News

UK film and TV outift Raw has bolstered its features and scripted department with the addition of former Brouhaha Entertainment development producer and BBC Film exec Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer.

Gordon will work with Raw’s head of scripted TV Sara Murray, filmmakers Bart Layton and Tim Wardle and its senior creative team. He will report to chief exec Joely Fether and chief creative officer Dimitry Doganis.

Raw, backed by All3Media, has series credits including The Tinder Swindler for Netflix, features docs Three Identical Strangers and The Imposter, as well as fiction features Telluride premiere Encounter, directed by Michael Pearce and Dream Horse,...

‘Tinder Swindler’ Indie Builds Features Team

All3Media’s Raw, the company behind The Tinder Swindler, Three Identical Strangers and upcoming Amazon MGM Studios doc Crime 101, has hired Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer for its features team. Gordon is an experienced film and TV producer, with spells at Baby Cow, Calamity Films and BBC Films on his CV. Most recently, he was a development producer for Brouhaha Entertainment, where he worked on Firebrand and co-produced Karim Ainouz’s Motel Destino, which launched in Official Competition at Cannes this year. He also worked on Philomena and Stan & Ollie while at Baby Cow. At Raw, he’ll report into Cco Dimitri Doganis and CEO Joely Father, working with filmmakers Bart Layton and Tim Wardle, as well as Head of Scripted TV Sara Murray and other senior creative execs. Raw’s features to date have included American Animals, Three Identical Strangers, The Imposter,...

Raw has bolstered its features and scripted department with the addition of former Brouhaha Entertainment development producer and BBC Film exec Sam Gordon as producer/executive producer.

Gordon joins the UK The Tinder Swindler production company at a time of growth in its scripted and features output, with upcoming feature film Crime 101 for Amazon MGM Studios being co-produced with Working Title. The indie was also behind feature docs Three Identical Strangers and The Imposter plus Michael Pearce’s Telluride premiere Encounter and Euros Lyn’s Sundance title Dream Horse.

He moves from his role as development producer at Brouhaha Entertainment,...

Messages have been pouring in to pay tribute to Jess Search, producer and co-founder of U.K.’s Doc Society, who died Monday from brain cancer at the age of 54.

Search was a founding director of Doc Society, the mission of which is to “unleash the transformational power of documentary film to address the two critical and intertwined issues of climate change and democracies in crisis.”

Before that, she was a commissioning editor at Channel 4 and a founder of Shooting People, the online filmmakers network. She was also a board member of the U.K. think tank Ippr. She moderated panel discussions for IDFA, the Skoll World Forum, the Trust Women conference, and Doc Society’s Good Pitch.

Search was nominated for an Emmy for “Virunga.” Her recent executive producer credits included “F@ck This Job,” “Welcome to Chechnya” and “Cold Case Hammarskjöld.”

British Film Institute CEO Ben Roberts said:...

Neon has acquired the North American rights to Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning director, Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) documentary Orwell, the definitive feature-length documentary on visionary author George Orwell, with the exclusive cooperation of the Orwell Estate.

Producers include Alex Gibney for Jigsaw Productions, Raoul Peck for Velvet Films, and Nick Shumaker for Anonymous Content. Stacey Offman and Richard Perello will executive produce for Jigsaw. Zhang Xin, Joey Marra, and William Horberg will executive produce for Closer Media, alongside Jessica Grimshaw, Dawn Olmstead, and David Levine of Anonymous, and Jeff Skoll and Courtney Sexton of Participant. Johnny Fewings of Universal Pictures Content Group will serve as executive producer on the film, which is currently in production.

“’Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past…,’ wrote Orwell in his novel, 1984. Today, the “newspeak” of authoritarian rule is alive and well and in unexpected places,...

Ben Stiller is in final negotiations to jump on board a limited series adaptation of the documentary ‘Three Identical Strangers.’

Like the documentary, the series would focus on the true story of Bobby Shafran, David Kellman, and Eddy Galland — identical triplets who were separated at birth only to be reunited later in life. Stiller would star as the three adult brothers.

The series comes from writer Amy Lippman with Sony Pictures Television producing along with Sk Global and TriStar Television.

Also in news – Emma Thompson set for thriller ‘The Fisherwoman’

Lippman would also serve as showrunner and executive producer on the series, with Stiller executive producing via Red Hour Films. Sidney Kimmel, John Penotti, Charlie Corwin and Marcy Ross of Sk Global also executive produce along with Piers Vellacott, Dimitri Doganis, and Tim Wardle of Raw and Emmeline Yang Hankins. Mark O’Connor of Sk Global, Dan Braun, and Josh Braun...

