News

The Republican-led House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on President Donald Trump’s profoundly unpopular tax and spending bill. It has been called “the most regressive U.S. tax and budget law in at least the past four decades — and possibly ever,” according to researchers at Yale University.

Trump’s christened it the “Big Beautiful Bill,” but it will cost the U.S. government $4.5 trillion to pay for massive tax benefits that overwhelmingly enrich big corporations and the wealthy by making draconian cuts to public spending and programs for everyone else.

Just outside the Motion Picture Association in Washington D.C., the street-wide, two-block letters that spelled out “Black Lives Matter” have been removed. The disappearance of the streetscape, put in place following the George Floyd protests in 2020, is indicative of what’s happened in Trump 2.0 — an all-out war on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, in the government and outside of it. Hollywood has had a varied response, with some entertainment figures speaking out, while studios and their corporate parents have tried to lay low, for now.

But there’s quite a contrast between pre- and post-Trump. Universal’s Wicked, which premiered in November, is still promoted on Comcast’s corporate page for its diversity, equity and inclusion (Dei), including a lead character who uses a wheelchair. By contrast, the March release of Snow White, with Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, in the lead, put Disney into a bit of a...

For a documentary filmmaker, there’s no greater compliment than to hear the words, “Your film made an impact.”

For that reason, it was particularly significant this week for Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams to earn the Impact Award from the Miami Film Festival.

“It means so much now in this day and age when everything I know and value is under assault,” Williams tells Deadline. “And especially documentary is under assault. We don’t even see ‘impact documentaries’ anymore. We see them at festivals, but they’re not being sold. The buyers aren’t really interested in impact documentaries anymore. So, it’s particularly meaningful and important that the Miami Film Festival has given me this award at this time in history.”

The presentation of the award, made by Mff executive director James Woolley, came after a screening of Williams’ 2023 feature Stamped From the Beginning – one of the rare...

The first of the 2025 NAACP Image Awards’ winners were presented in a virtual, non-televised ceremony on Tuesday night.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, which scored nine nominations, won two awards on Tuesday — best supporting actress for Taraji P. Henson and best supporting actor for Samuel L. Jackson. Children’s show Gracie’s Corner also won two awards.

Other notable winners announced Tuesday include Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was, which won for outstanding variety (series or special); The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri, who won for outstanding breakthrough creative (TV); The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat director Tina Mabry, who won for best directing in a TV movie or special; How to Die Alone‘s Tiffany Johnson, who won for best directing in a comedy series, with the award coming just two weeks after Hulu canceled the series following its first season; and Keke Palmer, who won for hosting Password.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Sbiff) has announced the winners of their 40th annual film awards. All three short award recipients are now eligible for the 2026 Academy Awards.

“It’s an undeniable pleasure to celebrate such a diverse and wonderful array of winning films,” said Sbiff director of programming Claudia Puig. “We have been so excited to showcase storytelling from 60 countries around the world in our slate of 185 films at Sbiff. The jury winners this year exemplify the best of creative independent filmmaking, covering subjects ranging from immigration, pay equity, environmental dangers, unwanted pregnancy, neuroscience and hempcrete construction.”

The 2025 Sbiff Awards ceremony took place on Feb. 15 at the El Encanto in Santa Barbara. The winning films were chosen by jury members Margaret Lazarus, Max Barbakow, Estrella Araiza, Shawn Patterson, Jeff Christian, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Gregory Nava, Andres Castillo, and Jeff Arch.

See the full list of winners below:

Audience Choice Award: “Out of Plain Sight,...

The Television Academy has announced its recipients for the 17th Television Academy Honors, which recognizes seven television programs and their producers “who have leveraged the extraordinary power of storytelling to propel social change,” according to the Academy.

The honorees are four non-scripted series and three scripted series: 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed, The 1619 Project, A Small Light, Beef, Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court, Heartstopper and Lakota Nation vs. United States.

“This year’s honorees have leveraged the medium’s power to drive meaningful conversation and create social impact,” says Television Academy chair Cris Abrego. “We honor their commitment to authentic, evocative storytelling that tackles important social issues that affect the global audience.”

Scott Freeman, Governor of the Reality Programming Peer Group, chaired this year’s Television Academy Honors selection committee with Bobbi Banks, governor of the Sound Editors Peer Group, serving as vice chair.

Added Banks: “The...

As one Emmys season has ended, with a new one already en route, the Television Academy has taken a moment to announce the recipients of its 17th Television Academy Honors, with a recognition ceremony set for Thursday, May 23 at Citizen News in Hollywood, CA.

