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As the United States inches closer and closer toward a tipping point into class warfare, we can't help but think back to "The Big Short." Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Michael Lewis, Adam McKay's irreverent spin on the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis was already a much-needed wake up call for the culture when it premiered at AFI Fest in 2015. Now, nearly a decade later, it remains an incisive interrogation of the corporate corruption we see screwing over average consumers every day. Though finance bio-dramas are far from novel, McKay's film stands out as fuel to a fire of postmodern disillusionment that many films have since tried replicating without precisely duplicating.

In commemoration of its upcoming 10th anniversary, here are 15 more films that will help deepen your appreciation for McKay's darkly comic cautionary tale, from further investigations into the 2008 recession to...

Every year, the Cannes Film Festival program yields its riches. And every year, documentaries are kept to the selection sidebars, with the exception of just three over the years, two of which won the Palme d’Or: “The Silent World,” co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle in 1956, and Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004.

This year, out of 16 documentaries in the Official Selection, two are in the Competition, the first time nonfiction titles have joined that storied roster since Moore’s inclusion.

This is progress, but a quick glance at the latest Palme d’Or predictions reveals that Wang Bing’s “Youth” (marking the first 3.5-hours of an eventual 10-hour triptych) and “Olfa’s Daughters” from Kaouther Ben Hania are not high on the list of likely winners. Both are recognized by critics as boundary-pushing examples of the form but seem unlikely to become consensus award picks from Ruben Östlund’s eclectic Competition jury.

The second part of this documentary portrait of the tennis star’s rise and fall does fill out the story but it sure takes its time

It is a pleasure, as well as a relief, to be able now to see the second part of Alex Gibney’s documentary about the disgraced German tennis legend who astonished the sports world by winning the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1985 at just 17, and has wound up in middle age going to prison in the UK for hiding assets after bankruptcy.

Very unfortunately and confusingly, the Berlin film festival showed just the first half of this Apple TV+ documentary (like showing half a movie) – an even more perplexing decision given that the festival showed Charles Ferguson’s Watergate documentary in its four-hour entirety in 2019 and all 252 minutes of Nanette Burstein’s Hillary Clinton documentary in 2020. And what’s more, the film’s...

The Robinhood effect has now extended to the movies. Days after the Reddit-led consumer buys of struggling GameStop, AMC Theaters, and other stocks, two of the most successful recent films about Wall Street manipulation are soaring high in home rentals.

Apple TV, usually the quickest to detect trends and spot immediate response, currently has Adam McKay’s 2015 “The Big Short” at #3 and Martin Scorsese’s 2013 “The Wolf of Wall Street” at #4. That places them ahead of all but two current releases (“Tenet” and “Greenland”) as the most-ordered titles.

This rapid response parallels what happened last February when Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 “Contagion” flew high with its story that paralleled the then-emergent Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Big Short” (based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction account of Wall Street firms reaping profits from the 2008 financial collapset) and “Wolf of Wall Street” (based on the career of broker Jordan Belford) clicked with the public a...

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Adam Bolt’s Human Nature, the feature documentary that premiered at this year’s SXSW and was just nominated for a pair of Ida Documentary Awards. The deal comes as the film screens next month at Doc NYC ahead of a February 7, 2020 theatrical release.

Human Nature, the directorial debut of Bolt, is about the gene-editing breakthrough Crispr, which at its essence provides unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life, opening the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. The doc explores the biotech innovation’s implications via the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers testing its limits.

Sarah Goodwin and Meredith DeSalazar are producers, and Elliot Kirschner, Greg Boustead and Dan Rather are executive producers.

‘Little Monsters’.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has unveiled the first 29 films on its line-up this year, including the world premiere of Good Thing Productions and Passion Pictures’ The Australian Dream which will open the festival August 1.

The documentary, written by Stan Grant and directed by Brit Daniel Gordon, looks at race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Indigenous rights activist Adam Goodes, who in 2013 sparked a national conversation about racism after requesting a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter be removed from the ground after calling him an “ape”.

“The Australian Dream is a compelling kickstart both to our festival this year, and to a national conversation,” said Miff artistic director Al Cossar.

‘The Australian Dream’.

“It’s an accomplished piece of documentary filmmaking that tackles broader questions of who we are as a nation, together, in deeply affecting terms. It’s a film for all Australians,...

Apple snagged a big fish to run their documentary content division. New York-based A&E Networks documentary veteran Molly Thompson will bring her expertise in supervising documentary films and TV series to Apple, which has recently ramped up its content production, mostly on the television side. As demand for documentaries grows, A&E is losing a valuable player.

