News

SeriesFest has wrapped its fifth edition in Denver after handing out juried awards to 15 winners.

Beyond the pilot competition, highlights of the June 21-26 festival, inlcuded panels featuring Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos and a team of executives and collaborators from Shondaland. NBC fall drama Bluff City Law had its world premiere, and Starz rolled out the first episode of The Rook. Stevie Wonder and Usher performed at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, continuing the mostly TV-focused festival’s annual music undercurrent.

Currency, a drama imagining a “green-out” that threatens the capitalist system, captured Best Drama Pilot honors as well as the Audience Award. Best Comedy Pilot went to Brooklyn Moving Company, which depicts movers who burst into song and dance.

Jurors screened 53 pilots at the Sie FilmCenter, the arthouse multiplex that is the year-round home of Denver Film. (See the full list of winners below.)

“This year’s pilots...

In today’s roundup, Amazon drops the first official trailer for “Carnival Row,” starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne.

Dates

August 1 will see the premiere of Hgtv’s “Flip or Flop,” which follows divorced couple Christina Anstead and Tarek El Moussa as they figure out their relationship as co-parents and business partners. In the 18-episode season, the real estate experts buy, renovate, and sell SoCal properties for profit as they raise their three kids together.

Season 2 of “Miz & Mrs.” will return to USA Network on August 6. The docuseries follows the A-List lifestyle of married WWE stars Michael Mizanin (The Miz) and Maryse Mizanin, after they trade in the Hollywood Hills for a quiet life in Austin, Texas.

First Look

Amazon has released the official trailer for its forthcoming original series “Carnival Row.” Premiering August 30, the series stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne in a Victorian fantasy world filled with mythological...

National Geographic has added Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave,” the latest non-fiction effort from the director of the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo,” to its 2019 feature documentary slate. The new film will be released in theaters this fall and compete in an increasingly crowded documentary feature field for the Oscar.

“The Cave” unveils the harrowing true story of an underground Syrian hospital and the team of civilians and medical professionals led by women who risk their lives to provide medical care to the besieged local population.

The film follows 30-year-old Dr. Amani, an aspiring pediatrician forced to end her studies and medical training due to the war in Syria, as she becomes the appointed leader of a team of 130 medical practitioners in the secret hospital serving the 400,000 civilians of the besieged city of Al Ghouta from 2012 to 2018. Due to the nonstop onslaught of conventional and chemical warfare, brutalized and displaced...

National Geographic has added Feras Fayyad’s “The Cave,” the latest non-fiction effort from the director of the Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo,” to its 2019 feature documentary slate. The new film will be released in theaters this fall and compete in an increasingly crowded documentary feature field for the Oscar.

“The Cave” unveils the harrowing true story of an underground Syrian hospital and the team of civilians and medical professionals led by women who risk their lives to provide medical care to the besieged local population.

The film follows 30-year-old Dr. Amani, an aspiring pediatrician forced to end her studies and medical training due to the war in Syria, as she becomes the appointed leader of a team of 130 medical practitioners in the secret hospital serving the 400,000 civilians of the besieged city of Al Ghouta from 2012 to 2018. Due to the nonstop onslaught of conventional and chemical warfare, brutalized and displaced...

Dogwoof has acquired international sales rights to Tim Travers Hawkins’ “Xy Chelsea,” an intimate portrait of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who was recently incarcerated after refusing to testify in the WikiLeaks case.

Manning was was sentenced to 35 years at a maximum-security prison for leaking classified military information to WikiLeaks in 2013. Four years later, then-President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence as one of the final acts of his presidency.

The documentary, which will have its world premiere at Tribeca, follows Manning as she prepares her transition to living life for the first time as a free woman. Hawkins was granted exclusive and intimate access to Manning after her release from military prison.

Produced by Pulse Films, “Xy Chelsea” will air on Showtime in North America in June, following its release in the U.K. on May 24.

“‘Xy Chelsea’ is a challenging documentary that speaks to many troubling phenomena of our times,...

Chelsea Manning documentary Xy Chelsea, which premieres at Tribeca and will air in the U.S. on Showtime in June, has been picked up for international sales by UK documentary specialist Dogwoof.

Produced by Pulse Films and executive-produced by Laura Poitras, director Tim Travers Hawkins’ feature is an intimate portrait of Manning after her initial release from military prison. The whistleblower and former soldier was convicted by court martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionages Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified or sensitive military and diplomatic documents. The trans activist had her 35-year sentence in an all-male maximum security prison commuted by President Obama in 2017 but was sent back to prison this year for contempt of court.

Pic was co-financed by the BFI, Field of Vision and Topic Studio and was written by Mark Monroe, Tim Travers Hawkins, Enat Sidi and Andrea Scott. Producers are Julia Nottingham,...

Film will have world premiere at Tribeca.

UK-based documentary specialists Dogwoof have acquired all international sales rights excluding North America to Xy Chelsea, a feature about American military whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Dogwoof has planned a UK release for May 24, following from the film’s world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival on May 1. Showtime has North American rights on the title and has planned a Us release for June.

Directed by British director Tim Travers Hawkins and produced by the UK’s Pulse Films, the film follows Manning after President Barack Obama commuted her 35 year prison sentence for leaking classified military information to WikiLeaks,...

The 14th New York Television Festival wrapped its first summer edition today by awarding the off-kilter independent pilot Hammerhead its two top prizes.

The story of an up-and-comer in New York determined not to let his deformed head derail his ambitions captured the Overall Best of Fest Award and Nytvf Critics Award. The Best Comedy Project award went to Smüchr; Best Animated Project was Omega House (which also scored a development deal from Comedy Central); and Best Drama or Dramedy Project was Paint.

After the fest’s shift from its traditional fall arrival, a move aimed at synchronizing with the industry’s development cycle, organizers said the summer fest hosted 620 development meetings, the most in its history. In all, 75 companies took part in the festival, a cross-section of networks, studios, agencies and digital platforms. The festival screened 59 pilots, recognizing top projects in 16 categories.

In its third year, the Nytvf Scripts competition featured 21 selections,...

“Hammerhead,” the story of a cunning young man trying to make his way in New York City, took top awards at the New York Television Festival.

The festival, which concludes today, features a competition for independently produced pilots, a script contest and a competition to land development deals with major cable networks and production banners. “Hammerhead,” created by New York-based filmmaker Dean Imperial, won the best of the fest award as well as the critics kudo. This year’s gathering featured screenings of 59 pilots.

“Independent television hasn’t only arrived – it is stronger than ever,” said Nytvf founder and executive director Terence Gray. “Each year, I am floored by how much the quality of the work submitted by the independent television community continues to improve — having received more than 3,300 submissions for the third year in a row. I’m honored that our partners have embraced the Festival as a go-to...