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Exclusive: A Radical Act: Renee Montgomery, a feature documentary about the life and career of WNBA legend Renee Montgomery from exec producers LeBron James and Maverick Carter will open this year’s Micheaux Film Festival.

Launched by Courtney L. Branch and Noel Braham to honor the legendary Oscar Micheaux, the Micheaux Film Festival celebrates its sixth anniversary this year. The event will run from October 21 to October 27 at the Culver Theater.

A Radical Act: Renee Montgomery is directed by Emmy Award winner Sandrine Orabona. Described as an “intimate portrait,” the film chronicles the life and achievements of Montgomery, the first former WNBA player to serve as both a co-owner and executive of a WNBA team. A two-time WNBA Champion, sports broadcaster, and activist, Montgomery currently holds the position of co-owner and vice president of the Atlanta Dream. The film explores Montgomery’s journey, from her upbringing in West Virginia to...

Two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery is sharing her journey from growing up in West Virginia to balling her way all the way into co-owning the Atlanta Dream women’s basketball team in her upcoming documentary, “A Radical Act: Renee Montgomery.”

“I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the documentary, especially the most recent premiere at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival,” Montgomery said in a statement to TheWrap. “It’s hard to believe your own story can impact others’ lives in such a positive way and I’m humbled by all the people that have told me how they’ve related to my journey.”

The Roku Original documentary, which is produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted and P&g Studios, is directed by Emmy award-winning Sandrine Orabona (“The New West Coast Sound: An L.A. Jazz Legacy”) and spotlights Montgomery’s momentous career achievements, including winning...

Roku is moving further into the world of sports with Roku Sports Channel, a free and ad-supported offering that will launch Monday.

The upcoming hub will include Major League Baseball games with MLB Sunday Leadoff, which Roku acquired the rights to in May. The channel will also feature live races from Formula E, the Emmy-nominated talk show “The Rich Eisen Show” and “Gmfb: Overtime,” a reboot of the NFL’s “Good Morning Football.”

As for originals, this new channel will be home to sports-themed Roku originals such as the second season of “NFL Draft: The Pick Is In,” the partnership between NFL Films and Skydance Sports that was the most watched original doc in Roku’s history during its first season; “WWE: Next Gen,” an eight-part docuseries from executive producer John Cena about athletes trying to get a contract with the sports entertainment league; and “Fight Inc: Inside the UFC,...

Matthew Baskharoon is joining United Talent Agency as an agent in the unscripted TV department. Based in the Los Angeles office, Baskharoon will work alongside UTA Partner Darnell Strom and the culture & leadership division.

“Matthew is not only a terrific agent but also an incredible human, said Matt Rice, UTA head of TV and board member, said in a statement. “His clients and colleagues adore him because he leads with his taste and his heart. We are excited to welcome him to the UTA family and know he will further elevate our business and culture.”

“UTA has established themselves as a company willing to disrupt and go against the grain,” added Baskharoon in a statement. “Their culture promotes innovation and entrepreneurship and I look forward to leveraging everything the company has to offer to service my diverse roster of clients.”

Baskharoon comes from WME where he worked in the non-scripted...

Public broadcaster Kcet, which had led all local TV stations in nominations for the this year’s Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, also wound up taking home the most (for the fifth year in a row), with nine awards. It was followed by Telemundo’s Kvea and Spectrum SportsNet, both of which landed six.

The Television Academy announced the 2021 Los Angeles Area Emmy Award winners in an in-person ceremony at its North Hollywood headquarters on Saturday. Spectrum News 1 journalist Giselle Fernández hosted this year’s awards ceremony, which was produced by Bob Bain and Bob Bain Productions.

Other big winners included Ktla-tv, which was named best morning newscast (between 4 a.m. and 11 a.m.) and evening newscast (between 7 p.m. to midnight).

As usual, all stations that enter are immediately nominated in the daily morning newscast (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.), daily daytime newscast (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Public broadcaster Kcet once again led all local TV stations in nominations for the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, announced on Tuesday by the Television Academy. Kcet landed 23 nods this year overall, up from 20 last year. It was followed by Telemundo’s Kvea, which boasted 21 noms.

After that, with 19 nominations, was relative newcomer Spectrum News 1, the cable channel that launched in 2018 and has made waves for its enterprise reports, features and coverage of Southern California. Then came Univision’s Kmex, with 16.

