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Feature will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum on December 8.

Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph-dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.

Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review

The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms after president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud.

Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance technology to monitor...

Documentary filmmaker Jialing Zhang, who was nominated for an Emmy for “One Child Nation,” spoke to Variety about her latest film, “Total Trust,” which is running in the main competition at Cph:dox, the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Festival.

It tells the chilling story of three women and their families fighting for their human rights in China, where state control is ubiquitous thanks to high technology surveillance, such as facial recognition, big data analysis and points systems that mean citizens gain or lose points depending on their behavior.

Zhang’s intimate footage offers unprecedented access to the impact of this all-controlling system on the protagonists’ everyday lives.

“We didn’t just want to do a film about surveillance but about the people living in this kind of society. We wanted to reach a certain emotional depth and complexity – to try to grasp the anger, the horror, but also the hope, through the...

When PBS announced in 2017 that vaunted documentarian Ken Burns was hard at work on a four-part docuseries about Muhammad Ali, to debut in 2021, the news was greeted with much anticipation: one of the film world’s greats on the Greatest. The only hint of criticism came from some who thought Ali’s life was already well-trod territory. But four years later — in the wake of a racial reckoning in America that had the film industry, like so many others, reevaluating its commitment to diversity — the docu community had become considerably less welcoming of the project. With public chatter about a lack of representation and opportunity for people of color reaching a peak, a coalition of 140 documentary filmmakers sent an open letter to PBS in March 2021, slamming the choice of Burns to helm what was being positioned as the definitive doc on Ali.

“Your commitment to diversity at PBS is not borne out by the evidence,...

Click here to read the full article.

Don’t Look Up, Black-ish and Pachinko were among the winners of the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes announced Friday from a luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

The awards, honoring the craft of screenwriting, featured winners in nine juried categories spanning film and television. These included Don’t Look Up from writer Adam McKay for comedy feature film, The Starling from Matt Harris for drama feature film and Encanto from Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush for family feature film.

On the TV side, Black-ish writer Robb Chavis prevailed for comedy teleplay, Pachinko creator Soo Hugh won for drama teleplay and Women of the Movement creator Marissa Jo Cerar was tops for limited series, TV movie or special.

Larry Wilmore hosted the event, and presenters included Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks. Also honored were...

The writers behind ABC’s Black-ish, Apple TV+’s Pachinko, Disney’s Oscar-winning Encanto and Adam McKay’s satire Don’t Look Up are among the winners of the 46th annual Humanitas Prizes. The honors were bestowed Friday afternoon in a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Humanitas Prizes have been handed out since 1973 to empower television and film writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced, meaningful way. Writers across 10 categories receive 10,000 cash prizes.

Other winners included Nanfu Wang for her documentary In the Same Breath, Matt Harris for writing the script for Ted Melfi’s The Starling starring Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Kline, and Marissa Jo Cerar for penning the “Mother and Son” episode of ABC’s anthology series Women of the Movement.

Also during the ceremony emceed by Larry Wilmore, the Humanitas organization presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award and Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch...

Retiring ABC series “Black-ish” picked up one more honor on Friday, a Humanitas Prize for comedy teleplay, while Apple TV+’s “Pachinko” and ABC’s “Women of the Movement” also were recognized at the event.

Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and hosted by comedian Larry Wilmore, the 46th annual Humanitas Prize event centered on awards and 10,000 cash prizes to screenwriters across ten categories. In addition, Humanitas board president Jenny Bicks presented Filmmakers for Ukraine with the Kieser Award “in recognition of their work to connect the Ukrainian film and TV community impacted by the Russo-Ukrainian War with resources, jobs, and funding to meet basic needs.”

And Jasmine Cephas Jones presented Starz with Voice for Change Award for its #TakeTheLead initiative. Starz president/CEO Jeffrey Hirsch accepted the prize on the network’s behalf. Nkechi Okoro Carroll oversaw the New Voices Fellowship and College Screenwriting Award presentations.

Here are this...

ABC and CNN lead the nominations for the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, which were announced Thursday by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).

NATAS also revealed that Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor of “PBS NewsHour,” and Sir David Attenborough will receive honorary awards at this year’s ceremonies. The news categories, where Woodruff will be honored, will be presented on Wednesday, Sep. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Edt and the ceremony for the documentary categories, where Attenborough will be honored, will be held Thursday, Sep. 29th at 7:30 p.m. Edt. Attenborough’s many docuseries include “Life on Earth,” “The Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth.”

