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Jonathan Majors‘ violent bodybuilding drama “Magazine Dreams” is heading to market for international sales for the first time ahead of its U.S. release on March 21 via Briarcliff Entertainment.

Celsius Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to the film, written and directed by Elijah Bynum and starring Majors alongside Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Mike O’Hearn.

“Magazine Dreams” centres on Killian Maddox (Majors), a man consumed by his dream of becoming a world famous bodybuilder and one day gracing the cover of fitness magazines. He lives a lonely regimented life and his relentless drive for perfection only pushes him deeper towards self destruction. But beneath his tenacious pursuit of superstardom lies a desperate aching need for human connection. As he battles both the limits of his physical body and his own inner demons, the film explores the lengths one man will go in his haunting quest for...

When the Donald Trump-Roy Cohn buddy movie The Apprentice finally makes it to U.S. movie theaters Friday after a rocky journey, it will be thanks in part to a man who has been shepherding controversial films since Trump was just another New York tycoon on the make.

Tom Ortenberg, the 64-year-old founder of indie distributor Briarcliff Entertainment, closed a deal for the domestic rights to The Apprentice on Aug. 30, just barely in time to get the movie into theaters before the election. Despite a successful Cannes premiere, Ortenberg was the only serious bidder on The Apprentice, and he waited months as producers bought out one of the movie’s financiers, billionaire investor and Trump friend Dan Snyder, who objected to the former president’s portrayal. In The Apprentice — a villain’s origin story directed by Ali Abbasi and written by journalist Gabriel Sherman — Sebastian Stan plays Trump...

“Midas Man,” an upcoming drama about Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who helped turn the Beatles into the biggest thing in pop culture, has sold North American distribution rights to Briarcliff Entertainment. The company will distribute the movie in collaboration with Studio Pow and American Entertainment Investors. It stars Jacob Fortune-Lloyd of “The Queen’s Gambit” as Epstein. The film is directed by Joe Stephenson (“Doctor Jekyll”).

Briarcliff plans to release the film in more than 800 theaters nationwide in the fall. “Midas Man” is set against the backdrop of the 1960s, and explores Epstein’s genius and talent, as well as his ambition and his personal struggle for self-acceptance. Born into a family of furniture retailers, Epstein’s passion for music and ability to spot talent led him to discover the Fab Four and helped launch them into the musical stratosphere. The film’s ensemble also includes Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan,...

Is the Saudi-Hollywood love affair back on?

Judging by the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, which wrapped on Dec. 9, the answer is yes. A parade of stars including Will Smith, Michelle Williams, Chris Hemsworth, Johnny Depp and Halle Berry made the pilgrimage to Jeddah even as the Israel-Hamas conflict raged just 700 miles north.

This year’s guest list signals a dramatic reversal in relations from five years ago, when Hollywood’s outrage campaign was in full swing following the murder of The Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi government agents. In the aftermath, WME’s Ari Emanuel cut ties with the kingdom, returning its $400 million investment just six months after courting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Los Angeles.

While enticing big-name talent this year generated positive publicity, the real Saudi mandate is to diversify the country’s economy beyond oil,...

Oscar-winning documentarian Bryan Fogel has signed for representation with Range Media Partners.

Fogel is best known for his 2018 film “Icarus,” which exposed Russia’s state-sponsored doping program and the whistleblower at its center. The Netflix title won the Academy Award for best documentary, the first such prize for the streamer. Prior to its crowning moment on the Dolby stage, the film sold for $5 million out of the Sundance Film Festival.

Additional laurels for “Icarus” included the special jury prize at that year’s Sundance, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Journalism, and nominations from BAFTA, the television academy and the Directors Guild of America.

Fogel followed “Icarus” with the nonfiction thriller “The Dissident,” about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. “The Dissident” premiered at Sundance 2020 to near-unanimous critical acclaim and sold distribution rights to Briarcliff Entertainment. In his review for Variety,...

Alexander Rodnyansky, the Oscar-nominated producer behind “Leviathan” and “Loveless,” has boarded “The Dissident,” a Cold War drama that follows a former Ukrainian resistance fighter trying to rebuild his life after his release from a Soviet prison camp.

The film marks the fiction feature debut of directors Andriy Alferov, a renowned Ukrainian film critic, and Stas Gurenko, a veteran commercial and music video director. Rodnyansky is producing alongside Oleksandr Omelyanov.

Set in 1960s Ukraine, at a time when many in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc were re-evaluating the socialist system, pic follows Oleg, a former soldier in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought against both Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union for Ukrainian independence during World War II. After an amnesty deal is reached, Oleg is released from prison camp and returns to Ukraine, where he tries but fails to find his place in peacetime society.

