News

Slamdance is celebrating the best indie films from 2024 with an inaugural awards ceremony aptly called The Indies. The Slamdance Film Festival announced Wednesday that its new annual ceremony will toast “the spirit of truly independent filmmaking” on December 9 at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles. Actor/comedians Nic Novicki and Steve Way (“Ramy”) will host.

An interesting caveat, though: For films to be eligible at the ceremony, features must not have held their world premieres at Sundance, SXSW, or Tribeca. However, nominees must have played at one or more domestic film festivals over the last calendar year leading into the ceremony. The Indies also are staying domestic, with a focus on narrative and documentary features from filmmakers only in North America.

“Independent U.S. and Indigenous filmmakers feel neglected and abandoned,” said co-founder Paul Rachman in a press statement. “The current landscape for recognizing fresh voices in cinema has never...

It’s true! No, seriously: it’s true. And by “it” we of course mean the stories at the heart of Film Independent’s 2024 Doc Story Lab. A one-week intensive designed to provide support for filmmakers whose projects are in post-production, the Doc Story Lab is one of two Documentary Labs amid the larger Film Independent Artist Development umbrella of talent incubators, which for over 30 years have been the place to spot future media-visionary movers-and-shakers.

This year’s participants will engage in five days’ worth of workshops, guest speaker sessions, and one-on-one mentorship with leading professionals in the nonfiction film space. including Doc Story Lab Lead Creative Mentors Chris Shellen (Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces) and Anayansi Prado (Paraiso for Sale) and Editing Mentors Christy Denes (Seduced: Inside the Nxivm Cult) and Sara Newens (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields). Not to mention plenty of networking opportunities with advice on the...

The Cinema Eye Honors announced the winners for its documentary films and series competition Friday in Manhattan, with “32 Sounds” taking the honor for outstanding nonfiction feature. Maite Alberdi won outstanding direction for “The Eternal Memory” together with Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters,” while “Paul T. Goldman” won outstanding nonfiction series.

See all the winners below:

—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

32 Sounds

Directed by Sam Green

Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann

—Outstanding Direction

Maite Alberdi

The Eternal Memory

Kaouther Ben Hania

Four Daughters

—Outstanding Editing

Michael Harte

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

—Outstanding Production

Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko

20 Days in Mariupol

—Outstanding Cinematography

Ants Tammik

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

—Outstanding Original Score

Jd Samson

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Sound Design

Mark Mangini

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Visual Design

Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

—Outstanding Debut

Kokomo...

Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Beyond Utopia” will kick off the winter season of PBS documentary series “Independent Lens” on Jan. 9.

Using hidden camera footage, the 115-minute doc follows the high-stakes journey that a handful of desperate families make in order to defect from North Korea — a country with the most brutal regime on earth, led by a dictator, Kim Jong-un. The doc, which was acquired by Roadside Attractions in August, is vying for Academy Award attention.

“Beyond Utopia” is one of six feature docus that make up the program’s winter slate, which begins in January and concludes on Mach 25. Notably, all six films were directed by women and filmmakers of color.

The selected titles cover a wide range of timely issues including racial tensions, gentrification, mental health, representation, and humanity through the lens of individuals, families, and tight-knit communities,

“At a time of tremendous upheaval around the world,...

The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.

The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.

‘Nothing Lasts Forever’

Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.

Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...

Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead all broadcast documentaries in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Thursday during the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles.

Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.

Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”

Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.

Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...

Brooke Shields Photo: ABC News Studios Actress, model, icon, sex symbol, dream girl, the face of an era—all of these titles perfectly suit Brooke Shields. However, she was saddled with these monikers as an adolescent girl, her outward attributes scrutinized by an exploitative media and many a leering male gaze.

How can trees be racist? That’s the question explored in a new documentary, “Racist Trees,” about a historically Black neighborhood called the Crossley tract in Palm Springs, Calif., whose residents suspected a dense row of tall tamarisk trees might have been planted decades ago to segregate them from the adjacent golf course.

While putting a close-up on the residents’ campaign to have the messy, view-blocking trees removed, the film deftly explores wider issues, like the troubled racial history of the idyllic resort town, gentrification and generational wealth – all with a light touch that includes plenty of colorful historic footage of swimming pools and movie stars.

The controversy over whether the trees should be removed might have remained a small local issue if it wasn’t for a 2017 article in the local paper, the Desert Sun. Reported by Corinne Kennedy, the piece drew worldwide attention, and the idea of “racist...