It’s been a while since Ben Stiller acted in something that wasn’t just a small appearance, and even longer since he acted in a TV show, but we might be getting more Ben Stiller on TV than we know what to do with. According to Variety, he’s in talks to star in a series adaptation of Tim Wardle’s 2018 documentary Three…...

In a casting that raises several questions, Ben Stiller is in final talks to star in “Three Identical Strangers,” a limited series adaptation of the acclaimed documentary film, according to Variety.

The 2018 film, which was directed by Tim Wardle and won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of Bobby Shafran, David Kellman, and Eddy Galland — three identical triplets who meet by chance as adults, and the revelation of the undisclosed scientific experiment that separated them by birth. Upon its release, “Three Identical Strangers” received positive reviews, and made the shortlist for the Oscars’ Best Documentary Feature category.

Stiller will play all three of the brothers as adults. What makes his casting unusual is that Galland died by suicide in 1995, when he was 34. Stiller is currently 57, nearly 25 years older than Galland was at time of death. In addition, the meat...

Ben Stiller is setting an acting return with Three Identical Strangers, a high-profile limited series package that just hit the premium/streaming marketplace.

Stiller is in final negotiations to headline and executive produce the series, a multi-decade family drama inspired by the incredible true story of identical triplet brothers separated at birth. The project hails from Party of Five co-creator Amy Lippman, Sony Pictures Television and its TriStar Television division as well as Sk Global Entertainment.

Related Story Ben Stiller On Making ‘Severance’, Meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy And Prioritizing Fatherhood Related Story 'Severance': Gwendoline Christie, Bob Balaban, Merritt Wever, Alia Shawkat Among 8 Cast In Season 2 of Apple Series Related Story Sean Penn & Ben Stiller Permanently Banned From Russia By Country's Foreign Ministry

Set in New York over several decades, Three Identical Strangers tells the story of Bobby Shafran, David Kellman and Eddy Galland, three complete strangers who inadvertently discover...

Ben Stiller is nearing a deal to star in a limited series adaptation of the documentary “Three Identical Strangers,” Variety has learned.

The series hails from writer Amy Lippman with Sony Pictures Television producing along with Sk Global and TriStar Television. Like the documentary, the series would focus on the true story of Bobby Shafran, David Kellman, and Eddy Galland — identical triplets who were separated at birth only to be reunited later in life. Stiller would star as the adult brothers.

Lippman would also serve as showrunner and executive producer on the series, with Stiller executive producing via Red Hour Films. Sidney Kimmel, John Penotti, Charlie Corwin and Marcy Ross of Sk Global also executive produce along with Piers Vellacott, Dimitri Doganis, and Tim Wardle of Raw and Emmeline Yang Hankins. Mark O’Connor of Sk Global, Dan Braun, and Josh Braun of Submarine would serve as co-executive producers.

The...

Neon, Double Agent and Film4 are partnering to co-finance and exec produce 2073, a new documentary from Academy Award and BAFTA-winning director Asif Kapadia (Amy).

2073 is billed as a genre-bending thriller set in a dystopian future, which will tackle some of the biggest challenges imperiling our future. The project is inspired by Chris Marker’s iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée — about a time traveler who risks his life to change the course of history and save the future of humanity — which previously served as the basis for Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi pic 12 Monkeys, with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.

Kapadia and George Chignell are producing. Davis Guggenheim, Nicole Stott and Jonathan Silberberg will exec produce on behalf of Concordia Studio, alongside Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films.

Said Kapadia: “I want to make an epic about the state of the world, using elements of science fiction as a lens through which...

Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99 Trailer — Jamie Crawford‘s Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99 (2022) TV mini-series trailer has been released by Netflix. Crew Produced by Cassandra Thornton & Sasha Kosminski. Executive produced by Tom Pearson (Raw), Tim Wardle (Raw), William Swann (Bbh Ent), Casey Feldman (Bbh Ent), Amani Duncan (Bbh Ent). Poster Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99 Movie Poster Plot Synopsis Clusterf**k: Woodstock [...]

Continue reading: Clusterf**K: Woodstock’ 99 (2022) TV Mini-series Trailer: Jamie Crawford’s Doc about disastrous Woodstock ’99...

Lace ‘em up, fans of top-notch sports docs: Netflix has renewed “Last Chance U: Basketball” for a second season and ordered what the streaming service is calling “Volume 2” of the excellent feature-length documentary series “Untold.”

