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Exclusive: Aaron Pierre is set to co-star alongside Margaret Qualley in Love of Your Life for Amazon MGM Studios. Patrick Schwarzenegger is also on board, with Rachel Morrison directing. Julia Cox wrote the script, and Ryan Gosling and Jessie Henderson are producing through their Open Invite Entertainment banner.

Plot details are under wraps. Deadline was first to report the major script sale in October after an intense bidding war, which Gosling and Henderson won for Amazon MGM.

Pierre is coming off a monster year in which he not only had roles in hit films but also landed one of the more sought after roles of 2024 for Netflix’s Rebel Ridge. He scored wins for the thriller at both the Gotham TV Awards and the NAACP Image Awards.

He followed that up by voicing Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, which grossed more than $700 million at the worldwide box office.

After his scene-stealing role in the third season of The White Lotus, Patrick Schwarzenegger has his eyes on his follow-up project as sources tell Deadline he is set to star opposite Margaret Qualley in Love Of Your Life for Amazon MGM Studios. Rachel Morrison is directing. Julia Cox wrote the script with Ryan Gosling and Jessie Henderson are producing through their Open Invite Entertainment banner.

Plot details are under wraps. Deadline was first to report the major script sale in October after an intense bidding war, which Gosling and Henderson won for Amazon MGM Studios.

Schwarzenegger most recently starred as Saxon, the eldest Ratliff sibling, in the third season of Mike White’s critically acclaimed series The White Lotus on HBO. The role earned him some of the best reviews of his career and is sure to have him in the mix this award season as Emmy voting is about to come to a close.

Patrick Schwarzenegger, who caught Hollywood’s attention thanks for his breakout work on White Lotus, has nabbed his first major role since the third season of the buzzy Mike White aired in April.

The actor, who is the son of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, will star opposite Margaret Qualley in Love of Your Life, a romantic drama from Amazon MGM Studios.

The project has heat not only because it being directed by Black Panther cinematographer-turned-helmer Rachel Morrison but is being produced by Ryan Gosling and partner Jessie Henderson. The duo are producing via Open Invite Entertainment, formerly known as General Admission.

The script, written by Julia Cox (Nyad), is a weeper that follows a young woman, to be played by Qualley, who loses her husband and goes on a journey to find a way forward in her life.

Schwarzenegger will play an old friend and ex.

Sources say the...

Actress Margaret Qualley (“Poor Things”) has been hotter than a pistol after breakout roles in films like “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, “The Nice Guys,” and more recently with Coralie Fargeat‘s acclaimed genre-hybrid “The Substance.” She’s now landed a starring role in the mysterious Rachel Morrison-helmed film “Love of Your Life,” which has a script written by Julia Cox, as reported by Deadline.

Continue reading ‘Love Of Your Life’: Margaret Qualley Teaming With Director Rachel Morrison For New Pic At Amazon MGM Studios at The Playlist.

Gold Derby's top news stories for May 6, 2025.

DGA Awards sets 2026 date

The Directors Guild of America Awards has set the date for its 78th annual show. The DGA Awards will take place Feb. 6, 2026 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Beth McCarthy-Miller will return as Chair of the Awards for the fifth consecutive year. “DGA Awards is a unique opportunity to celebrate excellence in our craft, and I could not be more honored to serve another year as Chair of this important event,” McCarthy-Miller said in a statement. “I thank DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter for appointing me to this role, and I look forward to celebrating with all of the incredible 2025 nominees and honorees!”

Practical Magic 2 sets release date

Practical Magic 2, the long-awaited sequel to Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's fan-favorite 1998 romantic fantasy, will be in theaters on Sept. 18, 2026, Warner Bros. announced. The sequel will reportedly be based...

Exclusive: Margaret Qualley is set to star in the Amazon MGM Studios pic, Love of Your Life, with Rachel Morrison directing. Julia Cox wrote the script with Ryan Gosling and Jessie Henderson are producing.

Plot details are under wraps. Deadline was first to report the major script sale in October after an intense bidding war, which Gosling and Henderson won for Amazon MGM Studios. At the time, the auction was one of the bigger ones of the year given that no talent was involved outside of the producers, so once Amazon MGM Studios came on board, the lead role was seen as one of the more highly-coveted role in town for any A-list leading lady. While sources say several individuals were in the hunt for the part, Qualley seemed like the top-choice from the start especially after meeting with Morrison for the role earlier this year.

Qualley is coming off...

Exclusive: Rachel Morrison has come aboard to direct Love of Your Life for Amazon MGM Studios. Julia Cox wrote the script, and Ryan Gosling and Jessie Henderson are producing.

