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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pulled back the curtain on the films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature categories for the 97th Academy Awards next year.

The list includes 31 toon features, 169 docs and international pics from 85 countries. Preliminary voting for the 97th Oscars runs December 9-13, and all three shortlists will be revealed December 17. The Oscars will be handed out Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

Here are the animated, documentary and international features eligible for the 2024 Oscars:

Best Animated Feature

Art College 1994

Captain Avispa

Chicken for Linda!

The Colors Within

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Despicable Me 4

Flow

The Garfield Movie

Ghost Cat Anzu

The Glassworker

The Imaginary

Inside Out 2

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Kung Fu Panda 4

Living Large

Look Back

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Mars Express

Memoir of a Snail...

The Academy has unveiled its list of eligible films for the 97th Oscars in the animated, documentary, and international feature categories, spotlighting various blockbusters and critically lauded works. Submissions span major studios and independent filmmakers alike, and the competition promises to be one of the most competitive as films seek nominations.

A total of 31 animated feature films are in contention this year, including DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” IFC Films’ “Memoir of a Snail,” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which recently became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. While this year’s number is slightly down from 33 submissions in 2023, it marks an increase from the 27 entries in 2022, reflecting a robust year for animation. Among the list also is Janus Film and Sideshow’s “Flow,” which will also compete in the international feature race for Latvia.

Nominees in the Animated Feature category are determined by the Academy’s Animation Branch members,...

A total of 31 animated features, 169 documentary features and 85 international features are eligible for Oscar nominations this season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, high-profile studio films like Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Universal/DreamWorks’s The Wild Robot and acclaimed indies like Memoir of a Snail are joined in the running by longer shots like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a film jettisoned by Warner Bros. that wound up with the distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

The documentary feature race, meanwhile, includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Nat Geo’s Sugarcane, Netflix’s Daughters and MTV’s Black Box Diaries; two that count Malala Yousafzai as an executive producer, Apple’s Bread & Roses and The Last of the Sea Women, and two that count Jennifer Lawrence as an EP,...

You might expect to find a cinematic event called the Yellowstone International Film Festival in the northwest corner of Wyoming. But you’d be off – by about seven thousand miles.

This Yellowstone – the festival, not the national park – is based in the pulsating heart of New Delhi, India, with its fifth edition getting underway on Friday. Yiff, which runs through Nov. 20, includes documentary and narrative features and shorts, and programming that reflects a kaleidoscope of films by women, fresh talent and industry-established filmmakers, and a strong representation of stories of people with disabilities and from the Lgbtqia+ community. In a few short years, it has emerged as one of the most prominent film festivals in India, advocating for independent Indian and International cinema.

Bollywood Star Divya Dutta (center) attends Yiff

This year sees the festival expanding to Mumbai — the nerve center of entertainment in India — for its opening night slate.

It’s been almost 10 years since the first episode of “Hot Ones” hit the internet, and host Sean Evans will be the first to admit that he and his team “did not have high aspirations” for the show at inception. Nonetheless, the YouTube talk show has seemingly cracked the code, becoming a must-stop destination on film press tours — but Evans still feels like he’s “drowning” a bit.

That’s a good thing for the host though. As Evans explained to TheWrap at a Hot Ones live event in Chicago (part of Stella Artois’ ‘Let’s do Dinner Summer Series’), he thinks it’s “healthy” for him and his team to still feel overwhelmed and never like they’re in a rhythm.

“We’re not complacent with the success that we have,” he said. “We’re just trying to week-in and week-out deliver the best possible episode for the fans...

More than a year ago, it was announced that Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody was set to produce a film based on Violet Karim’s webcomic Death of a Pop Star. Just three months ago, we heard that Cody would be writing the screenplay for a remake of the iconic 1980 comedy 9 to 5. Now, we have updates on both of those projects, as Entertainment Weekly reported that, during an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con, Cody revealed that she has already finished writing the script for the 9 to 5 remake, but the Death of a Pop Star adaptation is still in the development phase.

Directed by Colin Higgins, who also wrote the screenplay with Patricia Resnick, the original 9 to 5 was an office satire about three female secretaries who decide to get revenge on their tyrannical, sexist boss by abducting him and running the business themselves. The trio, one...

The Frameline Film Festival has announced the winners from its 2024 program.

