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Update: Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning Israel-Palestine documentary “No Other Land,” has been freed, according to the latest post from co-director Yuval Abraham.

“After being handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base, Hamdan Ballal is now free and is about to go home to his family,” Abraham posted on X on Tuesday.

Previously: A petition to free Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning Israel-Palestine documentary “No Other Land,” has gathered more than 3,700 signatures on Change.org.

Ballal is reportedly missing after being attacked, according to a series of posts on X from co-director Yuval Abraham.

“We, members of the global film community urgently appeal for the immediate release and safety of filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of ‘No Other Land,’ the recipient of this year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Reports that Mr. Ballal was forcibly removed by the Israeli army from an ambulance following a brutal attack by settlers,...

Exclusive: Film Independent and the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday named the 20 filmmakers, from 12 different nations, selected to participate in the 2024 Global Media Makers LA Residency.

Running for five weeks, through June 30, the residency connects international filmmakers with each other and the U.S. entertainment industry, the goal being to build a multi-regional network that supports creative economic development and freedom of expression through global storytelling. Over the course of the program, fellows participate in filmmaking tracks focused on screenwriting, directing, creative development, and documentary filmmaking, where they develop their current projects. The program also provides master classes, industry sessions, field trips, cultural engagement, and networking opportunities.

This marks the 10th Gmm residency organized by Film Independent since 2016, coming off its first overseas residency in Colombia in April. With a record number of over 650 filmmakers nominated to apply, the selection process was highly competitive, attracting a diverse pool of creatives,...

Refresh for updates: The votes are in, the tuxes are pressed, and the envelopes are sealed: It’s time for the 96th Academy Awards. Deadline is updating the winners list live as they are announced, so check it out below.

Christopher Nolan’s near-billion-dollar juggernaut Oppenheimer has been collecting trophies at nearly every stop this awards season and comes into the ceremony as the odds-on favorite for Best Picture, among other nods. It’s vying for the Big Prize on Hollywood’s Big Night against the No. 1 movie of 2023, Barbie, along with American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest.

Here are the winners announced so far at the Oscars, followed by the remaining nominees:

Winners

Tba

Nominees

Best Picture

American Fiction

Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, Producers

Anatomy of a Fall...

In a strange reversal of a long-standing trend with the Academy, this year’s documentary short ballot is almost entirely domestic, while the feature doc category — where subtitles aren’t so common — is entirely international. Judging by the overall quality of the films in the 141-minute “2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary” lineup, that’s no sign of compromise. In fact, for Oscar completists, ShortsTV’s annual roundup is one of the most rewarding theatrical experiences audiences could hope for this year.

Director Sean Wang premiered his debut feature, “Dìdi,” at the Sundance Film Festival just four days before learning that his short, “Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó,” had been Oscar nominated. Both projects feature his paternal grandmother, octogenarian Chang Li Hua, who shares a house with his mother’s mother, 94-year-old Yi Yau Fuei (the title combines the two women’s nicknames). At times, Wang’s delightful, slightly freeform...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Oscars Predictions:

Best Documentary Short Nai Nai & Wai Po, (aka Nai Nai And Wai Po), Zhang Li Hua and Yi Yan Fuei, 2023. © Disney+ / Courtesy Everett Collection

Weekly Commentary: In the documentary short category, the competition is notably fierce, featuring a lineup of powerful and thought-provoking contenders, and the best of the three shorts categories.

At their nearest point, Taiwan and mainland China are less than a hundred miles apart. But historically and politically – for over 70 years – a broad gulf has separated them. In the case of the Kinmen Islands, part of Taiwan, the paradox between geography and history is even more stark: the islands sit but a few miles from the mainland city of Xiamen, in the increasingly fraught waters of the Taiwan Strait.

