News

After being stymied in a political run for governor as a Democrat, Nick Kristof is doubling back to the New York Times as a journalist. But his return to his columnist gig is marked by a tangled web of journalistic and financial conflicts.

New York Times journalists are strictly prohibited from participating in overt political activity and giving. But Kristof has yet to formally wind down the campaign infrastructure from his failed bid to become Oregon governor. His campaign Pac, Nick for Oregon, has recently been donating tens of thousands...

“Flee” won best feature at the International Documentary Association’s annual awards ceremony on Friday night.

Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, “Flee” is also nominated for best documentary feature at this year’s Oscars. Leading the ceremony with the most wins, however, was “Summer of Soul,” which took home the best director prize for Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson as well as best music documentary and best editing.

The ceremony also handed out speciality awards, honoring Roger Ross Williams with the Career Achievement Award, Ronan Farrow with the Truth to Power Award, Cecilia Aldarondo with the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, Jean Tsien with the Pioneer Award and Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh with the Courage Under Fire Award.

Below, find the full list of winners.

Best Feature

“Flee”

Best Director

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson — “Summer of Soul”

Best Short

“A Broken House”

Best Curated Series

“Independent Lens”

Best Episodic Series

“My Love: Six...

The Danish animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which were streamed in a virtual ceremony on Friday night.

The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.

Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...

Both films in contention at American Cinema Editors, Film Independent Spirit Awards this weekend.

Flee and Summer Of Soul director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson were the big winners at the International Documentary Association’s 37th Annual IDA Documentary Awards on Friday night (4).

Danish Oscar contender Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and produced by Monica Hellstrӧm, Signe Byrge Sørensen, and Charlotte De La Gournerie was voted best feature by IDA members.

Neon and Participant handle US distribution on the best documentary, animation and international feature Oscar contender.

The Best Director award went to Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson for Summer Of Soul, which...

Summer of Soul is picking up steam as awards season accelerates.

The documentary directed by Amir “Questlove” Thompson, which showcases the long-forgotten music-powered Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, earned a leading four nominations for the International Documentary Association Awards today, a day after winning the top prize at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The IDA recognition came for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Music Documentary and Best Editing.

Earning three IDA nominations apiece were Faya Dayi, director Jessica Beshir’s poetic evocation of Ethiopia, where she spent part of her youth, and Not Going Quietly, director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary about liberal activist Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with Als in 2016. Bruckman and Beshir will compete for Best Director with Thompson, Jacinta’s Jessica Earnshaw and Flee’s Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Jacinta and Flee also scored Best Documentary nominations [see full list of nominations below].

Ten films were nominated for Best Feature,...

The 2021 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards has revealed the nominations for Best Feature and Best Short. In a year crowded with festival hits and critically hailed nonfiction (see the Critics Choice Documentary Award winners), with more debuts unspooling at Doc NYC, every reputable nonfiction awards group helps to curate the sprawling list of eventual Oscar contenders, and the IDA is no exception.

A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.

The 2021 International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards has revealed the nominations for Best Feature and Best Short. In a year crowded with festival hits and critically hailed nonfiction (see the Critics Choice Documentary Award winners), with more debuts unspooling at Doc NYC, every reputable nonfiction awards group helps to curate the sprawling list of eventual Oscar contenders, and the IDA is no exception.

A number of films, including nominations leader “Summer of Soul” (four nominations), “Faya Dayi” and “Not Going Quietly” (three) and animated Danish Oscar submission “Flee” (two), keep turning up on early awards lists. But top dog NatGeo’s high-profile, well-reviewed titles “The Rescue,” “Becoming Cousteau,” and “Fauci” were left out in favor of an international selection of less-hyped titles. (“First Wave” scored the Pare Lorentz award plus a cinematography nomination.) PBS earned 14 nominations across its programming strands, followed by Netflix and Hulu each with seven nominations and HBO with six nominations.

The International Documentary Association has announced nominations for its 37th annual awards, with “Summer of Soul” picking up four noms and “Not Going Quietly” nabbing three.

Winners will be announced Feb. 5 at the awards ceremony at Paramount Studios.