The second season of “Last Chance U: Basketball” will return to East Los Angeles College Huskies (Elac) and head coach John Mosley. “Untold: Volume 2” will consist of four new stories told over four weeks, including a two-part film on Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te’o. Directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, that one will feature interviews with Manti Te’o and the catfisher behind the hoax, Netflix said.

Additionally, Netflix has ordered a new docuseries, “Bad Sport,” which examines “six unbelievable stories at the intersection of sports and crime.”

“Bad Sport” episodes include the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic figure skating scandal; superstar Indycar driver Randy Lanier’s marijuana-smuggling operation; the Arizona State University basketball point-shaving...

CNN Films and Raw are producing a new documentary titled “The Lost Sons,” directed by award-winning filmmaker Ursula Macfarlane (“Untouchable”).

Production began in 2019 for the documentary, which will be distributed by CNN Films. Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, and Courtney Sexton, senior vice president for CNN Films, will executive produce alongside Liesel Evans, creative director of U.K. Factual at Raw, and Ross Dinerstein, Campfire founder and CEO.

“The Lost Sons” will chronicle the story of Paul Fronczak, who at age 10 unearthed newspaper clippings about his parents grieving a kidnapped baby and then finding the baby two years later. Decades later, he goes hunting for answers as questions arise about whether he was the kidnapped child.

The story is told through reenactments, testimonies of close family and first-hand witnesses, news footage and family archives.

“I’m thrilled and proud to work with...

Exclusive: Raw Television, the All3Media-backed producer of Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting An Internet Killer, has bagged another Netflix commission – a series looking at global sporting scandals.

Deadline understands that the company is making Bad Sport (w/t), which will look at a variety of scandalous sporting incidents around the world.

It comes after the company, which produced breakout doc feature Three Identical Strangers, launched its latest Netflix series Fear City: New York vs The Mafia on the streaming service earlier this month.

Three Identical Strangers director Tim Wardle, who joined the company in 2012 as Head of Development, is one of the exec producers of Bad Sport, alongside Alex Marengo, who exec produced Netflix series Killer Ratings, and Raw’s U.S. creative director Adam Hawkins.

Directors on the series include Luke Sewell, who directed BBC series Generation Gifted, and Alex Kiehl, who developed and directed Channel 4’s Sas: Who Dares Wins.

U.S.-based distributor Neon, which handled best picture winner “Parasite,” has closed on a revolving credit facility with Mufg Union Bank.

The three-year-old company did not disclose the dollar amount of the facility. Neon said it will use the capital to continue building upon its core film business, as well as to expand its production slate.

“Parasite” landed four Academy Awards and grossed over $54 million at the domestic box office, the third-best result ever for a foreign-language film in the U.S. Neon recently launched Matt Wolf’s Sundance documentary “Spaceship Earth” across traditional and non-traditional venues, as a way to address current social-distancing limitations due to Covid-19.

Neon has amassed a library of titles that include Todd Douglas Miller’s “Apollo 11,” the highest grossing documentary of 2019; Tim Wardle’s Sundance special jury award winner “Three Identical Strangers,” which made $13 million at the box office; and Craig Gillespie’s “I, Tonya,...

Neon has promoted Elissa Federoff to President of Distribution and Christina Zisa to President of Publicity.

Both Federoff and Zisa have been with Neon since its inception in January 2017.

The news comes in the wake of the distributor’s awesome success with Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite which has grossed over $54M at the domestic B.O. and becoming a tour de force at the Oscars with a Best Picture win, the first ever for a foreign language title. Deadline in its box office tournament yesterday reported that Parasite, which was financed and released in the rest of the globe by Cj Entertainment, turned in a net profit of $46.2M.

“Elissa Federoff and Christina Zisa have been the cornerstone to Neon ’s success since we launched. In a very short time, they’ve broken multiple Box Office records as well as changed the history of the Academy Awards forever. Personally...

In her 5-star Sundance review, Heather Wixson wrote that Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is "...one of the most brazen films to come out of Sundance this year," and following its well-received festival screenings, Neon has acquired the film for Us distribution, with Well Go USA overseeing the movie's home entertainment release.

A release date for Possessor will be announced at a future time. We'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated on future announcements, and in the meantime we have the official press release with additional details, and be sure to read Heather Wixson's Sundance coverage of the film, including her interviews with Cronenberg and co-stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott.

Press Release: New York, NY | March 27, 2020 – Neon announced today that they have acquired U.S. rights to Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, the sci-fi thriller starring Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott (James White), Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game), with Sean Bean...