Of course, Apple has not yet announced exactly how it plans to release its content, documentary and otherwise. At Apple’s recent presentation, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she’s prepping documentary projects for Apple TV+, including investigations of poisonous work environments and the mental health industry. Apple also acquired the documentary “Elephant Queen” at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. At Sundance, the filmmakers told me that the film has an ambitious and proactive social-action global release plan that could include theaters. One strategic Apple partnership with indie distributor A24, which will produce films for Apple,...

Apple snagged a big fish to run their documentary content division. New York-based A&E Networks documentary veteran Molly Thompson will bring her expertise in supervising documentary films and TV series to Apple, which has recently ramped up its content production, mostly on the television side. As demand for documentaries grows, A&E is losing a valuable player.

Of course, Apple has not yet announced exactly how it plans to release its content, documentary and otherwise. At Apple’s recent presentation, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she’s prepping documentary projects for Apple TV+, including investigations of poisonous work environments and the mental health industry. Apple also acquired the documentary “Elephant Queen” at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. At Sundance, the filmmakers told me that the film has an ambitious and proactive social-action global release plan that could include theaters. One strategic Apple partnership with indie distributor A24, which will produce films for Apple,...

Molly Thompson has joined Apple’s upcoming streaming service as its head of documentaries.

Thompson previously founded A&E Indie Films, the feature film production unit of A+E Networks. She was also previously the head of documentary films for A+E Networks. Recent documentaries she has executive produced include “The Clinton Affair,” Charles Ferguson’s “Watergate” docuseries, “Studio 54,” and “City of Ghosts.” She was also an executive producer on celebrated documentaries like “Life, Animated,” “Cartel Land,” “Murderball,” and “Jesus Camp.”

She also executive produced Amir Bar-Lev’s “The Tillman Story” and Bart Layton’s “The Imposter,” as well as two narrative features for Lifetime Films. Those were “Lila & Eve,” starring Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez, and “Paris Can Wait,” starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin.

Additionally, Thompson served as executive producer on all feature films produced under the History Films banner, including Werner Herzog’s “Meeting Gorbachev” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,...

Exclusive: Six years after terrorists detonated two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line taking three lives and causing hundreds of injuries, Propagate Content/Electus will make the documentary series Maximum Harm, based on Boston-based investigative journalist Michele McPhee’s book. Aboard to direct are Charles Ferguson, who won an Oscar for the 2008 financial meltdown dissection The Inside Job and his partner Shimon Dotan, who won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize director for Hot House.

McPhee’s book recaptured an unimaginable outcome to Patriots Day, when the city of Boston screeches to a halt annually for celebrations capped by the Boston Marathon. In her book, McPhee leaned heavily into the allegation that lead terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an FBI informant gone rogue, and questioned whether he and brother Dzhokhar actually built the bombs they planted 210 yards apart near the finish of the Boston Marathon. Besides three deaths, the bombs caused...

Apple is continuing to fill out its executive ranks.

The streaming service AppleTV+ has hired former A+E executive Molly Thompson as the company's head of documentaries. She brings with her three decades of experience in the field, having founded A&E IndieFilms, the feature film production arm of A+E Networks, and served as head of documentary films for A+E Networks.

Thompson executive produced such titles as The Clinton Affair; Charles Ferguson’s docuseries Watergate; Studio 54; and City of Ghosts from Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman. Among the additional projects she has shepherded are Roger Ross Williams’ Emmy Award-winning Life, Animated; Cartel Land; Murderball; and Jesus Camp....

Photo courtesy of Pablo Ocqueteau and Berlinale 2019Below you will find our favorite films of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.AwardsFAVORITE Filmsdaniel KASMANHeimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream (Frank Beauvais)Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Delphine and Carole (Callisto McNulty)Holy Beasts Years of Construction (Heinz Emigholz)Bait (Mark Jenkins)Giovanni Marchini CAMIASynonyms (Nadav Lapid)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Just Don't Think I'll Scream (Frank Beauvais)The Blue Flower of Novalis (Gustavo Vinagre & Rodrigo Carneiro)The Portuguese Woman (Rita Azevedo Gomes)The Last to See Them (Sara Summa)Earth (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)Heimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Ms Slavic 7 (Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell)Jordan Cronki Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec...

