Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy – behind “Slumdog Millionaire,” “127 Hours” or “The Full Monty” – has joined “S.O.L.”
The six-episode thriller, presented at Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series and developed with TV4, is produced by Warp Films (UK) and Rainy Days (Sweden). It was created by Ruth McCance. Diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, she died in December, aged 53.
“Ruth had written a pilot episode script and outlines for the remaining five episodes,” explained producer Peter Carlton.
“It had always been our intention to bring on another writer to work alongside her. When we knew Ruth was dying, we spoke about the future of the project. We felt we would like to complete the work she had started in her honor and for her kids.”
“With her blessing, we are doing just that. We were able to tell her it had been selected for Berlinale.”
Beaufoy was an “obvious first choice,” Carlton stated.
The six-episode thriller, presented at Berlinale’s Co-Pro Series and developed with TV4, is produced by Warp Films (UK) and Rainy Days (Sweden). It was created by Ruth McCance. Diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, she died in December, aged 53.
“Ruth had written a pilot episode script and outlines for the remaining five episodes,” explained producer Peter Carlton.
“It had always been our intention to bring on another writer to work alongside her. When we knew Ruth was dying, we spoke about the future of the project. We felt we would like to complete the work she had started in her honor and for her kids.”
“With her blessing, we are doing just that. We were able to tell her it had been selected for Berlinale.”
Beaufoy was an “obvious first choice,” Carlton stated.
- 2/20/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Warp Films co-chief executive Peter Carlton is stepping back to a senior executive producer position as the Sheffield and London-based production company prioritises expansion into the European market with a raft of series co-productions.
Carlton joined as head of Warp Films Europe in 2009 before moving up to jointly head the company with Mark Herbert from 2015.
In his role as senior executive producer, Carlton will focus on Warp’s slate of projects as it preps a number of European co-productions.
Among the projects he will be overseeing is Costa Armonia, a horror series that he co-created with Greek director Lefteris Charitos.
Carlton joined as head of Warp Films Europe in 2009 before moving up to jointly head the company with Mark Herbert from 2015.
In his role as senior executive producer, Carlton will focus on Warp’s slate of projects as it preps a number of European co-productions.
Among the projects he will be overseeing is Costa Armonia, a horror series that he co-created with Greek director Lefteris Charitos.
- 2/6/2024
- ScreenDaily
McCance died aged 53 on December 19 last year, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.
Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to “free spirit” and “brilliant role model”, Northern Ireland-born, Sweden-based film and TV writer and executive producer Ruth McCance, who has died aged 53 from cancer.
McCance was diagnosed in November of last year with stomach cancer, and died just five weeks later.
During her career she worked on films including Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love, Soren-Kragh Jakobson’s Skagerrak and Garth Jennings’s Son Of Rambow.
McCance grew up in Belfast. Her mother was a...
Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to “free spirit” and “brilliant role model”, Northern Ireland-born, Sweden-based film and TV writer and executive producer Ruth McCance, who has died aged 53 from cancer.
McCance was diagnosed in November of last year with stomach cancer, and died just five weeks later.
During her career she worked on films including Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love, Soren-Kragh Jakobson’s Skagerrak and Garth Jennings’s Son Of Rambow.
McCance grew up in Belfast. Her mother was a...
- 1/15/2024
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Series, a hybrid film-series industry strand, returns this year for its sophomore outing with Paper Entertainment CEO and Tehran executive producer Julien Leroux serving as program consultant.
This year’s Agora series program will run for two extended days, starting November 4, with a focus on the creative process of series screenwriting. The schedule will feature a range of masterclass sessions from local and international series professionals. Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa will host a masterclass on the future of storytelling titled From Six Feet Under to the Top: The Evolution of Contemporary Television at the Pavlos Zannas Theatre on November 4. Podeswa — who was recently announced as the lead director of the Blade Runner 2099 mini-series at Amazon — will discuss the evolution of series content throughout the years and his personal journey in the business. Podeswa’s credits include Six Feet Under, Game of Thrones,...
This year’s Agora series program will run for two extended days, starting November 4, with a focus on the creative process of series screenwriting. The schedule will feature a range of masterclass sessions from local and international series professionals. Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa will host a masterclass on the future of storytelling titled From Six Feet Under to the Top: The Evolution of Contemporary Television at the Pavlos Zannas Theatre on November 4. Podeswa — who was recently announced as the lead director of the Blade Runner 2099 mini-series at Amazon — will discuss the evolution of series content throughout the years and his personal journey in the business. Podeswa’s credits include Six Feet Under, Game of Thrones,...
- 10/12/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Joe Lycett To Helm Channel 4 Live Show
Joe Lycett has been handed a five-part live show on Channel 4. The network favorite and comedian will helm The Joe Lycett Live Show during which he will broadcast from his Birmingham hometown with a live audience, celebrity guests and local legends. He presented live one-off Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party for the network last year and has already achieved success with the Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back consumer affairs show. “This has been a dream of mine for many years and I look forward to some (controlled) late night chaos,” he added. Lycett is having quite the year, having generated global headlines for a stunt in which he pretended to burn £10,000 in protest at David Beckham’s ambassadorial role with Qatar.
Pamela L. Kunath Named Co-President of Constantin Film Development
Pamela L. Kunath has been named Co-President at Constantin Film Development.
Joe Lycett has been handed a five-part live show on Channel 4. The network favorite and comedian will helm The Joe Lycett Live Show during which he will broadcast from his Birmingham hometown with a live audience, celebrity guests and local legends. He presented live one-off Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party for the network last year and has already achieved success with the Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back consumer affairs show. “This has been a dream of mine for many years and I look forward to some (controlled) late night chaos,” he added. Lycett is having quite the year, having generated global headlines for a stunt in which he pretended to burn £10,000 in protest at David Beckham’s ambassadorial role with Qatar.
Pamela L. Kunath Named Co-President of Constantin Film Development
Pamela L. Kunath has been named Co-President at Constantin Film Development.
- 2/10/2023
- by Max Goldbart and Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The London and Sheffield-based production outfit has snapped up a BBC exec.
Siobhan Morgan has been hired as head of development at Sheffield and London-based Warp Films, to bolster the ouftit’s television output.
Morgan will work with joint CEOs Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton to grow the television drama slate. She will oversee all development projects, working with writers such as Sean Conway, Fran Poletti and Colette Kane.
Morgan joins from the BBC, where she was assistant drama commissioner for the north of England. She previously worked in the BBC Children’s drama commissioning team and as a script...
Siobhan Morgan has been hired as head of development at Sheffield and London-based Warp Films, to bolster the ouftit’s television output.
Morgan will work with joint CEOs Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton to grow the television drama slate. She will oversee all development projects, working with writers such as Sean Conway, Fran Poletti and Colette Kane.
Morgan joins from the BBC, where she was assistant drama commissioner for the north of England. She previously worked in the BBC Children’s drama commissioning team and as a script...
- 11/30/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
The London and Sheffield-based production outfit has snapped up a BBC exec.
Siobhan Morgan has been hired as head of development at Sheffield and London-based Warp Films, to bolster the ouftit’s television output.
Morgan will work with joint CEOs Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton to grow the television drama slate. She will oversee all development projects, working with writers such as Sean Conway, Fran Poletti and Colette Kane.
Morgan joins from the BBC, where she was assistant drama commissioner for the north of England. She previously worked in the BBC Children’s drama commissioning team and as a script...
Siobhan Morgan has been hired as head of development at Sheffield and London-based Warp Films, to bolster the ouftit’s television output.
Morgan will work with joint CEOs Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton to grow the television drama slate. She will oversee all development projects, working with writers such as Sean Conway, Fran Poletti and Colette Kane.
Morgan joins from the BBC, where she was assistant drama commissioner for the north of England. She previously worked in the BBC Children’s drama commissioning team and as a script...
- 11/30/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Andrea Iervolino’s Social Media App TaTaTu Lists On Euronext
Italian producer Andrea Iervolino’s social media and entertainment App TaTaTu has announced its intention to list on Euronext Growth Paris as of October 19. The innovative social media platform, which launched in 2018, rewards users for the value they help generate by spending time on the platform with Ttu Coins.
“We are embarking on a crucial and exciting phase of our development,” said TaTaTu founder and CEO Iervolino. “The listing on Euronext Growth Paris will contribute to increase TaTaTu’s visibility worldwide and will enhance our access to capital markets as we implement our strategic plan with the ambition to become one of the world’s must-use social media and entertainment platforms.”
Gravitas Ventures Nabs North American Rights To ‘Shut Eye’
Gravitas Ventures has acquired the North American rights to the New Zealand drama Shut Eye, which centers on a social...
Italian producer Andrea Iervolino’s social media and entertainment App TaTaTu has announced its intention to list on Euronext Growth Paris as of October 19. The innovative social media platform, which launched in 2018, rewards users for the value they help generate by spending time on the platform with Ttu Coins.
“We are embarking on a crucial and exciting phase of our development,” said TaTaTu founder and CEO Iervolino. “The listing on Euronext Growth Paris will contribute to increase TaTaTu’s visibility worldwide and will enhance our access to capital markets as we implement our strategic plan with the ambition to become one of the world’s must-use social media and entertainment platforms.”
Gravitas Ventures Nabs North American Rights To ‘Shut Eye’
Gravitas Ventures has acquired the North American rights to the New Zealand drama Shut Eye, which centers on a social...
- 10/17/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
‘The Power Of The Dog’ wins best film and best director.
Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog won best film and best director at the 2022 Bafta Film Awards, whilst Dune picked up the most awards overall.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The Power Of The Dog, which was backed by Netflix and developed with and backed by BBC Film, earned two awards from eight nominations and saw Campion win her first Bafta, following a nomination for The Piano back in 1994.
Dune won five Baftas: for Hans Zimmer’s original score; Greig Fraser’s cinematography; plus production design,...
Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog won best film and best director at the 2022 Bafta Film Awards, whilst Dune picked up the most awards overall.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The Power Of The Dog, which was backed by Netflix and developed with and backed by BBC Film, earned two awards from eight nominations and saw Campion win her first Bafta, following a nomination for The Piano back in 1994.