“Summer of Soul,” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look at 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, picked up nominations for Thompson for director in addition to best feature, best music doc and best editing. “Not Going Quietly,” about healthcare activist Ady Barkan, received noms for Nicholas Bruckman for best director along with best feature and best writing.

IDA members may vote online for the best feature and best short categories starting Dec. 13.

PBS earned 14 nominations, followed by Netflix and Hulu with seven nominations each and HBO with six. This year’s submissions included 314 documentary features, 137 shorts, 172 series, 54 student films, 29 music docs and 41 audio documentaries or podcasts.

Here’s the full list of 2021 nominees:

Best Feature...

Donna Brazile, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee and a veteran political operator, has joined ABC News as a contributor, a move that is likely to limit her appearances on Fox News Channel, where she has been appearing regularly since March of 2019.

Brazile made a recent appeared on ABC News’ “This Week,” identified as a contributor, and a spokesperson for the Walt Disney unit confirmed she had joined its roster in previous weeks. Brazile has been a noted presence on Fox News Channel, which tilts decidedly to the right. “There’s an audience on Fox News that doesn’t hear enough from Democrats,” Brazile said in 2019. “We have to engage that audience and show Americans of every stripe what we stand for rather than retreat into our ‘safe spaces’ where we simply agree with each other.”

Her move to ABC News is unveiled in a week when Juan Williams,...

Donna Brazile, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, will join Fox News as a contributor, the cable-news network announced Monday, making a high-profile liberal commentator part of the offering from a network often seen to have close ties with conservative voters.

Brazile, a veteran Democratic strategist, will offer political analysis across both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network’s daytime and primetime programming. She was expected to make her first appearance on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino” at 2 p.m. eastern. Perino is a former White House press secretary who served during the administration of President George W. Bush.

“I know I’m going to get criticized from my friends in the progressive movement for being on Fox News,” Brazile acknowledged in a statement. My response is that, if we’ve learned anything from the 2016 election, it is that we can’t have a...

I’m pleased to see that the Motion Picture Association of America finally recognized it’s got a big PR problem. Rarely have I encountered flacks as inept and arrogant as Elizabeth Kaltman (who left the MPAA in late July for Walt Disney Studios, where I will make sure never to work with her) and her boss Howard Gantman, the MPAA’s VP Corporate Communications. Now Gantman will have a boss: He will be reporting to fresh hire Laura Nichols, now Evp Global Communications, as part of a new organizational structure. She has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. Nichols will oversee all international and domestic communications, media relations, new media development and special events. Nichols previously served as Senior Fellow and Senior Vice President for Communications and Strategies at the Center for American Progress, a leading Washington, DC think tank. As one of the original architects of Cap,...

I’m pleased to see that the Motion Picture Association of America finally recognized it’s got a big PR problem. Rarely have I encountered flacks as inept and arrogant as Elizabeth Kaltman (who left the MPAA in late July for Walt Disney Studios, where I will make sure never to work with her) and her boss Howard Gantman, the MPAA’s VP Corporate Communications. Now Gantman will have a boss: He will be reporting to fresh hire Laura Nichols, now Evp Global Communications, as part of a new organizational structure. She has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. Nichols will oversee all international and domestic communications, media relations, new media development and special events. Nichols previously served as Senior Fellow and Senior Vice President for Communications and Strategies at the Center for American Progress, a leading Washington, DC think tank. As one of the original architects of Cap,...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to the worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.

It’s a thrilling week in movies! Hordes of Potterheads will mob theaters at midnight to see the much-anticipated Battle of Hogwarts, while a silly old bear tumbles back with a new tale from the Hundred Acre Wood, and a master documentarian brings a twisted true tale to light. To take the excitement home, screen this selection of streaming features from the comfort of your couch.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

In the final film of the world-thrilling film series, The Boy Who Lived (Daniel Radcliffe) prepares for the final showdown with He Who Must Not Be Named (Ralph Fiennes). But come on, you knew that! Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman co-star.

For more tales of magic and mayhem, try this...

