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“Aftersun” actress Frankie Corio admits she had “no idea” how melancholy Charlotte Wells’ debut feature gets. Corio, who co-stars with Paul Mescal in the 2022 Oscar-nominated film, shared on TikTok that writer/director Wells purposefully kept her in the dark about the true plot.

Mescal plays Corio’s onscreen father, whose vacation takes a very dark turn that will remain unspoiled. Wells took inspiration from her own dynamic with her late dad for her directorial debut. However, young actress Corio was only allowed to know her own scenes, and not the darker, more internal sequences with Mescal’s character.

“Funny story, I had almost no idea the film was supposed to be sad!” Corio wrote. “Charlotte the director only let me read my scenes. None of Paul’s…She wanted it to be very natural and truly unaware.”

In one of the most memorable scenes, single father Calum (Mescal) violently dances...

Ahead of the Oscar nominations being unveiled, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the Adobe Foundation have released a new edition of their Inclusion List, with a focus on movies.

The top-scoring movies for supporting gender inclusion on screen and behind the cameras were A Thousand and One, You Hurt My Feelings, The Marvels, Priscilla and Barbie. For race and ethnicity, the top-scoring movies were Joy Ride, A Thousand and One, The Color Purple, House Party and The Blackening.

In an earlier Inclusions List, 476 theatrically released movies from 2019 to 2023 were analyzed, with on screen and behind-the-camera data used to determine the 150 most inclusive films in that four-year period. The latest Inclusion List builds on that ranking with a new set of films from 2023.

“Our goal with the Inclusion List is to celebrate those who are showcasing and working with exceptional talent from all backgrounds. In the second year of its release,...

Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” was a poster child for the power of inclusion when it broke box office records in 2023, but the $1.45 billion-grossing movie is only the 119th most inclusive film made in the past five years, according to the Inclusion List.

The annual list — presented by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, in collaboration with the Adobe Foundation — is a data-driven ranking that identified the 150 most inclusive films from 2019 to 2023 and ranks a single year’s films across gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability and age representation.

“Our goal with the Inclusion List is to celebrate those who are showcasing and working with exceptional talent from all backgrounds,” stated Dr. Smith in a press release announcing the researchers’ findings. “In the second year of its release, the newest iteration of the Inclusion List spotlights films, filmmakers, and distributors who clearly demonstrate that inclusion...

The second iteration of The Inclusion List from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has identified the 150 most inclusive films from 2019 to 2023, adding to its initial class of 100 films by naming 50 new titles for the year 2023.

Four films from that year have made it into the Top 10 Most Inclusive Films for that timespan, according to the study released Wednesday, with A Thousand and One taking the No. 2 spot overall, Bottoms coming in seventh, The Color Purple ninth and The Blackening in 10th.

The list’s point system took into account talent both in front of and behind the camera, with a total of 20 points broken down into 10-point halves for both on-screen and off-screen inclusion. Two distinct processes were used, one for leads/co-leads and the other for all speaking characters. A film could earn up to 10 points for on-screen inclusion based on the five inclusion indicators across leads/co leads (up to 5 points) and all speaking characters (up to 5 points).

A Thousand and One ranks second with a score of 13.6/20, while Bottoms scores a 12.2/20. The Color Purple and The Blackening are tied with a score of 11.8/20. The highest scoring film on the list remains Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King (2022) with a 15/20.

The list also evaluated 2023 films displaying the best inclusivity across five categories: gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, and age. It named five of the most inclusive 2023 films within each of those categories.

The 2023 films that scored the highest for the gender indicator of inclusion were A Thousand and One, You Hurt My Feelings, The Marvels, Priscilla and Barbie. A Thousand and One also scored high on the race/ethnicity list alongside 2023’s Joy Ride, The Color Purple, The Blackening and House Party. In the LGBTQ+ category, the top five films of 2023 were All of Us Strangers, Theater Camp, Bottoms, Knock at the Cabin and Saltburn. 2023 releases ranking high in the disability category included What Happens Later, John Wick: Chapter 4, Moving On, Golda and The Holdovers. Films from 2023 that scored highest in their representation of age on the big screen were Moving On, Book Club: The Next Chapter, Marlowe, The Miracle Club and Golda.

Researchers also took into consideration the race and ethnicity of crew members in the roles of director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, composer, production designer, costume designer, casting director and assistant director.