Though based on historical events,...

Five years ago, Bryan Fogel stumbled into a story that would change his life and help transform the world of international athletics. “Icarus” started as Fogel’s attempt to document whether he could use illegal doping to improve his results as an amateur cyclist. But it turned into something very different when the scientist he went to for advice on how to not be caught, Grigory Rodchenkov, turned out to be a key figure in Russia’s extensive, state-sponsored doping program.

“Icarus” won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, and by the time it came out, Rodchenkov was in hiding in the U.S. and Russia was under investigation by international doping authorities who would ban the country from the 2018 Winter Olympics and subsequent Olympic games (though the band would contain enormous loopholes).

But the story didn’t end there, and Fogel unveiled a sequel, “Icarus: The Aftermath,” on the...

Robin Smith joins company as head of factual content.

Toronto-based distributor levelFILM has acquired KinoSmith and signed a multi-year partnership with Blue Ice Documentary Fund (Bid) to manage the Bid library and partner on new acquisitions.

The transaction will enable the companies to build a more robust distribution partnership for Bid factual production investments. As part of the deal, the KinoSmith library of content and former KinoSmith president and current CEO of Blue Ice Docs Robin Smith will join the levelFILM team.

Smith will act as the company’s head of factual content and oversee the combined entity’s library of documentaries,...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment and levelFILM have struck a multi-year partnership for the Canadian distributor to handle all of Greenwich’s films in Canada starting with the upcoming release of Ebs Burnough’s The Capote Tapes, which explores the explosive unpublished novel Answered Prayers by Truman Capote.

The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, its U.S. premiere at Doc NYC and Greenwich is releasing the film in theaters on September 10.

Founded in 2017, Greenwich is led by Co-Presidents Ed Arentz and Andy Bohn and has grown into one of the leading U.S. distributors of arthouse films and documentaries.

Greenwich handled the record-setting theatrical release of Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi’s Academy Award-Winning documentary Free Solo, which grossed more thhan $17M at the North American box office.

Other Greenwich releases include Andrew Slater’s Echo in the Canyon, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My...

Guild will announce nominees on January 27 2022.

The 74th annual Writers Guild Awards will take place on March 20 2022 honouring film and TV among other categories.

Submissions opened for all categories today (September 7) and the deadline for the three film categories is December 17.

Online voting for features runs from January 12-26 2022 and the WGA will announce the nominees on January 27. The deadline for final online voting on the feature categories is February 16.

In order to be eligible, films must screen in a cinema in Los Angeles for one week from March 1-December 31 2021. Documentary contenders may screen in Los Angeles or New York.

After making its debut on the Croisette in 2018, Saudi Arabia is back in Cannes.

The kingdom has a national pavilion promoting the launch of a high-profile film festival on the Red Sea, and is looking to lure more international productions to come shoot in AlUla, a sprawling area of desert and giant boulders that boasts an ancient city.

Since Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinema in 2017, the kingdom has experienced a boom in all aspects of film industry activity, recently becoming the Middle East’s top-grossing territory in terms of theatrical box office returns.

But Saudi’s ambitions to build a film industry have been hindered by the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and reports that appear to implicate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the assassination that prompted media companies from the U.S. and elsewhere to clam up.

Is that changing? The Saudi presence at...

More than half of invitees hail from 49 countries outside the US.

The UK’s Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell and One Night In Miami star Kingsley Ben-Adir and Bulgarian Borat 2 breakout Maria Bakalova are among a new class of 395 talent and executives invited to join the Academy.

The new intake announced on Thursday (July 1) comprises 46% women, 39% from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and more than half (53%) of invitees hailing from 49 countries outside the US.

Besides Promising Young Woman writer-director Fennell and Ben-Adir, UK talent includes the upcoming star of The Batman, Robert Pattinson, as well as Borat 2...

Climate protection, the growing threats to ocean life, the FBI’s smear campaign against Martin Luther King Jr. and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi death squad are just some of the wide-ranging topics examined at this year’s Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox), which kicks off Wednesday.

Since its establishment in 2003, the fest has straddled the sectors of film, politics, art and science like few others.

Among this year’s highlights are Phie Ambo’s opening film “70/30,” an up-close look at the combined efforts to pass Denmark’s landmark climate law, and fellow Danish filmmaker Robin Petré’s “From the Wild Sea,” which follows a team of volunteers in northern Europe struggling to save animals suffering from human-made catastrophes, from oil-covered swans and stranded whales to starving seals with stomachs full of plastic.

