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Exclusive: We have the finalists for the 2024 Latine List.

The partnership between the Latin Tracking Board, Nalip and The Black List have selected 10 projects that represent some of the best rising talents in Latin-e/a/o/@ storytelling in film, TV and theater.

Following the List’s core mandate, this year’s selected scripts probe the scope and depth of genres and voices — past and present.

“This collection shines a spotlight on Latine characters, settings and narratives that capture the intriguing complexities of our culture,” the Latin Tracking Board said today. “Each script offers a unique perspective, celebrating the originality and richness of Latine experiences.”

In fact, several writers on this year’s Latine List have received pervious industry praise and recognition for their work.

Rebecca Iliana Kahn was selected for the 2024 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive. Christian Moldes was in this year’s Sundance Screenwriters Lab, as well as awarded the Sundance Institute...

Exclusive: Stowe Story Labs announced the 2024 Stowe Launch Fellows and selected projects, with the support of the National Endowment of the Arts.

The 2024 Fellows are Alexandra Hensley (Hearts and Minds), Arianna Ortiz (The Bastard Children of Javier Ortiz) Sebastien Tobler (Bodies of Water), Brandon Vedder (Miracle Man) and Keith Walker (Greenwood). Read more about them below.

Each Launch participant receives up to one year of ongoing mentoring and program participation, with no fees or travel costs. The goal of the program is to get projects ready for market.

“Projects like Stowe Launch exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities — all through the arts,” said Nea Chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design,...

Exclusive: The Writers Lab has set Shari Albert (Fishtown), Stephanie Bast (FrankenFamily), Kelly Campbell (Pyramid Scheme), Shari Lynette Carpenter (Translate), Nic Cohen (Artemis One), Rebecca Dreyfus (Men), Gwen Goodkin (The Plant), Tamara Maloney & Maeve McQuillan (Darkened Room), Arianna Ortiz, Zuri Rice (Green Hill), Roses Urquhart (This Is My Body) and Robin Shanea Williams (Adrienne Is Always Single) as the participants and projects for its eighth annual lab, supporting women screenwriters over the age of 40.

Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman have renewed their support for The Writers Lab, which will return to its in-person format for script development in 2022. The Lab has re-doubled its efforts to amplify the voices of women writers, calling for greater inclusion of their stories in film and television, in response to growing threats to women’s rights, with genre scripts (particularly comedies) and historical stories about pioneering women being seen most...

Ever since “Nine Days” filmmaker Edson Oda won the Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in January 2020, the prize has been a great boost of confidence whenever a little imposter syndrome kicks in.

“I keep it on another table so I can see it,” Edson tells Variety over Zoom, pointing at the trophy, which is just off camera. “When I’m writing, and I feel like, ‘Oh, this page sucks,’ I can just look at it and, at least, I have some recognition for writing that keeps me motivated to keep going.”

It makes sense that the budding filmmaker is using every talisman he can get, especially since the last 18 months have been a major test of confidence and patience. Sony Pictures Classics held onto “Nine Days” for more than a year due to the pandemic, waiting until audiences could experience the movie in its full theatrical wonder.

Nine Days Review — Nine Days (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Edson Oda, and starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Hanson, Bill Skarsgard, David Rysdahl, Arianna Ortiz, Perry Smith, Geraldine Hughes, Amy Brown, Sterlin English, David H. Stevens and Erika Vasquez. Edson Oda’s deeply moving film, Nine Days, showcases [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Nine Days (2020): Winston Duke’s Fantastic Performance Fuels Profound Dramatic Film...

Left to Right: Winston Duke as Will, Zazie Beetz as Emma in Nine Days.

Photo by Michael Coles. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. © Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.

In the Sundance hit Nine Days, a serious, melancholy man interviews candidates in a nine-day process to pick one to be born, in a supernatural drama. Nine Days takes a different, more existential approach to a concept that has long fascinated Hollywood, movies about reincarnation, rebirth and other worldly characters watching over people on earth. Nine Days leaves any theological or philosophical interpretation of who, what or where these characters are up to the audience, only providing some basic information, and focuses on questions of humanity and life itself, an exploration it grounds in a real-world, contemporary situation, as candidates are put though an extended job interview in which souls are put through a series of tests to determine who gets to be born.

