News

Composer Morgan Doctor likes her high-waisted, wide-legged pants, a donation after her home with wife Ondi Timoner (“Last Flight Home”) was destroyed by the Eaton Fire. “She usually wears skinny jeans,” said the documentary filmmaker.

They are Zooming with me from the back of an airport town car en route to JFK. When the Eaton Fire exploded January 7 in Altadena, they were going to bed in Rome, preparing to embark on interviews and scouts for an upcoming and untitled Nazi documentary in Budapest, Vienna, and Florence, before returning to Rome. Overnight her home burned to the ground, along with a significant portion of her life’s work.

“I’m a little bit swollen from crying,” said Timoner. “I’m so exhausted that I constantly put my cold hands on my eyes, because they burn so hard.”

The devastation of losing so much is overwhelming and incalculable. However, the peripatetic filmmaker...

Veteran documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner and her wife, Morgan Doctor, were working on a film in Rome on Jan. 7 when they got a late-night phone call. It was Timoner’s brother. He was calling to inform his sister that he and his family, and their 86-year-old mother, Lisa, had all evacuated to her home in Altadena.

“They all came to my house because the wind was barely even blowing there,” says Timoner. “They had all been evacuated from their Altadena homes. So, they got to my place, and my brother started making dinner. There was no evacuation order whatsoever, and then suddenly the power went off, and they saw flames, and everybody panicked and left.”

Timoner and Doctor were alarmed by the call on Jan. 7 but got on their scheduled flight to Budapest the following day. They were traveling to Hungary to interview a Holocaust survivor. When they arrived, Timoner...

Ondi Timoner was in Budapest filming a Holocaust documentary when she learned her house in Altadena had been destroyed in the Eaton Fire. When she was finally able to fly back to Los Angeles, she had little time to absorb what she’d lost, going straight from Lax to the sold-out “Dig! Xx” screening at Vidiots in Eagle Rock.

The mood was already nostalgic at the event, with shared memories of the chaotic shoot of the original film, 2004’s “Dig!” But after the devastating fires, which also took the home of her brother, the film’s editor David Timoner, the gathering of the film and music community also became a wake of sorts.

“I love that this loving audience was here,” she said of the sold-out event, where she and David were met with hugs, condolences and offers to help catalog everything she lost in the fire. Vidiots gifted Ondi and David,...

It not a blockbuster MLK weekend but indies are out in force with The Brutalist continuing to surprise, The Substance adding theaters and Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl holding at nos. 7, 8 and 10 at the domestic box office.

Robert Eggers’ vampire fest from Focus Features had a $4.3 million weekend with a cume of $89.4 million for Nosferatu; Searchlight Pictures Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet is at $57.6 million after a $3.8 million weekend; and A24’s psycho-sexual Nicole Kidman-starrer Babygirl is estimating $2 million and a $25.4 million cume. All cumes are for the three-day weekend. Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Meanwhile, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, also from A24, grossed $1.98 million for the three-day weekend and $2.4 million for the four-day MLK holiday frame in a big expansion to 338 screens – up from $1.39 million on 68 screens last weekend. It’s seeing strong exits and sold-out shows, especially 70mm and Imax,...

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which is set to take place Feb. 4-15, one day longer than previous editions, in recognition of its milestone anniversary, has released its full program.

The lineup — listed in full at the bottom of this post — is comprised of films from 60 countries. Thirty-three will be world premieres and 74 will be U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will kick off the fest on Feb. 4, and the U.S. premiere of A Missing Part will close it on Feb. 15.

This year’s fest will be dedicated to and raise financial support for those affected by the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires. “As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” the fest’s executive director Roger Durling said in a statement. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal,...

Walter Salles-directed I’m Still Here caps weeks of packed screenings after a Best Actress Golden Globe win by star Fernanda Torres with a theatrical release from Sony Pictures Classics on five screens in New York and LA. The distributor’s The Room Next Door jumps from 44 screens to over 850, the widest release of a Pedro Almodovar film.

Mubi is out with documentary Grand Theft Hamlet, A24’s Colman Domingo-starring Sing Sing is back at 500+ theaters, Bleecker Street’s Hard Truths by Mike Leigh, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, expands to 120 screens.

Torres of I’m Still Here is the daughter of Brazilian icon Fernanda Montenegro who was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Salles’ breakout film Central Station. Earlier this month, Torres dedicated her Golden Globe to her mother, saying, “She was here 25 years ago and this is like proof that art can endure through life.” Her speech was a hit,...