The top honors went to Luke Gilford’s “National Anthem,” which took home the Outstanding First Feature Award, and Chloé Barreau’s “Fragments of a Life Loved,” which won Outstanding Documentary Feature.

Frameline, the world’s largest and longest-running LGBTQ film festival, ran from June 19–29, with 120 screenings, programs and events held in theaters across the Bay Area, including the Herbst Theatre and Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.

Highlights of the festival included the Castro Theatre’s first-ever celebration of Juneteenth — a block party that featured the official re-lighting of the venue’s iconic neon blade sign and marquee, performances from the all-Black drag collective and a special outdoor screening of “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.”

Other highlights included a special 30th anniversary screening of the 4K restoration of “Go Fish,” attended by Rose Troche and Guinevere Turner, the...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSThe Little Mermaid.A generative AI start-up has been accused of stealing the voices of actors for its subscription service.IATSE expects to schedule additional days of bargaining with AMPTP in June, but has vowed not to extend its contract past July 31.With Incaa defunded by Argentine president Javier Milei, Ventana Sur is in talks to relocate from Buenos Aires to Uruguay for its sixteenth edition.As the Italian film industry continues to wait on a divided government to make production tax credits available, anticipating modest cuts, a new law in the Czech Parliament would more than double the existing cap on their incentives. Meanwhile, industry insiders in Poland urge a newly elected government to increase their rebate...

Exclusive: Frameline, the arts nonprofit that hosts the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, joined the Colin Higgins Foundation in announcing the recipients of the 2024 Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant. The 2024 winners are New York-based filmmakers Farah Jabir (Kasbi) and Leaf Lieber (Burrow).

The partnership, which began in 2023, centers on providing young LGBTQ+ filmmakers with financial support to continue their work. Eligible applicants must self-identify as LGBTQ+ filmmakers, be under the age of 25, and currently reside in the U.S.

“We are deeply honored to continue our partnership with the Colin Higgins Foundation and honor Colin’s enduring legacy by empowering LGBTQ+ youth filmmakers,” said Allegra Madsen, Executive Director of Frameline. “This year’s Festival is centered on the power film has to create change and shape our cultural moment. Youth filmmakers, like Farah Jabir and Leaf Lieber, are not only vital members of the queer film community, but their...

Jennifer Aniston is looking to produce a reimagining of the glass-breaking, female driven 1980 comedy 9 to 5. Juno Oscar winner Diablo Cody is writing and Aniston will produce under her Echo Films label with Kristin Hahn.

Directed by Colin Higgins and starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, the movie followed three female office employes who turn the tables on their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot boss played by Dabney Coleman. The pic was a huge blockbuster back in the day grossing over $103M.

The movie was nominated for an original song Oscar for Parton’s title theme song. The song went platinum and was also nominated for four Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance.

The movie was spun off into an ABC sitcom of the same name in 1982-1983, as well as a 2008 Broadway musical which earned four Tony nominations. Recently there...

Aniston’s production company will reportedly reimagine the hit 1980 Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton comedy about sexism in the workplace – with a script by Diablo Cody

Jennifer Aniston’s production company, Echo Films, are to reimagine classic comedy 9 to 5 for a modern day audience, according to reports first covered by The Insneider. The script is being written by Juno and Young Adult writer Diablo Cody.

No plot details have yet been revealed, but the 1980 original centred on three female colleagues in an office who team up to take revenge on their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” boss. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman starred in the film, which was scripted by Patricia Resnick with Colin Higgins, who also directed. It was based on an idea by Fonda, who commissioned the film as a vehicle for herself and Tomlin before bringing Parton on board.

A new 9 to 5 movie is in the works!

On Wednesday (April 25), Variety confirmed that Jennifer Aniston and her Echo Films partner Kristin Hahn are producing a re-imagining of the hit 1980 movie for 20th Century Studios.

9 to 5, directed by Colin Higgins and written by Patricia Resnick, followed three working women – Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin – who live out their fantasy of getting even with their antagonistic boss (Dabney Coleman).

Keep reading to find out more…Variety also reports that the film is currently in development with Oscar winner Diablo Cody writing the screenplay. Diablo is best known for writing the screenplays to Juno, Jennifer’s Body, and Lisa Frankenstein.

Back in 2019, Dolly revealed that a 9 to 5 sequel was in the works, however, the project was dropped.

Jennifer Aniston is ready to pour herself a cup of ambition.