Sony Pictures Classics’ sci-fi drama Nine Days starring Winston Duke opens in four theaters in a specialty market buoyed by recent releases like Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Pig. New York’s arthouse scene, outpaced by LA of late, is perking up, distributors say (Ailey numbers were super there) and moviegoers are rewarding unique films and strong stories.

(The slow reviving specialty scene is keeping its head down as day-and-date tensions in wide release blockbuster-land explode.)

Nine Days hits NYC and LA today before rolling out nationwide August 6 in 250-275 theaters, said Jason Michael Berman, a producer, and president of Mandalay Pictures — of course depending on how it does. He’s upbeat after 800 people turned out for LA screening this week at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel with EP Spike Jonze introducing the film, written and directed by Edson Oda,...

When Japanese-Brazilian filmmaker Edson Oda arrived at Sundance 2020 with his feature directorial debut “Nine Days,” an immersive film concerning isolation and mortality, he didn’t know how closely our reality would soon match his fable.

A few weeks following the festival, when the world closed down and the terrors of the pandemic took hold, many movies were seen as reflective of pandemic-era anxieties, from “Palm Springs” to “She Dies Tomorrow.” Yet only “Nine Days” spoke to two aspects of the cultural zeitgeist — quarantine and Black Lives Matter — with such striking prescience.

The film, which premiered at Sundance in 2020, comes out at a time of tremendous fragility for many Americans. And Oda’s work will provide them with a potent opportunity to process this moment of unprecedented psychological uneasiness.

“It’s been a time for self-discovery for a lot of people,” Oda said in an interview this month. “Everything they went through,...

Crafted in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and embraced at 2020’s Sundance Film Festival, “Nine Days” does, indeed, feel very much like a festival movie — for better and worse.

It’s easy to see why high-altitude audiences would connect with the spiritual sentimentality of Edson Oda’s emotional debut. But Sundance, in particular, is infamous for pumping up buzzy films that deflate quickly upon arrival.

Where Oda succeeds most strongly is in his deep respect for actors, several of whom make the most of the more experimental nature of indie cinema. Chief among these is Winston Duke, who expands a potentially forgettable role into a powerfully theatrical portrayal. Situated in a desolate way station between nothingness and life on Earth, Will (Duke) oversees an untold number of humans. Whenever his charges die, he’s required to replace them. Since a “vacancy” has just opened up after a mysterious car crash, a...

Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the fantastical drama Nine Days in New York and Los Angeles theaters on July 30, with plans to roll the film out nationwide August 6.

The debut feature of writer-director Edson Oda centers on Will (Winston Duke), a reclusive man who conducts a series of interviews with fledgling human souls, thereby offering them a chance to be born. The pic, which debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, also stars Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl and Arianna Ortiz.

The film earned two Film Independent Spirit Award nominations, for Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (for Wong).

Nine Days is a co-production between Juniper Productions, Mandalay Pictures, Nowhere, Macro Media and The Space Program, in association with Mansa Productions, Oak Street Pictures, 30West, Baked Studios and Datari Turner Productions. It was produced by Jason Michael Berman of Mandalay Pictures, Mette-Marie Kongsved and Laura Tunstall of Nowhere,...

Edson Oda’s science-fiction fantasy drama “Nine Days” has been selected to open the 27th edition of the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference on Oct. 22.

The film stars Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz. Oda received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the film following its premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. Duke and Beetz will participate in a post-screening Q&a at the Austin festival, which is being held virtually.

Duke portrays a recluse in a house distant from the reality we know. He interviews prospective candidates — personifications of human souls — for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist.

Monday, Oct. 12 Denver Festival Schedules Drive-In Showings

The 43rd Denver Film Festival will open on Oct. 22 with a drive-in showing of Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand, at the Red Rocks Park.

