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The Amazon is not merely a location in Yanuni; it is a battleground, a verdant labyrinth where moral clarity is devoured by the canopy. In this chaotic theater stands Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief whose resolve is the film’s unyielding center.

Director Richard Ladkani frames her struggle not as a simple environmental plea but as an intimate noir, a portrait of one woman’s war against a hydra of political corruption and resource gluttony. Her husband, Hugo Loss, operates as the narrative’s blunt instrument, leading an environmental agency’s armed incursions.

As Brazil’s political tides shift from the overt hostility of one regime to the bureaucratic mire of another, their mission becomes a complex navigation of compromised ideals. The fight is for the land, but the stakes are crystallized in a single name, Yanuni, their daughter and the living symbol of a future that must be wrested from the shadows.

In 2009, 18-year-old Juma Xipaia announced that her destiny would be “fighting for the Indigenous cause. Standing up for my people. My life,” she added with understated prescience, “is going to be one of struggle.” Just six years later, she became the first female chief of the Middle Xingu, in Brazil’s Amazon basin. Since then, she has led a movement for international protection of the Amazon, survived half a dozen assassination attempts, studied law and medicine, served as Brazil’s first Secretary of Indigenous Rights, and become a mother. She is currently 34 years old.

For five years, documentarian Richard Ladkani (“Jane’s Journey”) embedded himself and his crew with Juma and her husband Hugo, the head of Special Operations for Brazil’s Epa. Though she is the primary focus, the result is an inspiring portrait of two undeniably remarkable environmental advocates. We are by their side as they experience both unexpected highs and devastating lows,...

Few environmental documentaries begin with quite the urgency that “Yanuni” does. Even fewer blend political thrills with meditative visual poetry, but Austrian director Richard Ladkani strikes this balance with an even hand in his intimate chronicle of Juma Xiapaia, a brave Indigenous activist in Brazil and the first woman elected chief in the Amazon’s Middle Xingu region.

A fierce figure usually seen with tribal face paint and a feathered headdress, Juma is introduced through archival news clips from 2009, in which the smiling but forceful teenager commits to the Indigenous cause, claiming she’s ready to die for her people. Six assassination attempts later, the now-adult chieftain appears during a 2021 demonstration outside the National Congress Palace in Brasilia, which turns violent when riot police open fire on protesters. Juma and the camera are both near enough to the chaos to see muzzle flashes up close. This is just one of...

From spring into the start of summer, the festival season keeps on rolling. Cannes just gave a jumpstart to the movie year ahead, but the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival, happening all over New York City June 4 through 15, is here with another ambitious, genre-crossing lineup. This year’s festival — celebrating film, television, immersive storytelling, music, audio storytelling, iconic movie revivals, and more — boasts nearly 120 features across narrative and documentary forms. Tribeca also boasts a massive shorts program.

The festival, which understandably dropped “Film” from its name in 2022 two decades after starting in 2002 from Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff as a way to boost Lower Manhattan after September 11, offers its most musically inclined programming yet this year. Tribeca launches Wednesday, June 4 with the world premiere of opening nighter “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” an ode to the hit-making piano man. Elsewhere, Miley Cyrus’ visual album “Something...

Riley Keough and her creative partner Gina Gammell will sit down for a “Through Her Lens” conversation, Tribeca Festival and Chanel announced on Thursday.

Keough, a Chanel ambassador, and writer-director Gammell will discuss their new limited series In Process on June 6 at Metrograph, during the upcoming Tribeca Festival. Moderated by filmmaker, writer and producer Margaret Zhang, the discussion will explore the creative journey through exclusive clips shown from the series, which offer a look into the nature of female creativity and the artistic process. In Process was shot at Graceland and is focused on Keough — the eldest granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley — for part of the series.

Founded in 2015, Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program provides ongoing support and mentorship to emerging filmmakers, fostering the next generation of creative voices in film.

“Riley and Gina are exactly what ‘Through Her Lens’ is about — women owning...

118 feature films have made the cut and will be screened during the 2025 Tribeca Festival running June 4-15 in New York City. 13,541 films were submitted for consideration, and the final selection includes 48 films directed by women and 42 directed by Bipoc filmmakers.