Plot details are under wraps. Deadline was first to report the major script sale in October after an intense bidding war, which Gosling and Henderson won for Amazon MGM Studios. Numerous bids were proffered when CAA dropped the spec on the town, and one of the most intriguing came from Taylor Sheridan and Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, who were ready to pay $2 million together with a greenlight and a theatrical release, and a blind script deal. David Ellison’s Skydance got in the game with them, assuming the bid so they could keep their money in their pockets. That film would have gone through Paramount.

No specifics yet on how Amazon MGM sees how Love of Your Life will be released,...

The Black List and Deadline celebrated the 20th installment of the Black List annual compilation of the “most liked” unproduced screenplays in Hollywood on Tuesday evening, December 10.

Guests and writers representing 83 screenplays by 91 writers gathered at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel for a celebration sponsored by Johnnie Walker. The selection of these screenplays was made by a record 500 film executives, the largest number of voters in Black List survey history.

Travis Braun, a two-time top-ranked screenwriter on the Black List, was joined by Julia Cox and Franklin Leonard on the panel moderated by Deadline Executive Editor Dominic Patten. His latest script, “One Night Only,” follows two strangers scrambling to find someone to sleep with on the one night of the year when premarital sex is legal.

Related: Deadline x The 2024 Black List 20th Celebration Photo Gallery

“Twenty years can feel like a long time or a blink of an eye depending on the moment,...

Rounding up the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, as voted on by hundreds of film executives, The Black List has been a strong resource to clue one in on projects to potentially anticipate, but first, to kickstart Hollywood on bringing them to screen. Today we have this year’s edition, as voted on by more than 500 film executives.

Topping this year’s list is Travis Braun’s One Night Only, which follows “two strangers [who] scramble to find someone to sleep with on the one night of the year when premarital sex is legal.” Additional selections include films about AI, TaskRabbit, Tickle Me Elmo, breast implants, Anthony Bourdain, the making of The Wizard of Oz, Audrey Hepburn, and more.

See the list below via Deadline or in Pdf form here.

60 mentions

One Night Only by Travis Braun

Two strangers scramble to find someone to sleep with on the one night of...

CAA and Untitled Entertainment had the most scripts in the 20th edition of The Black List, the annual compilation of Hollywood’s best-liked unproduced screenplays.

CAA scored 15 executive mentions, leading on the agency side for the fourth year in a row, with Untitled landing nine. Leading the pack with by far the most mentions, at 60, is Travis Braun’s One Night Only, about two strangers who scramble to find someone to sleep with on the one night of the year when premarital sex is legal. UTA and Echo Lake rep the scribe, who also topped the 2023 list with Bad Boy. Will Gluck’s Olive Bridge is on board to produce.

Untitled’s highest ranked script, at 38 mentions, is Natan Dotan’s Alignment, the hot AI-themed piece that Fifth Season recently secured in a seven-figure deal, with Makeready coming aboard to produce, as we were first to report. Securing 37 mentions, CAA...

The 20th installment of the Black List, the annual compilation of the “most liked” unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, arrived on Tuesday featuring 83 screenplays by 91 writers.

The Black List, first published in 2005, celebrates the best screenplays that have yet to be produced. It was selected by more than 500 film executives, a record number of voters for a Black List survey.

The list-topping script, “One Night Only,” follows “two strangers scrambling to find someone to sleep with on the one night of the year when premarital sex is legal.” Its author, Travis Braun, also wrote, “Bad Boy,” the #1 script on the 2023 Black List.

As always, the subjects of the selected scripts range widely: Artificial Intelliegence, Retreat-like settings and social gatherings turned hostile, relationship dynamics tested by external forces, creatures not of this world, panic-stricken physical and economic survival situations, and dangerous climbs to power. There’s highly competitive pool sharks, celebrity werewolves,...

The 2024 Black List has been announced with scripts tackling everything from Tickle Me Elmo to Wicked Witch actress Maggie Hamilton’s experience filming The Wizard of Oz.

The annual list of the town’s best-unproduced feature screenplays voted on by a group of 500 film executives features 83 scripts from writers, known and unknown, repped and unrepped.

Topping this year’s list is One Night Only by Travis Braun, which takes place in a world where premarital sex is illegal save for one night and follows two strangers as they attempt to find someone to spend that night with. Other scripts tackle the 1990s lawsuit that brought to light the health dangers of silicone breast implants (Bust by Matt Ackels), the early life of Anthony Bourdain (Tony by Lou Howe and Todd Bartels, already set up at A24), and the rise and fall of Abercrombie & Fitch (King of the Freshman by Matt Bailey...

The Black List has unveiled its annual well, list, of the top unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, just in time for its 20th anniversary.