The second Inclusion List also names 25 top achievers across inclusion metrics and 50 new winners for 2023 cinema. Released Jan. 22, the results calls attention to directors, editors and distributors involved in projects with the highest percentage of women and people of color employees who aided in the process of production from start to finish line.

Related: Women-Led Films Fell Close To 30% In 2023, Near A 10-Year Low, Per Study

Out of 400 evaluated directors, five were named the most inclusive: Catherine Hardwicke, Olivia Wilde, Destin Daniel Cretton, Reinaldo Marcus Green and Kasi Lemmons.

Eight editors were noted for their work in film over the past five years, including Annette Davey, Anne McCabe, Blair McClendon, Catrin Hedström, Hilda Rasula, Harry Yoon, Mary Jo Markey.

Related: Hispanics & Latinos Still Invisible In Hollywood, A Trend Across 16 Years, New Study Reveals

The top distributors — companies responsible for bringing top-ranking diverse films to audiences — were listed by the quantity of how many films released: Universal (29), Sony Pictures (21), Warner Bros (18) and, for smaller distributors, A24 (14), MGM (10) and Bleecker Street (9).

A panel discussing the results featuring Smith, Sumi Parekh, Executive Director, Group Effort Initiative, Tracy Oliver, Screenwriter, Director, Producer and Showrunner, Jesse Williams, Actor, Director, Activist, Dewayne Perkins, Writer, Actor, Producer, and Amy White, Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Adobe, is set for Friday at Adobe House on the ground at the Sundance Film Festival.

Exclusive: The award-winning documentary Union, about the first successful unionization drive at an Amazon warehouse, has been making the rounds of film festivals – it just held its U.K. premiere at Sheffield DocFest, and on Saturday it plays at DC/Dox in the nation’s capital. In a matter of months, the film will reach its widest audience yet, through a self-distribution plan announced today.

Level Ground Productions has set an October 18 release date in theaters for the film directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing. “Recognizing the difficulties faced by political documentaries in distribution of late,” a release notes, “but also the enthusiastic and engaged potential audiences that are inspired by the Amazon Labor Union movement, producers Story, Maing, Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, and Martin Dicicco have worked with distribution expert Michael Tuckman to self distribute the film theatrically.”

Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls.

The documentary centers on a...

Amazon Labor Union (Alu) president Chris Smalls is not the star of the documentary Union. He is just one part of the congregation in Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s co-directed film. An early glimpse of Smalls finds him discreetly flipping burgers and hot dogs at a grill. It took an employee to ask Smalls if he’s the “low-key famous” Smalls for the leader to list his media recognitions. He doesn’t want clout for his union organizing, but rather to be known for making laborers heard, enabling a better society for his children and comrades, and proving to white executives that he can manage a flock in his distinguished streetwear outfits.

The examination of the Alu at Amazon’s Staten Island headquarters, JFK8, is a dream subject of interest for Story and Maing, whose past work has concerned reform. Union traces the intimate, intense vérité approach of being...

Everything Everywhere All at Once won big at this year’s Independent Spirit Awards, taking home seven awards out of eight nominations. The only award it didn’t win was, interestingly enough, one it did win, as Ke Huy Quan beat Jamie Lee Curtis in the Best Supporting Performance category.

Here are the winners of winners of the 38th Independent Spirit Awards:

Movies:

Best Feature:

Bones and All

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Our Father, The Devil

Tár

Women Talking

Best Director:

Todd Field, Tár

Kogonada, After Yang

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Sarah Polley, Women Talking

Halina Reijn, Bodies Bodies Bodies

Best First Feature:

Aftersun

Emily the Criminal

The Inspection

Murina

Palm Trees and Power Lines

Best Lead Performance:

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Dale Dickey, A Love Song

Mia Goth, Pearl

Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Aubrey Plaza, Emily the Criminal

Jeremy Pope,...

The 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by Hasan Minhaj, took place on Saturday, live from the beach in Santa Monica, California. The annual awards ceremony was live-streamed on IMDb’s YouTube page, plus additional social platforms, including Film Independent’s YouTube channel.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” led this year’s nominations with a total of eight and swept up seven awards. Following close behind was Cate Blanchett’s “Tár” with seven nods and “Aftersun” with five. Meanwhile, “The Bear” topped the television categories.