Also screening is Bryan Fogel’s acclaimed work on Khashoggi’s barbaric assassination,...

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” got a big boost in its bid for Best Editing at the Oscars with a win at the Ace Golden Eddie Awards on April 17. It prevailed in the drama race at these awards bestowed by American Cinema Editors over two of its Oscar rivals — “Nomadland” and “Sound of Metal” — as well as “Mank” and “Minari.”

Another of the Oscar nominees, “Promising Young Woman,” lost the comedy/musical category to “Palm Springs.” The other contenders in that race were “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “I Care a Lot” and “On the Rocks.”

Oscar watchers were sure to be watching Saturday’s virtual ceremony. These kudos have previewed of the 18 out of the last 30 Best Picture winners and a whopping 22 of the last 30 Film Editing Oscar champs. Not surprisingly, the Golden Eddies are also prescient when it comes to predicting the five Film Editing Oscar slots. Four of...

The American Cinema Editors guild, which hands out its awards on April 17, has a good track record as a preview of the Oscar winner for Best Picture (18 out of the last 30) and a great one for forecasting who will win the Film Editing Oscar (22 of the last 30). Not surprisingly, it is also fairly prescient when it comes to predicting the five Film Editing Oscar slots. Four of this year’s Academy Awards nominees contend for this cutting prize; “The Father” was snubbed by the American Cinema Editors.

The Ace Eddie Awards divide their prizes for editing between dramas and comedies/musicals. Oscar nominees “Nomadland,” “Sound of Metal and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” contend here in the drama race, which is rounded out by “Mank” and “Minari.” Facing off on the comedy side against Oscar nominee “Promising Young Woman” are “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “I Care a Lot,” “On the Rocks” and “Palm Springs.

The Ee BAFTA Film Awards officially took place on 11 April 2021, just a few months ahead of the television awards ceremony, which will be held later this year. On 9 March, the nominees for each film category were announced, including the highly anticipated Rising Star award, which previously saw Top Boy star Michael Ward take the win back in 2020.

Strong contenders for this year's awards ceremony included Nomadland and coming-of-age drama Rocks both with seven nominations, followed by Minari with six total nominations. Riz Ahmed's Sound of Metal was nominated for three awards, including a nomination for Ahmed himself as best actor.

On 10 April, a number of the award winners, including casting, costume design, and British short animation, were announced in a small ceremony hosted by Clara Amfo.

Check out the full list of winners ahead.

Best Film

Winner: Nomadland

The Father

The Mauritanian

Promising Young Woman

The Trial of the...

The second night of Ee British Academy Film Awards followed a Saturday showing that revealed the Brit voting body’s picks for crafts prizes and other below-the-line honors. Sunday night’s show was hosted by Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary. See the full list of winners below.

Big winners on Sunday include Best Picture “Nomadland” and Best Actress Frances McDormand, Best Actor Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Best Director Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland,” Daniel Kaluuya for Best Supporting Actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Yuh-Jung Youn for Best Supporting Actress for “Minari,” “My Octopus Teacher” for Best Documentary, “Another Round” for Best Film Not in the English Language, “Soul” for Best Animated Film, and “Promising Young Woman” and “The Father” for screenplay prizes.

On Sunday, Hugh Grant presented the BAFTA Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest honor, to Ang Lee in a moving and witty tribute.

The first night...

Today’s show is being broadcast with a time delay on BBC One at 19:00 UK time.

The Bafta Film Awards 2021 main show is taking place today (April 11) from London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Scroll down for latest winners

An audience will not be present and winners will receive their awards virtually due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

For the first time, the awards are being handed out across two nights. Saturday’s ceremony (April 10) focused on the craft awards.

Today’s show started at 16:15pm UK time, and is being broadcast with a time delay on BBC One starting...

After being branded as “the enemy of the people” in recent years, both here and in some other countries, journalists may be surprised to find themselves portrayed as heroes in a number of recent documentaries, including an Oscar-contending film.

Collective, the Romanian film nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Film, centers in large part on reporter Catalin Tolontan, who exposed a shocking corruption scandal precipitated by a deadly fire at a Bucharest nightclub. Tolontan and his colleagues got to the bottom of why burn victims kept mysteriously dying in Romanian hospitals in the weeks and months after the blaze.

“These journalists,” notes director Alexander Nanau, “were the only ones who started to investigate all the lies and the manipulation within the health care system and the political class.”

Tolontan’s investigation uncovered a scheme by a pharmaceutical company to sell secretly diluted disinfectant to hospitals. The weakened cleaning...

