Exclusive: Hamish Linklater, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea and Yuvi Hecht have joined the cast of Imperative Entertainment and 30West’s uplifting romance A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. They join Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, who are starring with Kogonada directing. Sony Pictures will release the film in theaters globally. Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and newcomer Lucy Thomas make up the remaining ensemble.
The script is written by Seth Reiss. Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Ryan Friedkin will produce the feature, along with Reiss and Youree Henley. Executive producers include Kogonada, Ilene Feldman and Original Films’ Ori Eisen. 30West is financing the film.
Plot details are under wraps, but A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is described as an imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them.
Linklater is currently starring as “Abraham Lincoln in the Apple TV+ limited series Manhunt.
The script is written by Seth Reiss. Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Ryan Friedkin will produce the feature, along with Reiss and Youree Henley. Executive producers include Kogonada, Ilene Feldman and Original Films’ Ori Eisen. 30West is financing the film.
Plot details are under wraps, but A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is described as an imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them.
Linklater is currently starring as “Abraham Lincoln in the Apple TV+ limited series Manhunt.
- 5/3/2024
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: More theatrical product for 2024 as Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures has dated the feature take of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Nickel Boys for October 25. It’s a limited theatrical release on a date that also includes Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance and Cinedigm’s Terrifier 3.
Directed and co-adapted by RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black men navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida. Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor star. Ross co-adapted with Joslyn Barnes. Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner produce with David Levine and Barnes. Anonymous Content and Louverture Films are also production companies.
Amazon MGM Studios’ Black-themed American Fiction was a huge success at art houses, grossing north of $21M after its Audience Award at TIFF. The movie saw an Adapted Screenplay Oscar win for...
Directed and co-adapted by RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black men navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida. Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor star. Ross co-adapted with Joslyn Barnes. Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner produce with David Levine and Barnes. Anonymous Content and Louverture Films are also production companies.
Amazon MGM Studios’ Black-themed American Fiction was a huge success at art houses, grossing north of $21M after its Audience Award at TIFF. The movie saw an Adapted Screenplay Oscar win for...
- 4/30/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
“This goes beyond scholarship. This is a lived life for me,” said Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of playing journalist Isabel Wilkerson in “Origin,” Ava DuVernay’s latest film that both brings the ideas from Pulitzer Prize winner’s 2020 book “Caste,” and the behind the scenes hardships Wilkerson faced while writing it, to movie theaters nationwide on January 19.
Speaking to IndieWire over Zoom, Ellis-Taylor used a moment over the holidays in her native Mississippi to describe the ways in which she challenges the pillars of caste Wilkerson writes about in her book, like terror and cruelty, in her everyday life. “I’ll put it like this: I wanted some catfish,” said the Oscar-nominated “King Richard” actress. However, upon entering the Hattiesburg establishment best known for the southern delicacy, she noticed the state flag on display was the pre-2020 one that still had the Confederate flag incorporated into its design.
Going up to the counter,...
Speaking to IndieWire over Zoom, Ellis-Taylor used a moment over the holidays in her native Mississippi to describe the ways in which she challenges the pillars of caste Wilkerson writes about in her book, like terror and cruelty, in her everyday life. “I’ll put it like this: I wanted some catfish,” said the Oscar-nominated “King Richard” actress. However, upon entering the Hattiesburg establishment best known for the southern delicacy, she noticed the state flag on display was the pre-2020 one that still had the Confederate flag incorporated into its design.
Going up to the counter,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
As we wrap up our year-end coverage, IndieWire looks back at the people, projects, and ideas that defined 2023 — and what’s coming next.
As golden ages go, this one was more of a blip.
Five years ago, the box office celebrated nonfiction films: $22 million for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” $14 million for “Rbg,” $17.5 million for “Free Solo.” Critical favorites and Oscar nominees included films from exciting American first-time directors, including RaMell Ross’s lyrical breakthrough about life in rural Alabama, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and Bing Liu’s moving personal exposé of domestic abuse in northern Illinois, “Minding the Gap.”
2023 lacked documentary touchstones. A few faith-based documentaries succeeded by preaching to the choir, but the most successful (non-concert) documentary released in theaters this year was the Yogi Berra baseball portrait “It Ain’t Over”. You also could include Magnolia Pictures’ “Joan Baez: I Am A Noise” or — if you...
As golden ages go, this one was more of a blip.
Five years ago, the box office celebrated nonfiction films: $22 million for “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” $14 million for “Rbg,” $17.5 million for “Free Solo.” Critical favorites and Oscar nominees included films from exciting American first-time directors, including RaMell Ross’s lyrical breakthrough about life in rural Alabama, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and Bing Liu’s moving personal exposé of domestic abuse in northern Illinois, “Minding the Gap.”
2023 lacked documentary touchstones. A few faith-based documentaries succeeded by preaching to the choir, but the most successful (non-concert) documentary released in theaters this year was the Yogi Berra baseball portrait “It Ain’t Over”. You also could include Magnolia Pictures’ “Joan Baez: I Am A Noise” or — if you...
- 12/19/2023
- by Anthony Kaufman
- Indiewire
As December begins, you might be looking forward to spending time with friends and family over the holidays—and in need of some gift-giving inspiration. Look no further than Notebook's Cinephile Gift Guide, the proverbial online Shop Around the Corner (1940).Below is our third annual, lovingly curated guide to the holiday season. It's sure to spread film-themed cheer, and we hope it's thorough enough to surprise all of the film fans in your life.Jump to a category:Books about cinemaBooks by filmmakers and artistsHome videoMusicHome goods, posters, and gamesApparel Books About CINEMAFirst up is UK culture and music critic Ian Penman’s kaleidoscopic, genre-bending offering to Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors. The book has drawn comparisons to Charles Baudelaire and Roland Barthes, but is undoubtedly a sui generis response to a singular legacy.On offer this year from Another Gaze Editions is My Cinema by Marguerite Duras, a...
- 12/12/2023
- MUBI
Exclusive: Plan B Entertainment has started a new micro budget film finance initiative to produce and finance lower cost films which will be led by newly hired Caddy Vanasirikul. The veteran film producer and acquisition and production executive will manage Plan B’s forthcoming slate in this sector.
The first film under this new initiative is Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke’s Olmo, which recently completed shooting in New Mexico under an interim agreement. Co-written with Vanesa Garnica and directed by Eimbcke, and produced with Erendira Nunez LariosEréndira Núñez Larios and Michel Franco’s Teorema, the bilingual story is about 14 year-old Olmo, who must take care of his bedridden father who has Multiple Sclerosis. But when Olmo’s goddess neighbor Nina Sandoval invites him to a party, his world is turned upside down.