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced its entire program which includes 32 World Premieres and 74 U.S. Premieres from 60 countries. The fest will open on February 4, 2025 with the US premiere of Jane Austin Wrecked My Life and will close on February 15 with the US premiere of A Missing Part. Considering the ongoing tragedy of the Los Angeles wildfires this year’s festival is dedicated to L.A. to raise funds in partnership with Direct Relief.

“As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” said Roger Durling, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal, and film festivals play a vital role in fostering a sense of connection. Festivals build community, and create an outlet for the process of feelings. In light of this, it became...

The 2025 Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 40th anniversary event, with 52 percent of the films directed by women. The 12-day extravaganza will raise funds for Los Angeles wildfire relief to help the community that has been devastated by the deadly infernos.

Sbiff will run from Feb. 4 to Feb. 15 — that’s one day longer than usual in honor of its four-decade mark. The festival will showcase movies from 60 different countries, including 33 world premieres and 74 United States premieres, and a majority come from female directors. In addition, there will be tributes to talented artisans, panel discussions, and free community education and outreach programs.

“As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” said Roger Durling, Sbiff executive director. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal, and film festivals play a vital role in fostering a sense of connection.

In “All God’s Children,” director Ondi Timoner invites viewers into the intricate tapestry of modern faith and social justice, weaving a narrative that is as urgent as it is poignant. The film focuses on Rabbi Rachel Timoner, the strong leader of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, and Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman, the enthusiastic pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in the diverse Bedford-Stuyvesant area.

They must confront the chasms that divide their communities as their journey progresses against a backdrop of growing antisemitism and systemic racial injustice. Timoner’s lens catches the essence of their ambitious collaboration, which seeks to heal the historical and cultural gaps between their congregations, a job fraught with complexity and tension.

Ondi Timoner, known for her sharp storytelling in previous works like “Last Flight Home” and “Dig!,” uses a mix of personal observation and broader social critique to reveal the raw emotions and difficulties involved...

Typically, when you see a relationship dubbed “star-crossed,” it’s a forbidden romantic relationship. But in the case of the documentary “Dig! Xx,” star-crossed is the perfect description of the relationship between two members of beloved ‘90s Gen-x bands.

Read More: ‘Dig! Xx’ Review: Rivalry Rock Doc Is Still Captivating, But Evolves & Demystifies The Fable Of F’d Up, Tortured Artist

As seen in the trailer for “Dig!

Continue reading ‘Dig! Xx’ Trailer: Ondi Timoner’s Classic Dandy Warhols vs The Brian Jonestown Massacre Rock Doc Returns In January at The Playlist.

The 2024 Doc NYC festival has unveiled its winners.

The critically acclaimed festival, which is the largest documentary festival in the U.S., marked one of its most successful in-person editions yet, with more than 20,000 viewers having watched films over nine days in New York alongside more than 1,500 filmmaker and industry guests participating in screenings and panels.

The juries for each respective award, along with the coveted Audience Award, had tough competition among this year’s festival.

Among eight international features, Areeb Zuaiter’s feature debut “Yalla Parkour” was selected as the winner. “Yalla Parkour” had its world premiere at the festival, and centers on young parkour athletes in Gaza who practice the sport on a “conflict-scarred” landscape.

“The jury was unanimous in its choice for best international documentary,” the Doc NYC international jury, consisting of “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” filmmaker Moses Bwayo, “Little Richard: I Am Everything” director Lisa Cortes,...

One of the great music documentaries of all-time has received new life. For its 20th anniversary, Ondi Timoner’s Dig! has received a remastered and enhanced version with Dig! Xx, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival. Following rival psych-rock bands the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols over a tumultuous eight years, Oscilloscope Laboratories has now announced the North American release, set for January 17, 2025, and debuted a new trailer.

Dig! Xx is a remastered, enhanced remix of the original cult classic. Edited from the original 2,500 hours of footage by David Timoner, who produced and shot the original Dig! alongside his sister, Ondi, this version adds nearly 40 minutes of previously-unseen footage, offering nuance and context to the chaotic journey and love-hate relationships of the musicians featured, and bringing the iconic story up to current day. It also includes new narration from the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Joel Gion,...