Dune won five Baftas: for Hans Zimmer’s original score; Greig Fraser’s cinematography; plus production design,...
- 3/13/2022
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Dune leads the way with 11 nominations, followed by The Power Of The Dog on eight and Belfast on six.
The 2022 Bafta Film Awards show is taking place today (March 13) from London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The show started at 17:00 UK time, finishing at approximately 19:30, and will be broadcast with a time delay on BBC One starting at 19:00, finishing at 21:00. Rebel Wilson is hosting for the first time.
The ceremony returns as a full physical event, following last year’s edition which was mostly virtual.
Screen will be posting all the winners on this page as they...
The 2022 Bafta Film Awards show is taking place today (March 13) from London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The show started at 17:00 UK time, finishing at approximately 19:30, and will be broadcast with a time delay on BBC One starting at 19:00, finishing at 21:00. Rebel Wilson is hosting for the first time.
The ceremony returns as a full physical event, following last year’s edition which was mostly virtual.
Screen will be posting all the winners on this page as they...
- 3/13/2022
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Nominations for the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards have been unveiled. Scroll down for the full list.
Leading the way this year is Dune with 11 nominations, followed by The Power Of The Dog on eight and Belfast on six.
Licorice Pizza, No Time to Die and West Side Story all have five, while four nominations apiece went to After Love, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, Passing and King Richard.
In total, 48 feature films are up for prizes this year.
Diversity remains in the spotlight for the Brit Awards org. Following a 2020 when BAFTA drew criticism for having an all-male directing field and no non-white acting nominees, sweeping changes to the voting procedures put in place since have again produced a more diverse field. More on that in our analysis piece, which you can read here.
Winners will be announced at the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, hosted by Rebel Wilson, on...
Leading the way this year is Dune with 11 nominations, followed by The Power Of The Dog on eight and Belfast on six.
Licorice Pizza, No Time to Die and West Side Story all have five, while four nominations apiece went to After Love, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, Passing and King Richard.
In total, 48 feature films are up for prizes this year.
Diversity remains in the spotlight for the Brit Awards org. Following a 2020 when BAFTA drew criticism for having an all-male directing field and no non-white acting nominees, sweeping changes to the voting procedures put in place since have again produced a more diverse field. More on that in our analysis piece, which you can read here.
Winners will be announced at the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, hosted by Rebel Wilson, on...
- 2/3/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Six nominations for ‘Belfast’; three titles on five.
Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster Dune led the Bafta Film Awards nominations from Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, with the nominations announced today.
Dune received 11 nominations, including in best film, adapted screenplay, original score, and all eight technical categories.
Scroll down for the full list of nominations
The Power of the Dog scored eight nominations, including in best film, three times in the acting categories – and a best director nomination for Campion, who was the first woman to be nominated for the best director Bafta for The Piano in 1994.
Belfast...
Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster Dune led the Bafta Film Awards nominations from Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, with the nominations announced today.
Dune received 11 nominations, including in best film, adapted screenplay, original score, and all eight technical categories.
Scroll down for the full list of nominations
The Power of the Dog scored eight nominations, including in best film, three times in the acting categories – and a best director nomination for Campion, who was the first woman to be nominated for the best director Bafta for The Piano in 1994.
Belfast...
- 2/3/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Distributors releasing titles before James Bond takes screens.
Musical adaptation Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake and Mark Cousins’ documentary The Story of Looking are three of 19 new films landing in UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as distributors look for screen space in advance of No Time To Die in two weeks.
The number of releases each week has been steadily increasing throughout the summer, with just eight on June 4, two weeks after cinemas reopened in England. This has risen to 15 last weekend, and jumped further to 19 this time out.
The increase is a welcome sign for the theatrical industry,...
Musical adaptation Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake and Mark Cousins’ documentary The Story of Looking are three of 19 new films landing in UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as distributors look for screen space in advance of No Time To Die in two weeks.
The number of releases each week has been steadily increasing throughout the summer, with just eight on June 4, two weeks after cinemas reopened in England. This has risen to 15 last weekend, and jumped further to 19 this time out.
The increase is a welcome sign for the theatrical industry,...
- 9/17/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Sheffield-based Warp Films, whose musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” hits Amazon next month, has announced a partnership with production and financing studio Anton.
The two companies plan to develop a slate of television series and feature films, with Anton financing a development fund from which they plan to identify and develop “high-value IP projects,” with Anton representing global rights on any project that goes ahead.
As part of the initiative, Kasheina Vencatasawmy has been promoted to head of development at Warp Films and Gwen Gorst has been promoted from senior development producer to executive producer.
The first projects in development are an adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s novel “Lost Illusions,” written by Ruth McCance, who has moved from executive producer on Sky Atlantic’s “Little Birds” to a writer-showrunner role as well as “Blade in the Dark” (based on the role-playing game), while Gorst is working with “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie...
The two companies plan to develop a slate of television series and feature films, with Anton financing a development fund from which they plan to identify and develop “high-value IP projects,” with Anton representing global rights on any project that goes ahead.
As part of the initiative, Kasheina Vencatasawmy has been promoted to head of development at Warp Films and Gwen Gorst has been promoted from senior development producer to executive producer.
The first projects in development are an adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s novel “Lost Illusions,” written by Ruth McCance, who has moved from executive producer on Sky Atlantic’s “Little Birds” to a writer-showrunner role as well as “Blade in the Dark” (based on the role-playing game), while Gorst is working with “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie...
- 8/27/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Sheffield-based production house Warp Films (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) is partnering with production and financing studio outfit Anton on a slate of high-end television series and feature films.
Anton will finance a development fund to identify high-value IP and commission scripts from leading UK and international talent, and will handle sales on the projects. On the initial slate is an English-language TV adaptation of French novel Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac. Ruth McCance will write the project as she transitions into a writer-showrunner role following a stint executive producing Warp Films’ melodrama Little Birds.
Also in development is Blades in the Dark, which is described as “an ambitious television adaptation of one of the most popular role-playing games in the world”.
Warp Films’ Kasheina Vencatasawmy has been promoted to head of development to oversee the slate, she will work alongside Regional Development Assistant Soph Webberley. Elsewhere, Gwen Gorst is...
Anton will finance a development fund to identify high-value IP and commission scripts from leading UK and international talent, and will handle sales on the projects. On the initial slate is an English-language TV adaptation of French novel Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac. Ruth McCance will write the project as she transitions into a writer-showrunner role following a stint executive producing Warp Films’ melodrama Little Birds.
Also in development is Blades in the Dark, which is described as “an ambitious television adaptation of one of the most popular role-playing games in the world”.
Warp Films’ Kasheina Vencatasawmy has been promoted to head of development to oversee the slate, she will work alongside Regional Development Assistant Soph Webberley. Elsewhere, Gwen Gorst is...
- 8/27/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
First project is a reinvention of Balzac’s novel ‘Lost Illusions’.
UK-based production company Warp Films has formed a creative and commercial partnership with Anglo-French producing and financing outfit Anton to develop a slate of features and television series with an international focus.
Anton will finance a development fund to identify high-value IP and commission scripts from leading talent, both in the UK and internationally, which both companies will jointly develop. Anton, which co-finance will also represent global rights on all projects.
The joint venture begins with an irreverent English language re-invention of the classic French novel Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac,...
UK-based production company Warp Films has formed a creative and commercial partnership with Anglo-French producing and financing outfit Anton to develop a slate of features and television series with an international focus.
Anton will finance a development fund to identify high-value IP and commission scripts from leading talent, both in the UK and internationally, which both companies will jointly develop. Anton, which co-finance will also represent global rights on all projects.
The joint venture begins with an irreverent English language re-invention of the classic French novel Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac,...
- 8/27/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is that rare gem: a British film with global appeal and not a corset in sight. Or at least, not where you’d expect to see one.
“I think what we’ve always tried to do at Warp Films, whether it’s the half a million quid films that we started off making or [what we do] now,” says Warp co-founder Peter Carlton, a producer on the movie. “They can be locally inspired stories, but they’ve always got to feel big, they’re not going to feel parochial.”
“So that was always the thing from the get-go: we want to make something that stays true to where it’s from, but is as ambitious as possible.”
That’s certainly the case with “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” a musical about a 16-year-old boy from the North East of England whose dream is to become a drag queen. Starring Richard E. Grant...
“I think what we’ve always tried to do at Warp Films, whether it’s the half a million quid films that we started off making or [what we do] now,” says Warp co-founder Peter Carlton, a producer on the movie. “They can be locally inspired stories, but they’ve always got to feel big, they’re not going to feel parochial.”
“So that was always the thing from the get-go: we want to make something that stays true to where it’s from, but is as ambitious as possible.”
That’s certainly the case with “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” a musical about a 16-year-old boy from the North East of England whose dream is to become a drag queen. Starring Richard E. Grant...
- 8/23/2021
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary
Channel 4 in the U.K. have commissioned Flicker Productions to produce “Football Trolls” (working title), an hour-long documentary on the relationship between social media, racism and soccer, hosted by former Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder-turned BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas. The commission comes amid outcry about racial abuse suffered by England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following England’s loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. Many Black players in the English Premiere League have suffered targeted, racial abuse on social media for years.
“This film is incredibly important to me and something I’ve been working on for a while. there has been an ongoing conversation surrounding racism and football for as long as I can remember, and the reactions to the Euros has been heart-breaking,” said Jenas in a release. “I’ve felt sick to my stomach reading the comments and chants and promise...
Channel 4 in the U.K. have commissioned Flicker Productions to produce “Football Trolls” (working title), an hour-long documentary on the relationship between social media, racism and soccer, hosted by former Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder-turned BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas. The commission comes amid outcry about racial abuse suffered by England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka following England’s loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. Many Black players in the English Premiere League have suffered targeted, racial abuse on social media for years.
“This film is incredibly important to me and something I’ve been working on for a while. there has been an ongoing conversation surrounding racism and football for as long as I can remember, and the reactions to the Euros has been heart-breaking,” said Jenas in a release. “I’ve felt sick to my stomach reading the comments and chants and promise...