Eimbcke’s feature directorial debut Temporada de patos (Duck Season) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won...
The first film under this new initiative is Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke’s Olmo, which recently completed shooting in New Mexico under an interim agreement. Co-written with Vanesa Garnica and directed by Eimbcke, and produced with Erendira Nunez LariosEréndira Núñez Larios and Michel Franco’s Teorema, the bilingual story is about 14 year-old Olmo, who must take care of his bedridden father who has Multiple Sclerosis. But when Olmo’s goddess neighbor Nina Sandoval invites him to a party, his world is turned upside down.
Eimbcke’s feature directorial debut Temporada de patos (Duck Season) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won...
- 12/1/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Definitely the type of film that could end up jockeying for a position at a fall film festival later in the year instead, RaMell Ross who made the miracle (and critically darling of a docu) in the Sundance preemed Hale County This Morning, This Evening moved toward fiction with an adaption of the Colson Whitehead novel The Nickel Boys – a Pulitzer Prize winner. With some major studio weight supporting the project and an indie veteran producer (Joslyn Barnes is also the co-writer) backing the piece and stain in 60s Americana. Starring Aunjanue Ellis, Ethan Herisse, Fred Hechinger, Hamish Linklater and Brandon Wilson, the Cinematography on this project happens to be Jomo Fray – he lensed All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.…...
- 11/15/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Plan B Entertainment has set a joint venture with Oscar-winning documentarian and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, known for movies including Touching The Void, One Day In September, Whitney, The Last King Of Scotland and State Of Play.
Per the Jv, the two parties will co-develop and co-produce unscripted films and series with both established and emerging directors.
Among Plan B’s current unscripted work is the ongoing Lego Masters series for Fox and the recent Wayne Shorter documentary Zero Gravity for Amazon. French media company Mediawan took a majority stake in the company late last year.
Macdonald’s previous work in documentary also includes Life In A Day, Marley and High & Low — John Galliano. He won a Best Documentary Oscar for One Day in September about the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics In Munich, Germany. His most recent narrative feature was The Mauritanian, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster,...
Per the Jv, the two parties will co-develop and co-produce unscripted films and series with both established and emerging directors.
Among Plan B’s current unscripted work is the ongoing Lego Masters series for Fox and the recent Wayne Shorter documentary Zero Gravity for Amazon. French media company Mediawan took a majority stake in the company late last year.
Macdonald’s previous work in documentary also includes Life In A Day, Marley and High & Low — John Galliano. He won a Best Documentary Oscar for One Day in September about the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics In Munich, Germany. His most recent narrative feature was The Mauritanian, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster,...
- 10/25/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Plan B Entertainment partners Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner play their cards close to their chests when it comes to strategy and upcoming plans.
Co-president Kleiner gave a rare insight into the company’s inner workings this week at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Creative Investor Conference, organized in association with CAA Media Finance.
“To do this gig you have to have some underlying idealism and optimism,” he said of navigating the current volatile market as a producer.
“We’re working with a mix of established filmmakers and more emerging talent. The spectrum is really wide. Whether its Nia DaCosta, Bing Liu, David Michod, Lee Isaac Chung or RaMell Ross, Bong [Joon-Ho], or Jo Kosinski on his Formula One movie, things kind of find their place but I definitely feel like the bar seems quite high these days.”
Kleiner, who is marking his 20th year at Plan B...
Co-president Kleiner gave a rare insight into the company’s inner workings this week at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Creative Investor Conference, organized in association with CAA Media Finance.
“To do this gig you have to have some underlying idealism and optimism,” he said of navigating the current volatile market as a producer.
“We’re working with a mix of established filmmakers and more emerging talent. The spectrum is really wide. Whether its Nia DaCosta, Bing Liu, David Michod, Lee Isaac Chung or RaMell Ross, Bong [Joon-Ho], or Jo Kosinski on his Formula One movie, things kind of find their place but I definitely feel like the bar seems quite high these days.”
Kleiner, who is marking his 20th year at Plan B...
- 9/28/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Updated with juror names and winner of 2023 Points North Pitch.
Earlier: A first-time filmmaker has claimed the top prize at the 19th Annual Camden Film Festival in Maine, one of the country’s foremost all-documentary festivals.
Director Yousef Srouji earned the Harrell Award for Three Promises, a film set in the Occupied Territories. “At the start of the 2000s, the Israeli army retaliated against the second intifada in the West Bank,” notes a description of the documentary. “All the while, Suha, a mother of two young children, decides it’s time to start a film diary. Years later, her youngest son Yousef picks up the archive and discovers the difficult choices she faced then. The three promises, made and broken, evidence the strong love of a mother to her children, to her land, and to herself. The result is a reflexive act of love in a time capsule.”
‘Three Promises...
Earlier: A first-time filmmaker has claimed the top prize at the 19th Annual Camden Film Festival in Maine, one of the country’s foremost all-documentary festivals.
Director Yousef Srouji earned the Harrell Award for Three Promises, a film set in the Occupied Territories. “At the start of the 2000s, the Israeli army retaliated against the second intifada in the West Bank,” notes a description of the documentary. “All the while, Suha, a mother of two young children, decides it’s time to start a film diary. Years later, her youngest son Yousef picks up the archive and discovers the difficult choices she faced then. The three promises, made and broken, evidence the strong love of a mother to her children, to her land, and to herself. The result is a reflexive act of love in a time capsule.”
‘Three Promises...
- 9/19/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Veteran executive and producer Nina Wolarsky, who helped put Netflix on the original series map, has joined Plan B Entertainment as the company’s first ever President of Television.
The high profile hire signals a major television expansion following Mediawan’s acquisition of a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B last December.
Known for its formidable film portfolio, which includes three Best Picture nominees and one winner, 12 Years a Slave, Plan B had ventured into television with such projects as the Emmy-winning HBO movie The Normal Heart and the Emmy-nominated HBO movie Nightingale and Prime Video series The Underground Railroad.
The company telegraphed its growing ambitions in the TV space two years ago with the hire of Scott Free’s Carina Sposato and Netflix’s Ernest McNealey as Plan B’s first dedicated, senior-level TV executives. The duo will now be part of Wolarsky’s team.
The high profile hire signals a major television expansion following Mediawan’s acquisition of a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B last December.
Known for its formidable film portfolio, which includes three Best Picture nominees and one winner, 12 Years a Slave, Plan B had ventured into television with such projects as the Emmy-winning HBO movie The Normal Heart and the Emmy-nominated HBO movie Nightingale and Prime Video series The Underground Railroad.
