News

The Producers Guild of America has unveiled its first round of 2025 PGA Awards nominees. The category of Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures was announced on December 10, 2024, with the Children’s Program, Short-Form Program, and Sports Program categories being announced three days later. The ceremony will take place on February 8, 2025 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California.

Comprised of more than 8,400 producers, the guild first nominated six documentaries for the Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures category. The selected films are in the process of being vetted for individual producer eligibility.

The previous ceremony awarded Lauren Domino, Matthew Heineman, and Joedan Okun with the Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture for “American Symphony.” In 2023, “Navalny” producers Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, and Shane Boris were honored with the PGA Award and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The 36th annual PGA Awards...

The Sun Valley Film Festival will recognize Demi Moore with the Vision Award, Pamela Anderson and Gia Coppola with the Pioneer Award, and “Porcelain War” with the Impact Award. Opening with “The Last Showgirl,” the series continues with screening of “Porcelain War,” “Blink” and a series of shorts from The New Yorker. The winter screening series includes Q&As, coffee talks and receptions for AMPAS members and runs from Dec. 5-8.

“The Substance” star Moore will partake in a coffee talk and receive the Vision Award on Dec. 8. This honor is given to “industry icons whose groundbreaking contributions have transformed the industry for the better.” Anderson and Coppola will be presented with the Pioneer Award on Dec. 6, when there will also be a screening of their film “The Last Showgirl,” along with a Q&a. The documentary “Porcelain War” is set to receive the Impact Award earlier that day “for...

Blink, the story of the remarkable Lemay-Pelletier family of Montreal, will premiere on National Geographic December 16, followed the next by a debut on Disney+ and Hulu.

Before bowing on linear TV and the Disney-owned streaming platforms, the award-winning film is continuing its festival run – latest stop, the prestigious International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Filmmaker Edmund Stenson is in the Dutch capital to support IDFA screenings of the documentary he co-directed with Oscar winner Daniel Roher (Navalny).

Blink, which won the Audience Choice Award at the Heartland Film Festival, takes viewers on a journey around the world with Édith Lemay, her husband Sébastien Pelletier, and their four kids – Mia, Léo, Colin, and Laurent. Édith and Sébastien organized the trip after learning that three of their kids – Mia, Colin, and Laurent – would eventually go blind because of the incurable eye condition retinitis pigmentosa. As they explain in the film, they wanted their...

The Oscar hopes of almost a dozen documentaries will be getting a lift from the International Documentary Association.

The IDA announced the first 11 films in its FallDocs screening series, traditionally an important FYC showcase for documentaries with awards ambitions. Among the 11 are Sugarcane and Blink, both from National Geographic Documentary Films; Frida and I Am: Celine Dion, from Amazon MGM Studios; Black Box Diaries from MTV Documentary Films; Hollywoodgate from Fourth Act Film; The Last of the Sea Women, an Apple TV+ documentary that is about to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, from Kino Lorber. Scroll for the full list of films.

As it has done for several years running, FallDocs is also making room for several films without distribution to date: The Brink of Dreams (winner of the L’Oeil d’or prize at the Cannes Film Festival); The Flats,...

Our ongoing Member Lens feature spotlights current Film Independent Members to see how they got started, where they are now and what being part of Film Independent means to them. This month: producer Diane Becker.

***

Film Independent Member Diane Becker has always had non-fiction in her blood. The Academy Award winning producer of Navalny started off going to school for photojournalism, ended up working for big news networks, but couldn’t help but think that going into film was what she needed to do.

After graduating from AFI, she was exposed to the world of documentary filmmaking, and found that it was a collision of two worlds she loved. Now she has produced films like King Coal, Stutz, the Netflix docuseries The Program: Cons Cults and Kidnapping, and Blink, which is premiering this fall for National Geographic.

We spoke with her earlier this month about the high-highs and low-lows of...

Exclusive: About 50 minutes into Blink, the National Geographic documentary that’s about to make its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, the Lemay-Pelletier family boards a gondola in Ecuador and begins a spectacular descent down a steep mountainside. But then the gondola jerks to a sudden stop.

The film directed by Edmund Stenson and Oscar winner Daniel Roher (Navalny) documents the family’s incredible travels around the world – hiking in the Himalayas, hot-air ballooning in Egypt, surfing in Indonesia, on safari in Namibia. But on the gondola, the adventure comes to a perilous halt: hour after hour passes. The light fades to total darkness, with no sign of rescue.

“Why did it have to be us?” one of the kids asks with growing alarm. “This can’t be real. It’s a nightmare.”

The Lemay-Pelletier family (from left): Mia, Sébastien, Colin, Edith Lemay, Laurent and Léo in Kuujjuaq,...

