News

FKA Twigs made a special appearance at a charity concert in London in support of relief efforts in Gaza and Sudan. The singer took the stage at the Troxy to perform her song “Cellophane,” which she released in 2019.

a surprise appearance from special guest @FKAtwigs https://t.co/OqHFPMgaVp pic.twitter.com/obYY52WtWQ

— Nts Radio (@NTSlive) July 4, 2024

The concert was organized by Mustafa as part of collective Artists For Aid, with the proceeds benefiting War Child UK’s response plan in Gaza and Sudan, which focuses on food, water and hygiene-based aid.

With a guitar as “my sword and my steed,” Sasami puts it all on the line for love on her massive new song, “Honeycrash.”

In a statement, the Los Angeles-based musician described “Honeycrash” as an attempt to “write a song with all the drama of a 19th-century classical opera, but with the patience and understanding of someone in therapy in 2024.” That intention manifests in booming percussion and roaring guitars and a hook sung with heart-wrenching tenderness: “Honey crash into me/Like a storm into the sea/Like blood on the...

Rooftop Films folks have announced the grant recipients for the large swath of filmmakers’ funds and in the narrative feature categories we have the likes of Carlos López Estrada, Andrew Thomas Huang, Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli grabbing some coin. Estrada who has directed Sundance selected Blindspotting and Summertime has Kill Yr Idols in the works. Tandem of Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli who gave us the TIFF-Sundance preemed Violation will next be working on Honey Bunch. A lab fellow at Sundance, Andrew Thomas Huang continues to piece together his directorial debut in Tiger Girl. Here is the complete list of 2023 Rooftop Filmmakers Fund short and feature film grant recipients:

Water Tower Feature Film Cash Grants (Feature Film)

Carlos López Estrada – “Kill Yr Idols”

Jodie Mack – “Early Mourning, Tarpon Springs/Lindsey’s Color Service”

Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli – “Honey Bunch”

Reid Davenport – “Life After”

Eastern Effects Equipment Grant (Feature Film)

Alex Ross Perry...

Rooftop Films has announced the recipients of their 2023 Filmmakers Fund grants. A total of 21 cash and service grants will be awarded to a variety of independent filmmakers to support the production of their next short or feature film. Four Rooftop Films Water Tower Feature Film cash grants will be exclusively awarded with support from the Laurence W. Levine Foundation.

Rooftop Filmmakers Fund grants are made accessible to Rooftop Films alumni directors who have had their work screened during the annual Sumer Series in New York City. This years grantees include a demographic of over 60% women, 30% people of color and 10% people a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“We’re unbelievably excited about the projects we’ve had the privilege of helping to fund this year! Every single one of these filmmakers approach their subjects in ways that are wholly unique to their style and vision, and we can’t wait to see the finished works,...

Björk shared another preview of her upcoming LP Fossora Thursday with “Ancestress,” a track inspired by the singer’s late mother, Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018.

“On my new album, fossora, I wrote 2 songs to my mother. This one, ‘ancestress,’ is written just after her [worldly] funeral and is probably a common musician’s reaction, the impulse of making your version of the story, later,” Björk wrote on social media of the track.

“This song is a letter to my mother, her story seen from my point of view it is written in chronological order,...

World premieres from Disney+, AMC, Startz, Peacock, A&e, OWN, FX and National Geographic are among the highlights of the 2021 Tribeca Festival’s 20th anniversary celebration, announced today.

The events will take place in New York City June 9-20 and claim to be the first major film festival to host in-person events since the worldwide pandemic began.

The Tribeca Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The festival focus is on new and returning TV series, new indie episodic storytelling, and an industry-facing Creators Market. The Tribeca TV lineup will include nine shows made up of six series premieres, one season premiere, two docuseries, and speaking appearances by Tina Fey, Christian Slater, Joshua Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Helen Hunt.

The Tribeca Festival will also feature a performance by rock icons Kiss.

Lil Nas X and FKA Twigs have resolved a spat over the similarities between the former’s new “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video and the latter’s 2019 clip for “Cellophane.”

The similarities were pointed out almost immediately upon the release of “Montero” last week, with fans noting not just the heavy use of pole dancing in both, but also a sequence in which both appear to fall from the sky. As it turns out, Lil Nas X even collaborated with the same choreographer, Kelly Von, who worked with FKA Twigs on “Cellophane.

Lil Nas X is weighing in on accusations that his recent music video for "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" looks a bit too similar to one by FKA twigs. After the 21-year-old rapper dropped his new devil-themed video last week, fans pointed out on social media that its pole-dancing visuals are reminiscent of those in FKA twigs' "Cellophane," released back in April 2019. The director for "Cellophane," Andrew Thomas Huang, appeared to agree and tweeted on Saturday, March 27 that the "Montero" visuals are "copying" his own work.  On March 30, Lil Nax X took to Instagram to praise "Cellophane" and let fans know that he and FKA twigs recently chatted...