Aniston and her Echo Films partner Kristin Hahn are producing a “9 to 5” reimagining for 20th Century Studios, Variety has confirmed.

The film is currently in development, with Diablo Cody working on the latest draft of the “9 to 5” reimagining. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

The original “9 to 5” follows three female office colleagues who decide to exact revenge on their sexist, egotistical boss. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman starred in the 1980 office satire, directed by Colin Higgins and written by Patricia Resnick. The hit comedy film spawned a sitcom of the same name, which aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983, and in first-run syndication from 1986 to 1988. Parton, Tomlin and Fonda participated in the 2022 documentary “Still Working 9 to 5,” which focuses on the impact of the classic film 40 years later.

In the early 1980s, Dolly Parton began working on The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The film, while perhaps not a critical success, opened at No. 1 in the United States and earned Parton a Golden Globe nomination. It was also a nightmare to make. Parton described the challenge of making the movie at a particularly low point in her personal life. She also admitted that in trying to land a friend a job, she got someone else fired. Parton explained why all of this made her feel that everyone involved in the film were “losers.”

Dolly Parton said ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ was a miserable experience

Parton was extremely close with her bandleader, Gregg Perry. She wanted to bring him in to work on the music for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with her. Unfortunately, Perry’s hiring meant that the sitting musical supervisor lost his job.

In 1982, Dolly Parton starred in the musical film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. While the film was a success — Parton even picked up a Golden Globe nomination for her acting — she did not enjoy her on-set experience. Parton struggled behind the scenes and dealt with problems in her personal life. When reflecting on her work in the film, she felt she needed to apologize for any pain she’d caused anyone on set.

Dolly Parton felt she might have caused pain on the set of ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’

After thoroughly enjoying her experience acting in 9 to 5, Parton felt let down by The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. While things weren’t perfect on set, she noted that her personal life was the root of much of her dissatisfaction.

“Without meaning to, I added to the hurt feelings and confusion surrounding Best Little Whorehouse,” she wrote in...

Frameline, the arts nonprofit that hosts San Francisco’s International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, announced a new partnership with the Colin Higgins Foundation entitled the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant, a new initiative centered on providing young LGBTQ+ filmmakers with financial support to continue their work.

Eligible applicants must identify as LGBTQ+ filmmakers, be under the age of 25 and currently reside in the U.S. The recipients for this year have been chosen and are being announced today.

Three young American filmmakers, Daisy Friedman, Karina Dandashi and Emilio Subia, have been selected as the recipients of the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant, and will each receive $15,000 to support their future film projects, for a total of $45,000 awarded to these filmmakers. In addition, the winners’ short films will be showcased at the Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, taking place June 14-24, 2023. Each filmmaker will be in attendance for their screening.

While Dolly Parton is primarily a musician, fans have had the opportunity to watch her in a number of films over the years. She has filmed TV specials and even her own variety show. For fans looking for documentaries about the country star or just a chance to see her acting chops, here are five films and series to check out soon.

Dolly Parton | Dolly Parton | Andrew Putler/Redferns ‘9 to 5’

Parton has acted in many films over the years, but her first role was in the 1980 movie 9 to 5. In it, Parton plays Doralee Rhodes, the secretary to a controlling and misogynistic boss. She teams up with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s characters to kidnap the boss and run the company themselves. Parton received a Golden Globe nomination for her acting and an Oscar nomination for writing the title song.

Parton said she was extremely comfortable in the part,...

Dolly Parton co-starred with Burt Reynolds in the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and she once had some choice words to say about the actor. Here’s why Parton called Reynolds an “old, dreadful, unsexy thing,” and what else she had to say about her former castmate.

Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds | NBC/NBCUniversal; Bob Riha Jr/Archive Photos Dolly Parton starred in ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ movie with Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton co-starred in the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, an adaption of the 1978 Broadway musical of the same name.

The Colin Higgins-directed movie and its stars received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. It was the top-grossing live-action musical film of 1982 and the fourth highest-grossing of the decade.

Parton played a madam who had an affair with Reynolds’ sheriff. Their on-screen chemistry was so strong fans were convinced...

Michael Butler, the Tony-winning producer who brought Hair to Broadway in 1968 and later produced the film adaptation and many other productions of the show, died Monday in Santa Barbara. He was 95.

His attorney confirmed the news on behalf of Butler’s family but give not provide details.