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Emmy Awards: Is the Television Academy Representing Audience Demand? | Charts

A number of the nominated news segments, reports and documentaries were dedicated to the Jan. 6 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, including those by ABC, CBS, NBC, The New Yorker,...

On April 13 the Peabody Board of Jurors announced the 60 nominees for the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards honoring the best and most impactful work in media in 2021, including everything from news to entertainment to podcasts. A jury of 19 unanimously selected these nominees from more than 1,200 entries. Out of these nominees, 30 will eventually be selected as winners, to be announced during virtual events from June 6 through June 9. Scroll down for the complete list.

SEEWill ‘Yellowjackets’ finally bring Showtime back to the drama series Emmy race?

Peabody executive director Jeffrey Jones said in a statement, “Following yet another turbulent year, Peabody is proud to honor an array of stories that poignantly and powerfully help us make sense of the challenges we face as a nation and world. Demonstrating the immense power of stories, these nominees exposed our societal failures and celebrated the best of the human spirit. They are all worthy of recognition,...

“Dopesick” and “Only Murders in the Building,” “Yellowjackets” and “The Underground Railroad” are among this year’s nominees for the Peabody Awards. Oscar winners, including “Summer of Soul” and “The Queen of Basketball,” and Emmy winners including “Bo Burnham: Inside” and “Hacks,” also landed spots, as did “Colin in Black & White,” “We Are Lady Parts” and “Reservation Dogs.”

The Peabody Awards Board of Jurors announced this year’s nominees for entertainment, documentaries, news, podcast/radio, children’s & youth, public service and arts. A total of 60 nominees were revealed as “an array of stories that poignantly and powerfully help us make sense of the challenges we face as a nation and world,” according to Jeffrey Jones, Peabody Awards executive director.

Once again, PBS led the field with 13 programs qualifiying as finalists, followed by HBO with eight and Hulu and Netflix with five apiece.

A unanimous vote by the Peabody Awards...

By Glenn Dunks

Documentaries about the Covid-19 pandemic aren’t rare. Just over two years into it, and already a long list of titles exist claiming to offer us insight into some area of the response. Some have worked while others haven’t delivered where you would expect. They have been sometimes rushed, likely out of sheer determination to be completed in time for relevance, little knowing just how deep we would be without a clear exit. Because of this reason, many are dated by the time we get to see them.

How to Survive a Pandemic is unfortunately more of the latter. The film is something of a curiosity for its director David France. Curious because despite having the weight of timeliness on its side, Pandemic lacks the propulsive immediacy of his earlier films How to Survive a Plague and Welcome to Chechnya.

Apple TV+ film boosts prospects ahead of March 27 Oscar ceremony.

(L-r): Daniel Durant, presenter Kristen Stewart and writer-director Sian Heder, producers Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger and Philippe Rousselet with Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur

Coda delivered a surprise win at the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards (PGA) on Saturday night (19) and made history as AppleTV+ became the first streamer to claim the guild’s top film prize heading into the final week of awards season.

Sian Heder’s family story upset favourite The Power Of The Dog at rival platform Netflix to win the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for...

Apple Studios emerged the big winner of what some say is an important Oscar precursor on Saturday night, as “Coda” took the top film prize at the annual Producers Guild Awards.

What began as a Sundance sales sensation directed by Sian Heder — the heart-tugging story following the only hearing family member in a tribe of charismatic New England fishermen — won the Darryl F. Zanuck award for best motion picture producing. Other notable film winners at Los Angeles’ Fairmont Hotel were Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” for documentary feature, and the musical juggernaut “Encanto” for best producers of an animated film.

“Succession” took home the Norman Felton Award for outstanding episodic drama. Apple’s “Ted Lasso” continued its trophy collection spree by claiming the Danny Thomas Award for outstanding television comedy. HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” won the David L. Wolper award for outstanding producer of a limited series.

Power players...

“Coda” has been named the best produced film of 2021 at the Producers Guild Awards, throwing the Oscar race for Best Picture into complete turmoil only eight days before that show takes place on March 27.

The win comes at the only awards show besides the Oscars that uses ranked-choice or preferential voting in its best picture category, and it reinforced a feeling that the longtime Oscar favorite, “The Power of the Dog,” might be too divisive to win under a system that looks for a film with broad support.

Coupled with its SAG Awards win for ensemble, a category in which “The Power of the Dog” wasn’t even nominated, “Coda” now has to be considered a very strong Oscar contender and maybe even the new front runner, even though it is missing some of the nominations once thought necessary for a Best Picture winner.