Charles Ferguson’s riveting four-hour documentary picks over Nixon’s squalid and pointless burglary – and the lessons still to be learned

The fad for true-crime documentaries continues with this investigation into the grisliest and most unpunished true crime of all. In the course of a mammoth, horribly absorbing four-hour film from Charles Ferguson we are immersed in a world of milky TV news footage, big lapels, bulbous combovers, dirty tricks, sweat, jowls and guilt. It was a time when the nation learned its president had compiled a deadly serious “enemies list” that included Paul Newman. This was the time when the Us felt its face get covered by a five o’clock shadow of shame.

America’s Watergate ordeal lasted from the first break-in at the Democratic party headquarters in Washington DC on 28 May 1972, and lasted until 8 August 1974, with Richard Nixon’s blandly impenitent resignation, tendered in return for a...

Exclusive: Here’s some compelling first footage of Oscar winner Charles Ferguson’s (Inside Job) well-received, all-encompassing documentary Watergate, which gets its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

The patient compendium draws from 3400 hours of audio tapes, archival footage and declassified documents to weave a detailed picture of the infamous Watergate scandal which led to the downfall of U.S. president Richard Nixon. Those featured include Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward and John Dean.

Numerous current day parallels are elegantly understated but it’s hard not to look at this footage and immediately think of the endless media storm surrounding Trump and the countless investigations against those close to him.

Dogwoof handles international sales on the 260-minute film, which is written and directed Ferguson. The company will also release in the UK. Producers are Representational Pictures with History Films. Pic got its debut at Telluride.

After making a major splash with 2010's Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, tech millionaire turned filmmaker Charles Ferguson appeared to disappear, at least in the eyes of anyone eager to see what was next for the man who had dissected the 2008 global financial crisis with such surgical precision.

He would resurface five years later with the climate-change-focused Time to Choose, which garnered critical acclaim but failed to generate major ripples beyond the festival circuit. Now he returns with Watergate, an impressively epic, exhaustive exploration of Richard Nixon's notorious scandal, spread over four-plus hours (handily cut into two parts) and undoubtedly among ...

After making a major splash with 2010's Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, tech millionaire turned filmmaker Charles Ferguson appeared to disappear, at least in the eyes of anyone eager to see what was next for the man who had dissected the 2008 global financial crisis with such surgical precision.

He would resurface five years later with the climate-change-focused Time to Choose, which garnered critical acclaim but failed to generate major ripples beyond the festival circuit. Now he returns with Watergate, an impressively epic, exhaustive exploration of Richard Nixon's notorious scandal, spread over four-plus hours (handily cut into two parts) and undoubtedly among ...

Charles Ferguson, Werner Herzog titles added to Dogwoof’s Efm slate.

Charles Ferguson’s Watergate and Werner Herzog and Andre Singer’s Meeting Gorbachev have both been picked up by London-based sales agent Dogwoof ahead of next month’s European Film Market in Berlin.

Watergate will make its European premiere in Berlin in the Berlinale Special strand. Following Ferguson’s Oscar-winning Inside Job, about the 2008 financial crisis, Watergate is a 260-minute feature about the political scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon. Dogwoof will also release the film in the UK in addition to handling international sales rights.

Ghost Town AnthologyThe titles for the 69th Berlin International Film Festival are being announced in anticipation of the event running February 7-17, 2019. We will update the program as new films are revealed.COMPETITIONThe Ground Beneath My FeetThe Golden Glove (Faith Akin, Germany/France)By the Grace of GodThe Kindness of StrangersI Was at Home, but A Tale of Three SistersGhost Town Anthology (Denis Côté, Canada)Berlinale SPECIALGully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, India)BrechtWatergate (Charles Ferguson, USA)Panorama 201937 Seconds (Hikari (Mitsuyo Miyazaki), Japan)Dafne (Federico Bondi, Italy)The Day After I'm Gone (Nimrod Eldar, Israel)A Dog Called Money (Seamus Murphy, Ireland/UK)Waiting for the CarnivalChainedFlatland (Jenna Bass, South Africa/Germany/Luxembourg)Greta (Armando Praça, Brazil)Hellhole (Bas Devos, Belgium/Netherlands)Jessica Forever (Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel, France)AcidMid90s (Jonah Hill, USA) Family MembersMonos (Alejandro Landes, Columbia/Argentina/Netherlands/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Uruguay) O Beautiful Night (Xaver Böhm,...