The 2025 Tribeca Festival kicks off with the world premiere of Emmy winners Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin’s Billy Joel: And So It Goes. This year’s festival will close with Yanuni, directed by Richard Ladkani and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Tribeca has always been more than a festival—it’s a home for artists navigating an ever-changing industry and an ever-changing world,” stated Tribeca Festival Co-Founder and Tribeca Enterprises CEO Jane Rosenthal. “For over two decades, we’ve championed emerging voices, celebrated established storytellers, and built a creative community where artists can grow, connect, and thrive. We’re proud of the ecosystem we’ve cultivated and can’t wait...

Miley Cyrus' visual album and a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary are among the films in the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival lineup.

Something Beautiful, the visual companion to Cyrus' new album of the same name directed by Cyrus, Jacob Bixenman, and Brendan Walter, will have its world premiere at the festival. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the Grammy-winning singer.

Yanuni, produced by DiCaprio and directed by Richard Ladkani, is part of the closing night gala. The doc follows "the fearless Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts as she leads a relentless fight to defend her people's land alongside her husband, Hugo Loss, a steely Special Forces Unit ranger."

As previously announced, the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes will open the festival, which runs June 14-15.

The feature film lineup includes Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick's first costarring film in 20 years, The Best You Can; Tow,...

The 2025 Tribeca Festival has revealed its feature-film lineup for this year’s event.

Among the highlights, this year’s festival will feature the world premiere of Miley Cyrus’ Something Beautiful film, the visual companion to her album of the same name, which drops on May 30. After the screening of the film directed by Cyrus, Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter will be followed by a conversation with Cyrus.

The festival, which previously revealed its opening night film would be the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes, will close with the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Yanuni, directed by Richard Ladkani. The documentary that serves as both a love story and call to action follows Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia as she works to defend her people’s land alongside her husband, Hugo Loss, a Special Forces Unit ranger.

“Tribeca has always been more than a festival—it’s a home for artists navigating...

The 2025 Tribeca Festival, presented by Okx, has revealed its lineup of documentary, narrative and animated features, including the premiere of Miley Cyrus’ visual album, a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced documentary and films starring Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney. This year’s fest will run from June 4 to 15 in New York City.

The festival kicks off on June 4 with the previously announced world premiere of “Billy Joel: And So It

Goes,” directed by Emmy winners Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin. The world premiere of Miley Cyrus’ visual album “Something Beautiful,” directed by Cyrus, Jacob Bixenman, Brendan Walter and produced by Tribeca alum Panos Cosmatos (“Beyond the Black Rainbow”), will be followed by an exclusive conversation with Cyrus.

The documentary lineup also features chart-topping performers like Counting Crows and Culture

Club. Billy Idol, Becky G and Eddie Vedder will deliver exclusive performances following the

world premiere of their films, while members of Metallica,...

Music documentaries figure prominently in the features line-up of 2025 Tribeca Festival in June, when audiences will get first looks at new films about Metallica, Billy Idol and Culture Club, and Depeche Mode.

Metallica Saved My Life and Billy Idol Should Be Dead – both directed by Jonas Åkerlund – receive their world premieres in New York, as do Fernando Frías’s Depeche Mode: M; Matt Finlin’s Matter Of Time featuring Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder; Alison Eastwood’s Culture Club; Amy Scott’s Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately?; and Miley Cyrus’s visual album Something Beautiful.

Programme highlights expected...

The Tribeca Film Festival revealed its complete lineup on Wednesday, with a slate of films that features Emmy and Oscar winners as well as a series of music documentaries that will be accompanied by live performances and post-screening Q&As by some of the world’s top artists.

As previously announced, the festival will open with the two-part HBO documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” looking back on the career of the legendary Long Island singer-songwriter. The closing night film will be “Yanuni,” a documentary about indigenous activist Juma Xipaia, who has survived six assassination attempts in her efforts to protect the Amazon and its native people.

Tribeca is also continuing its tradition of music documentaries, with documentaries about artists like Counting Crows, Billy Idol, Eddie Vedder, Metallica, and Becky G being accompanied by live performances and post-screening Q&As by those artists. Miley Cyrus will also be on...