One of the more engaging figures in Ondi Timoner’s 2022 documentary, “The Last Flight Home” — about the decision of her 92-year-old father, Eli Timoner, to use California’s end-of-life option — was the director’s sister, Rachel. A rabbi, Rachel Timoner brought a pastoral warmth and spiritual insight to the sorrows and joys, rites and spiritual reckoning of a family honoring their beloved’s departure.

Now, with “All God’s Children,” Timoner gives her older sister an affirming but unsentimental close-up. Still, this documentary isn’t a family memoir piece. Instead, Rachel Timoner, the chief rabbi of Brooklyn’s historic Congregation Beth Elohim, shares top billing with Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman, the lead pastor of Brooklyn’s equally storied Antioch Baptist Church, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuy neighborhood.

The institutions are a mere four miles apart, but their leaders aim to traverse the wider gulfs of racism and antisemitism. “All God’s Children” follows...

"Is anybody going to get grumpy & irritable and start fighting with each other?" Oscope Labs has debuted the official trailer for a documentary film called Dig! Xx, a brand new update on the classic rock doc Dig! from 2004. Re-directed by Ondi Timoner, Dig! Xx (now 20 years later) is a bigger, better, crazier expanded reimagining of the original cut – reminds us why the original is canon and why sometimes, more is better. Dig! Xx tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians – Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols, and dissects their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Through loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and death threats, uppers and downers, and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business, they stage a self-proclaimed revolution in the music industry. This features Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Peter Holmström, Joel Gion, Zia Mccabe.

In the 20 years since her breakout film Dig!, about the uber-cool post-rock cold war between rival bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ondi Timoner has positioned herself as a great explorer of the times we live in, usually while that history is still unfolding. In the case of 2009’s We Live in Public and, in particular, last year’s The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution, she was so far ahead of the game that those films still can’t be considered case studies in the past tense, anticipating as they did the still-to-be-assessed impact of the internet on the human psyche. All God’s Children is unusual in that, although it, too, is very much in and about the present moment, it’s a film that’s also in dialogue — thoughtfully, and powerfully — with the past.

Timoner’s poignant 2022 film Last Flight Home, which unflinchingly documented her...

Exclusive: Doc NYC today unveiled its main slate for the 15th anniversary of America’s biggest documentary festival, a lineup that includes 31 world premieres and 24 U.S. premieres.

The festival, running from November 13-21 in Manhattan (and continuing online until Dec. 1) will open with the U.S. premiere of Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story, directed by Sinead O’Shea, a portrait of the acclaimed Irish writer who died in July at the age of 93. Closing the festival on Nov. 21 will be the world premiere of Drop Dead City – New York on the Brink in 1975, directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn, “a look back at the circumstances and players involved in NYC’s mid-70s financial crisis.” (The film’s title refers to a legendary headline in the New York Daily News reporting on then-Pres. Ford’s promise in October 1975 to veto any federal bailout of the Big Apple...

The 25th Woodstock Film Festival will feature a lineup of world, North American and U.S. premieres, joining acclaimed fiction and nonfiction films from Sean Baker, Steve McQueen, Alexis Bloom, Raoul Peck, Marielle Heller, Jesse Eisenberg, Jacques Audiard and many more.

The festival, which runs from October 15-20 in the Hudson Valley towns of Woodstock, Rosendale, Kingston and Saugerties, will see writer-director Paul Schrader receive the Honorary Maverick Award. His latest, Oh, Canada, starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Jacob Elordi, will screen at Woodstock. Filmmaker Ira Deutchman will be presented with the Honorary Trailblazer Award; Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís will receive the inaugural Art of Activism Award. [Scroll for the full lineup]

McQueen’s Blitz, starring Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan, serves as Woodstock’s centerpiece film. Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, starring the Oscar-nominated actor and Kieran Culkin, closes the silver jubilee edition of Woodstock. Sean Baker’s Anora heads to...

Exclusive: The Jewish Film Institute has announced six projects that will receive a total of $80,000 in Jfi Completion Grants, including the latest film from Oscar-shortlisted director and two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Ondi Timoner.

Timoner’s All God’s Children tells the story of a rabbi and a protestant minister in New York who unite their congregations to “combat the rising tension in their Brooklyn communities.” The rabbi, Rachel Timoner, is Ondi Timoner’s sister.