Sara Newens and Mina T. Son’s provocatively titled Racist Trees begins as an innocent investigation into the root (no pun intended) of a half-century dispute over a line of 60-foot tamarisks separating a historically Black section of Palm Springs from its historically white (and now overwhelmingly gay cisgender male) neighbors on the other side of a city-owned golf course. The film morphs into something much more shocking than merely another example of systemic inequality and the longstanding “polite” racism of white liberals who prefer gaslighting to admissions of culpability. Indeed, in the slyest and boldest of moves, the white and […]

The post “Being an Outsider to Palm Springs Was an Asset”: Sara Newens, Mina T. Son and Courtney Parker on Racist Trees first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Sara Newens and Mina T. Son’s provocatively titled Racist Trees begins as an innocent investigation into the root (no pun intended) of a half-century dispute over a line of 60-foot tamarisks separating a historically Black section of Palm Springs from its historically white (and now overwhelmingly gay cisgender male) neighbors on the other side of a city-owned golf course. The film morphs into something much more shocking than merely another example of systemic inequality and the longstanding “polite” racism of white liberals who prefer gaslighting to admissions of culpability. Indeed, in the slyest and boldest of moves, the white and […]

The post “Being an Outsider to Palm Springs Was an Asset”: Sara Newens, Mina T. Son and Courtney Parker on Racist Trees first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Click here to read the full article.

The Kyle Marvin-directed 80 for Brady — a Paramount Pictures comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno and Sally Field and produced by NFL superstar Tom Brady — will touch down in Palm Springs on Jan. 6.

The film has been selected to open the 34th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival by making its world premiere at the Richards Center for the Arts. The film’s stars and director are expected to attend the opening night festivities. Inspired by a true story, it follows four best friends who take a wild trip to the 2017 Super Bowl Li to see their hero, Brady, play in the big game. In addition to making his producing debut, Brady appears in the film, which is scheduled to hit theaters Feb. 3.

The fest will close with The Lost King on Jan. 15. The Warner Bros. Pictures film stars Sally Hawkins,...

Sales agent Deckert Distribution has boarded “Racist Trees,” directed by Sara Newens and Mina T. Son, and produced by Wayfarer Studios and Wild Pair Films, ahead of its world premiere in IDFA’s Frontlight strand. The feature-length documentary investigates the timely story of racial conflict in Palm Springs, uncovering an even darker racist history that few would equate with the city’s progressive image.

In Palm Springs, lies the historically Black Lawrence Crossley neighborhood, cut off from the glitz and glamour, and overshadowed by towering 60-foot Tamarisk trees. They were planted by the city authorities in the late 1950s to line the 14th fairway of a city-owned golf course, and – so some claim – to block Lawrence Crossley from the view of the white folk, and cut the neighborhood off from the rest of the city.

The trees have become the focal point of frustration and animosity for locals who see...

81 more titles have been added to the festival programme.

Bella Ciao, a documentary about the anthem that symbolized the Italian partisans’ fight against facism in the Second World War, is one of 81 new titles added to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) programme.

Directed by Giulia Giapponesi, Bella Ciao will have its international premiere at IDFA, having first played at Italy’s Bari International Film Festival in March.

Scroll down for the Luminous, Frontlight feature additions

Adapted from Italian folk tune ‘Mondine’, the song ‘Bella Ciao’ has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent weeks, partly as a show of...

Film Independent has set the filmmakers and projects for its 2022 Documentary Lab. The list includes Alissa Figueroa, Shalon Buskirk and Drew Swedberg, Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (Land of Women), Kit Vincent and Ed Owles, Alix Blair, Lauren Kushner and Elise McCave (Untitled Helen Project) and Jonathan Olshefski and Elizabeth Day (Without Arrows).

The Lab is an intensive program that provides creative feedback to filmmakers currently in post on feature-length docs, advancing the careers of its Fellows by introducing them to professionals who can advise on both the craft and business of documentary filmmaking. Chris Shellen and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol) and Anayansi Prado (Maid in America) will this year serve as its Lead Creative Mentors, with additional Lab Mentors and Guest Speakers to include Sara Dosa and Shane Boris (Fire of Love), Academy Award nominee...

“King Richard” got a big boost in its bid for Best Editing at the Oscars with a win at the Ace Golden Eddie Awards on March 6. It prevailed in the drama race at these awards bestowed by American Cinema Editors over two of its Oscar rivals –“Dune” and “The Power of the Dog” — as well as “Belfast” and “No Time to Die.”

