News

Rob Lowe, who went viral in March for a fiery take on the challenges of shooting projects in Los Angeles, has returned to the city to shoot an independent film titled The Musical.

The beloved performer will star opposite Gillian Jacobs and Tony Award winner Will Brill in the dark comedy for director Giselle Bonilla and writer Alexander Heller. Filming is underway in Los Angeles, which is hoping for an uptick in local productions thanks to tax incentives, particularly for independent features, as previously reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The Musical casts Brill as a frustrated playwright and middle school theater teacher who finds out that his ex-girlfriend (Jacobs) has started dating his nemesis, the school’s principal (Lowe). As a result, he hatches a plan to ruin the principal’s chances of winning the blue ribbon of academic excellence by secretly producing the most inappropriate musical imaginable. The story...

Exclusive: Henry Eikenberry (Euphoria) and Roberta Colindrez have joined the cast of Peacock’s The Five Star Weekend in recurring guest roles. Bekah Brunstetter created the project based on Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling novel The Perfect Couple.

The Five-Star Weekend centers on Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), a famed food influencer known for her delicious recipes, impeccable taste, and warm demeanor, who suffers a devastating loss. Unable to move forward, the death exposes the cracks in Hollis’s picture-perfect life — her strained marriage, her complicated relationship with her daughter, and her growing pursuit of validation from her followers.

To overcome grief and find herself again, Hollis gets the idea to host a weekend away at her house on Nantucket with three friends from different stages in her life: her childhood, her 20s, 30s, and one surprise fifth star. Set against a luxurious and coastal backdrop,...

Following the recent announcement that several major awards contenders such as Jay Kelly, The Smashing Machine, Bugonia and After the Hunt, are set to premiere at various film festivals in the coming months, it’s the perfect time to take a closer look at which of these prestigious festivals most often led to an Oscar.

Looking back at the past 10 years of Best Picture winners at the Oscars, it’s clear that the world’s leading film festivals — Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and Telluride — play a vital role in shaping the awards race. But which one truly leads to the top prize? Surprisingly, the answer appears to be ... a tie.

In 2015, Spotlight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The Tom McCarthy-directed journalism drama, starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams, which also played in Venice and Toronto, went on to win Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars.

The following year,...

The American Film Institute is now accepting applicants for its storied AFI Dww+ program for the class of 2026-2027, as IndieWire exclusively shares.

The tuition-free, year-long directing workshop turns 51 this year and will again shepherd underrepresented and emerging filmmakers through the production cycle of a short film. Since launching, the program, which takes place in Los Angeles on the AFI campus, has trained more than 350 filmmakers and artists.

Alumni include “Coda” Best Picture winner Siân Heder, Ellen Burstyn, Dyan Cannon, Directors Guild of America president Lesli Linka Glatter, Lee Grant, Margot Kidder, “Wednesday” and “Agatha All Along” director Gandja Monteiro, Cicely Tyson, Anne Bancroft, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” director and executive producer Dime Davis. Check out the most recent class of 2026 here.

The program accepts up to eight filmmakers with “a passion for visual storytelling, the tenacity to pursue a directorial career, and a willingness to learn and grow,...

Exclusive: Madeline Delp (Ballroom), Rob Delaney (Dying for Sex), and Ray Fisher (The Piano Lesson) are new additions to Being Heumann, Apple’s civil rights drama based on the bestselling memoir from disability activist Judy Heumann.

The trio joins previously announced stars Ruth Madeley, Mark Ruffalo and Dylan O’Brien in the cast. Delp will play disability rights activist Kitty Cone, with Fisher as the Black Panther Party’s Chuck Johnson, and Delaney as Congressman Miller. The latter character is presumably modeled off of George Miller, who played a key role in supporting Heumann and her fight for disability rights during the 1970s.

Being Heumann follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required...

Editor’s Note: This review ran during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Kino Lorber releases “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” in New York June 20 before it expands June 27.

The questions shouldn’t surprise, not after all these years, but they do. Well, not the questions so much — people are naturally curious, especially about what they don’t know or have never seen — but the ways in which they were asked, the ways in which they were lobbed at a young Marlee Matlin, hot on the heels of her first major film role in “Children of a Lesser God” and the buzz (and Oscar win!) that followed. It was a consistent query in 1986, when the deaf star burst on to the scene: what else could a deaf actress possibly be good for, other than deaf roles?

Matlin hasn’t forgotten those questions or interviews or articles, and filmmaker Shoshannah Stern doesn’t...