The yearly compilation of the “most liked” unproduced screenplays include 83 scripts by 91 writers. The list was selected by more than 500 film executives, a record number of voters ever for a Black List survey.

“Twenty years can feel like a long time or a blink of an eye depending on the moment,” Black List founder Franklin Leonard said in a statement. “Throughout that time, this is always the best part: Finding and sharing great stories well told with the rest of the community of folks who care about them. I look forward to these scripts finding the success and audience that previous annual Black List scripts have found and to watching these movies in theaters as soon as they’re available.”

Since 2005, the annual Black List has recognized...

An unknown writer, a fast-rising feeding frenzy, and a true multimillion-dollar deal. It’s enough to make executives or aspiring screenplay authors dream of the heady spec script deals of the 1990s.

In a deal that shakes up a sleepy Hollywood before the holidays, Fifth Season and Brad Weston’s Makeready banner have preemptively picked up Alignment, a spec script by Natan Dotan, a man who until a week ago had no representation.

The deal could become one of biggest spec deals of the year — Nyad writer Julia Cox sold spec Love of Your Life, with Ryan Gosling producing, to Amazon in October for low seven figures — but this one involves the breaking of a writer with few Hollywood connections. It also involves a topic that is generating intense interest — and hand-wringing — in Hollywood, namely artificial intelligence.

Dotan has had several careers prior to this splashy entry into Hollywood.

He...

Exclusive: Amazon MGM Studios just won a battle for Love of Your Life, a spec by Nyad scribe Julia Cox, Deadline hears. Love of Your Life has been the talk of town this Halloween, and sources said the result is one of the biggest spec script deals in recent memory, landing in the $2 million range. Ryan Gosling is attached to produce with new producing partner Jessie Henderson at General Admission.

Numerous bids were proffered when CAA dropped the spec on the town, and one of the most intriguing bids came from Taylor Sheridan and Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, who were ready to pay $2 million with a greenlight and a theatrical release. David Ellison’s Skydance got in the game with them, assuming the bid so they could keep their money in their pockets. That film would have gone through Paramount. No specifics yet on how Amazon MGM sees how...

The 2024 Writers Guild Awards (76th Annual) were held on Sunday, April 14, 2024 at concurrent ceremonies at New York’s Edison Ballroom and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium. Gold Derby associate editor Latasha Ford was on the red carpet to catch up with nominees and guests in Hollywood.

See WGA Awards winners: ‘American Fiction,’ ‘The Holdovers’ …

Watch each short video below from the 2024 Writers Guild Awards by clicking that person’s name:

Erika Alexander

Alex Convery

Julia Cox

Kelly Fremon Craig

Charmaine DeGraté

Walter Hill (Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement)

Brit Marling

Jim Mickle and Linda Moran

Predict the 2024 Emmy Award nominations through July 17

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next?...

The 2024 Writers Guild Awards (76th Annual) were held on Sunday, April 14, 2024 at concurrent ceremonies at New York’s Edison Ballroom and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium. Gold Derby associate editor Latasha Ford was on the red carpet to catch up with nominees and guests in Hollywood.

See WGA Awards winners: ‘American Fiction,’ ‘The Holdovers’ …

Watch each short video below from the 2024 NAACP Image Awards by clicking that person’s name:

Erika Alexander

Alex Convery

Julia Cox

Kelly Fremon Craig

Charmaine DeGraté

Walter Hill (Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement)

Brit Marling

Jim Mickle and Linda Moran

Predict the 2024 Emmy Award nominations through July 17

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next?...

Five full weeks after the Oscars, the Writers Guild of America finally got around to giving out its awards. Oscar winner Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”) won the original screenplay prize while David Hemingson (“The Holdovers”) picked up the adapted screenplay trophy; he had lost at the Oscars to “Anatomy of a Fall,” which was ineligible here.

Three other scripts deemed ineligible by the WGA went on to win Oscars in the past decade: “Birdman” (2015; original), “The Father” (2021; adapted), and “Belfast” (2022; original). During that time, 68 of the WGA Awards nominees numbered among the 100 screenplays that reaped Oscar bids.

Two other Oscar contenders — “Poor Things,” and “The Zone of Interest” — were ruled out of the running by the guild before nominations were announced way back on Feb. 21. The WGA included “Barbie” in the original lineup while the academy had it over in adapted. That was the third time in a decade that...

David Hemingson’s The Holdovers at Focus Features won original screenplay and Cord Jefferson’s Oscar-winning American Fiction from Amazon MGM Studios took adapted honours at the strike-delayed Writers Guild Awards on Sunday.