Among the traditional English-language commercial broadcasters, Kabc-tv led with 12 nominations. That’s quite a change from the days when management at the ABC-owned station declined to submit Kabc in the local Emmy race.

As usual, all stations that enter are immediately nominated in the daily morning newscast (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.), daily daytime newscast (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.), and daily evening newscast (7 p.m. to 12 a.

Kcet topped Spanish-language outlet Kvea to lead the nominations for the 73rd Los Angeles Area Emmys, which the Television Academy announced this morning. The pubcaster scooped 23 noms to the Telemundo station’s 21, with Spectrum News 1 running third with 19.

Univision’s Kmex (16) and network O&o ABC7 (12) are the only others to reach double digits. See the list of noms by station here and the full list of nominees below or here.

The Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards honor locally produced programs spanning Crime and Social Issues, Culture and History, the Arts, Human Interest, Sports, the Environment, and Live and Breaking News Coverage. The winners in all 35 categories will be announced during a ceremony Saturday, July 24. The venue is Tba.

It’s the second consecutive year that Kcet — a former PBS outlet now owned by

the Public Media Group of Southern California — has led the field. It scored 20 noms in 2020, followed by Kmex,...

Wolfe Releasing has acquired Us digital and DVD rights to Mark Herzog and Sandrine Orabona’s Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story, Monika Treut’s Of Girls And Horses and David Au’s Eat With Me.

Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story premiered at SXSW this year and is a documentary about a transgender former Navy Seal.

Of Girls And Horses is a coming-of-age love story involving a misfit school drop-out and a privileged upper-class girl in Germany.

Comedy-drama Eat With Me tells of a mother and her gay son who connect as the son’s Chinese restaurant faces foreclosure.

Sundance just ended, and we are already preparing for the next big film festival, South By Southwest. Not too long ago, the festival announced a few of the films premiering this year, but now they’ve announced the main slate. The midnight selections and some inevitable late-breaking additions are still to be announced, but this should be more than enough to get you excited. Along with many World Premieres, and Sundance favorites like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the line up also includes an anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and an extended Q&A screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel with Wes Anderson. SXSW 2014 runs March 7 through 15 in Austin, Texas. Check out the line up after the jump.

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Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,324 films submitted to SXSW 2014. Films screening in Narrative...

Today the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced a diverse features lineup for this year’s Festival, the 21st edition and running March 7 – 15, 2014 in Austin, Texas. The 2014 program expands on SXSW tradition of embracing a range of genres and span of budgets, featuring a wealth of vision from experienced and developing filmmakers alike.

For more information visit http://sxsw.com/film.

Listed in the announcement are 115 of the features that will screen over the course of nine days at SXSW 2014. The lineup below includes 68 films from first-time filmmakers, and consists of 76 World Premieres, 10 North American Premieres and 7 U.S. Premieres. These films were selected from a record 2,215 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,540 U.S. and 675 international feature-length films. With a record number of 6,482 submissions total, the overall increase was 14% over 2013. The Midnighters feature section and the Short Film program will be announced on February 5, with the complete...

After announcing earlier this month that Jon Favreau’s Chef and the Veronica Mars movie will be making their world debuts at SXSW this year, the festival has revealed its full line-up, including further very promising world premieres, alongside appearances from some of the year’s most high-profile films.

The Midnight programme will be announced early next month, along with the Shorts line-up, and the complete Conference slate a little later as well.

Led by Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Nicholas Stoller’s anticipated R-rated comedy, Neighbors, will be making its world debut at the festival, notably marked out as a ‘work-in-progress’ ahead of its theatrical release in May.

David Gordon Green’s acclaimed Joe will make its Us premiere, having bowed at Venice and then Toronto last year. Early reviews have Nicolas Cage giving one of the finest performances of his career, with Tye Sheridan (Mud) excellent alongside him.

Not sure if there is a Short Term 12 equivalent in this year’s Narrative Feature Comp, but on paper SXSW programmers are serving up a mean (and the usual lean group of 8 out of a whopping 1,324 film entries) for the upcoming competitiuon of eight which includes notable entries (that we’ve been tracking for a good time now) such as Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine, John Magary’s The Mend, Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns and Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated docs of the year, on the non-fiction side we find Margaret Brown’s The Great Invisible. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the other sections (notable world preems in We’ll Never Have Paris and Faults (see Mary Elizabeth Winstead above), some Sundance items with Texan connections and other nuggets.

Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight...