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This July, Netflix is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated final chapter of the worldwide hit fantasy series The Sandman to the much-awaited sequel of the fantasy action film The Old Guard. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Netflix this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the five best films that are coming to Netflix in July 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Captain Phillips (July 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93% Credit – Sony Pictures

Captain Phillips is a biographical action-thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass from a screenplay by Billy Ray. Based on the 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking, the 2013 film follows Captain Richard Philips, a merchant mariner, as his ship is overtaken by Somali Pirates and he is taken hostage.

There's a moment in "The Florida Project," the Willem Dafoe-starring drama from Sean Baker about a six-year-old girl named Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) living in a motel with her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite), that I think about daily. Halley and one of her friends go out to eat one night and get food from a stand. We know that Halley doesn't have a lot of money — we've watched her steal, scam, and engage in sex work to make ends meet — but she still puts a tip in the jar for the food stand worker. To those who have never grown up poor, it's a moment that likely went unnoticed. But to those of us who have, it was a signal that this film came from someone who genuinely wanted to present an authentic look at how people living in poverty make joy in their lives without financial security. That includes always tipping service industry workers,...

Stars: Simon Rex, Suzanna Son, Bree Elrod, Brittany Rodriguez, Ethan Darbone | Written by Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch | Directed by Sean Baker

Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, ex-porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry (Suzanna Son) working the cash register at a local doughnut shop.

I must confess right out of the gate that I’m not a big fan of Sean Baker‘s work. In the months leading up to The Florida Project‘s wide release, all I was hearing was just how much of a masterpiece it was, only for me to eventually watch it and hate it. To this day I genuinely have no idea how it got so...

With the so-called streaming wars in full swing, the key to staying competitive is for platforms to have quality content on constant rotation. Judging by this month’s movie titles, Amazon Prime Video is up for the challenge. May’s collection has something for everyone, whether it be big-hearted comedies, classic ‘90s dramas or critically-acclaimed indies. There’s even a special collection of films to keep you in the Mother’s Day spirit all month long.

Here are some of the best movies streaming on Amazon Prime in May 2022.

Lady Bird (2017) A24

From “Mamma Mia” to “Freaky Friday,” Amazon’s Mother’s Day Collection is a crowded field, but nothing tops “Lady Bird.” Greta Gerwig’s beloved coming-of-age film stars Laurie Metcalf and Saoirse Ronan as a tough-loving mother-daughter duo. Lady Bird (Ronan) dreams of leaving her native Sacramento to go to college in a big city, while her mother...

Fusion Entertainment has signed filmmaker Ira Sachs, actor Mya Taylor and writer-director-actor Jude Dry. The management company, which was founded this year by Chris Evans and Adam Kersh, hails the signings as an important step in bolstering their roster of LGBTQ+ talent.

Kersh and Sachs have had a long association, having worked together for a decade. Kersh helped spearhead the publicity campaigns for the Sachs’ queer-positive NYC triptych “Keep the Lights On” (2012), “Love Is Strange” (2014), and “Little Men” (2016). Sachs recently finished filming his latest feature “Passages,” which follows a gay couple living in Paris whose relationship is disrupted when one of them begins seeing a much younger woman. “Passages” stars Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Kersh also has a long history with Taylor, having been the chief architect of the publicity campaign for Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” which served as Taylor’s film debut. Kersh also spearheaded the Oscar campaign for Taylor,...

Sean Baker used to be the indie world’s best-kept secret, until 2017’s The Florida Project—a study of a struggling single mom in the shadow of Disney World—took the director first to Cannes and later to the Oscars, after Willem Dafoe was nominated for his role as a kind-hearted motel janitor. The career boost was short-lived; as Baker prepared to shoot a passion project about drug activism, the Covid pandemic forced him to pivot to something smaller—much smaller. Ironically, the result, Red Rocket, is one of his best-received films to date, telling the story of hustler Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), who returns to his ex-wife in Texas and obsesses over the teenage jailbait, Strawberry, who works in the local donut shop. Here, he discusses his 20-year journey…

Deadline: How did The Florida Project come about?

Sean Baker: That one was specifically to do with an issue...