Tribeca Festival 2024 has revealed the participants for this year’s Tribeca Festival Creators Market, which features a curated selection of creatives pitching feature, episodic, audio and immersive projects to a group of industry leaders. Companies in attendance for the pitch market include Sony Pictures Classics, Neon, Cinetic Media, Paramount+, Max, IFC Films and the Sundance Institute.

The 2024 Tribeca Festival Creators Market program includes narrative projects from Tallie Medel (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) who will pitch her feature film “Ketchikan;” Lauren Minnerath, who will pitch her feature “Clare,” executive produced by Nia DaCosta (“The Marvels”); as well as Oliver Edwin, who will present his narrative feature “Situation #64.” Tisha Robinson-Daly and Jonathan Mason, who previously participated in the Creators Market and in Tribeca’s Epic Games Writing in Unreal program, will pitch their feature in production, “High.”

The documentary selection includes “Rebel Without a Pause,” directed by Maya Cueva and produced...

Cph:forum, the financing and co-production section of the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (also known as Cph:dox), will showcase 32 projects, including new works from producers such as Sidsel Lønvig Siersted, Signe Byrge Sørensen (“Flee”), Diane Becker (“Navalny”) and Mandy Chang, the creative director of Fremantle label Undeniable and former head of BBC documentary strand Storyville, as well as directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (“Writing With Fire”), and Mads Brügger (“Cold Case Hammarskjöld”).

Other projects include those by directors Sky Hopinka (“Kicking the Clouds”), Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”), and Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche (“Advocat”), and producers Lindsey Dryden (“Trans in America”), Mila Aung-Thwin (“Midwives”) and Kat Mansoor (“Cow”).

Cph:forum will bring together more than 65 filmmakers and producers from 26 countries between March 18-21.

The selected projects will compete for a number of long-standing as well as newly-introduced awards at Cph:Industry, the professional section of the festival.

The Producers Guild of America has officially announced its first wave of 2024 nominees ahead of the final round of voting for the 35th annual PGA Awards.

Comprised of more than 8,400 producers, the guild first nominated seven documentaries for the Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures category at the 35th annual Producers Guild of America Awards on February 25.

“American Symphony,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “The Disappearance of Shere Hite,” “Beyond Utopia,” “The Mother of All Lies,” “Squaring the Circle,” and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” are the nominees. “20 Days in Mariupol” and “Beyond Utopia” additionally placed in IndieWire’s critics survey of the best films of the year. Last year, “Navalny” producers Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris were honored with the PGA Award and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The PGA Award nominees for Sports, Children’s and Short Form Television Programs were then announced,...

35th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony to take place February 25, 2024.

Producers Guild of America (PGA) has unveiled the 2024 documentary feature nominees that will advance to the final round of voting for the 35th Annual Producers Guild Awards.

The films nominated for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures are listed below in alphabetical order:

20 Days In Mariupol, American Symphony, Beyond Utopia, The Disappearance Of Shere Hite, The Mother Of All Lies, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, and Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis).

Each films is in the process of being vetted for individual producer eligibility.

Last year producers Odessa Rae,...

The Producers Guild of America has announced its 2024 Documentary Motion Picture nominees for the 35th annual Producers Guild Awards.

The following films are nominated in the category of outstanding producer of documentary motion picture:

20 Days in Mariupol

American Symphony

Beyond Utopia

The Disappearance of Shere Hite

The Mother of All Lies

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

Earlier this year, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris took home the prize for HBO/CNN’s Navalny, which followed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the investigation into his poisoning with a nerve agent in August 2020. The film, directed by Daniel Roher, also won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in March.

The 35th Annual PGA Awards will take place on Feb. 25, 2024, with location and timing details to come at a later date.

Nominees for Sports, Children’s and Short Form Television Programs will be announced on Friday,...

Bad Press, King Coal, Joonam and Fantastic Machine are all award-winning documentaries, yet in the race for Oscar recognition, they’re underdogs. Despite the many honors they have collected at festivals around the world, each of these exceptional films has struggled to land distribution, complicating efforts to get attention from Academy voters.

Instead of throwing up their hands and leaving things to fate, the teams behind the four documentaries have taken the remarkable step of banding together to launch a joint For Your Consideration campaign, Do It Yourself fashion. Oscar-winning King Coal producer Diane Becker, Joonam producer Keith Wilson, and Bad Press co-director Joe Peeler join the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to talk about their groundbreaking venture.

Typically, these films would consider themselves rivals, pitted against each other...