15 years after taking home the Golden Bear for “Head-On” — and a year after winning a Golden Globe for “In the Fade” — Fatih Akin is returning to the Berlin Film Festival with “The Golden Glove.” The German director, whose most recent offering also netted Best Actress laurels at Cannes for Diane Kruger, is one of six filmmakers announced as part of the 2019 Berlinale lineup. Joining him are Marie Kreutzer, Denis Côté, François Ozon, Angela Schanelec, and Emin Alper.

An adaptation of Heinz Strunk’s novel, “The Golden Glove” is based on the true story of a serial killer active in the red-light district of Hamburg throughout the 1970s. Ozon, meanwhile, returns to the festival with “By the Grace of God,” which follows a man named Alexandre who decides to take action upon learning that the priest who abused him as a child remains involved with children.

The festival also announced three...

Nine titles announced for Berlinale, which runs Feb 7-17.

The first films have been announced for the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlinale Special sections.

The Competition line-up includes new films by Fatih Akin (The Golden Glove), François Ozon (By the Grace of God) and Denis Côté (Ghost Town Anthology).

The other three films in the strand are Marie Kreutzer’s The Ground Beneath My Feet, Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, but and Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters. All are world premieres except By the Grace Of God which is an international premiere.

The...

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed the first wave of titles for its competition lineup, including new films from François Ozon, Marie Kreutzer, Denis Côté and Fatih Akin. Charles Ferguson’s Watergate documentary is among the Berlinale Special titles.

The first nine Competition and Berlinale Special films were revealed today, alongside the previously announced opening film, The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig.

Festival favourites Akin (In The Fade) and Ozon (In The House) return with German-language thriller The Golden Glove and French-language drama By The Grace Of God, respectively. The former follows a serial killer who strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s. The latter looks at a real-life case of sexual abuses allegedly committed by a French priest in the late 1980s. Oscar-winner Ferguson (Inside Job) will present anticipated 260-minute feature doc Watergate, which is sure to draw plenty of contemporary parallels.

New films by Francois Ozon, Fatih Akin and Denis Cote are among the titles that will compete for the Golden Bear at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

German director Akin’s “Der Goldene Handschuh” (“The Golden Glove”) and French helmer Ozon’s “Grâce à dieu” (“By the Grace of God”) were announced by the Berlinale in its first batch of competition films Thursday. Akin won the Golden Bear in 2004 with “Head-On.”

The lineup also includes “Der Boden unter den Fuessen” (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”) by Austrian director Marie Kreutzer; “Répertoire des villes disparues” (“Ghost Town Anthology”) by Canadian director Cote; “Ich war zuhause, aber” by German director Angela Schanelec; and “Kız Kardeşler” (“A Tale of Three Sisters”) by Turkish helmer Emin Alper.

All six competition films unveiled Thursday will have their world premieres in Berlin with the exception of “By the Grace of God,” which gets its international premiere at the festival.

A film memoir of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev featuring exclusive interviews has had its North American rights acquired by distributor The Orchard from History Films.

Meeting Gorbachev is a documentary directed by Werner Herzog and André Singer for Spring Films and Werner Herzog Film. The behind-the-scenes look at the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union features interviews of Gorbachev by Herzog on three occasions across a six-month period, capturing a unique look at a politician who changed the world.

“Meeting Gorbachev is an enthralling look back at a fascinating leader and diplomat, all the more impactful based on what the world looks like today,” said Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s Evp film and television. “Werner and Andre’s own sensibilities make the film engaging and personal in a way no other filmmakers could.”

The documentary is produced by Lucki Stipetic and Svetlana Palmer. The executive producers...

Even Murphy Brown has Trump fatigue. In last week’s episode, she threw down her remote and said, “I’m not watching anymore!” Ironic, of course, since millions of viewers stopped, or didn’t start, watching the new edition of CBS’ “Murphy Brown.” Conservatives figured, correctly, that she’d be trashing their leader weekly, and it seems liberals would rather watch Rachel Maddow.

Creative folks are learning they need to tread carefully doing anything dealing with politics these days, even if only tangentially winking at the chaos in the current White House. Despite possible resonance with the Stormy Daniels brouhaha, “The Front Runner,” a movie about the sex scandal that brought down Sen. Gary Hart, was a quick bust at the box office. Despite constant Nixon-Trump comparisons, Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Watergate” made little noise. “The Parisian Woman,” a Broadway show from the man who gave us Netflix’s “House of Cards,...