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story 'The Music Man' Extends Broadway Run By Two Weeks Related Story Jimmy Fallon Confirms "I'm In!" To Reprise 'Almost Famous' Film Role For Broadway Musical In Drop-By Performances – Update

As a producer, social figure and international bon vivant, Michael Butler was an international celebrity in the 1960s and ’70s. As his 1968 production of Hair became an international hit, with 12 productions around the world, his friendships grew among exotic global figures such as the Shah of Iran and the Mahajarah of Jaipur. As a host at his lavish polo grounds in the UK,...

“Still Working 9 to 5” was reviewed by TheWrap out of the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.

Camille Hardman and Gary Lane’s documentary “Still Working 9 to 5” cold-opens with an archival clip of Jane Fonda giving a television interview about “9 to 5,” the 1980 comedy she produced and starred in alongside Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. As the interviewer presses her about what kind of film to expect from the radical activist, Fonda blurts, “it’s a movie about secretaries fantasizing about murdering their boss,” to which the interviewer responds, “So it’s not a political statement, is it?” This is an assertion that Hardman and Lane will emphatically disprove over the course of the next hour and 40 minutes.

“Still Working 9 to 5” doesn’t innovate or experiment with documentary form: This is a straightforward talking-heads and archival-footage kind of project. But the access to the film’s stars and producers,...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on Eddie Volkman Show with Hannah B on Star 96.7 Wssr-fm reviewing the new Blu-Ray edition of “Harold and Maude,” the cult classic featuring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in the ultimate May/December lesson about freedom, passion and love.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

”Harold and Maude” was released over 50 years ago in 1971, and it was directed by Hal Ashby – his second film as director after a Oscar-winning career as an editor – and featured Bud Cort as Harold and Ruth Gordon as Maude. 20-year-old Harold is obsessed with death, after rejecting his life of privilege and his detached mother (Vivian Pickles). Enter Maude, a free-spirited 79-year-old fellow traveler who like Harold likes to attend funerals. They developa friendship, and eventual romantic relationship, and it is Maude who teaches Harold about the importance of living life to its fullest. H and M also features a classic soundtrack from 1970s troubadour Yusuf “Cat” Stevens.

The 1980 comedy hit 9 To 5 came at a crucial turning point for women in the workplace. Star/Producer Jane Fonda explains in the new documentary of its creation and the movement that spawned it, that she and producting partner Bruce Gilbert wanted to do a serious film on the struggle women had endured for decades, but instead decided that to get anyone to pay attention the only way to do it was with laughs. Thus a smash hit comedy was born, initially with a screenplay by Patricia Resnick that as she explained was met with creative differences, and then later saw its problems solved when ironically a man, the late Colin Higgins (Harold And Maude) came in to write and direct the final film.

The documentary, from directors Camille Hardman and Gary Lane called Still Working 9 To 5 exhaustively chronicles the development and making of the movie from all angles,...

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“Age Is Just A Number”

By Raymond Benson

Harold and Maude, which was directed by Hal Ashby (his second feature film) and released in 1971, is one of those initially critically stomped box-office bombs… and yet years later became a cult hit in revival houses, on television broadcasts, and home video releases. It’s one of many examples that illustrate how critics don’t always know everything and how some motion pictures are ahead of their time. Harold and Maude now resides in the top 50 of the AFI’s list of 100 greatest comedy films.

Written by Colin Higgins, who simultaneously turned his original screenplay into a novel (also published in 1971), the movie was unquestionably a counter-culture, rebellious black comedy that from the get-go had the potential to offend some folks. The main character’s fake suicide pranks aside, the theme of a May-December romance...

It was the original cult film. A movie you had to show your girlfriend or boyfriend so they understood you. And it was the comedy Variety called “as much fun as a burning orphanage.”

Making “Harold and Maude” wasn’t easy, and releasing it to the general public was even harder. But 50 years on, the touching, droll and subversive story of a troubled teenager, played by Bud Cort, who falls in love with a nearly 80-year old free spirit, played by Ruth Gordon, still feels fresh and funny.

The idea for the film was hatched by Colin Higgins, a UCLA film student who lucked into a job cleaning the pool of a producer and ended up selling his script to Paramount. Director Hal Ashby fought the establishment at every turn, nearly getting the production shut down. Released with almost no marketing on the same date “The Godfather” was supposed to premiere,...