Dylan O’Brien is set to star in a new role!

The 33-year-old actor will appear alongside Ruth Madeley and Mark Ruffalo in Being Heumann, Apple‘s adaptation of the bestselling memoir from disability activist Judy Heumann.

The film comes from Coda Oscar winner Siân Heder, per Deadline.

Keep reading to find out more…

Dylan will play Evan White, one of the few reporters covering the San Francisco disability rights protests at the heart of the story.

Ruth plays the title role, and Mark is playing Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, who was initially reluctant to sign off on civil rights legislation affecting the disabled community.

Being Heumann “follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing...

Exclusive: Dylan O’Brien (upcoming Twinless) is set to star alongside Ruth Madeley and Mark Ruffalo in Being Heumann, Apple’s adaptation of the bestselling memoir from disability activist Judy Heumann.

In the film from Coda Oscar winner Siân Heder, O’Brien will play Evan White, one of the few reporters covering the San Francisco disability rights protests at the heart of the story. Madeley plays the title role, as previously announced, with Ruffalo playing Joseph Califano, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Jimmy Carter, who was initially reluctant to sign off on civil rights legislation affecting the disabled community.

Being Heumann follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act,...

Marvel Cinematic Universe icon Mark Ruffalo is set to star alongside Doctor Who actress Ruth Madeley in a new movie for Apple Original Films. Siân Heder, the director of Oscar winner Coda, is also attached to the film titled Being Heumann.

According to Deadline, the movie tells the story of Judy Heumann, a disability rights activist who led a 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. She and her fellow protesters demanded that the government make all federal buildings accessible to disabled people -- a fight that was a long time coming and hard-won. The film is named after and based on Heumann's memoir, published in 2010.

Ruffalo will play Joseph Califano, who was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare at the time. He held back on signing critical legislation for people with disabilities, and was only persuaded to do so by the actions of Heumann and her...

Gold Derby's top news stories for June 10, 2025.

Third Incredibles movie will have new director

Though he's writing the script, Brad Bird — the director of the two previous Incredibles movies—is not returning to helm the third. According to The Hollywood Reporter, those duties are being handed off to Peter Sohn, who most recently directed Elemental for Pixar.

Rachel Brosnahan to lead Season 2 of Presume Innocent

Apple TV+ has announced that the follow-up to the Scott Turow adaptation starring Jake Gyllenhaal will move onto new source material and a new lead. Rachel Brosnahan, seen next in Superman, has been cast in the second season, which will adapt author Jo Murray's upcoming book Dissection of a Murder.

Something seems fishy about that Institute

Mary-Louise Parker is up to no good in a new trailer for The Institute, MGM+'s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's 2019 novel of the same name,...

Coda director Siân Heder has set Being Heumann as her next project and Mark Ruffalo is set to star in it. More on the film below.

Even three years after Coda beat all the odds and won Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards, we’re still in awe of how such a small, delightful film managed to break through like it did. Unfortunately, the film has somewhat disappeared from public consciousness since then, but director Siân Heder has set her eyes on a new project.

As Deadline reports, Heder will direct and co-write Being Heumann, adapting the story of disability rights activist Judy Heumann to the big screen. Heder will write the script together with Taussig based on Heumann’s memoir.

Heumann used a wheelchair for most of her life after contracting polio when she was just 18 months old. She had to fight for her right for basic education after...

Mark Ruffalo is set to play a key role in Oscar-winning Coda filmmaker Sian Heder’s forthcoming feature Being Heumann.

Ruffalo has joined the cast of the Apple Original Films project that adapts disability rights activist Judy Heumann’s best-selling memoir of the same name. Ruffalo will play Joseph Califano opposite Ruth Madeley in the titular role as Judy Heumann.

Being Heumann focuses on Heumann (Madeley), who leads over a hundred disabled people in a 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. The protestors vow to stay put until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring accessibility for all federal spaces.

Heder helms the Apple Studios feature and serves as producer through her overall deal with the company. Heder and Rebekah Taussig co-wrote the script that is based on Heumann’s memoir that was published in 2020. Producer include David Permut for Permut Presenations and Kevin Walsh for The Walsh Company,...

Mark Ruffalo is set to star opposite Ruth Madeley in the Apple Original Films pic Being Heumann with Coda director Siân Heder directing. The film is an adaptation of Judy Heumann’s bestselling memoir.