Exclusive: American Documentary has acquired Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s award-winning documentary King Coal for the upcoming season of Pov, the longest-running nonfiction series on television.

The film set in Central Appalachia premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last January and went on to win prizes at the RiverRun International Film Festival, Woods Hole Film Festival, and Seattle International Film Festival, among other festivals. It is expected to debut in the summer of 2024 on Pov, the public television series whose films have claimed three Oscars, 47 Emmys, 27 Peabody Awards, and more than a dozen duPont-Columbia awards over the span of 36 seasons.

‘King Coal’

“King Coal, through the personal memories of a 4th generation coal miner’s daughter, meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it has created,” notes a description of the documentary. “Filmed in Central Appalachia, where McMillion Sheldon was raised and lives,...

In a sense, Central Appalachia is as threatened by climate change as much as any other place on Earth.

Since the 1970s alone, 2 billion tons of coal have been extracted from the region, providing fuel for a highly industrialized nation and jobs for thousands in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and surrounding areas. But as the single biggest contributor to rising global temperatures, the energy source is being phased out, and with it an entire way of life.

The impact of coal on Central Appalachia – the economy, the people, the culture – is explored in King Coal, directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon, a native of the region. She appears on the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss her feature documentary, winner of awards at film festivals across the country. The film is produced by McMillion Sheldon, Peggy Drexler, and Shane Boris and Diane Becker, two of the Oscar-winning producers of Navalny.

This list of the top film schools in the United States in 2023 first appeared in the College Issue of TheWrap magazine.

Apples and oranges? Sure. Trying to rank the top American film schools is fiendishly difficult, maybe even impossible, because of the vast difference between what the schools are trying to do. Our No. 1, AFI, is a conservatory that offers graduate studies to fewer than 200 students; No. 2, USC, has more than 1,500 students in seven different areas of both undergraduate and graduate study. The list includes conservatories and public universities, film studies programs and art schools, schools that are great for animation and ones that are great for documentaries, places where you can learn how to make movies and places where you can learn how to think about them. A brilliant home for one student could be a disaster for another — and while there’s a school on this list that...

Exclusive: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival announced the lineup for the 32nd edition of North America’s longest-running all doc festival, a slate that includes several world premieres and a slew of Academy Award-contending films. In addition, Hot Springs announced Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, an Arkansas native, will serve as honorary chair of the event in the resort town located in the scenic Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.

Filmmaker, artist and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Sky Hopinka will receive the Hsdff Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award at this year’s festival; Diane Becker and Shane Boris, two of the Oscar-winning producers of Navalny, will earn the Impact Award. The festival runs from Oct. 6-14.

Musician Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi

Among the world premieres happening at Hsdff are A Song Film by Kishi Bashi: Omoiyari, directed by Justin Taylor Smith...

September. Labor Day, come and gone. Fall… theoretically. Back to school, back to theaters. That’s right: despite Hollywood’s ongoing labor shutdown, new product continues to leech out from the national Don’t-Miss Indies reserves, spilling its way onto screens in art houses cinemas worldwide. And yeah, a piping hot pumpkin-spice latte probably sounds like the last thing you want to consume after a long, hot day on the picket line. But you gotta admit: it’s nice to have the option.

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files Of The Scouts Of America

When You Can Watch: September 6

Where You Can Watch: Netflix

Director: Brian Knappenberger

Executive Producers: Diane Becker, Nan Goldin, Amy Ziering

Why We’re Excited: “The length certain people were going to [in order to] try and get you to shut up got me the angriest.” So says one of the 80,000+ documented survivors embroiled in the Boy Scouts of America...

Exclusive: The Oscar-winning team behind Navalny is embarking on its next project, a National Geographic documentary under the working title Blink of an Eye. It will focus on the Pelletier family, “a happy, adventurous family of six,” who decided to go on a world tour after learning three of their children would soon lose their vision.

Navalny’s Daniel Roher is directing with Edmund Stenson, who will make his feature debut on the film. MRC and Fishbowl Films are producing, with Fishbowl’s Melanie Miller and Diane Becker on board to produce. They won Academy Awards for producing Navalny (along with fellow producers Shane Boris and Odessa Rae).

The Pelletier’s world “was changed forever when they found out three of the four children were diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, incurable disorder that leads to permanent blindness,” noted a release about the documentary. “Edith Lemay and Sebastian Pelletier decide...

Dear Producer, founded by producer Rebecca Green, has announced the four recipients of its 2023 Dear Producer Award, now in its second year. IndieWire shares the recipients exclusively below.

Each producer will receive an unrestricted grant of $50,000, attend a retreat focused on rest and community building, and commit to mentoring an emerging producer for one year. This award is part of Dear Producer’s ongoing commitment to amplify the role of the producer and provide the independent film community with resources to build a more sustainable future.