Read More: Before Oscars, ‘Everything Everywhere’ Sweeps Spirit Awards

The 2023 Spirit Awards marks the show’s first time highlighting gender-neutral categories. In other words, Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh were up against Paul Mescal for lead performance. This year’s recipient of the Robert Altman award went to “Women Talking”, in which the award was given to the film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast.

The 2023 Independent Spirit Awards were dominated by the Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which led all films this year with eight nominations and a won a total of seven prizes, including best feature. Close behind were Todd Field’s “Tár” with seven noms (it won for best cinematography) and Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” with five (it won for best first feature). All three movies picked up Oscar nominations this year, with “Everything Everywhere” also leading the Academy Awards pack with a total of 11 nominations.

While last year’s Spirit Award winner for best feature, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter,” did not go on to land an Oscar nomination in the same category, the 2021 winner, Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” repeated at the Oscars and took home the best picture prize.

This year’s Spirit Award nominees were highlighted by gender neutral categories, meaning Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh faced off...

While most of “Aftersun” chronicles the vacation a young girl named Sophie (Frankie Corrio) and her father Calum (Paul Mescal) take to a Turkish resort one ’90s-tastic summer, that’s not the story of the film. Technically, “Aftersun” is about Sophie as an adult (Celia Rowlson-Hall) remembering their time in Turkey, many years on, when her father is no longer in the picture.

The film avoids a traditional flashback structure, showing only snatches of the adult Sophie — in slice-of-life moments where she watches videos from the trip; in an impressionistic, recurring sequence set at a rave — before diving back into the flow of Sophie’s childhood memories and what might’ve happened around them. The difference between showing us a character reminiscing and placing us inside the subjective experience of that reminiscence is the difference between doing a backflip on a trampoline and landing a triple lutz, in ice skates,...

[Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers about “Aftersun.”]

Charlotte Wells is shining light on the iconically dark “Aftersun” final scene.

Single father Calum (Paul Mescal) violently dances into the afterlife while his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) tries to grapple with her tween past and adult present (Celia Rowlson Hall plays the older version of Sophie). David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure” soundtracks the emotional sequence, which director Wells revealed was a total accident.

“‘Under Pressure,’ it’s so funny. I brought it into the edit of just having an idea of something to work with, something to give rhythm to the cut, with no conscious awareness of the lyrics and how straightforwardly they tied to the material,” Wells told IndieWire at the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony. “And maybe that is completely unbelievable and crazy, but it’s true.”

The Gotham Awards winner continued, “But maybe some subconscious part of my brain knew what was happening.

Claire Denis honoured with annual lifetime achievement award.

Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) has named Everything Everywhere All At Once and TÁR joint winners of its best film of 2022 awards and honoured Cate Blanchett (TÁR) and Bill Nighy (Living) as best lead performers in its first year of gender-neutral acting awards.

Todd Field was named best director and screenplay, while Jerzy Skolimowski’s Polish Oscar submission Eo was named best film not in the English language and also won best cinematography for Michael Dymek’s work. Claire Denis is the annual lifetime achievement honoree.

While Lafca’s best film...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) announced the winners of their 48th annual awards on Sunday (Dec. 11). These California-based reviewers are the second major critics group to reveal their list of winners, as their New York counterparts went first last Friday (Dec. 2). The Gotham critics named the “Tar” as Best Picture. The Cali crew concurred but Todd Field’s film tied for the top prize with “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Field won both the directing and writing award while star Cate Blanchett shared the gender-neutral leading performance award with Bill Nighy (“Living”).

Last year, both groups went with the Japanese import “Drive My Car” as their pick for best pic. Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car” tells the story of a stage actor and director who mysteriously disappears. His film reaped four Oscar bids, including Best Picture and Director and won Best International Feature.

Like the New York Film Critics Circle,...

Click here to read the full article.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Tár as its best picture for 2022.

On Sunday, the critics association announced its winners for the best films of 2022. Living actor Bill Nighly and Tár star Cate Blanchett were both named best lead performance. This was the first year that Lafca introduced gender-neutral acting categories, including two awards for best lead performance and two for best supporting performance.

Tár took home several awards, including Todd Field being named best director and best screenplay.

The best supporting performance went to Dolly De Leon in Triangle of Sadness and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo won the best film not in the English language, and Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed won the best documentary/nonfiction film.