This was a second major adapted screenplay award in relatively short order for Jefferson after last month’s Oscar win.

The Holdovers prevailed in an original screenplay category that included Barbie and May December, but not the Oscar winner Anatomy Of A Fall, rendered ineligible here because it was not produced under a Writers Guild of America (WGA) contract.

The best documentary screenplay award went to Errol Morris for The Pigeon Tunnel.

David Hemingson’s The Holdovers at Focus Features won original screenplay and Cord Jefferson’s Oscar-winning American Fiction from Amazon MGM Studios took adapted honours at the strike-delayed Writers Guild Awards on Sunday.

This was a second major adapted screenplay award in relatively short order for Jefferson after last month’s Oscar win.

The Holdovers prevailed in an original screenplay category that included Barbie and May December, but not the Oscar winner Anatomy Of A Fall, rendered ineligible here because it was not produced under a Writers Guild of America (WGA) contract.

The best documentary screenplay award went to Errol Morris for The Pigeon Tunnel.

Writer/director Cord Jefferson on the set of ‘American Fiction’ (Photo credit: Claire Folger © 2023 Orion Releasing LLC)

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) stretched out the awards season, handing out their annual awards during ceremonies held in Los Angeles and New York on April 14, 2024. Niecy Nash-Betts (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) had the honor of hosting the Writers Guild of America West’s ceremony while Josh Gondelman (Desus & Mero) handled hosting duties for the Writers Guild of America East.

The final season of Succession was recognized with Drama Series and Episodic Drama awards, and the first season of The Last of Us snagged the New Series trophy. The Bear and Beef continued their winning streaks, scoring Comedy Series and Limited Series wins.

David Hemingson’s The Holdovers and Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction were recognized as the best original and adapted screenplays of 2023. And Errol Morris’ The Pigeon Tunnel took...

With the 2024 Oscars and the 2023 Emmys firmly in the rearview mirror, the film and TV awards calendar is all but ready to return to normalcy after last years Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes disrupted the first half of award season. The last major event to be impacted by the altered schedule is today’s WGA Awards, which took place in an unusual post-Oscars slot after the strikes forced the guild to delay its voting process. As most of Hollywood looks ahead to the 2024 film and TV slate, today’s concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium and New York City’s Edison Ballroom gave award watchers one last chance to celebrate the best screenwriting of 2023.

David Hemingson’s “The Holdovers” won the night’s marquee award for Original Screenplay, beating out heavyweights including Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s “Barbie” and Celine Song’s “Past Lives.” In the Adapted Screenplay category,...

‘Succession’ has gone out with one final bang: The HBO drama won two Writers Guild of America Awards on Sunday night — the most of any series — for best drama series and also for best drama episode. Creator Jesse Armstrong was on hand in New York to accept the award, while several of the show’s writers were also in LA to accept the honor.

This reps the final major awards show where “Succession” (which ended its run last May) was still eligible. Besides best drama, the show also won the episodic drama prize, for the episode “Living+,” written by Georgia Pritchett and Will Arbery.

The WGA Awards recognized the best of 2023’s television and film via its annual event held this year at the Hollywood Palladium for the West Coast edition and at New York’s Edison Ballroom for the East Coast ceremony.

Big winners on the film side included “American Fiction” writer Cord Jefferson,...

The 13th annual Sun Valley Film Festival, kicking off Feb. 28, will aim to once again to capture the spirit of storytelling by celebrating poignant films at the Idaho ski resort town.

This year’s festival kicks off with “Ezra,” directed by Tony Goldwyn and starring Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne and Robert De Niro, and concludes March 3 with a screening of “Sugarcane,” a documentary about missing children at a Native residential school that recently won a directing trophy for Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat at Sundance.

The programming team also chose multiple films from first-time feature filmmakers, including Sophia Sabello and Pablo Feldman’s “Edge of Everything,” Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet,” Marc Marriott’s “Tokyo Cowboy,” Caroline Lindy’s “Your Monster,” while the documentary line-up includes Maggie Contreras’ “Maestra” and Lisa D’Apolito’s “Shari & Lamb Chop.”

Panels and starry tributes are planned at the fest, with movies screening at...

This is the latest round in this year’s 35 boxes theory: the WGA nominations. This theory tracks a film’s support across the industry throughout awards season. The test is made up of 35 boxes, each one presenting a key nomination or win that a potential Best Picture champion typically needs to get in order to win the Oscars’ big prize. All of the big awards organizations are involved here, including the Golden Globes, the SAGs, DGAs, PGAs, the BAFTAs, the Critics Choice Awards, and more.