The past year in lockdown may make the idea of a comedy about being stuck in an endlessly repeating loop feel a little too close to home, but Palm Springs starring Andy Samburg and Cristin Milioti, which arrives on Friday the 9th of April, is fresh and funny and well worth your time. For something more serious and very well regarded, there’s Sound of Metal on Monday the 12th, starring Riz Ahmed as a heavy metal drummer losing his hearing. And if lockdown’s simply been too much fun and you need bringing back down to earth with a bleak tale of German teenage drug addiction, there’s We Children from Bahnhof Zoo.

Add to that weekly episodes of animated superhero series Invincible, out on Fridays, an intriguing looking US horror anthology called Them (previously: Them: Covenant) arriving on the 9th, and an Italian-made biographical series about Leonardo da Vinci...

New Delhi, March 27 (Ians) The Dharamshala International Film Festival (Diff) will launch its year-round programme for 2021 online with the 'Diff Virtual Viewing Room: Films from the Oscar Season' for one week from April 2 to April 8 in collaboration with Gratitude Films Inc.

This selection of six films, curated by Anu Rangachar, are the official entries to the 2021 Oscars with some of them being shortlisted and nominated.

The lineup includes 'Apples', 'Atlantis', 'The Dissident', 'Night of the Kings', 'Quo Vadis, Aida?', and 'Two of Us'.

The question and answer sessions will include a conversation between journalist Rana Ayyub and Oscar winning director Bryan Fogel, writer and film critic Aseem Chhabra in conversation with Greek director Christos Nikou.

Talking about the collaboration, Rangachar, who launched her company during the pandemic, said, "I am excited to be collaborating towards this programme of the Diff Virtual Viewing Room...

When “My Octopus Teacher” won the Producers Guild Award for Best Documentary on March 24, I started to wonder if that clears the path to it winning the Oscar. It’s an emotional, heartwarming film about nature, and feel-good movies sometimes have an advantage over investigative docs and grittier subjects.

First, it must be acknowledged that the PGA Award often veers wildly from the Oscars. In fact, the last three PGA winners weren’t even nominated by the motion picture academy: “Jane” (2017), “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (2018) and “Apollo 11” (2019). But when an Oscar nominee does win PGA, it tends to win the Oscar too, like “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), “Amy” (2015) and “O.J.: Made in America” (2016) in the last decade. The last time the PGA winner had an Oscar nomination but lost it was Michael Moore‘s “Sicko” (2007), and that was 13 years ago.

SEE4 documentary filmmakers for ‘Crip Camp,’ ‘The Dissident,...

Another guild award is in the books, ladies and gentlemen. The Writers Guild Awards are in the rearview mirror now, with some definite Oscar implications. For one thing, it does really now seem like Emerald Fennell is headed towards an Academy Award for her Promising Young Woman screenplay. She’s almost undoubtedly taken a strong lead over Aaron Sorkin and his script for The Trial of the Chicago 7. On the flip-side, Kemp Powers’ hopes to upset Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland in Best Adapted Screenplay took a hit when One Night in Miami… lost at WGA to Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Could they be in line for another upset? We shall see… Here are all of the winners from the Writers Guild Awards: Film Original Screenplay “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros) – Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King, Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas “Palm Springs...

This year’s Writers Guild Awards were an efficient pre-taped affair (with the two coasts united in one show) perfunctorily hosted by new member Kal Penn. A smattering of Oscar contenders such as Riz Ahmed, Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Odom Jr., and Andra Day joined other celebrities from Daveed Diggs to Jimmy Fallon to present this year’s film and television winners. (You can read the full list of winners here.)

Every year, because the WGA always leaves out non-wga signatories in its award nominations — among them Oscar-contending screenplays — it’s not always as Oscar-predictive as the other Guilds. Last year’s WGA award winners, Taika Waititi and Bong Joon Ho did go on to repeat at the Oscars. Bong won in a category for which Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” wasn’t eligible. (He never joined the WGA.)

This year, there were three ineligible movies...

This year’s Writers Guild Awards were an efficient pre-taped affair (with the two coasts united in one show) perfunctorily hosted by new member Kal Penn. A smattering of Oscar contenders such as Riz Ahmed, Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Odom Jr., and Andra Day joined other celebrities from Daveed Diggs to Jimmy Fallon to present this year’s film and television winners. (You can read the full list of winners here.)

Every year, because the WGA always leaves out non-wga signatories in its award nominations — among them Oscar-contending screenplays — it’s not always as Oscar-predictive as the other Guilds. Last year’s WGA award winners, Taika Waititi and Bong Joon Ho did go on to repeat at the Oscars. Bong won in a category for which Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” wasn’t eligible. (He never joined the WGA.)