The Television Academy Honors are meant to recognize compelling TV programs, and the producers behind them, who have leveraged the power of storytelling to propel social change. The seven honorees, including four unscripted programs and three scripted series, are “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” “The 1619 Project,” “A Small Light,” “Beef,” “Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court,” “Heartstopper,” and “Lakota Nation vs. United States.”

The projects, which all premiered in 2023, have been recognized for addressing complex topics relevant to society today, including social injustice, civil rights, Lgbtqia+ rights and experiences, Indigenous history and reparations, the experience of mixed-race Americans, racism and racial justice, and mental health.

The Television Academy have revealed the recipients of its 17th Television Academy Honors. The recipients include four non-scripted series and three scripted series.

Each year, Television Academy Honors celebrates programs that raise awareness about complex issues facing society.

“This year’s honorees have leveraged the medium’s power to drive meaningful conversation and create social impact,” said Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego. “We honor their commitment to authentic, evocative storytelling that tackles important social issues that affect the global audience.”

The Honors recipients will be celebrated during a recognition ceremony slated for Thursday, May 23 at Citizen News in Hollywood, CA.

Recipients are:

1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed (Get Lifted Film Company; HBO Documentary Films). From four-time Emmy-winner W. Kamau Bell, this documentary explores what it means to grow up mixed-race in America through conversations with multiracial children and their families in the San Francisco Bay Area, including his own. Bell tackles...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including events for The Sympathizer, Fallout and Quiet on Set.

Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver screening

On April 5, Netflix hosted a fan screening in New York to celebrate the upcoming release of Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver with filmmakers Zack and Deborah Snyder and stars Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Michiel Huisman, Ed Skrein, Staz Nair, Fra Fee, Elise Duffy, Stuart Martin and Ray Fisher.

Wesley Coller, Stuart Martin, Ed Skrein, Staz Nair, Deborah Snyder, Eric Newman, Zack Snyder, Ray Fisher, Fra Fee, Djimon Hounsou, Elise Duffy, Sofia Boutella and Michiel Huisman

The Sympathizer premiere

Robert Downey Jr., Sandra Oh and Hoa Xuande walked the carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of their new HBO series on Tuesday.

Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey Sandra Oh, Hoa Xuande...

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (Awmf) has announced the 49th Annual Gracie Awards winners.

This year’s winners include Michelle Obama, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Glennon Doyle, Rachel Brosnahan, Maria Shriver, Gayle King, Angela Yee, and Nicole Kidman, among many others. Some of the shows honored include Yellowjackets and Only Murders in the Building, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and more.

“As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we honor the remarkable women storytellers whose courage and resilience continue to inspire us,” Becky Brooks, President of Awmf, said in a statement. “Their stories, strengths, and influence are actively shaping our present and future. The impact of women is undeniable, and we look forward to celebrating these powerful contributions and achievements at the upcoming Gracie Awards.”

The Gracies celebrate outstanding achievements in media dedicated to women, by women, and about women across diverse platforms in news and entertainment.

The 19th and Wonder Media Network (Wmn) are pleased to announce their new weekly podcast The Amendment. The 19th’s debut audio series will premiere on February 14, 2024. Hosted by award-winning journalist and The 19th’s Editor-at-Large Errin Haines, The Amendment will cut past punditry and give a voice to the new electorate, most specifically the marginalized folks who depend on a functioning democracy.

Each episode will feature a conversation between Haines and a prominent guest to discuss the state of American democracy and power structures through the lens of race and gender; initial episodes feature Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project and writer Tressie McMillan Cottom.

The Amendment will represent a crucial extension of The 19th’s work as it captures untold parts of the American story. “Every day The 19th aims to explore democracy’s unfinished business. We want to center and empower women and LGBTQ+ Americans, especially those...

The Cinema Eye Honors announced the winners for its documentary films and series competition Friday in Manhattan, with “32 Sounds” taking the honor for outstanding nonfiction feature. Maite Alberdi won outstanding direction for “The Eternal Memory” together with Kaouther Ben Hania for “Four Daughters,” while “Paul T. Goldman” won outstanding nonfiction series.