The 2025 Tribeca Festival has officially unveiled its list of feature films. This year’s festival, presented by Okx, will take place June 4-15 in New York City. As previously announced, Emmy winners Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin’s documentary “Billy Joel: And So It Goes” will open the festival, but that’s not the only music-centric project on the list: Miley Cyrus’ highly anticipated visual album “Something Beautiful,” which she also co-directs, will have its world premiere at Tribeca.

“Something Beautiful” is co-directed by Cyrus, Jacob Bixenman, and Brendan Walter, and produced by Tribeca alum Panos Cosmatos. The premiere will be followed by an exclusive conversation with Cyrus. Additional music documentaries include films about Counting Crows and Culture Club, while Billy Idol, Becky G, and Eddie Vedder will also perform following the world premiere of their respective films. Meanwhile, Ty Dolla $ign, Wizkid, and members of Metallica and Depeche Mode will have post-premiere conversations.

Tribeca Festival has unveiled its 2025 lineup ahead of the annual event, taking place June 4-15, with Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven, Takashi Miike’s Shame, RZA’s One Spoon of Chocolate, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s Reflection in a Dead Diamond, Kate Beecroft’s East of Wall, and more.

“At Tribeca, we believe that storytelling is a force — one that connects us, challenges us, and inspires us to reimagine what’s possible,” said Tribeca Festival Director and SVP of Programming Cara Cusumano. “This year’s film lineup is a testament to that power, bursting with creative risk, iconic artists, and new perspectives that spark vital conversations and drive culture forward. These films are a powerful reflection of the world we live in — and the world we want to shape.”

The final selections were chosen from a record-breaking number of submissions. This year’s program includes 118 feature films representing 95 world premieres,...

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Terra Mater Factual Studios looks back on an eventful decade that made its name synonymous with high-end nature and wildlife productions, while also embracing the ever-expanding opportunities offered by the growth of streaming platforms.

The Austrian company’s productions include Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani’s acclaimed “The Ivory Game,” which exposes the dark world of ivory trafficking; Ladkani’s “Sea of Shadows,” about the efforts to save the smallest whale species in the world from extinction; and Myles Connolly and Florian Schulz’s upcoming “The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness.” CEO Walter Koehler, the former head of Austrian broadcaster Orf’s nature and wildlife unit, Universum, established Terra Mater as a subsidiary of Red Bull in 2011.

“When I opened the company 10 years ago, we started with 12 or 13 people; now we have more than 40 employees,” he says. The figure does not include the many...

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

David France’s “Welcome to Chechnya,” a documentary about LGBTQ activists trying to help during the Chechnya government’s brutal crackdown on gays and lesbians, leads all films in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors’ broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday during a virtual edition of its annual fall lunch.

Cinema Eye, a New York-based organization founded in 2007 to recognize all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking, also announced its new Stay Focused initiative. The program spotlights 12 films by up-and-coming filmmakers who lost the chance for theatrical exhibition and film-festival exposure because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cinema Eye has pledged to find “in-person opportunities” for the filmmakers once the pandemic subsides, starting with theatrical screenings at the new Vidiots Theatre in Los Angeles in late 2021.

The 12 films include Cecilia Aldorondo’s “Landfall,” which recently won a jury award at Doc NYC; David Osit’s “Mayor,” about the Christian mayor of a...

It’s been a year of change for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has responded not only to the pandemic, pushing back the global ABC Oscars telecast from February 28 to April 25, 2021 — setting a new award season calendar as other award shows have followed suit — but the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In its continuing push to swell the Academy membership ranks, 819 artists and executives from 68 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call. People from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities (36 percent) and women (45 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members (49 percent) also come from overseas.

In 2019, the Academy invited 842 new members,...

It’s been a year of change for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has responded not only to the pandemic, pushing back the global ABC Oscars telecast from February 28 to April 25, 2021 — setting a new award season calendar as other award shows have followed suit — but the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In its continuing push to swell the Academy membership ranks, 819 artists and executives from 68 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call. People from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities (36 percent) and women (45 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members (49 percent) also come from overseas.

In 2019, the Academy invited 842 new members,...