The company telegraphed its growing ambitions in the TV space two years ago with the hire of Scott Free’s Carina Sposato and Netflix’s Ernest McNealey as Plan B’s first dedicated, senior-level TV executives. The duo will now be part of Wolarsky’s team.
- 8/28/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.News*Corpus Callosum (Michael Snow, 2002).Michael Snow, Canadian artist and avant-garde filmmaker best known for Wavelength and La Région Centrale, has died at the age of 94. Via Sabzian, Snow’s 2020 email exchange with Brandon Kaufman is a worthy read; the artist reflects on a life of filmmaking, painting, and playing jazz piano. “Though I’ve had an interesting life, I don’t think I’m particularly nostalgic,” he types. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating, self-funded passion project Megalopolis is in mid-production peril, with a number of key collaborators departing as the budget expands.Recommended Viewinga new restoration for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s turn-of-the-century classic Millennium Mambo (2001) is in US cinemas now. Metrograph have shared a trailer for the 4K...
- 1/10/2023
- MUBI
In a competitive situation, MGM’s Orion Pictures has won the feature film rights and will partner with producer Freddy Wexler on a feature length film based on the life of Keith Adams, coach of the championship winning all-deaf High School football team, the Riverside Cubs.
The film, which will also focus on the lives of Adams’ two sons who played on the team, is expected to begin production in 2023.
Henry Joost and Rel Schulman, the duo behind “Project Power” and “Catfish,” are set to direct the feature from a script by Josh Feldman, best known for Marvel’s “Grasshopper,” and a story by Wexler. Feldman previously co-wrote “This Close,” the first major U.S. series created by deaf writers.
The underdog story of Coach Adams and the Cubs captivated the heart of America. The California School for the Deaf, Riverside, is the only deaf high school in its division...
The film, which will also focus on the lives of Adams’ two sons who played on the team, is expected to begin production in 2023.
Henry Joost and Rel Schulman, the duo behind “Project Power” and “Catfish,” are set to direct the feature from a script by Josh Feldman, best known for Marvel’s “Grasshopper,” and a story by Wexler. Feldman previously co-wrote “This Close,” the first major U.S. series created by deaf writers.
The underdog story of Coach Adams and the Cubs captivated the heart of America. The California School for the Deaf, Riverside, is the only deaf high school in its division...
- 12/7/2022
- by Brent Lang and Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHale County This Morning, This Evening.RaMell Ross—whose 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening was among the best releases of the 2010s—will direct an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winner The Nickel Boys, which will star Aunjanue Ellis. In another major production announcement, Kantemir Balagov will make his English-language debut with Butterfly Jam, produced by Ari Aster. (Ela Bittencourt wrote about Balagov’s WWII-set sophomore feature Beanpole for Notebook.)’Tis the season. Yorgos Lanthimos is also about to begin filming his next movie—the un-Googleable And—in New Orleans. The cast includes Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, and, for Stars at Noon fans, both Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.That’s not all. James Gray is on board to direct and substantially revise the screenplay for a “young John F. Kennedy” biopic.
- 11/1/2022
- MUBI
Jack Falahee, Eric Nelsen and Hannah James are slated to star in indie drama “Holly by Nightfall” from director Andy Delaney and screenwriter Peter James Cooper.
The feature film centers on a group of friends while they navigate the stumbling blocks of adulthood. It marks one of Falahee’s first screen project since wrapping his breakout role opposite Viola Davis on ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder” in 2020. The actor teased a behind-the-scenes still with Nelsen on his Instagram Wednesday.
Per an official synopsis, “Holly by Nightfall” is “a funny, sweet and poignant story about a group of friends who are hitting crossroads in their lives, stumbling over decisions about relationships and careers.”
The project is currently in post-production and just wrapped filming on location in Houston, Texas.
Also Read:
Filming ‘The Crown’ After the Queen’s Death Was ‘A Very Sad and Strange Time,’ Star Imelda Staunton...
The feature film centers on a group of friends while they navigate the stumbling blocks of adulthood. It marks one of Falahee’s first screen project since wrapping his breakout role opposite Viola Davis on ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder” in 2020. The actor teased a behind-the-scenes still with Nelsen on his Instagram Wednesday.
Per an official synopsis, “Holly by Nightfall” is “a funny, sweet and poignant story about a group of friends who are hitting crossroads in their lives, stumbling over decisions about relationships and careers.”
The project is currently in post-production and just wrapped filming on location in Houston, Texas.
Also Read:
Filming ‘The Crown’ After the Queen’s Death Was ‘A Very Sad and Strange Time,’ Star Imelda Staunton...
- 10/27/2022
- by Benjamin Lindsay
- The Wrap
Oscar-nominated “King Richard” and “The Help” actress Aunjanue Ellis is set to star in a feature adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” for writer-director RaMell Ross and MGM’s Orion Pictures.
The film will co-star Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger. Along with Ross, Joslyn Barnes will write the script and produce on behalf of Louverture Films.
Based on a true story, Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a Black boy growing up in 1960s Florida who has been unjustly shipped out to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. While navigating the institution’s many brutalities, he befriends another inmate named Turner. Their unlikely friendship and opposing worldviews eventually take them down a road of disastrous and long-lasting consequences.
Also Read:
Lakeith Stanfield and Omar Sy to Star in ‘The Book of Clarence’ From Director Jeymes Samuel
In addition to Barnes,...
The film will co-star Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger. Along with Ross, Joslyn Barnes will write the script and produce on behalf of Louverture Films.
Based on a true story, Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a Black boy growing up in 1960s Florida who has been unjustly shipped out to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. While navigating the institution’s many brutalities, he befriends another inmate named Turner. Their unlikely friendship and opposing worldviews eventually take them down a road of disastrous and long-lasting consequences.
Also Read:
Lakeith Stanfield and Omar Sy to Star in ‘The Book of Clarence’ From Director Jeymes Samuel
In addition to Barnes,...
- 10/27/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Colson Whitehead’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys” is getting a big-screen adaptation from MGM’s Orion Pictures, starring Oscar and Emmy-nominee Aunjanue Ellis.
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross, Ellis will star alongside Ethan Herisse (“When They See Us”) and Brandon Wilson (“The Way Back”), who will lead the young cast, as well as Hamish Linklater (“The Big Short”) and Fred Hechinger.
“It is an honor to be working with such talented people and trusted with such an incredibly written story, with historical roots,” Ross said in a statement announcing the feature adaptation. “I’m constantly impressed by the passion and creativity of the collection of people moving this project forward.”