See all the winners below:

—Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

32 Sounds

Directed by Sam Green

Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsmann

—Outstanding Direction

Maite Alberdi

The Eternal Memory

Kaouther Ben Hania

Four Daughters

—Outstanding Editing

Michael Harte

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

—Outstanding Production

Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath, Derl McCrudden and Vasilisa Stepanenko

20 Days in Mariupol

—Outstanding Cinematography

Ants Tammik

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

—Outstanding Original Score

Jd Samson

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Sound Design

Mark Mangini

32 Sounds

—Outstanding Visual Design

Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

—Outstanding Debut

Kokomo...

The 1619 Project, which has been praised for reframing our understanding of American history but attacked by conservatives who brand it as “woke-ism,” won the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series Emmy on Sunday at the Creative Arts ceremony.

Executive producers Oprah Winfrey, Roger Ross Williams, Shoshanna Guy, the New York Times’ Kathleen Lingo and Nikole Hannah-Jones are among those who earned trophies for their work on the six-part Hulu series. Hannah-Jones, who hosts the series, created the original 1619 Project for the Times to mark the 400-year anniversary of the first arrival of African captives on the shores of what would become the United States. The Pulitzer Prize-winning project aimed to place “the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative,” according to the newspaper.

Oprah Winfrey at the Los Angeles premiere of Hulu’s ‘The 1619 Project’

In 2020, then-...

The 2023 Cinema Eye Honors have unveiled the 20 titles for its Audience Choice Prize Long List, with voting now open.

The 17th annual awards ceremony also recognized the best nonfiction and documentary films and series across five Broadcast categories and a Shorts List with 10 of the year’s top documentary short films, as well as the 20 films in the running for the Audience Choice Prize Long List.

This year’s list includes films from Cinema Eye Honors alumni including “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” “Stamped from the Beginning,” “32 Sounds,” “A Compassionate Spy,” “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “The Mission,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”

Hulu series “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead the Broadcast Film and Series nominations with three nods each. The “1619 Project,” adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work with The New...

The Hulu series The 1619 Project and the Showtime feature Nothing Lasts Forever scored a leading three nominations apiece today as the Cinema Eye Honors announced its first round of contenders for the prestigious documentary-focused awards.

The 1619 Project, based on Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of slavery in North America and its impact up until the present day, earned nominations for Best Anthology Series, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Oprah Winfrey, Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams and Hannah-Jones are among the producers of the six-part series.

‘Nothing Lasts Forever’

Nothing Lasts Forever, director Jason Kohn’s glittering examination of the world of diamonds – the real kind and the emergence of undetectable “synthetic” diamonds – earned nominations for Best Broadcast Film, broadcast editing and broadcast cinematography. Scroll for the full list of nominations announced today.

Other films and series that scored multiple nominations include Hulu’s Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields...

Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead all broadcast documentaries in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Thursday during the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles.

Each of the programs received three nominations in the five broadcast categories, with “The 1619 Project” nominated in the Anthology Series, cinematography and editing categories and “Nothing Lasts Forever” singled out in Broadcast film, cinematography and editing categories.

Other programs with multiple nominations include the broadcast movie “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” the nonfiction series “Dear Mama” and “Paul T. Goldman” and the anthology series “Edge of the Unknown With Jimmy Chin” and “Our Planet II.”

Hulu led all networks and platforms with eight nominations, followed by Netflix with five and Showtime with four.

Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to honoring all facets of nonfiction filmmaking, also...

There are a few documentarians who dabble in feature filmmaking: R.J. Cutler (“If I Stay”), Matt Heineman (“A Private War”), even Werner Herzog (there are many). To their ranks we can now add Oscar-winner Roger Ross Williams (“Music By Prudence”), and he’s all in on making it work.

At Telluride, Williams screened his well-reviewed Sundance feature “Cassandro”; saw the world premiere of “Stamped from the Beginning” at the Toronto International Film Festival; and Apple TV+ will air his four-part docuseries “The Super Models” September 20.

It’s an eclectic and vibrant collection of work and none of it was straightforward or easy. “Cassandro” is based on the true story of Luchador Saúl Armendáriz (Gael García Bernal in a career-best performance) who finds his true identity as the cross-dressing El Exotico on the Mexico wrestling circuit. Williams met his subject on the Amazon documentary short “The Man Without a Mask” (2016).

“I knew that story inside out,...

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 reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys

2023 Emmy Predictions:

Outstanding Documentary of Nonfiction (Series) “Harry & Meghan” was directed by Liz Garbus.

Weekly Commentary: A tight race ensues for acclaimed documentaries. Ken Burns’ powerful “The U.S. and the Holocaust” which premiered at Telluride 2022 before hitting television screens, is a favorite in the category.