The script will be written by Heder and Rebekah Taussig. David Permut will produce alongside Kevin Walsh, whose The Walsh Company is under an overall deal with Apple. Heumann’s managers John W. Beach and Kevin Cleary of Gravity Squared Entertainment will also serve as producers, with Heumann, Being Heumann co-author Kristen Joiner, and Diana Pokorny exec producing.

Being Heumann follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible.

Mark Ruffalo has joined the cast of “Being Heumann,” a film based on the memoir about the life of disability rights activist Judith Heumann that will be adapted, directed and produced by Academy Award-winner Siân Heder (“Coda”), Apple Original Films announced on Tuesday.

Ruffalo will play Joseph Califano, and will star alongside BAFTA Award-nominee Ruth Madeley, who is set for the role of Judy Heumann.

“Being Heumann” follows activist Judy Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28 day sit-in. The protestors quickly form a tightly-bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible.

Hailing from Apple Studios, Siân Heder directs and produces under her overall deal with Apple. Rebekah Taussig will serve as co-writer.

“Being Heumann” is produced by David Permut for Permut Presenations...

A little over a year after making a worldwide deal for Tenzing, a new film based on the true story of sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his 1953 summiting of Mount Everest, Apple has found its lead in Genden Phuntsok (Jinpa), who will play the title role.

The news comes days after Apple’s announcement that BAFTA nominee Ruth Madeley will lead its disability rights drama Being Heumann, based on the bestselling memoir by Judy Heumann, from Coda Oscar winner Siân Heder. Production is currently underway, and you can check out a first-look still of Phuntsok above.

As previously announced, Tom Hiddleston co-stars in Tenzing as New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary, with Willem Dafoe set to portray English expedition leader, Colonel John Hunt, and Caitríona Balfe on board for the role of Jill Henderson, a friend of Tenzing who helped organize trips up Mount Everest. Thinley Lhamo (Shambhala) will round out the cast as Tenzing’s wife,...

Rising UK talent Kit Connor is in early talks to star in Alex Garland’s live-action film based on video game Elden Ring, according to reports.

Connor broke through in Netflix young adult series Heartstopper, set to conclude with a TV film to be shot this summer, and was named among Screen’s Stars of Tomorrow in 2023. He has appeared in features including Ready Player One and Rocketman and was part of the ensemble cast of Garland and Ray Mendoza’s recent Iraq war action drama Warfare.

Garland was confirmed last week to write and direct the Elden Ring feature...

BAFTA nominee Ruth Madeley will star as disability rights activist Judy Heumann in Academy Award winner Siân Heder’s upcoming feature “Being Heumann” for Apple Original Films.

Based on Heumann’s bestselling memoir of the same title, “Being Heumann” follows the activist as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in. As a synopsis of the film explains, “The protestors quickly form a tightly-bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible.”

Heder — whose 2021 film “Coda” became the first movie with a predominantly Deaf cast to win the Oscar for best picture, while she collected the trophy for best adapted screenplay — will adapt, direct and produce the project under her overall deal with Apple. Rebekah Taussig will serve as co-writer.

Madeley, the British star best...

Ruth Madeley will play disability rights activist Judy Heumann in the Apple movie Being Heumann from Coda director Sian Heder.

The BAFTA-nominated actress will play Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in. The protest led to the enforcement of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible. Heumann, known as “the mother of the disability rights movement,” was a central architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She died in 2023 at the age of 75.

The film is based on Heumann’s best-selling memoir of the same name, which Heder and Rebekah Taussig adapted for the screen.

Heder will also produce under her overall deal with Apple, along with David Permut and Kevin Walsh for The Walsh Company via that banner’s overall deal with the studio. Heumann’s managers John W. Beach...

BAFTA Award nominee Ruth Madeley (Don’t Take My Baby) is set to portray famed disability activist Judy Heumann in Apple Original Films’ Being Heumann, an adaptation of Heumann’s bestselling memoir from Coda Oscar winner Siân Heder.

Being Heumann follows Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28 day sit-in in 1977. The protestors quickly form a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforces section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible.

Heumann used a wheelchair for most of her life after contracting polio at 18 months old. She encountered discrimination early, including being denied the right to attend public school because she was considered a “fire hazard,” and was galvanized by these experiences to get involved with the fight for disability rights. In 1970, Heumann successfully sued the New York Board...

British actress Ruth Madeley has been cast in the lead role of Being Heumann, from Oscar-winning Coda writer-director Sian Heder and Apple Studios.

Madeley was nominated for a Bafta for her performance in 2015 BBC drama Don’t Take My Baby and has also appeared in UK TV projects including Then Barbara Met Alan, Years and Years and Doctor Who.