The idea is, the more boxes a film ticks off, the greater the movie’s support across the industry, the higher the chance that flick has of winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. For example, in 2019, “Green Book” won 23 of these 35 boxes before winning Best Picture at the Oscars. Conversely, “Roma” filled in only 19 boxes while both “BlacKkKlansman” and “The Favourite” were at 20. Each...

As was the case last year, only six of the current 10 Oscar nominees for screenplay achieved similar recognition from the Writers Guild of America. Three of the four films that were excluded from the WGA rosters revealed on February 21 – “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Poor Things,” and “The Zone of Interest” – had been deemed ineligible in January, while “Maestro” simply failed to garner enough support from the guild.

Although it’s competing for the adapted screenplay Oscar, “Barbie” is included in the WGA’s original lineup. This marks the third such instance in 10 years, following the cases of “Whiplash” (2015) and “Moonlight” (2017), the latter of which won the favor of both organizations. The remaining original WGA contenders are “Air” and Oscar hopefuls “The Holdovers,” “May December,” and “Past Lives.”

The films presently running first and second in Gold Derby’s adapted Oscar race – “Oppenheimer” and “American Fiction” – will also face off at the WGA Awards,...

The strike-delayed nominations for the 2024 Writers Guild Awards are out. Check out the list below.

In a flipping of the script this season, the WGA Awards will be held on April 14 – more than a month after the Academy Awards.

As always, the Writers Guild of America has different eligibility requirements than the Movie Academy, so some awards-season favorite scripts are missing from today’s nominations.

Related: Oscar Nominations: Diversified Voting Throws The Love Around As ‘Oppenheimer’ Tops With 13, With ‘Poor Things’, ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ And ‘Barbie’ Close Behind – Full List

The guild and the Oscars mostly are on the same page for Original Screenplay, with both nominating The Holdovers, May December and Past Lives. The WGA also cited Air, while the Academy went with Anatomy of a Fall and Maestro. But the Writers Guild also has Barbie on its Original List, whereas the script for 2023’s No. 1 movie...

The nominees for the 2024 Writers Guild of America Awards are finally here.

The Writers Guild of America West (Wgaw) and Writers Guild of America East (Wgae) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in screenwriting, television, new media, news, radio/audio, and promotional writing for 2023.

Oscar-nominated screenplays for “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “May December,” “Past Lives,” “American Fiction,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Oppenheimer” were expected WGA nominations. However, surprise nods for “Air,” “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” and “Nyad” prove the WGA Awards still have a few tricks up their sleeve. If you’re wondering, “Poor Things” was not eligible because it wasn’t produced under a WGA contract, per a source close to the project.

Despite now taking place one month after the Academy Awards, the WGA nominations still carry weight this season — and could be a deciding factor for final Oscar voting. As IndieWire’s Anne Thompson predicted,...

The Writers Guild of America’s west and east arms have announced nominations for this year’s honors in screenwriting, television, new media, news, radio/audio, and promotional writing during 2023. Delayed due to the Hollywood strikes, this year’s ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 14, 2024. Here are the nominees:

Screenplay Nominees

Original Screenplay

“Air,” Written by Alex Convery; Amazon MGM Studios

“Barbie,” Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach; Warner Bros. Pictures

“The Holdovers,” Written by David Hemingson; Focus Features

“May December,” Screenplay by Samy Burch, Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik; Netflix

“Past Lives,” Written by Celine Song; A24

Adapted Screenplay

“American Fiction,” Screenplay by Cord Jefferson, Based upon the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett; Amazon MGM Studios

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.,” Screenplay by Kelly Fremon Craig, Based on the book by Judy Blume; Lionsgate

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Screenplay by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese,...

The 2024 Writers Guild Awards nominations have been revealed.

The nominees in the category of original screenplay are Air, Barbie, The Holdovers, May December and Past Lives.

In the adapted screenplay category the nominees are American Fiction, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Killers of the Flower Moon, Nyad and Oppenheimer.

In an unusual move this year, the WGA Awards will take place after the Oscars, with the winners awarded on April 14.

A complete list of this year’s nominees follows.

Screenplay Nominees

Original Screenplay

Air, Written by Alex Convery; Amazon MGM Studios

Barbie, Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach; Warner Bros. Pictures

The Holdovers, Written by David Hemingson; Focus Features

May December, Screenplay by Samy Burch, Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik; Netflix

Past Lives, Written by Celine Song; A24

Adapted Screenplay

American Fiction, Screenplay by Cord Jefferson, Based upon the novel Erasure by Percival Everett; Amazon MGM Studios

Are You There God?...

Writers Guild Of America has announced its feature nominees and the roster includes The Holdovers, May December and Barbie for original screenplay and American Fiction, Oppenheimer and Killers Of The Flower Moon in the adapted category.