Read: Variety’s...

Four years ago this week, the New York Times published its momentous series The 1619 Project, a groundbreaking endeavor that sought to reframe our understanding of the foundational role Black people have played to build this country and perfect its democratic ideals. To say it touched a nerve doesn’t begin to describe the project’s profound impact on our culture and politics.

Created by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project triggered a furious debate over critical race theory. In 2020, then-President Trump excoriated the series as “toxic propaganda” and signed an executive order to create a 1776 Commission that would promote “patriotic education.” The State of Florida banned teaching of The 1619 Project in classrooms.

But for all the conservative voices raised in chorus against The 1619 Project, a legion of admirers has sung its praises. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, and earlier this year a six-part documentary...

The people behind the scenes of the documentaries and nonfiction series at this year’s Emmy Awards sat down with Gold Derby and explain several topics including the first documentary that got their attention and, in the event that they win, what would be their ideal music to play as they make their way to the stage. This was all part of Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel on TV Documentaries that included Leah Wolchok (“Judy Blume Forever”), Ryan White, Lucinda Axelsson (“Secrets of the Elephants”), Nikole Hannah-Jones (“The 1619 Project”) and Padma Lakshmi (“Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi”).

You can watch the TV documentary group panel above with the people who made these five programs. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to each exclusive interview.

See over 200 video interviews with 2023 Emmy nominees

Wolchok’s love of documentaries came from seeing two films in...

Nikole Hannah-Jones knew that “The 1619 Project” was bound to get push back from conservative circles, but she didn’t plan on the outcry going all the way up to the President of the United States. “That’s why the project had to exist in the first place, is that we have not wanted to really grapple as a nation with how foundational slavery is to the country that it developed and how that legacy still shaped so much of our society,” she tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). The level of the orchestrated opposition to the project really came into focus for her during the racial justice protests that happened in 2020. “This idea of a 400 year struggle in America really became the lexicon of those protests that year as we saw monuments being torn down and really questioning about our founding myths.

Documentary Or Nonfiction Series

100 Foot Wave (HBO)

100 Foot Wave (HBO)

Chris Smith’s program about big-wave surfers is nominated for the second consecutive year (it won for cinematography last year). Season two features half as many episodes but still earned six noms — twice as many as the category’s next highest finishers.

The 1619 Project (Hulu)

The 1619 Project (Hulu)

Nikole Hannah-Jones and Oprah Winfrey exec produced this adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning New York Times feature about the role of racism in U.S. history. While certainly hitting the zeitgeist, it’s one of only two nominees without a directing or writing nom.

Dear Mama (FX/Hulu)

Dear Mama (FX/Hulu)

Allen Hughes’ series shares never-before-released audio and video of Tupac Shakur and his mom. Having bowed in May, more recently than any other nominee, it has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score but is tied for a category...

When Nikole Hannah-Jones heard that the TV adaptation of The 1619 Project earned three Emmy noms, she was especially pleased about this specific recognition: outstanding cinematography for a nonfiction program. “I was particularly happy Jerry Henry got the nomination for cinematography because he’s just so talented,” she says of the Hulu docuseries that also received nods for best documentary or nonfiction series and for picture editing for a nonfiction program. Right before the nominations came out, “Naimah Jabali-Nash, one of the directors, texted me this shot from Georgia,” Hannah-Jones adds. “[In the picture,] we were out reporting in 99 percent humidity, on a plantation in Georgia. We were drenched in sweat and spending nine hours out there. It was a reminder of everything that we did to bring this to the screen.”

Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the underexplored impact of enslaved Africans on the U.S. economy, society, politics and culture since...

Five documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023 Emmy Awards nominees. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Thursday, August 10, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Charles Bright and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

Judy Blume Forever (Amazon Prime)

Synopsis: Judy Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work. It will examine her impact on pop culture and the occasional controversies over her frankness about puberty and sex.

Bio: Leah Wolchok is an Emmy nominee for “Judy Blume Forever.” Her...

Sony Music Entertainment and Pharrell William’s production company OTHERTone today announced the premiere of Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History, a new podcast series from journalist, cultural critic, and the “Dean of Black Twitter,” Michael Harriot. Each week, Drapetomaniax will uncover the untold stories of Black Americans in history with an unapologetically Black perspective. The first episode of the new series is available now.