- 7/16/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Jonathan Butterell’s musical will screen a month before it debuts on Amazon Prime Video.
UK musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is to receive its international premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, a month before its debut on streaming platform Prime Video.
Directed by Jonathan Butterell, the adaptation of the eponymous hit musical will screen as a special preview on August 20 at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre, where the stage production was the last show to play before the March 2020 lockdown.
The screening will see Eiff employ a “pay-what-you-can” model for the first time and will be preceded by an...
UK musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is to receive its international premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, a month before its debut on streaming platform Prime Video.
Directed by Jonathan Butterell, the adaptation of the eponymous hit musical will screen as a special preview on August 20 at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre, where the stage production was the last show to play before the March 2020 lockdown.
The screening will see Eiff employ a “pay-what-you-can” model for the first time and will be preceded by an...
- 7/15/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” the adaptation of the popular West End musical, has been acquired by Amazon Studios and will now be released this fall on the streamer instead of in theaters.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” comes from New Regency, Film4 and Warp Films, and 20th Century Studios was meant to release the movie as early as last year, but the release was delayed due to Covid-19. Amazon will now drop it on September 17.
The film stars newcomer Max Harwood as Jamie, a teenager who finds local fame when he pursues dreams on stage and becomes a loud and proud drag queen. Richard E. Grant also stars along with Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Samuel Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan.
Jonathan Butterell directs “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” from a screenplay and lyrics by Tom MacRae and songs by Dan Gillespie Sells. The score is composed by Sells and Anne Dudley.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” comes from New Regency, Film4 and Warp Films, and 20th Century Studios was meant to release the movie as early as last year, but the release was delayed due to Covid-19. Amazon will now drop it on September 17.
The film stars newcomer Max Harwood as Jamie, a teenager who finds local fame when he pursues dreams on stage and becomes a loud and proud drag queen. Richard E. Grant also stars along with Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Samuel Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan.
Jonathan Butterell directs “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” from a screenplay and lyrics by Tom MacRae and songs by Dan Gillespie Sells. The score is composed by Sells and Anne Dudley.
- 5/20/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the New Regency-Film4-Warp Films feature adaption of the West End hit musical, will now debut exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on Sept. 17 in over 240 countries and territories.
The pic, which came to Disney via the Fox merger due to New Regency’s attachment, was originally set for a theatrical release a few times under the 20th Century Studios label, but the pandemic upended that with Disney ultimately pulling the LGBTQ+ release off the calendar.
Inspired by true events, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows Jamie New (Max Harwood), a teenager from Sheffield, who dreams of life on stage. While his classmates plan their livelihoods after they leave school, Jamie contemplates revealing his secret career ambition to become a fierce and proud drag queen. His best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel) and his loving mum (Sarah Lancashire) shower him with endless support,...
The pic, which came to Disney via the Fox merger due to New Regency’s attachment, was originally set for a theatrical release a few times under the 20th Century Studios label, but the pandemic upended that with Disney ultimately pulling the LGBTQ+ release off the calendar.
Inspired by true events, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie follows Jamie New (Max Harwood), a teenager from Sheffield, who dreams of life on stage. While his classmates plan their livelihoods after they leave school, Jamie contemplates revealing his secret career ambition to become a fierce and proud drag queen. His best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel) and his loving mum (Sarah Lancashire) shower him with endless support,...
- 5/20/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Musical adaptation had been at Disney/20th Century Studios.
Amazon Studios has acquired Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and will debut the West End musical adaptation exclusively on Prime Video worldwide on September 17.
The film from New Regency, Film4 and Warp Films had been with DIsney/20th Century Studios. It stars Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, and Samuel Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan, and Richard E. Grant.
Jonathan Butterell directs Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which is inspired by true events and follows a teenager from Sheffield who dreams of becoming a drag queen.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie...
Amazon Studios has acquired Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and will debut the West End musical adaptation exclusively on Prime Video worldwide on September 17.
The film from New Regency, Film4 and Warp Films had been with DIsney/20th Century Studios. It stars Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, and Samuel Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan, and Richard E. Grant.
Jonathan Butterell directs Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which is inspired by true events and follows a teenager from Sheffield who dreams of becoming a drag queen.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie...
- 5/20/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
HBO Max has released a trailer for “Hacks,” an original series debuting on May 13.
The ten-episode season follows the dark relationship between a legendary Las Vegas comedian and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder star alongside Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Kaitlin Olson, Christopher McDonald, Paul W. Downs, Mark Indelicato, Poppy Liu, Johnny Sibilly, Meg Stalter and Rose Abdoo.
“Hacks” is created and showrun by Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky. Downs, Aniello and Statsky executive produce alongside Michael Schur, David Miner and Morgan Sackett. The studio is Universal Television.
Also in today’s TV news roundup:
Dates
Oprah Winfrey and Apple TV Plus have announced that Elliot Page will be featured on the next episode of “The Oprah Conversation,” debuting April 30. “The Oprah Conversation: Elliot Page” will present a deeply honest conversation with the actor, producer and lifelong social justice advocate. In a time when the rights of transgender...
The ten-episode season follows the dark relationship between a legendary Las Vegas comedian and an entitled, outcast 25-year-old.
Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder star alongside Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Kaitlin Olson, Christopher McDonald, Paul W. Downs, Mark Indelicato, Poppy Liu, Johnny Sibilly, Meg Stalter and Rose Abdoo.
“Hacks” is created and showrun by Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky. Downs, Aniello and Statsky executive produce alongside Michael Schur, David Miner and Morgan Sackett. The studio is Universal Television.
Also in today’s TV news roundup:
Dates
Oprah Winfrey and Apple TV Plus have announced that Elliot Page will be featured on the next episode of “The Oprah Conversation,” debuting April 30. “The Oprah Conversation: Elliot Page” will present a deeply honest conversation with the actor, producer and lifelong social justice advocate. In a time when the rights of transgender...
- 4/28/2021
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
It’s common for channels to make hyperbolic claims when introducing a new show, but when Sky’s drama heads describe Little Birds as ‘not like anything else on telly,’ they’re not wrong.
The drama’s six 45-minute episodes inspired by a series of erotic short stories combine to form a lavish period melodrama with few points of TV comparison. Little Birds is an exploration of female sensuality and liberation set against a backdrop of colonial violence and simmering rebellion. It’s a provocative, heightened, almost cartoonish fairy tale about struggles for personal and political independence. It’s colourful and stylised, tongue-in-cheek yet earnest, with a killer 1950s soundtrack.
Take a look at the trailer:
If that appealed, then here’s everything you need to know:
Where was it filmed?
Little Birds was largely filmed in summer 2019 in the Spanish town of Tarifa, on the southernmost tip of Spanish Andalusia,...
The drama’s six 45-minute episodes inspired by a series of erotic short stories combine to form a lavish period melodrama with few points of TV comparison. Little Birds is an exploration of female sensuality and liberation set against a backdrop of colonial violence and simmering rebellion. It’s a provocative, heightened, almost cartoonish fairy tale about struggles for personal and political independence. It’s colourful and stylised, tongue-in-cheek yet earnest, with a killer 1950s soundtrack.
Take a look at the trailer:
If that appealed, then here’s everything you need to know:
Where was it filmed?
Little Birds was largely filmed in summer 2019 in the Spanish town of Tarifa, on the southernmost tip of Spanish Andalusia,...
- 8/4/2020
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Inspired by true events, Twentieth Century Studios’, New Regency’s and Film4’s ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’, a film adaptation of the hit musical, has a handful of first-look images.
Jamie New is 16 and doesn’t quite fit in — instead of pursuing a “real” career, he dreams of becoming a drag queen. Uncertain about his future, Jamie knows one thing for sure: he is going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mom and his amazing friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
(Pictured) Max Harwood as Jamie New and Richard E. Grant as Loco Chanelle. © 2020 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The film stars newcomer Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Sam Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan and Richard E. Grant.
(Pictured) Max Harwood as Jamie New. © 2020 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The stage production’s director,...
Jamie New is 16 and doesn’t quite fit in — instead of pursuing a “real” career, he dreams of becoming a drag queen. Uncertain about his future, Jamie knows one thing for sure: he is going to be a sensation. Supported by his loving mom and his amazing friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness, into the spotlight.
(Pictured) Max Harwood as Jamie New and Richard E. Grant as Loco Chanelle. © 2020 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The film stars newcomer Max Harwood, Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Sam Bottomley, with Sharon Horgan and Richard E. Grant.
(Pictured) Max Harwood as Jamie New. © 2020 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The stage production’s director,...
- 5/18/2020
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Oscar-nominated actor Richard E. Grant will portray a former drag queen and mentor in “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” the movie adaptation of the British stage musical.
“Catastrophe” co-creator and star Sharon Horgan and “Happy Valley” star Sarah Lancashire have also joined the film. Max Harwood will play the titular role of Jamie, a role inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” follows 16-year-old Jamie, who doesn’t quite fit in and is terrified about the future. He overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight. Horgan portrays his teacher and Lancashire will play his mother, Margaret. Shobna Gulati, from the original stage cast, will reprise her role of Ray.
The film is a Film4, Warp Films and New Regency production and reunites the original creative team behind the stage production with director Jonathan Butterell, writer Tom MacRae,...
“Catastrophe” co-creator and star Sharon Horgan and “Happy Valley” star Sarah Lancashire have also joined the film. Max Harwood will play the titular role of Jamie, a role inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” follows 16-year-old Jamie, who doesn’t quite fit in and is terrified about the future. He overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight. Horgan portrays his teacher and Lancashire will play his mother, Margaret. Shobna Gulati, from the original stage cast, will reprise her role of Ray.
The film is a Film4, Warp Films and New Regency production and reunites the original creative team behind the stage production with director Jonathan Butterell, writer Tom MacRae,...
- 6/14/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Fresh off his Oscar nomination for his work in “Can You Ever Forgive Me,” Richard E. Grant is set to star as a legendary drag queen in the film adaptation of the popular British stage musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.”