Another of the Oscar nominees, “tick, tick…Boom!,” won the comedy/musical category over the fifth Oscar contender, “Don’t Look Up,” plus “Cruella,” “The French Dispatch” and “Licorice Pizza.”

Since 1990, the film that came up with one of the ACEs went on to take home the top prize at the Academy Awards 18 times, including the 2020 winner for best drama editing, “Parasite.” And in nine of the 13 years when the Ace barometer was wrong, at least one of the Eddie champs was a contender for Best Picture. Last year’s drama winner,...

The nominations for the 2022 Ace Eddie Awards announced on Thursday (Jan. 27) include our Oscar frontrunner for Best Film Editing, “Dune,” along with three of the other four films we’re predicting to reap bids in that race: “Belfast,” “Don’t Look Up” and “The Power of the Dog.” While “West Side Story” was snubbed by the American Cinema Editors we expect it to be the fifth Academy Awards contender.

The Ace Eddie Awards divide their prizes for editing between dramas and comedies/musicals.

“Belfast,” “Dune” and “The Power of the Dog” contend here in the drama race, which is rounded out by “King Richard” and“No Time to Die.”

Facing off against “Don’t Look Up” on the comedy side are “Cruella,” “The French Dispatch,” “Licorice Pizza” and “tick, tick…Boom!”

In 1992, the Eddies went from three to five nominees (matching that of the Oscars) and in 2000 it split the award in two,...

The American Cinema Editors (Ace) has nominated “Belfast,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “No Time to Die” and “The Power of the Dog” in the category of feature film drama at the 72nd annual Ace Eddie Awards.

In the best edited comedic feature category, “Cruella,” “Don’t Look Up,” “The French Dispatch,” “Licorice Pizza” and “Tick, Tick…Boom!” all received nominations.

Among the animated features nominated were “Encanto,” “Luca,” “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Sing 2.” The TV nominees include “Succession” and “The White Lotus.”

The Eddies are considered a precursor for the best picture and best editing categories at the Oscars. Five of the past 11 winners for best edited drama feature went on to win the film editing Oscar.

Since 1961, only 10 women have won in the best edited drama feature category. This year, there are two women who made the cut: Pamela Martin (“King Richard”) and...

The American Cinema Editors has spliced together the nominees for its 72nd annual Ace Eddie Awards.

The editors behind Belfast, Dune, King Richard, No Time to Die and The Power of the Dog will compete for Best Edited Dramatic Feature Film. Up for Comedy Feature are Cruella, Don’t Look Up, The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza and tick, tick…Boom! The Animated Feature race will be among Encanto, Luca, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Raya and the Last Dragon

and Sing 2.

Vying in the Documentary Feature competition are Flee, The Rescue, Summer of Soul, Val and The Velvet Underground. See the full list of the Eddie Award nominations below.

Trophies will be presented during the guild’s awards ceremony on March 5 at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. The half-capacity show originally was set for February 26.

A highlight on the TV side is Kevin Can F**k Himself,...

“Belfast,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” “No Time to Die” and “The Power of the Dog” have been nominated as the best dramatic film editing of 2021 by the American Cinema Editors, which announced the nominees for the 72nd annual Ace Eddie Awards on Thursday.

Those five films will compete in the Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) category, while the field in Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) will consist of “Cruella,” “Don’t Look Up,” “The French Dispatch,” “Licorice Pizza” and “tick, tick…Boom!”

The most surprising omission was probably “West Side Story,” while Ace Eddie voters also bypassed “Nightmare Alley,” “Coda” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

Nominations for the editing of animated features went to the same five animated films that have also been nominated by the Cinema Audio Society, Motion Picture Sound Editors, Visual Effects Society and Art Directors Guild: “Encanto,” “Luca,” “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Sing 2.

Next month’s lineup at The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, featuring no shortage of excellent offerings. Leading the pack is a massive, 20-film retrospective dedicated to John Huston, featuring a mix of greatest and lesser-appreciated works, including Fat City, The Dead, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King, and Key Largo. (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre will join the series on October 1.)

Also in the lineup is series on the works of Budd Boetticher (specifically his Randolph Scott-starring Ranown westerns), Ephraim Asili, Josephine Baker, Nikos Papatakis, Jean Harlow, Lee Isaac Chung (pre-Minari), Mani Kaul, and Michelle Parkerson.