Ross adapted the screenplay alongside two-time Academy Award-nominee Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films, which is producing the movie with Plan B Entertainment and Anonymous Content. Whitehead serves as executive producer.
Added Alana Mayo, president of Orion Pictures:...
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross, Ellis will star alongside Ethan Herisse (“When They See Us”) and Brandon Wilson (“The Way Back”), who will lead the young cast, as well as Hamish Linklater (“The Big Short”) and Fred Hechinger.
“It is an honor to be working with such talented people and trusted with such an incredibly written story, with historical roots,” Ross said in a statement announcing the feature adaptation. “I’m constantly impressed by the passion and creativity of the collection of people moving this project forward.”
Ross adapted the screenplay alongside two-time Academy Award-nominee Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films, which is producing the movie with Plan B Entertainment and Anonymous Content. Whitehead serves as executive producer.
Added Alana Mayo, president of Orion Pictures:...
- 10/27/2022
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Oscar nominee Aunjanue L. Ellis (King Richard) is set to star in The Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, to be directed by RaMell Ross.
The Nickel Boys is set in Jim Crow-era Florida and focuses on two boys unjustly sentenced to a brutal reform school. MGM’s Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment and Anonymous Content will produce the movie adaptation, which will also star Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger.
Oscar nominee Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films, who will pen the screenplay for the movie version along with Ross, is also set to produce, while Whitehead will executive produce.
“It is an honor to be working with such talented people and trusted with such an incredibly written story, with historical roots. I’m constantly impressed by the passion and creativity of the...
Oscar nominee Aunjanue L. Ellis (King Richard) is set to star in The Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, to be directed by RaMell Ross.
The Nickel Boys is set in Jim Crow-era Florida and focuses on two boys unjustly sentenced to a brutal reform school. MGM’s Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment and Anonymous Content will produce the movie adaptation, which will also star Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger.
Oscar nominee Joslyn Barnes of Louverture Films, who will pen the screenplay for the movie version along with Ross, is also set to produce, while Whitehead will executive produce.
“It is an honor to be working with such talented people and trusted with such an incredibly written story, with historical roots. I’m constantly impressed by the passion and creativity of the...
- 10/27/2022
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“King Richard” star Aunjanue Ellis is set to star in an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys” being set up at MGM’s Orion Pictures.
The studio has tapped RaMell Ross, an Oscar nominee for the documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” to direct the film, and Ross also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Josyln Barnes.
Ellis will lead the cast alongside up-and-coming actors Ethan Herisse (“When They See Us”) and Brandon Wilson (“The Way Back”), who will anchor and lead the film’s young cast. Hamish Linklater (“The Big Short”) and Fred Hechinger will also co-star.
“The Nickel Boys” is Whitehead’s follow-up to his other Pulitzer winner, “The Underground Railroad.” Though the book is fiction, it’s based on the real story of a Florida reform school that, over 111 years, hid decades of abuse against its residents and even had bodies secretly buried on its campus.
The studio has tapped RaMell Ross, an Oscar nominee for the documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” to direct the film, and Ross also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Josyln Barnes.
Ellis will lead the cast alongside up-and-coming actors Ethan Herisse (“When They See Us”) and Brandon Wilson (“The Way Back”), who will anchor and lead the film’s young cast. Hamish Linklater (“The Big Short”) and Fred Hechinger will also co-star.
“The Nickel Boys” is Whitehead’s follow-up to his other Pulitzer winner, “The Underground Railroad.” Though the book is fiction, it’s based on the real story of a Florida reform school that, over 111 years, hid decades of abuse against its residents and even had bodies secretly buried on its campus.
- 10/27/2022
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Oscar-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross has been tapped to direct a feature adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys for MGM’s Orion Pictures, with Oscar nom Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), Ethan Herisse (When They See Us), Brandon Wilson (The Way Back), Hamish Linklater (The Big Short) and Fred Hechinger (News of the World) set to star.
The 2020 novel by Whitehead, who’d previously scored a Pulitzer for 2016’s The Underground Railroad, came in as a bestseller upon its publication by Doubleday and was named one of Time‘s best books of the decade. Based on the true story of a Florida reform school that damaged the lives of thousands of children over more than a century, its protagonist is Elwood Curtis, a Black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee who is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,...
The 2020 novel by Whitehead, who’d previously scored a Pulitzer for 2016’s The Underground Railroad, came in as a bestseller upon its publication by Doubleday and was named one of Time‘s best books of the decade. Based on the true story of a Florida reform school that damaged the lives of thousands of children over more than a century, its protagonist is Elwood Curtis, a Black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee who is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,...
- 10/27/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
After crafting one of the most remarkable documentaries of the last few years with the Apichatpong Weerasethakul-backed, Sundance-winning, and Oscar-nominated Hale County This Morning, This Evening, director RaMell Ross is heading into new territory for his next feature.
Backed by MGM and Plan B, Ross will be moving into narrative fiction with an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel The Nickel Boys. A few casting call notices tipped us off to the project, which goes inside the true story of abuses at the juvenile reformatory Dozier School for Boys in Flordia. With production set to take place in Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, Hammond, Ponchatoula and Laplace, shooting will begin next month and last through December.
See the synopsis below and pick up the book here.
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,...
Backed by MGM and Plan B, Ross will be moving into narrative fiction with an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel The Nickel Boys. A few casting call notices tipped us off to the project, which goes inside the true story of abuses at the juvenile reformatory Dozier School for Boys in Flordia. With production set to take place in Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, Hammond, Ponchatoula and Laplace, shooting will begin next month and last through December.
See the synopsis below and pick up the book here.
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,...
- 9/25/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Louverture Films, the production company founded by actor Danny Glover and Joslyn Barnes, is moving into television as well as animation, gaming and installation works. With two new principal partners in situ, the expansion has enlisted a host of creatives, including directors Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Lucrecia Martel.
Co-founded by Glover and Barnes in 2005 — alongside long-time partners Susan Rockefeller and the Bertha Foundation’s Tony Tabatznik — the company has brought on board Sawsan Asfari and Jeffrey Clark as principal partners. Variety understands that the new partners will allow Louverture to access more funding resources.
In addition, producer Karin Chien, who on Sunday delivered a rousing Sundance Institute Producing Fellows’ keynote, is becoming a partner and executive VP. Meanwhile, Barnes has been promoted to president while Glover remains CEO and co-founder.
Louverture, named after Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, has built its reputation on international and arthouse films and a strong theatrical documentary slate.
Co-founded by Glover and Barnes in 2005 — alongside long-time partners Susan Rockefeller and the Bertha Foundation’s Tony Tabatznik — the company has brought on board Sawsan Asfari and Jeffrey Clark as principal partners. Variety understands that the new partners will allow Louverture to access more funding resources.