Since the academy expanded the Best Picture category at the Oscars in 2010, Best Original Screenplay has gone to writers of a wide-range of genres: dramas; comedies (“Midnight in Paris”); biopics; true-life stories (“Spotlight”); period pictures (“Django Unchained”); war movies (“The Hurt Locker”); sci-fi (“Her”), thrillers and horror (“Get Out”). (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Original Screenplay)

Regardless of the type of film, a nominee needs broad academy support to win this race. Indeed, all 12 of the most recent Best Original Screenplay winners were, at the least, Best Picture nominees. And six of them won the big prize, bringing the total number of Best Picture champs with Oscar-winning original screenplays to 18. By comparison, 41 films have done this on the adapted side.

In 2021, all five nominees for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards were crafted by writer/directors. Expect auteurs to be well-represented in this race once again.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

It goes without saying that the past two years have been a lot for everyone to deal with. There were plenty of films released in 2021, but every aspect of the industry suffered through it. Productions dealt with new, costly protocols, festivals had to navigate physical and / or virtual events, distributors chose between theatrical exclusives or hybrid releases, exhibitors did everything they could to stay afloat, and everyone lost a ton of money in the process. There is no easy way out of this pandemic, but that’s not stopping anyone from burning through everything they can to find one.

Still, there were lots of things to see in 2021, and the spread of great to good to bad wasn’t particularly different from any other year. Some films...

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

Filmmaker Sean Baker (The Florida Project) had an unexpected inspiration for his latest film Red Rocket, which centers on fast-talking, washed-up porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) who, having exhausted his options and goodwill in Los Angeles, returns to his Texas hometown where he quickly exerts his charming con artist patter to bend the locals, including his ex-wife, to his self-indulgent will.

Baker said the revelation that sparked the film came out of research he and co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch did for a previous project, Starlet, which was also set in the porn industry.

“Getting to know people within that industry, we realized there was this archetype, because we met a handful of men like Mikey Saber – and they even had a term applied to them within the industry,...

For Variety‘s Writers on Writers, Jonathan Raymond pens a tribute to “Red Rocket” (screenplay by Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch.)

Often, there’s a slight delay before an era finds its shape. The Nixon years blossomed gradually in Alan Pakula’s paranoia trilogy, and the Vietnam era played out for decades as a kind of see-sawing national argument on film. And now, already, the Trump era is returning to us in the form of “Red Rocket,” a patriotic comet sailing from the year 2016, the dawn of whatever the fuck this epoch has been. Written by Chris Bergoch and director Sean Baker, the film feels like the best kind of voyeurism — a medium-long bus ride with people you’ve been dying to eavesdrop on your whole life.

Does this character sound familiar? A white guy who lies constantly; who claims to be a lot richer than he is; who gaslights...

A24 presents Red Rocket in six theaters this weekend ahead of a limited expansion in New York and LA, adding Chicago, Austin and San Francisco next weekend with a wider rollout over the holidays to several hundred screens.

The dark comedy by Sean Baker premiered at Cannes to a five-minute standing ovation and garnered a trio of Gotham Award nods including Best Screenplay for Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch, Outstanding Lead Performance for Simon Rex, who plays washed up porn star Mikey Saber with magnetic high-octane glee, and Breakthrough Performer for Suzanna Son as Strawberry, a sultry teenage doughnut shop employee Mikey sees as his ticket home. Saber had returned from LA to his small Texas City, Texas hometown, which does not want him, to regroup amid the oil refineries he pedals by on his bike over and over looking for work, love or mischief. The...

Reservation Dogs milestone success for indigenous storytelling.

Netflix’s The Lost Daughter claimed four prizes including best feature at the 2021 Gotham Awards on Monday night (November 29) at an in-person ceremony in New York that marked the first major US awards show of the season.

The Elena Ferrante adaptation about a professor on holiday who confronts her past also won breakthrough director and best screenplay for debutante feature writer-director Gyllenhaal, while Olivia Colman tied for best lead actor in the first year of the Gothams’ gender neutral acting categories.

Back in its traditional slot on the first Monday after Thanksgiving the...

The 31st annual Gotham Awards is a key stop in the awards season marathon, especially for lower-budget indies looking for some traction for the Oscars race. However, not every likely Oscar contender found itself up for Gothams, including “The Power of the Dog,” “Tick, Tick… Boom!” and “The Harder They Fall,” as they exceeded the $35 million budget limit for nominees.

For the first time, international documentaries were eligible in the best documentary feature category. Additionally, the new award breakthrough nonfiction series is among category updates for the year, as well as outstanding lead performance, outstanding supporting performance and outstanding performance in a new series, from the television side. Outstanding lead performance, breakthrough performance and outstanding supporting performance were all gender neutral categories, with eight men and 14 women nominated.

Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” ran away with the evening, scoring the most amount of wins with prizes in best feature, breakthrough director for Maggie Gyllenhaal,...

The Gotham Awards were handed out on November 29 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. So who won at these annual indie film kudos from The Gotham Film and Media Institute, which streamed on YouTube and Facebook? Scroll down for the complete list of winners in all categories.

Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” and “Passing” went in as the two most nominated films with five apiece, but that didn’t automatically mean they were the front-runners. Categories at these awards are judged by panels of just a handful of industry insiders, often leading to unexpected, under-the-radar winners. You can’t count anyone out at an event where unique juries review all the nominated material.

Seersvp now for November 30: Film producers panel with ‘Being the Ricardos,’ ‘Belfast,’ ‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘tick, tick… Boom!’

That means these awards can be quite idiosyncratic — they’re independent thinkers, and not...

The Gotham Awards took place on November 29 in Lower Manhattan, back in their usual prime slot at the start of the awards season. The event marks the first significant awards ceremony of the season, ahead of most critics groups and guilds.

Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.

Kristen Stewart received this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other...

The holidays are upon us, so whether you looking for film-related gifts or simply want to pick up some of the finest the year had to offer in the category for yourself, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, and more home-video picks, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

4K & Blu-ray Box Sets

There’s no better gift for a cinephile than a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Leading the pack in this regard is a collection that actually arrived much earlier this year: World of Wong Kar-wai, the long-awaited Criterion release that features the Hong Kong master’s most celebrated works, along with the first U.S. release of his short The Hand. Another must-own trio of sets from Criterion: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, featuring four bold films from the late director, The...

Sean Baker's films often touch on complex aspects of human life and don't shy away from getting into survival's grittiness.

Red Rocket once again proves Baker's skills while highlighting fantastic performances throughout the whole cast. 

Simon Rex provides a masterful performance to Baker's excellent directing skills and creates a beautiful film.

The film is set in a small town in 2016, Texas, where Rex's character Mikey Saber returns after doing porn for years.

The whole film sets itself against the 2016 presidential election campaigns. While not a significant plot point in the film, the election as the backdrop made for interesting dynamics and viewpoints.

The writing and directing stood out significantly, making this a great follow-up from Baker's 2017 film The Florida Project.

The two films have a lot in common: they're both character-driven stories, the setting feels like a character, and the style feels intimate.

Simon Rex's character takes center stage in Red Rocket,...

Part of Sean Baker’s close-knit regular creative collaborators that also include Chris Bergoch and Radium Cheung, Shih-Ching Tsou was a co-director alongside Sean Baker in 2004’s Take Out. She is now prepping her solo project which was likely filmed (or will film) under the radar. Tsou was an Executive Producer on Starlet, and producer on Tangerine, The Florida Project and this year’s Red Rocket. She was featured among our Sundance Trading Card series.

Gist: Unknown.

Production Co./Producers: Tbd.

Prediction: Next.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd.

…...

Red Rocket director and co-screenwriter Sean Baker revealed that Mikey Saber, the always-hustling washed-up porn actor who returns to the Texas hometown that wasn’t exactly sorry to see him go, was inspired by real-life adult-film actors he encountered and that he always envisioned as a role for Simon Rex.

“My co-screenwriter, Chris Bergoch and I, we were doing research on a film that we made … called Starlet, which also focused on the adult-film industry,” Baker told Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles, sharing a panel with the film’s actors Rex, Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son.

“Getting to know people within that industry, we realized there was this archetype, because we met a handful of men like Mikey Saber – and they even had a term applied to them within the industry, slang term: ‘suitcase pimp,’” said Baker, whose most recent indie hit was 2017’s The Florida Project. “We found...

A24 has shifted the release date for Sean Baker’s film, Red Rocket, pushing it back a week from the 3rd to the 10th of December.

The dark comedy from the director of The Florida Project and Tangerine was previously set to open against Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Greenwich Entertainment doc Try Harder!, Focus Features’ drama Wolf, Fip’s Tadap, Camille Griffin’s holiday horror pic Silent Night, and Faith Media Distribution’s True to the Game 3.

It’s now set to play against two major awards contenders—Steven Spielberg’s 20th Century Studios remake of West Side Story and Amazon’s Aaron Sorkin pic Being the Ricardos—along with STX Entertainment’s action thriller Violence of Action, starring Chris Pine.