Considering the psychological costs of working for a downright corrupt organization concerned with short-term thinking and a risky bottom line, Inside Lehman Brothers offers an approach that not only makes the aptly named Dick Fuld a villain for what he did to the global financial system but also for Lehman’s treatment of whistleblowers in its Bnc mortgage division. Directed by Jennifer Deschamps, the documentary simplifies the academic overview offered up by filmmakers like Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room) or Charles Ferguson (Inside Job), and largely focuses on people of good conscious that risk their careers to expose the myriad ways Fuld and company did business. Fuld, shown largely in archival material encourages, to put it mildly, a brutal dog-eat-dog kind of capitalizing where he hopes to inflict pain on those that would sell short what he’s selling.

Sociopaths perhaps attract other sociopaths at Lehman,...

Five years ago when Oscar-nominated documentarian Charles Ferguson (“Inside Job”) started deeply researching the 1972 Watergate break-in, he was chasing a documentary thriller that would be fun to watch. A & E and History were on board. But as the political climate dramatically transformed, he wound up with a more sober narrative, which debuted at the fall festivals ahead of an October theatrical run of the four-hour version. On television, the series airs in six one-hour episodes playing over three nights, starting November 2 as part of “History 100,” a History Channel documentary series comprised of 100 films focused on compelling historical events of the last 100 years.

When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.

Five years ago when Oscar-nominated documentarian Charles Ferguson (“Inside Job”) started deeply researching the 1972 Watergate break-in, he was chasing a documentary thriller that would be fun to watch. A & E and History were on board. But as the political climate dramatically transformed, he wound up with a more sober narrative, which debuted at the fall festivals ahead of an October theatrical run of the four-hour version. On television, the series airs in six one-hour episodes playing over three nights, starting November 2 as part of “History 100,” a History Channel documentary series comprised of 100 films focused on compelling historical events of the last 100 years.

When A&E commissioned “Watergate,” everyone expected Hillary Clinton was going to be president. “We had no idea how timely it would be,” said A&E chief Molly Thompson. “That’s the way things played out. Watching a cut of the film feels like watching the nightly news.

Sen. John McCain knew his end was near when he spoke to “Watergate” director Charles Ferguson for Ferguson’s documentary about “how we learned to stop an out-of-control president.” The director believes McCain wanted to send a message about President Trump.

You can listen to our “Shoot This Now” podcast with Ferguson (who also directed the Oscar-winning “Inside Job”) on Apple or right here:



We asked Ferguson if he thought McCain was trying to send a message, through the documentary, that you can take down an out-of-control president.

“Absolutely. No question. I very deliberately did not ask him about Donald Trump,” Ferguson said. “For similar reasons, the name Donald Trump does not appear anywhere in the film. There’s no direct allusion to our current situation. But it was very obviously on Mr. McCain’s mind.”

Ferguson’s four-hour film enjoyed an Oscar qualifying run in theaters before its debut tonight on the History Channel.

Chicago – Day Five of the 54th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) on Sunday, October 14th, 2018, is a day to introduce yourself to a new side of Melissa McCarthy in “Can You Forgive Me?, to make a date with “Watergate,” the remarkable four hour documentary about that American history, to hop on “The Band Wagon” and to remember a magazine-era icon, Chicago’s own Art Paul.

’Can You Ever Forgive Me’ on Day Fiveof the 54th Chicago International Film Festival

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival/Fox Searchlight Pictures

Events A Chicago-centric vibe will be in the house on Sunday, as Ciff celebrates Windy City’s own Art Paul, one of the most influential graphic designers of the late 20th Century. The new documentary of his life, “Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind the Bunny” explains it all, as Art Paul was the man – in collaboration with Hugh Hefner – who...

Here’s how it’s always worked, the traditional go-to method for diving down the barrel of the smoking gun: You film a close-up of reel-to-reel tapes, the rotating wheels moving the magnetic strips through the player’s gates. Maybe you focus on the spindles in the middle of the cassette, turning and turning, as well. You play the grainy, tinny voices of men over the soundtrack, as they discuss payments, political cover-ups, the media and, courtesy of one particularly gruff-sounding gentleman, “the goddamned Jews.” This is how the notorious...

It’s been a hell of a week. A divided, partisan country ripped at the seams and what was once a split has become an unnavigable chasm. The protracted and ugly Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh turned into a culture war — left vs. right, men vs. women — when a courageous woman came forward with sexual assault allegations against the nominee and instead of a thorough investigation from the FBI, the country was given a contentious set of hearings Thursday.

Continue reading Charles Ferguson’s Timely ‘Watergate’ Doc Is Routine But Vital [Nyff Review] at The Playlist.