The opening frames of the Oscar-nominated short film Island in Between, directed by S. Leo Chiang, show an old tank moored on a sandy beach of Kinmen, its rusted barrel aimed out to sea. The image makes for a startling reminder of the uneasy co-existence between the two countries — independent countries, that is, from Taiwan’s point of view; the Chinese government considers Taiwan simply another province of the People’s Republic.

The strait between Kinman Island in Taiwan and mainland China.

If you are aiming to win your Oscar pool you may feel relatively safe right about now predicting, as most are, a sweep by Oppenheimer — especially after its overwhelming showing last week winning seven BAFTA Awards, the DGA honor for Christopher Nolan the week before that, and on Saturday sweeping three of the five movie awards at SAG and winning the top prize last night at the PGA Awards.

However, key to actually winning your pool will not be those marquee feature film categories but rather the three shorts races that run under the radar, but can spell the difference in triumphing over all others in whatever pool you enter. So who could — or should, for these purposes — prevail in the Documentary Shorts, Animated Shorts and Live Action Shorts contests this year? Shorts TV in association with distributor Magnolia Pictures has, as usual, put all of them in theatrical release across the country,...

As U.S. policymakers try to bolster defense for Taiwan vis a vis mainland China, S. Leo Chiang, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary short Island in Between, talks of the “crazy gymnastics” that the country finds itself in between the two world superpowers.

The short, available on The New York Times, spotlights the Taiwanese outer island of Kinmen, just across a strait from mainland China and, given its proximity, a front line in the increasing tensions with the Beijing regime.

That was evident earlier this month, when China’s coast guard boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat that was sightseeing near Kinmen.. That incident came days after a Chinese fishing boat capsized as it was being tailed by a Taiwanese coast guard vessel seeking an inspection. Two occupants on the boat died.

Chiang shot the film over two years...

Disney+ Hotstar announced today that the 96th Oscars® will be live-streamed in India on Monday, March 11 at 4 Am Ist. Emmy Award-winning late-night talk show host and producer Jimmy Kimmel will return to host the live show for the fourth time.

Actor In A Leading Role (Nominees)

Bradley Cooper

Maestro

Colman Domingo

Rustin

Paul Giamatti

The Holdovers

Cillian Murphy

Oppenheimer

Jeffrey Wright

American Fiction

Actor In A Supporting Role (Nominees)

Sterling K. Brown

American Fiction

Robert De Niro

Killers of the Flower Moon

Robert Downey Jr.

Oppenheimer

Ryan Gosling

Barbie

Mark Ruffalo

Poor Things

Actress In A Leading Role (Nominees)

Annette Bening

Nyad

Lily Gladstone

Killers of the Flower Moon

Sandra HÜLLER

Anatomy of a Fall

Carey Mulligan

Maestro

Emma Stone

Poor Things

Actress In A Supporting Role (Nominees)

Emily Blunt

Oppenheimer

Danielle Brooks

The Color Purple

America Ferrera

Barbie

Jodie Foster

Nyad

Da’Vine Joy Randolph

The Holdovers

Animated Feature Film...

The small rural islands of Kinmen, part of Taiwan but within swimming distance of China, has long held its own as a spot as a hotbed of political conflict and escalating tension between the two countries and is closely examined through the eyes of documentarian S. Leo Chiang in his Oscar nominated short Island in Between. This film is by no means a singular or straightforward observational look at the islands’ historical and political significance instead, Chiang uses the islands as a metaphorical insight into his own sense of identity and belonging, split between his Taiwanese heritage and American citizenship which adds to the profundity of this filmic exploration. Kinmen holds mythical proportions in the imagination of the public and has also been a place of resistance against the overbearing desires of China, and Chiang with a mix of archival imagery, narration and heartfelt familial connections, offers us a brief...