Being Heumann is based on activist Judy Heumann’s memoir about how she led a group of disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building in a protest calling for enforcement of a US law requiring federal spaces to become accessible.

In a win for independent cinema and the future of filmmaking, six projects have been unveiled today as part of Antigravity Academy’s flagship incubator, the Antigravity Academy Screenwriters Camp. This program was founded with the purpose of bringing unique voices in filmmaking to the forefront and helping them develop scripts for their debut features. It consists of a five-day intensive in Lake Arrowhead, California, followed by six months of hands-on development work, all leading up to a period of industry exposure with aims of making each project a reality. Each participant will come out of the Screenwriters Camp with a new draft of their screenplays, a first-look deal from Unapologetic Projects (“Dìdi (弟弟)”), and a commitment from Antigravity Academy to assist in shepherding their projects into the market.

Fellows and projects for 2025, with descriptions provided by Antigravity Academy, are:

“Pink Casa” by Bobby Herrera – A Tejano oil worker raises his mute niece,...

US industry figures have reacted to Thursday’s news that Sundance Film Festival will relocate to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027.

The location change comes after a year-long search and means that after next January’s final edition in Park City, it will be goodbye to the Utah ski resort. For four decades Sundance in Park City has championed thousands of filmmakers and major breakouts like Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Dee Rees, Sian Heder, and Christopher Nolan.

Sony Picture Classics co-president Tom Bernard has been a mainstay at Park City down the years and the company’s many Sundance titles include An Education,...

Well, Ryan Lattanzio beat Anne Thompson predicting last Sunday’s Oscars. That’s because he went with such international favorites as Animated Feature “Flow” and Documentary Feature “No Other Land.” Anne relied too much on the precursors instead of responding to popular surges.

Why did American Palme d’Or winner “Anora” win five Oscars? It had support from every part of the Academy, judging from the rousing cheers from the Dolby Theatre Sunday night.

Ahead on this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” Ryan and Anne debate why Mikey Madison won Best Actress. She was young and ingenues are in favor, said Ryan. Older women Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres were close and “Anora” had coattails, said Anne.

We also debate the merits of the show, and both agree that newbie Conan O’Brien was an affably effective host, and that the writing was strong, even if some of the musical tributes were weak.

Best Director used to be a can't-miss category at the Oscars. In the past, if a movie was not nominated for Best Director, it could kiss its chances of winning Best Picture goodbye. However, that changed once the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees in 2009. Now Conclave is trying to overcome its own Best Director snub with a win in the top category, and it could perform exactly as Argo did 12 years ago.

See'Anora' or 'Conclave'? Chalamet or Brody? Demi or Mikey? How the prediction markets have shifted ahead of Oscars

Only six films to date have won Best Picture without a corresponding nomination for Best Director: Wings (1927), Grand Hotel (1932), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Argo (2012), Green Book (2018), and Coda (2021). After only three examples in the first 62 years of Oscars history of a movie winning without its filmmaker nominated for directing, there have already been three more examples...

Nominations voting is from January 8-17, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

With the equivalent of a Best Picture win at the BAFTA Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to the multiple Best Screenplay awards the film has received from awards bodies like the Golden Globes and USC Scripter Awards, “Conclave” and screenwriter Peter Straughan are most likely a lock to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

And though this is not the first nomination for the “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” scribe, Straughan being the frontrunner does come as a bit of a surprise...

At the 2025 USC Libraries Scripter Awards, Edward Berger’s “Conclave” won outstanding film adaptation for Peter Straughan’s screenplay while “Say Nothing” won in the episodic series category, with Joshua Zetumer honored for adapting Patrick Radden Keefe’s nonfiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.”

Zetumer accepted his award for the episode “The People in the Dirt” and took the moment to also shoutout his fellow nominees. “It’s a limited series without big American stars and like so many of the shows that are here tonight, like ‘Shōgun,’ ‘Baby Reindeer,’ ‘Ripley’ and ‘Slow Horses,’ we did everything that you’re told not to do.”

Zetumer recalled how when he first read Keefe’s book, he thought it was “exhilarating and insightful and dense and complicated and so complicated that I thought there was no way in hell this was ever going to get made.

Patrick Wachsberger and Legendary Entertainment’s new Jv has made two key hires. Wendy Reeds has joined 193 as EVP, sales, and Ashley Stern is aboard as EVP, Head of Creative Affairs.