The best animated movie...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted on the best films of the year on Sunday, announcing its selections via the organization’s official Twitter account. The annual awards are given out by more than 60 Lafca members in the Los Angeles area, with the online voting process spearheaded by the group’s president Claudia Puig.

Competition was stiff, given this year’s particularly wide field of Oscar contenders. Voters will have to choose between arthouse dramas from elite directors, critically acclaimed blockbusters, and bold international films.

The awards ended up being relatively evenly split between arthouse films and those with more popular sensibilities. “TÁR” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” shared the award for Best Film in a tie, and they both notched signature wins elsewhere in the competition. “TÁR” writer-director Todd Field won both Best Screenplay and Best Director, and Cate Blanchett shared Best Lead Performance with Bill Nighy...

It was an historic night for female filmmakers at the British Independent Film Awards, with 10 of the night’s biggest awards going to women or films directed by them. The biggest winner of the night was “Aftersun,” which won Best British Independent Film, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Debut Director for Charlotte Wells. The film also took home prizes for cinematography, editing, and music supervision.

Georgia Oakley’s “Blue Jean” also had a strong showing, with Rosy McEwen winning Best Lead Performance and Kerrie Hayes winning Best Supporting Performance and Oakley winning Best Debut Screenwriter. Shaheen Baig also won Best Casting for the film.

Despite facing stiff competition from the likes of “Decision to Leave” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World” won Best International Independent Film.

Keep reading for the complete list of nominees from the 2022 British Independent Film Awards,...

Click here to read the full article.

Charlotte Wells’ debut feature Aftersun, starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, was the big winner at this year’s British Independent Film Awards in London, earning seven honors from 16 nominations.

The drama about a father and daughter’s complex relationship won the awards for best British independent film, presented by Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Where the Crawdads Sing), best director, best debut director and best screenplay on Sunday night.

The film, which became a breakout hit in Cannes, where it was nabbed by A24 and Mubi, previously also won three craft awards: in the best cinematography category for Gregory Oke, for best editing for Blair McClendon and in the best music supervision category, a new honor introduced this year, for Lucy Bright.

Georgia Oakley’s debut film Blue Jean, about a young teacher forced to lead a double life, earned 13 nominations and four BIFAs.

Harry Shum Jr. and Michelle Yeoh in A24’s ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (Photo credit: Allyson Riggs)

Everything Everywhere All At Once tops the list of 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominees, earning eight nominations including Best Feature, Best Director (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert), Best Lead Performance (Michelle Yeo), Best Breakthrough Performance (Stephanie Hsu), and two in the Best Supporting Performance category. Director Todd Field’s Tár, starring Cate Blanchett as a world-renowned composer whose life is falling apart, followed with seven nominations including ones for Field and Blanchett.

The 2023 awards will mark the first time Film Independent has switched the performance categories to gender-neutral. The 38th Film Independent Spirit Awards also introduces a new category: Best Breakthrough Performance.

“We couldn’t be more honored to celebrate this year’s exciting film nominees,” said Josh Welsh, President of Film Independent. “As the Film Independent Spirit Awards evolve with our changing industry,...

Celebrating its 38th edition, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have unveiled their 2023 nominations, with the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the pack with eight nominations while Todd Field’s TÁR secured seven. Along with those two, rounding out the Best Feature nominations were Bones and All, Our Father, the Devil, and Women Talking. Elsewhere, some of our favorites of the year––including Aftersun, Murina, The African Desperate, The Cathedral, After Yang, All That Breathes, Saint Omer, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed––were recognized.

Check out the nominations below ahead of the March 4 ceremony.

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

Bones and All

Producers: Timothée Chalamet, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Luca Guadagnino, David Kajganich, Lorenzo Mieli, Marco Morabito, Gabriele Moratti, Theresa Park, Peter Spears

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Producers: Daniel Kwan, Mike Larocca, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang

Our Father, the Devil

Producers: Ellie Foumbi,...

This year's Film Independent Spirit Awards – the 38th — announced their nominations. And it's shaping up to potentially be a very good ceremony for Everything Everywhere All At Once, TÁR, Women Talking and more.

The awards will be handed out on 4 March, though other details are in flux: broadcast for the last few years on us cable channel IFC, the ceremony's organisers are currently looking for a new TV home. Still, the celebration of indie movies will go ahead as planned.