The Directors Guild unveiled nominations Monday in its limited series categories for the 72nd DGA Awards (see list below). But due to what it calls “a re-vote related to a newly implemented electronic entry submissions process,” the series noms aren’t out today.

But just last week, the guild announced that Jill Soloway — a DGA Award winner for her work on Transparent — has had the Amazon comedy’s chances of landing one final Directors Guild of America nomination forseries hampered by an internal DGA error. “We regret to inform you that the following entry was inadvertently omitted from the Comedy Series ballot: #165a. Transparent Musicale Finale, Jill Soloway,” the DGA wrote in an email to members, offering those who wish to recast their vote in this category to do so following a link.

The DGA said its nomination announcements for the Comedy Series, Dramatic Series and Variety/Talk/News/Sports...

New members include filmmakers Lynne Ramsay, Haifaa al-Mansour, Fox Searchlight’s Kate Gardiner and Screen Scotland’s Isabel Davis.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) has revealed its 2019 intake of new members drawn from the film, TV and games industry.

Among the record 558 new members are filmmakers and writers Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda), Laszlo Nemes (Son Of Saul), Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here), Lee Unkrich (Coco) and former Screen Star of Tomorrow Rose Glass (Saint Maud).

New executives on the list include Kate Gardiner (head of Fox Searchlight UK); Jason Maza (Unstoppable), Emma Hewitt (BBC Films...

This year’s top ten was selected by Screen International’s team of critics.

The nominees for Screen International’s 2019 Best British Film of the Year award have been revealed.

The winner will be voted for by Screen International readers (see below) and will be announced at this year’s Screen Awards ceremony held on November 28 at The Ballroom Southbank in London. Voting closes on October 31. This year’s other Screen Awards nominees have been announced here.

The award launched last year, with Dan Kokotajlo’s Apostasy winning the first edition.

This year’s top 10 was selected by Screen International...

The UK Jewish Film Festival (November 6 – 21) has revealed its 2019 lineup, including galas for Taika Waititi’s Nazi satire JoJo Rabbit and Diane Kruger thriller The Operative.

Toronto Audience Award winner JoJo Rabbit, about a young boy in Hitler’s army who finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home, will be the festival’s closing night gala, a choice that could stir debate. Waititi, who is Jewish, plays Hitler. Also starring are Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson.

The festival’s Centerpiece Gala will be the UK premiere of The Operative, about a woman who is recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran. Directed by Yuval Adler, the Berlin Film Festival debut stars Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman.

Films in competition for the Dorfman Best Film Award are Dolce Fine Giornata, Flawless, Jojo Rabbit, festival opener My Polish Honeymoon, Stripped and The Unorthodox.

Exclusive: The UK Jewish Film Festival (Nov 6-23) has assembled a strong jury lineup for its 23rd edition including BAFTA chairwoman Jane Lush, Bridget Jones’s Baby scribe Dan Mazer, former Storyville boss Nick Fraser and Three Identical Strangers director Tim Wardle. Scroll down for the full list of jurors.

The festival program will be revealed on September 19 and organizers tell us it will be the biggest to date. The hub of the festival will be in London but there are due to be regional screenings in more than 20 cities in the UK.

Last year the Dorfman Best Film Award went to Wardle’s acclaimed doc Three Identical Strangers. There were special screenings for movies including Foxtrot, Promise At Dawn, Working Woman and Philip Roth adaptation The Human Stain. Guests included Simon Chinn, Mélanie Thierry and David Schneider.

The festival featured 85 films from 16 countries, including 51 UK premieres, at 21 cinemas in London,...

Unlike narrative projects, documentaries are created in the edit suite. There, hundreds of hours of verité footage, archival materials, talking heads and even animated sequences need to be sorted through, digested and culled together to form a comprehensive, succinct and, with any luck, interesting and entertaining nonfiction series or specials.

To get there, docu directors rely on the unsung heroes of cinema — the editors. If making a documentary is like building a house, then the director is the architect, while the editor is the engineer. While some could argue that anyone is capable of picking up a camera and pressing the record button, not everyone can take a vast amount of footage and mold it into a compelling story.

“In documentary filmmaking, the editor is your closest collaborator,” says “Free Solo” co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. “The documentary editor works much like a writer would on a narrative feature.”

Five months...

For Tim Wardle, director of the documentary Three Identical Strangers, the last 18 months have been head-spinning.

“To be honest,” he tells Deadline, “from Sundance onwards, life has been a bit of a blur.”