The nonprofit Jfi, which “champions bold films and filmmakers that expand and evolve the Jewish story for audiences everywhere,” has distributed more $400,000 in grants to filmmakers since 2020. Along with Timoner’s project, newly announced recipients include Amber Fares’ Coexistence, My Ass!, a documentary that follows Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi “as she struggles to create a one-woman comedy show called Coexistence, My Ass! about racism, sexism, war, peace and… her ass.” See below for the full list of 2024 grantees.

Exclusive: Manager and producer Doreen Wilcox Little has joined Echo Lake Entertainment after more than a decade at Anonymous Content.

A protégé of Steve Golin, Wilcox Little executive produced Killer Joe during her run at Anonymous, the thrilling drama directed by her late client Oscar winner William Friedkin, starring Matthew McConaughey. She was also an EP on Mapplethorpe, the biopic about the iconic photographer, directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner. Wilcox Little’s film credits include the adaptation of Mason Deaver’s YA novel, I Wish You All The Best, written and directed by her client Tommy Dorfman. Alongside the Oscar-winning producers at Macro, Wilcox Little is currently producing I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter for Orion Pictures. The film adaptation of the popular novel is being directed by Oscar-nominated actress America Ferrera this year.

Wilcox Little’s client roster includes notable actors such as Sophie Thatcher, known for her roles in Yellowjackets,...

10 Best Matt Smith Shows And Films, Ranked. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Matt Smith, with his unique talent and charm, has made a big name for himself in the television and film industry. From his iconic role as the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who, to personifying Prince Philip in The Crown, each of his performances has been equally impressive.

The actor’s ability to bring complex characters to life with nuance and intensity has earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. As Matt Smith continues to rise in his acting career, let’s take a look at 10 of his best shows and films so far.

10. Charlie Says (2018)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charlie Says Film (@charliesaysfilm)

Matt stepped into the shoes of the infamous cult leader Charles Manson in the 2018 film, Charlie Says, playing the complicated role to perfection. Directed by Mary Harron, the movie explores...

When Morgan Spurlock, who died May 23 from complications of cancer at age 53, first entered the documentary space in 2004 with “Super Size Me,” he managed to turn the film’s success into a career. A career that was not only prolific, but also lucrative — a rarity, to this day, in the field.

The secret to Spurlock’s success? He was not only a talented filmmaker, but also a brilliant businessman.

Just 11 months after the Sundance premiere of “Super Size Me,” Spurlock partnered with FX on the docuseries “30 Days,” which chronicled the journey of an individual situated in an environment antithetical to his background. The first season of the series began airing in 2005 and included episodes about a Christian living as a Muslim and a conservative heterosexual living with a gay man. In total, FX chairman John Landgraf ordered three seasons of “30 Days,” which was executive produced by Ben Silverman and R.J. Cutler.

Exclusive: Producer Kate Cohen (Jane Got a Gun) has tapped Oscar nominee Lesley Paterson (All Quiet on the Western Front) and Simon Marshall to script a feature adaptation of Viktor Frankl’s classic treatise, Man’s Search for Meaning. For Paterson’s husband and writing partner, Marshall, the project has taken on particular resonance of late, having just been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

Translated into 50 languages, with over 16 million copies sold, Frankl’s riveting account of his time in the Nazi concentration camps, and his exploration of the human will to find meaning in spite of unspeakable adversity, has offered solace and guidance to generations of readers since it was first published in 1946. At the heart of his work is the conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but rather the pursuit of meaning.

Producer Kate Cohen

Set to produce under her Straight Up...

“TransMexico,” “Edge of Everything” and Andragogy” are among the winners of the 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The Sbiff, whose mission is to discover and showcase the “best in independent and international cinema,” has become one of the leading film festivals in the United States – attracting roughly 100,000 attendees for a packed week slatted with screenings of over 200+ films.

A panel of jury members selected the winners, which included Lesley Chilcott, Alex Keledjian, Chris Landon, Lael Loewenstein, Jacqueline Lyanga, David Magdael, Gail Mancuso, Greg Nava, Pituka Ortega Heilbron, Carla Renata, Gil Robertson, Ondi Timoner, Clay Tweel and Ali Wolfe.

“We are so grateful to our dedicated group of jurors for their fine selections,” Claudia Puig, Sbiff’s programming director, said in a statement. “The winning films tell stories that span the globe, from the magic of movie palaces in the Atacama Desert to the stunning mystery of ice caves...