Air is the surprise among the original contenders and takes its place alongside Past Lives. Barbie earned an Oscar nod in the adapted screenplay category.

Anatomy Of A Fall was ineligible as it was not produced under a WGA contract. Justine Triet’s film, like Maestro, which was not in Wednesday’s announcement, earned an Oscar nod.

Competing for the adapted screenplay prize are...

Meredith Hama-Brown’s feature debut “Seagrass,” starring Ally Maki, will debut in U.S. theaters on Feb. 22, beginning with special screenings with the cast and director.

Q&a’s will be held at New York’s Roxy Cinema and Los Angeles’ Laemmle Royal on Feb. 22 and Las Vegas’ Regal Theatre on Feb. 23. Maki will be in Los Angeles, Hama-Brown and cinematographer Norm Li will be in New York, and actor Chris Pang will be in Las Vegas. The film will also have its U.S. festival premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, screening on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13.

The synopsis for “Seagrass” reads, “Set in the mid 1990’s, a Japanese Canadian woman (Maki) grappling with the recent death of her mother brings her family to a self-development retreat. When her distressed relationship with her husband begins to affect the children’s emotional security, the family is forever changed.”

In addition to Maki and Pang,...

"Nyad" is a biographical sports drama film that tells the story of Diana Nyad's impressive long-distance swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013. Diana Nyad's swim took over 53 hours without a shark cage, and she completed the journey at the age of 64, becoming an inspiration for many. Despite controversy and the swim not being formally ratified, Nyad's accomplishments continue to be recognized, and she remains active in swimming and motivational speaking.

Nyad tells the true story of Diana Nyad and her long-distance swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, in 2013. The biographical sports drama film premiered on November 3, 2023, on Netflix (it was previously shown for the first time at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on September 1). The movie, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and written by Julia Cox, is based on Nyad's 2015 autobiography Find a Way. While the film goes into detail about Nyad's remarkable swim,...

At the 2022 Oscars, Sian Heder won Best Adapted Screenplay for “Coda,” her adaptation of the French film “La Famille Bélier.” “Coda” also claimed Best Picture, thereby becoming the fifth remake to win the top Oscar. In 2021 playwright Florian Zeller shared in the Oscar win for Best Adapted Screenplay with Christopher Hampton for bring his stage hit “The Father” to the screen. In his directorial debut Zeller bagged Anthony Hopkins his second Best Actor Oscar. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Adapted Screenplay.)

Screen versions of stage works had won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars 15 times before. The most recent of these was in 2017 when “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney prevailed for adapting the latter’s un-produced play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.” Prior to that you have to go all the way back to 1989 when Alfred Uhry won for adapting...

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Nyad, Julia Cox’s adaptation of Diana Nyad’s memoir that was the diving-off point for directors Elizabeth Chai Vásárhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Netflix movie.

The plot follows the true story of Nyad’s attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida at age 63. Annette Bening plays Nyad, and Jodie Foster her coach Bonnie Stoll. Both recently snagged Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

Nyad attempted the Cuba-Florida swim once at the peak of her long-distance swimming career in 1978, but did not make it. Following her retirement, she covered sports for ABC and NPR among other outlets, but after turning 60 in 2010 she attempted the swim again. She didn’t make it that time, either.

The film shows the several attempts Nyad made to cross the 110 miles from Havana to Key West via the Straits of...

“I remember hearing about the swim at the time that she achieved it, but I didn’t follow her,” says “Nyad” star Annette Bening, who plays the titular role of Diana Nyad in the Netflix movie. Although the four-time Oscar nominee wasn’t familiar with the athlete’s previous achievements, she does say, “I used to listen to her on NPR. She used to be on NPR regularly, and I remember her voice and I remember the timbre of it, and just her intelligence. She would weigh in on controversial, ethical issues in athletics. I remember that, but I didn’t really know a lot about her.” Watch the exclusive video interview with Gold Derby above.

Bening was instantly drawn to the script penned by Nyad and Julia Cox. “I immediately wanted to do it,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this story is great!’ I was moved by it and moved by her.

Eileen

Screenplay adapted by Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel

Ottessa Moshfegh’s debut novel, 2015’s Eileen, was an overwhelming literary success; it won the Pen Award for debut fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. But beyond the accolades, the critical reception often included backhanded — sometimes bordering on misogynistic — disparagements of the protagonist. The book follows 24-year-old Eileen, stuck caring for her alcoholic father in her Massachusetts hometown while working as a secretary at the local juvenile correction facility. In first-person narrative, she fantasizes about moving to New York City and describes her dirty house, body issues and laxative abuse; the latter spurred readers to use terms like “disgusting” to describe the main character.