Other titles include Bad Times At El Royale and Park Chan-Wook series The Little Drummer Girl;

The 13th Rome Film Fest (18-28 October) has unveiled its line-up. It will feature in its non-competitive official selection 38 films, including the world premieres of Fede Alvarez’s The Girl In The Spider’s Web with Claire Foy and Gilles De Maistre’s Mia Et Le Lion Blanc, featuring Melanie Laurent.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Opening with Drew Goddard’s Bad Times At El Royale, Antonio Monda’s fourth edition confirms itself as a “fest” and not a “festival” as the director specifies.

The New York Film Festival lifts the curtain on its 56th edition tonight, with its three tentpole slots devoted to Venice prize winners The Favourite, Roma and At Eternity’s Gate, surrounded by the usual array of eclectic, curated titles from near and far.

Since its debut in 1963, against a backdrop of wildly fluctuating festivals jockeying for supremacy, and a downtown counterpart rising in Tribeca, the Nyff has remained remarkably consistent apart from a major renovation of Lincoln Center. At times over the years, that steady trajectory has struck some regulars as something verging on complacency, but in a culture and film industry marked by upheaval, staying the course has come to be a virtue.

“The great thing about the festival is that it’s always been allowed to stick to the mission of programming,” director Kent Jones told Deadline in an interview. “There’s no pressure from anyone to...

Charles Ferguson’s “Watergate” will open the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival on Oct. 10 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Alexis Bloom’s “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” will close the festival on Oct. 13 at the Naval Heritage Center in Washington, D.C., which will be the site for all films after opening night.

“Ghost Fleet,” directed by Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron is the festival centerpiece on Oct. 12. The festival will host a special screening of “The Panama Papers,” directed by Alex Winter, on Oct. 13.

Ferguson won an Oscar for “Inside Job,” a 2010 film that examined the corruption at the root of the financial crisis. His new film was originally titled “Watergate — Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President,” when it screened at Telluride on Aug. 31 in advance of a theatrical release on Oct. 12 and a Nov. 2 television bow on History.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite and Marielle Heller’s Melissa McCarthy-starrer Can You Ever Forgive Me? will get Centerpiece slots at next month’s Hamptons Film Festival.

The fest released its full line-up today, adding Steve McQueen’s Widows and the East Coast premiere of Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy to the previously announced slate.

Lanthimos’ The Favourite stars Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in the tale of two cousins fighting to be the court favorite of Queen Anne. The film will be the fest’s Friday Centerpiece, while Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes the Sunday Centerpiece slot.

The Hamptons fest runs Oct. 4-8.

In addition to the previously announced films, the Narrative Competition films will include the New York Premiere of Yen Tan’s 1985, the U.S. Premiere of Eva Trobisch’s All Good, Ali Abbasi’s Border, the U.S. Premiere of Zsófia Szilágyi’s One Day,...

Jonathan Safran Foer and Isabelle Huppert among raft of further new speakers added.

Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, is set to talk about the role and evolution of film festivals as part of the Rome Flm Fest’s Close Encounters strand in October.

The festival, which takes place from October 18-28, has also added a talk with Cate Blanchett, where she will speak about her career as well as her social and environmental initiatives.

Further sessions include novelist and author Jonathan Safran Foer on the relationship between literature and cinema; and Iranian photographer and video-artist Shirin Neshat,...

There are plenty of films on display here at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend with strong political connections such as documentaries like Charles Ferguson’s multi-part Watergate – Or How We Learned To Stop An Out-of-Control President (any similarity to present-day is clearly intentional); Ed Zwick’s Trial By Fire which strongly advocates for changes in the Texas criminal justice system and is a movie former Governor and current Trump cabinet secretary Rick Perry will not be pleased with; Reversing Roe (an argument against politicizing abortion); and even Universal’s Neil Armstrong film, First Man which caused an absurdly ridiculous dust-up on the internet (from Marco Rubio among others who haven’t seen it) that it was not paying proper respect to the planting of the American flag on the moon.

The latter is truly an absurd, politically motivated charge for a superb film from director Damien Chazelle that, otherwise,...

Like any abortion documentary worth the time to watch, Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s “Reversing Roe” doesn’t explicitly argue for or against a woman’s right to choose. And while there’s little doubt that Stern and Sundberg could make a persuasive case for reproductive rights, as several interview subjects do, it’s only so valuable to preach to the choir — especially when a film is released into the apolitical cyberspace of Netflix rather than a handful of arthouse theaters in America’s largest and most liberal cities.

