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The Gotham Film and Media Institute has revealed the programming lineup for its 2025 edition, running from Sept. 29-Oct. 3 in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The event’s invitation-only project market, connecting new fiction and documentary projects in development with industry executives via a meetings-driven forum, includes new work from producers Margaret Cho, Sean Baker and Andrew Ahn.

The U.S. Features in Development section includes Ahn’s A World of My Own, Didi producer Valerie Bush presenting The Last Supper with Carlos Lopez Estrada (Raya and the Last Dragon) and Josh Peters presenting Someday, producers Gina Gammell (War Pony) and Sacha Ben Harroche (Sound of Metal) presenting The Dispute, producer Gerry Kim (I’m No Longer Here) presenting The Camford Experiment and producer Jane Zheng (The Farewell) presenting Naked in Glendale.

The Shorts to Features section, of feature-length films based on shorts and proof of concepts includes the Cho-produced Seoul Switch, Emily McCann Lesser...

Exclusive: The Gotham Film & Media Institute has named the seven fellows set for the 2025 edition of its Festival De Cannes Producers Network Program. They are Caroline Clark (The Wedding Banquet), Chester Algernal Gordon (The Inspection), Dan Kagan (Longlegs), Leslie Norville (The First Wave), Joe Pirro (We Grown Now), Ani Schroeter (This Closeness), and Daniel Tantalean (In the Summers).

As the sole U.S. Partner Organization for the Festival de Cannes Producers Network, a program taking place in person at Cannes this year from May 14-19, The Gotham annually selects U.S. fiction and nonfiction producers to participate. Running concurrently with the Cannes Film Festival and the Marche du Film, the program is specifically designed for experienced producers to build up their international networks and learn more about international production, financing, legal and packaging.

In tandem with its work on the program, The Gotham supports Gotham Edu partners Colgate University...

The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its Primetime program on Monday, which includes nine TV series that will be screening at the festival including new shows from filmmakers Lulu Wang, Shawn Levy and Steven Knight.

The Netflix limited series “All the Light We Cannot See,” directed and executive produced by Levy and written by Steven Knight based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will have its world premiere at TIFF. The festival will also host the world premiere of “The Farewell” filmmaker Lulu Wang’s new original series “Expats,” which is set to debut on Prime Video.

“This year’s Primetime programme is bigger than ever and gives audiences the exclusive and unmatched opportunity to celebrate the best new international series together, in cinema, on the big screen,” Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, said in a statement. “TIFF audiences will be the first to see the Prime Video series Expats...

The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its Primetime programme for 2023 which includes the world premieres of Bad Boy and All the Light We Cannot See.

“This year’s Primetime programme is bigger than ever and gives audiences the exclusive and unmatched opportunity to celebrate the best new international series together, in cinema, on the big screen,” says Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer.

“TIFF audiences will be the first to see the Prime Video series Expats – Lulu Wang’s highly anticipated follow up to The Farewell, starring Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue and Ji-young Yo., a Pulitzer-Prize winning adaptation from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight, a high-octane Korean thriller, a brand new vision from the creator of Euphoria, an atypical love story between Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough, a contemporary Scandinavian tragedy, and three powerful Canadian series, all spotlighting underrepresented voices from an exciting new wave of storytellers.”

Primetime Programme Alice & Jack

Victor Levin,...

Selections include Fremantle sales title Alice & Jack with Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson; Netflix series All The Light We Cannot See from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight.

TIFF brass have announced the Primetime section, a nine-strong roster of series which includes Expats, Lulu Wang’s follow-up to The Farewell for Prime Video starring Nicole Kidman in the saga of a close-knit group of Hong Kong expatriates.

The selection includes Fremantle sales title Alice & Jack (UK) a Channel 4 romance from Victor Levin starring Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson; and All The Light We Cannot See (USA) from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight,...

World premieres of Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See, Amazon’s Expats starring Nicole Kidman, and Euphoria creator Ron Leshem’s Hebrew-language drama Bad Boy were unveiled as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Primetime program on Monday.

TIFF, making a big step up this year for the sidebar of international prestige TV series, will show the first two episodes of All the Light We Cannot See, a limited series starring Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie, written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) and directed by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things).