The festival will be mostly virtual but will also hold drive-in showings of “Nine Days” as its Centerpiece title on Oct. 24 and “Ammonite” as its Big Night screening on Oct. 29. “Nomadland” premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 11, and won the Golden Lion. The film is set after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, with McDormand’s character Fern exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

Festival Director Britta Erickson said, “I can’t think of a better, more appropriate way to experience all three of these films — and ‘Nomadland’ in particular — than in your car, surrounded by beautiful Western vistas.”

Miami Festival Unveils Audience Winners

“The Bee...

If you thought your last job interview was stressful, Winston Duke in “Nine Days” plays an interviewer who will decide the fate of five souls and whether they will get the chance to be born into the real world or whether they will cease to exist.

“Nine Days” made its premiere at Sundance this year, and director Edson Oda’s film will now open in 2021 from Sony Pictures Classics. Along with the first trailer for the film, “Being John Malkovich” director Spike Jonze has now joined the project as an executive producer.

“Nine Days” has a stellar cast that also includes Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl and Arianna Ortiz all vying for their own chance to be born. Duke plays the mysterious man who will interview and test the human souls over the course of nine days, though he will only be able to choose one to continue existing.

Hailing from first-time director Edson Oda, the imaginative sci-fi drama Nine Days bowed at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it earned no shortage of comparisons to the work of Spike Jonze. Picked up by Sony Classics, the project now has Jonze on board as an executive producer, and the first trailer has landed ahead of an early 2021 release. Led by Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skårsgard, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz, the film imagines a world in which a higher power must decide between a selection of candidates to pick a single soul to be born into the world.

I said in my review, “The existential quandaries of death and what may happen after our final breath is the subject of countless films, including a stand-out here at Sundance. But what if it’s not the endgame we should be worried about, but rather...

Her Oscar winner Spike Jonze has boarded Sony Pictures Classics upcoming early 2021 release as an Executive Producer. Additionally, SPC has also acquired the rights in Asia, Israel, Turkey and the rest of Europe, making it a worldwide release for the label. The film will next be seen in the Hamptons Film Festival and AFI, among others.

Nine Days, which stars Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz follows a reclusive man, Will (Duke), who is conducting a series of interviews with human souls for a chance to be born. Five contenders emerge, and during the course of nine days, Will tests each of them, but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist. The movie is directed and written by Edson Oda.

"I wouldn't say you're alive or dead." Sony Pictures Classics has released the first official trailer for Edson Oda's Nine Days, one of the best films of the year. This originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and received rave reviews - it's my current #1 film of the year so far. Winston Duke stars as a man who watches over souls on Earth. After one of them dies, he conducts a series of interviews with other human souls for a chance to be born. Making his feature-film debut after a series of highly acclaimed and award-winning short films and music videos, Japanese Brazilian director Edson Oda delivers a "heartfelt and meditative vision of human souls in limbo, aching to be born against unimaginable odds, yet hindered by forces beyond their will." Also starring Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz.

Sony Pictures Classics has released the trailer for its upcoming fantasy feature, Nine Days.

The trailer introduces Winston Duke as Will, a reclusive man who spends his days in a remote outpost watching live Point of View on televisions of people living their lives until a vacancy for a new life on earth becomes available. Will then sets out to conduct interviews with others for a chance to be born.

“You are being considered for the amazing opportunity of life,” he says.

Candidates portrayed by Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, Arianna Ortiz and David Rysdahl ...

Sony Pictures Classics has released the trailer for its upcoming fantasy feature, Nine Days.

The trailer introduces Winston Duke as Will, a reclusive man who spends his days in a remote outpost watching live Point of View on televisions of people living their lives until a vacancy for a new life on earth becomes available. Will then sets out to conduct interviews with others for a chance to be born.

“You are being considered for the amazing opportunity of life,” he says.

Candidates portrayed by Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, Arianna Ortiz and David Rysdahl ...

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up distribution rights in North America and multiple international markets to the science-fiction drama “Nine Days,” starring Winston Duke.

The film, directed by Edson Oda from his own script, also stars Zazie Beetz, Bill Skarsgård, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz. Oda received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the film following its premiere at the Sundance film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.