Ahead of the Academy Awards, we’ve reviewed every short film in each category: Animation, Documentary, and Live Action. Here are the Best Documentary Short nominees:

Island in Between | Taiwan | 20 minutes

Located just a few miles from mainland China is a series of islands known as Kinmen––islands under the jurisdiction of Taiwan. This is where Taiwanese men spend their mandatory military service, as it’s the frontline of any impending conflict that might arise from China’s decades-long refusal to acknowledge the country’s sovereignty. Putting a Taiwanese face to the tensions, S. Leo Chiang traveled to Kinmen to capture its life in-motion.

That’s pretty much what Island in Between delivers: snapshots of residents with connections to both countries and voiceover narration describing Chiang’s own relationship with them (as well as the US). We see army drills. Listen to the “psychological warfare” of pumping Taiwan’s most...

At the age of 84, documentary legend Sheila Nevins today earned the first Oscar nomination of her career.

Nevins was nominated in the Documentary Short category this morning for her directorial debut, The ABCs of Book Banning, from MTV Documentary Films. She has won more than 30 Emmy Awards during her illustrious career, but this is her first Oscar recognition.

“It was a sleepless night,” Nevins says of the anticipation for the announcement. “It’s always a sleepless night. This was a particularly sleepless night.”

‘The ABCs of Book Banning’

Her film, co-directed by Nazenet Habtezghi and Trish Adlesic and produced by Adlesic, examines the surge of book banning in U.S. schools, and gives a platform to kids who share what it means to them to be denied access to reading materials in their libraries.

“I felt a rage to make it,” Nevins told Deadline back in October. “It had to...

Oscar Nominations 2024 Full List (Photo Credit – Instagram/IMDb)

Oscar Nominations 2024: It is time for the most significant awards in the film industry. Yes, we are talking about the 96th Academy Awards. Oppenheimer has successfully dominated this year’s awards, including the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards. Scroll below to find out the nominations for this year’s awards.

The Boys star, Jack Quaid, and the Deadpool 2 star, Zazie Beetz, announced the nominations this year. For the unversed, Jack was also a part of the 2023 blockbuster Oppenheimer.

Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz will be announcing the nominations across 23 categories. Last year, India’s Rrr made history by bagging the Oscar for the song Naatu Naatu. Let’s see how many nominations are secured by Oppenheimer. Will Robert Downey Jr and Cillian Murphy get the award for their performance? Or Barbie’s Margot Robbie win the Best Actress in a Leading Role?...

When it comes to predicting the Oscars, there are no categories that can be more difficult than the three short film categories. That goes double for trying to predict the nominees in those categories. But don’t worry Derbyites. With the recent release of the Academy’s shortlists, we’ve got descriptions of each of the pieces that made the runoff for Best Documentary Short, we got you covered on this! Below we have descriptions of each of the 15 short films that made this year’s list. We even included information and links on where you can currently view them.

Among the topics that are tackled in this year’s crop are book bans in Florida, a barber who runs a community bank, how abortion was legalized in New York in the 1970s, a group of people who fix musical instruments, and the healthcare crisis that’s affecting rural America.

Strictly speaking, the name Kinmen applies to a group of islands, but also to the largest in that group, from which director S Leo Chiang hails. It’s best, in this case, to keep things simple, because Chiang’s identity is already complex enough. As he notes early on in this Oscar-shortlisted short documentary, people used to be afraid of being sent to Kinmen. Though it officially belongs to Taiwan, it’s just 10km from mainland China, with which, historically, it has been in more frequent contact. In the 20th Century it found itself on the front line; and more recently, it was reconnected, with a ferry carrying travellers to and from the supposed enemy land. As its people, however, and they will generally say that neither Taiwanese not Chinese identities quite fit them; they belong to the island in between.

In a world wedded to political absolutes, and never more so than between.

Maleonn, also known as Ma Liang, has become one of China’s leading conceptual artists, producing works of stunning imagination that span photography, video, drawing, installations, set design and mechanical puppetry.

“Maleonn is at once,” a gallerist describes him, “a sculptor of the senses, a visual poet and a painter of emotions.”

