News

The documentary awards race always begins at Sundance, where “Flee” (Neon) and “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight) broke out as Oscar frontrunners; Tribeca debuted high-profile “The Lost Leonardo” (Sony Pictures Classics) and “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” (Focus), while Todd Haynes’ “Velvet Underground” (AppleTV+) and “Val” (A24/Amazon) played well at Cannes.

Every September, the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup introduces more top non-fiction titles to the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without many clear frontrunners, TIFF’s influence will be greater than ever. In the good old days when the TIFF selection was a sprawling smorgasbord, Thom Powers lead the TIFF documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. In the slimmed-down pandemic era, his team had to winnow TIFF Docs down to 13 features (announced so far)..

“Every year it’s a painful part of the process,” Powers told IndieWire, who is able...

Eva Orner’s Burning, about Australia’s devastating ‘Black Summer’, will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

Produced by Propagate Content, Dirty Films and Amazon Studios, the film marks Amazon’s first feature-length Australian documentary commission. To screen as part of the TIFF Docs strand, it explores what happened during the 2019 and 2020 bushfires from the perspective of victims, activists and scientists, as well as the lack of political will to address climate change.

In addition to directing, Orner executive produces alongside Cate Blanchett.

The LA-based Australian director won an Oscar for producing Alex Gibney’s 2008 doc Taxi To The Dark Side. Her credits also include Chasing Asylum, which tackled Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and The Network, a behind-the-scenes look at the largest TV network in Afghanistan.

Burning is one of two Australian films selected for this year’s TIFF,...

The Toronto International Film Festival announced which films will fill the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, and Wavelength sections at this year’s edition of the event, which runs from Sept. 9-18. The festival also added new titles to the Special Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema programs.

Opening TIFF Docs is the world premiere of “Attica” by Stanley Nelson, which tells the story of the 1971 Attica prison riot. Coming about as a result of the prisoners’ fight for more humane living conditions and lasting for five days, it remains the deadliest prison rebellion in U.S. history.

Wavelengths will open with “Neptune Frost” from directors and married couple Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. The film is billed a sci-fi musical romance between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner that will follow the “virtual marvel born as a result of their union.” This marks the North American premiere of the film,...

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...

Titles include a new film from ‘Host’ director Rob Savage.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has added 35 feature titles to its line-up for 2021, predominantly across the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.

The new titles include 11 world premieres, consisting of eight in TIFF Docs and three in Midnight Madness.

Titles in the latter include Dashcam, the new film from Rob Savage, director of 2020 pandemic horror hit Host. Savage was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2013.

Also in the Midnight Madness section is Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother, inspired by the mythology of the Changeling, which...

Toronto International Film Festival announced its section of TIFF Docs presented by A&e IndieFilms, Wavelengths and Midnight Madness sections, and confirmed additions to the Special Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema programs of the fest.

“We’re so proud to present the films selected for the popular programmes TIFF Docs, Wavelengths and Midnight Madness,” stated Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head. “Always provocative, exhilarating and engaging, this year’s offerings are guaranteed to thrill Festival audiences.”

“​A​s an audience-first ​film ​festival​, mesmerizing​ film lovers with boundary-pushing stories is pivotal,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head. “​​​It’s exciting that even in this exceptional time in our industry, we’re able to bring such​ ​thought-provoking selections​​ to these coveted TIFF programmes.”

Of note today in the lineup is the international premiere of National Geographic’s documentary Becoming Cousteau from two-time Oscar-nominated and two-time Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (The Farm, Angola USA,...

Gold Derby can exclusively reveal that Giancarlo Esposito is entering “The Mandalorian” episode “The Rescue” as his 2021 Emmy Awards submission for Best Drama Supporting Actor. If you want to know what to watch on Disney+ this weekend, it’s an important episode to see (or revisit) because all Emmy voters promise to watch it before they check off their ballots.

It’s rare that sci-fi or fantasy genres get the appreciation they deserve at those snobbish industry awards like the Emmys and the Oscars, but “The Mandalorian” pulled off a supernova blast with this year’s Emmy nominations, earning 24. Even better: Those bids were spread over all the key categories you usually need to nab if you want to win Best Drama Series. Believe it or not, “The Crown” can be toppled.

Esposito’s episode “The Rescue” streamed December 18 and was the eighth episode of the second season for the Disney+ show.

“Deadwood.” “Justified.” “Santa Clarita Diet.” The list of TV shows that should have won Timothy Olyphant an Emmy Award seems to grow every year. Now the actor is back in the awards conversation thanks to his guest stint on “The Mandalorian,” for which he played Cobb Vanth in the Season 2 premiere episode, “The Marshal.” Olyphant received his third career Emmy nomination this year after previously earning bids for “Justified” (Best Drama Actor) and “Deadwood” (Best TV Movie). Might he finally win?