The Dear Producer Award is sponsored by Facet, founded by Maida Lynn, which embraces creative non-fiction filmmaking by visionary artists.

Green noted the timeliness of this award in a statement shared with IndieWire: “With the WGA strike underway, producers are confronted with the harsh reminder that unlike their collaborators, producers do not have minimum salary protections, healthcare or pension contributions, or residuals.”

A Producers Sustainability Survey,...

Since joining the American Film Institute faculty as dean and executive vice president in July 2019, Susan Ruskin has kept a steady eye on what lay next in the field of film school education. Ruskin, Variety Entertainment Educator of the Year, discusses why TV and film are more alike than different, what advances in technology means for screenwriters and why film school is still a rock solid bet when it comes to forging a career in the cinematic arts.

With so many avenues to break into the biz, why choose AFI?

There are many different pathways to get into the industry, but I do believe that film school offers one thing that going straight into the industry does not–and that’s a safe place to fail, and a place to meet your collaborators for life. And that is a fast track to success that you cannot get without the sort...

Showtime has released an official trailer for Ghosts of Beirut, a four-part spy drama that revisits the true-life manhunt for the deadly Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, who killed more Americans than any other terrorist before 9/11 as he eluded the CIA and Mossad for over two decades.

“You push the button, and go to Paradise,” a voice-over in Arabic says at one point in the limited series trailer, as Mughniyeh, also known as the Ghost and played by Hisham Suleiman, sets up more deadly terrorist strikes.

The heart-pounding thriller comes from Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz and will stream on Showtime May 19 before making its on-air debut May 21. The trailer has a pulsing score and explosive action sequences as Ghosts of Beirut spans decades and weaves in first-hand, real-life interviews with officials from the CIA and Mossad to connect the turmoil of 1980s Beirut with the spy games of the modern Middle East.

Showtime has announced its forthcoming spy drama, “Ghosts of Beirut,” will make its debut on Friday, May 19, on Showtime’s streaming site and will air on linear on May 21 at 10 p.m. Et/Pt.

The four-part limited series tells the origin story of 21-year old Mughniyeh (who is also referred to as “The Ghost”), an elusive Lebanese terrorist who evaded capture from the CIA and Mossad for two decades. He was responsible for more American deaths than any other individual prior to 9/11.

“Told from the American, Israeli and Lebanese perspectives, the series traces Mughniyeh’s origins from the Shiite slums of South Beirut to his masterminding of the concept of suicide bombers, a deadly tactic that led to his swift rise as the world’s most dangerous terrorist. Based on extensive research of still-classified events, the drama spans decades and weaves in first-hand, real-life interviews with prominent officials from the CIA and Mossad,...

Exclusive: Showtime has set Ghosts Of Beirut, a four-part spy drama based on the real-life espionage story of the manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive Lebanese terrorist who outwitted his adversaries in the CIA and Mossad for over two decades. The limited series, from Fauda creators Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, features an international cast led by Dina Shihabi (Jack Ryan), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a Slave), Iddo Goldberg (Snowpiercer), Hisham Suleiman (Fauda), Amir Khoury (Image of Victory) and Rafi Gavron (A Star is Born).

Emmy winner Greg Barker (Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden), who directs all four episodes, and Daniel Dreifuss (All Quiet on the Western Front) executive produce Ghosts Of Beirut alongside Issacharoff and Raz. The series will debut on streaming and on demand May 19 for Showtime subscribers, before making its on-air debut on the network May 21.

Ghosts Of Beirut,...

Jimmy Kimmel hosts the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.

Contributed by Michelle Hannett and Gary Salem

The 95th Academy Awards were held Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Host Jimmy Kimmel presided over the ceremony, after the Navy Flyover and him parachuting inside the theater, as Oscar statuettes were awarded for all 23 categories. Two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets flew down Hollywood Boulevard at an elevation of only 1,000 feet. The jets came from Naval Air Station Lemoore near Fresno. Inside the jets were two instructors, a squadron commander and a graduate form the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program – known as “Top Gun.”

Fighter jets open the show during the live ABC Telecast of the 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023. The 95th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday,...

From the electric performances of the nominated songs to all the big stars, The 95th Academy Awards went off without a slap hitch.

The performance of Rrr's hit song Naatu Naatu brought the entire house to their feet, as did the wins for Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh.

So who came out on top?

Everything Everywhere All At Once led the nominations with 11 and led the winners with seven total trophies!

Find out the rest of the winners here!