Sony Classics also bought the rights to Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, Benelux, Thailand, and on all airlines worldwide. The film is a co-production between Juniper Productions, Mandalay Pictures, Nowhere, MacRo Media, and The Space Program, in association with Mansa Productions, Oak Street Pictures, 30West, Baked Studios and Datari Turner Productions.

Duke portrays a recluse in a house distant from the reality we know. He interviews prospective candidates—personifications...

“Nine Days,” starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz and Bill Skarsgard, has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last month, the distributor announced Friday.

Directed by Edson Oda, “Nine Days” takes place in a house, distant from the reality we know, and centers on a reclusive man named Will (Duke) who interviews prospective candidates Emma (Beetz), Kane (Skarsgård), Kyo (Benedict Wong), and Mike (David Rysdahl), who are each personifications of human souls, for the privilege that he once had: to be born in the real world. The others however, will cease to exist.

Oda also wrote the screenplay. Arianna Ortiz also co-stars.

Also Read: Director Edson Oda on How His Uncle's Death Inspired 'Nine Days' (Video)

Spc took North American rights, along with Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, Benelux, and Thailand and on all airlines worldwide.

The existential quandaries of death and what may happen after our final breath is the subject of countless films, including a stand-out here at Sundance. But what if it’s not the endgame we should be worried about, but rather how we were born in the first place? No, Nine Days is not about the act of conception and pregnancy. This sci-fi film, from first-time director Edson Oda, rather imagines a process before that, in which a higher power must decide between a selection of candidates to pick a single soul to be born. In what is the highest-stakes competition known to humanity, the rest have just nine days to “live” in this in-between world before they disappear into the ether, never to return again. Riffing on Hirokazu Kore-eda’s masterful After Life in a reverse sort of way as well as Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry (if they were...

“Nine Days” takes a ludicrous premise and plays it straight. Writer-director Edson Oda’s innovative drama revolves around the tireless plight of Will (Winston Duke), a jaded middle-manager trapped in a purgatorial cycle of interviewing souls for the opportunity of life. Oda’s script is rich with bold ideas, beginning with the surreal notion of entire lives unfolding through VHS tapes and climaxes with a hyperbolic recitation of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” It’s an enchanting fantasy bookended with genuine emotional beats. Somewhere in between them, however, it settles into a dreary slog bogged down by repetitive existential blather over the course of two hours, as if enmeshed in a soul-searching journey of its own.

. The opening act has a striking immersive quality as the purgatorial setting gradually comes together. Spending tireless hours in a dimly-lit house surrounded by emptiness in every direction, Will watches the lives of...

At the risk of overselling Edson Oda’s ultra-original, meaning-of-life directorial debut, there’s a big difference between “Nine Days” and pretty much every other film ever made. You see, most movies are about characters, real or imagined, and the stuff that happens to them, whereas “Nine Days” is about character itself — as in, the moral dimension that constitutes who a person is, how he or she treats others, and the choices that define us as humans.

But Oda doesn’t stop there. In a film of dizzying conceptual ambition — “No Exit” meets “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” — the Brazilian-born, U.S.-based writer-director wants to make audiences appreciate the little things, like the feeling of sand between your toes or the way your hand surfs the air when extended from the window of a moving car. To that end, Oda concocts an elaborate new metaphor for thinking about...

Actors’ Equity members have re-elected Kate Shindle to a second term as president of the union that reps moire than 50,000 professional stage actors and stage managers. She was running unopposed, as were several other officers chosen in the 2018 National Council election.

Shindle, who was Miss America 1998, beat incumbent president Nick Wyman in the 2015 election. There was an unprecedented number of seats up for grabs across all three regions in the 105-year-old group, and all 55 were filled, effective immediately.

The other officers elected without opposition were 3rd Vice President Ira Mont, Secretary/Treasurer Sandra Karas, Central Regional Vice President Dev Kennedy and Western Regional Vice President Doug Carfrae.

Among those facing challengers, Melissa Robinette was elected 1st Vice President (Principal), Jennifer Cody was elected 2nd Vice President (Chorus) and Sid Solomon was elected Eastern Regional Vice President.

The regional winners are listed below.