“Catastrophe” star Sharon Hogan and “Happy Valley” star Sarah Lancashire also join newcomer Max Harwood, who plays the young lead Jamie, in the film.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is based on the stage production inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell, a 16-year-old boy who became a drag queen. The musical is originally inspired by a BBC documentary, “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” and it explores how Jamie overcomes prejudice and the bullies at his school to become a drag sensation.
Also Read: Richard E. Grant Is Unapologetically Ecstatic Over His Oscar Nomination (Video)
Grant stars as a former drag queen and Jamie’s mentor named Hugo, also known as Loco Channelle.
“Catastrophe” star Sharon Hogan and “Happy Valley” star Sarah Lancashire also join newcomer Max Harwood, who plays the young lead Jamie, in the film.
“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is based on the stage production inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell, a 16-year-old boy who became a drag queen. The musical is originally inspired by a BBC documentary, “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” and it explores how Jamie overcomes prejudice and the bullies at his school to become a drag sensation.
Also Read: Richard E. Grant Is Unapologetically Ecstatic Over His Oscar Nomination (Video)
Grant stars as a former drag queen and Jamie’s mentor named Hugo, also known as Loco Channelle.
- 6/14/2019
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
New Regency has joined the project as the film is confirmed to start shooting in Sheffield on June 24.
Richard E Grant, Sharon Horgan, Sarah Lancashire and newcomer Max Harwood will lead the cast of Film4 and Warp Films’ screen adaptation of the stage hit Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
New Regency has joined the project as the film is confirmed to start shooting in Sheffield on June 24.
The film reunites the original creative team behind the stage production: director Jonathan Butterell, writer Tom MacRae, composer Dan Gillespie Sells and choreographer Kate Prince.
Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton produce for Warp...
Richard E Grant, Sharon Horgan, Sarah Lancashire and newcomer Max Harwood will lead the cast of Film4 and Warp Films’ screen adaptation of the stage hit Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.
New Regency has joined the project as the film is confirmed to start shooting in Sheffield on June 24.
The film reunites the original creative team behind the stage production: director Jonathan Butterell, writer Tom MacRae, composer Dan Gillespie Sells and choreographer Kate Prince.
Mark Herbert and Peter Carlton produce for Warp...
- 6/14/2019
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
New Regency, Film4 and Warp Films are teaming on a feature version of UK stage musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which will star Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley), and newcomer Max Harwood as the lead. Fox will release worldwide.
Inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell, the film follows 16-year-old Jamie New who lives on a council estate in Sheffield, England. Supported by his loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness to become a drag queen.
Grant will play former drag queen and Jamie’s mentor Hugo with Horgan as Jamie’s teacher Miss Hedge and BAFTA winner Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley) as his mother Margaret. Shobna Gulati, from the original stage cast, will reprise her role of Ray.
The film will reunite the original creative...
Inspired by the true story of Jamie Campbell, the film follows 16-year-old Jamie New who lives on a council estate in Sheffield, England. Supported by his loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness to become a drag queen.
Grant will play former drag queen and Jamie’s mentor Hugo with Horgan as Jamie’s teacher Miss Hedge and BAFTA winner Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley) as his mother Margaret. Shobna Gulati, from the original stage cast, will reprise her role of Ray.
The film will reunite the original creative...
- 6/14/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Billions’ David Costabile, Transparent’s Amy Landecker and Parenthood’s Matt Lauria have joined the cast of Sky Atlantic period drama Little Birds alongside Juno Temple.
The Dirty John star is fronting the adaptation of Anais Nin’s infamous collection of erotic short stories, which is set in Tangier in 1955, in the famous international zone, one of the last outposts of colonial decadence and follows troubled Temple’s American debutante Lucy Savage as she faces a culture shock.
Costabile, who also starred in Breaking Bad, plays Lucy’s larger than life father, Grant Savage, an arms manufacturer who wants to control his daughter, while Landecker, who also starred in Doctor Strange, plays his loquacious wife Vanessa. Having set Lucy up with an English Lord, Hugo Cavendish-Smythe, played by Hugh Skinner, Grant thinks he has a malleable, potentially useful son-in-law but unbeknownst to the Savages, Hugo has already lost his heart to someone else.
The Dirty John star is fronting the adaptation of Anais Nin’s infamous collection of erotic short stories, which is set in Tangier in 1955, in the famous international zone, one of the last outposts of colonial decadence and follows troubled Temple’s American debutante Lucy Savage as she faces a culture shock.
Costabile, who also starred in Breaking Bad, plays Lucy’s larger than life father, Grant Savage, an arms manufacturer who wants to control his daughter, while Landecker, who also starred in Doctor Strange, plays his loquacious wife Vanessa. Having set Lucy up with an English Lord, Hugo Cavendish-Smythe, played by Hugh Skinner, Grant thinks he has a malleable, potentially useful son-in-law but unbeknownst to the Savages, Hugo has already lost his heart to someone else.
- 6/13/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: A period drama starring Dirty John star Juno Temple and a sci-fi drama set in the 23rd Century are the first two original commissions from recently promoted Sky drama chief Cameron Roach.
Temple, who also starred in films such as Antonement and Killer Joe, is fronting Little Birds, an adaptation of Anais Nin’s infamous collection of erotic short stories.
Written by The Girl Who Fell to Earth author Sophia Al-Maria and directed by Billions and House of Cards director Stacie Passon, Little Birds is produced by The Last Panthers and This Is England producer Warp Films. Set in Tangier in 1955, in the famous international zone, one of the last outposts of colonial decadence, it follows troubled American debutante Lucy Savage, played by Temple, as she faces a culture shock.
Thrilled to escape her controlling parents, Savage arrives full of anticipation for her marriage to her English fiancée, Lord Hugo Cavendish-Smythe,...
Temple, who also starred in films such as Antonement and Killer Joe, is fronting Little Birds, an adaptation of Anais Nin’s infamous collection of erotic short stories.
Written by The Girl Who Fell to Earth author Sophia Al-Maria and directed by Billions and House of Cards director Stacie Passon, Little Birds is produced by The Last Panthers and This Is England producer Warp Films. Set in Tangier in 1955, in the famous international zone, one of the last outposts of colonial decadence, it follows troubled American debutante Lucy Savage, played by Temple, as she faces a culture shock.
Thrilled to escape her controlling parents, Savage arrives full of anticipation for her marriage to her English fiancée, Lord Hugo Cavendish-Smythe,...
- 2/19/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
An open casting is being held in Sheffield, where the story is set.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the hit musical about a teenage drag queen at a Sheffield school, is getting the film treatment from Sheffield-based Warp Films and Film4.
The musical opened in Sheffield in 2017 and is currently playing in London’s West End. It was nominated for five Olivier awards in 2018.
Warp Films are holding an open casting call from today (May 30) until July 22 for ‘thirty young people’ from the Yorkshire city to play the story’s central Year 11 class. All original cast have been screen tested...
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the hit musical about a teenage drag queen at a Sheffield school, is getting the film treatment from Sheffield-based Warp Films and Film4.
The musical opened in Sheffield in 2017 and is currently playing in London’s West End. It was nominated for five Olivier awards in 2018.
Warp Films are holding an open casting call from today (May 30) until July 22 for ‘thirty young people’ from the Yorkshire city to play the story’s central Year 11 class. All original cast have been screen tested...
- 5/30/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Warp Films is set to produce a feature adaptation of hit West End musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” the independent British production company has confirmed. It marks the first musical from the Sheffield-based Warp, whose recent productions include Idris Elba’s directorial debut, “Yardie,” which saw its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s horror anthology, “Ghost Stories.”
The musical, which was nominated for five awards at this year’s Olivier Awards, including best new musical, is based on the true story of Jamie Campbell, which came to public attention in a BBC documentary, “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” in 2011. The coming-of-age tale tells the story of an openly gay teenager, living on a council estate in Sheffield, England, who is nervous about revealing his ambitions to be a drag queen to classmates at school. But with the support of friends and his mother,...
The musical, which was nominated for five awards at this year’s Olivier Awards, including best new musical, is based on the true story of Jamie Campbell, which came to public attention in a BBC documentary, “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16,” in 2011. The coming-of-age tale tells the story of an openly gay teenager, living on a council estate in Sheffield, England, who is nervous about revealing his ambitions to be a drag queen to classmates at school. But with the support of friends and his mother,...
- 5/29/2018
- by Robert Mitchell
- Variety Film + TV
Creative England has selected the participants for new producer initiatives aimed at developing industry outside of London.
Creative England has selected the participants for new producer initiatives Producer Hothouse and the Creative Producer Initiative, which are aimed at fostering industry outside of London.
For the Hothouse programme, six film and TV production companies have selected eight producers from outside of London to join them for an intensive six-month placement.
The participants and their placements are:
Irune Gurtubai (Edinburgh) with Altitude Film Entertainment Max Conil (Seaford) with Number 9 FilmsNicola Clayton (Holbrook) and Jack Tarling (Newcastle) with Scott Free FilmsJennifer Monks (Liverpool) with Tigerlily FilmsPeter Fraser (Cambridge) with Trademark FilmsDana Bruce (Manchester) and Lucy Meer (Hull) with Warp Films
The producers receive a bursary award plus an allocation towards relocation expenses, from Creative England or the Scottish Film Talent Network (for Edinburgh-based Gurtubai).
Mark Herbert of Warp Films said: “Speaking from experience it it can be difficult starting and sustaining...
Creative England has selected the participants for new producer initiatives Producer Hothouse and the Creative Producer Initiative, which are aimed at fostering industry outside of London.
For the Hothouse programme, six film and TV production companies have selected eight producers from outside of London to join them for an intensive six-month placement.
The participants and their placements are:
Irune Gurtubai (Edinburgh) with Altitude Film Entertainment Max Conil (Seaford) with Number 9 FilmsNicola Clayton (Holbrook) and Jack Tarling (Newcastle) with Scott Free FilmsJennifer Monks (Liverpool) with Tigerlily FilmsPeter Fraser (Cambridge) with Trademark FilmsDana Bruce (Manchester) and Lucy Meer (Hull) with Warp Films
The producers receive a bursary award plus an allocation towards relocation expenses, from Creative England or the Scottish Film Talent Network (for Edinburgh-based Gurtubai).