Resuscitating a career can be a tortuous process, especially when it involves a star bent on self-destruction. A case in point: Cat Stevens, the folk singer/pop legend who gave us “Miles from Nowhere,” but now has decided he prefers to be somewhere. Hence, a new tour, a memoir, an album and a revised persona.

It was more than 40 years ago when Cat, a gentle British hippie, suddenly re-emerged as Yusuf Islam, just a few years after his first album soared to the top of the charts and his songs lit up Harold and Maude, a movie destined for its own mythic status.

Bewildered by his sudden celebrity, the Muslim wanderer seemed to be living out his own lyric, “On the road to find out.” What he found was isolation and anger, which he exacerbated with reckless remarks relating to author Salman Rushdie, fueling a literary controversy.

Can Cat now find re-acceptance?...

Now that we’re entering Year 2 of our pandemic purgatory, here’s at least one positive takeaway: We’re coming to terms with our past — our movie past, that is. Two films circa 1951 and 1966 represent a personal case in point. Miracle In Milan (1951) starts with a lost baby and an operatic cop, but it’s touching and absurdist. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) delivers an empathetic protagonist with a Trumpian addiction to violence that seems relevant.

The fact that films like these are being re-visited and debated tells us something about our post-viral culture: A vacancy sign hangs over what passes for the movie scene. But viewing classic movies demands qualities I am deficient in –- patience, for example.

Pre-streamer filmmakers were leisurely in their pacing, which by today’s standards seems gratifying, yet soporific. “Leave lots of string between the pearls,” Billy Wilder used to advise his acolytes, which translates into...

Tim Marshall with Christina Radburn (second from left).

Writer-director Tim Marshall’s debut feature Followers is among 10 projects from around the world selected to participate in the Toronto-based Inside Out Lgbtq Film Finance Forum.

Developed from his eponymous short which had its world premiere in competition at Sundance followed by SXSW in 2015, the dark comedy follows Lynn Walters, a grieving widow who sees a vision of Jesus on the shorts of young, queer aqua aerobics instructor Rudi.

Convinced Rudi has been sent from God to heal and reinvigorate her life, Lynn hopes he will somehow fill the void left by her dead husband while he endures a toxic relationship with Jim, his older life coach.

Melbourne-based Frances Wang-Ward and Christina Radburn (who produced the short) will produce, with Robyn Kershaw as Ep.

The fourth edition of the Lgbtq Forum will take place online from May 26-29, featuring one-on-one meetings with reps from Netflix,...

Exclusive: The American Pavilion revealed that Alex McFry and Julie Tjalas are the recipients of the inaugural Colin Higgins Ambassador Scholarship. The American Pavilion founder/director Julie Sisk made the announcement today.

This scholarship is for Lgbtq students and the winners will participate in The American Pavilion’s Worldwide Student Program at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival.

“These two students are both incredible leaders already, and exemplary examples of perseverance and grace in the face of adversity, it is an honor to welcome them both as the first two Colin Higgins Foundation Ambassadors to the American Pavilion this year,” said Michael Bremer, AmPav’s Director of Student Programs.

McFry’s short film Heads Up is loosely based on his own journey and will make its Cannes debut on the croisette as a part of the American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase this year. He is from a small-town in...

Exclusive: Now in its 31st year, the American Pavilion is moving with the times and bringing inclusion and representation to the forefront with its showcase of films by emerging filmmakers. This year, 29 films will make their debut on the Croisette. The global stories include 17 female directors, six documentaries and 11 Lgbtq narratives that are relevant to the times.

The new films will be featured in five showcases: Student Short Films, Student Documentaries, Emerging Filmmaker Short Films, Emerging Filmmaker Documentaries and Emerging Filmmaker Lgbtq Showcase Films. All are part of the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase series. Some of the films feature actors including M. Emmet Walsh, Wallace Langham, Michelle Davidson, among others.

“We have such great diversity amongst the films and international filmmakers, with more than half of this year’s films directed or co-directed by women,...

Beginning in the early 1960s, one of the main venues where audiences could watch underground films outside of New York City was the midnight movie screening series called Underground Cinema 12.

The origins of Underground Cinema 12 were related by one of its founders, Mike Getz, to the Alternative Projections historical project. Getz was the manager of the Cinema Theater in Hollywood, California when he was approached by John Fles, who had been holding alternative cinema screenings around Los Angeles, such as in the Jewish and Ukrainian cultural centers.