The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped in snowy Park City, and Deadline was on the ground to watch all of the key films. Here is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which include festival award winners like Daughters, the documentary that took the Festival Favorite Award, and A Real Pain, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriter Award for its writer-director-star Jesse Eisenberg.

Other pics include several that were scooped up by distributors, led by Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence selling to Neon, A Real Pain going to Searchlight, Ghostlight to IFC Films, and Netflix’s smash $17 million deal for It’s What’s Inside.

Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.

The American Society of Magical Negroes (L-r) Justice Smith and David Alan Grier in ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’

Section: Premieres

Director-screenwriter: Kobi Libii

Cast: Justice Smith,...

Twenty years ago, Ondi Timoner’s rock doc “Dig!” the wildly entertaining, sensationalistic portrait of the dysfunctional indie rock bands the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols and their strange love/hate relationship and rivalry, was a smash hit, at least critically, winning the Sundance Prize Grandy Jury Prize for Best Documentary and squarely landing the filmmaker on the map. The new expanded version, “Dig!

Continue reading ‘Dig! Xx’ Review: Rivalry Rock Doc Is Still Captivating, But Evolves & Demystifies The Fable Of F’d Up, Tortured Artist at The Playlist.

Once upon a time on the West Coast, two bands were plotting a revolution.

Well, really, it was one musician concocting a grand plan to dismantle the record industry, bring back a massive revival of 1960s psychedelic rock, and achieve total world domination. His name was Anton Newcombe, and this singer/multi-instrumentalist fronted a San Francisco group blessed with one of the greatest names of any 1990s band: the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The only thing better than their moniker was the music itself, which replicated the vintage, acid-soaked sounds of...

October 6, 1927, was a pivotal date in the history of Cinema. It was on this date that Warner Bros. released “The Jazz Singer,” the feature film that marked the end of the silent movie era and brought a whole new dimension to the world of video editing: sound.

Today, the music, dialogue and foley that sound editors add to our favorite films are as integral to the experience as the images and script themselves. From Hollywood blockbusters to low-budget short films, sound drives stories forward. It sets the emotional tone, aids in making actors’ performances feel more genuine, and ensures audiences hear exactly and feel exactly what filmmakers want them to hear and feel throughout their viewing experience.

In short, sound editors turn the muffled dialogue and noise recorded by a boom mike and elevate it into the crisp, emotive audio that brings visual storytelling to life.

With the 2024 Sundance Film Festival taking over Park City,...

At the height of its failure, every day was Altamont for the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the San Francisco outfit founded in 1990 by Anton Newcombe, the Klaus Kinski of psychedelic rock. Just in time for this 20th anniversary overhaul of Ondi Timoner’s breakthrough documentary, the Bjm were back in the news as recently as November 2023, when the first night of an Australian tour ended in a riot. That the riot was confined to the stage, and played out in front of a dumbfounded audience, is Dig! Xx in a nutshell, a welcome return for a film that no less an authority than Dave Grohl calls, in a specially filmed new intro, “the greatest rock ’n’ roll documentary of all time.”

It helps to have a working knowledge of the two bands it features — the Bjm and Portland alt-rockers The Dandy Warhols — but Dig! Xx works on a meta level too,...

Dig!, Ondi Timoner’s 2004 documentary on The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, remains an illuminating look at the turn-of-the-century indie rock scene in the United States. The film has been newly edited and restored and will play the 2024 Sundance Film Festival as Dig! Xx to celebrate the festival’s 40th anniversary. Below, David Timoner, who shared cinematography duties with his sister Ondi and Vasco Tunes on the original Dig! walks down memory lane as he relates their ingenuity in capturing such intimate footage and how the quality of the cameras improved alongside the bands’ popularity. See all responses to our annual […]

The post “There’s a Gritty Reality That is Undeniable”: Dp David Timoner on Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Dig!, Ondi Timoner’s 2004 documentary on The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, remains an illuminating look at the turn-of-the-century indie rock scene in the United States. The film has been newly edited and restored and will play the 2024 Sundance Film Festival as Dig! Xx to celebrate the festival’s 40th anniversary. Below, David Timoner, who shared cinematography duties with his sister Ondi and Vasco Tunes on the original Dig! walks down memory lane as he relates their ingenuity in capturing such intimate footage and how the quality of the cameras improved alongside the bands’ popularity. See all responses to our annual […]