Red Rocket centers on Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown—regardless of the fact that no one wants him back.

Gravitas Ventures Acquires U.S. and Canadian Rights to “Wild Game”

Gravitas Ventures has acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights to “Wild Game,” an action adventure film directed by Brock Harris and starring Creed Garnick, Charlie Barnett, Allison Paige, Matthew Daddario, Harris, Golden Garnick, Jared Bonner, Kyle Robinson, Matthew Paetz, Adrianna Leonard and Vicki Garnick. Gravitas Ventures will release “Wild Game” in select theaters and on demand on Dec. 17.

The film follows the story of a cash-strapped rancher who takes an offer to help a movie star poach elk. They finds themselves in a run-in with local authorities, triggering a series of events for a dramatic showdown.

Gravitas Ventures manager of acquisitions Brett Rogalsky negotiated the deal with Tania Sarra on behalf of the filmmakers.

Winners Announced for 8th Annual Lmgi Awards ‘Celebrate the Where’

Announced in seven categories, the Location Managers Guild International (Lgmi) announced the winners of its 8th Annual Lmgi Awards,...

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter and Rebecca Hall’s Passing, both from Netflix, swept the top nominations for the Gotham Awards this year as the independent film honors and awards-season portal unveiled its noms list Thursday morning ahead of an in-person ceremony next month.

The Lost Daughter was nominated in the Best Feature, Breakthrough Director and Screenplay for Gyllenhall, lead performance for Olivia Colman and Supporting Performance for Jessie Buckley. Passing scored four noms including Best Feature.

Others in the Best Feature category include The Green Knight (A24), Pig (Neon) and Test Pattern (Kino Lorber).

Films released from March 1-December 31, 2021 and TV series from Oct. 1, 2020-September 30, 2021 were eligible. See full list of nominations below.

A24 and Netflix each had 10 nominations overall. Others were spread across distributors. A24 titles included Red Rocket; lead performance nods to Taylour Paige...

Ahead of a ceremony on November 29, this year’s Gotham Awards nominations have been unveiled, featuring some of the year’s finest cinema. Among the nominations are some personal favorites here at The Film Stage, including Drive My Car, Faya Dayi, The Worst Person in the World (a film that still doesn’t have an actual 2021 U.S. release date), Test Pattern, and El Planeta.

This year, the Gothams made a switch to have all performance categories be gender neutral, with those categories have been restructured into Outstanding Leading and Supporting Performance categories for feature films, joining the already existing Breakthrough Performer category.

Check out the film nominations for the Gotham Awards below.

Best Feature

The Green Knight

David Lowery, director; Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, David Lowery, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, producers (A24)

The Lost Daughter

Maggie Gyllenhaal, director; Osnat Handelsman Keren, Talia Kleinhendler, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Charles Dorfman,...

The annual Gotham Awards is, once again, the first prominent awards ceremony out of the gate during Oscar season, thanks to this morning’s nominations announcement. Films with budgets exceeding $35 million are automatically disqualified from Gotham Awards consideration. For this reason, major Oscar contenders from Netflix, such as Jane Campion’s Venice winner “Power of the Dog,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut “Tick Tick Boom,” Jeymes Samuels’ “The Harder They Fall,” and Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” did not make the cut.

Prior to the nominations announcement, the Gotham Awards confirmed that Kristen Stewart would be the recipient of this year’s Performer Tribute thanks to her performance in “Spencer.” Other honorees include Eamonn Bowles (who is receiving the Industry Tribute), the cast of “The Harder They Fall” (receiving the Ensemble Tribute), and Campion (who is receiving the Director’s Tribute).

The Gotham Awards don’t always line up with the Oscars,...

With the musical accompaniment of ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye,” A24 has released the first trailer for Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” with Simon Rex.

Shot in secret during the pandemic, the upcoming dramedy is written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. It stars Rex as Mikey Saber, a porn star who returns to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, after his Los Angeles lifestyle leaves him broke. When he arrives home, claiming to be a reformed man, his ex-wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and mother-in-law Lil (Brenda Deiss) aren’t happy to see him, and things take another turn when a teen girl named Strawberry catches his eye.

Displaying Mikey’s smooth-talking charm in a turquoise tie-dye shirt, the trailer shows him bike-riding to job interviews, getting into verbal spats and claiming to be able to “100% out-cardio” a guy who gut-punches him outside a drive-thru donut shop. “Red Rocket” premiered...