193 was announced in late January, with former Lionsgate exec Wachsberger as CEO. “Wendy and Ashley are two of the industry’s best and bringing them aboard at this juncture makes me even more confident about what 193 can achieve,” he said. “There is an exceptional opportunity for 193 in the global production and sales marketplace to create an industry-leading slate of premium films for audiences all over the world.”

193 will develop and produce a slate and as well as working with third parties on international distribution for completed films. It will also provide capital and be across territory sales for early-stage projects.

Reeds spent 16 years with Lionsgate, overlapping for nearly a decade with Wachsberger, who was Chairman of the studio’s Motion Picture Group.

The American Film Institute (AFI) has officially announced the eight filmmakers for the upcoming AFI Dww+ Class of 2026, where each will go through the production cycle of a short film. IndieWire shares the class exclusively here.

The artists selected for the AFI Dww+ Class of 2026 are Ragini Bhasin, Reena Dutt, Maja Fernqvist, Melissa Fisher, Ran Jing, Eunice Levis, Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz, and Destinee Stewart.

Each participant went through a rigorous selection process and was ultimately selected from 20 finalists who met with a final selection committee. AFI also announced that Marie Jamora (a graduate of AFI Dww 2020) has been named the AFI Dww+ guest artistic director for the Class of 2026.

“For over 50 years, AFI Dww+ has had a meaningful impact on the industry,” said Susan Ruskin, dean of the AFI Conservatory and executive vice president of the American Film Institute. “We are honored that AFI Dww+ Alum and trailblazing director, Marie Jamora,...

SXSW announced the rest of its 2025 film and television lineup on Wednesday, including the world premiere of Jillian Bell's directorial debut Summer Of '69. It was also announced that the festival will feature the U.S. premiere of On Swift Horses, directed by Daniel Minahan. The film stars Jacob Elordi...

The Sundance Film Festival is regarded as one of the most prestigious independent film festivals, where filmmakers have been premiering their movies and documentaries since 1984.

The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.

Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors, and actors to develop their original independent projects.

By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...

Supporters of the “Stay in LA” campaign have more than doubled in the four days since it launched, with several A-listers now throwing their weight behind the petition.

Among them, Keanu Reeves, Olivia Wilde, Bette Midler, Patty Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Joey King, Zooey Deschanel, LeVar Burton, Joshua Jackson, Alex Winter, Connie Britton, Sian Heder, Jason Reitman and Charlie Hunnam.

They join a growing list of supporters that in just three days has pushed the number of signatories from 6,000 to, as of this writing, more than 14, 729.

Organized by writer Alexandra Pechman and director Sarah Adina Smith, the petition calls for California politicians and studios to “help our beloved city rebuild itself and ensure L.A.’s future viability as a place where craftspeople, film workers and businesses thrive.” Among its proposals, it asks the state to uncap the tax incentive for productions that shoot in Los Angeles County, and...

The Stay in LA campaign is growing.

Five days after launching the campaign – designed to encourage more production to return to the city following the devastating wildfires – the group now has over 15,000 signatures to its petition.

This now includes A-listers such as Keanu Reeves and Bette Midler.

Rian Johnson, Patty Jenkins, Joey King, Zooey Deschanel, Joshua Jackson, Olivia Wilde, Alex Winter, Kevin Bacon, Connie Britton, Charlie Hunnam, Sian Heder and Jason Reitman are among the signatories to the grassroots campaign, which was launched by Alexandra Pechman and Sarah Adina Smith.

Pechman, who has written on series such as Syfy’s Channel Zero and Hulu’s Into The Dark, and Sarah Adina Smith, who has directed episodes of Apple’s Lessons in Chemistry and FX’s Legion, started the campaign with a group of about 30 filmmakers and showrunners including Nick Antosca, Julie Plec, Michael Sucsy, and Alex Winter in partnership with CA United,...

First, manage your expectations: This bio-documentary doesn’t reveal much that its subject, the actor Marlee Matlin, hasn’t already discussed — particularly in her own 2009 memoir I’ll Scream Later, in which she frankly addressed her struggles with addiction, sexual abuse experienced in childhood, and alleged violence at the hands of early boyfriend, the actor William Hurt.

But Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore does offer an engaging, exuberant portrait of the relentlessly likeable Matlin as she enters her 60s, having achieved a substantial amount in career terms — from being the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her lead turn in Children of a Lesser God, to advocating before the U.S. Congress that closed captions be mandatory, and generally being a voice, in every sense, for the deaf community.

In fact, as the film explains in one of its most interesting passages, she took flack from some...