In addition, producer Karin Chien, who on Sunday delivered a rousing Sundance Institute Producing Fellows’ keynote, is becoming a partner and executive VP. Meanwhile, Barnes has been promoted to president while Glover remains CEO and co-founder.
Louverture, named after Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, has built its reputation on international and arthouse films and a strong theatrical documentary slate.
- 1/24/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
As 2021 mercifully winds down, the Criterion Channel have a (November) lineup that marks one of their most diverse selections in some time—films by the new masters Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Garrett Bradley, Dan Sallitt’s Fourteen (one of 2020’s best films) couched in a fantastic retrospective, and Criterion editions of old favorites.
Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.
See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015
5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968
Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017
Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015
America, Garrett Bradley, 2019
Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953
Angels Wear White,...
Fourteen is featured in “Between Us Girls: Bonds Between Women,” which also includes Céline and Julie, The Virgin Suicides, and Yvonne Rainer’s Privilege. Of equal note are Criterion editions for Ghost World, Night of the Hunter, and (just in time for del Toro’s spin) Nightmare Alley—all stacked releases in their own right.
See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
300 Nassau, Marina Lameiro, 2015
5 Card Stud, Henry Hathaway, 1968
Alone, Garrett Bradley, 2017
Álvaro, Daniel Wilson, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Lazarowich, and Chloe Zimmerman, 2015
America, Garrett Bradley, 2019
Angel Face, Otto Preminger, 1953
Angels Wear White,...
- 10/25/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The first time we hear music in Saeed Taji Farouky’s mesmeric A Thousand Fires is also the first time we’re offered a glimpse of the viscous substance around which the whole documentary orbits. Set in the Magway region of Myanmar, it concerns a family struggling to make ends meet by drilling oil in an unregulated field—a Heart of Darkness-like landscape dotted with derricks, huts, and countless fires. We open with a man cranking a manual well, but it takes a few moments for Farouky to show the fruits of his work; when it happens, the oil splashes through the frame in a kaleidoscope of colors, an impossibly gorgeous vision of shapeshifting hues, accompanied by a synths-heavy melody, a murmur of the Earth. It’s a marriage of sounds and visuals that turns oil into a magic potion, an amniotic liquid, less a resource to be exploited than...
- 8/11/2021
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
First trip to Cannes for South Korean auteur since Claire’s Camera,The Day He Arrives in 2017.
Cinema Guild has picked up all US rights from Finecut to South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s In Front Of Your Face ahead of its world premiere in the inaugural Cannes Premiere section.
The distributor has a set a 2022 launch for the drama, which marks Hong’s eleventh visit to the Croisette and stars Lee Hyeyoung, Cho Yunhee, and Kwon Haehyo.
In Front Of Your Face follows a former actress with a secret who returns to Seoul to live with her sister in...
Cinema Guild has picked up all US rights from Finecut to South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s In Front Of Your Face ahead of its world premiere in the inaugural Cannes Premiere section.
The distributor has a set a 2022 launch for the drama, which marks Hong’s eleventh visit to the Croisette and stars Lee Hyeyoung, Cho Yunhee, and Kwon Haehyo.
In Front Of Your Face follows a former actress with a secret who returns to Seoul to live with her sister in...
- 7/6/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams on the set of Meek's Cutoff (2010). Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams will be working on a fourth project together, entitled Showing Up. The film, which goes into production this summer, follows an artist ahead of a career-changing exhibition. The Berlin Film Festival is unveiling its plans for this year's festival, beginning with its selection of six titles to premiere at the Berlinale Series that follow this year's theme: Toxic Antiheroes, Utopias of Freedom. Italian director, screenwriter, and producer Alberto Lattatuda will be the subject of the Locarno Film Festival's annual retrospective, to be held August 4-14. Following his biopic of Siegfried Sassoon, Terence Davies is set to direct an adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s post-wwi-set novel The Post Office Girl. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Beginning, the striking...
- 1/27/2021
- MUBI
Exclusive: Cinema Guild has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the Lynne Sachs-directed documentary Film About a Father Who, which made its world premiere in January as the opening night film at the Slamdance Film Festival. The film is set to open at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image on January 15, 2021, alongside a retrospective of Sachs’ work. It will also be available in virtual cinemas across the country.
Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings.
“We’ve long been fans of Lynne Sachs’ films and are very excited to work with her on Film About a Father Who,...
Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, filmmaker Sachs shot 8 and 16mm film, videotape and digital images of her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings.
“We’ve long been fans of Lynne Sachs’ films and are very excited to work with her on Film About a Father Who,...
- 12/3/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Robert Yapkowitz and Rich Peete’s In My Own Time: A Portrait Of Karen Dalton executive producer Wim Wenders on Nick Cave and Karen Dalton: “Just like Nick, Karen’s music had a profound effect on me.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, co-written with Ainara Vera, executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival; Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ever more timely The Meaning Of Hitler; Malia Scharf and Max Basch’s intimate portrait, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, produced with David Koh (featuring remembrances from Kenny of Keith Haring, Klaus Nomi, <a...
Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, co-written with Ainara Vera, executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival; Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ever more timely The Meaning Of Hitler; Malia Scharf and Max Basch’s intimate portrait, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, produced with David Koh (featuring remembrances from Kenny of Keith Haring, Klaus Nomi, <a...
- 11/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Cinema Guild Acquires Berlinale & New York Film Festival Docu ‘Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue’
Exclusive: Cinema Guild has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Jia Zhangke’s documentary Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue. The Chinese film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February and made its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival earlier this fall. Cinema Guild is eyeing a release for early next year.
Zhangke delivers here a vital document of a changing Chinese society, interviewing three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively, and all from the same Shanxi province where the filmmaker also grew up. In their stories, the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns are recounted, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the 1950s through the unrest of the late 1980s.
“We...
Zhangke delivers here a vital document of a changing Chinese society, interviewing three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively, and all from the same Shanxi province where the filmmaker also grew up. In their stories, the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns are recounted, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the 1950s through the unrest of the late 1980s.
“We...
- 11/10/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Gunda is an extraordinarily impactful, loving, and urgent film and the more people stumble upon it, because they are lured by a magnificent pig with the cutest piglets, shot in poised black and white, the better off they will be.
Victor Kossakovsky’s film, co-written with Ainara Vera, is executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival, after it had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
We meet Gunda, it seems, while she is giving birth to her 13 piglets. The camera stays respectfully outside the small barn structure at first. A bit later we get very very close - one...