It’s icky, it’s uncomfortable, but “Red Rocket” is also daring and funny, resulting in co-writer and director Sean Baker’s best outing as a filmmaker yet. If audiences and award voters can get past the more risqué elements, the A24 feature could have a fighting chance in a still wide-open awards season.

The film’s success begins and ends with actor Simon Rex, who dives headfirst into a career-defining performance. Rex’s story is well known in media, as he got his start appearing in solo scenes in porno movies before becoming a model and MTV DJ. After dipping into TV with stints in “Felicity” and as a scene-stealing white rapper in “Scary Movie 3,” he’s mostly flown under-the-radar in Hollywood. That seems like it’s all about to change.

You can see similarities to the career resurgence of Mickey Rourke when he blazed back onto the...

Texas City in Galveston County, Texas, in the summer of 2016. Mikey Saber (Simon Rex)—or Mike Davies, as he’d rather not be called—lopes off a greyhound bus into the broiling heat, covered in facial bruises, his possessions only a stale, dirt-caked sports bag thrown over his shoulder. This is no triumphant Odyssean homecoming, a prodigal son welcomed into the bosom of redemption. He is trouble: all devilishly good-looking male-model cheekbones and taut physique, whose real desire to please induces nothing but suffering to others and himself. This is his latest rodeo.

As a Sean Baker protagonist, he’s actually a slight anomaly, although this is still a very Bakeresque milieu. Whereas his past work threw ingenuous, warm-hearted individuals into hostile worlds (festooned always in bright cinematography and decor), here the first-billed on the cast list is the monster. Or the hero of his own life, and deliverer of others,...

Red Rocket director Sean Baker is prepared to receive hate mail, he said at a press conference in Cannes on Thursday.

Baker said he’s been the recipient of plenty of angry comments before, so he is philosophical about the impending reaction to Red Rocket‘s open-ended tale of a washed-up porn star in pursuit of a teenager. He’s also confident that A24, the film’s U.S. distributors, will support him.

“A24 is taking it domestically in the United States, and you know they’re a fearless company, and I think they’re going to take anything that comes our way head on,” he said. “But I don’t want to be negative about it. I know we’re tackling tough subjects here, and I know there are themes and images that are triggering in this film, I get it. But again, it’s part of the discussion…...

Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday afternoon to another standing ovation, as one of the stronger U.S. films to debut in the South of France.

The drama, which will be distributed in the United States by A24, received five minutes of sustained applause inside the Palais.

“It’s amazing to be here at the Cannes Film Festival, especially this year, in which we’re seeing cinema come back,” Baker said in brief remarks to the crowd. “It feels so great to be back in a movie theater.”

“Red Rocket” follows a washed-up male porn star, Mikey Saber (played by Simon Rex), who moves back home to Texas City, Texas, crashing on his mother-in-law’s couch and trying to patch things up with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) during the summer before the 2016 presidential election. As Mikey looks to make a comeback,...

Former porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) might be “blessed” — at least according to the sore underage girl he’s grooming during a post-coital chat in the flatbed of her pickup truck — but the reality of the situation is that the guy is nothing less than a living curse. He’s a big-dicked, self-obsessed, hyper-opportunistic hex of a man whose puppy dog con artist schtick is so transparent that even naive teenagers can see right through it, which is exactly why people lower their guard and let him. Into their houses; into their panties; into their dreams for the future that Mikey incepts into their heads for his own benefit. And he doesn’t stop trying to weasel his way deeper into any of those things for a single minute of Sean Baker’s utterly singular and weirdly lovable “Red Rocket,” .

It begins with the blaring shriek of Nsync’s...

A24 has released the first official look at Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” ahead of the film’s world premiere next month in competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. “Red Rocket” is Baker’s first Palme d’Or contender, although he’s no stranger to Cannes as his last directorial effort, “The Florida Project,” was one of the most acclaimed breakouts in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar of the 2017 festival. Baker’s previous efforts screened at festivals such as Sundance (“Tangerine”), SXSW (“Starlet”), and more.

While A24 has not released an official synopsis for “Red Rocket,” here’s how Deadline described the movie when it was first announced last year: “‘Red Rocket’ is a darkly comedic film about Mikey Saber, a 39-year old ‘suitcase pimp.’ That is the kind of pimp who lives off of women in the adult film industry. Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, Mikey decides...