Mark Herbert of Warp Films said: “Speaking from experience it it can be difficult starting and sustaining...
- 10/25/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
facebook
twitter
google+
We speak to Samantha Morton about Sky Atlantic's crime drama The Last Panthers and politicised, groundbreaking television...
Samantha Morton has built an impressive career in television and film. She is currently starring in Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers, a multilingual, multinational drama in which she plays Naomi Franckom, an insurance loss-adjuster on the trail of an organised gang of diamond thieves. We spoke to her about transnational crime, the scars of war and deadlifting sixty kilograms.
I want to talk to you about your character Naomi. Her background is clearly very significant to the whole theme of the show but it’s not really fully explored until later on in the series, so how did you approach the task of sketching in her history?
I think it was about getting her, I found her. That was a combination of discussions with Johan [Renck, who directed all six episodes], Peter [Carlton, producer] and Jack Thorne...
google+
We speak to Samantha Morton about Sky Atlantic's crime drama The Last Panthers and politicised, groundbreaking television...
Samantha Morton has built an impressive career in television and film. She is currently starring in Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers, a multilingual, multinational drama in which she plays Naomi Franckom, an insurance loss-adjuster on the trail of an organised gang of diamond thieves. We spoke to her about transnational crime, the scars of war and deadlifting sixty kilograms.
I want to talk to you about your character Naomi. Her background is clearly very significant to the whole theme of the show but it’s not really fully explored until later on in the series, so how did you approach the task of sketching in her history?
I think it was about getting her, I found her. That was a combination of discussions with Johan [Renck, who directed all six episodes], Peter [Carlton, producer] and Jack Thorne...
- 12/10/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Drama ordered by Sky and Canal+, to be co-produced by Warp Films and Haut et Court.
Sky Atlantic and Canal+ have commissioned six-part crime drama series The Last Panthers, starring Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahmin and John Hurt.
The series, based around real-life jewel thieves the Pink Panthers, will be developed and co-produced by Haut et Court TV (The Returned) and Warp Films (This is England, Four Lions).
The Last Panthers originated as an idea from French journalist Jerome Pierrat and the screenplay has been written by Jack Thorne, whose film and TV credits include Skins, This is England, A Long Way Down, Glue and The Fades.
The series will be directed by Johan Renck (Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead).
Filming will start on 27th October with the four key shooting locations in London, Marseille, Belgrade and Montenegro.
Worldwide distribution is being handled by StudioCanal-owned Tandem and BSkyB’s international division, Sky Vision...
Sky Atlantic and Canal+ have commissioned six-part crime drama series The Last Panthers, starring Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahmin and John Hurt.
The series, based around real-life jewel thieves the Pink Panthers, will be developed and co-produced by Haut et Court TV (The Returned) and Warp Films (This is England, Four Lions).
The Last Panthers originated as an idea from French journalist Jerome Pierrat and the screenplay has been written by Jack Thorne, whose film and TV credits include Skins, This is England, A Long Way Down, Glue and The Fades.
The series will be directed by Johan Renck (Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead).
Filming will start on 27th October with the four key shooting locations in London, Marseille, Belgrade and Montenegro.
Worldwide distribution is being handled by StudioCanal-owned Tandem and BSkyB’s international division, Sky Vision...
- 9/29/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Steve McQueen talks about modern slavery as 12 Years A Slave wins best film; Cate Blanchett dedicates her BAFTA to Philip Seymour Hoffman; Barkhad Abdi says Greengrass believed in him before he believed in himself.Click here for the full list of winners
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing.” He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes, and Tempah set the mood for a lively evening by high-five-ing Prince William.
Outstanding British Film
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding...
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing.” He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes, and Tempah set the mood for a lively evening by high-five-ing Prince William.
Outstanding British Film
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding...
- 2/16/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Steve McQueen talks about modern slavery as 12 Years A Slave wins best film; Cate Blanchett dedicates her BAFTA to Philip Seymour Hoffman; Barkhad Abdi says Greengrass believed in him before he believed in himself.
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing. “ He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes.
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding British Film prize to Gravity. Producer David Heyman said the prize was “beyond belief and best of all it recognises everybody involved with the film, we...
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing. “ He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes.
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding British Film prize to Gravity. Producer David Heyman said the prize was “beyond belief and best of all it recognises everybody involved with the film, we...
- 2/16/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
12 Years A Slave wins best film; Cate Blanchett dedicates her BAFTA to Philip Seymour Hoffman; Gravity rakes in awards for Best Director, British Film, Sound, Music, Cinematography and VFX awards; Barkhad Abdi is surprise winner of Supporting Actor, Coogan and Pope win for Philomena’s Adapted Screenplay;
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing. “ He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes.
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding British Film prize to Gravity. Producer David Heyman said the prize was “beyond...
Host Stephen Fry welcomed the star-studded crowd by saying the BAFTAs are “the greatest night of the British film calendar, if there is such a thing. “ He joked that there were “faces so familiar you want to lick them.”
He welcomed guests including Prince William, President of the Academy, into “the plush womb of the resplendent Royal Opera House” in Covent Garden, London.
Fry got Leonardo DiCaprio to blow a kiss into the camera.
Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula kicked off the show with a duet of Heroes.
Oprah Winfrey, nominated for The Butler, presented the Outstanding British Film prize to Gravity. Producer David Heyman said the prize was “beyond...
- 2/16/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Jesse Armstrong and Gunhild Enger are amongst the ten film-makers/animators highlighted by Ecounters Short Film and Animation Festival as rising stars.Scroll down for full list
Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival has unveiled the ten film-makers and animators selected for its Future Encounters strand.
Launched in 2011, the Future Encounters strand aims to highlight ten upcoming filmmakers and animators whose work demonstrates a distinctive, cinematic and artistic vision that makes them ones to watch at this year’s festival.
The list includes Jesse Armstrong, the co-writer of TV series Peep Show and Chris Morris film Four Lions, who has made his directorial debut with No Kaddish in Carmarthen, a short comedy drama about three teenagers who find themselves in a love triangle.
Other on the list include actor Jonny Philips (The Last Great Wilderness) and Chloe Robichaud, whose debut feature Sarah Prefers To Run is in competition at the BFI London Film Festival.
Gunhild Enger from Norway...
Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival has unveiled the ten film-makers and animators selected for its Future Encounters strand.
Launched in 2011, the Future Encounters strand aims to highlight ten upcoming filmmakers and animators whose work demonstrates a distinctive, cinematic and artistic vision that makes them ones to watch at this year’s festival.
The list includes Jesse Armstrong, the co-writer of TV series Peep Show and Chris Morris film Four Lions, who has made his directorial debut with No Kaddish in Carmarthen, a short comedy drama about three teenagers who find themselves in a love triangle.
Other on the list include actor Jonny Philips (The Last Great Wilderness) and Chloe Robichaud, whose debut feature Sarah Prefers To Run is in competition at the BFI London Film Festival.
Gunhild Enger from Norway...
- 9/11/2013
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
On Sunday the Ee British Academy Film Awards were held at London’s Royal Opera House and hosted by the always delightful Stephen Fry. The show was televised here in the States on BBC America. In a continuation of what Awards watchers have witnessed over the past weeks, Argo was named Best Film, Ben Affleck won the Director BAFTA and the film also took the Editing award.
Les Misérables did win four BAFTAs for Production Design, Sound, Make Up & Hair and Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway.
Amour won the award for Film Not in the English Language and Emmanuelle Riva won Leading Actress. Leading Actor was awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. Christoph Waltz won Supporting Actor for his performance in Django Unchained and the film’s writer/director Quentin Tarantino won the Original Screenplay BAFTA.
Outstanding British Film and Original Music were awarded to Skyfall. Life of Pi won...
Les Misérables did win four BAFTAs for Production Design, Sound, Make Up & Hair and Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway.
Amour won the award for Film Not in the English Language and Emmanuelle Riva won Leading Actress. Leading Actor was awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. Christoph Waltz won Supporting Actor for his performance in Django Unchained and the film’s writer/director Quentin Tarantino won the Original Screenplay BAFTA.
Outstanding British Film and Original Music were awarded to Skyfall. Life of Pi won...
- 2/11/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
British Academy Awards 2013: As in past years, strong Hollywood presence The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the (mostly Hollywood-made and/or co-produced and/or distributed) BAFTA 2013 winners. For starters, as mentioned in the previous Alt Film Guide article, the Warner Bros. release Argo took home BAFTAs for Best Picture, Best Director (Ben Affleck), and Best Editor (William Goldenberg). (Pictured above: The Avengers star and British Academy Award presenter Tom Hiddleston on the red carpet.) American auteurs David O. Russell and Quentin Tarantino won the screenplay awards in, respectively, the adapted and original categories for two movies distributed by The Weinstein Company in North America: the comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook and the violent, socially conscious period comedy-drama Django Unchained. In addition, Django earned Christoph Waltz his second British Academy Award -- Waltz's first win, also as Best Supporting Actor, was for another Tarantino effort, Inglourious Basterds...
- 2/11/2013
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Honoring the best in the biz, the 2013 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) took place in London, England earlier this evening (February 10).
During the event held inside the historic Royal Opera House, many stars walked home with big trophies including the cast and producers of "Argo" who took home the award for Best Film.
Meanwhile, Emmanuelle Riva was names Best Actress for her role in "Amour", while Daniel Dawy-Lewis took home Best Actor for his work in "Lincoln."
Other winners included "Skyfall" taking home Best British Film and Anne Hathaway taking home the award for Best Supporting Actress, while Juno Temple took home the Rising Star Award and Ben Affleck took home the prize for Best Director.
See below for the complete list of 2013 BAFTA winners:
Best Film
Winner Argo Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
Les MISÉRABLES Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life Of Pi Gil Netter,...
During the event held inside the historic Royal Opera House, many stars walked home with big trophies including the cast and producers of "Argo" who took home the award for Best Film.
Meanwhile, Emmanuelle Riva was names Best Actress for her role in "Amour", while Daniel Dawy-Lewis took home Best Actor for his work in "Lincoln."