Victor Kossakovsky’s film, co-written with Ainara Vera, is executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival, after it had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
We meet Gunda, it seems, while she is giving birth to her 13 piglets. The camera stays respectfully outside the small barn structure at first. A bit later we get very very close - one...
- 9/16/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Of the many streaming series currently available online, MoMA's Film Vault Summer Camp is certainly one of the most invaluable, providing insights into both the restoration and curation process behind the historic films of its storied collection. Taking place every Thursday in August, the series aims to provide access to the museum's Film Library, which was started in 1935, and the research that sustains it. Each week of the Film Vault Summer Camp (presented by collection specialist Ashley Swinnerton) is programmed according to a new theme. Week two, entitled Preservation, offered an in-depth glimpse into the history of film restoration and MoMA's own restoration procedures in the case of three historic selections: a 1934 screen test of Katherine Hepburn as Joan of Arc, Andy Warhol's Kiss (1963-1964), and Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1914/2014), the oldest surviving feature film starring an all-Black cast. Never completed in its time, Lime Kiln Club Field...
- 8/27/2020
- MUBI
Exclusive: Cinema Guild has acquired North American distribution rights to Matías Piñeiro’s Isabella which won a special jury mention in the Encounters section at the 70th Berlinale earlier this year. A 2021 theatrical release is being planned.
Isabella follows Mariel (María Villar) who wants to play the role of Isabella in a local theater troupe’s production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, but money problems prevent her from preparing for the audition. She thinks of asking her brother for financial help, but is worried about being too direct. Her solution is to ask her brother’s girlfriend, Luciana (Agustina Muñoz), also an actress and a more self-assured one, to convince her brother to give her the money. Luciana agrees on the condition that Mariel will not abandon her acting and continue to prepare for the part of Isabella.
“We can’t wait for audiences to be enchanted by Matías’ latest,...
Isabella follows Mariel (María Villar) who wants to play the role of Isabella in a local theater troupe’s production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, but money problems prevent her from preparing for the audition. She thinks of asking her brother for financial help, but is worried about being too direct. Her solution is to ask her brother’s girlfriend, Luciana (Agustina Muñoz), also an actress and a more self-assured one, to convince her brother to give her the money. Luciana agrees on the condition that Mariel will not abandon her acting and continue to prepare for the part of Isabella.
“We can’t wait for audiences to be enchanted by Matías’ latest,...
- 8/11/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
RaMell Ross, director/cinematographer of the Oscar-nominated Hale County This Morning, This Evening Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
RaMell Ross, director/cinematographer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening will participate in a Film at Lincoln Center free virtual conversation moderated by Time director Garrett Bradley on June 24, starting at 6:00pm (Edt). Hale County This Morning, This Evening has an impressive producing team with Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover of Louverture Films to Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and Charlotte Cook of Field of Vision, Susan Rockefeller (Oceana), Tony Tabatznik, Lynda Weinman, Su Kim, and co-writer Maya Krinsky.
RaMell Ross's subjects Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant, a scene with Bert Williams from Edwin Middleton and T. Hayes Hunter's Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913), the atmosphere of the local community in Hale County, Alabama, thunderstorms, starlit night...
RaMell Ross, director/cinematographer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening will participate in a Film at Lincoln Center free virtual conversation moderated by Time director Garrett Bradley on June 24, starting at 6:00pm (Edt). Hale County This Morning, This Evening has an impressive producing team with Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover of Louverture Films to Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and Charlotte Cook of Field of Vision, Susan Rockefeller (Oceana), Tony Tabatznik, Lynda Weinman, Su Kim, and co-writer Maya Krinsky.
RaMell Ross's subjects Daniel Collins and Quincy Bryant, a scene with Bert Williams from Edwin Middleton and T. Hayes Hunter's Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913), the atmosphere of the local community in Hale County, Alabama, thunderstorms, starlit night...
- 6/24/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Acquisition marks seventh time company and director will have worked together.
Cinema Guild has picked up Us rights to Hong Sangsoo’s female-led drama The Woman Who Ran fresh off its best director Berlin Silver Bear win at the weekend.
The deal means Cinema Guild will have released seven films by the director, whose latest follows a woman who has three encounters with friends while her husband is on a business trip.
One is a divorcée who likes gardening, another harbours romantic thoughts about her neighbour while a young poet pursues her, and the third works for a cinema. Kim Minhee,...
Cinema Guild has picked up Us rights to Hong Sangsoo’s female-led drama The Woman Who Ran fresh off its best director Berlin Silver Bear win at the weekend.
The deal means Cinema Guild will have released seven films by the director, whose latest follows a woman who has three encounters with friends while her husband is on a business trip.
One is a divorcée who likes gardening, another harbours romantic thoughts about her neighbour while a young poet pursues her, and the third works for a cinema. Kim Minhee,...
- 3/2/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Joslyn Barnes and Chien’s first collaboration is an upcoming installation project by Academy Award nominee RaMell Ross.
Us independent producer Karin Chien is joining forces with New York-based Louverture Films.
Louverture was co-founded by Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover along with partners Susan Rockefeller, Bertha Foundation and Sawsan Asfari; the company’s credits include Hale County This Morning, This Evening and Strong Island.
Chien has previously won the Cinereach Producing Award and Piaget Independent Spirit Producers Award and has worked on films including Circumstance, The Exploding Girl and Stones In The Sun.
The first collaboration planned between Barnes and...
Us independent producer Karin Chien is joining forces with New York-based Louverture Films.
Louverture was co-founded by Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover along with partners Susan Rockefeller, Bertha Foundation and Sawsan Asfari; the company’s credits include Hale County This Morning, This Evening and Strong Island.
Chien has previously won the Cinereach Producing Award and Piaget Independent Spirit Producers Award and has worked on films including Circumstance, The Exploding Girl and Stones In The Sun.
The first collaboration planned between Barnes and...
- 2/18/2020
- by 1100142¦Wendy Mitchell¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Facts are so often stranger than fiction: The truth can be so terrible that we struggle to believe it, or so joyous and full of life that we’re inspired or moved. The past decade has seen a boom in the documentary space as streaming platforms have invested in their production and proliferated their distribution opportunities. So many docs that could have made this list, from those that have inspired public policy changes to others that captured gorgeous slices of life often overlooked, and even a few that pushed the visual boundaries of what’s possible in non-fiction storytelling. Here are just a handful of the best documentaries from the previous decade:
10. “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”
Alison Klayman’s documentary may have been many Americans’ introduction to Ai Weiwei, the outspoken artist (whose work has found a devoted following on social media) and controversial voice that the Chinese government has...