Maleonn’s gift can be traced to his parents who are both artistic people—his mother a former actress and his father, Ma Ke, the former artistic director of the Shanghai Chinese Opera Theater. The relationship between father and son takes center stage in the poignant Oscar-contending documentary Our Time Machine, directed by Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang.

The film recounts how Ma Ke directed over 80 theatrical productions during a distinguished career that was interrupted by China’s Cultural Revolution. He was known as an intimidating presence behind the scenes.

“I was the scariest director at the Shanghai Chinese Opera Theater,...

Riz Ahmed, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Michaela Coel win prizes.

Nomadland picked up its second and third awards in three days as it won best feature and the IFP Gotham Audience Award at the 30th annual Gotham Awards on Monday (January 11).

Searchlight Pictures’ drama directed by Chloé Zhao topped the National Society Of Film Critics vote at the weekend and is gathering impressive momentum during awards season and prevailed in a category where women directed every nominee.

In a strong night for British talent Riz Ahmed won best actor for Sound Of Metal, Kingsley Ben-Adir of One Night In Miami emerged victorious in the Breakthrough Actor contest,...

The Gotham Awards for the best in independent film kicked off this unusual awards season on Monday night, January 11. Presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project, these kudos are usually handed out in early December but were pushed back (as were many awards events) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So who won? Scroll down for the complete list of winners, updated live as they were announced.

SEEGotham nominee John Magaro (‘First Cow’) on how Cookie and King-Lu are ‘almost soulmates’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

These awards are limited to American films (apart from Best International Feature ) made with an economy of means, which means no budgets higher than $35 million. Nominees and winners were decided by juries of film experts and insiders. And for the first time in the awards’ history, all five of the nominees for Best Feature were directed by women: “The Assistant” by Kitty Green, “First Cow” by Kelly Reichardt, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” by Eliza Hittman,...

‘Nomadland’ and ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ secure two nominations each.

Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow leads the nominations for the 30th IFP Gotham Awards, in which the nods for best feature are all directed by women.

Period drama First Cow, first seen at Telluride 2019 and released by A24, secured four nominations for best feature, screenplay and actor, for John Magaro, as well as breakthrough actor, for Orion Lee.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Titles that scored two nominations included Chloe Zhao’s Venice Golden Lion winner Nomadland, for best feature and actress Frances McDormand; and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always,...

This year’s awards season, delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, finally got underway with the announcement of the 2021 Gotham Awards nominations on November 12 (last year’s big reveal was on Oct. 24). These awards are presented by the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and honor the best of the year as determined by small committees of film journalists and festival programmers. The five Best Feature nominees, which were all directed by women, are: “The Assistant,” “First Cow,” “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “Nomadland” and “Relic.” Scroll down to see the complete list of contenders.

Will these awards preview the Oscars? Perhaps. Last year’s Best Feature award went to “Marriage Story,” which did go on to reap a Best Picture bid. However, that was the exception rather than the rule. Indeed, its rival Gotham Awards nominees — “The Farewell,” “Hustlers,” “Uncut Gems” and “Waves” — were all snubbed by the Academy Awards.

Why is this?...

The starting pistol of awards season has been officially fired with the 30th annual IFP Gotham Awards announcing its nominations and making history. For the first time, women direct all the nominees for best feature. Among them are “The Assistant” from Kitty Green, “First Cow” from Kelly Reichardt, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” from Eliza Hittman, “Nomadland” from Chloé Zhao and “Relic” from Natalie Erika James.

In the best actor category, Chadwick Boseman received a posthumous nomination for his work in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” a performance likely to be shortlisted by many awards bodies over the next few months. The other nominees included Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Jude Law (“The Nest”), John Magaro (“First Cow”) and Jesse Plemons (“I’m Thinking of Ending Things”).

For the actresses, the group gave a very diverse field of cultures and experience. Nicole Beharie’s turn in “Miss Juneteenth” is a riveting portrait, and...