National Geographic is getting into the Emmy Fyc podcast game. The network has launched “Consider This,” a new 12-episode series that will feature stars and producers from Nat Geo’s Emmy contenders.

Guests will include Marcia Gay Harden, Dr. Amani Ballour (“The Cave”), Jeff Goldblum (“The World According to Jeff Goldblum”), Dr. Jane Goodall (“Sea of Shadows”), Bear Grylls (“Running Wild with Bear Grylls”), Keegan-Michael Key (“Brain Games”), Gordon Ramsay (“Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted”), David Thewlis (“Barkskins”), Neil deGrasse Tyson (“Cosmos: Possible Worlds”) and Sue Aikens (“Life Below Zero”). Journalist Stacey Wilson Hunt hosts the podcast.

“Consider This” will be available to download starting Monday via Apple, Spotify, Radio.com, TuneIn, Deezer, Stitcher, Google Play, Overcast and Pocketcast.The first episode features Tyson, followed by one with Key.

Other interviewees include Ann Druyan (“Cosmos: Possible Worlds”), Sigrid Dyekjær (“The Cave”), Jon Kroll (“Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted”), Joseph Litzinger (“Life Below Zero”) and...

The field of Oscar contenders narrowed significantly in nine different categories on Monday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, animated short, live action short and visual effects.

Most of the projected doc feature frontrunners are among the 15 finalists — Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's American Factory (Netflix), Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts' For Sama (PBS), Todd Douglas Miller's Apollo 11 (Neon) and Nanfu Wang's One Child Nation (Amazon) all made the cut. Notably missing are Lauren Greenfield's The Kingmaker (Showtime), Richard Ladkani'...

The field of Oscar contenders narrowed significantly in nine different categories on Monday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released shortlists for documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, animated short, live action short and visual effects.

Most of the projected doc feature frontrunners are among the 15 finalists — Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's American Factory (Netflix), Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts' For Sama (PBS), Todd Douglas Miller's Apollo 11 (Neon) and Nanfu Wang's One Child Nation (Amazon) all made the cut. Notably missing are Lauren Greenfield's The Kingmaker (Showtime), Richard Ladkani'...

Finalists have been revealed for the 2020 Humanitas Prize, which honors film and television writers whose work inspires compassion, hope, and understanding in the human family. Titles include awards-season heavies Bombshell, It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and The Farewell on the film side and When They See Us, Pose, This Is Us and The Handmaid’s Tale on the small-screen side.

It’s the 45th year for the honors that hands out awards in 10 categories — two new categories, Limited Series, TV Movie or Special and Short Film, are newcomers this year.

Winners will be announced at the 45th annual Humanitas Prize ceremony January 24, 2020 at the Beverly Hilton.

Here are this year’s finalists:

Drama Feature Film

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster; inspired by the article “Can You Say… Hero?” by Tom Junod

A Hidden Life

Written and directed by Terrence Malick...

“Apollo 11” was the big winner at the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards on Sunday in New York City.

The film took home the award for documentary feature, as well as editing for Todd Douglas Miller and score for Matt Morton. “Apollo 11” was also honored with archival documentary and science/nature documentary prizes.

There was a tie for director between Peter Jackson for “They Shall Not Grow Old,” and Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar for “American Factory.” “They Shall Not Grow Old” also brought home the award for innovative documentary. “American Factory” nabbed the prize for political documentary.

The inaugural D. A. Pennebaker Award, formerly known as the Critics’ Choice lifetime achievement award, was presented to Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s longtime collaborator and widow. Michael Apted received the landmark award in honor of his “Up” series.

The ceremony, hosted by “Property Brothers” star Jonathan Scott, was held at Bric in Brooklyn.

Last month, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards announced their nominations, beginning to suggest which documentaries could be the Academy Award favorites this year. Tomorrow, the awards show takes place. In case you weren’t aware, The Biggest Little Farm led the field, grabbing seven nominations, while Apollo 11, One Child Nation, and They Shall Not Grow Old scored five apiece. Other potential Oscar contenders sprinkled throughout this precursors include American Factory, The Cave, Knock Down The House, Western Stars, and more. Below you can see all the nominated works, though what really will be interesting to see is what takes home the top prize. A win here for either American Factory, Apollo 11, The Biggest Little Farm, The Cave, Honeyland, The Kingmaker, Knock Down the House, Leaving Neverland, Maiden, One Child Nation, or They Shall Not Grow Old could really be a feather in its awards season cap. Time will tell,...