Ninety-six films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture since the first Oscars ceremony was held in 1928, and it’s never been easier to watch every Best Picture Oscar winner, should you choose to do so. Thanks to the technological innovations of streaming, all of these winners – some all-time classics, some retroactive headscratchers – are available to watch online.

This year, several Best Picture contenders are already streaming. But before the 97th Best Picture winner is crowned on March 12, you could choose some past winners to catch up with from our list of where to watch every Best Picture Oscar winner – from Wings to Oppenheimer and everything in between.

2024: Oppenheimer

The Barbenheimer phenomenon helped raise Christopher Nolan‘s unlikely blockbuster to Best Picture glory. It’s available to stream on Prime Video and to rent on Amazon, Apple TV, and other platforms

2023: Everything Everywhere All at Once

The...

Mark your calendars, Oscars fans, because the 97th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 2, 2025 on ABC. The annual star-studded ceremony will honor movies released in theaters within the 2024 calendar year of eligibility. AMPAS members will vote on the Oscar winners in 23 categories, including Best Adapted Screenplay. But who will win? Here at Gold Derby, thousands of users have been making and updating their 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Adapted Screenplay, so let’s take a look at all of the top contenders in our photo gallery below.

These 25 Best Adapted Screenplay hopefuls are listed in order of their racetrack odds, which are derived from the combined forecasts of four unique groups: experts we’ve polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, top 24 users who had the best accuracy scores last year, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc.

The...

Josh Welsh, longtime president of Film Independent, died Dec. 31 after a five-year battle with colon cancer. He was 62.

Welsh started out as an actor and started volunteering at the Film Independent Spirit Awards annually starting in 1996. He joined the Film Independent staff over 20 years ago, becoming president in 2012. He oversaw all programs and operations for the nonprofit, growing the organization’s staff, budget, programming slate and membership.

“We are devastated by the loss of Josh Welsh,” said Film Independent Board Chair Brenda Robinson. “Josh was a tireless champion of independent voices, a trusted arts leader and a cherished colleague and friend. The work we do at Film Independent has never been more necessary and we will honor his legacy by continuing to build on the foundation he established. Our hearts go out to his family.”

Under his leadership, Film Independent was able to deepen partnerships with studios, NGOs and governments,...

Chris Columbus is well aware that his producer credit on Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu has prompted a few double takes from the audience. One would assume that the filmmaker behind two Home Alone films, Mrs. Doubtfire and two Harry Potter pics would have little overlap with Eggers’ idiosyncratic approach to genre films. But one of the goals of Maiden Voyage, Chris and his daughter Eleanor’s production company, is to show that filmmakers contain multitudes.

The journey to father-daughter Columbus producing their third film for Eggers — and fourteenth overall under the Maiden Voyage banner — hinges on several different factors. The first is producorial philosophy, which Chris established during the course of making the film franchise-launching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). The filmmaker wasn’t completely satisfied with the Devil’s Snare sequence, so he requested some CG-related augmentations that an executive producer ultimately rebuffed.

“One of the executives said to me,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences teamed up with fashion brand Chanel to bring Hollywood A-Listers together to celebrate emerging women filmmakers!

Amy Adams, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Regina King were among the stars who attended the women’s luncheon at the Academy Museum on Tuesday (December 10) in Los Angeles.

“Today, we celebrated the power and unity of women in film as we came together from every discipline within our industry to honor emerging women filmmakers who are inspiring the future of cinema,” Academy president Janet Yang said during her speech. “A special thank you to our partner Chanel for its generous support and shared commitment to amplifying the voices of talented women filmmakers worldwide. Together, we continue to break barriers and empower the next generation of women in our industry.”

Emilia Perez actress Selena Gomez delivered a keynote presentation and she sat in the audience alongside Ariana Grande.

Exclusive: Rideback Rise, the non-profit accelerator seeking to advance racial equity through mainstream entertainment from Poc creators, has announced its 2025 Fellowship cohort of 15 mid-career writers, filmmakers and creators who will be financially and creatively supported as they develop market-ready television and film projects.

They are Aitch Alberto, Kerry Coddett, Morgan Collins, Melody Cooper, Alesia S.C. Etinoff, Carolyn Huynh, Taietsarón:sere Leclaire aka Tai Leclaire, Michael Yuchen Lei, Elaine Loh, Andrew Lopez, Kelly Luu & Kevin Luu, Paloma Riojas, Keith Sweet II, and Sunny Tripathy.

Clockwise from Top Left: Elaine Loh, Andrew Lopez, Kevin Luu, Kelly Luu, Paloma Riojas, Keith Sweet II, and Sunny Tripathy

Fellows were selected from more than 500 applicants, in a 25+% increase from the last application pool. Each will receive an unrestricted $40K grant for the year-long Fellowship. Fellows are also eligible to access a Development Fund to secure underlying rights to material and/or to create presentations, short...

The annual Sundance Film Festival gala fundraiser has unveiled its 2025 honorees. Known as “Celebrating Sundance Institute,” presented by Google TV, the gala will bestow the Vanguard Awards to “Dìdi” writer/director Sean Wang, and “Sugarcane” co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie. Both features premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

“Dìdi” won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast, before being acquired by Focus Features.

“For over a decade, Sundance has been my north star, symbolizing artistic excellence and bold, distinct voices,” Wang said of the honor. “It has since also become a community of artists, an unwavering support system, and a creative home for both myself and my first feature, ‘Dìdi (弟弟)’. As the recipient of several Sundance Institute artist development programs — Ignite, Taaf, and the Screenwriters and Directors Labs — I know firsthand how deeply transformative that support can be for emerging storytellers.

The Sundance Institute announced today that Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director of Artist Programs at Sundance Institute, will be honored at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival gala fundraiser, taking place at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley in Utah on January 24, 2025.

The event, dubbed Celebrating Sundance Institute, will see Satter recognized for her decades-long commitment to nurturing artists and cultivating independent film through the Sundance Labs, where artists convene to develop groundbreaking projects through an in-depth creative process.

Other honorees will include Dìdi filmmaker Sean Wang, as well as the Sugarcane duo of Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, who debuted their latest films at this past year’s festival and will respectively receive the Vanguard Awards for Fiction and NonFiction.

The Vanguard Award recognizes emerging artists whose work highlights the art of storytelling and creative independence. Past recipients have included Celine Song, Maite Alberdi, W. Kamau Bell, Nikyatu Jusu, Ryan Coogler,...

PBS’ “American Masters” documentary series will tackle the life of actor, activist and author Marlee Matlin with the feature documentary “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.”

The film will use Asl as its primary language. Along with stylized captioning and dynamic editing, it aims to push the boundaries of conventional documentaries and will bring together Deaf and hearing team members across production and post-production roles.

“The film will explore Matlin’s life as a groundbreaking performer, whose meteoric and tumultuous rise to fame started in 1987 when she became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her role in ‘Children of a Lesser God.’ At the age of 21, Matlin was thrust into the national spotlight, becoming for many Americans the first Deaf person they saw on TV and overnight becoming the de-facto representative of the Deaf community,” reads its log line.

It continues: “The film boasts never-before-seen home video...

A group of industry actors, filmmakers, writers and showrunners has signed on to an open letter spearheaded by Inevitable Foundation asking Hollywood to consider financing and marketing more projects that include accurate and entertainment representation of people with disabilities. Among the signers are “Coda” director Sian Heder, Alyssa Milano, Ramy Youssef, Rachel Bloom, Marlee Matlin, “Three Body Problem” showrunner Alexander Woo and “A Quiet Place Part II” star Millicent Simmonds.

The letter also calls for collecting more data around content featuring disabled individuals and making sure entertainment venues are accessible to all. Inevitable Foundation invests in disabled writers and filmmakers to enable them to achieve artistic and financial freedom and use film and television to destigmatize disability and mental health globally.

Read the letter below:

Hey Hollywood,

There is a massive, loyal, and engaged audience of viewers and consumers within the global entertainment landscape who remain entirely underserved.

It’s...

Inevitable Foundation, the non-profit advocating on behalf of the disabled community, on Wednesday unveiled an open letter calling for improved disability representation in Hollywood.

The letter is signed by 30+ industry leaders, both as allies and members of the disability community, including Coda filmmaker Sian Heder and star Marlee Matlin, As We See It‘s Jason Katims and Rick Glassman, Ramy‘s Ramy Youssef and Steve Way, and Hacks co-creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, as well as the likes of Alyssa Milano, Samara Weaving, and filmmaker Paul Feig.

Inevitable Foundation’s Hollywood Blvd. billboard

Inevitable Foundation’s letter comes several weeks after the unveiling of “Audiences are Waiting for Hollywood to Greenlight Disability,” its report highlighting that 66% of audiences are currently unsatisfied with on-screen representations of disability and mental health. The letter argues that expanding representation in these areas is not about simply checking a Dei box.