The post “There’s a Gritty Reality That is Undeniable”: Dp David Timoner on Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? The answer is The Road. It was made on the road. My brother David and I shot Dig! in a rumble tumble of different locations, be they vans, tour buses, different cities and countries from Europe to Tokyo, all sorts of venues […]

The post “It Was All About Hanging On For Dear Life” | Ondi Timoner, Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Films are made of and from places: the locations they are filmed in, the settings they are meant to evoke, the geographies where they are imagined and worked on. What place tells its own story about your film, whether a particularly challenging location that required production ingenuity or a map reference that inspired you personally, politically or creatively? The answer is The Road. It was made on the road. My brother David and I shot Dig! in a rumble tumble of different locations, be they vans, tour buses, different cities and countries from Europe to Tokyo, all sorts of venues […]

The post “It Was All About Hanging On For Dear Life” | Ondi Timoner, Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2004, Ondi Timoner’s Dig! used the developing careers of indie rock bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to examine the complex, often incompatible relationship between art and commerce, as well as the one between the bands’ frontmen. Now, Dig! Xx revisits the story, digitally remastered and enhanced and complete with an additional 35 minutes of footage. Below, Editor David Timoner, Ondi Timoner’s brother and frequent collaborator, discusses revisiting his first major project and how he sought to improve it for its twentieth anniversary. See all responses to our annual Sundance […]

The post “We Didn’t Want to Just Chuck in a Bunch of New Bits”: Editor David Timoner on Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2004, Ondi Timoner’s Dig! used the developing careers of indie rock bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to examine the complex, often incompatible relationship between art and commerce, as well as the one between the bands’ frontmen. Now, Dig! Xx revisits the story, digitally remastered and enhanced and complete with an additional 35 minutes of footage. Below, Editor David Timoner, Ondi Timoner’s brother and frequent collaborator, discusses revisiting his first major project and how he sought to improve it for its twentieth anniversary. See all responses to our annual Sundance […]

The post “We Didn’t Want to Just Chuck in a Bunch of New Bits”: Editor David Timoner on Dig! Xx first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Dig!, a documentary about two bands – The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols – is a musical trainwreck, equal parts romantic comedy and horror film that follows the highs and lows of being a musician, in the studio, on the road and in their own heads.

The film, which launched at Sundance in 2004 and is returning to the festival this year with an extended cut, is a favorite among the musical class. I’ve sat in countless tour vans and crappy motels where it’s watched, quoted and dissected by kids with a dream and a drumkit.

Dave Grohl, the legendary Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, told me that it’s a “f*cking masterpiece” and that it’s also his favorite horror film.

“Watching a documentary like Dig!, seeing these two bands fall in love with each other, which happens often. You find your brother band, your sister band,...

For four decades, Sundance has maintained a reputation as one of the most important film festivals in America for independent filmmakers from around the globe. To commemorate its 40th anniversary in 2024 and the enormity (and reciprocity) of that cultural footprint, festival leadership set a series of restoration screenings to highlight many of the most memorable films programmed throughout its history.

“When you look at the way the independent film movement has evolved and changed over the years, from the maturation of an industry and the opportunities that artists have found, to the way that an audience has been built around the work, you see a festival that has evolved alongside it,” says John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives.

This year’s festival takes place Jan. 18-28, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from Jan. 25-28. The...

The makers of National Geographic’s The Territory are celebrating their win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, one of the most prestigious awards in nonfiction.

The prize, voted on by a special jury, was shared by director-producer Alex Pritz, producers Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, and Lizzie Gillett, and executive producer Txai Suruí. Their film centers on the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people, who face constant assault as they try to protect their territory within Brazil’s Amazon rainforest from invasion by outsiders. As Deadline previously wrote about the film, those invaders are “engaged in burning down great swaths of the rainforest for mining, logging, clearing land for cattle and homesteading.”

The film also underscores what’s at stake with each acre of Brazilian rainforest that goes up in smoke — it is the ecological health of the Earth that hangs in the balance.

Anniversary screenings include Park City hits Napoleon Dynamite, Mississippi Masala, The Babadook.

Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the 53 shorts as well as the eight films celebrating the festival’s 40th edition – a list which includes Park City hits Napoleon Dynamite, Mississippi Masala, and The Babadook.

The 40th edition celebration screenings and events are set for the second half of the festival from January 23-26, 2024, with a slate of retrospective programming that will bring alumni artists together for conversations and gatherings.