This year, there were three ineligible movies...

Virtual ceremony took place on Sunday evening (March 21).

In the latest boost to ascendant campaigns, Emerald Fennell and Sacha Baron Cohen have won top honours at the Writers Guild Of America’s (WGA) awards.

Promising Young Woman writer-director Fennell took the original screenplay award at the virtual 73rd Writers Guild Awards on Sunday (March 21), less than a week after the Focus Features release earned five Oscar nominations including recognition in writing and directing categories.

Baron Cohen led the writing team on Amazon Studios’ Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, whose WGA adapted screenplay win follows Oscar nods for that category and supporting actress.

Defying the odds, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” has just won Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGA Awards. Sacha Baron Cohen‘s popular sequel took down the following four contenders at Sunday’s Writers Guild of America Awards: “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “News of the World” and “The White Tiger.” This line-up only matches three-for-five with the Oscars, where “Ma Rainey” and “News of the World” have been replaced by “Nomadland” and “The Father,” which weren’t eligible at the guild. In other words, “Borat” will face even stiffer competition at the Academy Awards, with “Nomadland” being the favorite to win there.

See 2021 Writers Guild of America Awards: Full list of winners of the 73rd WGA Awards [Updating Live]

“Borat” was actually in third place to win this guild category, according to our odds. The front-runner was “One Night in Miami,” written by Kemp Powers based on his acclaimed play...

Just as Gold Derby predicted, “Promising Young Woman” has won the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay. Emerald Fennell‘s script about a brave barista who seeks revenge on creepy men who take advantage of drunk women at bars beat out the following four films at Sunday’s Writers Guild of America Awards: “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Sound of Metal” and “Palm Springs.” This line-up matches four-for-five with the Oscars, where “Palm Springs” has been replaced by “Minari,” which wasn’t eligible at the guild. Can Fennell continuing her winning ways at next month’s Academy Awards?

SEE2021 Writers Guild of America Awards: Full list of winners of the 73rd WGA Awards [Updating Live]

This was Fennell’s first victory with the Writers Guild. “Promising” took down Gold Derby’s second-place contender “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which tells the true-life story of anti...

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Promising Young Woman” took top narrative film honors on Sunday at the 73rd annual Writers Guild of America Awards.

Kal Penn hosted the virtual presentation that cemented “Borat” and “Promising Young Woman” as among the frontrunners for Oscar screenplay wins next month.

Amazon Studios’ “Borat” prevailed for adapted screenplay for a large contingent of scribes led by star and director Sacha Baron Cohen. Focus Features’ “Promising Young Woman” was recognized for original screenplay with the win for writer-director Emerald Fennell.

Fennell is on a white-hot streak as a writer, director and actor known for her role as Camilla Parker-Bowles on “The Crown,” which won the trophy for drama series. She made a point of noting the importance of the WGA to her career.

Speaking from what she described as her “bleak writer’s room in London,” Fennell told the crowd, “It’s such a big deal...

The 73rd Writers Guild Awards is underway in a virtual ceremony, honoring the best in original and adapted screenplay and documentary, TV, new media, news, radio/audio and promotional writing.

For the first time, in recent history, the awards ceremonies for both WGA West and WGA East will be in lock step as both have been merged tonight in one live stream. Typically, two ceremonies are held separately in both L.A. and NYC at the same time, with both reading off winners at separate times. Quite often, the NY awards ceremony will get ahead of LA’s and announce winners, completely spoiling the suspense for anyone in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

Tonight’s host Kal Penn, clad in a satin purple tux jacket, was live from what looked to be his home. The Harold & Kumar actor mentioned that he just became a WGA member.

“When I joined SAG they just gave me a pin,...

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “Promising Young Woman” were named the best adapted original screenplays of 2021 at the Writers Guild Awards, which took place in a virtual ceremony on Sunday.

While “Promising Young Woman” went into the show with a slight edge over “The Trial of the Chicago 7’ for the original-screenplay award,”Borat” was a decided dark horse in the adapted-screenplay category, whose nominees also included “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “News of the World’ and “The White Tiger.”

Writers Guild winners in the screenplay categories go on to win Oscars almost two-thirds of the time, although the two awards sometimes differ because the WGA is an award strictly for screenplays for movies that were made under the terms of the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement, or similar agreements from a number of international guilds.

This year, those restrictions disqualified three Oscar-nominated screenplays: “Minari” in the Original...