The respected political website Political reports today that the MPAA is "finds itself in an identity crisis". In a post-Jack Valenti, post-Dan Glickman world, "the once-influential lobby [is] searching for a direction... While the association goes about its job fighting piracy and rating movies, the lack of a unified voice fuels the perception that it is a shell of its former self... Hollywood elite is now a subset of a series of larger corporate empires, That makes it harder to drive a consensus and more difficult to lead what has always been a fractious group of companies that compete fiercely for everything from scripts to talent." Politico reports that studios have reduced the amount of money they pay to the MPAA each year — from 2007 to 2008, that funding dropped by about $20 million, according to tax documents — forcing the association to lay off staff and curtail some activities. The group’s...

The Wisconsin Republican has the misfortune of playing second fiddle to President Obama's State of the Union address. History hasn't treated most first responders too kindly, says Samuel P. Jacobs.

Congratulations, Paul Ryan, you just got the worst job in politics: the chance to respond to the State of the Union, the president's yearly address to Congress.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Nice Rhetoric, but Need Real Results

By its very design, the response spot is a diminishing one. There's no sergeant at arms to announce your arrival. No geeky lawmakers reserving prime seats four hours before curtain, awaiting a brief moment to press the flesh. The State of the Union is American political theater at its grandest. The rebutter-in this case, the 40-year-old Wisconsin congressman-is usually exiled to a black-box setup, condemned to perform before an empty crowd. Last year, Republicans made a huge improvement in stage...

Kori Bernards has been named senior vp media relations at Universal Pictures.

Bernards, who spent the past four years as senior vp corporate communications at the MPAA, will serve as the key media strategist and contact for positioning Universal Pictures in trade and business press.

Reporting to publicity executive vp Michael Moses, Bernards will engineer and implement media strategies that include managing media profiles of the executive team, act as a "first responder" for Universal on industry issues and trends and liaise with trade and business media.

Before entering the entertainment biz via the MPAA, Bernards worked in the political world, serving as senior political and communications aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt and Appropriations Committee chair David Obey.

She began her career in Washington as special assistant to the director of communications at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

First Run Features

NEW YORK -- Using true-life stories to complement its obligatory assemblage of talking heads, Daniel Karslake's documentary handles the theme of religious attitudes toward homosexuality in moving and educational fashion. While the film is unlikely to sway anyone whose mind already isn't made up, it provides plenty food for thought in its examination of biblical doctrine on same-sex love and how it resonates to this day.

The film concentrates on five individuals whose family lives were dramatically affected by their eventual coming out. They include such relatively well-known figures as Chrissy Gephardt, daughter of former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, and Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. The former was publicly supported by her politician father, who offered to cut short his Democratic presidential candidacy if it would make her life difficult. The latter was embraced by most of the members of his congregation after he declared his gayness.

Other happy stories include that of Tonia Poteat, whose parents have continued to support her despite their strong religious convictions, and Jake Reitan, whose parents became activists demonstrating against such Christian organizations as Focus on the Family.

A sadder note is struck in the case of Anna Wallner, whose suicide subsequent to coming out inspired her mother Mary Wall to become an advocate against homophobia.

Along with these inspirational stories is commentary from religious leaders (including Archbishop Desmond Tutu) and scholars countering the literal interpretations of the Bible employed to bolster anti-gay arguments.

More amusingly, a brief animated film makes the case for the scientific arguments bolstering the genetics theory behind homosexuality.

Although displaying little more in the way of technique or style than would be employed in a typical television newsmagazine, For the Bible Tells Me So makes its passionate case with conviction and intelligence.

IATSE joined a coalition of 19 unions Thursday in endorsing John Kerry as the Democratic nominee for president -- only the second time the entertainment union has backed a candidate for president. The first time came in July, when IATSE endorsed presidential candidate Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., on behalf of its 104,000 members (HR 7/30). Gephardt dropped out of the race in January and subsequently endorsed Kerry. IATSE's general executive board voted unanimously to join the Alliance of Economic Justice in endorsing Kerry. "The bottom line is defeating George W. Bush in November," IATSE president Thomas Short said. "That victory will lead to the protection and maintenance of jobs, fair trade and health care for every working family across this nation."...