Matt (Teddy Lee) works in a Chinese restaurant. One night, that what looks like a routine buzz and whirl of the on-site and phone orders takes a strange course. A peculiar customer (Jeff Chan) enters and catches Matt’s attention. The old legend awakens and disturbs the flow of things.

Kiss of the Rabbit God (2019) by Andrew Thomas Huang screens at the Queer East Film Festival.

Drawing from an 18th century poem and of own family history, Huang brings into live a story of self-recognition. Known for phantasmal, surrealist music videos for Björk, Serpentwithfeet, Kelela, Fka Twigs or the sci-fi video series Flesh Nest, he treats the narrative as an essay, accentuating the impression and concept. Rabbit God (or Tu’er Shen) is a Tao patron of forbidden lovers, of queer lovers. In “Kiss of the Rabbit God”, two points in time interweave. The past story of a soldier that...

How will the current situation impact the annual summer edition of the Sundance Directors & Screenwriters Lab? We are about to find out. Among the selected folks we find up and comer filmmakers who we’ve had the chance to feature in the recent past in Laura Moss/Brendan O’Brien, Fanyana Hlabangane, Andrew Thomas Huang, Nehir Tuna (see our video interviews below) and Bing Liu (who we profiled for his award-winning Minding the Gap). Here is the press release with all the folks attending.

Los Angeles – 11 independent filmmakers developing 10 projects have been selected for the 2020 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs, reimagined and expressed digitally this year on Sundance Co//ab.…...

Newly expanded advisor roster spans filmmaking disciplines.

Projects from South Africa, China and Turkey are among 10 selected for the 2020 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs, which have been reconfigured as a digital event amid the pandemic lockdown.

The event will take place on Sundance Co//ab and as always is designed to connect selected filmmaker Fellows with creative advisors and industry mentors across multiple disciplines.

The Directors Lab runs from June 1-19 when filmmakers will participate in a schedule of advisor presentations, scene analysis sessions, directing exercises, one-on-one meetings, and inaugural conversations across a wide range of industry disciplines, including casting,...

A multidisciplinary visual effects artist who has previously worked with the likes of Perfume Genius, Thom Yorke, Fka Twigs and most notably Björk (he presented the Vr project Stonemilker at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival), West Coast based Andrew Thomas Huang has been making inroads into film most recently with the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival preemed short, Kiss of the Rabbit God. He is now working on Tiger Girl, which is set in 1966 Los Angeles and is a coming of age fantasy about a repressed Chinese American teenage girl haunted by a tiger lurking in her attic. This future feature was undoubtedly informed by his most recent project in the short film, Lily Chan & The Doom Girls (2020).…...

Exclusive: Outfest has unveiled their lineup for the 17th annual Outfest Fusion — or the more official title: Outfest 2020: Culture. Film. Music. Story. The fest will run March 6-10 and include screenings, performances, panels, galas, workshops, and world premieres in Los Angeles.

Outfest Fusion brings together one of the largest, inclusive and diverse cross-sections of the Lgbtq+ community and its allies. The fest is a space the next generation of storytellers and cultural ambassadors are discovered. This year, Outfest Fusion 2020 will feature more than 60 films, including 11 World Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 12 West Coast Premieres, 13 Los Angeles Premieres and 1 International Premiere.

Films featured this year include El Principe (The Prince) directed by Sebastián Muñoz’s El Principe (The Prince) which won the Queer Lion at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. The fest will also feature the L.A. premiere of Andrew Ahn’s Driveways which stars Hong Chau and Golden...

Sundance Institute has announced the 15 screenwriters who have been chosen for the January 2020 Screenwriters Lab, which will go from the 17th-22nd. Those selected will have the opportunity to develop their independent projects by immersing themselves in the creative process and working with the mentorship of Creative Advisors.

Creative Advisors are Artistic Director Scott Frank, Michael Arndt, Suha Arraf, Ritesh Batra, Andrea Berloff, D.V. DeVincentis, Gonzalo Maza, Doug McGrath, Walter Mosley, Nicole Perlman, Howard Rodman, Susan Shilliday, Zach Sklar, Dana Stevens, Joan Tewkesbury, Bill Wheeler, and Tyger Williams.

“We’re so excited to welcome this singular and bold group of artists to our January Screenwriters Lab,” said Michelle Satter, the feature film program founding director. “Our program provides a safe and protected space for writers to be rigorous in their creative process as they develop new work that’s a true reflection of their unique voice and power as storytellers.

Update: Fka Twigs has released her second single from Magdalene, titled “Holy Terrain.” The accompanying music video shows her dancing in the desert, performing a ritual around a fire and riding a bull while naked (as one does). “Holy Terrain” features a verse from Future and is co-produced by Fka Twigs, Skrillex and Jack Antonoff.

****

Fka Twigs has shared new details on her forthcoming album Magdalene, including a track list and release date.