And The Farewell director Lulu Wang is returning to Toronto with Amazon’s Expats, with Kidman and Sarayu Blue in a drama about a group of close-knit women expatriates in Hong Kong. There’s also first looks for U.K. Channel Four’s Alice & Jack, a romantic comedy that stars Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough.

Also bowing...

The Danish animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which were streamed in a virtual ceremony on Friday night.

The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.

Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were presented on Tuesday night in New York City. “The Rescue,” about the efforts to retrieve a Thai youth soccer team from a flooded cave, won the Audience Choice Prize.

The Neon release “Flee,” which uses animation to give anonymity to a young gay man who escaped Afghanistan as a teenager and made his way to Denmark, also won the award for graphic design and animation. It is nominated for Oscars in the documentary, animated-feature and international-feature categories.

Robert Greene won the directing award for “Procession,” while Matthew Heineman, Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville took the producing prize for “The First Wave.”

Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension” won the most Cinema Eye awards, three, taking the prizes for debut feature, cinematography and score.

Other winners included “Summer of Soul...

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s singular animated doc Flee and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Summer of Soul will head into the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors as the leaders in nominations, Cinema Eye announced today.

Flee led all films with seven nominations, with Summer of Soul claiming six. Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s The Rescue followed with five noms apiece, with Todd Haynes’ Apple pic The Velvet Underground claiming four. HBO led all distributors with 16 nominations, with Hulu notching 12. Nat Geo and Neon followed with 11 each.

Of particular note with regard to the noms list was a newly introduced category for Outstanding Sound Design, which will see All Light, Everywhere contending alongside Faya Dayi, Flee, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground.

The award ceremony recognizing...

With the grand in-person return of the New York Film Festival in the rearview mirror, New York’s fall festival season barrels on with Doc NYC, the largest documentary festival in the country. This year’s festival will return to in-person theatrical screenings, with virtual options and passes available as well. The 2021 lineup includes more than 120 feature-length documentaries, including 32 world premieres and 34 U.S. premieres. World premieres include films on figures such as NBA legend Kevin Garnett, recently passed rapper Dmx, rat pack crooner Dean Martin, and the late literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. They join previously announced titles on Kenny G and Dionne Warwick, as well as Matthew Heineman’s “The First Wave,” a penetrating look at the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City.

Doc NYC is also launching three new competitive sections this year: A U.S. Competition for new American nonfiction films, an International...

In March 2020, just after New York City shut down due to Covid-19, Matthew Heineman picked up his camera and embedded with a group of healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. For the next three months, the director and a skeleton crew captured doctors, nurses, and medical technicians as they battled to keep Covid patients alive and the virus at bay at one of the country’s hardest-hit hospitals.

The result of Heineman’s efforts is “The First Wave” – a documentary that will have its world premiere and serve as the opening night film at the 29th Hamptons Intl. Film Festival on Oct. 7.

Besides documenting the devastating physical and emotional impact the pandemic had on hospital staff, the verité film executive produced by Alex Gibney and produced by Leslie Norville and Jenna Millman follows Covid patients who recovered at the hospital for months as well as their family members back home.

National Geographic Documentary Films has acquired Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman’s documentary “The First Wave,” which will be released theatrically by Neon later this year.

Produced by Participant and Heineman’s Our Time Projects, the documentary will present a ground-level view inside a New York hospital amid the initial explosion of Covid-19. The “first wave” of the virus consumed the city of New York from March through June 2020.

Heineman, a Primetime Emmy winner and two-time DGA award winner, uses his signature approach of character-driven cinema vérité to document those harrowing first four months by spotlighting a group of brave healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens as they risked their lives in the epic battle to keep the virus at bay.

Additionally, the documentary spotlights the unequal toll of Covid-19, which disproportionately impacted people of color and the economically disadvantaged from the very beginning.

“I feel deeply...

National Geographic Documentary Films on Monday announced its acquisition of Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman’s documentary The First Wave, a ground-level view inside a New York hospital as the city battled the initial explosion of Covid-19.

The vérité-style film, from Participant and Heineman’s Our Time Projects, will be released in theaters by Neon later this year, followed by a worldwide premiere on National Geographic. Heineman, a Primetime Emmy winner and two-time DGA Award winner, embedded with health care workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, capturing the devastating impact of the pandemic from March through June 2020.