Indie filmmaker Sean Baker has emerged for his first project since 2017’s Academy Award-nominated feature “The Florida Project,” and it’s a dazzling, 1970s-esque, gritty and glamorous throwback on the streets of New York for fashion line Khaite. The short film serves as a showcase for Khaite’s fall/winter collections for 2021. Check it out below.

Shot on the streets of New York and within its subterranean corridors, the short hearkens back to classic New York cinema from the ’70s. The film was produced by Prodject in creative collaboration with Superprime.

“This project has honestly been one of the most creatively cathartic experiences I have worked on. This is our crazy love letter to New York City and I hope audiences have as much fun watching as we had making it,” Baker said.

Baker’s next feature “Red Rocket,” starring Simon Rex as a washed-up porn star returning to his small hometown in Texas,...

Focus Features takes majority of territories.

FilmNation has sold out international territories including a large swathe to Focus Features on Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, which immediately became a must-have title for buyers when it was announced earlier this month.

Baker’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Florida Project is in post after it filmed under strict Covid protocols during the pandemic.

In a flurry of high-profile deals, Le Pacte has snapped up the film for France, Roadshow Distribution for Australia and New Zealand, Lev Cinemas for Israel.

Focus Features has acquired Red Rocket for the rest of the world excluding North America,...

A24 will distribute Sean Baker’s next film “Red Rocket,” a comedic drama about a washed up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown.

“Red Rocket” marks Baker’s first feature since “The Florida Project,” an acclaimed coming-of-age story that was also backed by A24. Though it’s unclear when “Red Rocket” will be released, Baker says the film is expected to debut in theaters.

“I am very excited to be reuniting with the wonderful team at A24 who will once again be bringing my film to U.S. audiences,” Baker said in a statement. “As a champion of the theatrical experience, I am thrilled A24 will give my film a theatrical release with their talent for bold marketing and distribution savvy. My gratitude goes out to FilmNation and the ‘Red Rocket’ cast and crew for helping me bring the film to fruition.”

The film, which stars Simon Rex,...

Drama is currently in post.

A24 has acquired US rights to Sean Baker’s Red Rocket from FilmNation.

The film stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son and centres on Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown where his estranged wife and mother-in-law live.

A chance encounter with a worker in a local store pulls Mikey back into his former life.

Baker co-wrote the film with frequent collaborator Chris Bergoch, and serves as produced with Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Alex Saks, and Shih-Ching Tsou. Jackie Shenoo is executive producer.

FilmNation holds global rights to Red Rocket,...

A24 has acquired North American distribution rights to Sean Baker’s Red Rocket. They acquired the rights from FilmNation Entertainment, who owns global rights to the project. This is the first film since Baker’s Oscar-nominated The Florida Project, which A24 also released.

Film stars Simon Rex in an iconic new role alongside discoveries Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son. The film, which is currently in post-production, was written by Baker and frequent collaborator Chris Bergoch. Director of Photography is Drew Daniels .

“I am very excited to be reuniting with the wonderful team at A24 who will once again be bringing my film to US audiences,” Baker said. “As a champion of the theatrical experience, I am thrilled A24 will give my film a theatrical release with their talent for bold marketing and distribution savvy. My gratitude goes out to FilmNation and the Red Rocket cast and crew for helping me bring the film to fruition.

A24 has acquired the North American rights to “Red Rocket,” the next film from director Sean Baker.

“Red Rocket” is currently in postproduction and is Baker’s first film since 2017’s “The Florida Project,” which was also released by A24 and went on to score an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Willem Dafoe.

The new film stars Simon Rex (also known as Dirt Nasty) as Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown, even though no one there really wants him back. Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son also star.

Baker wrote “Red Rocket” with his frequent collaborator Chris Bergoch. The director of photography is Drew Daniels. Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Alex Saks and Shih-Ching Tsou are the producers on the film, while Jackie Shenoo serves as executive producer.

A24 picked up the rights to “Red Rocket” from FilmNation Entertainment, which holds global rights to the film.

Darkly comedic tale filmed during pandemic.

FilmNation has picked up worldwide sales rights to Red Rocket, Sean Baker’s darkly comedic film that shot during the pandemic and marks the American director’s follow-up to Oscar-nominated The Florida Project.

The film stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son and centres on Mikey Saber, a struggling pimp who makes his money from women in the porn industry.