Using a recipe that includes detailed research, a little barbershop humor and a parade of celebrity guests, Drapetomaniax will spotlight key figures and moments in Black American history that were previously whitewashed from textbooks. From the story of Rosetta Tharpe, the queer Black woman who invented Rock & Roll, to Forest Joe, an escaped slave for which America’s first police squad was created, Harriot will offer a compelling, hilarious and more accurate version of Black history. The ongoing weekly series will feature guest stars such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid,...

In a critical ruling, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina on Thursday, upsetting a 45-year precedent and putting an end to the systematic consideration of race in college admissions.

Ruling that the programs at both schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the court voted 6-3 in the Unc case and 6-2 in the Harvard case, in which Justice Ketanji Brown was recused.

The decision could have serious implications on the college admissions process, with the NAACP calling it a “willful ignorance of our reality.” The effects of the ruling could stretch as far as race-conscious workplace programs.

Weighing in on “The View” Thursday morning, Whoopi Goldberg denounced the Supreme Court decision.

“The 14th Amendment is supposed to promise equal protection,” Goldberg said. “But if everyone was actually treated equally, we wouldn’t have had to put in affirmative action.

100 Foot Wave (HBO/Max) 100 Foot Wave

Chris Smith’s show about big-wave surfing is back in contention for its second season, just a year after its first was nominated in this category and won for cinematography. Surfer extraordinaire Garrett McNamara returns with other surfers and their stories, too.

Dear Mama (FX/Hulu) Dear Mama

Allen Hughes, a nominee in this category in 2018 for The Defiant Ones, profiles Tupac Shakur and his activist mom. (jeen-yuhs, which explored Kanye West’s relationship with his mom, was nominated for this award last year.) It attracted the most viewers ever for an FX unscripted show.

Prehistoric Planet (Apple TV+) Prehistoric Planet

Season one of this David Attenborough-narrated study of dinosaurs was snubbed (its VFX is cutting-edge, but some doc purists object to re-creations). However, voters have a track record of embracing nature/animal-related docs in this category.

The 1619 Project (Hulu...

Documentarian Emily Wachtel met Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward when she was two years old. They were neighbors in Westport. Conn, the dearest of family friends. “I knew them my whole life,” says Wachtel. “They are the reason I am in film.”

Wachtel, producer of CNN Films for Max’s six-part docuseries “The Last Movie Stars,” which paints a sweeping, intimate, romantic portrait of the life, love and careers of Newman and Woodward, describes her childhood with the famed couple as if something out of a suburban New England dream.

“They were incredible people,” says Wachtel. “I was so young when I met them, and I didn’t understand what a movie star was at the time. But part of that is because they were so real. They’d pick you up to go to birthday parties, Joanne made sweaters. They had this big, beautiful barn on the property and...

President Franklin Roosevelt, in a moment of fury and exasperation a year before America entered the Second World War, confided in Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. “If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this,” Fdr said. “I am absolutely convinced Charles Lindbergh is a Nazi.” That is one of many shattering moments in “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” an enthralling, seven-hour PBS docuseries directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein.

Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick and Ken Burns

This is an incredibly knotty, intricate and frustrating part of history, and as directors, you seem to really lean into the maddening quality of it. Is that accurate?

Ken Burns It is very frustrating to watch because you can understand how, retrospectively, the simplistic among us might say, “The Holocaust happened and there must be an American responsible.” So a lot of the blame goes to Fdr when,...

This story about Mo Amer, Jessica Williams, Helen Mirren, Aminah Nieves, Brandon Sklenar, Delroy Lindo and Mayan Lopez originally appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

First-year series play a vital role at the Emmys, which can start to feel like a parade of “been there, done that” as the same shows take home awards year after year. Five new shows broke into the Outstanding Drama and Comedy Series categories last year, and here are some of our favorites from the many hoping to accomplish the same feat in 2023.

Mohammed Amer, “Mo” Mohammed “Mo” Amer (Jeff Vespa for TheWrap)

Hollywood might not have seemed predestined for Mo Amer, a Palestinian American standup who, after fleeing Kuwait (where he was born), settled in Houston, Texas. He’s a natural storyteller, and his semi-autobiographical Netflix series “Mo” proves that he’s exactly where he’s meant to be.

This story about Nikole Hannah-Jones and “The 1619 Project” first appeared in The Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

In 2019, The New York Times debuted “The 1619 Project,” a series of articles that, on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in colonial America, grappled with the consequences of slavery in the history of the U.S. The project was developed by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her efforts. Now she has executive-produced a Hulu documentary of the same name, with six episodes that focus on a separate aspect of what it means to be Black in America: “Democracy,” “Race,” “Fear,” “Justice,” “Music” and “Capitalism.”