Sundance Film festival runs January 18-28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles...

The SXSW Sydney festival has set a 75-film screening schedule for its first edition. The selection skews heavily towards music, but is also distinctly international.

Headline titles include re-edited Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense,” “Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles,” an exploration of iconic Australian musical act The Wiggles; drill rap documentary “Onefour: Against All Odds,” directed by Gabriel Gasparinatos; and the widely-acclaimed “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” directed by Neo Sora.

“The first ever SXSW Sydney Screen Festival aims to platform the most exciting new voices, new forms and new ways of creating on screen. We hope to inspire our audiences and industry, by unwrapping the future of screen innovation as it emerges,” said Ghita Loebenstein, the festival’s head of screen. “Like our Austin counterparts, our festival presents global programming from leading creators, and our unique offer is this distinctive Asia Pacific lens. We also thematically lean...

Woodstock Film Festival has added Tony Goldwyn’s comedy drama “Ezra,” starring Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro to its 2023 lineup.

In the film, which made its world premiere earlier this month at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Cannavale stars as Max, a stand up comic who after recently blowing up his career and marriage is living with his father Stan (De Niro). When Max’s autistic son Ezra is expelled from yet another school, Max makes the controversial decision to take him on a cross-country road trip.

In addition to Cannavale and De Niro, “Ezra” stars Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg and Rainn Wilson. (Mister Smith Entertainment and CAA are handling sales.)

“I am so excited that the Woodstock Film Festival chose to screen ‘Ezra,'” says Goldwyn. “Woodstock is one of the coolest festivals in the country for a filmmaker. After such an enthusiastic reception at TIFF last week,...

The allegations were revealed in a joint investigation by ‘The Times’ and ‘Channel 4’’s Dispatches.

The BBC, Channel 4 and production company Banijay UK have launched investigations into the behavior of UK film and TV actor, TV and radio presenter and comedian Russell Brand while working on their programmes following accusations of rape, sexual assaults and emotional abuse by four women between 2006 and 2013.

The allegations were revealed in a joint investigation by The Times and Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ programme.

Brand denies the allegations and says his relationships were “always consensual”.

During this period Brand also starred in films including Arthur...

The upcoming Woodstock Film Festival will kick off with Chloe Domont’s “Fair Play” and present a lifetime achievement award to James Ivory.

The 24th edition of the fest, which runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1 in New York’s Hudson Valley, about 100 miles north of Manhattan, features a lineup of world, U.S. and New York premieres of feature films directed by filmmakers ranging from Steve Buscemi (“The Listener”) and Wim Wenders (“Anselm”) to Roger Ross Williams (“Stamped From the Beginning”).

Opening night “Fair Play,” an erotic thriller about a power-hungry couple contending for power at a cutthroat financial firm, was acquired by Netflix for $20 million after debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Wff will be held at venues in Woodstock, Rosendale and Saugerties, all of which are Hudson Valley towns where many Academy members own homes, making the fest an award season campaign hotspot.

Additional narrative feature...

“Somebody told me, it’s never going to end,” says Ondi Timoner, “and I’m starting to believe it.” When we speak, it’s been over 18 months since Timoner flew to Park City for the Sundance premiere of her achingly personal film Last Flight Home for Sundance, and by the usual rule of thumb its journey should now be well and truly over. The director hasn’t been idle; her follow-up, The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution, debuted at SXSW, and production of her latest film, The Inn Between, is in full swing.

But the power of Last Flight Home holds steady. In July it received an Emmy nomination in the category for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, and just last week it was announced that Timoner had been awarded a Humanitas Prize, which comes with a trophy and a cash prize of $10,000. That money is being put to good...

Humanitas, the organization that annually honors film and television writers whose work best explores the human condition, has revealed its 2023 winners.

Among the prizewinners is Craig Mazin, who scripted Season 1 The Last of Us episode “Long Long Time” that starred Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. Mazin won in the Drama Teleplay category, beating out fellow semifinalists that included Peter Gould who was up for the series-finale episode of Better Call Saul.

Other Humanitas category winners in TV included Amy Sherman-Palladino for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Comedy Teleplay), and Tony Phelan & Joan Rater for the pilot of A Small Light in Limited Series.