Fles had the idea to run a regular midnight movie screening series in an actual movie theater, which Getz quickly agreed to host. The Cinema Theater typically ran foreign films and independent cinema, so screening underground films at midnight seemed like a good match. Initially, the series was called Movies ‘Round Midnight and it premiered on Columbus Day 1963 with a screening of Jack Smith‘s Flaming Creatures,...

’Suspiria’, ’3 Days In Quiberon’ among other openers.

Warner Bros’ fantasy sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald is the stand-out opener at the UK box office this weekend.

With a cast including Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller and Johnny Depp, the story sees current Defence Against The Dark Arts professor Albus Dumbledore (Law) enlist the help of Newt Scamander (Redmayne) in combatting the growing threat of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Depp).

A spin-off of the hugely successful Harry Potter film series, the first title, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, opened to £15.3m in the UK...

This past week Burt Reynolds, perhaps the most self-deprecating movie star to ever cruise to box-office domination, died during a hospital stay in Jupiter, Florida, at the age of 82. “I’m pretty passionate about my work,” he once said, “even though I sometimes have this realization on the second day of shooting that I’m doing a piece of shit. So, I can do one of two things: I can just take the money, or I can try to be passionate. But the name of the boat is still the Titanic.” Yes, on top of being effortlessly likable and undeniably sexy, Reynolds was naturally funny too. And yes, there are a lot of confirmed pieces of shit floating around out there in which he received top billing. But even if the bad ones in his oeuvre outnumber the good ones (and I would argue that this is indeed the case...

The Traverse City Film Festival is celebrating its 14th year in 2018 by bringing together some of the year’s best indies and documentaries, plus classics from Jonathan Demme, Hal Ashby, and more. The Michigan-set festival, backed by Michael Moore, is being run in 2018 by directors Susan Fisher and Meg Weichman, who have worked on the festival for nearly a decade and have been at the helm since December.

Tickets for this year’s edition will go on sale to the public on Saturday, July 21 (click here for the official festival website). Friends of the Film Festival will be able to get early access to tickets with advance sales starting Sunday, July 15.

The full lineup for the 2018 Traverse City Film Festival is below.

Opening Night: “Rbg”

Centerpiece: “Hearts Beat Loud”

Closing Night: “Burden”

Open Space

“Stop Making Sense,” Jonathan Demme

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” Jake Kasdan

“Coco,” Lee Unkrich

“Black Panther,...

What’s your earliest horror memory, the moment you were irreversibly scarred yet knew you had to see and know more? Which one imprinted on you at a stupidly impressionable age? Do you remember? Because I never could; save for one indelible image burned on my psyche at the age of five, I have searched, asked, and pleaded with so many people what possible movie could have done this to me as a child. Until last night that is, when I stumbled upon The Devil’s Daughter (1973), an ABC TV movie that finally put a name to the image, even if I did somewhat misremember it. Time plus kindertrauma equals new memories, I guess? Yay to ongoing decrepitude!

Originally airing on January 9th as an ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week, The Devil’s Daughter was up against Hawaii Five-o over on CBS while NBC rolled out their own Tuesday Night at the Movies.

December 19th marks 35 years since the release of 9 to 5, the cult comedy that brought together Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin with Dolly Parton in her film debut as Miss Doralee Rhodes, a kind-hearted secretary who fantasizes about lassoing her "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss and roasting him on a spit.

Tomlin stars as Violet Newstead, a working widow and mother of four who's passed over for promotions despite her obvious qualifications. The project was conceived of by Jane Fonda, who was inspired by the work of Karen Nussbaum, an...

Contrary to a hard-to-source quote that's long been floating around online, Harrison Ford insists he never said that he "outgrew" Han Solo. And as he sat in a Beverly Hills hotel suite in November for his Rolling Stone cover-story interview on The Force Awakens, it quickly became clear that rumors of his hostility towards the character – and the franchise that helped launch his career – have been greatly exaggerated. "Or maybe he was just in a good mood that day. Here's Ford's full interview:

Are you as surprised as anyone that...

Today in 2009, 9 to 5 closed at the Marquis Theatre, where it ran for 148 performances. 9 to 5 is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five. Resnick had co-written the screenplay with Colin Higgins, the director of the film, in which Parton had her first screen role. The musical premiered at Center Theatre GroupAhmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in September 2008 and opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009. It was nominated for 15 Drama Desk Awards, the most received by a production in a single year. It was also nominated for four Tony Awards.