Can you talk about the process of adapting this enormous project for television?

It was a completely nerve-racking process because while the original project was ambitious, I know print. I’ve spent my entire career in print.

Former ABC News/Disney exec Marie Nelson has been named president of Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Starting June 1, Nelson will oversee North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market, as well as the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto. “For me, having the chance to link arms with Hot Docs was an unequivocal swipe right. From my first trip to Toronto for the festival and its legendary pitch forum, it was love at first sight,” Nelson said in a statement on Monday.

Nelson has completed many executive stints at American networks, including Wgbh in Boston, National Public Radio and Viacom/BET Networks.

“Marie is a dynamic leader with a proven track record of supporting filmmakers, growing and diversifying audiences and lifting powerful and yet often unheard voices into national discussion, which makes her ideally suited to lead Hot Docs into its next chapter,” Lalita Krishna, co-chair...

The 1619 Project, according to one description, “illuminates the legacy of slavery in the contemporary United States, and highlights the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society.” Nothing controversial there, right? Wrong.

The initiative, which originated with a New York Times Magazine issue and has now been adapted into a Hulu documentary series, has triggered passionate reactions from the start.

“This project has come out in a time where we have deep, deep societal polarization,” series host and executive producer Nikole Hannah-Jones noted during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for the print series. The furor notwithstanding, she maintained, “This is not actually a radical project. It’s based on decades of scholarship and within the history profession the ideas that we put forth are actually not that controversial. … Many Americans have been open to its arguments.”

Across six episodes,...

Fair warning to certain right-wing politicians. Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted virtual event, which kicks off its 2023 edition Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. Pt, will feature the appearance of … (dramatic pause) … drag queens. Miss Isabelle Brooks and Luxx Noir London are among the RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants joining us to talk about Season 15 of the MTV unscripted series. Not only that, but Grammy-winning recording artist Lizzo – an ally of the LGBTQ+ community who boldly invited several RuPaul’s Drag Race all-stars onto the stage at her recent Nashville concert — is also coming by to spill the tea on her HBO Max film Love, Lizzo, which documents her Cuz I Love You world tour.

Click here to sign up for and launch today’s livestream.

In a time of book banning, furor over how history is taught, and pearl-clutching over queens, count on Deadline as your uncensored guide to...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including red carpets for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Dead Ringers and a Queen Charlotte celebration.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie special screening

Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Seth Rogen and Sebastian Maniscalco attended a special screening in Los Angeles on Saturday for their Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Michael Jelenic, Aaron Horvath, Sebastian Maniscalco, Nintendo’s Takumi Kawagoe, Christ Pratt, Brian Tyler, Charlie Day, Nintendo’s Koji Kondo, Illumination CEO Chris Melendandri, Kevin Michael Richardson (Bottom second L-r) Seth Rogen, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Jack Black Chris Pratt and Charlie Day Anya Taylor-Joy

Dead Ringers premiere

On Monday, Prime Video hosted the world premiere of psychological thriller series Dead Ringers in NYC, with star and EP Rachel Weisz along cast members Britne Oldford, Poppy Liu,...

Nearly eight years after #OscarsSoWhite sparked discontent when the awards ceremony nominated no people of color in its 2015 acting categories, the hashtag creator April Reign reflected on her “organic” decision to speak up, saying it was not initially an “intentional” effort to kickstart a global movement.

“I’m listening to the nominations and it just struck me that the nominations, person after person, category after category, there were no people of color nominated,” Reign told CBS Reports in an exclusive clip of the upcoming Black Twitter documentary shared with TheWrap. “So I picked up my cell phone … and I said “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.'”

“For this particular hashtag, I thought there was a larger conversation that could be had about the lack of equity and inclusion, not just with respect to the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, but throughout the entertainment industry,” Reign continued.

There seems to be no let-up for the Daniels’ rollicking sci-fi drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning awards, as the A24 hit claimed many of the top film prizes at Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics 14th Annual Dorian Awards. In addition to the film winning Film of the Year, its Oscar-nominated stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu received acting citations as well, with the latter winning the Rising Star Award.

The Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) won both the writing and directing prizes, and some familiar Oscar nominees took home prizes as well, including Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” winning the documentary prizes, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” won the animation prize over the seasonally-favored “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” and in the funnest overall category, Ti West’s “Pearl” won the honor of Campiest Flick of the Year.