And while the Indie Spirits don't tend to be a huge Oscar indicator, we'd expect at least a few of the nominees to also show up on the Academy Awards nominations list, to be announced on 24 January.

Check out the full Indie Spirit nomination list below…

Best Feature

Bones And All

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Our Father, The Devil

TÁR

Women Talking

Best First Feature

Aftersun

Emily The Criminal...

James Gray’s ‘Armageddon Time’, Greg Mottola’s ‘Confess, Fletch’ also start.

Disney comedy-horror The Menu and Mubi awards favourite Aftersun are among the new titles at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend.

Opening in 610 sites for Disney, Mark Mylod’s The Menu sees a young couple travel to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant, where the chef has prepared a lavish menu and some shocking surprises.

The film debuted as a special presentation at Toronto Film Festival in September, going on to play festivals worldwide including Zurich, Rio de Janeiro, Busan and Tokyo.

British director Mylod...

Click here to read the full article.

Aftersun, the debut feature from Charlotte Wells that stars Paul Mescal, has topped the craft categories at the 2022 British Independent Film Awards.

The drama, which became a breakout sensation in Cannes, where it was nabbed by A24 and Mubi, won three awards, including in the best cinematography category for Gregory Oke, for best editing for Blair McClendon and in the best music supervision category — a new honor introduced this year — for Lucy Bright.

Unveiled on Friday, two weeks before the remaining category awards are revealed at the BIFA ceremony, other craft honors include the best casting award for 10-time nominee Shaheen Baig for Blue Jean, best production design for Helen Scott on Living and best original music for Matthew Herbert on The Wonder. Elsewhere, Jenny Beavan won the best costume design honor for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, best effects went to David Simpson...

Aftersun Photo: Courtesy of Kviff Charlotte Wells’ father and daughter drama Aftersun was the big winner as the British Independent Film Awards announced the winners of its ten film craft categories.

The film has received 16 BIFA nominations, and won Best Cinematography for Gregory Oke, Best Editing for Blair McClendon and Best Music Supervision for Lucy Bright.

Best Casting went to ten-time BIFA nominee Shaheen Baig for Blue Jean. The 1980s-set film, which follows a young schoolteacher forced to lead a double life, has been nominated for 13 BIFAs in total, including Best British Independent Film.

With nine nominations this year, including Best British Independent Film, Oliver Hermanus’ [film=40160]Living/film], which stars Bill Nighy as a terminally bureaucrat who decides to make the last months count, was awarded Best Production Design for Helen Scott.

Sebastián Lelio’s 19th century set Irish drama The Wonder, about a girl who is apparently not eating...

Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” has picked up three craft prizes from the British Independent Film Awards.

The Paul Mescal-starring father-daughter drama received 16 nominations this year, and won best cinematography for Gregory Oke; best editing for Blair McClendon; and best music supervision — a new category this year — for Lucy Bright.

Best casting went to ten-time BIFA nominee Shaheen Baig for “Blue Jean.” The 1980s-set film, which follows a young schoolteacher forced to lead a double life, has been nominated for 13 BIFAs in total, including best British independent film.

Elsewhere, with nine nominations this year, including best British independent film, Oliver Hermanus’ “Living” received best production design for Helen Scott.

Sebastián Lelio’s 19th century-set thriller “The Wonder,” which received 12 nominations, won best original music for Matthew Herbert.

Jenny Beavan also won best costume design for “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” which stars Lesley Manville as a woman following her dream to own a couture gown.

Prizes for ‘Blue Jean’, ‘The Wonder’, ‘Living’ and more.

Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun has topped the winners in the craft categories at the British Independent Film Awards (Bifas), taking three of the 10 prizes on offer.

Released into 109 UK-Ireland cinemas today (Nov 18) by Mubi, Aftersun received the best cinematography prize for Gregory Oke; best editing for Blair McClendon; and the new best music supervision award for Lucy Bright.