That’s what happens when you make one of the most acclaimed nonfiction films of recent years—a hit not only with critics but the moviegoing public. Wardle’s “truth is stranger than fiction” tale of identical triplets who were separated as infants and then reunited only by chance as young men, won a storytelling prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and then exploded at the box office, earning more than $12 million in North America alone.

“When it it got to $1 million, we were like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s made $1 million! It’s incredible!’” Wardle recalls. “And then it was $3 million, then it was 5 and it was 10…The whole thing has been a fairy tale.

Feature nominees to be announced on January 7, 2020; TV, commercials on January 6, 2020.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) announced the 2019-20 timetable on Wednesday (17), following an earlier announcement that the 72nd Annual DGA Awards will take place on January 25, 2020.

Theatrical feature film and first-time feature film nominees will be announced on January 7, 2020 and television, commercial, and documentary nominees on January 6, 2020.

DGA members will be able to vote online from December 2, 2019–January 6, 2020 for theatrical feature film nominations; from December 6, 2019–January 3, 2020 for television nominations in five categories; and from January 7, 2020–January 24, 2020 for the Theatrical Feature Film Award. All voting will continue to take place online.

Five months after winning the Oscar for best documentary feature, Free Solo has picked up seven Emmy nominations. The film about mountain climber Alex Honnold’s breathtaking ascent of Yosemite’s El Capitan — without ropes — received noms today for directing, editing, cinematography, interactive media, sound editing, sound mixing, and music composition.

The National Geographic docu, from filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, is the latest example of a TV project to have success at the Oscars followed by Emmy praise as well. ESPN’s O.J.: Made In America was released as a five-part miniseries and in theatrical format. It won best documentary at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 and went on to win directing and editing Emmys that same year.

Vasarhelyi and Chin are up for outstanding documentary directing against Chris Smith for Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, Dan Reed for Leaving Neverland, Julie Cohen...

Five months after winning the Oscar for best documentary, “Free Solo” landed seven Emmy nominations Tuesday. The National Geographic film, which chronicles mountaineer Alex Honnold’s nail-biting climb up the 3,000-foot El Capitan without a rope, landed Television Academy nods for directing, editing, cinematography, interactive media, sound editing, sound mixing, and music composition.

“We are so happy to see everyone who worked on this film recognized — from our spectacular cinematography team, editing, score and sound. It’s amazing to have our peers celebrate them as we do. We’re very honored to be recognized for directing in such an important and competitive year in non-fiction filmmaking,” said E. Chai Vasarhelyi, who directed the movie with her husband Jimmy Chin, who was also one of its cinematographers.

Vasarhelyi and Chin are vying for outstanding documentary directing against Chris Smith for “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” Dan Reed for “Leaving Neverland,...

Stars: Silvi Alzetta-Reali, Eddy Galland, Ron Guttman, Natasha Josefowitz, David Kellman, Evan LeRose, Adrian Lichter, Andrew Lovesey, Scotty Murray, Robert Shafran, David Straus, Rachel VanDuzer | Directed by Tim Wardle

Three strangers are reunited by astonishing coincidence after being born identical triplets, separated at birth, and adopted by three different families. Their jaw-dropping, feel-good story instantly becomes a global sensation complete with fame and celebrity, however, the fairy-tale reunion sets in motion a series of events that unlocks an extraordinary and disturbing secret that goes beyond their own lives – and could transform our understanding of human nature forever.

Tim Wardle’s documentary Three Identical Strangers may be one of the most contextually absurd and devastating documentaries within the genre of cinema. In the world of the exposè crime documentary, made binge-worthy famous by Netflix, an influx of crime “did they/didn’t they?” ventures – ranging from the insanely huge public Oj...

Exclusive: Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten will write the script and produce a narrative film based on Three Identical Strangers. The film, being mounted by Raw, Film4 and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, is based on the smash hit documentary film from last year.

McCarten has the unusual distinction of seeing his last three films resulting in Best Actor Oscar wins for the films’ stars. Before Bohemian Rhapsody and Rami Malek, that was Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour and Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything. McCarten was Oscar nominated for all three films. The New Zealand-born writer’s next film is The Pope, starring Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis opposite Anthony Hopkins who plays Pope Benedict.

McCarten stays in non-fiction mode with Three Identical Strangers. Set in New York and Long Island, the docu told the fascinating true story of Robert Shafran, David Kellman and Eddy Galland, three complete strangers who...