Best Picture

Everything Everywhere All at Once *Winner*

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

The Fabelmans

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Triangle of Sadness

Women Talking

Best Actress

Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once *Winner*

Cate Blanchett - Tár

Ana de Armas - Blonde

Andrea Riseborough - To Leslie

Michelle Williams - The Fabelmans

Best Actor

Brendan Fraser -...

Updated with statement from CNN Films from original 6:31 p.m. story: Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny got a loving message from his wife from the Oscar stage after the film about him won Best Documentary Feature.

“Thank you to everybody here,” Yulia Navalnaya said when director Daniel Roher summoned her to the microphone after making his acceptance remarks. “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy. Alexei, I’m dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong.”

Related: Oscar Winners List

Roher’s documentary Navalny, from CNN Films, chronicles the poisoning plot that nearly took Alexei Navalny’s life. He was flying from Siberia to Moscow in August 2020 when he became deathly ill. Russian doctors who initially treated him claimed he was suffering from a metabolic disorder. But...

CNN has scored its first Oscars win: “Navalny,” the harrowing film following Russian dissident and former presidential candidate Alexei Navalny, took the prize for documentary feature film at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

The documentary, directed by Daniel Roher, gained new relevance after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The CNN Films/Warner Bros. documentary is a fly-on-the-wall account of the rousing populist who was once a presidential candidate — and posed such a threat to Putin that Navalny was poisoned in a botched assassination plot ordered by the Kremlin in 2020. Navalny was detained in January 2021 and currently is serving a nine-year sentence in a Russian gulag. He has spent much of the sentence in solitary confinement.

Roher, in accepting the award, dedicated the Oscar win to Navalny and “to all political prisoners around the world”: “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all… We must...

Please Note: This forecast, assembled by The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards, Scott Feinberg, reflects Feinberg’s best attempt to predict the behavior of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not his personal preferences. He arrives at these standings by drawing upon consultations with voters and industry insiders, analysis of marketing and awards campaigns, results of awards ceremonies that precede the Oscars and the history of the Oscars ceremony itself.

Best Picture

Projected Order of Finish

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert & Jonathan Wang)

2. All Quiet on the Western Front (Malte Grunert)

3. Top Gun: Maverick (Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, David Ellison & Christopher McQuarrie) — podcast (Bruckheimer)

4. Tár (Todd Field, Scott Lambert & Alexandra Milchan)

5. The Banshees of Inisherin (Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin & Martin McDonagh) — podcast posting soon (McDonagh)

6. Elvis (Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Pamela McCormick & Schuyler Weiss)

7. The Fabelmans (Kristie Macosko Krieger, Tony Kushner...

Oscar voters scanning their final ballot may do a double-take when they get to Best Documentary Feature: the name Shane Boris really does appear twice in the same category.

Boris is nominated as a producer for both National Geographic’s Fire of Love and CNN Films’ Navalny, a rare achievement in documentary that pairs him with the likes of Walt Disney, who was nominated in 1942 for two nonfiction shorts.

“As far as having two [nominations]… gosh, I feel lucky and grateful,” Boris tells Deadline. “More than anything, I feel this gratitude and camaraderie for everyone who made it possible… for everyone else that works in the teams with me.”

That modesty is one of the qualities that makes Boris among the most successful producers in nonfiction cinema. Often, a producer must embrace a certain degree of self-effacement for a project to reach its potential.

“I think the work of a producer...

Please Note: This forecast, assembled by The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards, Scott Feinberg, reflects Feinberg’s best attempt to predict the behavior of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not his personal preferences. He arrives at these standings by drawing upon consultations with voters and industry insiders, analysis of marketing and awards campaigns, results of awards ceremonies that precede the Oscars and the history of the Oscars ceremony itself.

*Best Picture*

Projected Order of Finish

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert & Jonathan Wang)

2. Top Gun: Maverick (Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, David Ellison & Christopher McQuarrie) — podcast (Bruckheimer)

3. All Quiet on the Western Front (Malte Grunert)

4. The Fabelmans (Kristie Macosko Krieger, Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg) — podcast (Spielberg)

5. The Banshees of Inisherin (Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin & Martin McDonagh)

6. Tár (Todd Field, Scott Lambert & Alexandra Milchan)

7. Elvis (Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Pamela McCormick & Schuyler Weiss...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Last Updated: Feb. 21, 2023

2023 Oscars Predictions: Best Documentary Feature Navalny, Alexei Navalny (right), 2022. © Fathom Events / Courtesy Everett Collection

Category Commentary: Sara Dosa won the Directors Guild of America Awards, where The guild crowned “Fire of Love” from National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon. A feel-good documentary that recalls the story of Katia and Maurice Kraftt, two scientists who die in a volcanic explosion.