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“Justice,” the final episode in Hulu’s “The 1619 Project” docuseries, argues that the federal government owes 14 trillion to the descendants of enslaved Black people.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the series, calculates the federal government owes the 4 million Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved 350,000. She argues these reparations — made in the form of land and money — are a way to address the unequal wealth distribution, redlining and other institutional practices that harmed Blacks for decades. And she has the statistics to back it up.

“When I constructed the essay, it was a benefit having every possible objection to reparations and every possible excuse as to why we can’t do it or we shouldn’t do it. For me, the answers are in the data,” Hannah-Jones explained. “I already know the objections that are formulating in your mind so I’m going to set them all up and I...

As Black History Month runs throughout February, television will celebrate Black voices, icons and stories across entertainment, politics, sports and more.

Throughout February, audiences will be able to keep up with Hulu’s year-long initiative in spotlighting Black stories and storytellers on the platform’s “Black Stories Always” hub. In addition to new series and season premieres, from “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” to “The 1619 Project,” the platform will continue to stream new episodes of “Abbott Elementary” and “Grown-ish,” and feature classic titles from Black storytellers including “Living Single” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

BET will honor Black History Month with a programming schedule that features new unscripted series, including “Black Icons — Past, Present, Future” and “America In Black” as well as the 54th NAACP Image Awards telecast on Feb. 25.

Read a full list of programming to look out for this Black History Month below. (More titles will be added throughout the month.

On January 26, 2023, Hulu began streaming “The 1619 Project,” a six-part docuseries that expands upon Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones‘ piece in The New York Times Magazine. The series seeks to reframe our country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Critics have heaped praise on the series, resulting in a 100 freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The series, hosted by Hannah-Jones, is a Lionsgate Production in association with One Story Up Productions, Harpo Films and The New York Times. It was executive produced by Hannah-Jones, Roger Ross Williams, Caitlin Roper, Kathleen Lingo and Oprah Winfrey. The episodes focus on “Democracy,” “Race,” “Music,” “Capitalism,” “Fear,” and “Justice.” Read our review roundup below.

See ‘The 1619 Project’: Red carpet interviews from Hulu premiere include Boris Kodjoe, Jalen Rose and more … [Watch]

Dan Fienberg of the Hollywood Reporter says,...

In Episode Three of Hulu’s The 1619 Project, narrator and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones argues that Black Americans have, and still do, create and transform America’s musical landscape. In between a narrative arc examining the history of Black participation in music, the docuseries also speaks to several musical legends about their most famous works and processes. The 1619 Project shared several first look photos and two exclusive clips from its music episode with Rolling Stone — which you can watch below.

Based on the 2019 essay collection published in The New York Times Magazine,...

“The 1619 Project” creator Nikole Hannah-Jones needed just one word to describe what it was like to pose on the red-white-and-blue carpet with Oprah Winfrey.

“Insane!” Hannah-Jones told Variety as she made her way down the line of reporters outside the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Thursday night. “This was a lot, but it feels amazing.”

The journalist — a “print reporter” she likes to note, meaning she’s not quite used to the “lights, camera, action” style that TV news requires — cut a striking figure on the carpet, wearing an emerald green velvet gown which set off her signature red hair, plus her signature diamond necklace with “Nikole” written in cursive and custom gold “1619” hoop earrings.

Photographers called for her to look this way, that way, and “over the shoulder” as she posed with her collaborators, executive producer and director Roger Ross Williams and showrunner Shoshana Guy.

Gold Derby’s associate editor Latasha Ford interviewed actor Boris Kodjoe, executive producer and director Roger Ross Williams, sports analyst and former NBA star Jalen Rose, social justice advocate Angela Rye, casting director and producer Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, musician Herbie Hancock and showrunner Shoshana Guy on the red carpet at the premiere of “The 1619 Project.” The event took place at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on January 26, 2023. Watch the video above.

Hulu’s six-part 1619 Docuseries is an expansion of “The 1619 Project” created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine. The series seeks to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

See over 200 interviews with 2023 awards contenders

The episodes –“Democracy,” “Race,” “Music,” “Capitalism,” “Fear,” and “Justice” — are adapted from essays from The...

Four years ago this month, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist behind The 1619 Project, first pitched the idea for the long-form journalism initiative to her editor at The New York Times Magazine. Since then, the original essay project has been adapted into a podcast, a book and now a six-part docuseries on Hulu in partnership with Disney, ABC and Onyx Collective.