[Editor's Note: This post is presented in partnership with Time Warner Cable Movies On Demand in support of Indie Film Month. Today's pick, "Dirty Weekend" is available now On Demand. Need help finding a movie to watch? Let TWC find the best fit for your mood here.] Alice Eve and Matthew Broderick strike up a layered friendship while on a layover in Albuquerque, New Mexico in Neil Labute's latest drama "Dirty Weekend," but it's certainly not the first time a movie twosome have formed a strong bond while on the job. In honor of the film hitting On Demand, Indiewire picks some of the greatest workplace friendships in movie history. Read More: 5 Brilliant Films About the Dark Side of Famous Geniuses "9 to 5" (1980)Workplace friendships don't get more perfect than the one between Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in Colin Higgins' classic comedy satire "9 to 5." Underpaid, undervalued and unappreciated, this triumvirate of female...

Producer Robert Evans, circa 1970s, in the documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Robert Evans: The Kid Is Alright

By

Alex Simon

I interviewed legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans in 2002 for Venice Magazine, in conjunction with the release of the documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture," adapted from his iconic autobiography and audiobook. Our chat took place at Woodland, Evans' storied estate in Beverly Hills, in his equally famous screening room, which mysteriously burned down a couple years later. Evans was still physically frail, having recently survived a series of strokes, but his mind, his wit and his charm were sharp as ever, with near total recall for people, places and stories. Many, many stories. Here are a few of them.

It’s a widely-held belief that the years 1967-76 represent the “golden age” of American cinema. Just look at a few of these titles: Rosemary’s Baby,...

It might be the beginning of the end for home video royalty lawsuits. Universal will settle the class-action lawsuit filed by director Colin Higgins in January 2013 over his profit participation deal for the studio's musical comedy The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The proposed $26-million settlement would compensate the class of plaintiffs who claim they've been underpaid through contracts that base their profit participation earnings on 20 percent of their films' home video revenues. Higgins held they should receive earnings based on the full 100 percent. The settlement would be the first in the series of lawsuits

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Five UCLA students have won Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, which have honored excellent dramatic writing since 1955. Winners receive $15,000 for first place, $7,500 for second place, $4,000 for third place and $1,000 for the honorable mention. They are: First Prize: Han-Yee Ling, "Spaghetti Bridges" Second Prize (tie): Kevin Human, "Hell Is Other Cowboys" Second Prize (tie): Gaia Violo, "Absentia" Third Prize: Teresa Sullivan and A.J. Marchisello, "Doublelind" Honorable Mention: Dan Patrick, "The Village of Sweet Dreams" Past winners include Francis Ford Coppola, Pamela Gray, Colin Higgins, Eric Roth and novelist Jonathan Kellerman. This year's judges were Allison Anders, director/writer/producer and Goldwyn Award winner; Ben Feingold, producer and former President Worldwide Home Entertainment, Digital Distribution and Product Acquisitions at Sony Pictures; and Jeremy Kay, U.S. Editor, Screen International. The prize was...

Han-Yee Ling scooped first prize at a ceremony for the 59th annual Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards in Los Angeles on November 3 for her screenplay for Spaghetti Bridges.

Ling (pictured centre with UCLA Tft Dean Teri Schwartz and The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation vice-president John Goldwyn) was one of five UCLA finallists to follow in the footsteps of previous winners such as Francis Ford Coppola, Pamela Gray, Colin Higgins, Eric Roth and novellist Jonathan Kellerman.

Kevin Human for Hell Is Other Cowboys and Gaia Violo for Absentia tied for second place, while Teresa Sullivan and Aj Marchisello earned third for Doubleblind and an honourable mention went to The Village Of Sweet Dreams writer Dan Patrick.

First place received a $15,000 prize, second place $7,500, third $4,000 and honourable mention $1,000.

This year’s judges were filmmaker and former winner Allison Anders, producer and former president of worldwide home entertainment, digital distribution and product acquisitions at Sony Pictures, Ben Feingold, and Screen...

Today in 2009, 9 to 5 closed at the Marquis Theatre, where it ran for 148 performances. 9 to 5 is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five. Resnick had co-written the screenplay with Colin Higgins, the director of the film, in which Parton had her first screen role. The musical premiered at Center Theatre GroupAhmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in September 2008 and opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009. It was nominated for 15 Drama Desk Awards, the most received by a production in a single year. It was also nominated for four Tony Awards.