10. “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”
Alison Klayman’s documentary may have been many Americans’ introduction to Ai Weiwei, the outspoken artist (whose work has found a devoted following on social media) and controversial voice that the Chinese government has...
- 12/16/2019
- by Monica Castillo
- The Wrap
The 2019-2020 movie awards season got underway on Monday night, December 2, with the presentation of the Gotham Awards for independent film. Presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), these prizes are decided by juries of industry peers and have honored Oscar winners like “Sideways” (2004), “Capote” (2005), “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Spotlight” (2015) and “Moonlight” (2016). So who took top honors this year? Scroll down for the complete list in all 10 categories, updated live as they were announced.
“Marriage Story,” “The Farewell” and “Uncut Gems” led the nominations with three apiece. Those three films were up for Best Feature along with “Hustlers” and “Waves.”
Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
“Marriage Story” was the highest-profile Oscar contender among those nominees, but did that mean it was a surefire winner? The jury voting process opens the door for underdogs and left-field choices like last year’s champ “The Rider,” which beat Oscar...
“Marriage Story,” “The Farewell” and “Uncut Gems” led the nominations with three apiece. Those three films were up for Best Feature along with “Hustlers” and “Waves.”
Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
“Marriage Story” was the highest-profile Oscar contender among those nominees, but did that mean it was a surefire winner? The jury voting process opens the door for underdogs and left-field choices like last year’s champ “The Rider,” which beat Oscar...
- 12/3/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Chicago – The Chicago International Film Festival is competitive, and the 55th edition presented its awards on October 25th, 2019, at Chez venue in Chicago. The winner of the Gold Hugo as Best International Film was “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (France), directed by Céline Sclamma.
The 55th Chicago International Film Festival Awards Night was October 25th, 2019
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com
The awards were presented by the various jury members in each film category, and were hosed by Artistic Director Mimi Plauché, Managing Director Vivian Teng, as well as programmers Anthony Kaufman and Sam Flancher. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.
International Feature Film Competition
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire,’ (France) Directed by Céline Sclamma
Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival
The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” (France) Directed by Céline...
The 55th Chicago International Film Festival Awards Night was October 25th, 2019
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com
The awards were presented by the various jury members in each film category, and were hosed by Artistic Director Mimi Plauché, Managing Director Vivian Teng, as well as programmers Anthony Kaufman and Sam Flancher. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.
International Feature Film Competition
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire,’ (France) Directed by Céline Sclamma
Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival
The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” (France) Directed by Céline...
- 10/27/2019
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.
First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom of...
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.
First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom of...
- 10/23/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.
First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom...
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.
First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom...
- 10/23/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The nominations are out for the 35th annual Ida Documentary Awards. Ten films are vying for the Best Feature nod, and the group has added a Best Director category for the first time — and all of those nominees are women.
One of the female helmers, For Sama director-producer Waad Al-Kataeb, is set to receive the Courage Under Fire Award. That honor is presented to documentarians displaying conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.
“Back in Aleppo, I had no option but to fight the fears and horrors of this war through filming my experience both as a mother and as a female filmmaker,” Al-Kataeb said.
Read the full list of noms below.
“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry,...
One of the female helmers, For Sama director-producer Waad Al-Kataeb, is set to receive the Courage Under Fire Award. That honor is presented to documentarians displaying conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.
“Back in Aleppo, I had no option but to fight the fears and horrors of this war through filming my experience both as a mother and as a female filmmaker,” Al-Kataeb said.
Read the full list of noms below.
“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry,...
- 10/23/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
“American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama” and “The Edge of Democracy” have scored multiple nominations for the International Documentary Awards.
“Advocate,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family,” “One Child Nation,” “Sea of Shadows,” and “The Biggest Little Farm” also received nods. The 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards will be held on Dec. 7 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for best director and all of the nominated films have female directors.
“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry, executive director of the Ida.
The Ida also announced that its Courage Under Fire Award will be presented to Waad Al-Kateab for the film “For Sama,” recounting her life in Aleppo, Syria. It won...
“Advocate,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family,” “One Child Nation,” “Sea of Shadows,” and “The Biggest Little Farm” also received nods. The 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards will be held on Dec. 7 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
For the first time, the Ida will present an award for best director and all of the nominated films have female directors.
“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry, executive director of the Ida.
The Ida also announced that its Courage Under Fire Award will be presented to Waad Al-Kateab for the film “For Sama,” recounting her life in Aleppo, Syria. It won...
- 10/23/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
The nominees for the 2019 International Documentary Association (Ida) Awards have been unveiled, with several of this year’s most high-profile docs in the frame. Scroll down for full list of nominees.
For the first time, this year’s ceremony will feature an award for best director, with the five films nominated all directed or co-directed by women: The Edge Of Democracy (Petra Costa); Advocate (Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche); American Factory (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert); Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov); and For Sama (Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts).
Neon is the most represented distributor in the best feature field with three nominations. Netflix has two of the films in the category (American Factory and The Edge Of Democracy), while Amazon has one (One Child Nation).
This year’s Courage Under Fire Award, which recognizes documentarians who display “conspicuous bravery...
For the first time, this year’s ceremony will feature an award for best director, with the five films nominated all directed or co-directed by women: The Edge Of Democracy (Petra Costa); Advocate (Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche); American Factory (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert); Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov); and For Sama (Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts).
Neon is the most represented distributor in the best feature field with three nominations. Netflix has two of the films in the category (American Factory and The Edge Of Democracy), while Amazon has one (One Child Nation).
This year’s Courage Under Fire Award, which recognizes documentarians who display “conspicuous bravery...
- 10/23/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Films directed or co-directed by women dominated the nominations for the 35th Ida Documentary Awards, which were announced on Wednesday by the International Documentary Association.
All five films nominated in the new Best Director category — “Advocate,” “American Factory,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama” and “Honeyland” — were directed or co-directed by women, as was “One Child Nation,” which joined those films in the Best Feature category.
Also nominated in the top category: “Apollo 11,” “Midnight Family,” “Sea of Shadows” and “The Biggest Little Farm.”
Also Read: 'The Biggest Little Farm' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations
The nominations, which were made by committees assembled by the Ida, mean that “American Family,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation” are now the only nonfiction films to have received nominations by the Ida and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and included on Doc NYC’s list...
All five films nominated in the new Best Director category — “Advocate,” “American Factory,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama” and “Honeyland” — were directed or co-directed by women, as was “One Child Nation,” which joined those films in the Best Feature category.
Also nominated in the top category: “Apollo 11,” “Midnight Family,” “Sea of Shadows” and “The Biggest Little Farm.”