The American Film Institute has opened applications for its celebrated AFI Dww+ program for participants interested in joining the class of 2025-2026. The year-long directing workshop educates underrepresented narrative filmmakers, taking them through the complete production cycle of a short film — and with hands-on guidance from leading industry experts. Notable past participants include Best Picture-winning “Coda” filmmaker Sian Heder, DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter, and “A Black Lady Sketch Show” director and executive producer Dime Davis.

Applications open today, August 12, and will close September 13. More info on deadlines and requirements to apply is available via the American Film Institute’s website. See the Dww+ Class of 2024-2025 here.

The program, first launched in 1974 as the Directing Workshop for Women, will also celebrate its 50th anniversary this fall. With early participants including Maya Angelou, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Lee Grant, Jessie Maple, and Cicely Tyson, the workshop has trained more than 350 filmmakers.

The Changemaker Awards are back! Now in their second year, the Changemaker Awards spotlight outstanding Film Independent Fellows whose contributions have significantly impacted the entertainment industry and their communities.

This year the award will be presented to Linda Yvette Chávez, Tze Chun, and Grace Lee (Documentary Lab 2012).

Linda Yvette Chávez, known for her fearless storytelling and inclusive narratives with projects like the Oscar-nominated Flamin’ Hot and the acclaimed Netflix series Gentefied. Tze Chun, a versatile writer, director, and showrunner, has garnered praise for his work on shows like Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, and I’m a Virgo, showcasing his talent and creativity across different genres. Grace Lee, an award-winning documentary director and producer, has grappled with issues like politics and race with works like And She Could Be Next and American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs.

“It is our privilege in Artist Development to nurture and support talented...

The future of the Bruin, a historic Los Angeles movie theater, is uncertain after Regency Theaters revealed that the company’s lease for the venue expires this month.

“The last day of operation for the Bruin & Village Theaters under Regency is Thursday, July 25,” Regency president Lyndon Golin confirmed to the Los Angeles Times in a story published Sunday.

Regency also operates Westwood’s Village Theater, the historic theater famed for its art deco tower, but that venue was saved back in February when a group of 35 filmmakers led by Jason Reitman clubbed together to rescue the 93-year-old cinema.

The coalition of filmmakers to save the Village Theater included J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Chris Columbus, Ryan Coogler, Bradley Cooper, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Dayton, Guillermo del Toro, Valerie Faris, Hannah Fidell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, James Gunn, Sian Heder, Rian Johnson, Gil Kenan, Karyn Kusama, Justin Lin, Phil Lord, David Lowery,...

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has greenlit the Johannes Roberts horror film Primate, with Oscar winner Troy Kotsur (Coda) set to lead the cast. Roberts will direct the Walter Hamada-produced feature, which Roberts co-wrote with Ernest Riera.

Plot details are being kept under wraps.

The project falls under Hamada’s exclusive first-look deal with Paramount which began January 1, 2023, making him “the architect of Paramount’s mainstream horror genre pod, with the mission to release several low- to mid-budget films per year across theatrical and streaming.”

The former DC Films boss steered DC to its highest-grossing movie Aquaman with $1.1 billion worldwide. He was also behind The Conjuring franchise, the highest-grossing horror series ever with more than $2 billion in global box office, 2017’s It and Matt Reeves’ The Batman, to name a few.

Hamada is producing via his 18hz production company alongside Bradley Pilz and John Hodges. Up next, Paramount and Hamada are...

Blake Lively’s return to acting marks a momentous occasion not just for her fans, but also most BookTok members. Lively leads the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends with Us,” adding to the rise of fem-lit features in 2024. It will follow “The Idea of You,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” and the highly anticipated announcements “People We Meet on Vacation,” “Beach Read,” and “Red, White, and Royal Blue 2,” all coming to the big screen soon.

“It Ends with Us” centers on Lily Bloom (Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ toxic relationship.

When Lily’s first love,...

Picture Perfect Entertainment head Patrick Wachsberger arrives on the Croisette with key pre-sales in the bag on his hot-ticket French adaptation of The Incredible Shrinking Man starring Jean Dujardin.

Production began in Brussels last week on the feature based on the Richard Matheson novel and Universal’s 1957 black and white film about a man who faces danger at every turn after he is exposed to radiation and insecticide and shrinks to less than one inch tall.

Dujardin, who won the Oscar for The Artist, reunites with his 99 Francs director Jan Kounen.

Deals have closed in Germany (Leonine), Italy (Rai), Latin...