Stars: Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, Ellen Geer, Eric Christmas | Written by Colin Higgins | Directed by Hal Ashby

Harold (Cort) is young, rich, depressed, lonely and obsessed with death. His idea of fun is visiting funerals and pretending to commit suicide in a variety of gruesome and violent ways in front of his controlling mother. One day at a funeral he meets Maude (Gordon), a fun and rebellious seventy-nine year-old who loves life and every thing to do with it. As their friendship grows, Maude teaches Harold how to live life to the full with a smile on your face, how to love and to not worry so much about the little things.

Filmed in 1971, Harold and Maude is coming to Blu-ray this year as part of the Masters of Cinema series. This irreverent and dark comedy is a strange tale of loving life to the fullest.

While I can't say "The Other Woman" is a good movie, I can say that it features at least one thing that is genuinely worth seeing. The film that I kept thinking of as I watched this one was the Colin Higgins mega-hit "9 To 5," with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton teaming up to kick the living crap out of their chauvinist boss Dabney Coleman. While I'm not sure I'd feel like that film held up if I saw it now, it tapped a very potent sense of simmering outrage. It was a well-timed shot across the bow in the cultural conversation on changing roles for women in the workplace. "The Other Woman," on the other hand, is a largely ridiculous look at crappy rich white people who seem to have nothing to worry about besides what they do with their naughty bits. This is the feature debut of screenwriter Melissa Stack,...

Back in February, Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAMcinématek held "Vengeance is Hers," a series of films featuring cinema's greatest heroines and anti-heroines, and it was so popular that they had to bring it back. BAMcinématek has announced "Back with a Vengeance," a redux of the series that will run from April 18-27. Highlights returning from the original series include Colin Higgins' "Nine to Five" starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as office employees overthrowing their sexist boss; and "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles," Chantal Ackerman's masterful 201-minute portrait of a widowed mother over the course of three days.  "Vengeance is Hers" featured the Pam Grier-starring, Jack Hill-directed blaxploitation classic "Coffy." Hill and Grier's follow-up, "Foxy Brown," about a woman masquerading as a prostitute to get revenge on the men who killed her boyfriend, will serve as an appropriate successor. Grier's Brown will be joined by another fox,...

Stuntman and Burt Reynolds director Hal Needham dead at 82: Received Honorary Oscar in November 2012 Veteran stuntman and stunt coordinator Hal Needham, whose stunt-work movie credits ranged from John Ford Westerns to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, and who directed a handful of popular action comedies starring Burt Reynolds, died today, October 25, 2013, in Los Angeles. Needham, who had been suffering from cancer, was 82. (See also: "Stunt Worker Hal Needham: Honorary Oscar 2012".) Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 6, 1931, Hal Needham began his long Hollywood stuntman career in the mid-’50s. A former tree trimmer and paratrooper, and a motorcycle and car racer, Needham performed stunts in both big-screen and small-screen Westerns, such as John Ford’s 1962 classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, starring John Wayne and James Stewart; the all-star 1963 Best Picture Academy Award nominee How the West Was Won; and the television series Have Gun - Will Travel, doubling for star Richard Boone.

Today in 2009, 9 to 5 closed at the Marquis Theatre, where it ran for 148 performances. 9 to 5 is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five. Resnick had co-written the screenplay with Colin Higgins, the director of the film, in which Parton had her first screen role. The musical premiered at Center Theatre GroupAhmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in September 2008 and opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009. It was nominated for 15 Drama Desk Awards, the most received by a production in a single year. It was also nominated for four Tony Awards.

Universal City Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures Corporation are facing class action lawsuits over the rates that they compensate "profit participants" for home video revenues. In four separate lawsuits filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Colin Higgins Productions, Stanley Donen Films and Larry E. Martindale -- a trustee for the heirs of actor Charles Bronson -- allege that the studios have shortchanged them with an outmoded method of calculating compensation for rentals, sales and other sources of revenue deriving from home video. The...

Today in 2009, 9 to 5 closed at the Marquis Theatre, where it ran for 148 performances. 9 to 5 is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five. Resnick had co-written the screenplay with Colin Higgins, the director of the film, in which Parton had her first screen role. The musical premiered at Center Theatre GroupAhmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in September 2008 and opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009. It was nominated for 15 Drama Desk Awards, the most received by a production in a single year. It was also nominated for four Tony Awards.