Ottessa Moshfegh and Luke Goebel

Moshfegh says she has complicated feelings about that element of the book’s publication, but when she sat down to write the screenplay for the Neon film alongside her husband,...

If you enjoy uplifting and heartfelt dramas about the resilience of the human spirit, Nyad is the movie to watch in November. The fascinating true story of athlete Diana Nyad arrives on Netflix Nov. 3 after a short run in select theaters. The film aptly captures the story of Nyad, the famous swimmer who, at the age of 60, commits to achieving her life-long dream: swimming 110 miles in open ocean from Cuba to Florida. Annette Bening turns in a powerful performance as Diana Nyad. Jodie Foster is a welcome presence as Bonnie, Diana’s best friend/coach, and one of the many fine humans who helped Nyad accomplish the impossible.

The film also marks the narrative directorial debut of Academy Award-winning documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The screenplay by Julia Cox was adapted from the memoir Find a Way by Diana Nyad. Cox shared more about the film, Annette Bening’s stunning performance,...

Nyad, the first feature film from directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, is an inspiring story of Diana Nyad's swim from Cuba to Florida, but it lacks depth as a narrative feature. The film focuses heavily on Nyad's swimming achievements, neglecting other aspects of her life, except for her friendship with Bonnie Stoll. The screenplay lacks depth and fails to explore Nyad's character fully. Despite its shortcomings, Nyad benefits from a strong cast, with Annette Bening delivering a tenacious performance. The film's best moments lie in the relationship between Nyad and Bonnie, adding depth and grounding the story.

Nyad tells the incredible story of Diana Nyad’s swim from Cuba to Florida. It’s the first feature film from directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the team behind Free Solo and The Rescue. As such, Nyad is very much a transitional film for the duo. It has a lot of great,...

An Iranian American woman navigating culture clash, an Argentine bank heist and an animated ghost story voiced by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debut this weekend with a handful of docs and some notable expansion, vying with Apple wide release Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Sony Pictures Classics The Persian Version opens on eight screens in NY, LA, Toronto and Vancouver today. The film by writer-director Maryam Keshavarz won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance where it premiered (Deadline review here). Her previous film Circumstance, about two teenage Iranian girls who fall in love, won the Audience Award too, in 2011, but the filmmaker hasn’t been able to return to Iran since.

The Persian Version stars Layla Mohammadi as Leila, Iranian-American like Keshavarz, and bisexual, striving to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures. When her family reunites in New York City for her father’s heart transplant,...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including events for Killers of the Flower Moon and the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Newport Beach Film Festival

The 24th annual film fest, which ran Oct. 12 to Oct. 19, honored stars including Patricia Clarkson, Jack Huston, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, William Shatner, Eugenio Derbez, Mark Ronson, Glenn Howerton and Todd Haynes, and featured talks with Rainn Wilson, Judy Blume, Susan Feniger and Bobby Berk.

Jack Huston, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Miller and Phil Lord Mark Ronson Liz Lachman, Lisa Donmall-Reeve and Susan Feniger Eugenio Derbez Glenn Howerton

Good Burger 2 x Nycc

Producers Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell made an appearance at the Paramount + Good Burger 2 panel and Nickelodeon booth at New York Comic-Com.

Kenan and Kel

Legacy Ball

Legacy Youth Leadership held its third annual Legacy Ball event on Saturday, with the evening’s top honor,...

On October 20, 2023, “Nyad” received a limited theatrical release from Netflix before it hits the streamer November 3. It tells the remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad (played by Oscar nominee Annette Bening) who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll (played by Oscar winner Jodie Foster), commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.

Since premiering at the 50th Telluride Film Festival in September, the film has charmed critics to an 82% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads, “’Nyad’ is an uplifting sports biopic strictly on the merits of its story, but it’s the outstanding performances from Annette Bening and Jodie Foster that really keep this picture afloat.” The film was directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, with a script by Julia Cox.The ensemble cast includes Rhys Ifans,...

Sometimes we just need to see a flick that gets us motivated. To get us off our “duff”…after we watch it, of course. That was certainly the case with the original Rocky series which carried over into the current Creed franchise (who hasn’t heard Bill Conti’s score as they begin a run). Yes, the sports genre can be inspiring, plus you can double that when it’s a true tale, a “sports-biopic”. But could you triple the “push” when the movie’s subject is still with us? It’s a good possibility when a couple of superb actresses combine talents with two Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers to tell the tale of the long-distance swimming legend known as Nyad.