“Sea of Shadows” is director Richard Ladkani’s second “eco-thriller.” It’s a documentary ostensibly about scientists, activists, and law enforcement agents who are all trying to protect one of the most endangered species on Earth, but it plays more like a popcorn-friendly narrative feature thanks to the fact that Mexican drug cartels and the Chinese mafia are all intertwined in the story.

“Sea of Shadows” follows the intertwined plights of the the Vaquita porpoise and the totoaba fish in the Sea of Cortez as Mexican drug cartels erect illegal gill nets to catch totoaba to export to China, where there is a thriving illegal market for their bladders, which are purported to have medicinal properties. But those nets also catch the extremely endangered vaquita porpoise, posing a threat to the Sea’s entire delicate ecosystem.

The new genre in which the filmmaker has been working is something he and...

Documentaries can give voice to the powerless, focus on issues people have never heard of, and perhaps most importantly, create empathy.

“When I was watching everyone’s films here, I was thinking about how documentary filmmaking is so much about creating empathy,” “The Edge of Democracy” director Petra Costa said at Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts: Documentary panel, moderated by this author (watch above). “We’re empathy machines, the film as a device of creating empathy. … I think documentaries take us back to that place of turning things that happened back into experience because otherwise they just lose themselves in the [repetitiveness] of the events and you don’t have time to digest them and to feel empathy for them.”

Creating empathy was one of Victoria Stone’s goals when she made “The Elephant Queen” with her partner Mark Deeble. The film follows an elephant matriarch, Athena, leading her herd in search of water.

Victoria Stone and her partner Mark Deeble went through a pretty long casting process – a year and a half, to be exact – to find the pachyderm star of their Apple TV+ documentary “The Elephant Queen.”

“We started working outside the national park [in Africa] and everything’s going fine until price of ivory rose [and] the elephants became extremely scared [of poachers],” Stone revealed during Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts: Documentary panel, moderated by this author (watch above). “She really found us rather than us finding her. We came back one day to camp … and there was this little group of elephants under a tree behind the kitchen tent area, and the matriarch just turned her head and she had these amazingly long, even beautiful tusks, and a very calm manner and a family of youngsters in it and about the size we were looking for. Then we just started following them and she became the subject.

National Geographic’s new documentary “Sea of Shadows,” which will premiere commercial-free on Saturday at 9/8c, is about an endangered animal you’ve probably never heard of: the vaquita. But this is not a simple story of impending extinction. The world’s smallest whale, the vaquita has become collateral damage in an illicit trade between Mexican cartels and the Chinese mob for the swim bladder — aka the “cocaine of the sea” — of another fish, the totoaba, which also resides in the Sea of Cortez with the vaquita off of Baja California.

“We have, in this case, organized crime attacking planet Earth. Very few people know that the wildlife trade is the fourth biggest industry in the world in the black market,” “Sea of Shadows” director Richard Ladkani told Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Documentary panel, moderated by this author (watch above). “These organized syndicates around the world are feeding off our precious animals,...

IndieWire hosted its first-ever Consider This Fyc Brunch in honor of the 2019-2020 film awards season Tuesday, where over two dozen filmmakers, craftspeople, and producers discussed their work on the year’s best films in front of an audience of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters and guild members.

The event at Liaison Restaurant + Lounge in Hollywood was hosted by comedian and actor Sasheer Zamata. IndieWire staff moderated six intimate conversations with the editors, designers, directors, and others behind such films as the Gotham Award-nominated “Marriage Story,” Marvel hit “Avengers: Endgame,” the soon-to-launch Apple TV+’s inaugural film projects “The Elephant Queen” and “The Banker,” four National Geographic documentaries, and more.

“We’re here to celebrate the best films of the year,” IndieWire Editor-in-Chief Dana Harris-Bridson said. “In particular to celebrate the people who make those films possible — and that is the crafts.”