SEEWith Emmy nomination for ‘The Mandalorian,’ Giancarlo Esposito matches record set by Jonathan Banks

In the episode, Pedro Pascal‘s titular Mandalorian character travels to the Outer Rim in an effort to seek out others of his kind, which is where he comes into contact with Cobb Vanth. At first Mando believes the Tatooine marshal is a tried-and-true Mandalorian (as he’s wearing Boba Fett’s iconic armor), but...

Luke Skywalker’s climactic surprise arrival in The Mandalorian Season 2 finale delivered an exhilarating moment for Star Wars fans during a saturated era of multimedia offerings. Yet, the scene—conjuring a Return of the Jedi era Mark Hamill—was merely the latest example from Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic of digital de-aging technology, with which it previously wowed moviegoers in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. However, impressive as it may have been, the execution clearly wasn’t perfect; a notion subsequently driven home by a YouTuber who created a more-impressive deepfake version of the Luke scene. The folks at Lucasfilm seem to agree with that assessment, since they’ve hired the creator.

The YouTuber, who goes by “Shamook,” revealed in a video comment that a mysterious recent drought of content on the channel was attributed to having been hired by Star Wars, stating, “As some of you may already know,...

Columbia Pictures’ “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” hopped up to second in China this weekend, but was unable to scurry past local sports drama “Never Stop” despite an extra day’s lead.

“Peter Rabbit 2” grossed a relatively unremarkable $969,000 (RMB6.2 million) on opening day Friday but managed to pull in $7.8 million from 10,500 screens over the three-day holiday weekend, according to data from ticketing agency Maoyan. Monday marks the national Chinese holiday of the Dragon Boat Festival, and will likely bringing further sales for the family-friendly film. Based on early estimates, Sony projects that it will gross $11.1 million by the end of the extended four-day weekend — putting it 15% ahead of recent comp “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

Its total performance may not, however, be enough for the sequel to best the first film’s $26.3 million China cumulative back in 2018. Maoyan currently predicts “Peter Rabbit 2” will gross a total of $18.9 million in the territory.

The Mandalorian The Rescue Review — Disney+‘s The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 8: The Rescue TV Show Review. The Rescue may be the best episode of The Mandalorian to-date. If it isn’t the best episode in its entirety, it certainly has the best ending. The Rescue‘s ending is emotional and satisfying, ending [...]

Continue reading: TV Review: The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 8: The Rescue [Disney+]...

The Rescue is the first film to showcase the China Rescue & Salvage (Crs), a lesser-known division of the Chinese Coast Guard. Founded in 1951, the unit is charged with responding to all maritime emergencies on Chinese waters, which range from shipwreck salvage missions to marine firefighting.

The film will hit theaters across the US December 18.

Boasting one of the biggest budgets ever for a Chinese film at $100 million, the stunt- and pyrotechnic-filled spectacle features an A-list Hollywood production team that includes Academy Award-winning cinematographer Peter Pau, production designer Martin Laing and special effects supervisor John Frazier. The film also stars major Chinese and Taiwanese talent, including Eddie Peng (“The Great Wall”), Wang Yanlin, Xin Zhilei, and Lan Yingying (“Pacific Rim Uprising”).

Check out the official trailer here:...

We’ve now got just a few days left of November, so it’s time to take a look ahead at everything that’s headed to the major streaming networks in December. As it’s Christmas, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Prime Video have extra special hauls ready to gift to their subscribers this holiday season, with literally hundreds of new movies and TV shows dropping over the course of the month.

All the various sites – excepting Disney Plus – are serving up a ton of newly licensed films on December 1st. Netflix, for instance, is adding such classics as E.T., Little Nicky and the first three Jurassic Parks. Meanwhile, HBO Max is offering up The Shawshank Redemption, Shaun of the Dead and a bunch of Final Destinations, while Hulu and Prime Video, which share a lot of the same movies, are treating users to a host of iconic...

Chinese action film “The Rescue” has pulled forward its local and international release plans. It will now go out in a plum pre-Christmas slot on Dec. 18 in mainland China, North America and major English-language territories.

The $80 million tentpole is directed by Hong Kong’s Dante Lam, who previously delivered a slew of other muscular and highly successful patriotic Chinese movies, including “Operation Mekong” and “Operation Red Sea.”