Other winners included "Skyfall" taking home Best British Film and Anne Hathaway taking home the award for Best Supporting Actress, while Juno Temple took home the Rising Star Award and Ben Affleck took home the prize for Best Director.
See below for the complete list of 2013 BAFTA winners:
Best Film
Winner Argo Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
Les MISÉRABLES Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life Of Pi Gil Netter,...
- 2/11/2013
- GossipCenter
The ceremony is over here in London, bringing together some of the finest and most talented people in the film industry under the same roof for one night. The BAFTAs are this country’s highest honour in film, and they have handed out their awards for the 66th time to those whom they deem the most deserving in the past year in film.
And since Ben Affleck is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, I have been in a brilliant mood tonight, because he’s won (and very much earned) Best Director for Argo, and taken home the Best Film prize alongside his co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. If you haven’t yet seen Argo, I can’t recommend enough how much you should see it as soon as possible.
If you were following Jon’s liveblog, or if you watched the BBC’s almost-live coverage of tonight’s proceedings,...
And since Ben Affleck is one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, I have been in a brilliant mood tonight, because he’s won (and very much earned) Best Director for Argo, and taken home the Best Film prize alongside his co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. If you haven’t yet seen Argo, I can’t recommend enough how much you should see it as soon as possible.
If you were following Jon’s liveblog, or if you watched the BBC’s almost-live coverage of tonight’s proceedings,...
- 2/10/2013
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The full list of winners at the 66th British Academy film awards. This list will be updated as winners are announced
Outstanding British film
Skyfall
Best short film
Swimmer: Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw
Best short animation
The Making of Longbird: Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson
Best costume design
Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
Best make up and hair
Lisa Westcott, Les Miserables
Best animation
Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Best sound
Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole, John Warhurst: Les Miserables
Best editing
William Goldenberg, Argo
Best cinematography
Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi
Best original music
Thomas Newman, Skyfall
Best original screenplay
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Best supporting actor
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Bart Layton (Director), Dimitri Doganis (Producer), The Imposter
Best special visual effects
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer:...
Outstanding British film
Skyfall
Best short film
Swimmer: Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw
Best short animation
The Making of Longbird: Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson
Best costume design
Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
Best make up and hair
Lisa Westcott, Les Miserables
Best animation
Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Best sound
Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole, John Warhurst: Les Miserables
Best editing
William Goldenberg, Argo
Best cinematography
Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi
Best original music
Thomas Newman, Skyfall
Best original screenplay
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Best supporting actor
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Bart Layton (Director), Dimitri Doganis (Producer), The Imposter
Best special visual effects
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer:...
- 2/10/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
'Skyfall' has taken the first Award of the evening at the 2013 Baftas, currently taking place at London's Royal Opera House.
This caps a thrilling year for the James Bond franchise, celebrating its 50th year, with a record-breaking box office taking for 'Skyfall', which has become the most successful British film ever.
All The Winners Below... As Soon As They're Announced!
But the evening's big winner remains very much undecided, with awards being shared out between 'Argo', 'Life of Pi' and 'Les Miserables' - and nothing yet for the nominations leader 'Lincoln'.
Pictures just in from the press room at the Royal Opera House, where the winners go straight after collecting their gongs..
Sam Mendes' 007 film beat Tom Hooper's 'Les Miserables' to take the first gong of the night. And 'Skyfall' has just taken another award, for Best Original Music.
But...
This caps a thrilling year for the James Bond franchise, celebrating its 50th year, with a record-breaking box office taking for 'Skyfall', which has become the most successful British film ever.
All The Winners Below... As Soon As They're Announced!
But the evening's big winner remains very much undecided, with awards being shared out between 'Argo', 'Life of Pi' and 'Les Miserables' - and nothing yet for the nominations leader 'Lincoln'.
Pictures just in from the press room at the Royal Opera House, where the winners go straight after collecting their gongs..
Sam Mendes' 007 film beat Tom Hooper's 'Les Miserables' to take the first gong of the night. And 'Skyfall' has just taken another award, for Best Original Music.
But...
- 2/10/2013
- by The Huffington Post UK
- Huffington Post
The Oscars of the United Kingdom were held Sunday, Feb. 10 in London. Here are the winners of the 2013 BAFTA Awards (updating as the show goes along).
Best Film
Argo - Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
Les MISÉRABLES - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life Of Pi - Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark
Lincoln - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
Zero Dark Thirty - Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison
Outstanding British Film
Anna Karenina - Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Tom Stoppard
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Ol Parker
Les MISÉRABLES - Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh, William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer
Seven Psychopaths - Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Skyfall - Sam Mendes, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer,...
Best Film
Argo - Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
Les MISÉRABLES - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life Of Pi - Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark
Lincoln - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
Zero Dark Thirty - Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison
Outstanding British Film
Anna Karenina - Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Tom Stoppard
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Ol Parker
Les MISÉRABLES - Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh, William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer
Seven Psychopaths - Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Skyfall - Sam Mendes, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer,...
- 2/10/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
The Guardian film team predict who will win what at this year's ceremony
On Friday Xan Brooks assessed the field of this year's Bafta contenders and found it "a hazy huddle of frontrunners, all seemingly bobbing back and forth in front of the finish line".
Lincoln is first among equals with 10 nominations. Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Skyfall and Argo all crowd in behind.
The awards momentum has swung from Life of Pi to Lincoln to Argo over the past few weeks. In a competition this close there could be upsets. There should be tears. There must be winners.
So here's what we think will take home scary award masks this year. We've listed all the nominees. Our predicted winners are in bold.
Best picture
Argo
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty
Best British film
Anna Karenina
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Seven Psychopaths
Skyfall
Best director
Ben Affleck,...
On Friday Xan Brooks assessed the field of this year's Bafta contenders and found it "a hazy huddle of frontrunners, all seemingly bobbing back and forth in front of the finish line".
Lincoln is first among equals with 10 nominations. Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Skyfall and Argo all crowd in behind.
The awards momentum has swung from Life of Pi to Lincoln to Argo over the past few weeks. In a competition this close there could be upsets. There should be tears. There must be winners.
So here's what we think will take home scary award masks this year. We've listed all the nominees. Our predicted winners are in bold.
Best picture
Argo
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty
Best British film
Anna Karenina
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Seven Psychopaths
Skyfall
Best director
Ben Affleck,...
- 2/10/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
The 66th annual British Academy Film Awards are here! And there was much rejoicing.
We’re here at the Royal Opera House in London to bring you all the up to the minute news on who won, who looked really annoyed when they lost, and who knows what else will be in store for us tonight?
Lord Stephen of Fry is leading proceedings once again and I’ll be updating you fine people with the winners as they are announced.
The full list of awards and nominees can be found here, and as the awards are announced I’ll update the liveblog below with the nominees and the winners.
The ceremony is due to start at around 7pm and if you’re hungry for all the red carpeting then head over here to see the arrivals from around 5pm.
Updates will be added at the top…But not anymore as we’ve finished.
We’re here at the Royal Opera House in London to bring you all the up to the minute news on who won, who looked really annoyed when they lost, and who knows what else will be in store for us tonight?
Lord Stephen of Fry is leading proceedings once again and I’ll be updating you fine people with the winners as they are announced.
The full list of awards and nominees can be found here, and as the awards are announced I’ll update the liveblog below with the nominees and the winners.
The ceremony is due to start at around 7pm and if you’re hungry for all the red carpeting then head over here to see the arrivals from around 5pm.
Updates will be added at the top…But not anymore as we’ve finished.
- 2/10/2013
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Vol. I Issue 6
Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.
Note: See Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 for reviews and clips of the Academy documentary films and short films. Additional reviews of the documentary features follow in this issue.
Best documentary feature
5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined *See note below
How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined
The Invisible War Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined
Best documentary short subject
Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
Best animated short film
Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole Pes
Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare David Silverman
Paperman John Kahrs
Best live action short film
Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew Shawn Christensen
Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry Yan England
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) from a documentary
Before My Time from The documentary feature Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
Note: *Nominees to be determined* The Documentary Brand gives the nomination to the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted.
The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded.
Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.
DGA Documentary Award Nominations
Kirby Dick The Invisible War
This is Mr. Dick’s first DGA Award nomination.
Malik Bendjelloul Searching For Sugar Man
This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.
Lauren Greenfield The Queen of Versailles
This is Ms. Greenfield’s first DGA Award nomination.
David France How To Survive A Plague
This is Mr. France’s first DGA Award nomination.
Alison Klayman Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry
This is Ms. Klayman’s first DGA Award nomination.
Two Academy Nominated Documentary Features
& One Academy Short Listed Documentary Reviewed
The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh
Documentary Feature Nominee
Six former heads of Israel’s domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions in The Gatekeepers, a film by Dror Moreh. These six heads of the Shin Bet stood at the center of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had—and continue to have—a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers is an exclusive account of their successes and failures.
I find The Gatekeepers remarkable. Not for its craft but for its concept and vision. Imagine
J Edger Hoover talking about his tenure at the FBI, his successes and his failures, his interactions with the Presidents and members of Congress, and his critical self-evaluation of his mission and how his agency’s work affected our nation. Imagine. Dror Moreh accomplished this feat when he convinced these six surviving members of the Shin Bet, to speak on camera.
The film provides a historical perspective of Israel that is both candid and critical of the successive governments in this rare Middle Eastern democracy. The Shin Bet was created in 1949 by David Ben-Gurion’s government to focus on the internal affairs of Israel and evolved into dealing with counterterrorism and intelligence gathering in the West Bank and Gaza.
These intelligence heads, like ours, report to the President/Prime Minister. They are not part of the military complex. It is this context that gives this work its power. We hear the story of Israel’s struggle to protect itself from both its internal and external enemies; the bombers, terrorists, agents and others who worked to destroy this small country. These men are not glamorous or like the fictional heads of the spy agencies we have seen in James Bond and Bourne films. They are bald or balding grandfather-types. Articulate, highly educated, calm and yet we know that they protected Israel from its enemies even if they had them killed.