Scroll down for the full list of Bifa 2022 craft winners

The film recorded the second-most Bifa nominations ever for a single title last week with 16. With three of its nine craft nominations converted to wins,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSacheen Littlefeather: Breaking the Silence.Sacheen Littlefeather, Native American actress and activist, has died at 75. At the 1973 Academy Awards, she declined Marlon Brando’s Oscar for The Godfather on his behalf to condemn the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry and bring attention to the Wounded Knee protests.After five years in charge of BFI Flare and the London Film Festival, Tricia Tuttle has stepped down from her role as Festivals Director at the British Film Institute.Feminist film journal Another Gaze has announced a publishing imprint. Another Gaze Editions launches in late 2022 with My Cinema, a collection of writings by and interviews with Marguerite Duras, and a new translation of The Sky Is Falling, Lorenza Mazzetti's first novel.Recommended VIEWINGHunt, the directorial debut from popular South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), has a trailer.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSKing Lear.Jean-Luc Godard, groundbreaking French-Swiss filmmaker across six decades, died last week at age 91. In the week since, a number of tributes have been shared: among them, Blair McClendon in n+1, J. Hoberman in The Nation, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, and Richard Hell in Screen Slate. Alternatively, you can find a 2002 essay on Godard by filmmaker and theorist Peter Wollen on Verso's blog, watch a 1988 conversation between Godard and critic Serge Daney, or read this list Godard contributed to the British film journal Afterimage in 1970. Shadow and Act founder Tambay Obenson is fundraising to launch Akoroko, a new platform devoted to African film and television. The platform intends to combine film journalism with “consultation, cataloging, and curated film streaming.”Two posters (below) for the 61st New York Film Festival feature photographs taken by Nan Goldin.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWomen Talking.The 49th edition of the Telluride Film Festival, which doesn't reveal its lineup until the four-day festival starts, took place last weekend. Its program included world premieres of Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and Sam Mendes’s Empire of Light, as well as Adam Curtis’s new 420-minute-long Russia [1985-1999] Traumazone, plus a tribute to Cate Blanchett. A.O. Scott, reporting from the festival for the New York Times, remarks that "Every so often, Telluride’s best is as good as movies can be," and singles out Women Talking specifically: "...what Women Talking shares with Moonlight is an absolute concentration on the specifics of story and setting that nonetheless illuminate a vast, underexplored region of contemporary life. A reality that has always been there is seen as if for the first time."Charlbi Dean Kriek—South African model,...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Cargo Film and Releasing releases the film in select theaters on Friday, June 2.

On the land and in the water, the whispers of a people, their descendants, and their hereafter echoes, from the first words spoken when enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of America to their continued cries throughout the Civil War. And when, on the eve of January 12, 1865, twenty Black ministers met with General William Tecumseh Sherman in Savannah, Georgia to plot out the reconstructive future of newly freed Black folks, the promise of forty acres and a mule seemed to guarantee prosperity, and perhaps some sort of answer.

And yet, the tragedy of that night is a dream that was deferred. The formerly enslaved would ultimately gain land: parcels not given to them, but purchased in the decades following the Civil War. Amid the arched mossy trees,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWerner Herzog is set to publish his first novel, a semi-fictional retelling of the story of Hiroo Onda. A friend of Herzog, Onda is a former Japanese soldier known for spending 29 years in the jungle on an island in the Philippines, refusing to surrender at the end of World War II. Penguin Random House states that the novel is written in "an inimitable, hypnotic style—part documentary, part poem, and part dream." Following his erotic nunsploitation film Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven is making the erotic political thriller Young Sinner. The film, according to Verhoeven and RoboCop co-writer Edward Neumeier, will take place in Washington DC and focus on a young staffer "drawn into a web of international intrigue and danger." As this is a Verhoeven film, Neumeir promises that there will be "also be a little sex.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Killers of the Flower Moon (2021)From Osage News, the first official image from Martin Scorsese’s upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon, featuring Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio. Recommended VIEWINGFollowing the release of his series The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins has also released The Gaze, a 50-minute non-narrative video piece that captures the show's background actors in moments of stillness. The film challenges the notion of the "white gaze" by pursuing what Jenkins refers to as "the Black gaze; or the gaze distilled." Shudder has released an official trailer for George A. Romero's The Amusement Park, a restoration of the long-lost 1973 film. Originally a commissioned work by the Lutheran Society, The Amusement Park was shelved for its terrifying depiction of elder abuse. The film will premiere on Shudder on June 8. Over at Ecstatic Static,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Martha Stewart in In A Lonely Place. Actress Martha Stewart, best known for playing Mildred Atkinson in Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1950), has died. Check out the new website for listings resource Screen Slate! The website now has sections for specially curated listings and articles, as well as a store featuring surveys and readers. Joaquin Phoenix is officially joining the cast of Ari Aster's next film, Disappointment Blvd. Produced by A24, the film reportedly is “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” Recommended VIEWINGLingua Franca director Isabel Sandoval's short film Shang-ri Lais the latest of Miu Miu's Women's Tales, now playing on Mubi. The sensual story takes place in California during the Great Depression, and depicts a Filipino farmhand whose strong feelings...