Kitty Green’s “The Assistant,” Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” and Natalie Erika James’ “Relic” have been nominated as the best independent films of 2020 at the 30th annual IFP Gotham Awards, the Independent Filmmaker Project announced on Thursday.

All five nominees in the Best Feature category were directed by women, a first for the Gothams.

With four nominations in the eight film categories, the period drama “First Cow” led all films in nominations. “Nomadland” and “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” each received two nominations, as did six other films that were not nominated in the Best Feature category: “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” “Miss Juneteenth,” “Saint Frances,” “The Vast of Night,” “The Nest” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”

Nominees in the new Best International Feature category included Maimouna Doucoure’s “Cuties,” which led to protests by conservative critics when it aired on Netflix.

Em Baker and Sam Dinning pitching ‘The Vinyl Records: Destroy Phallus Oppression’ at The FACTory 2020.

The Australian International Documentary Conference’s (Aidc) centrepiece event – The FACTory – has been reconfigured to take place online in 2021.

The pitching showcase, now in its sixth edition and open to filmmakers around the world, connects new documentary and factual projects with local and international decision makers.

Going online next year will see shortlisted teams present their work to the largest ever contingent of funders, streamers, broadcasters, sales and distributors to ever participate in Aidc.

Aidc CEO and conference director Alice Burgin said: “We are exceptionally pleased that we can continue to grow and expand The FACTory in 2021. We know so many brilliant creative teams have been working hard over the last year to develop their slates and that they are hungry to pitch to the world’s best buyers. We can’t wait to see...

Wip initiative will run simultaneously with the Haf main programme (August 26-28) and Filmart Online (August 26-29).

The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) has announced the 22 projects, including ten narrative features and 12 documentaries, which have been selected for the Work-in-Progress (Wip) section of this year’s Haf.

The Wip initiative will run simultaneously with the Haf main programme (August 26-28) and Filmart Online (August 26-29). Both events were postponed from March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and were recently forced to move online as travel restrictions are still in place across the region and in Hong Kong.

Haf will...

Haf, New Horizons, Thessaloniki and Nfdc Film Bazaar have each contributed five.

Twenty works-in-progress from four international film events have been selected for the online Marché du Film’s Goes To Cannes showcase, which runs from June 22-24.

Five titles will be presented by each of Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf); Poland’s New Horizons International Film Festival; Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Tiff); and for the first time, India’s Nfdc Film Bazaar.

The projects will be presented during two-hour online screenings from June 22-23. Industry professionals who attend the online screenings will be able to...

Agnieszka Zwiefka’s “Wika!” Angeliki Antoniou’s “Green Sea” and Wong Fei-pang’s “Dear Immigrants: What Was Your First Meal?” will all feature at the Marché du Film’s 2020 Goes to Cannes, one of the highest-profile industry events at the Cannes Film Market.

This year’s Goes to Event runs June 22-23, at the beginning of the Marché du Film added to what looks like a packed schedule of screenings.

A pix-in-post showcase traditionally running the second week of Cannes and frequented by sales agents, distributors and film fest heads, this year’s Goes to Cannes, now in its eighth edition, will source five features a piece from three traditional Goes To partners: the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), Poland’s New Horizons International Film Festival, and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Joining the Goes to Lineup for the first time is Nfdc Film Bazaar, organized by India...

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 Chicago Critics Film Festival Runs May 17th – 23rd. Stephen Tronicek is covering the event for We Are Movie Geeeks

My entire Day Three of the Chicago Critics Film Festival could be defined as me watching a movie, calling it the best film I’ve seen at the festival so far, watching another movie, and rethinking the previous statement.

Yesterday’s line up was one great work after the other and the first feature of the day, Our Time Machine, was no exception. While the film follows the creation of a puppet play written and co-directed by Chinese artist Maleonn, the focus of the piece is not on the play. It is rather on the relationship that created that play: the one between Maleonn and his father. Our Time Machine is a wondrous blend of beautiful puppet imagery and even more beautiful family drama. On top of that, the artistic...