This is one of the strongest of the nominated docs. It raises significant issues of personal responsibilities. Despite the lack of oversight we don’t feel that this is an organization gone amuck like the Catholic Church not protecting children or the Us Military not protecting its members from sexual harassment. We see these articulate men as guardians and protectors of their nation steadfastly doing their duty within the confines of their moral beliefs. What is scary about The Gatekeepers is that clearly there could have been abuses and wrongs done by the Shin Bet if these six had less character or their mission was redefined by the government without regard to moral or ethical standards. The film on reflection is troubling for regardless of how the spectator might feel about Israel it forces us to look at this conflict through the lenses of these six guardians and we can only wonder what they don’t tell us about what they did in the name of their country.
Credits:
Director: Dror Moreh
Camera: Avner Shahaf
Producers: Dror Moreh, Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky
Co Producer: Anna Van Der Wee
Sound: Amos Zipori
Sound Design: Aex Claude
Music: Ab Ovo, Jérôme Chassagnard, Régis Baillet
Editor: Oron Adar
Production Companies: Dror Moreh Productions, Les Films du Poisson, Cinephil
In Co-Production with: Mac Guff, Wild Heart Productions, Arte France, Iba, Ndr, Rtbf
With the support of: Cnc, Media, Région Ile-de-France, Procirep, Angoa, The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts – Cinema Project
Distribution: Sony Classics
Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thegatekeepers/
The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki
Short Listed Documentary Feature for Academy Award nomination
The House I Live In looks at how America has waged war on some of its poorest citizens, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. It posits that over the last forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests and shows how America became the world’s largest jailer, damaging poor communities at home and abroad. Yet today drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. It shows that drug abuse is a public health issue. Despite this, it is treated by our society as a criminal matter and a vast machine has been created that feeds on the men and women who are incarcerated. Because of this, the prisoners are not offered help or a cure for their underlying problems, so they return to prison in a never ending cycle.
Eugene Jarecki, whose previous films looked at the military industrial complex (Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger), won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance in both 2005 and 2010. The film tackles difficult material. Material that has been in scores of documentaries and television shows over the years. Yet Jarecki, using his personal experience, a wealth of interviews and strong case studies, builds a compelling case for changing the sentencing guidelines for crack (and cocaine) and for dealing with both addiction and the underlying causes of addiction. Jarecki is a skillful filmmaker who has picked a vast and complex subject and has created a work that while rich in content moves along at a good pace although it might have been stronger if it had tried to do less. The film editor Paul Frost and the composer Robert Miller do an excellent job building strong sequences with evocative music. It was nicely shot by Sam Cullman and Derek Hallquist. Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama handled the distribution and was successful getting the work out which is never easy for such an issue oriented film.
Credits:
Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki
Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Sam Cullman, Christopher St. John
Executive Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Nick Fraser, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Russell Simmons, Roy Ackerman, John Legend, Sally Jo Feifer, Nick Fraser
Camera: Sam Cullman, Derek Hallquist
Sound: Matthew Freed, Art Jaso
Music: Robert Milller
Editor: Paul Frost
Production Companies: Charlotte Street Films, Zdf Enterprises, Independent Television Services, BBC, Aljazeera Documentary Channel, Vpro, Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, Louverture Films, Nhk
Distribution (Us): Abramorama Entertainment, Snag Films
How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France
Documentary Feature Nominee
How to Survive a Plague by writer and filmmaker David France tells the story of how two coalitions came together to lobby for effective treatments and funding for treatments of AIDS in the late 1980s when it was evident that the Us government and its health and other agencies were not being very effective dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The coalitions, Act Up and Tag (Treatment Action Group) helped to make AIDS more treatable. While there is still no cure for AIDS and thousands of people globally still die from the virus, it is now possible to prolong life with treatments that have been developed.
Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With access to never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young men and women, many of them HIV-positive took on Washington and the medical establishment.
While there have been a handful of outstanding films dealing with the AIDS epidemic including Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life, to name a few, How to Survive a Plague picks up on the story begun in the landmark Common Threads and updates the struggle, looking at the quest to find a treatment and possibly a cure for this vicious disease. The film weaves together stories of activism and shows how a small determined group can effect change not just nationally but globally. While the film is not as well made as Common Threads or Dr. Peter, it’s powerful. The archival footage manages to capture some of the key figures of Act Up and Tag showing actions as they take place. Instead of relying on talking heads to tell this amazing story, it is presented with footage shot as the story unfolded. This footage and its solid editing distinguishes this film from so many of the works that have tried to tell this story.
Few documentaries have such powerful antagonists, the government, incompetence, a lack of urgency on the part of the medical community and fear. Throw in homophobia and it is evident that the dramatic actions of these heroes saved hundreds of thousands of possible victims from this mostly sexually spread plague.
My only serious criticism of this documentary is its failure to be clearer that the plague continues, that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and that the community continues to give a false sense of hope. Currently the Cdc states:
” ..estimates that 1,148,200 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 207,600 (18.1%) who are unaware of their infection1. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable. Still, the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups.
HIV Incidence(new infections): The estimated incidence of HIV has remained stable overall in recent years, at about 50,000 new HIV infections per year.2 Within the overall estimates, however, some groups are affected more than others. Msm (men who have sex with men) continue to bear the greatest burden of HIV infection, and among races/ethnicities, African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected.”
This information could have been contained in the last few minutes of this powerful work, to inspire and warn the audience that testing is critical and that safe sex is still the only way to contain AIDS.
The Filmmaker
David France, Director, Producer
David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982 and today is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, How to Survive a Plague is his directorial debut.
Credits
Director: David France
Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk
Producers: David France, Howard Gertler
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin
Co-Producer: Todd Woody Richman
Camera: Derek Wieshahn
Sound: Stuart Deutsch, Topher Reifeiss
Original Music: Stuart Bogie
Editor: Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk
Production Companies: Public Square Films, Ninety Thousand Words
Distribution (Us): Sundance Selects
Short Notes and Update:
The International Documentary Association in Los Angeles presents Doc U: The Doc Reporter
Navigating the Intersection of Documentary and Journalism
Moderated by: Karin Skellwagen (The Brooks Institute)
With Panelists:
Sarah Burns (The Central Park Five)
Michael Donaldson (Partner, Donaldson & Callif)
David France (How To Survive A Plague)
For information: http://doc-u-jan-2013-la.eventbrite.com/
Sundance Announces 2013 International Documentary Competition:
Fallen City/ China (Director: Qi Zhao) — Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere
Fire in the Blood/ India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere
Google and the World Brain/ Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) — In the most ambitious Internet project ever conceived, Google is working to scan every book in the world. Google says it is building a library for mankind. But some are trying to stop it, claiming that Google may have other intentions. World Premiere
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear/ Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) — A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere
The Moo Man/ United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere
Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer/ Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere
A River Changes Course/ Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere
Salma/ United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) — When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere
The Square (Al Midan)/ Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) — What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere
The Stuart Hall Project/ United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) — Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere
The Summit/ Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. International Premiere
Who is Dayani Cristal?/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film
Producer’s Guild Announces Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Non-Fiction Television:
A People Uncounted(Urbinder Films)
Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger
The Gatekeepers(Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh
The Island President(Samuel Goldwyn Films)
Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen
The Other Dream Team(The Film Arcade)
Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach
Searching For Sugar Man(Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of
Non-Fiction Television:
American Masters(PBS)
Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations(Travel Channel)
Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandy Zweig
Deadliest Catch(Discovery Channel)
Producers: Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy, Sean Dash, John Gray, Sheila McCormack, Bill Pruitt, Decker Watson
Inside the Actors Studio(Bravo)
Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz
Shark Tank(ABC)
Producers: Rhett Bachner, Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Brien Meagher, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Paul Sutera, Patrick Wood
BAFTA Short and Documentary Feature Nominations (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, London)
Documentary Feature
The ImposterBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis
Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel
McCullin David Morris, Jacqui Morris
Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
West of Memphis Amy Berg
Short Animation
Here to Fall Kris Kelly, Evelyn McGrath
I’m Fine Thanks Eamonn O'Neill
The Making of Longbird Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson
Short Film
The Curse Fyzal Boulifa, Gavin Humphries
Good Night Muriel d'Ansembourg, Eva Sigurdardottir
Swimmer Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw
Tumult Johnny Barrington, Rhianna Andrews
The Voorman Problem Mark Gill, Baldwin Li
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca)
Documentary Feature Nominations
Bully
The Imposter
Queen of Versailles
Searching for Sugar Man (Winner)
The Central Park Five
West of Memphis
________________________________________________________________________
Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz
________________________________________________________________________
Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013 Ida Doc U
The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.documentary.org/news/february-documentary-producing-workshops-mitchell-block
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.
______________________________________________________________________
©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.
Note: See Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 for reviews and clips of the Academy documentary films and short films. Additional reviews of the documentary features follow in this issue.
Best documentary feature
5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined *See note below
How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined
The Invisible War Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined
Best documentary short subject
Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
Best animated short film
Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole Pes
Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare David Silverman
Paperman John Kahrs
Best live action short film
Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew Shawn Christensen
Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry Yan England
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) from a documentary
Before My Time from The documentary feature Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
Note: *Nominees to be determined* The Documentary Brand gives the nomination to the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted.
The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded.
Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.
DGA Documentary Award Nominations
Kirby Dick The Invisible War
This is Mr. Dick’s first DGA Award nomination.
Malik Bendjelloul Searching For Sugar Man
This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.
Lauren Greenfield The Queen of Versailles
This is Ms. Greenfield’s first DGA Award nomination.
David France How To Survive A Plague
This is Mr. France’s first DGA Award nomination.
Alison Klayman Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry
This is Ms. Klayman’s first DGA Award nomination.
Two Academy Nominated Documentary Features
& One Academy Short Listed Documentary Reviewed
The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh
Documentary Feature Nominee
Six former heads of Israel’s domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions in The Gatekeepers, a film by Dror Moreh. These six heads of the Shin Bet stood at the center of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had—and continue to have—a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers is an exclusive account of their successes and failures.
I find The Gatekeepers remarkable. Not for its craft but for its concept and vision. Imagine
J Edger Hoover talking about his tenure at the FBI, his successes and his failures, his interactions with the Presidents and members of Congress, and his critical self-evaluation of his mission and how his agency’s work affected our nation. Imagine. Dror Moreh accomplished this feat when he convinced these six surviving members of the Shin Bet, to speak on camera.