The Oscars will now find PGA...

The 2022 Producers Guild of America Awards took place on Saturday, March 19 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. So who prevailed? Scroll down for the complete 2022 PGA Awards winners list in all 14 categories.

The PGA represents over 8,000 producers in film, television and new media and, since 2009, both the PGA and the Academy Awards have picked Best Picture with ranked choice voting.The PGA has been one of the most reliable Oscar predictors around, thanks in large part to the fact that both the guild and the academy use the the preferential ballot to determine a Best Picture victor. Since 2009, the PGA has forecast 9 of 12 Oscar champs.

Special honorary awards were also handed out to distinguished guests on Saturday. George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy received the Milestone Award. Rita Moreno was bestowed the Stanley Kramer Award. Issa Rae took home the Visionary Award. Mary Parent accepted the David O. Selznick...

The 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards will take place Saturday, March 19, honoring the best achievements in TV and film production. Wondering who will take home prizes when the PGA announces its winners? Scroll down for our racetrack odds in 10 categories, which are based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. The predicted winners are in gold.

The PGA represents over 8,000 producers in film, television and new media and, since 2009, both the PGA and the Academy Awards have picked Best Picture with ranked choice voting. As the only major precursor to use this voting system, the PGA Awards could foresee the winner of this year’s nail-biting Best Picture race at the Oscars.

Best Picture

The Power of the Dog — 13/2

Belfast — 15/2

Coda — 15/2

West Side Story — 8/1

King Richard — 9/1

Dune — 9/1

Licorice Pizza — 19/2

Don’t Look Up — 11/1

tick, tick…Boom! — 13/1

Being the Ricardos — 14/1

Best Animated Feature

Encanto — 31/10

The Mitchells vs the Machines...

The 37th Annual Independent Spirit Awards took place on Sunday, returning to an in-person format following last year’s virtual ceremony. Many of the biggest names in the independent film community made the trek out to the beach in Santa Monica with the hopes of taking home the most coveted prizes in indie film. While the Spirit Awards typically take place the week before the Oscars, this year’s unique Covid-influenced awards season calendar meant that they were held nearly a month in advance. Hollywood couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally served as emcees of the proceedings.

This year’s class of nominees draws from films largely shut out from the Oscars, with indie hits like Oscar nominee “The Lost Daughter,” “C’mon C’mon,” and “Zola” racking up the most nominations. “The Lost Daughter” cleaned up, with three wins for Netflix including Best Feature and Best Director Maggie Gyllenhaal. Oscar no-show...

Who were the big winners at the 37th Independent Spirit Awards, presented on Sunday, March 6, at the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California? Scroll down for the complete list of results in all categories, updated throughout the ceremony as the awards were handed out.

SEE2022 Oscars guild awards scorecard: ‘King Richard’ reigns over SAG and Ace Eddies to grab early lead

These awards are unique in that they are limited to American films made for under $20 million; films made outside the United States are eligible for Best International Feature. And the awards are decided in two stages. In the first round, committees of film professionals, experts, and critics choose the nominees. In the second round, the entire Film Independent membership gets to vote for the winners. Members include industry insiders, but also anyone in the general public who wish to pay yearly dues starting at $95 per year.

The Oscars...

The 37th Annual International Documentary Association Awards, streamed online Friday night, capped a big week for nonfiction awards that also included the 15th Annual Cinema Eye Honors, presented live in New York on Wednesday.

Both awards groups honored Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated immigration saga “Flee” (Neon) with their top honors, while the Danish International Feature Oscar contender’s fellow Oscar nominee “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight/Hulu) notched three IDA awards: Rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won for Best Director, Best Music Documentary, and Best Editing. Oscar nominee Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension,” an observational look at the class structure in China, won three Cinema Eye Honors awards, the most of the evening, for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Original Score and Debut Feature.

Oscar nominee “Writing with Fire” nabbed the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award for the India-based directing team Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh.

The IDA online ceremony, which was pre-recorded,...

Three awards ceremonies are taking place the weekend of March 5. On Saturday, a double dose of the Art Directors Guild (Adg) and American Cinema Editors Awards (Ace Eddies), and on Sunday, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, airing on IFC.

Paying special attention to Adg and Ace Eddies since there’s Oscar crossover, we’re expecting a couple of surprises at both. On the Adg side, “Dune” and “Nightmare Alley” should reign triumphant, but “Don’t Look Up” may overcome fellow Netflix property “The Lost Daughter.”