“It’s been so amazing because usually you publish something and then you’re done with it, you don’t ever get a chance to refine it, to expand it,” Hannah-Jones told The Hollywood Reporter at the series’ Los Angeles premiere on Thursday night. “Every iteration of the project, I learned something more, about the history and about myself.”

Kathleen Lingo, an executive producer on the show and editorial director of film and television for The New York Times, said that she immediately knew the project was primed for the screen.

“Shrinking” is the bastard love child of “Ted Lasso” and “Scrubs.” The funny, self-aware, wonderfully cast workplace comedy centers on a small Pasadena psychological practice. From there, it moves out in spokes into the family lives, mental obsessions and dysfunction of its three main shrinks: Jason Segel, Jessica Williams and, yes, Harrison Ford.

Laughter, life lessons, hugs, jabs and serial ridiculous situations cram this ten-part comedy. “Shrinking” begins with an absurd meet-awkward between audience and therapist. We encounter central mensch-meshuggah Jimmy (Jason Segel at his most neurotic teddy bearish) in his own backyard.

The mind-doctor has reached rock bottom. He’s snorting a mix of psychiatric drugs while hanging by his backyard pool at 3 a.m., blaring music with two young sex workers mermaid-ing in the chlorinated water nearby. He’s momentarily blissed, high – and a really crappy clueless neighbor in his pricy South Pasadena neighborhood.

The sad truth is...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including red carpets for Shrinking, The 1619 Project and Freeridge.

Fear premiere

The cast and crew of the psychological horror film walked the red carpet in Los Angeles on Saturday.

T.I, Tyler Abron, Ruby Modine, Jessica Allain, Bonnie Morgan, Joseph Sikora, Annie iionzeh and Andrew Bachelor

Television Academy Foundation’s “The Power of TV: Reshaping Breast Cancer Narratives” event

Departing Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff, Superman & Lois co-executive producer and writer Kristi Korzec, Dickinson creator Alena Smith and breast surgical oncologist Carlie Thompson took part in a conversation on Wednesday about young women being most affected by early onset breast cancer, the inequities in access to risk information and health care, and how television programs can inspire young women to take action for their health.

Kristi Korzec, Krista Vernoff, Alena Smith and Dr.

Nikole Hannah-Jones has given hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of interviews since she first published “The 1619 Project” in The New York Times Magazine in 2019. But when speaking to Variety ahead of the launch of the project’s six-part Hulu docuseries adaptation, the journalist says she’s feeling anxious. “This is a time of great anticipation and nerves,” Hannah-Jones says. “We really put our heart into this documentary, but it’s a different medium for me, and I felt a bit out of my element.”

She continues: “I know how to write a great magazine piece. I had to really depend on my collaborators — who were wonderful — to try to produce a great documentary, so we will see what the people say.”

So much of the production of “The 1619 Project” was new for the journalist — and cultural lightning rod — turned executive producer. One of the biggest hurdles was learning to conduct her interviews on camera.

The cinematic adaptation of The 1619 Project, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times essay series that accelerated the vociferous debate over Critical Race Theory, makes its debut on Hulu tonight. If history is a guide – and that’s what the whole series is about – the documentary series will prove as polarizing as the original version.

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Nikole Hannah-Jones, the architect of the Times’ project, serves as the guiding presence in the series, which aims at nothing less than reframing “the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative,...

In the daring new Hulu original, The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones asks viewers to revisit and question the history that they were fed in school curricula. The series posits that nation wasn’t founded in 1776; rather, it began with the 20-plus enslaved people that landed on Virginia soil in 1619.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning, long-form journalism piece by Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project docuseries reexamines American history by making the implications of slavery and forced labor by Black Americans its focal point.

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With Florida governor and expected Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis making headlines for rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies, Hulu’s six-part docuseries “The 1619 Project” couldn’t be better timed. What started as an initiative from The New York Times reassessing slavery’s lingering impact on our nation even in the 21st century sparked a conservative backlash, making top journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones both a star and a target in the process. In some ways, that backlash has only fueled “The 1619 Project’s” momentum, which already includes a bestselling book and now this Oprah Winfrey-produced docuseries on Hulu.

Taking a departure from the initial project, which leans more heavily on the past (which has been a contentious point even with some historians), this docuseries, steered by Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams (“Music By Prudence”), producer Shoshanna Guy, and Hannah-Jones (a MacArthur genius who is also...