Ultimately, “Reversing Roe” is a productive contribution to its ever-growing genre because it sharply dissects the process by which abortion soured from a private medical issue to a public political one. If witnessing the cynical opportunism with which Jerry Falwell stirred evangelical Christians into a Republican movement, or watching the Operation Truth videos in which fundamentalist zealots try to impose their religious beliefs,...

Lineup and Pre-Festival Announcements and News

Telluride Reveals 2018 Full Lineup: ‘Destroyer,’ ‘White Boy Rick,’ and ‘The Old Man & the Gun’ Set for World Premieres

Pre-Festival Analysis

Welcome to the Telluride Film Festival, Your Oscar Race Crucible

Telluride 2018 Analysis: Why This Year’s Oscar Season Feels Different — IndieWire’s Movie Podcast

Film Reviews

‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ Review: Melissa McCarthy Gives Her Best Performance as a Forger Who Dreams of Fame — Telluride

‘Boy Erased’ Review: Lucas Hedges and Nicole Kidman Lead Joel Edgerton’s Powerful Gay Conversion Drama

‘Fistful of Dirt’ Review: An Original Fantasy Set in the Destruction of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico — Telluride

‘White Boy Rick’ Review: Matthew McConaughey and Richie Merritt Can’t Salvage Bland Tale of Teen FBI Informant

‘Reversing Roe’ Review: Netflix Documentary Condemns the Politicization of Abortion — Telluride

‘Destroyer’ Review: Nicole Kidman Takes No Prisoners as a Badass Detective in Karyn Kusama’s Twisty L.

There’s a bit of a shock when the late John McCain shows up as an interview subject toward the end of Charles Ferguson’s “Watergate,” a comprehensive but frustratingly inessential retelling of how a crime blossomed into a constitutional crisis (you might have read about it). The senator isn’t on screen for long, but it only takes him a few seconds to summarize a profound truth at the heart of this epic documentary: “One thing we politicians are very good at,” he says with a smile, “is kidding ourselves about how well-liked we are.” McCain is talking about Richard Nixon, but — after four hours of watching this film painstakingly connect the dots between then and now — it’s obvious that he’s not only talking about Richard Nixon. Nobody is.

No matter how deep into the weeds Ferguson gets, there isn’t a minute of this movie that...

While most fall film festivals are fairly evenly spaced out as to not step on each other’s toes, that’s not the case when it comes to Telluride Film Festival, which takes place during the first weekend of Venice Film Festival. As is the case every year, they’ve unveiled their lineup just before the festival kicks off, and it includes a number of major world premieres, including Destroyer, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Front Runner, The Old Man & the Gun, as well as a handful of Venice premieres, including Roma, The Favourite, First Man, Non-Fiction, Peterloo, and, most-anticipated of all, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind.

Also in the lineup is a surprise film, Sebastián Silva’s Fistful of Dirt, which he discussed way back in 2009. “I won a big cash prize in Poland with The Maid. The money is to make...

This year’s star-studded Telluride Film Festival is mere hours from kicking off in the mountains of Colorado, and as is the annual event’s tradition, it has just now revealed its enviable lineup. As usual, this year’s fest features a range of buzzy fall season movies, including many films also premiering in Venice and Toronto as well as others resurfacing from earlier in the year, just in time for awards season. Filmmakers in this year’s program range from Alfonso Cuarón to Karyn Kusama, Hirokazu Kore-eda to Jason Reitman, and many more. The festival will also honor Cuarón, Emma Stone, and Rithy Panh as part of their long-running tributes section.

Films premiering at this year’s Telluride include a number of features already expected to impact the awards race in a major way, from Cuarón’s “Roma” to David Lowery’s Robert Redford-starring “The Old Man & the Gun...

The 45th annual Telluride Film Festival will play host to the world premieres of new films from Joel Edgerton (“Boy Erased”), David Lowery (“The Old Man & the Gun”), Jason Reitman (“The Front Runner”) and Ed Zwick (“Trial by Fire”), programmers announced Thursday.

Also scheduled are new titles from Oscar-winning filmmakers Damien Chazelle, Alfonso Cuarón and even Orson Welles. Chazelle’s “First Man” will transition from a Venice opening-night bow to the mountains of Colorado alongside Cuarón’s “Roma” and Welles’ finally-completed swan song “The Other Side of the Wind.”

Highlights from the international festival circuit will include Ali Abbasi’s “Border,” Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” (the first Cannes Palme d’Or winner to screen in Telluride since 2013’s “Blue is the Warmest Color.”)