At Ace Eddies, there’s a possible upset on the drama side in the favor of “King Richard’s” Pamela Martin, besting Joe Walker for “Dune.” On the other hand, “Tick, Tick … Boom!” is expected to sneak past “Licorice Pizza.”

What’s most interesting is that there is very little to no presence of the presumed Oscar frontrunners this weekend, including Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,...

Almost 2,000 Gold Derby readers have made their Indie Spirit predictions in advance of Sunday’s ceremony. Scroll down to see our official odds in all 13 movie categories based on those combined predictions. Our projected winners are highlighted in gold.

SEEOscars 2022: 20 movie reunions we would love to see happen on the ceremony, including ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Titanic,’ ‘Harry Potter’ and more

The Indie Spirit Awards winners are voted on by members of Film Independent. Membership is open to any movie fans who pay $95 in yearly dues, which often leads to the highest-profile Oscar contenders winning top prizes against less widely publicized films. But this year Film Independent snubbed many of the Oscar front-runners; this is only the second time in the last 13 years that there are no Best Picture Oscar nominees among the Spirit contenders for Best Feature.

The black comedy “Zola” led the nominations with seven including Best Feature, Best...

The Oscar-nominated “Flee” took home the top prize at the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors on Tuesday evening at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

Going into the evening, Neon and Participant Media’s “Flee” led the field with a total of seven nominations, while “Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” followed with six.

Filmmaker Cheryl Dunye also received the organization’s legacy award during the ceremony. The director was honored for her landmark 1996 independent feature “The Watermelon Woman.” After accepting the legacy award on stage, Dunye presented the category of audience choice prize.

See the full list of film winners and nominees below.

Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

“Ascension”

“Faya Dayi” (Directed and produced by Jessica Beshir)

“Flee” (Winner)

“The Rescue”

“Summer of Soul”

“The Velvet Underground”

Outstanding Direction

“Ascension”

“Faya Dayi”

“Flee”

“In the Same Breath”

“Procession” (Winner)

“Summer of Soul”

Outstanding...

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were presented on Tuesday night in New York City. “The Rescue,” about the efforts to retrieve a Thai youth soccer team from a flooded cave, won the Audience Choice Prize.

The Neon release “Flee,” which uses animation to give anonymity to a young gay man who escaped Afghanistan as a teenager and made his way to Denmark, also won the award for graphic design and animation. It is nominated for Oscars in the documentary, animated-feature and international-feature categories.

Robert Greene won the directing award for “Procession,” while Matthew Heineman, Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville took the producing prize for “The First Wave.”

Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension” won the most Cinema Eye awards, three, taking the prizes for debut feature, cinematography and score.

Other winners included “Summer of Soul...

PBS was the top winner in the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards on Tuesday, with four honors for outstanding broadcast and digital reporting in the public interest.

Amazon Studios and Apple were first-time winners, while CBS News, The New York Times and HBO also won awards.

PBS’s wins were for an Independent Lens look into the first term of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, while Pov won for coverage of Kenyan political activist Softie and the documentary Through the Night. Frontline, NPR and Planet Money won for Waste Land, an audio investigation into the oil industry and plastic recycling.

CBS News and anchor Norah O’Donnell were honored for the report on sexual assault in the U.S. military, and The New York Times won for a documentary film on the January 6th Capitol insurrection. HBO’s award was for Nanfu Wang’s In the Same Breath, about the misinformation by the Chinese and U.

Every January, the Sundance Film Festival launches a slew of documentary Oscar contenders, and 2022 was no different. While there are exceptions, most eventual documentary Oscar nominees launch at Sundance. It’s the festival of choice for non-fiction films to be seen and discovered.

You can see why: Making the Oscar shortlist for 2022 were Sundance 2021 debuts from Nanfu Wang (HBO’s China Covid exposé “In the Same Breath”), Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Neon’s animated immigration saga “Flee”), self-taught Jessica Beshir (Janus’ dive into Ethiopia’s khat industry “Faya Dayi”), Camilla Nielsson (Greenwich Entertainment’s Zimbabwe expose “President”); and rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Searchlight/Hulu’s 1969 concert film “Summer of Soul”).

This year’s new pandemic era Sundance crop is just as impressive.

Documentary award winners get a boost

The jury prizes didn’t go to the buzziest titles: those films nabbed the audience awards. But Sundance award-winners got...

Every January, the Sundance Film Festival launches a slew of documentary Oscar contenders, and 2022 was no different. While there are exceptions, most eventual documentary Oscar nominees launch at Sundance. It’s the festival of choice for non-fiction films to be seen and discovered.