Also Read: 'The Biggest Little Farm' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations
The nominations, which were made by committees assembled by the Ida, mean that “American Family,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation” are now the only nonfiction films to have received nominations by the Ida and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and included on Doc NYC’s list...
- 10/23/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Aretha Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace,” the moon-mission chronicle “Apollo 11” and the first film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, “American Factory,” have made the short list for the International Documentary Association’s 2019 Ida Documentary Awards, the Ida announced on Thursday.
The announcement narrows the field to 30 feature films and 21 shorts that will move on to a second round of voting.
The IDA’s short list of 30 feature films contains 10 films that were on Doc NYC’s recent 15-film list of the year’s likeliest nonfiction awards contenders: “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.”
Additional films on the Ida’s list include “Amazing Grace,...
The announcement narrows the field to 30 feature films and 21 shorts that will move on to a second round of voting.
The IDA’s short list of 30 feature films contains 10 films that were on Doc NYC’s recent 15-film list of the year’s likeliest nonfiction awards contenders: “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.”
Additional films on the Ida’s list include “Amazing Grace,...
- 10/10/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
When “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, it was unlike anything the documentary community had seen before. The Oscar-nominated documentary was the feature film debut of photographer RaMell Ross, who held up a mesmerizing lens to the daily routines of African American life in rural Alabama. After winning a Special Jury Award at Sundance, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” picked up the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame Documentary Festival, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, Outstanding Feature at Cinema Eye Honors, and eventually earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
For his painterly re-imagining of black life onscreen, Ross whittled over 1,200 hours of footage into the 78-minute film, leaving a veritable treasure trove of evocative images on the cutting room floor. Ross has put at least a few more minutes of that unused footage to use in “Easter Snap,...
For his painterly re-imagining of black life onscreen, Ross whittled over 1,200 hours of footage into the 78-minute film, leaving a veritable treasure trove of evocative images on the cutting room floor. Ross has put at least a few more minutes of that unused footage to use in “Easter Snap,...
- 9/26/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Next year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature will go to “Apollo 11,” “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “For Sama,” “Knock Down the House” or one of 10 other nonfiction films, if the track record for Doc NYC’s annual Short List proves to be as accurate as it has been in past years.
Those five films were included on the documentary festival’s 2019 list, along with “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Elephant Queen,” “The Great Hack,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker” and “One Child Nation.”
All of the films will screen at this year’s festival, which runs in New York City from Nov. 6 through Nov. 15, and will be eligible for juried awards in four categories for the first time.
Doc NYC has been compiling its Short List, which identifies the documentaries that its programming team considers to be the year’s strongest awards contenders,...
Those five films were included on the documentary festival’s 2019 list, along with “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Elephant Queen,” “The Great Hack,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker” and “One Child Nation.”
All of the films will screen at this year’s festival, which runs in New York City from Nov. 6 through Nov. 15, and will be eligible for juried awards in four categories for the first time.
Doc NYC has been compiling its Short List, which identifies the documentaries that its programming team considers to be the year’s strongest awards contenders,...
- 9/26/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
One of the most astounding contributions to cinema is the Qatsi trilogy, which comes from director Godfrey Reggio and is scored by Philip Glass. Created over the span of twenty years, 1982’s Koyaanisqatsi, 1988’s Powaqqatsi, and 2002’s Naqoyqatsi show humankind’s effect on the planet in stunning, devastating ways. The duo reteamed a few years ago for Visitors and now they have another project in the works.
A few days ago the duo gathered for a conversation at Wbur CitySpace in Boston where Glass revealed, “I can say that we’re involved in a movie.” As reported by Bedford and Bowery, Reggio added that the initial idea is actually for “an opera which would be made into a movie.” Glass added, “It could be an opera. We even wanted a friend of ours [Robert Wilson] to work with us on it. And he likes the idea of the opera, but I actually...
A few days ago the duo gathered for a conversation at Wbur CitySpace in Boston where Glass revealed, “I can say that we’re involved in a movie.” As reported by Bedford and Bowery, Reggio added that the initial idea is actually for “an opera which would be made into a movie.” Glass added, “It could be an opera. We even wanted a friend of ours [Robert Wilson] to work with us on it. And he likes the idea of the opera, but I actually...
- 9/23/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez)
Alita lives and dies by its eponymous creation, and to the credit of director Robert Rodriguez, producers James Cameron and Jon Landau, and the visual effects house Weta Digital, the character represents an impressive technical feat. More so than the Na’vi in Avatar, which always had extraterrestrial origins as an out for any inhuman qualities, Alita’s humanoid nature requires a certain 1:1 realism, a sustained suspension of any and all disbelief. Alita’s eyes might be affectedly large in a manga sort of way, but they persuasively project a young person’s earnestness and vulnerability, which is no easy feat.
Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez)
Alita lives and dies by its eponymous creation, and to the credit of director Robert Rodriguez, producers James Cameron and Jon Landau, and the visual effects house Weta Digital, the character represents an impressive technical feat. More so than the Na’vi in Avatar, which always had extraterrestrial origins as an out for any inhuman qualities, Alita’s humanoid nature requires a certain 1:1 realism, a sustained suspension of any and all disbelief. Alita’s eyes might be affectedly large in a manga sort of way, but they persuasively project a young person’s earnestness and vulnerability, which is no easy feat.
- 7/12/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Lady Gaga, Claire Foy and Sterling K. Brown are among the 842 people who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced on Monday.
The announcement came two days after the Academy’s Board of Governors spent a Saturday meeting going over the lists of prospective members drawn up by each of the Academy’s 17 branches. This marks the fourth consecutive year in which several hundred film professionals have been invited to join the Academy. This will easily push the number of active Academy members over 9,000 and the number of Oscars voters over 8,000 for next year’s Academy Awards.
As usual in recent years, the huge list of new-member invitations was heavily weighted toward women, who made up 50 percent of the invitees (up from 49 percent last year), and non-white film professionals, who made up 29 percent. The list was also heavily weighted toward international members,...
The announcement came two days after the Academy’s Board of Governors spent a Saturday meeting going over the lists of prospective members drawn up by each of the Academy’s 17 branches. This marks the fourth consecutive year in which several hundred film professionals have been invited to join the Academy. This will easily push the number of active Academy members over 9,000 and the number of Oscars voters over 8,000 for next year’s Academy Awards.
As usual in recent years, the huge list of new-member invitations was heavily weighted toward women, who made up 50 percent of the invitees (up from 49 percent last year), and non-white film professionals, who made up 29 percent. The list was also heavily weighted toward international members,...
- 7/1/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
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