The film provides a historical perspective of Israel that is both candid and critical of the successive governments in this rare Middle Eastern democracy. The Shin Bet was created in 1949 by David Ben-Gurion’s government to focus on the internal affairs of Israel and evolved into dealing with counterterrorism and intelligence gathering in the West Bank and Gaza.
These intelligence heads, like ours, report to the President/Prime Minister. They are not part of the military complex. It is this context that gives this work its power. We hear the story of Israel’s struggle to protect itself from both its internal and external enemies; the bombers, terrorists, agents and others who worked to destroy this small country. These men are not glamorous or like the fictional heads of the spy agencies we have seen in James Bond and Bourne films. They are bald or balding grandfather-types. Articulate, highly educated, calm and yet we know that they protected Israel from its enemies even if they had them killed.
This is one of the strongest of the nominated docs. It raises significant issues of personal responsibilities. Despite the lack of oversight we don’t feel that this is an organization gone amuck like the Catholic Church not protecting children or the Us Military not protecting its members from sexual harassment. We see these articulate men as guardians and protectors of their nation steadfastly doing their duty within the confines of their moral beliefs. What is scary about The Gatekeepers is that clearly there could have been abuses and wrongs done by the Shin Bet if these six had less character or their mission was redefined by the government without regard to moral or ethical standards. The film on reflection is troubling for regardless of how the spectator might feel about Israel it forces us to look at this conflict through the lenses of these six guardians and we can only wonder what they don’t tell us about what they did in the name of their country.
Credits:
Director: Dror Moreh
Camera: Avner Shahaf
Producers: Dror Moreh, Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky
Co Producer: Anna Van Der Wee
Sound: Amos Zipori
Sound Design: Aex Claude
Music: Ab Ovo, Jérôme Chassagnard, Régis Baillet
Editor: Oron Adar
Production Companies: Dror Moreh Productions, Les Films du Poisson, Cinephil
In Co-Production with: Mac Guff, Wild Heart Productions, Arte France, Iba, Ndr, Rtbf
With the support of: Cnc, Media, Région Ile-de-France, Procirep, Angoa, The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts – Cinema Project
Distribution: Sony Classics
Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thegatekeepers/
The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki
Short Listed Documentary Feature for Academy Award nomination
The House I Live In looks at how America has waged war on some of its poorest citizens, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. It posits that over the last forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests and shows how America became the world’s largest jailer, damaging poor communities at home and abroad. Yet today drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. It shows that drug abuse is a public health issue. Despite this, it is treated by our society as a criminal matter and a vast machine has been created that feeds on the men and women who are incarcerated. Because of this, the prisoners are not offered help or a cure for their underlying problems, so they return to prison in a never ending cycle.
Eugene Jarecki, whose previous films looked at the military industrial complex (Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger), won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance in both 2005 and 2010. The film tackles difficult material. Material that has been in scores of documentaries and television shows over the years. Yet Jarecki, using his personal experience, a wealth of interviews and strong case studies, builds a compelling case for changing the sentencing guidelines for crack (and cocaine) and for dealing with both addiction and the underlying causes of addiction. Jarecki is a skillful filmmaker who has picked a vast and complex subject and has created a work that while rich in content moves along at a good pace although it might have been stronger if it had tried to do less. The film editor Paul Frost and the composer Robert Miller do an excellent job building strong sequences with evocative music. It was nicely shot by Sam Cullman and Derek Hallquist. Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama handled the distribution and was successful getting the work out which is never easy for such an issue oriented film.
Credits:
Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki
Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Sam Cullman, Christopher St. John
Executive Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Nick Fraser, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Russell Simmons, Roy Ackerman, John Legend, Sally Jo Feifer, Nick Fraser
Camera: Sam Cullman, Derek Hallquist
Sound: Matthew Freed, Art Jaso
Music: Robert Milller
Editor: Paul Frost
Production Companies: Charlotte Street Films, Zdf Enterprises, Independent Television Services, BBC, Aljazeera Documentary Channel, Vpro, Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, Louverture Films, Nhk
Distribution (Us): Abramorama Entertainment, Snag Films
How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France
Documentary Feature Nominee
How to Survive a Plague by writer and filmmaker David France tells the story of how two coalitions came together to lobby for effective treatments and funding for treatments of AIDS in the late 1980s when it was evident that the Us government and its health and other agencies were not being very effective dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The coalitions, Act Up and Tag (Treatment Action Group) helped to make AIDS more treatable. While there is still no cure for AIDS and thousands of people globally still die from the virus, it is now possible to prolong life with treatments that have been developed.
Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With access to never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young men and women, many of them HIV-positive took on Washington and the medical establishment.
While there have been a handful of outstanding films dealing with the AIDS epidemic including Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life, to name a few, How to Survive a Plague picks up on the story begun in the landmark Common Threads and updates the struggle, looking at the quest to find a treatment and possibly a cure for this vicious disease. The film weaves together stories of activism and shows how a small determined group can effect change not just nationally but globally. While the film is not as well made as Common Threads or Dr. Peter, it’s powerful. The archival footage manages to capture some of the key figures of Act Up and Tag showing actions as they take place. Instead of relying on talking heads to tell this amazing story, it is presented with footage shot as the story unfolded. This footage and its solid editing distinguishes this film from so many of the works that have tried to tell this story.
Few documentaries have such powerful antagonists, the government, incompetence, a lack of urgency on the part of the medical community and fear. Throw in homophobia and it is evident that the dramatic actions of these heroes saved hundreds of thousands of possible victims from this mostly sexually spread plague.
My only serious criticism of this documentary is its failure to be clearer that the plague continues, that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and that the community continues to give a false sense of hope. Currently the Cdc states:
” ..estimates that 1,148,200 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 207,600 (18.1%) who are unaware of their infection1. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable. Still, the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups.
HIV Incidence(new infections): The estimated incidence of HIV has remained stable overall in recent years, at about 50,000 new HIV infections per year.2 Within the overall estimates, however, some groups are affected more than others. Msm (men who have sex with men) continue to bear the greatest burden of HIV infection, and among races/ethnicities, African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected.”
This information could have been contained in the last few minutes of this powerful work, to inspire and warn the audience that testing is critical and that safe sex is still the only way to contain AIDS.
The Filmmaker
David France, Director, Producer
David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982 and today is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, How to Survive a Plague is his directorial debut.
Credits
Director: David France
Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk
Producers: David France, Howard Gertler
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin
Co-Producer: Todd Woody Richman
Camera: Derek Wieshahn
Sound: Stuart Deutsch, Topher Reifeiss
Original Music: Stuart Bogie
Editor: Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk
Production Companies: Public Square Films, Ninety Thousand Words
Distribution (Us): Sundance Selects
Short Notes and Update:
The International Documentary Association in Los Angeles presents Doc U: The Doc Reporter
Navigating the Intersection of Documentary and Journalism
Moderated by: Karin Skellwagen (The Brooks Institute)
With Panelists:
Sarah Burns (The Central Park Five)
Michael Donaldson (Partner, Donaldson & Callif)
David France (How To Survive A Plague)
For information: http://doc-u-jan-2013-la.eventbrite.com/
Sundance Announces 2013 International Documentary Competition:
Fallen City/ China (Director: Qi Zhao) — Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere
Fire in the Blood/ India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere
Google and the World Brain/ Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) — In the most ambitious Internet project ever conceived, Google is working to scan every book in the world. Google says it is building a library for mankind. But some are trying to stop it, claiming that Google may have other intentions. World Premiere
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear/ Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) — A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere
The Moo Man/ United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere
Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer/ Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere
A River Changes Course/ Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere
Salma/ United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) — When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere
The Square (Al Midan)/ Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) — What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere
The Stuart Hall Project/ United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) — Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere
The Summit/ Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. International Premiere
Who is Dayani Cristal?/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film
Producer’s Guild Announces Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Non-Fiction Television:
A People Uncounted(Urbinder Films)
Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger
The Gatekeepers(Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh
The Island President(Samuel Goldwyn Films)
Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen
The Other Dream Team(The Film Arcade)
Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach
Searching For Sugar Man(Sony Pictures Classics)
Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of
Non-Fiction Television:
American Masters(PBS)
Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations(Travel Channel)
Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandy Zweig
Deadliest Catch(Discovery Channel)
Producers: Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy, Sean Dash, John Gray, Sheila McCormack, Bill Pruitt, Decker Watson
Inside the Actors Studio(Bravo)
Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz
Shark Tank(ABC)
Producers: Rhett Bachner, Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Brien Meagher, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Paul Sutera, Patrick Wood
BAFTA Short and Documentary Feature Nominations (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, London)
Documentary Feature
The ImposterBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis
Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel
McCullin David Morris, Jacqui Morris
Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
West of Memphis Amy Berg
Short Animation
Here to Fall Kris Kelly, Evelyn McGrath
I’m Fine Thanks Eamonn O'Neill
The Making of Longbird Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson
Short Film
The Curse Fyzal Boulifa, Gavin Humphries
Good Night Muriel d'Ansembourg, Eva Sigurdardottir
Swimmer Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw
Tumult Johnny Barrington, Rhianna Andrews
The Voorman Problem Mark Gill, Baldwin Li
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca)
Documentary Feature Nominations
Bully
The Imposter
Queen of Versailles
Searching for Sugar Man (Winner)
The Central Park Five
West of Memphis
________________________________________________________________________
Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz
________________________________________________________________________
Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013 Ida Doc U
The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.documentary.org/news/february-documentary-producing-workshops-mitchell-block
Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).
Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.
______________________________________________________________________
©2013Mwb All Rights Reserved All Rights Reserved. All information and designs on the Sites are copyrighted material owned by Block. Reproduction, dissemination, or transmission of any part of the material here without the express written consent of the owner is strictly prohibited.All other product names and marks on Block Direct, whether trademarks, service marks, or other type, and whether registered or unregistered, is the property of Block.
- 1/17/2013
- by Mitchell Block
- Sydney's Buzz
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.