A panel moderated by Toolkit...

The documentary Sea of Shadows has gained a prominent advocate as it steams into awards season.

Renowned conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall is praising the film, which tells the story of dramatic efforts to save the last few remaining vaquita whales—an adorable dolphin-like creature native to the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.

“Sea of Shadows is so important,” Goodall, who was not involved in the production of the documentary, tells Deadline. “Not only does it bring awareness about the existence of this little whale, and I must say I’d never heard of it, but in addition to that, those people who are out there trying to save the vaquita, risking their lives.”

Goodall, her gray hair pulled back neatly in a ponytail, held a plush toy vaquita in her lap as she spoke with Deadline at a hotel in West Hollywood.

“I think the importance of the vaquita...

IndieWire is pleased to announce its first-ever Consider This Fyc Brunch in honor of the 2019-2020 film awards season. Hosted by comedian and actor Sasheer Zamata, the invitation-only brunch will take place on Tuesday, November 5, in Los Angeles. IndieWire will welcome attendees comprised of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, as well as guild members and select press, for a program that will present panels with this year’s awards-season contenders across both fiction and nonfiction films.

With additional panelists to be announced soon, the IndieWire Consider This Fyc Brunch program will present intimate conversations with the artists behind such films as the Gotham Award-nominated “Marriage Story,” Marvel hit “Avengers: Endgame,” the soon-to-launch Apple TV+’s inaugural film projects “The Elephant Queen” and “The Banker,” four National Geographic documentaries, and more.

Craft Panel Discussion

Jade Healy, production designer, Netflix’s “Marriage Story”

Deborah Cook, costume designer, United Artists Releasing...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominees for its annual awards on Wednesday morning. The 10 films nominated in the Best Feature category were culled from the group’s short list announced earlier in the month.

Last year the group previewed four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature, including the winner “Free Solo” as well as Ida champ “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” and “Of Fathers and Sons.” They predicted two nominees in 2017, four in 2016 and three in 2015.

Among this year’s Ida nominees are five that were also nominated by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards in Best Documentary Feature: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.” The Ida’s list also includes seven films to be screened in Doc NYC’s eighth annual Short List: Features program: “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,...

The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.

First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom of...

The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.

First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom...

“American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama” and “The Edge of Democracy” have scored multiple nominations for the International Documentary Awards.

“Advocate,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family,” “One Child Nation,” “Sea of Shadows,” and “The Biggest Little Farm” also received nods. The 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards will be held on Dec. 7 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for best director and all of the nominated films have female directors.

“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry, executive director of the Ida.

The Ida also announced that its Courage Under Fire Award will be presented to Waad Al-Kateab for the film “For Sama,” recounting her life in Aleppo, Syria. It won...

The nominees for the 2019 International Documentary Association (Ida) Awards have been unveiled, with several of this year’s most high-profile docs in the frame. Scroll down for full list of nominees.

For the first time, this year’s ceremony will feature an award for best director, with the five films nominated all directed or co-directed by women: The Edge Of Democracy (Petra Costa); Advocate (Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche); American Factory (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert); Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov); and For Sama (Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts).

Neon is the most represented distributor in the best feature field with three nominations. Netflix has two of the films in the category (American Factory and The Edge Of Democracy), while Amazon has one (One Child Nation).

This year’s Courage Under Fire Award, which recognizes documentarians who display “conspicuous bravery...

Films directed or co-directed by women dominated the nominations for the 35th Ida Documentary Awards, which were announced on Wednesday by the International Documentary Association.

All five films nominated in the new Best Director category — “Advocate,” “American Factory,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama” and “Honeyland” — were directed or co-directed by women, as was “One Child Nation,” which joined those films in the Best Feature category.

Also nominated in the top category: “Apollo 11,” “Midnight Family,” “Sea of Shadows” and “The Biggest Little Farm.”

Also Read: 'The Biggest Little Farm' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations

The nominations, which were made by committees assembled by the Ida, mean that “American Family,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation” are now the only nonfiction films to have received nominations by the Ida and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and included on Doc NYC’s list...