“The Rescue” takes a less military tone and instead focuses on China’s lavishly-equipped civilian Coast Guard. The story takes in multiple air, sea and mountain rescues, with Lam ambitiously aiming to deliver five action movies for the price of one ticket.

Production locations include the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, while the major rescue scenes at sea lensed in the large filming tanks at the Baja Studios in Mexico, where “Titanic” was shot.

In the lead role as the captain of an...

Tencent Pictures, the film production arm of mainland Chinese tech giant Tencent, last week unveiled a slate of 43 new pictures.

A large chunk of the new titles is “main melody” or unabashedly patriotic works. But another category of Tencent’s projects fall under the heading “Eastern Stories.”

Among the more notable works are 2021 actioner “Raging Fire” starring Donnie Yen, the last film from Hong Kong director Benny Chan, who died of cancer in August; “The Eleventh Chapter,” a family comedy starring and directed by Chen Jianbin (“A Cool Fish”) set to release later this year; and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” a romance starring “The Wandering Earth” lead Qu Chuxiao from first-time director Sha Mo.

There’s also “God Does Not Play Dice With the Universe,” an intriguing first feature from newcomer Wen Shipei billed by Tencent as “a Chinese version of ‘No Country for Old Men,’” starring two Taiwanese leads,...

Patriotic omnibus is now the third biggest worldwide grosser this year.

Patriotic omnibus My People, My Homeland added a further $19.1m at the China box office last weekend (October 16-18) to reach a cumulative total of $360.3m, according to figures from Artisan Gateway.

Compared to figures published by Box Office Mojo, that result would make the film the third biggest worldwide grosser this year, behind Chinese war epic The Eight Hundred ($441.7m) and Sony’s Bad Boys For Life ($426.5m).

Wang Danyang’s romantic drama The Story Of Xo Bao came in second over its opening weekend, grossing $5.6m over three days.

Back when Chinese developers were building cinemas at the rate of 10,000 screens per year, a favorite guessing game of distribution executives was trying to determine when China’s theatrical box office would overtake that of North America.

That scenario hasn’t happened yet. Last year, China’s box office growth slowed to a pedestrian 5% and reached a $9 billion total, according to the Motion Picture Association. Meanwhile, grosses in North America slipped 4% but still remained over $11 billion.

The turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown orders and increasingly powerful streamers, however, is changing the odds. As U.S. cinema closures stretch on, it increasingly appears that 2020 could be the year the box office crown finally crosses from West to East — albeit not for reasons anyone would have initially imagined.

Even among China bulls, box office dominance was not an outcome expected this year. In January, Alibaba’s Beacon analysis tool was...

Universal’s Dolittle and Sony’s Bloodshot are both scheduled to open this weekend.

China’s theatrical market showed its first signs of life in nearly six months on Monday (July 20), the day on which authorities finally allowed cinemas to reopen in “low-risk areas” across the country.

Total box office had surpassed $460,000 (RMB3.22m) as of 17:00 local time, with Lina Wang’s award-winning A First Farewell, a coming-of-age story set among the Uyghur community, topping the chart with $160,000 (RMB1.1m).

Most of the other films opening today are rereleases, including US titles Coco, The Pursuit Of Happyness and A Dog’s Purpose,...

China’s Cmc Pictures will bring a line-up of five titles to the Cannes virtual market this year, including “Assassin in Red,” a major blockbuster set to hit next Chinese New Year.

The firm will be selling global rights outside of China and Southeast Asia to the fantasy drama directed by Lu Yang and executive produced by Ning Hao (“Crazy Alien”).

The film, whose Mandarin title translates to “Assassinate the Novelist,” tells the story of a man who, in order to save his missing daughter, is tasked with killing a writer whose writing creates a parallel world that begins to interact with the real one.

The title reunites “Brotherhood of Blades II” stars Yang Mi (“Tiny Times”) and Lei Jiayin (“The Longest Day in Chang’an”), alongside Golden Horse Award winner Dong Zijiang (of Jia Zhangke’s “Mountains May Depart” and “Ash is Purest White”).

Cmc also brings two of its...

First, there was the popular video — a mini-movie, really — for his hit single, ''Smuggler's Blues.'' Then there was his well-received guest spot as a seedy pilot on the Miami Vice episode based on the same song. And now, Glenn Frey, the singer-composer who continues to soar on the charts long after leaving The Eagles, has a key supporting role in a feature film: "Let's Get Harry," an action-adventure set to open Friday nationwide. What's next? The romantic lead in a Hollywood blockbuster? “If I could stretch that far,” Frey said a few days ago in his Inn on the Park suite, “I would like that. But with my limited experience in this field, I'm looking for safe parts right now. I don't want to overextend myself, or have a French accent, or do something I might not be able to handle at this early stage of my acting development.