Before the Indie Spirits, before the Oscars, there are the guilds, and as Hollywood inches its way through a protracted awards season, it’s up to each voting body to dole out their own accolades. On Sunday night, it was time for the writers to shine, as the Writers Guild of America presented their awards for film, television, news, and more, all voted on by fellow writers. For writers, by writers!

As IndieWire’s own Anne Thompson has noted, the WGA’s film nominees are less predictive than an indication of what’s losing and gaining heat, from the missing early 2020 releases “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” “The King of Staten Island,” and “Da 5 Bloods,” to such surging movies as “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Sound of Metal,” and “Promising Young Woman,” all of which recently earned Best Picture nods from the Academy.

At the Sunday night event, Emerald Fennell...

The Writers Guild of America Awards were handed during a virtual ceremony on Sunday, March 21. But don’t base your Oscar predictions on these kudos. Every year a slew of Oscar-nominated scripts are deemed ineligible for consideration here due to guild guidelines. Indeed, over the past 12 years only 80 of the Writers Guild of America Awards nominees have numbered among the 120 screenplays that reaped Academy Awards bids. Scroll down for the 2021 Writers Guild of America Awards winners list.

Our odds predict that “Nomadland” will win Best Adapted Screenplay winner at the Oscars but it was not allowed to compete at the WGA Awards. Neither was another Oscar contender in that category: “The Father.” The guild did match the academy three-for-five in this category, with “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “One Night in Miami” and “The White Tiger” competing at both. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “News of the World” round out the guild nominees.

The nominations for the 2021 Ace Eddie Awards announced on Thursday (March 11) include our Oscar frontrunner for Best Film Editing, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” along with three of the other four films we’re predicting to reap bids in that race: “Mank,” “Nomadland” and “Sound of Metal.” While “The Father” was snubbed by the American Cinema Editors we expect it to be the fifth Academy Awards contender.

The Ace Eddie Awards divide their prizes for editing between dramas and comedies/musicals. “Mank,” “Nomadland,” “Sound of Metal and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” contend here in the drama race, which is rounded out by “Minari.” Facing off on the comedy side are “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “I Care a Lot,” “On the Rocks,” “Palm Springs” and “Promising Young Woman.”

In 1992, the Eddies went from three to five nominees (matching that of the Oscars) and in 2000 it split the award in two,...

“Mank,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” have been nominated in the dramatic-film category at the American Cinema Editors’ 71st annual Ace Eddie Awards, which honors the best in film and television editing.

In the comedy film category, the nominees are “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “I Care a Lot,” “On the Rocks,” “Palm Springs” and “Promising Young Woman.”

The films that were bypassed in the Ace nominations include “Tenet,” “News of the World,” “The Father,” “Da 5 Bloods” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Over the past decade, 90% of the Oscar nominees for Best Film Editing have first been nominated by the American Cinema Editors. The Oscar nominees are heavily weighted toward the Ace dramatic category, with 34 nominees coming from that category since 2010, as opposed to 11 nominees from the comedy category.

The Ace Eddies’ animated feature nominations went to “The Croods: A New Age,” “Onward,” “Over the Moon,...

This year’s American Cinema Editors (Ace) nominations include “Nomadland,” “Mank,” “Minari,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of Chicago 7.”

The guild, which will hand out its awards in a virtual ceremony on April 17, has a good track record forecasting the Oscar best picture winner — it has predicted 18 out of the last 29 winners. Last year, best edited feature film – dramatic went to “Parasite’s” Yang Jin-mo, and the film went on to win best picture at the Oscars. It also has a good record for predicting who wins the best editing Oscar — 23 out of the last 29 winners.

Nominees in comedy feature include “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “I Care a Lot,” “On The Rocks” “Palm Springs” and “Promising Young Woman.”

As previously announced, Spike Lee will receive the Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. Editors Lynzee Klingman...

Editors on films ranging from Amazon’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm to Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 have been nominated for the 71st annual Ace Eddie Awards, presented by the American Cinema Editors to recognize the year’s best in picture editing in 14 film, TV and documentary categories.

Winners will be announced during a virtual awards ceremony April 17, where Spike Lee will receive the Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award and Lynzee Klingman and Sidney Wolinsky will receive the group’s Career Achievement Awards.

As for today’s nominees, the marquee film categories are split into Dramatic and Comedy. The former features Chicago 7 along with Netflix’s Mank, A24’s Minari, Searchlight’s Nomadland (edited by writer-director Chloé Zhao) and Amazon’s Sound of Metal. The comedy nominees include Borat, Netflix’s I Care a Lot, Apple’s On the Rocks, Neon/Hulu’s Palm Springs...