The sparkling new restoration of La Piscine will also debut, along with Amores perros, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Cate Shortland’s Lore, both Oxhide films, Moonstruck, and much more.

See the full list of August titles below and more on The Criterion Channel.

Abigail Harm,...

The classic nutshell version of the Turbulent Sixties becoming the Me Decade 1970s is that idealism curdled into hedonism. For some, that was more a fork in the road than a one-way, and the two starring roles Krisha Fairchild has had in indie dramas illustrate alternative generational paths.

Playing the eponymous (but fictive) protagonist in real-life nephew Trey Edward Shults’ auspicious debut feature “Krisha” five years ago, she was a casualty: a woman who clearly stayed at the counterculture party too long, burned too many bridges, and now finds no one trusts her or her fragile sobriety. In the new “Freeland,” which was scheduled to premiere at SXSW, Fairchild plays another figure reaching a retirement age that the life she’s lived has ill-prepared her for. But in this case, Devi is a survivor who kept her ideals burning all these years, even if now she’s the only torch-bearer left.

HBO Max’s “On the Record” is a searing look at sexual harassment allegations against music mogul Russell Simmons.

The documentary follows former Def Jam Records executive Drew Dixon, who has accused Simmons of rape and sexual harassment. Other survivors — Sil Lai Abrams and Sheri Hines — and academic thought leaders — Kimberelé Crenshaw, Joan Morgan, and Tarana Burke — also share their stories in the doc.

Directors Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the team behind “The Hunting Ground” (about rape on American college campuses) and “The Invisible War” (about rape in the military), are no strangers to lensing stories on the tough subject.

As Dixon lets us into the powerful world of hip-hop, she exposes the ugly truth behind closed doors, recalling how Simmons exposed himself to her and persuaded her to come to his apartment on another occasion.

The film (streaming beginning May 27) received rave reviews out of the Sundance Film...

Top Spin

Directed by Sara Newens & Mina T. Son

USA, 2014

You didn’t think you needed a movie about competitive table tennis until Top Spin proved you wrong. Directors Sara Newens and Mina T. Son have taken a recreational pastime previously banished to basements and turned it into compelling sports drama. Exhilarating, inspiring, and sometimes heartbreaking, Top Spin is an entertaining look at what it takes to be champion. Even if the champion isn’t old enough to drive.

“Table tennis is a lot like combining martial arts, boxing, and chess.”

It’s a tribute to the creators of Top Spin that this ludicrous claim, made in the film’s opening moments, seems completely feasible by the final credits. We watch the punishing quest of three young champions as they battle for the right to represent North America in the 2012 Olympics. As the film progresses and we come to learn about these kids,...

While the beauty of non-fiction cinema comes in the medium’s uncanny ability to get at broad universal truths about often times a singular person or topic, there are few things more interesting than a documentary about a definitively and eye-openingly esoteric subject.

Take the new film from directors Mina T. Son and Sara Newens, Top Spin, for example.

Ostensibly your standard sports documentary, Son and Newens take to the world of table tennis, to introduce us to three teens who are attempting to make a go of it in the world of Olympic-level table tennis. The film introduces us to two California teens, Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang, numbers one and two in the nation respectively, as well as 17-year-old Michael Landers, who is the country’s youngest male champion, winning the title at the age of 15. These three are our entry point into the shockingly high stakes world of table tennis,...

Exclusive: The Film Sales Company has picked up worldwide sales and distribution rights on a trio of films in advance of their premieres at Doc NYC this weekend.

Company head Andrew Herwitz, announced today that the company has acquired Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story Of The National Enquirer, in which Ric Burns profiles the magazine and founder Gene Pope who changed the face of print publishing forever.

Table tennis film Top Spin directed by Sara Newens and Mina T will receive its world premiere and follows three teenage Olympic hopefuls.

The Cult Of Jt Leroy (pictured) by Marjorie Sturm also gets its world premiere and explores the eponymous literary hoax created by American writer Laura Albert.

“Thom [Powers] and his team have created a world-class festival in what feels like the blink of an eye,” said Herwitz.

“Doc NYC is a perfect place to launch these three very commercial films and we expect sales in multiple territories on each...

The 8th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is all set to run for ten days this Feb. 11-20 in Missoula, Montana. This year, the fest will have a whopping 140 film programs, a growth that necessitates an expansion from its regular home at the Historic Wilma Theatre — where it will occupy two screens — to also feature screenings at the former Pipestone Mountaineering store.

Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)

Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.