This film begins with a montage of archival footage of the tile champion, as she competes in tournaments, breaks records, and is interviewed by the undisputed “king of late night...

Annette Bening refuses to follow the current tide of portraying surface-level “strong” characters.

The Oscar winner, who stars in true sports story “Nyad,” told The New York Times’ T Magazine that her filmography centering on “challenging” characters is not trendy, it’s just what appeals to her.

“It’s not about quote-unquote ‘strong women,'” Bening said. “That’s really boring, to only have stories about strong people. We need to know: What are their faults? Their blind spots? We all have them.”

Bening transforms into Diana Nyad, an openly gay athlete who famously swam from Cuba to Florida at age 60. “Free Solo” documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin helm the true story, adapted by Julia Cox from Nyad’s memoir “Find a Way.” Jodie Foster co-stars alongside Bening as Nyad’s coach Bonnie Stoll.

Bening told T Magazine that she was “wanting to portray her in a way that’s authentic,...

There’s a story long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad loves to tell about herself — Ok, there are allegedly lots of stories Diana Nyad loves to tell about herself, but for brevity’s sake, we’ll stick with this one — about the provenance of her last name. “Nyad” traces back to “naiad,” a Greek mythological aquatic nymph. You can see why Nyad would be so taken with this coincidence, one allegedly drilled into her ad nauseam by her father, Aristotle Nyad, who we repeatedly meet in flashback during the film, only later to learn — oops! — he was actually her stepfather, thus rendering moot one of the myths Diana built for and about herself.

More thrilling: the myths that ended up being true. Over the course of their lauded documentary filmmaking career, Vasarhelyi and Chin have been consistently compelled by outsized personalities driven to accomplish seemingly insane physical (and thus also mental and emotional) feats of strength,...

Netflix has released the brand new trailer for Nyad. Nyad tells the remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.

In their Telluride Film Festival review, Variety’s Peter Debruge says: “it’s the private glimpses of vulnerability that make “Nyad” so effective, along with the personal scenes between Diana and Bonnie — dramatized moments when no cameras were present in the real world. Audiences want to see Diana Nyad succeed, but the pleasure of the experience comes from watching actors become these characters. No matter how tricky such feats must have been to re-create, you get the impression that everyone involved was having a blast.”

A remarkable true story of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit, Nyad recounts...

“Nyad” tells the true story of athlete Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), who, at the age of 60, decided to attempt swimming the 110 miles between Cuba and Florida — a goal she failed to achieve three decades earlier when she first tried. The journey ended up taking four years and multiple attempts, which created an interesting problem for screenwriter Julia Cox: How does one tell a compelling cinematic story that is by its nature both repetitive and relatively solitary?

“It’s an unusual sort of sports story,” Cox told IndieWire. “It’s naturally kind of episodic, and although there’s a team around her, the event itself is mostly one woman in the water with her support boat.” Cox began with Nyad’s memoir, which she found rich in detail but also overwhelming in terms of the amount of material. “I had to chisel this thing down to a manageable shape, and...

It’s a fatal flaw and an inherent paradox of most biopics that they reduce a one-of-a-kind personality to an easily legible confluence of social forces and remarkable achievements to a linear series of causes and effects. Nyad, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and written by Julia Cox, is unable to buck this trend, though it gains a degree of novelty from a subject whose fascinating life appears to be a confrontation with failure as much as a story of triumph. The film recounts the efforts of endurance swimmer Diane Nyad (Annette Bening) to complete a record-breaking swim from Florida to Cuba, a lifelong dream that she seeks to bring to fruition in her 60s, some four decades after her unsuccessful first attempt.

After a brief opening sequence that recaps her younger years with real-life footage from newsreels and her regular chat show appearances, we’re introduced...

Netflix this morning released a new featurette promoting its new biopic “Nyad” that debuts in theaters for a two-week window this Friday before streaming on Netflix beginning November 3. Annette Bening has received raves at film festivals from Telluride to the Hamptons for her portrayal of the prickly and controversial Diana Nyad, with Jodie Foster also generating strong notices for her work as Nyad’s devoted coach Bonnie Stoll. Four-time Academy Award nominee Bening is currently running seventh in the Gold Derby combined odds for Oscar Best Actress, while two-time Oscar winner Foster is sixth in the race for Supporting Actress. Watch the featurette above.

The film is described as the “remarkable true story” of Nyad, long distance swimmer, sportscaster, author and motivational speaker who in 2013 became the first person to swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida without the aid of a shark cage to protect her. The movie...

Nyad Photo: Kimberley French/Netflix The beating heart of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s fiction feature debut, Nyad, lies in a Mary Oliver quote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” As well-worn and almost pat as Oliver’s...