Telluride co-director Julie Huntsinger calls the lineup of 60 feature films and shorts representing 22 countries “tender and fierce,...

It will be a star-studded Telluride Film Festival this year as awards hopefuls Robert Redford, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy and Ryan Gosling make the trek to the Colorado Rockies for the 45th edition of the Labor Day weekend fest that has increasingly become a major stop and Oscar season launch pad.

Holding their hand close to the vest until this morning, Telluride announced an eclectic slate that is nirvana for cineastes, and catnip for awards watchers who will flock to the small town surrounded by mountains and ski lifts for the four day film orgy that runs August 31-September 3.

The fest will feature a host of much anticipated new films, foreign language gems, documentaries, and tributes including those to Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron who is also bringing his black and white Spanish language Netflix film, Roma straight from Venice, as is fellow...

Friday, August 24

– The Camden International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 14th edition, including opening-night selection “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.” Morgan Neville’s documentary on Orson Welles kicks off the fest, which takes place September 13–16 and concludes with the Us premiere of the sailing drama “Maiden.”

The full slate is comprised of 37 features, 43 shorts, one episodic series, and 20 virtual-reality and immersive experiences; half of the lineup was directed or co-directed by women. Other standouts include Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski’s “Young Men and Fire,” Lana Wilson’s series “The Cure for Fear,” Jane Gillooly’s “Where the Pavement Ends,” “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” “What Is Democracy,” “The Truth About Killer Robots,” Locarno winner “Fausto,” and Karlovy Vary winners “Walden” and “Putin’s Witnesses.” Take a look at the full slate at https://pointsnorthinstitute.org.

Wednesday, August 22

– Today Sffilm announced...

Jim Jarmusch, Eszter Balint, Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Charlie Sexton and Marc Ribot appear in Ron Mann's Carmine Street Guitars Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the 56th New York Film Festival Spotlight on Documentary selections this afternoon. The programme includes Tom Volf's Maria By Callas; Mark Bozek's The Times Of Bill Cunningham, narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker; Charles Ferguson's Watergate with interviews of Lesley Stahl, Dan Rather, Pat Buchanan, and John Dean; Alexis Bloom's Divide And Conquer: The Story Of Roger Ailes At Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, and American Dharma directed by Errol Morris.

There are 14 documentaries in all chosen by Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones, Dennis Lim, Film Society of Lincoln Center Director of Programming, and Florence Almozini, Film Society of Lincoln Center Associate Director of Programming.

Tickets for the 56th New York Film...

Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival.

The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers.

The festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, appears to be leaning into the polarized present. The selections include “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which is directed by Bloom, the filmmaker behind “Bright Lights;” “The Waldheim Waltz,” director...

This fall's Rome Film Fest is already filling out its lineup.

The Italian festival is set to broadcast the entire History Channel docuseries Watergate from Oscar winner Charles Ferguson (Inside Job).

The 1972 scandal that brought down then-President Richard Nixon has become increasingly relevant as questions on the legalities of how Donald Trump came to office continue to plague the current administration. The Rome Film Fest under artistic director Antonio Monda has taken a great interest in American politics. The 2016 edition included a retrospective of American presidential films.

Also announced: Jonathan Safran Foer, best-selling author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely ...

This fall's Rome Film Fest is already filling out its lineup.

The Italian festival is set to broadcast the entire History Channel docuseries Watergate from Oscar winner Charles Ferguson (Inside Job).

The 1972 scandal that brought down then-President Richard Nixon has become increasingly relevant as questions on the legalities of how Donald Trump came to office continue to plague the current administration. The Rome Film Fest under artistic director Antonio Monda has taken a great interest in American politics. The 2016 edition included a retrospective of American presidential films.

Also announced: Jonathan Safran Foer, best-selling author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely ...

Tonight, A&E IndieFilms’ latest documentary, Matt Tyrnauer’s “Studio 54,” opens Outfest in Los Angeles before hitting theaters via Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber in October. Unusually, A&E IndieFilms senior VP Molly Thompson believes in theatrical play for her documentaries as a way to build awareness before they hit the air.

With streaming, she said, “it’s harder for the films to stand out. Theatrical is good for films. You have a whole year to go out to festivals and theaters before they come to A&E. We’re the opposite of HBO and Netflix.”

All these funding and distribution options make it “a great time for documentary filmmakers,” she said. “Even seven years ago people were starving. It was a difficult time. We were a big whale for filmmakers. Now they have so many options, and people are able to pay their bills.”

Thompson’s first job was...