Exclusive: Beau Flynn’s New Line/Warner Bros-based FlynnPictureCo. has optioned the Bryan Burrough Vanity Fair article “Fyre Festival: Anatomy of a Millennial Marketing Disaster Waiting to Happen.” It will be used as the basis for a narrative feature film that Emily Jerome (penned the Black List script Panopticon) will write, and which Tim Wardle is attached to direct. He’s coming off the breakout documentary Three Identical Strangers.

The package is being shopped, starting today. The film focuses on the disaster that was the Fyre Festival, billed as a luxury music Coachella-type gathering in the Bahamas. The event was cooked up by 25-year-old wannabe entrepreneur Billy MacFarland, who used his flair for social media messaging and his pal Ja Rule to lure moneyed young people into paying exorbitant prices for accommodations and entertainment.

Revelers found there were no luxury accommodations, nor any bands. There were tents that...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Chiwetel Ejiofor)

The phrase “important film” covers all manner of cinematic sins. If a narrative speaks to a specific issue or disenfranchisement, it can make critique a little complicated. Thankfully, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind plays more like entertainment than education while teaching its viewer something all the same. Written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, adapted from the book by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, the film’s set in Wimbe, a village in the Southeast African country of Malawi. It concerns the life of a family trying their best to survive both extreme weather and a government that will offer no help.

As we continue to collectively grumble about “Green Book” and, simultaneously, thank the Academy Gods for giving us Spike Lee, unfiltered after six champagnes, The Hollywood Reporter has released their final award season roundtable, this week focusing on the documentary filmmakers including Academy Award winner Chai Vasarhelyi (“Free Solo”), in addition to Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”), Julie Cohen (“Rbg”), Tim Wardle (“Three Identical Strangers”), Bing Liu (“Minding the Gap”), and Rashida Jones (“Quincy”).

Continue reading Bing Liu, Morgan Neville, Rashida Jones & More Discuss Political Documentaries And Ethical Responsibilities at The Playlist.

From humble beginnings, Dogwoof has quietly built up a thriving documentary production, sales and distribution company, and has just enjoyed its first £1m UK box-office hit.

Since its inception in 2003, London-based Dogwoof has always been perceived as a niche operator. Its company name has a kitchen-table, low-key feel. Documentaries, which long ago became its exclusive focus, are viewed as a marginal activity by much of the film industry. Dogwoof’s prolific activity as a UK distributor has tended to pigeonhole it, even as it has expanded into other areas of operations. Its expansion from its original team of two has been slow and steady.

From humble beginnings, Dogwoof has quietly built up a thriving documentary production, sales and distribution company, and has just enjoyed its first £1m UK box-office hit.

Since its inception in 2003, London-based Dogwoof has always been perceived as a niche operator. Its company name has a kitchen-table, low-key feel. Documentaries, which long ago became its exclusive focus, are viewed as a marginal activity by much of the film industry. Dogwoof’s prolific activity as a UK distributor has tended to pigeonhole it, even as it has expanded into other areas of operations. Its expansion from its original team of two has been slow and steady.

Roma wins best film and best director, The Favourite wins seven awards including best actress for Olivia Colman.

Roma took home best film at the 2019 Baftas, as well as best foreign film, best director and best cinematography.

The Favourite won the most awards in total, seven, including best actress for Olivia Colman.

The ceremony took place on Feb 10 at the Royal Albert Hall and was hosted by Joanna Lumley for a second time.

The full list of winners Best Film BLACKkKLANSMAN Jason Blum, Spike Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele The Favourite Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lee Magiday Green Book Jim Burke,...

The 2019 Bafta Awards are taking place tonight at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The 2019 Bafta Awards are taking place tonight (10 Feb) at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Screen will be posting all the winners on this page and on Twitter as they are announced.

The ceremony starts at 18:45 UK time and finishes at approximately 21:30, with Joanna Lumley hosting for a second time.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ historical drama The Favourite leads the way with 12 nominations. Bohemian Rhapsody, First Man, Roma and A Star Is Born follow on seven. Vice has six, BlacKkKlansman has five, with Cold War and Green Book on four each.

Known as a notoriously unpredictable bunch, the Academy’s documentary branch has become rather predictable in the past two years.

The evidence lies in the films they choose not to recognize come Oscar time: Films such as Brett Morgen’s 2017 Jane Goodall docu, “Jane,” and two of last year’s biggest nonfiction box office successes — Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers.” Both Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc and Wardle’s film about identical triplets separated at birth premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Both films also went on to do the seemingly impossible and strike a chord with audiences all over the country. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” grossed $22.8 million domestically, making it the 12th-highest-grossing doc of all time. Meanwhile, “Strangers” also defied documentary theatrical odds when it drew in $12.3 million.