You can see why: Making the Oscar shortlist for 2022 were Sundance 2021 debuts from Nanfu Wang (HBO’s China Covid exposé “In the Same Breath”), Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Neon’s animated immigration saga “Flee”), self-taught Jessica Beshir (Janus’ dive into Ethiopia’s khat industry “Faya Dayi”), Camilla Nielsson (Greenwich Entertainment’s Zimbabwe expose “President”); and rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Searchlight/Hulu’s 1969 concert film “Summer of Soul”).

This year’s new pandemic era Sundance crop is just as impressive.

Documentary award winners get a boost

The jury prizes didn’t go to the buzziest titles: those films nabbed the audience awards. But Sundance award-winners got...

Encanto, Raya And The Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs. The Machines among animated feature nominees.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its feature film land animated feature nominees with The Power Of The Dog, Dune, Belfast all in the running.

Netflix films led the way on three nods in the feature category for The Power Of The Dog, Don’t Look Up and tick, tick…Boom, while Amazon Studios’ Being The Riccardos was the surprise addition.The PGA nominations are a strong bellwether of a best picture Oscar nomination.

However while Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Tragedy Of Macbeth...

The academy released the 2022 Oscars shortlists in 10 categories on Tuesday, December 21. The hopefuls in a wide range of races found out if they remain in contention for the 94th annual Academy Awards. Among these are the marquee categories for Best International Feature Film (which was pared down to 10 films from the 92 submitted) and Best Documentary Feature (which went from 138 to 15).

Both music awards – Best Original Song and Best Original Score — were winnowed down to just 15 contenders from 84 and 137 submissions respectively. Likewise for the three awards for shorts – animated, documentary and live-action. The Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects races were culled from dozens of entries to 10 apiece.

Documentary Feature

One hundred and thirty-eight films were eligible for consideration; there are 15 on the shortlist. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Ascension...

What does it feel like to be shortlisted for an Academy Award? Where were you when you found out you had been selected as one of just 15 films up for Oscar consideration? What made you want to become a documentary filmmaker?

These are some of the questions answered by six of the year’s most acclaimed documentary filmmakers when they joined Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Oscar contenders. Watch our full group chat above with Questlove (“Summer of Soul”), Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), Jonas Poher Rasmussen (“Flee”), Matthew Heineman (“The First Wave”), Nanfu Wang (“In the Same Breath”) and Julie Goldman (“The Velvet Underground”). Click on each name above to view each person’s individual interview.

SEE2022 Oscars shortlists in 10 categories: Documentary Feature, International Feature Film …

“I didn’t want to be the person that checks every 12 seconds to see what happens,” Questlove admits about...

“In the Same Breath” is a feature documentary on the Oscar shortlist that questions, how did the Chinese government turn pandemic cover ups in Wuhan into a triumph for the Communist party? Director Nanfu Wang also draws comparisons to the United States and how people who criticize the government’s response to Covid-19, in both countries, can be targeted. Watch the exclusive video interview above.

“When I started making this film in January, when the outbreak first started in Wuhan, it was driven by a very deep outrage and sadness,” Wang reveals. “It was very quickly that I discovered that there was a huge discrepancy, a lack of transparency and, in fact, deliberate misinformation from the government. At the time I wanted to make a film because I wanted the world to see the real reality in Wuhan. As I was making the film the outbreak reached the U.S.

Predicting the winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar became a lot easier on December 21 when the academy announced the 15 films that made the shortlist. Those semi-finalists are culled from the 138 titles that qualified this year for consideration. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2022 Oscars predictions for Best Documentary Feature.)

To winnow these down to a manageable number, the academy adds newly eligible documentary feature to a virtual screening room available to all 500 plus members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. In the new year, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

All of these ballots were collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members were encouraged to watch those films on this list that they haven’t seen yet before casting another preferential ballot on...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday revealed the 276 feature films that are eligible for consideration at the 94rd Oscars, which are set to air live March 27 on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The number is 90 fewer than last year’s 366, but this year’s eligibility period was only 10 months.

To be eligible for Best Picture consideration, films must have submitted a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry as part of the submission requirements. Nominations voting begins January 27 and concludes on February 1. The Oscar nominations will be revealed on Tuesday, February 8.

Today’s news comes about a month after the Academy released its shortlists in the International Film, Documentary Feature, Original Score, Original Song, Makeup & Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound and the Live-Action, Documentary and Animated Shorts categories.