Nominees for the 71st annual Ace Eddie Awards include such Best Picture contenders as Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” David Fincher’s monochromatic “Mank,” Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari,” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” (as a comedy), and Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal.”

The awards show will be held live on April 17 at 11:00 a.m. Pt.

Overlooked, though, were “News of the World” (edited by “Argo” Oscar-winner William Goldenberg) and “Tenet,” as well as three Black-led dramas, “Da 5 Bloods,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “One Night in Miami.” However, there’s still the possibility of one or two of these making the final Oscar nominations, along with the buzzy “Minari” and “Promising Young Woman.”

In terms of using the Editing win as an Oscar bellwether for predicting Best Picture, the last time the winners coincided was “Argo” in...

London, March 10: Indian actor Adarsh Gourav has been nominated in the Leading Actor category for his role in The White Tiger at the BAFTA Awards 2021. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced its list of nominees for the year on Tuesday, which includes a record breaking number of female directors.

This year also sees the most diverse set of nominations. Notable nominees include ones in the Leading Actress category for Radha Blank for The Forty-Year-Old Version, Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Film and Dominique Fishback for Judas And The Black Messiah.

In the Leading Actor, Adarsh Gourav will compete with late actor Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Anthony Hopkins for The Father.

The White Tiger also received nomination for Ramin Bahrani in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

Here's the list of the nominees at the upcoming BAFTA awards:

Best Film

The Father

The Mauritanian...

The documentary film community gathered virtually on Facebook Tuesday night to chat and cheer each other on at the annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards. Oscar ballots are due Wednesday at 5pm Pt, and many documentary branch voters were on the livestream.

At the start of the evening, as we waited for the pre-taped presentation to begin, “Crip Camp” nominee Jim Lebrecht congratulated “The Dissident” director Bryan Fogel for his BAFTA nomination that morning. International Documentary Association chief Simon Kilmurry was on the chat, along with Sundance artistic director Tabitha Jackson and Kirsten (Kj) Johnson.

She took home the directing prize for “Dick Johnson is Dead,” one of nine Netflix films nominated and among three winners for the streamer, including “Rolling Thunder Revue” and non-fiction short “Love Song for Latasha.”

Many filmmakers sent in videos introducing themselves, from Martin Scorsese in New York (“Rolling Thunder Revue” won an editing award) and...

The documentary film community gathered virtually on Facebook Tuesday night to chat and cheer each other on at the annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards. Oscar ballots are due Wednesday at 5pm Pt, and many documentary branch voters were on the livestream.

At the start of the evening, as we waited for the pre-taped presentation to begin, “Crip Camp” nominee Jim Lebrecht congratulated “The Dissident” director Bryan Fogel for his BAFTA nomination that morning. International Documentary Association chief Simon Kilmurry was on the chat, along with Sundance artistic director Tabitha Jackson and Kirsten (Kj) Johnson.

She took home the directing prize for “Dick Johnson is Dead,” one of nine Netflix films nominated and among three winners for the streamer, including “Rolling Thunder Revue” and non-fiction short “Love Song for Latasha.”

Many filmmakers sent in videos introducing themselves, from Martin Scorsese in New York (“Rolling Thunder Revue” won an editing award) and...

Shannon Murphy has been nominated for the BAFTA Award for best direction for her debut feature, Babyteeth.

Murphy is in good company, with fellow nominees for the prize including Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round; Lee Issac Chung for Minari; Chloé Zhao for Nomadland; Jasmila Žbanić for Quo Vadis, Aida? and Sarah Gavron for Rocks.

It is the first time in BAFTA history that four women have been nominated in the director category.

These are the first edition of nominations to follow BAFTA’s seven-month diversity review, which came about after it faced significant backlash one year ago for a lack of diversity among nominees – including an all-male director category. Three of the nominated directors are also up for best film not in the English language.

The BAFTA nod is yet another accolade for Babyteeth and Murphy’s work, following on from the film’s premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. There,...

Altitude is in second place with 20 nominations across six titles.

Netflix has topped this year’s list of distributors nominated for Bafta film awards for the second year in a row with 34 nods.

Fifteen Netflix titles received nominations, with Mank leading the way with six, followed by The Dig (five), News Of The World (four), and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and His House (all three). It’s a significant uptick compared to last year, where the streaming giant scored 23 from six films.

‘Nomadland’, ‘Rocks’ lead Bafta 2021 film nominations

Altitude is in second place with 20 nominations across six titles,...

Today, at the Royal Albert Hall, Aisling Bea and Susan Wokoma, on behalf of The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), announced the nominations for the Ee British Academy Film Awards in 2021, celebrating the very best in film of the past year.