You are invited to attend our Q&a discussion with four of film’s top documentarians who now compete for Oscars and more. Our event is on Tuesday, November 5, at 7:00 p.m. at the Landmark Theater at 10850 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles. Admission and parking are free. Academy and guild members will get priority seating.

To RSVP, make your reservation here: https://goldderbydocumentarypanel2019.splashthat.com/

Gold Derby managing editor Joyce Eng will moderate this “Meet the Film Experts” panel with the following contenders for 2019/2020 awards consideration:

Petra Costa represents Netflix for “The Edge of Democracy”

The film explores one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history, combining unprecedented access to Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Costa has had other awards contenders with “Elena,” “Olmo and the Seagull” and “Undertow Eyes.”

Feras Fayyad represents NatGeo for “The Cave”

This film follows a dedicated team of female...

National Geographic’s Sundance award-winning documentary Sea of Shadows will make its global broadcast debut on the network on Saturday, November 9 at 9 Pm, premiering commercial free. The premiere will weigh anchor on the film’s global rollout that will see it on small screens in 172 countries and 42 languages.

It’s the latest move for the pic since National Geographic Documentary Films acquired the Richard Ladkani-directed documentary in a $3 million worldwide deal, just after it won the Sundance Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary. The film, produced by Terra Mater Factual Studios in association with Leonardo DiCaprio and Appian Way, Malaika Pictures and Wild Lens Collective, is coming off a limited theatrical release in the U.S., Mexico, the UK and Austria.

Sea of Shadows is constructed as a thriller of sorts that spotlights a rescue mission to save a collapsing ecosystem and with it, the vaquita – the most endangered and elusive whale on earth.

John Chester‘s “The Biggest Little Farm” leads the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards with seven nominations, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Director. Right behind it with six bids apiece are Todd Douglas Miller‘s “Apollo 11” and Peter Jackson‘s “They Shall Not Grow Old.” The other eight films nominated for the top prize are “American Factory,” “The Cave,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker,” “Knock Down the House,” “Leaving Neverland,” “Maiden,” and “One Child Nation.”

Chester’s newest documentary follows his family’s journey as they develop a sustainable farm outside of Los Angeles. As the Ccda nomination leader it follows in the footsteps of last year’s eventual Academy Awards winner “Free Solo” who led this group’s field with six nominations. “Free Solo” may have won at the Oscars and three Ccda awards, but it lost the main prize here to “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...

Now in its 18th year, the San Diego Intl. Film Festival, produced by the nonprofit San Diego Film Foundation, once again steals the movie glamour spotlight from its neighbor to the north, combining major regional premieres with a focus on social and environmental issues.

Running Oct. 15-20, the festival received more than 3,000 submissions from 68 countries, including feature films, shorts and documentaries. The result is a lineup that includes 107 films, with five in the narrative spotlight competition, 20 in the narrative contest, nine in the doc competition and 66 short films, says Tonya Mantooth, CEO and artistic director.

Opening night at the historic Balboa Theatre will see the premiere of “Jojo Rabbit,” a World War II black comedy written and directed by Taika Waititi. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” starring Robert De Niro, opens the screenings at the ArcLight Cinema La Jolla on Oct. 17. “A Hidden Life,” a drama set during WWII, written and directed by Terrence Malick,...

“The Biggest Little Farm” leads nominees for the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, with seven bids, followed by “Apollo 11” and “They Shall Not Grow Old.” “One Child Nation” received five nominations.

The winners will be presented their awards at a gala, hosted by Property Brothers’ Jonathan Scott, on Nov. 10 at Bric in Brooklyn.

The awards honor documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified Cca members.

A new honor, the D.A. Pennebaker Award, will be presented to Frederick Wiseman. Michael Apted will receive the landmark award for his work on the “Up” series of films, with “63 Up” opening this year.

“As the film and television industry constantly evolves, documentaries remain a vibrant creative art form that entertains as well as informs,” said Cca CEO Joey Berlin. “We are proud that our awards event has become a...

Farm animals, the historic moon landing and World War I veterans back to vivid life top the nominations for the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

The Biggest Little Farm leads this year with seven nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, John Chester for Best Director and noms for Best Cinematography, Editing, Score, Narration and Science/Nature Documentary.