Here is the full list of films eligible for Best Picture at the 94rd annual Academy Awards,...

In the past decade, the inclusion of streaming services in the documentary market has made it increasingly harder for smaller docus struggling with funding to break into the nonfiction feature Oscar race. But in spite of the deep pockets they are up against, a number of cash-strapped docs inevitably make it onto the shortlist every year. This year was no exception.

Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”, Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co. and WarnerMedia.

As the field narrows and lobbying and marketing takeover, it’s clear that money and brand recognition are key factors in the race for Oscar gold, which makes “Faya Dayi,...

Six top documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Academy Awards and guild contenders. Each person from these films is now on the Oscar shortlist. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Thursday, January 20, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Denton Davidson and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series throughout January and February. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:

“Ascension:” Jessica Kingdon

Synopsis: A contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

It’s challenging to contextualize 2021, a year that largely felt like a gradual restart to moviegoing and, maybe, a new normal. Cinema, to that end, remains largely escapist, even if some pictures like Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn and Stop and Go (nee Recovery) directly confronted some of the anxiety—perhaps even some of the absurdity—of Covid times. 2020 was slated to be a year of big films and many of those (F9 and No Time to Die) surfaced in 2021, while some (Licorice Pizza and Spider-Man: No Way Home) were freshly made under extensive safety protocols. In some ways the multiplex in 2021 felt a lot like outlet shopping: certain films were fresh and on-trend, others felt like relics from another time.

On the festival front,...

Summer Of Soul Photo: Mass Distraction Media

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has tonight revealed its list of 15 documentaries, which will be whittled down to five in the final stage as the Oscar ceremony approaches on 27 March. Overall the tone is quite political, and they include two documentaries focused on the pandemic, The First Wave and In the Same Breath.

This year's documentary contenders:- Ascension Attica Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry Faya Dayi The First Wave Flee In The Same Breath Julia President Procession The Rescue Simple As Water Summer Of Soul The Velvet Underground Writing With Fire

The line-up for short documentaries has also been announced with some impressive entries including Ben Proudfoot's The Queen Of Basketball.

This year's Oscar ceremony will be held at the Dolby® Theatre at Hollywood & Highland® in Hollywood. It will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Bond film No Time to Die and Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune led in craft recognition today when the Academy’s shortlists for the 2022 Oscars were unveiled.

The former secured slots in the areas of Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Sound and Visual Effects, with the latter preparing to compete in all of the same categories apart from Song.

Four additional studio films snagged slots in Score and Song, including Adam McKay’s Netflix satire Don’t Look Up, Jared Bush and Byron Howard’s Disney animated pic Encanto, Jeymes Samuel’s Netflix Western The Harder They Fall and Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Warner Bros. drama King Richard.

Jane Campion’s Netflix Western The Power of the Dog, Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Focus pic Belfast and and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story all scored additional slots in the Sound category,...

The two Oscar frontrunners for Best Documentary Feature are safely through to the next round of voting.

Summer of Soul and Flee earned spots on the Oscar doc feature shortlist announced today, as Documentary Branch voters whittled the list of contending films from 138 qualifiers to 15 [see full lists below].

Flee, the Neon release directed by Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, not only made the doc feature shortlist, but the shortlist for Best International Film as well, representing Denmark. That rare shortlist double was accomplished last Oscar season by the Romanian documentary Collective, and a year earlier by the North Macedonian film Honeyland (both Collective and Honeyland went on to score Oscar nominations in both categories). Flee remains in the running in a third Oscar category, Animated Feature.

Flee and Summer of Soul,...

Composers Hans Zimmer and Jonny Greenwood came in strong on the Academy’s shortlist for Best Original Score, securing two slots apiece from a total of 15. Zimmer enters the next phase of Oscars competition with his scores for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Cary Fukunaga’s Bond film No Time to Die. Greenwood, meanwhile, moves forward with his soundtracks for Jane Campion’s Western The Power of the Dog and Pablo Larraín’s Princess Diana drama, Spencer.

Zimmer is an 11-time nominee who won an Oscar for his score to The Lion King in 1995, most recently vying for gold with Christopher Nolan’s 2018 World War II drama, Dunkirk. Greenwood—who also scored Paul Thomas Anderson’s recently released Licorice Pizza—earned his first nomination that same year with Anderson’s Phantom Thread.

The only past Oscar winner in contention this year, apart from Zimmer, is Alexandre Desplat—who nabbed a slot with The French Dispatch.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 94th Oscars ceremony.