Morgen’s “Jane” grossed just...

For the fifth time in six years, a Mexican director took home the Directors Guild of America’s top prize as Alfonso Cuarón won the DGA Award for “Roma” Saturday at the end of a long ceremony. It’s his second win after “Gravity,” for which he went on to win the directing Oscar; he is now the frontrunner for his second Academy Award, as the two groups’ selections rarely diverge.

Cuarón is the second director in DGA history to win for a foreign-language film, after Ang Lee. Last year’s DGA winner, Guillermo del Toro, who went on to win Best Director and Picture Oscars, happily presented the award to his old friend. “Gracias, cabrón,” said Cuarón.

Cuarón told IndieWire that making “Roma” has been a surprisingly cathartic journey, from recreating his childhood in Mexico City to witnessing its triumph: “I said it was going to be a film...

For the fifth time in six years, a Mexican director took home the Directors Guild of America’s top prize as Alfonso Cuarón won the DGA Award for “Roma” Saturday at the end of a long ceremony. It’s his second win after “Gravity,” for which he went on to win the directing Oscar; he is now the frontrunner for his second Academy Award, as the two groups’ selections rarely diverge.

Cuarón is the second director in DGA history to win for a foreign-language film, after Ang Lee. Last year’s DGA winner, Guillermo del Toro, who went on to win Best Director and Picture Oscars, happily presented the award to his old friend. “Gracias, cabrón,” said Cuarón.

Cuarón told IndieWire that making “Roma” has been a surprisingly cathartic journey, from recreating his childhood in Mexico City to witnessing its triumph: “I said it was going to be a film...

Bo Burnham claims first-time feature prize for Eight Grade.

While many in the industry still believe it would be a stretch for Roma to win the best picture Oscar later this month, the likelihood of Alfonso Cuarón claiming his second Academy Award for directing shot up after he won the feature film prize at the 71st annual DGA Awards on Saturday (2).

Cuarón can now add his secnd DGA prize for outstanding achievement to the one he earned at the directors guild’s 66th annual ceremony for Gravity and he heads into the 91st Academy Awards on February 24 as the clear favourite,...

Bo Burnham claims first-time feature prize for Eight Grade.

While some in the industry still believe it would be a stretch for Roma to win the best picture Oscar, few doubt Alfonso Cuarón’s chances for a second best director Academy Award and that argument carries a lot more water following Saturday’s (2) DGA win.

Cuarón earned his second DGA prize for outstanding achievement at the 71st annual DGA Awards after winning at the directors guild’s 66th annual ceremony for Gravity (and claiming the Oscar in 2014 at the culmination of awards season).

He heads into the 91st Academy Awards...

Alfonso Cuarón took the top feature film award for Roma at tonight’s 71st Annual DGA Awards, fellow feature film nominee Adam McKay took the TV drama series nod for Succession and Bo Burnham snagged the first-time director nod for Eighth Grade.

“Roma simply doesn’t exist without the generosity of spirit and effortless grace of Yalitza (Aparicio) and Marina (De Tavira). They somehow with the rest of my beautiful cast managed to bring to life this film from my memory,” Cuarón said in accepting the award for his film that is an homage to his childhood.

The guild award has been a top bellwether for the best directing Oscar. Last year’s winner Guillermo del Toro, who presented tonight’s award to Cuarón, went on to win the Academy Award in directing for The Shape of Water. The film won four Oscars in all, including best picture. The guild...

Alfonso Cuaron has won the Directors Guild Award for top feature film for “Roma,” keeping up his awards-season momentum.

Cuaron topped Bradley Cooper for “A Star Is Born,” Spike Lee for “BlacKkKlansman,” Adam McKay for “Vice,” and Peter Farrelly for “Green Book.”

“Thank you, cabron — you are my film career,” a deeply moved Cuaron told last year’s winner, Guillermo del Toro.

Cuaron explained backstage that he had used “cabron,” often an expletive in Spanish, as a term of endearment for del Toro. “Like everything else, it’s a matter of context,” he added.

Cuaron also thanked Participant Media, which financed the black-and-white Spanish-language film, and Netflix, which released it, for their “glorious stupidity.”

The filmmaker singled out Oscar-nominated stars Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira.

“‘Roma’ simply doesn’t exist without the generosity of spirt and effortless grace of Yalitza and Marina,” he said. “They somehow, with the rest of my beautiful cast,...