Recognized with six nominations each are Apollo 11 and They Shall Not Grow Old. The nominations for Apollo 11 are Best Documentary Feature, Todd Douglas Miller for Best Director, plus Editing, Score, Archival Documentary and Science/Nature Documentary, The nominations for They Shall Not Grow Old are Best Documentary Feature, Peter Jackson for Best Director, Editing, Score, Archival Documentary and Most Innovative Documentary.

One Child Nation received five nominations: Best Documentary Feature, Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang for Best Director, along with Editing, Narration, and Political Documentary.

The Cave, Honeyland, American Factor, Aquarela...

The Aretha Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace,” the moon-mission chronicle “Apollo 11” and the first film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, “American Factory,” have made the short list for the International Documentary Association’s 2019 Ida Documentary Awards, the Ida announced on Thursday.

The announcement narrows the field to 30 feature films and 21 shorts that will move on to a second round of voting.

The IDA’s short list of 30 feature films contains 10 films that were on Doc NYC’s recent 15-film list of the year’s likeliest nonfiction awards contenders: “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Apollo 11,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland” and “One Child Nation.”

Additional films on the Ida’s list include “Amazing Grace,...

Next year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature will go to “Apollo 11,” “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “For Sama,” “Knock Down the House” or one of 10 other nonfiction films, if the track record for Doc NYC’s annual Short List proves to be as accurate as it has been in past years.

Those five films were included on the documentary festival’s 2019 list, along with “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Elephant Queen,” “The Great Hack,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker” and “One Child Nation.”

All of the films will screen at this year’s festival, which runs in New York City from Nov. 6 through Nov. 15, and will be eligible for juried awards in four categories for the first time.

Doc NYC has been compiling its Short List, which identifies the documentaries that its programming team considers to be the year’s strongest awards contenders,...

Directed and shot by Richard Ladkani, Sea of Shadows centers on the multi-pronged attempts to save the vaquita porpoise, an endangered species that lives in the Sea of Cortez. Illegal nets are cast in the ocean to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladders are sold on the black market. With the Sinaloa drug cartel [...]

The post ‘Sea of Shadows’ Documentary Rides The Wave Of A Cinematic Aesthetic appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

The new National Geographic documentary Sea Of Shadows brings to light the crisis at the border in Baja California as the native porpoise, the vaquitas are facing extinction because of the poaching of a rare fish by the Mexican drug cartel and the Chinese mafia. The netting is killing both the fish and the vaquitas, and only 15 of the dolphin-like creatures remain. One of the subjects of the documentary by director Richard Ladkani (The Ivory Game) is Mexican investigative journalist Carlos Loret de Mola who has been investigating the cartel behind it but he, along with the filmmakers and subjects of the documentary, have faced death threats from the narcos. We caught up with Carlos to talk about his role in Sea Of Shadows, and why it's important to act now.

Leonardo DiCaprio‘s latest eco-documentary “Sea of Shadows” doesn’t shy away from taking on Mexican cartels.

“For some of the guys there, he is state enemy number one at the moment,” said producer Wolfgang Knöpfler at the documentary’s premiere on Wednesday night at Neuehouse in Los Angeles. “The cartels don’t like him.”

Appian Way and DiCaprio executive produced the National Geographic documentary, which casts a spotlight on the little-known plight of the endangered vaquita, a species of porpoise that has become collateral damage in a poaching crisis raging in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Mexican crime syndicates have partnered with the Chinese mafia in the illegal fishing of the native totoaba, whose bladders are believed to have miraculous healing powers and fetch prices upwards of $100,000 on the Chinese black market.

Ensnared in nets meant for the totoaba, with their natural habitat decimated, the vaquita numbers have dwindled to less than fifteen.

Directed by Richard Ladkani (The Ivory Game), Sea of Shadows is a riveting documentary that, while providing much needed information about an endangered species, is also an immersive storytelling experience.

There are only 15 vaquita porpoises that survive on this world, and they reside near the Sea of Cortez. Fisherman have cast their nets into the [...]

The post ‘Sea of Shadows’ Review: Riveting Documentary Spotlights Endangered Vaquita Porpoise appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.