The shortlist voting concluded on Dec. 15, and the remaining ones will move on to the official phase one voting. Nominations voting begins on Thursday, Jan. 27, and ends on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The official credits and nominees for all the films will be announced, with the rest of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

Check out the list of the films and categories below:

Original Song

“So May We Start?” from “Annette” (Amazon Studios)

Ron Mael, Russell Mael (Sparks) “Down To Joy” from “Belfast” (Focus Features)

Van Morrison “Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road” (Screen Media Films)

Brian Wilson, Jim James “Automatic Woman” from “Bruised” (Netflix)

H.E.R. (other songwriters to be added) “Dream Girl” from “Cinderella” (Amazon Studios)

Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz “Beyond The Shore” from...

The long journey to the March 27 Academy Awards just got a little bit shorter with the announcement of 10 shortlists for the following categories: International Feature Film, Documentary, Original Score, Original Song, Makeup and Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Live-Action Short Film, Documentary Short Subject, and Animated Short Film, with Sound added to the mix this year. As in previous years, members of the Academy will select from these reduced lists of contenders in each category to pick the nominees for the 2022 Oscars. This year marked the fourth in a row the Academy released the full lineup of its shortlists on the same day.

Oscar nominations voting begins 9 a.m. Pt on Thursday, January 27. Voting ends the next week at 5 p.m. Pt on Tuesday, February 1, with nominations announced on the morning of Tuesday, February 8. At that point, we’ll see a reduction in these contenders and have the final five in each category.

The 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die, made a strong showing the shortlists released Tuesday for the 94th Oscars, with mentions in five categories to lead all films. Dune, with four mentions in the same categories except Song was close behind.

The Oscars shortlists cover 10 categories overall including Documentary Feature; International Film; Animated, Live Action, and Documentary Shorts; Makeup and Hairstyling; Music Score; Original Song; Sound; and Visual Effects.

Denmark’s Flee made the cut for both Documentary Feature and International Film. It is also eligible for Animated Feature (not a shortlisted category) this year, and should it eventually score final nominations in all three categories it will set an Oscar record for that triple play.

See all the lists below.

Although there weren’t many surprises this morning, for some the most shocking omission will likely be in International Feature,...

The Film Independent Spirit Awards moved up three weeks this year, to March 6, in part to give contenders a boost in the run-up to Oscars March 27. However, few of its nominees will be in the Oscar running. Those who complained that the Indie Spirits overlap too much with the Academy Awards need not worry this year.

Film Independent’s always-idiosyncratic hand-picked juries shed light on some deserving movies, including four A24 titles that have yet to register with other awards groups: Janicza Bravo’s “Zola” leads the field with seven nods including Best Director, Screenplay, Female Lead Taylour Paige, and Editing), Mike Mills’ “C’mon, C’mon”, Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” (acting nods for Simon Rex and Suzanna Son), and Steven Karam’s “The Humans” (cinematography).

Titles ineligible due to a $22.5 million budget cap include Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog,” “Tick, Tick, Boom,” “Don’t Look Up,...

The Film Independent Spirit Awards moved up three weeks this year, to March 6, in part to give contenders a boost in the run-up to Oscars March 27. However, few of its nominees will be in the Oscar running. Those who complained that the Indie Spirits overlap too much with the Academy Awards need not worry this year.

Film Independent’s always-idiosyncratic hand-picked juries shed light on some deserving movies, including four A24 titles that have yet to register with other awards groups: Janicza Bravo’s “Zola” leads the field with seven nods including Best Director, Screenplay, Female Lead Taylour Paige, and Editing), Mike Mills’ “C’mon, C’mon”, Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” (acting nods for Simon Rex and Suzanna Son), and Steven Karam’s “The Humans” (cinematography).

Titles ineligible due to a $22.5 million budget cap include Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog,” “Tick, Tick, Boom,” “Don’t Look Up,...

A24 is the leading film distributor with 13 nominations, followed by Neon and Netflix on nine.

Janicza Bravo’s Zola led the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations with seven nods, followed by Lauren Hadaway’s The Novice with five and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter on four.

All three are competing for best feature and best director, with Ninja Thyberg for Pleasure and Mike Mills for C’mon C’mon rounding out the latter category. It’s the second year in a row that four women have been nominated for best director.

The other best feature nominees are C’mon C’mon...

The 2022 Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced Tuesday, December 14. So who made the cut at these kudos, which celebrate the best in American independent films? Scroll down to see the full 2022 Indie Spirits nominations list. Remember, only American-made movies with budgets under $20 million were eligible for consideration.