On the...

Stanislaus Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch), Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), and Tjaden Stackfleet (Edin Hasanovic) in Netflix’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

All Quiet on the Western Front went into the 2023 Ee BAFTA Film Awards with 14 nominations, the most of any film, and emerged the year’s big winner. The brilliant adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel took home Best Film, Best Director (Edward Berger), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, and Film Not in the English Language.

The Banshees of Inisherin scored four wins out of its 10 nominations, collecting acting wins for Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon as well as Outstanding British Film and Original Screenplay honors. Elvis also took home four wins including Leading Actor (Austin Butler), Casting, Costume Design, and Make Up & Hair.

Austin Butler, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan, and Edward Berger earned their first BAFTA wins while Cate Blanchett picked up her fourth with...

2Nd Update: Netflix’s Edward Berger-directed All Quiet on the Western Front triumphed at the BAFTA Film Awards in London this evening, scoring seven wins, including Outstanding Film, Director, Film Not in the English Language, Cinematography, and Adapted Screenplay.

From early on, there was momentum for the World War I drama, while Searchlight’s The Banshees of Inisherin also had a strong showing, converting its 10 nominations to four wins, including Outstanding British Film, Original Screenplay, and the Supporting acting categories.

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was also a strong performer with four wins, including Best Actor for Austin Butler.

Check out the full list of winners below, and see here for more from the night and here for Pete Hammond’s analysis.

Previous Update : Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front, the leading nominee coming into this evening, is currently pulling ahead of the pack with six wins,...

‘Banshees’ duo, ’Navalny’, ’Aftersun’ among early winners.

The 2023 Bafta Film Awards show is taking place today (February 19) from London’s Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank this year (it was previously at the Royal Albert Hall).

The show started at around 18:00 UK time, finishing at approximately 21:00, and will be broadcast with a time delay on BBC One starting at 19:00, with the final four awards broadcast live for the first time.

Richard E. Grant is hosting the ceremony, with presenter Alison Hammond providing backstage and winners access through a new Bafta studio.

Screen is posting all the winners...

Investigative journalist Christo Grozev, a key figure in the story of acclaimed documentary Navalny, says he and his family have been banned from attending the BAFTA ceremony on Sunday because he poses “a public security risk”.

Grozev, who is affiliated with the Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat, was part of the team that uncovered the 2020 plot to kill Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by poisoning.

The journalist tweeted yesterday that he has been banned from Sunday’s BAFTA ceremony where the film is nominated for Best Documentary.

“I was surprised to discover that my whole family and I have all been banned by British police from attending this weekend’s Bafta awards where the documentary #Navalny is nominated. The reason stated: we ‘represent a public security risk’,” he tweeted.

“I understand the need to keep the public safe (although I don’t understand how my son or teenage daughter constitute...

Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar becomes a lot easier on December 21 when the academy announces the 15 films that make the shortlist. Those semi-finalists are culled from the more than 100 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2023 Oscars Best Documentary Feature predictions.)

To winnow those down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500-plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. Each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

All of these ballots are collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members are then encouraged to watch films on that list which they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot with their top five choices.

Please Note: This forecast, assembled by The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards, Scott Feinberg, reflects Feinberg’s best attempt to predict the behavior of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, not his personal preferences. He arrives at these standings by drawing upon consultations with voters and industry insiders, analysis of marketing and awards campaigns, results of awards ceremonies that precede the Oscars and the history of the Oscars ceremony itself.

*Best Picture*

Projected Order of Finish

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert & Jonathan Wang)

2. The Fabelmans (Kristie Macosko Krieger, Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg) — podcast (Spielberg)

3. Top Gun: Maverick (Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, David Ellison & Christopher McQuarrie) — podcast (Bruckheimer)

4. Elvis (Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Pamela McCormick & Schuyler Weiss)

5. All Quiet on the Western Front (Male Grunert)

6. The Banshees of Inisherin (Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin & Martin McDonagh)

7. Tár (Todd Field, Scott Lambert & Alexandra Milchan...

Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, and Ke Huy Quan in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (Photo Credit: Allyson Riggs / A24)

Nominees have been announced for the 95th Oscars and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences fell in line with most critics groups, awarding Everything Everywhere All At Once the most nominations with 11. The 2023 Academy Awards also recognized All Quiet on the Western Front with nine nominations, making it the eighth feature film to score nominations in both the Best Picture and Best International Feature categories.

The Banshees of Inisherin also picked up nine nominations, including the first-ever Oscar nominations for Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon. Elvis earned eight nominations, with Austin Butler picking up his first Oscar nomination for channeling the King of Rock and Roll.