The self-produced record, set for release October 25th, is her first full-length in five years following 2014’s...

The biggest names in music (videos) will face off at the 2019 MTV VMAs next month, and Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande are already in the lead with 10 nominations apiece. The full list of nominees were announced on Tuesday, putting the Cats star and Scream Queens alumna in a dead heat, with Billie Eilish (9) and Lil Nas X (8) following closely behind.

Hosted by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, this year’s VMAs will air live on Monday, Aug. 26 at 8/7c. Peruse the full list of nominees below:

More from TVLineThe Hills Recap: Where There's Smoke...The Hills: New Beginnings Scores Season 2 Renewal at...

The musician, dancer and artist Fka Twigs has kept herself busy over the last three years. At the end of 2016, she released a 35-minute short film that she directed, Soundtrack 7, that offered a behind-the-scenes look into various Twigs projects. She also appeared in ad campaigns for Nike and the Apple HomePod, the latter directed by Spike Jonze.

What’s largely been missing from the past three years is new music. So in April, when Twigs unexpectedly released her first single since 2016, “Cellophane,” with a gorgeous accompanying video directed by Björk collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang,...

Musician, dancer and visual artist Fka Twigs released a new song on Wednesday, “Cellophane,” accompanied by a trippy and emotional video. This is her first new video release since last November’s “Fukk Sleep” with A$AP Rocky, and her first new solo effort since 2016’s “Good to Love.”

The clip was directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, known for his collaborations with Björk. “Cellophane” starts off normal enough – or at least as normal as a Twigs video can be – with Twigs appearing on a golden stage in a Poison Ivy-stye get-up.

Steven Soderbergh is returning to the Slamdance Film Festival — which debuted his documentary “And Everything is Going Fine” back in 2010 — to not only accept its 2019 Founders Award, but also to debut his latest feature, sports drama “High Flying Bird.” Soderbergh will be on hand at the January festival to receive the Founders Award, which is “given to a Slamdance alumnus who has continued to represent the Slamdance organization and support the filmmaker community of Slamdance well into their careers,” and has previously been bestowed on Christopher Nolan and Joe and Anthony Russo.

The prolific “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Magic Mike” filmmaker is slated to participate in a live discussion with Slamdance co-founder and president Peter Baxter before a sneak preview of the film, which Netflix picked up in September. The film was written by Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney and stars André Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonja Sohn, Zachary Quinto,...

Making music of any kind requires thoughtfulness, but the required level of creativity jumps up if you're playing "99 Red Balloons" on red balloons or dishing out some "24K Magic" with actual carrots. Those are just two inventive videos out of the dozens musician Andrew Huang has shared on his channel. Huang, who hails from Canada, has long made some of the most unusual and interesting music on YouTube, and his skills are paying off in a big way. Now that he has more than one million subscribers, we talked to him about his career:

Tubefilter: How does it feel to have more than one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

Andrew Huang: I'm still not used to it, I don't think I will ever understand that number. I'm immensely grateful for everyone who's watching, and the little music community we have!

Tf: What is your musical background like,...

Audience Award winners revealed as documentary festival reports record numbers.

International and UK delegate attendance at the 20th Sheffield Doc/Fest rose by 18%, breaking all previous records.

A total of 3,129 delegates from more than 60 countries attended the five-day festival – up from 2,657 in 2012.

The festival, which ran from June 12-16, has also revealed the Audience Award winners for best feature and short-form documentary – and the count revealed a tie in both categories.

The Audience Award for best feature doc was shared between Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing and Particle Fever, directed by Mark Levinson and edited by Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now).

Oppenheimer’s film, which features former Indonesian death squad leaders re-enacting mass killings, was originally pitched at Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket in 2008 and also won the festival’s Special Jury Award.

The Audience Award for best short doc was shared between Slomo, directed by Josh Izenberg, and Solipsist Part 1, directed by Andrew Huang.

At Doc/Fest...

During a ceremony held tonight at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn, prize winners were announced for the 18th annual Slamdance Film Festival. Taking home the Narrative Grand Jury Prize was Welcome to Pine Hill, Keith Miller’s vérité portrait of a reformed Brooklyn drug dealer undergoing a crisis of mortality. Meanwhile, Jens Pfeifer’s basketball documentary No Ashes, No Phoenix was awarded the Documentary Grand Jury Prize, while Caskey Ebeling’s Getting Up and Andrew Edison’s Bindlestiffs took home the Audience Awards for documentary and narrative, respectively.

The full list of winners, per The Hollywood Reporter:

Audience Awards

Audience Award for Feature Documentary: Getting Up by Caskey Ebeling

Audience Award for Feature Narrative: Bindlestiffs by Andrew Edison

Grand Jury Awards – Narrative

Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative: Welcome to Pine Hill by Keith Miller, “for its poetic and emotionally honest depiction of one man’s final journey in life,...