These Spirit contenders were decided by nominating committees that included film critics, film programmers, producers, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, actors, past nominees and winners, and members of Film Independent’s Board of Directors. Winners will be chosen by all of Film Independent’s eligible members, including industry insiders and any movie fans who sign up for membership starting at $95 per year.

These awards have come to be a significant preview of the Oscars as the motion picture academy embraces more independent films. Six of the last 10 Spirit champs for Best Feature went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture including last year’s double dipper “Nomadland,...

Distributor A24 and Zola led nominations as the Film Independent Spirit Awards revealed their 37th annual nods in a pre-taped presentation hosted by Beanie Feldstein, Regina Hall and Naomi Watts. The Spirit Awards are skedded for Sunday, March 6, 2022 — live and in-person this year back on the beach in Santa Monica, and broadcast on IFC.

A24’s Zola, by Janicza Bravo and based on a Twitter chain from a riotous road trip, was recognized for Best Feature Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Female Lead and Supporting Male. Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon with Joaquin Phoenix took four nods including feature, director and screenplay. Accolades were rounded out by two nominations for Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, for Best Male Lead, Simon Rex ,and Best Supporting Female, Suzanna Son. The Humans, directed by Stephen Karam based on his one-act play, was nominated in cinematography.

Netflix and Neon took nine nods each, with...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the eight nominees for its 2022 Best Documentary award on Friday, December 10. The winner will be revealed at the 33rd Annual PGA Awards which will take place on Saturday, February 26, 2022. The remaining Producers Guild Awards nominations, including those for the Oscar bellwether Best Picture, will be unveiled on Thursday, January 27, 2022. The eight documentary features in the running are:

Ascension

The First Wave

Flee

In The Same Breath

The Rescue

Simple As Water

Summer Of Soul

Writing With Fire

The PGA nomination is an important step on the path to Oscar glory. Five of the last six eventual Oscar champs for Best Documentary Feature were nominated first by the producers guild, including last year’s “My Octopus Teacher,” which took home both prizes. The PGA win was the film’s first major accolade after missing nominations from prestigious non-fiction bellwethers Cinema Eye Honors and the International Documentary Association.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the 2022 document motion picture nominees who will advance to the final round of voting at the 33rd annual Producers Guild Awards on Feb. 26.

Films nominated include “Ascension,” “The First Wave,” Flee,” “In the Same Breath,” “The Rescue,” “Simple As Water,” “Summer of Soul and “Writing With Fire.”

Nominees for sports, children’s and short form TV programs will be announced on Jan. 13, while the nominees for theatrical motion pictures, animated theatrical motion pictures, TV series and specials and TV/streamed motion pictures will be announced on Jan. 27.

The 2022 Producers Guild of America awards are produced by Anchor Street Collective for the Producers Guild of America. Winners will be honored during the 33rd Annual Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony on Feb. 26, 2022...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has revealed eight 2022 Documentary Motion Picture nominees that will advance to the final round of voting for the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards. The nominees for the Documentary category are selected by the Documentary Nomination Jury, made up of at least fifty documentary producers who select between three and eight non-fiction motion-picture nominees. Some 8,000 PGA members will make their picks before the 33rd Annual Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 26, 2022.

With the over-crowded documentary awards field, being seen is the first order. Box-office buzz is not a factor in this pandemic year, which gives deep-pocketed distributors like NatGeo an advantage. It has a long list of strong, widely seen contenders that yielded two of the eight PGA nominations: Thai cave thriller “The Rescue” and Covid diary “The First Wave.” HBO also landed two nominees, Nanfu Wang’s portrait of China during Covid,...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has revealed eight 2022 Documentary Motion Picture nominees that will advance to the final round of voting for the 33rd Annual Producers Guild Awards. The nominees for the Documentary category are selected by the Documentary Nomination Jury, made up of at least fifty documentary producers who select between three and eight non-fiction motion-picture nominees. Some 8,000 PGA members will make their picks before the 33rd Annual Producers Guild of America Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 26, 2022.

With the over-crowded documentary awards field, being seen is the first order. Box-office buzz is not a factor in this pandemic year, which gives deep-pocketed distributors like NatGeo an advantage. It has a long list of strong, widely seen contenders that yielded two of the eight PGA nominations: Thai cave thriller “The Rescue” and Covid diary “The First Wave.” HBO also landed two nominees, Nanfu Wang’s portrait of China during Covid,...