The Fabelmans was nominated in seven categories, followed by Tar and Top Gun: Maverick with six.

The...

Seen as the main precursor to what you might expect on Oscar nomination morning, the nominations for the 2023 Ee BAFTA Film Awards have been announced, and Netflix’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” gained even more steam as a major awards threat, with an impressive 14 nominations in total. The movie equals Ang Lee’s 2001 “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” as the film not the English language with the most nominations in BAFTA’s history.

Other films that had a strong showing in overall noms include “The Banshees of Insiherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (10 each), “Elvis” (9 noms), and “Tar” (5 noms), but possibly the most surprising inclusion was that both leads of the acclaimed indie “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” — Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack — scored leading actress and actor nods, respectively.

Among notable snubs are the absence of stateside favorites “The Fabelmans” and “Top Gun: Maverick” in the best film,...

BAFTA has announced the nominations for the 2023 Ee BAFTA Film Awards, celebrating the very best in film over the past year.

A total of 45 feature films received nominations with 14 nominations for ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ 10 nominations for ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ and ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once,’ 9 nominations for ‘Elvis’ and 5 nominations for the Cate Blanchett led ‘Tár.’

Actors Hayley Atwell and Toheeb Jimoh announced the nominations via a live broadcast from BAFTA 195 Piccadilly in London. First-time nominees feature heavily this year, with 14 of the 24 nominees in the performance categories receiving their first BAFTA Film nomination. They include Ana De Armas (Blonde); Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) Austin Butler (Elvis), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin); Brendan Fraser (The Whale); Paul Mescal (Aftersun), and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once).

Alongside this year’s Ee Rising Star nominee Daryl McCormack, four former Ee Rising Stars...

Nominations for the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards will be revealed today in London. Scroll down for the list, which will be updated as nominees are announced.

Among the frontrunners for nominations are Netflix’s German-language World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front, which was longlisted in 15 categories, and Martin McDonagh’s tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin, which landed on 14 lists.

Charlotte Wells’ festival favorite Aftersun also appeared on eight longlists, including Best Film, Director, and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Other titles that were well represented included Oliver Hermanus’s Living and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

The BAFTA ceremony itself will take place on February 19 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London. Actor Richard E. Grant has been set as the host, while British presenter Alison Hammond will lead the BAFTA studio, a new behind-the-scenes stream launched for this year’s ceremony.

“All That Breathes,” a documentary about two brothers who run a refuge for birds that have been injured by the pollution in New Dehli, has been named the best nonfiction film of 2022 at the 16th annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony, which took place on Thursday night at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, New York.

“All That Breathes” previously won the top award at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, the other major award devoted to nonfiction film. It is also on the 15-film shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Laura Poitras won the award for directing for “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” while “Navalny” won the award for production.

Also Read:

‘All That Breathes’ Director Shaunak Sen on Breaking Nature Doc Clichés While Filming Hospitalized Birds

In the craft categories, a distinctive feature of the Cinema Eye Honors, the immersive...

CNN’s American Pain, investigative doc maker Darren Foster’s profile of pill mill kingpins Chris and Jeff George, is set for a Feb. 5 premiere.

American Pain had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival as it traces the rise and fall of identical twins from Florida who trafficked over 500 million in opioid pills while running sham pain clinics. The documentary will also stream on CNN.com and CNN Ott and mobile apps, or CNNgo where available.

“The George brothers were the biggest players among a colorful cast of characters who made millions during Florida’s pill mill boom. Together with their trusty suppliers — a pharmaceutical industry pumping out billions of powerful and addictive pills — they fueled the worst drug epidemic in American history,” director Foster, who conducted jailhouse interviews with the twin brothers, said in a statement.

Weaving together hundreds of hours of FBI wiretap recordings and undercover videos,...

In a bonus clip from “Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” longtime friends Lea Michele and Darren Criss drive through New York City singing holiday songs, including one of Criss’ own from “A Very Darren Crissmas.”

Earlier this month, new episodes of the series premiered on Apple TV+, featuring Sandra Oh and Duran Duran, Nikki Glaser and Wilco, Kevin and Michael Bacon (also known as The Bacon Brothers), Method Man and Chris Redd, the cast of Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind,” Ciara and Russel Wilson and Hillary and Chelsea Clinton along with Amber Ruffin.

“Carpool Karaoke: The Series” is produced for Apple by CBS Studios and Fulwell 73 Productions with executive producers James Corden, Eric Pankowski and Ben Winston.

Check out the clip below.

In other television news today:

Dates

Revolt has launched its first-ever investigative special, “The Real Thirst Trap,” covering Black communities across America battling systematic water pollution. The show premiered Dec.

