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
When Sundance Film Festival programmers assembled the most diverse selection of features and documentaries in their history, they weren’t thinking about big buys or awards appeal. Nevertheless, a range of online and theatrical buyers plunked down unprecedented millions for a raft of cross-cultural movies with global playability. Mainstream crowdpleasers “Blinded By the Light” and “Brittany Runs a Marathon” (which won the dramatic audience award) aren’t necessarily heading for awards consideration — until and unless they score rave reviews and boffo box office. Both New Line and Amazon will go for maximum summer play to make their money back, and then see where they are.
While “Manchester By the Sea,” “The Big Sick,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Whiplash,” and “Get Out” are among the narrative Sundance breakouts that went all the way to the Oscars, in recent years it’s documentaries that tend to go the Oscar distance. The...
While “Manchester By the Sea,” “The Big Sick,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Whiplash,” and “Get Out” are among the narrative Sundance breakouts that went all the way to the Oscars, in recent years it’s documentaries that tend to go the Oscar distance. The...
- 2/2/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” not showing up in the Best Documentary Feature lineup was one of the biggest shockers on Oscar nominations morning. The Mister Rogers doc grossed an astonishing $22.8 million at the box office, dominated in critics wins, and was fresh off a victory at the Producers Guild of America Awards. It had long been assumed that “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” would be an easy prediction to call on Oscar night, considering the entire voting academy picks the winners and is receptive to high-profile docs about showbiz lately. So now that “Neighbor” is out of the running, what film could win?
SEEIt’s a sad day in the neighborhood: Mr. Rogers got snubbed by Oscar
The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” and “Rbg.” “Free Solo,” about daring rock climber Alex Honnold,...
SEEIt’s a sad day in the neighborhood: Mr. Rogers got snubbed by Oscar
The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” and “Rbg.” “Free Solo,” about daring rock climber Alex Honnold,...
- 1/29/2019
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
Omg! Wtf! Where did that come from? Such was the refrain echoing throughout Hollywood as the Oscar nominations were announced at the crack of dawn on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. What films and performances made the cut with the Academy? Tour through our photo gallery above to see the contenders in all 24 categories.
The 91st Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Here is the complete list of nominations:
Best Picture
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“The Favourite”
“Green Book”
“Roma”
“A Star Is Born”
“Vice”
Best Director
Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
Adam McKay, “Vice”
Best Actor
Christian Bale, “Vice”
Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”
Best Actress
Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
Melissa McCarthy,...
The 91st Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 24, 2019. Here is the complete list of nominations:
Best Picture
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“The Favourite”
“Green Book”
“Roma”
“A Star Is Born”
“Vice”
Best Director
Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
Adam McKay, “Vice”
Best Actor
Christian Bale, “Vice”
Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”
Best Actress
Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
Melissa McCarthy,...
- 1/23/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Actor-comedian and Oscar-nominated writer Kumail Nanjiani and actress–producer–director Tracee Ellis Ross announced the 91st Oscars® nominations today (January 22), live from the Academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills via a global live stream on Oscar.com, Oscars.org, the Academy’s digital platforms, a satellite feed, and broadcast media.
Nanjiani and Ross announced the nominees in 9 categories at 5:20 a.m. Pt, and the remaining 15 categories at 5:30 a.m. Pt. For a complete list of nominees, visit the official Oscars website, www.oscar.com.
Academy members from each of the 17 branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.
Active members of the Academy are eligible to...
Nanjiani and Ross announced the nominees in 9 categories at 5:20 a.m. Pt, and the remaining 15 categories at 5:30 a.m. Pt. For a complete list of nominees, visit the official Oscars website, www.oscar.com.
Academy members from each of the 17 branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.
Active members of the Academy are eligible to...
- 1/23/2019
- by Kristyn Clarke
- Age of the Nerd
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