For his latest project, Shanghai artist Maleonn, a tireless creator of life-sized puppets and mechanical objects, is in a race against the clock, desperate to stage an autobiographical play about time and memory before his father succumbs to Alzheimer’s. The relationship between Maleonn’s abstract production, called “Papa’s Time Machine,” and his complicated feelings for a father at once inspirational and distant, is a delicate subject, but Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang’s moving documentary “Our Time Machine” handles it with sensitivity and insight. Maleonn’s wondrous creations are enough of an attraction on their own, but the film, which picked up the cinematography award in the documentary section at Tribeca, has many more layers to reveal about the legacy of Cultural Revolution, familial relationships, the agonies of love and loss and the circle of life.

On one level, Sun and Chiang have the makings of a...

The beginning of Our Time Machine arrests on birth imagery, a sonogram of wiggling mass within a womb. Directed by Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang, this documentary is an ode to the mortality of the mind of an artist and his relationship with his artist father. Set mostly in Shanghai, the documentary follows the […]

The post ‘Our Time Machine’ Review: An Amazing Documentary About Fathers, Sons, Memory, and Science Fiction Puppet Theater [Tribeca] appeared first on /Film.

Last night in New York at the 18th Tribeca Film Festival, the winners were announced in the competition categories. The top honours went to Burning Cane which took the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature, House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) which won Best International Narrative Feature and Scheme Birds which was named Best Documentary Feature. Here’s a full list of Tribeca 2019 competition winners:

U.S. Narrative Competition Categories

Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – Burning Cane, directed by Phillip Youmans. The award was given by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal on behalf of the jury.

Best Actress in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Haley Bennett in Swallow.

Best Actor in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Wendell Pierce in Burning Cane.

Best International Narrative Feature – House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) directed and written by Bora Kim.

Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature Film – Phillip Youmans for Burning Cane.

Phillip Youmans’ “Burning Cane” took home the Founders Award for best narrative feature at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday, with star Wendell Pierce earning Best Actor.

Youmans, a 19-year-old freshman at NYU, is the first African-American director to win the Founders Award and the youngest director to have a feature in Tribeca — he was just 17 when he wrote, directed and shot the film, about the fractious relationship between a mother and son in rural Louisiana.

Korean director Bora Kim’s “House of Hummingbird” won for best international narrative feature, and Ji-hu Park won best international actress.

In addition, Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin won for their documentary feature “Scheme Birds.”

Here’s the complete list of winners.

Also Read: 'Xy Chelsea' Film Review: Doc Tackles Chelsea Manning's Very In-Progress Story

U.S. Narrative Competition Categories:

The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Competition were Lucy Alibar,...

Hong Kong director Kit Hung’s new film “Forever 17” is among the first projects to be supported by Gol Studios, a new Lgbt production platform launched by Jay Lin’s Taiwan-based Portico Media.

Aiming to take Lgbt cinema into the mainstream, Gol Studio is a crowdsourcing website that helps film projects on three fronts: helping productions find talent, crew and funding; distribution; and crowdsourced marketing.

The initiative is a sister operation of GagaOOLala, Asia’s first Lgbt-focused Ott platform. In the three years since launch, it has become a well-known player in the industry, with 150,000 members and 1,000 titles from all over the world. The platform now operates in Taiwan and covers all of Southeast Asia including Hong Kong and Macau.

Gol Studios is also partnering with Zero Chou for the third installment of her “Six Asian Cities Rainbow Project,” a series of films about different Lgbtq issues, each set in a different location.

‘Mystify: Michael Hutchence’

Richard Lowenstein’s feature documentary on Michael Hutchence will have its world premiere at the 18th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 24 to May 5.

Produced by Lowenstein, Maya Gnyp and John Battsek for Ghost Pictures and Passion Pictures, Mystify: Michael Hutchence will screen in the documentary competition for best documentary feature, cinematography and editing.