Click here to read the full article.

All that Breathes topped the 2022 IDA Documentary Awards, winning best feature and two other competitive awards. The film was previously selected as the winner of the Pare Lorentz Award.

In addition to the top prize, the HBO title, which follows two brothers who run a bird hospital dedicated to rescuing injured black kites that are often affected by air pollution in New Delhi, won best director for helmer Shaunak Sen and best editing.

National Geographic and Neon’s Fire of Love documentary about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, which led the nominations for the 38th annual International Documentary Association honors with five nods, won two awards.

The IDA Documentary Awards were presented in a ceremony at Los Angeles’ Paramount Theater, hosted by actor-comedian Jenny Yang.

Best Feature Documentary

All that Breathes (India, United States, United Kingdom | Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe, HBO Documentary Films...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced their nominations in 18 categories for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held on December 10, 2022, at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles. “Fire of Love” led all feature documentaries with five bids, followed by “All That Breathes” with four. See the full list of nominees below.

See RSVP for Film Documentary panel on November 16: ‘Good Night Oppy,’ ‘Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues,’ ‘Mija,’ ‘Retrograde’

Last year the group previewed three of the five Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature, including the winner “Summer of Soul” as well as IDA champ “Flee” and “Writing with Fire.” The year before that they were just as accurate when IDA winner “Crip Camp” was nominated along with “Collective” and “Time,” but Oscar champ “My Octopus Teacher” was snubbed.

Among this year’s IDA nominees for Best Feature, just two were also nominated by the Critics’ Choice...

“All that Breathes” and “Fire of Love” led all films in nominations for the International Documentary Association’s 38th annual IDA Documentary Awards, which were announced Friday morning.

“All That Breathes,” a lyrical film by Shaunak Sen about two brothers in New Delhi who care for birds that fall from the polluted skies, received four nominations, including Best Feature Documentary, and was also named the winner of the Pare Lorentz Award for a film showing commitment to social justice and the environment. Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love,” about a married couple that spent their lives studying volcanoes, landed five nominations.

Other films that received multiple IDA nominations included “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “A House Made of Splinters,” “No Simple Way Home” and “The Pawnshop.”

The Best Feature Documentary category, which included those six films plus “Katrina Babies,” “Mija,” “Navalny” and “Young Plato,” was long on international films,...

Fire of Love and All That Breathes further established themselves as solid Oscar contenders, leading all comers as the IDA Documentary Awards nominations were announced today.

Fire of Love, about scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, a French couple who risked their lives documenting volcanic eruptions, earned five IDA nominations, including Best Feature Documentary and Best Director for Sara Dosa. It was also recognized in the cinematography, editing, and writing categories.

All That Breathes, director Shaunak Sen’s poetic study of two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey, was announced as the winner of the Pare Lorentz Award, an honor named for the pioneering filmmaker who made highly regarded work during the Great Depression. All That Breathes earned four other nominations, including Best Feature Documentary, Best Director, cinematography, and editing [see the full list of IDA Awards nominations below].

Two girls staying at a temporary shelter for neglected children in Eastern Ukraine in ‘A...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has revealed the nominations for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards. Comprising 18 categories ranging from Best Feature Film and Best Short Film to Best Curated Series and Best Episodic Series, the awards ceremony is meant to support the vital work of documentary storytellers and champion a thriving and inclusive documentary culture.

Leading nominations in the film categories are “All That Breathes” and “Fire of Love,” each with five. Meanwhile, films like “The Territory” and “Descendant,” which have been recognized by other awards bodies like the Cinema Eye Honors, are nowhere to be found on this year’s IDA Awards’ nominees list.

It is somewhat expected, as nominees in each of the Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary categories had been selected from the shortlists previously announced. IDA members will now have access to view each of the nominated films and to vote for Best Feature...

Click here to read the full article.

The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the nominations for the 38th annual IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held on Dec. 10, 2022, at the Paramount Theater on the Paramount Studios Lot in Los Angeles.

Among the nominated features is National Geographic/Neon’s Fire of Love, director Sara Dosa’s portrait of vocanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, which led the nominated films with five honors. HBO Documentary Films’ All That Breathes earned four nominations and won the Pare Lorent Award.

Other notable nominees, also strong contenders in the Oscar race for best documentary feature, include Neon’s All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Amazon Studios’ Good Night Oppy and Wildcat, HBO Documentary Films’ Katrina Babies and Navalny, and Showtime’s Nothing Compares.

“We are thrilled to celebrate the achievements of such a stellar group of films and programs from around the world,” said co-presidents...