Like mother, like daughter!Molly Ringwald took to Twitter on Tuesday to share a sweet snapshot of her daughter Mathilda, standing next to a cardboard cutout of her "Sixteen Candles" character, Samantha Baker. "She can't escape her mom, even when "back to school" shopping at Target," she wrote with the cute candid.In the pic, the 10-year-old is posing just like her famous mama, even rocking the same body language as the fan-favorite teenager. It's hard to believe that it's been 30 years since Sam Baker's family forgot about her birthday in the 80's cult classic.  While Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, John Cusack, Liane Curtis and even the guy who played Long Duk Dong have all enjoyed steady success in entertainment, Michael Schoeffling (aka Jake Ryan) disappeared. The dreamy actor was 23 when he played the sweet high school jock, and he continued to steal hearts in films like "Mermaids" and...

It's been 30 years since Sam Baker's family forgot about her birthday in "Sixteen Candles," and just as long since Jake Ryan stole all our collective hearts.But in the years following the film's release, the actor who played him all but vanished.While Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, John Cusack, Liane Curtis and even the guy who played Long Duk Dong have all enjoyed steady success in entertainment, Michael Schoeffling disappeared.See how the entire cast -- sans Michael -- have all aged in the gallery above. Plus, see what they're doing now.As for Schoeffling, let's dig a little deeper.The dreamy actor was 23 when he played the sweet high school jock in "Sixteen Candles," and continued to smolder in films like "Mermaids" and "Let's Get Harry" before his final role in 1991's "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken."The actor then left Hollywood behind and raised two children,...

Yes, it is truly I, Alan Smithee, the director of memorable films such as Beach Cops, Street Walkers 3, Fugitives Run, Woman Wanted, Hellraiser Bloodline, Raging Angels, Bloodsucking Pharaohs In Pittsburgh, Let's Get Harry, and the edited-for-television versions of Heat, Dune, and Rudy. As my name occupies the most ignominious artistic status in Hollywood circles, I have nothing to lose or fear in discussing the fine art of negative campaigning associated with the Academy Awards. No matter what I say or do, those studios always come back for more of that distinctive Smithee directorial genius!

To start, let's take a look back at a few of the more memorable attempts at keeping Oscars away from potential recipients. This is far from comprehensive.

1942

William Randolph Hearst was so enraged by his loose depiction in Citizen Kane that he used the full extent of his media empire to wage war against the film and Orson Welles.

Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg will make his directorial debut on And So It Goes from a script he wrote. The project, out to financiers and producers, is aiming for a spring start. Although Rosenberg has become known for writing such high-octane scripts as Con Air and Gone in 60 Seconds, his directorial debut will take him back to his earlier material like Beautiful Girls. Goes is set in New England and will carry with it a theme of friendship and the passing of time. The project, described as Beautiful Girls meets The Hours meets About a Boy, is about how the appearance of a couple of children causes an underachiever to revisit his relationship with his best friend -- the kids' father -- who has since passed away. CAA, which reps Rosenberg, is helping to package the project. The scribe is continuing with his writing, having recently signed on to script the animated DreamWorks feature Rex Havoc. He also will be co-writing Columbia Pictures' remake of Let's Get Harry and Universal Pictures' remake of The Sentinel. Rosenberg most recently wrote and executive produced the Showtime drama Going to California and co-wrote this year's Warner Bros. Pictures comedy Kangaroo Jack.

Columbia Pictures will remake the 1986 TriStar actioner Let's Get Harry, which Neal Moritz will produce through his studio-based Original Films. Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg is writing the remake with Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who worked together on the Rosenberg-executive-produced Showtime series Going to California. The original Harry stars Mark Harmon as an American engineer taken hostage and held for ransom in the jungles of South America along with an American ambassador. A group of men -- played by Robert Duvall and Gary Busey, among others -- set out to rescue him. The new version will center on a group of men going to rescue their buddy, who has been taken hostage, despite others urging them to forget it because he may not even be alive anymore. Moritz is producing the project, with Original executive Tania Landau overseeing. Columbia's Matt Tolmach and Rachel O'Connor are the executives on the project. Rosenberg, repped by CAA, has written such films as Kangaroo Jack, Con Air, Gone in Sixty Seconds and Beautiful Girls. Appelbaum and Nemec, repped by Endeavor, were most recently writers and producers on television's Fastlane. Other credits include TV's She Spies, The Chronicle and Profiler. All three writers are also repped by Offer Webber and Dern Llp.