Co-funded by Screen Australia, the film is described as an intimate look at the life of the Inxs lead singer through his many loves and demons, featuring Kylie Minogue and Helena Christensen.

Madman Entertainment is the Australian distributor and Dogwoof is handling international sales. The ABC and BBC pre-bought the film.

Lowenstein tells If the doc features live music from Inxs and Max Q, Hutchence’s only completed solo album which was a collaboration with Ollie Olsen, remixed for Atmos, plus archival footage which had been in his attic,...

The Tribeca Film Festival has set its full feature slate for 2019, selecting 103 titles including world premieres of films by Jared Leto, Christoph Waltz, and Margot Robbie.

The 18th edition of the festival, which runs from April 24 to May 5, will include documentaries from Antoine Fuqua, Werner Herzog, and Abel Ferrara, and music-focused docs highlighting the lead singer of band Inxs (“Mystify: Michael Hutchence”), Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman (“The Quiet One”), and musician Linda Ronstadt (“Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice”) with Sheryl Crow performing after the premiere.

Leto’s “A Day in the Life of America” is a crowd-sourced documentary featuring footage from all 50 states on July 4, 2017. Waltz is making his directorial debut with the crime drama “Georgetown,” starring himself, Annette Bening, and Vanessa Redgrave. Robbie stars in and produces “Dreamland,” a Depression-era drama set in the Oklahoma dustbowl.

Other notable titles include “Mad Men” producer Semi Chellas making...

Ironically launching at the stellar Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina right as the anti-lgbtq HB2 legislation hit the fan, S. Leo Chiang and Johnny Symons’s Out Run follows the Ladlad Party in the Philippines — the only Lgbt political party in the world — in the run-up to what could be a history-making election. An artistic political doc, Out Run is both riveting and familiar, as the leaders (including Bemz Benedito, a trans woman who serves as the face of the party) deftly employ campaign strategies that include everything from transforming beauty parlors into headquarters to […]...

The nation’s only non-profit designed to aid in the funding, distribution and promotion of Lgbt films will support seven films through the final stages of their production after receiving a record 112 submissions.

Winning narrative features are Appropriate Behavior directed by Desiree Akhavan and Awol directed by Deb Shoval.

Documentaries features receiving grants are The Joneses directed by Moby Longinotto, Kumu Hina directed by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, Out Run directed by Johnny Symons and S Leo Chiang, Radical Love directed by Hillevi Loven and documentary short Sticks And Stones directed by Silas Howard.

“These seven phenomenal projects feature exquisite filmmaking craft and refreshingly bold voices in Lgbt cinema,” said Frameline’s director of exhibition and programming Des Buford. “It is a thrill for the organisation to support such a talented crop of dynamic filmmakers which includes both new artists and veteran mediamakers in this cycle of funding.”...

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Announces 188 Outstanding Films For 2012 Edition Presented By Visual Communications

Southern California.s Largest Asian Film Festival Runs May 10 . 20, 2012, Will Present 188 Films From

Over 20 Countries Featuring World Premieres, Sneak Previews; Showcasing Documentaries and Narratives

Focusing on the Voices of Asian Americans and Asian Peoples from Around the World.

The Launch of the C3: Project Market and the Vc Film Development Fund

Festival Opening Night Selection Shanghai Calling, Directed By Festival Alum Daniel Hsia, Starring: Daniel Henney, Eliza Coupe and Bill Paxton.

Centerpiece Presentations, SXSW favorite Sunset Stories, Directed by Ernesto Foronda and Silas Howard; Sundance Winner Valley Of Saints directed by Musa Syeed. Saturday Night Gala Yes, We.Re Open, directed by Festival Alum Richard Wong.

Joyful Reunion Directed by Tsao Jui Yuan, Selected as Closing Night Gala Presentation.

Visual Communications (Vc), the nation.s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, announced its...