After more than a decade of using an electronic voting option,...

Filming sitcoms in front of live audiences isn’t a new phenomenon for the world of television. But until now, this same production method has been rare on the web. Enter L.A. Beer, an upcoming comedy web series from executive producer Sam Miller that is filmed in front of a live studio audience.

L.A. Beer is set in the fictional Los Angeles Silver Screen Brewery, and follows the establishment’s employees as they navigate the ever-competitive microbrewing industry. L.A. Beer stars up-and-coming names such as Sam Daly (of The Office fame), Arianna Ortiz (Jane the Virgin), Kevin High (How I Met Your Mother), Alicia Ying (The Young and the Restless), and stand-up comedian James Lontayao.

Miller, a staff writer for the CBS comedy Mom, said in a release he wanted to create a web series of the same quality as a traditional studio show. The L.A. Beer executive producer pooled...

Twin Peaks, the short-lived ’90s TV show with a dedicated cult following, is returning to television. Starring a pre-Sex and the City Kyle MacLachlan, the series was created by Mark Frost and avant-garde director David Lynch and centered on an FBI agent solving a murder in an eccentric small town. ABC canceled the show in 1991, but it was announced today that the series will air new episodes on Showtime in 2016.

Like Arrested Development before and Community before it, the series joins a select group of shows that have found life on other networks. It’ll be a while before fans get a taste of the new installments, but Twin Peaks’ devotees wasted no time rejoicing on Twitter.

I don't need to express my excitement over the Twin Peaks news, because the way I drink coffee w/ quiet intensity tells you everything.

— Michael Varrati (@MichaelVarrati) October 6, 2014

of all the times...

Twin Peaks, the short-lived ’90s TV show with a dedicated cult following, is returning to television. Starring a pre-Sex and the City Kyle MacLachlan, the series was created by Mark Frost and avant-garde director David Lynch and centered on an FBI agent solving a murder in an eccentric small town. ABC canceled the show in 1991, but it was announced today that the series will air new episodes on Showtime in 2016.

Like Arrested Development before and Community before it, the series joins a select group of shows that have found life on other networks. It’ll be a while before fans get a taste of the new installments, but Twin Peaks’ devotees wasted no time rejoicing on Twitter.

I don't need to express my excitement over the Twin Peaks news, because the way I drink coffee w/ quiet intensity tells you everything.

— Michael Varrati (@MichaelVarrati) October 6, 2014

of all the times...

By Jonathan Weichsel, MoreHorror.com

I first saw The Wound at Hollyshorts earlier this year when it played as part of the horror block.

When I reviewed the short for Film Radar at the time I was impressed with the film’s surrealism, as well as its unconventional drama.

Not only was "The Wound" my favorite film that evening, but it is also one of the best horror films I have seen all year, expertly combining humor, terror, and a real sense of the strange to create an experience that is both engrossing as well as totally gross.

The Wound has gone on to become one of the most lauded short horror films of the year. It had its world premier at Cinequest, and recently won best short at the Rhode Island International Horror Festival. Both are Oscar qualifying events. Other large festivals

The Wound has played at include Telluride Horror Show,...

If your ticket to the Oscars got lost in the post, don't despair. Our experts know just where to go to bump in to the hottest celebs. Here are their top tips

Perez Hilton

Celebrity blogger at perezhilton.com

Very Public Restaurants!

No, celebrities don't actually eat. But they do Love having their picture taken. A lot! So celebs will flock to those restaurants where the paparazzi are usually swarming. It's a safe bet that you can run into a star at The Ivy (113 N Robertson Blvd; +1 310 274 8303), Toast (8221 West 3rd Street; +1 323 655 5018, toastbakerycafe.net) or Joan's On 3rd (8350 West Third Street; +1 323 655 2285, joansonthird.com). Those are the top three "Look At Me" restaurants, but they're not even the best! My favourite eatery in Los Angeles is José Andrés's The Bazaar (465 South La Cienega Blvd; +1 310 246 5555, thebazaar.com), which specialises in tapas done with a molecular-gastronomy twist.

High-End Retail!

It used to be Rodeo Drive.