On the movie side, winners included Tyler Perry for his Tyler Perry: A Jazzman’s Blues in the Drama Feature Film category, over Rebecca Lenkiewicz for She Said and Michael Reilly & Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu for Till. Cooper Raiff won Comedy Feature Film for his indie Cha Cha Real Smooth,...

This year’s Humanitas Prizes for screenwriting, usually handed out at Beverly Hilton ceremony, were announced via the Los Angeles Times this year in solidarity with the unions on strike, including the Unite Here Local 11 hospitality workers. And on top of awarding shows like The Last of Us and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Humanitas, an organization founded in 1974, also honored the striking Writers Guild of America itself with its “Voice for Change” award. Past winners of that award have included Ava DuVernay and Kenya Barris.

Humanitas’ mission is to tell “stories that explore the human experience because we believe that the act of acknowledging our common humanity is transformational.” With that in mind, this year the organization’s winners include The Last of Us‘ Craig Mazin for the teleplay for the emotional and critically lauded episode “Long, Long Time” in the drama television category. In the comedy equivalent, Amy Sherman-Palladino...

For only the second time in the 19-year existence of the Best Documentary Filmmaking Emmy category, HBO (which has clinched the gold 10 times) doesn’t have a horse in the race. The same is true of Netflix, which achieved its 2018 victory for “Strong Island” in HBO’s absence. As a result, there is a great deal of pressure on two of the 2023 entries: “The Accused: Damned or Devoted?,” which could bring PBS its second consecutive and sixth overall filmmaking win, and “The Territory,” which would be the third National Geographic property to prevail here.

The documentary filmmaking award differs from most other Emmys in that it is juried, meaning that after each entry is exclusively reviewed by members of the TV academy’s documentary peer group, it must obtain unanimous support from them in order to officially be deemed worthy of a win. This also means that the four programs...

In this epic, yet sad tale of death and life, director Ondi Timoner profiles the last days of her father Eli with meticulous respect and caring for her now-deceased father and family. The story goes into explicit detail about Timoner and who he was as a man, father and husband. In his lifetime, Timoner was a venture capitalist and businessman. At the age of 53, he suffered from a terrible stroke, which paralyzed the left side of his body. That didn't stop him as he continued to walk with a cane, but as the years passed, his health began to decline more and more until he finally decided to end his life with the help of the State of California's End of Life Option Act....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Jewish Story Partners (Jsp), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit film funding organization, has announced its new slate of grants to 19 documentary film projects.

The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of which explore the vast and vibrant terrain of the Jewish storytelling space. The announcement coincides with Jewish American Heritage Month and a commitment from President Joe Biden’s White House administration to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism and “address increasing awareness and understanding of both antisemitism and Jewish American heritage.”

Since its inception, Jsp has disbursed $2 million in funding to 72 documentaries telling diverse Jewish stories.

On the heels of previous Jsp-funded films that have premiered at Sundance — including Paula Eiselt’s “Under G-d,” Luke Lorentzen’s “A Still Small Voice” and Ondi Timoner’s Oscar-shortlisted and Emmy contender “Last Flight Home...

In the history of casual comments that sound like they could mark the end of civilization, there’s a staggering contender in “The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution” — all the more so because it comes from an investor who sounds reasonably intelligent. The movie, the latest documentary provocation written and directed by Ondi Timoner, is about the new era of lone stock traders — many, though not all of them, millennials — who grew up playing video games and now experience investing at home as a literal extension of that thrill-a-minute world. The new trading apps, designed as visual candy, are meant to give you the rush that gamers get (and also the high that people seek out from slot machines). Trying to sum up the lizard-brain appeal of it all, an investor named Mitchell Hennessey explains, “Even if you lose on the trade, confetti pops up, and it almost feels like you’re leveling up.

Filmmakers and festival attendees are in Austin for the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival to celebrate the convergence of the tech, film and music industries across a variety of programming formats and special events. The fest runs March 10-19.

Fest-goers can expect red carpet premieres, gala Film, TV, Documentary and Spotlight events with talent expected to participate across all platforms.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves world premiered on opening night with cast members Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Daisy Head, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Latcham, and the directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein at the Paramount Theater on Friday, March 10. Other screenings on opening night included Later Bloomers, Only the Good Survive, National Anthem, Swarm and the Sundance horror favorite Talk to Me.

Related: SXSW 2023: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Day 2 of SXSW on Saturday, March 11 featured screenings and world premieres from the films You Sing Loud,...