After he leaves Los Angeles and returns to his Texas home town where his estranged wife and mother-in-law live, a chance encounter with a worker in a local store pulls Mikey back into his former life.

Late last year it was revealed that Sean Baker had secretly shot a new feature marking his follow-up to The Florida Project. Titled Red Rocket and starring Simon Rex, not much else was known about the project, but now we finally have the first plot details.

With the news that FilmNation will sell the film globally, Deadline reports the first synopsis: “Red Rocket is a darkly comedic film about Mikey Saber, a 39-year old “suitcase pimp.” That is the kind of pimp who lives off of women in the adult film industry. Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, Mikey decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working the cash register at a local doughnut shop. He falls right back into his old habits.

Exclusive: FilmNation Entertainment has landed worldwide rights to Red Rocket, the first film that Sean Baker has directed since his Oscar-nominated film The Florida Project. FilmNation will sell the film globally.

Red Rocket was one of the first projects to safely and successfully shoot during the Covid-19 pandemic, using rigorous safety protocols.

Baker wrote the script with frequent collaborator Chris Bergoch, and the film stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son. Red Rocket is a darkly comedic film about Mikey Saber, a 39-year old “suitcase pimp.” That is the kind of pimp who lives off of women in the adult film industry. Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, Mikey decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working...

If you love independent cinema, you’re almost certainly a fan of Sean Baker. Along with his partner in crime and writer Chris Bergoch, Bake has been making beloved indies that even manage to be elevated towards Oscar contention. The Florida Project was cited with an Academy Award nomination, but Tangerine was a close miss, while other work of theirs like Starlet is top notch as well. Yesterday, some news came down the pike about their next project. That alone would be exciting, but add in that Baker and Bergoch not only have penned the flick, but it’s almost finished shooting. Read on for a bit more about this development… According to an exclusive from Variety, Baker and Bergoch are almost done with a new movie called Red Rocket. Starring Simon Rex, nothing is known about it just yet, but indie cinema fans should obviously be excited. More when we have it,...

Other than the strange saga earlier this year of Bella Thorne’s aborted OnlyFans documentary and having video discussions with Abel Ferrara, Tangerine director Sean Baker has been busy, but mostly quiet, about upcoming projects since the release of 2017’s highly acclaimed The Florida Project.

That hiatus is over, but Baker remains ever unpredictable with his choices, revealing today that he shot and produced a film in secret during quarantine. Speaking to Variety, Baker disclosed that the film is a dark comedy called Red Rocket and stars Simon Rex, a prolific actor whose biggest mainstream credit is an appearance in the Scary Movie franchise. The rest of his work we’ll let you discover for yourself.

Co-written with Chris Bergoch, who had a hand in previous Baker films including Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Starlet, the film was lensed by Waves cinematographer Drew Daniels. Baker is currently looking for distribution.

Sean Baker is nearing completion on “Red Rocket,” a dark comedy he’s been shooting in secret in Texas. Variety first reported the news, adding that production on “Red Rocket” will finish before the end of the month. Plot details for the movie are being kept under wraps. “Red Rocket” stars “Scary Movie” franchise veteran Simon Rex. Additional cast members are not known at this time. Baker often works with non-actors, so it wouldn’t be surprising to hear the cast is made up largely of unknown talents.

Baker was last in theaters with “The Florida Project,” which debuted to rapturous acclaim in the Directors Fortnight sidebar of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. A24 released “The Florida Project” in the U.S. to a $5.9 million gross. The indie ended its run globally with $11 million. At the Oscars, “The Florida Project” picked up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor thanks to Willem Dafoe’s performance.

Sean Baker is close to wrapping “Red Rocket,” a secret film he has been shooting in Texas.

The dark comedy will star Simon Rex of the “Scary Movie” franchise and “Jack & Jill.” Plot details are being kept under wraps, but production should be finished this month. The film was independently financed and will be looking for distribution.

Baker isn’t the only director to take up his camera in secret. Steven Soderbergh applied a similar under-the-radar approach while making his upcoming movie “Let Them All Talk,” which will star Meryl Streep and Gemma Chan.

Work on “Red Rocket” commenced as Hollywood and the independent film community that Baker belongs to are trying to find a way to make movies safely during coronavirus. The film has employed industry standard safety protocols.

“Red Rocket” marks Baker’s first feature since 2017’s “The Florida Project,” which earned rhapsodic reviews, as well as...