In Kitty Green’s The Assistant, 24 hours of workplace mistreatment culminate in an assistant named Jane (Julia Garner) taking action into her own hands. The nexus of this toxic workplace is an abusive misogynist whose face is never shown—an amorphous representation of the countless powerful men who have sexually abused the women who work for them. Co-editor Blair McClendon shares insight on his collaborative process and editing goals for The Assistant. (Disclosure: Filmmaker Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay is one of the producers of The Assistant.) Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were […]...

In Kitty Green’s The Assistant, 24 hours of workplace mistreatment culminate in an assistant named Jane (Julia Garner) taking action into her own hands. The nexus of this toxic workplace is an abusive misogynist whose face is never shown—an amorphous representation of the countless powerful men who have sexually abused the women who work for them. Co-editor Blair McClendon shares insight on his collaborative process and editing goals for The Assistant. (Disclosure: Filmmaker Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay is one of the producers of The Assistant.) Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were […]...

There’s no need to be afraid, the latest Indie Beat is ready to be played. Today we have on Blair McClendon, filmmaker, and editor.

McClendon began his film studies at the New York University graduate program and it was there that he met some of his current collaborators. He soon found himself experimenting by repurposing video, taking other forms of media, remixing and rearranging or adding other elements to change their meaning and context entirely.

Continue reading Director Blair McClendon Talks ‘America for Americans’ [Indie Beat Podcast] at The Playlist.

Dev Patel directs Armie Hammer in a stylish dark comedy. Don Hertzfeldt delivers a second installment of his award-winning animated saga. And Dime Davis documents artist Mark Bradford’s creativity in action. These are just a few of the treats to be found among the 69 live action, animated, and documentary shorts playing the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

The Sundance programmers whittled the 69 official selections from 8,740 submissions (down 245 from the previous year). Making the cut were several shorts with recognizable talent in front of the lens: Simon Helberg and Brett Gelman suffer through an unbalanced relationship in Jessica Sander’s two-hander “End of the Line,” Lakeith Stanfield plays himself in Shaka King’s “Lazercism,” and Armie Hammer undertakes a supporting role as a television huckster in Dev Patel’s “Home Shopper.”

Read More:Sundance 2018: 21 Must-See Films At This Year’s Festival, From ‘Wildlife’ to ‘Sorry to Bother You’

IndieWire previewed 47 films available...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize, awarded to one film in the program of 68 shorts selected from 8,985 submissions, went to “And so we put goldfish in the pool.”, written and directed by Makoto Nagahisa. Full video of the ceremony is at youtube.com/sff. The Short Film program is presented by YouTube.Broken — The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck

The short film program at the Festival is the centerpiece of Sundance Institute’s year-round efforts to support short filmmaking. Select Festival short films are presented as a traveling program at over 50 theaters in the U.S. and Canada each year, and short films and filmmakers take part in regional Master Classes geared towards supporting emerging shorts-makers in several cities. Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in partnership with The Guardian and The New York Times’ Op-Docs, provides grants to...

Sundance Institute announced winners of the 2017 jury prizes in short filmmaking at a ceremony on Wednesday in Park City.

The short film grand jury prize went to Makoto Nagahisa’s And So We Put Goldfish In The Pool, about 400 fish found in the pool of a secondary school.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction went to Anu Valia’s Lucia, Before And After, in which a young woman awaits an abortion in Texas.

The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction went to And The Whole Sky Fit In The Dead Cow’s Eye (Chile-usa) from Francisca Alegría, which follows a woman visited by a ghost she believes has come to take her to the afterlife.

Garrett Bradley’s Alone (USA) took the Short Film Jury Award: Non-Fiction and investigates mass incarceration and its impact on the modern black American family.

The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to: Broken: The Women’s Prison At Hoheneck...