“The First Wave spotlights the everyday heroes at the epicenter of Covid-19 as they come together to fight one of the greatest threats the world has ever encountered,” National Geographic noted. “With poignancy and intimacy, the film unflinchingly bears witness to the unseen reality of a hospital overwhelmed by Covid—the...

Nat Geo has acquired the rights to “The First Wave,” a documentary about the fight against Covid-19 inside a New York City hospital, from “Cartel Land” director Matthew Heineman.

National Geographic Documentary Films is partnering with Neon, Participant and Our Time Projects on the release. Neon will release “The First Wave” to theaters later this year, prior to its premiere on National Geographic in 172 countries and 43 languages worldwide.

Heineman’s film is set inside Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, one of the hardest hit hospitals in all of New York City. The film takes a cinema vérité, character-driven look at the “first wave” of the virus’ effect on the city during the first few harrowing months, with Heineman embedding himself among healthcare workers from March-June 2020.

With “The First Wave,” Heineman hoped to capture the unseen reality of a hospital overwhelmed by the pandemic, as well as the emotional...

Filmmaker embedded with healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens.

National Geographic Documentary Films, Neon, and Participant have teamed up on Matthew Heineman’s Covid documentary The First Wave.

Neon plans a theatrical release later this year on what is likely to be promoted as an Oscar contender. The release will precede a broadcast premiere on National Geographic across 172 countries in 43 languages.

Heineman’s film chronicles the first wave of Covid-19 that ravaged New York City from March to June 2020.

The filmmaker embedded with healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens as they risked...

National Geographic Documentary Films has picked up Matthew Heineman’s Covid-19 documentary The First Wave from Participant and Our Time Projects.

Heineman directed and produced the feature film about frontline workers at one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospitals, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, during the first four months of the pandemic last year. Neon will release the film from the Cartel Land and City of Ghosts director in theaters later this year before a broadcast premiere on National Geographic in 172 countries and 43 languages worldwide.

The First Wave is also produced by Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville, while the executive ...

National Geographic Documentary Films has picked up Matthew Heineman’s Covid-19 documentary The First Wave from Participant and Our Time Projects.

Heineman directed and produced the feature film about frontline workers at one of New York City’s hardest-hit hospitals, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, during the first four months of the pandemic last year. Neon will release the film from the Cartel Land and City of Ghosts director in theaters later this year before a broadcast premiere on National Geographic in 172 countries and 43 languages worldwide.

The First Wave is also produced by Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville, while the executive ...

Leading documentary festival Hot Docs has selected the 20 projects that will be presented during the online edition of its project market, Hot Docs Forum, which runs May 4-5.

Among the projects’ 25 filmmakers, 10 helmers are Black, Indigenous or People of Color, and 20 directors are women. The projects represent 16 countries.

Lisa Valencia-Svensson, acting industry programs director for Hot Docs, said this year’s edition is “a bold and powerful mix of cinematic artistry and journalism.”

She added: “The slate of projects gives us hope about the future of non-fiction filmmaking in its many forms, and excites us about films that are just over the horizon and will soon reach cinema audiences around the world.”

Dorota Lech, Hot Docs Forum producer, said the projects reflect Hot Docs’ “unwavering commitment to uplifting emerging filmmakers who, due to industry-wide financial constraints, combined with a lack of access to festivals as meeting places to approach bubbles...

Eleven fellows to participate in Utah session.

Sundance Institute announced on Friday that the Creative Producing Program will convene in Utah from July 31-August 6.

The initiative includes 11 feature film and documentary filmmakers alongside 90 filmmakers and industry leaders.

The Creative Producing Program champions the current and next generation of producers, supporting creative vision and best practices from development through distribution in a rapidly changing ecosystem.

It applies to scripted and nonfiction storytelling from global content creators. The support apparatus includes Labs, the annual Summit, year-round mentorship, granting, financing education and matchmaking, distribution education and strategy, and network and community building.

The Institute’s annual Producers Awards, supported by Amazon Studios, also contribute to this goal, and recognise a fiction and a nonfiction producer at the Sundance Film Festival Producers Lunch.