Alfonso Cuarón has triumphed at the Directors Guild of America Awards, making the “Roma” auteur the official frontrunner as we near the Academy Awards in just a few weeks. There’s significant overlap between the two voting groups, and the DGA winner tends to be similarly awarded by the Academy — their selections have diverged only seven times since 1949. Cuarón previously won the award for “Gravity,” for which he also won the Oscar.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Feature Film

Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”

Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” (winner)

Peter Farrelly, “Green Book”

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”

Adam McKay, “Vice”

Documentaries

Morgan Neville, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

RaMell Ross, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening”

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Free Solo”

Tim Wardle, “Three Identical Strangers”

Betsy West and Julie Cohen, “Rbg”

First-Time Feature Film

Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade” (winner)

Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”

Carlos López Estrada,...

Alfonso Cuarón took the top film honor tonight For Roma at the 71st Annual DGA Awards. Bo Burnham snagged the first-time director nod for Eighth Grade and Tim Wardle won for documentary feature for Three Identical Strangers.

Top TV awards went to Adam McKay for Succession, Bill Hader for Barry and Ben Stiller for Escape at Dannemora.

Don Mischer received the guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television Direction.

Kathleen McGill and Mimi Deaton were honored with special awards tonight. McGill, a unit production manager, received the Frank Capra Achievement Award, and Deaton, an associate director, received the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award. Both awards are given in recognition of career achievement and service to the guild.

FX Networks, behind such series as Atlanta, Pose, Mayans M.C. and Snowfall, received the guild’s 2019 Diversity Award which has been bestowed only a handful of times in the DGA Awards’ long history.

“Roma” filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won one of the top prizes at Saturday night’s 71st Directors Guild of America Awards, beating out Bradley Cooper for “A Star Is Born,” Spike Lee for “BlacKkKlansman,” Adam McKay for “Vice,” and Peter Farrelly for “Green Book” for the feature film award.

Bo Burnham was also among the guild’s big winners, taking home the first-time feature film prize for his coming-of-age drama “Eighth Grade.” He was up against Cooper, Carlos Lopez Estrada for “Blindspotting,” Matthew Heineman for “A Private War,” and Boots Riley for “Sorry to Bother You.”

While Cooper lost out on both awards, two other actors-turned-directors were victorious: Ben Stiller and Bill Hader. Stiller won in the movies for television and limited series category for his prison-break drama “Escape at Dannemora,” while Hader won for comedy series for “Barry,” which he also toplines.

McKay didn’t take the top film award,...

Alfonso Cuarón has been named the best director of 2018 for “Roma” at the 71st Annual Directors Guild Awards, which were handed out on Saturday night in Hollywood.

The win reinforces Cuarón’s position as a strong favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Director, and marks the fifth time in the last six years that one of a close-knit group of three Mexican-born directors has won the DGA Award. Cuarón also won for “Gravity,” while his close friends Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro have also won in that stretch, Iñárritu for “Birdman” and “The Revenant” and del Toro for “The Shape of Water.”

The win for Cuarón and “Roma” is the most significant guild award ever won by Netflix, which backed the director’s black-and-white, Spanish language memory piece. It is the second foreign-language film to win the DGA feature-film award, after Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger,...

The 71st Annual Directors Guild of America Awards will be held Saturday, Feb. 2, with awards to be given out in 11 categories across film and television.

Alfonso Cuaron is the runaway favorite to take home his second feature film DGA Award for “Roma,” which would set him up for the corresponding Oscar since the two bodies have only ever disagreed seven times in 70 years. He previously won both for “Gravity” (2013). Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”) is in second place in our odds and would be the first black winner in DGA history.

Last year, Cuaron’s friend Guillermo del Toro took home the DGA and Oscar for “The Shape of Water.”

See DGA Awards: Alfonso Cuaron all but certain to win key Oscar precursor

On the TV side, “The Americans” is predicted to bag another farewell prize, while it’s a tight one between “Atlanta” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” for comedy honors.

The Directors Guild Awards honor the best achievements behind the camera in both television and film, so who will be this year’s top picks when the industry’s directors have their say on Saturday, February 2? Scroll down for our predictions in seven categories ranked by their likelihood of winning (our projected winners are in gold). These racetrack odds are based on the combined predictions of hundreds of Gold Derby users.

It looks like Alfonso Cuaron will continue his awards romp. The lauded filmmaker has already won Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards for his work on the intimate drama “Roma,” plus a slew of other critics’ prizes. So he gets leading odds to win here too, as he did five years ago when he won this award for “Gravity” (2013). But will the industry admire him as much as the critical establishment? He may have to watch out for Spike Lee...