Director aims to start shooting new projects next year.

The Florida Project director Sean Baker has revealed more details on his upcoming projects.

Talking to Screen at the Locarno film festival, where he is serving on the competition jury, Baker said he has two films in development.

“There’s two films that we’re thinking of doing,” he said. “We may do them back-to-back because I’m very bad at jumping into editing. I always need distance. With every film I’ve had producers and financiers who don’t mind me taking six months off before editing. This time we...

Indie studio Gunpowder & Sky will develop and distribute a half-hour scripted comedy series with the acclaimed writer/producer Chris Bergoch -- who is behind the hit indie features Tangerine (which was shot entirely on iPhones) and Academy Award nominee The Florida Project (pictured above), co-starring Willam Dafoe.

The docu-style series, dubbed UnCONventional, is set inside a convention center and will follow staffers through the themed weekly events taking place inside its sprawling halls -- including gaming, reptiles, ‘Furries’, and bridal expos. The staff is comprised of actors, writers, and models -- led by two twentysomething siblings who are always at odds. UnCONventional will reunite Bergoch with his Tangerine and The Florida Project producing partners Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri.

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The 33rd Independent Spirit Awards took place on Saturday, March 3 in Los Angeles. The full winners list is below.

Best Feature

“Get Out”

Producers: Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele

“Call Me by Your Name”

Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marco Morabito, James Ivory, Howard Rosenman

“The Florida Project”

Producers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou

“Lady Bird”

Producers: Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill, Scott Rudin

“The Rider”

Producers: Mollye Asher, Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, Chloé Zhao

Best Female Lead

Frances McDormand

“Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Salma Hayek

“Beatriz at Dinner”

Margot Robbie

“I, Tonya”

Saoirse Ronan

“Lady Bird”

Shinobu Terajima

“Oh Lucy!”

Regina Williams

“Life and Nothing More”

Best Male Lead

Timothée Chalamet

“Call Me by Your Name”

Harris Dickinson

“Beach Rats”

James Franco

“The Disaster Artist”

Daniel Kaluuya

“Get Out...

“Call Me by Your Name” came out on top at the 16th Annual Gold Derby Film Awards when winners were announced on March 1, 2018. It won Best Picture in a competitive field of 10 films that also included “Baby Driver,” “Blade Runner 2049,” “Dunkirk,” “The Florida Project,” “Get Out,” “I, Tonya,” “Lady Bird,” “The Shape of Water” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Scroll down for the complete list of winners, which were decided by more than 1,000 Gold Derby users who voted for their favorites in our predictions center. And watch our complete presentation of the winners in the video above.

The win for “Call Me by Your Name” wasn’t necessarily surprising. It wasn’t the most nominated film of the year (that was “Shape of Water” with 14), but with 11 bids the intimate character-driven romance drastically over-performed relative to its showings at previous events including the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards,...

The 2018 Gold Derby Film Awards nominations were announced on Thursday, February 1, and “The Shape of Water” leads the way with 14 bids. That’s probably not a surprise since the Cold War-era fairy tale was also the most nominated film at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, BAFTAs and Oscars. These nominations were determined by more than 2,000 awards-savvy Gold Derby users who entered their choices for the best films of the year. Watch our video announcement of all the nominees above, and scroll down for the complete list.

“The Shape of Water” contends for Best Picture, Best Director (Guillermo Del Toro), Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Best Original Screenplay and Best Ensemble Cast. It also competes for its cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, production design, sound, score and visual effects. Missing from our list is Oscar nominated supporting actor Richard Jenkins, but only two...

Sean Baker may be a new name to Oscar voters, but IndieWire readers have long been aware of his unique approach to filmmaking. “The Florida Project” has introduced Baker to a wider audience, many of whom were blown away by his latest film’s raw emotion and unparalleled naturalism. Ardent admirers would be wise to revisit Baker’s earlier works, such as “Take Out” (2004), “Prince of Broadway” (2008), and of course, the highly acclaimed “Tangerine” (2015). “The Florida Project” is the culmination of many of the skills Baker honed in his earlier work; he has perfected the quality issue film, exploring social themes with insightful and nuanced filmmaking without sacrificing artistry.

Read More:‘The Florida Project’: How Sean Baker and His Collaborators Used Instagram, Target, and Motels to Find its Cast

“The issue of the film, which is the hidden homeless, was something I was unfamiliar with. I didn’t even...