“We have long recognised the crucial role independent producers play in finding, shaping and advocating for original voices in filmmaking,” Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam said.

“Our...

Sundance Selects opens Nelson George's documentary, "A Ballerina’s Tale" - a film about one of the most notable and trailblazing figures in the ballet world, Misty Copeland - today, October 14. Directed and written by George, produced by Leslie Norville, and executive produced by Dorria L. Ball, Ingrid Graham and Copeland, the film provides a behind-the-curtain look at the daily life of Copeland, the first African American female soloist at New York’s American Ballet Theatre (Abt) in two decades. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in Abt's 75-year history. The film is now out in a limited theatrical...

Sundance Selects acquired U.S. rights to Nelson George's documentary, "A Ballerina’s Tale" - a film about one of the most notable and trailblazing figures in the ballet world, Misty Copeland- and will release the film in theaters and on VOD on October 14. Directed and written by George, the film made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. Produced by Leslie Norville and executive produced by Dorria L. Ball, Ingrid Graham and Copeland, the film provides a behind-the-curtain look at the daily life of Copeland, the first African American female soloist at New York’s American Ballet Theatre (Abt) in two decades. On June 30, 2015,...

Sundance Selects has acquired U.S. rights to Nelson George's documentary, "A Ballerina’s Tale" - a film about one of the most notable and trailblazing figures in the ballet world, Misty Copeland. Directed and written by Nelson George, the film made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. Produced by Leslie Norville and executive produced by Dorria L. Ball, Ingrid Graham and Copeland, the film provides a behind-the-curtain look at the daily life of Copeland, the first African American female soloist at New York’s American Ballet Theatre (Abt) in two decades. On June 30, 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to be...

Sundance Selects has taken Us rights to culture critic turned filmmaker Nelson George's "A Ballerina's Tale," a world premiere of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will hit theaters and VOD on October 14, 2015. "A Ballerina's Tale" takes an intimate, behind-the-curtain look at the career of Misty Copeland, the African American ballerina who just last month was promoted to principal dancer in New York's American Ballet Theatre. The documentary shadows Misty as she physically recovers from her triumphant, but demanding 2012 lead performance in Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird." This portrait of a preternaturally gifted dancer was acclaimed at Tribeca. "Ballerina's Tale" was produced by Leslie Norville and executive produced by Dorria L. Ball, Ingrid Graham and Misty Copeland. Read More: Sundance Acquires Tribeca Doc "Misery Loves Comedy"...

Exclusive: The Film Sales Company, in Berlin screening Forum selection H., has come on to produce the documentary Sweetheart Deal with Peggy Case and Elisa Haradon.

Haradon and Gabriel Miller direct the film about three heroin addict prostitutes who seek help from a man who is not who he seems to be. The film goes into edit this spring.

Andrew Herwitz’s New York-based The Film Sales Company will also serve as executive producer on Nelson George and Leslie Norville’s documentary A Ballerina’s Tale.

That film is in post and chronicles the life of superstar black ballet dancer Misty Copeland.

Fsc holds world rights to Fourm entry and recent Sundance premiere H., directed by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia and set in the near future as two women undergo physical and psychological changes as disaster threatens their town.

Herwitz has reported strong buyer interest in Berlin on the documentary Ballet 422. Magnolia holds Us...

The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) have unveiled the 11 2014 Tfi Documentary Fund grantees who collectively will receive $175,000.

Tfi also announced winners of the second annual Tfi/Espn Prize and of the inaugural Influence Award stemming from its partnership with the Europe-based Influence Film Foundation.

The Tfi Documentary Fund grantees are:

A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson D George and produced by Leslie Norville

Aquarela directed by Victor Kossakovsky and produced by Aimara Reques

Diamond, Silver & Gold directed and produced by Jason Kohn and produced by Jared Goldman and Amanda Branson Gill.

Nuts directed and produced by Penny Lane, who also received a Tfi Documentary Fund in 2012.

Pride directed and produced by Taa and Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund alumnus Mohammed Naqvi and Jared Ian Goldman

Tea Time written and directed by Tfi Latin Fund Bloomberg Fellow Maite Alberdi and produced by Clara Taricco

The Sensitives(pictured) directed by Drew Xanthopoulos and produced by David Hartstein

The Wolfpack Project...