In a first in BAFTA history, four women have been nominated in the Director category, including ‘Nomadland’ director Chloe Zhao, Sarah Gavron for ‘Rocks’, and Shannon Murphy for ‘Babyteeth’. In all, ‘Nomadland’ and ‘Rocks’ received seven nominations each.

‘The Father’, ‘Mank’, ‘Minari’ and ‘Promising Young Woman’ all received a total of six nominations while ‘The Dig’ and ‘The Mauritanian’ received five.

Supporting new talent is at the heart of BAFTA’s remit and four of the five nominated films in Outstanding Debut are also nominated across other categories. This year, first-time nominees account for four of the six nominated Directors and 21 of the 24 nominees in the performance categories.

Nominations for the 2021 Ee British Academy Film Awards have been announced by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). This year’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony was set to take place February 14, but the organization pushed the awards to April 11 after the Academy announced it was delaying the Oscars telecast to the end of April. The BAFTAs were the first major awards ceremony to push back its 2021 ceremony date following the Oscars delay.

“This change from the previously announced date of Feb. 14 acknowledges the impact of the global pandemic and accommodates an extended eligibility period. Further details on the ceremony will be announced later in the year,” BAFTA said in a statement at the time. “The date for the 2022 Film Awards, announced last year as 13 February, is currently under consideration as part of the Awards Review, and any changes will be published once the Review has been completed,...

‘The Father’, ‘Mank’, ‘Minari’, ‘Promising Young Woman’ also score well.

Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and UK teenage drama Rocks led the 2021 Bafta film awards nominations, which were announced today (March 9).

Both titles received seven nominations, including for directors Zhao and Sarah Gavron, and for Frances McDormand and Bukky Bakray in leading actress respectively.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Four titles received six nominations each: UK titles The Father and Promising Young Woman, plus Minari and Mank from the US.

In the first Bafta film awards since widespread criticism over the lack of diversity in the 2020 nominations, four out...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment said Monday that it has acquired North American rights to Every Breath You Take, a psychological thriller directed by Vaughn Stein that stars Casey Affleck, Sam Claflin, Michelle Monaghan, Veronica Ferres and India Eisley. The pic will now get a U.S. theatrical release and Premium VOD bow on April 2.

Every Breath You Take centers on a psychiatrist (Affleck) whose career is thrown into jeopardy when his patient takes her own life. When he invites his patient’s surviving brother (Claflin) into his home to meet his wife (Monaghan) and daughter (Eisley), his family life is suddenly torn apart.

The deal marks a reunion of sorts for Vertical, Stein and producer Richard Barton Lewis of Southpaw Entertainment. Vertical last year acquired the Stein-directed and Lewis-produced Inheritance, the thriller that starred Lily Collins and Simon Pegg.

“With its genuinely gripping plot that unfolds masterfully as each twist is revealed,...

What to do about Saudi Arabia and this nasty Jamal Khashoggi problem?

On Friday, the White House released a report by U.S. intelligence that confirmed what journalists, documentarians and members of Congress already understood: that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman approved the savage operation to murder and dismember dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident at the time of his death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018.

It’s a sticky situation. Now that it’s official that the 35-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia was responsible for this heinous act, the United States needs to decide how to act. And so do the rest of us.

So much damage over the four years of the Trump presidency needs to be undone. And one of those critical areas is in reestablishing our values abroad after our government allowed dictators to slide...

Bryan Fogel shocked viewers (and himself) when he unravelled a scandal that proved to be one of the biggest in the history of sport. The actor, who has a history in comedy, has now turned his head to political, investigative journalism and activism, and his sophomore doc The Dissident proves just that, as he digs into the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Fogel to mark the film’s release, though it was the limited nature of the release which came up during the conversation, for the filmmaker admits to being disappointed that no major distributor touched his film, despite its strong reviews from critics, which he believes to be down to the content of the material. He discusses with us also his unwavering commitment to reporting the truth, whether he is ever fearful for his own safety, and tells us how Icarus completely changed his life.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 366 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 93rd Oscars, which are set to air April 25 live on ABC.

The total number of films is up from last year’s 344 films in contention.

This year’s list was compiled based on tweaked eligibility rules implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the ceremony to its latest date ever. For this year, feature films had to open by February 28 in a commercial motion picture theater for a seven-day qualifying run in at least one of six metro areas: Los Angeles County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta. Drive-in theaters open nightly were included as qualifying venues, as were films intended for theatrical release but because of the lockdown made available first via streaming, VOD service or other broadcast.

Today’s news comes...