News

Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock welcomes another member to the Holmes family, as the director's upcoming Prime Video series casts the future detective's brother Mycroft. Set during Sherlock Holmes' late teen years as he studied at Oxford University, the series sees Arthur Conan Doyle's detective dragged into a murder case that will uncover a vast conspiracy. Ritchie's return to the classic literature character will not be connected to his Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law-led movie duology, but instead adapt the Young Sherlock novel series written by Andrew Lane.

As filming continues, Deadline reports that the series has cast a pivotal player for the series. Max Irons will take on the role of Mycroft, the elder son of the Holmes family. The actor will star alongside Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who will play the young lead. Irons is best known for his role of Edward IV alongside Dune...

Bosch: Legacy season 3 adds 5 new recurring actors to its upcoming batch of episodes. The upcoming season will be based on Michael Connelly's books Desert Star and Black Ice. The new cast members are have been cast in undisclosed, recurring roles.

Bosch: Legacy season 3 has added five new recurring actors to its cast, each in undisclosed roles for the upcoming batch of episodes. The police procedural follows its titular character as he becomes involved in a multitude of investigations, often stretching throughout the entire season. The upcoming season will be based on two Bosch books by author Michael Connelly, Desert Star and Black Ice.

Now, Deadline reports five new cast members for Bosch: Legacy season 3, who will be showing up in recurring roles. These actors are Orla Brady (Star Trek: Picard), Michael Reilly Burke (Griselda), Andrea Cortés (Mayans M.C.), Dale Dickey (A Love Song), and Tommy Martinez (Hunters). While their roles are currently unknown,...

Maya Hawke stopped by The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon this week to perform her new single, “Missing Out.”

The appearance arrives two weeks after Hawke first premiered “Missing Out” and announced her third album, Chaos Angel, out on May 31st. With her five-piece band behind her — including regular collaborator Christian Lee Hutson — Hawke and her players opt for a schoolyard look: She’s donned in a uniform, a guitarist sports a white and red football jersey, the bassist is in graduation garb, and her drummer is wearing lab goggles and looking like he’s just arrived at the NBC building from chemistry class.

Hawke gives a faithful, harmony-laden rendition of “Missing Out,” and lets her personality shine throughout — especially given the song’s personal, reflective subject matter. She even takes a minute to eat an apple during the song’s solo section. Watch Maya Hawke’s performance below.

In...

For the last 37 years, Tibet House US has celebrated the Tibetan New Year (Losar) with an all-star benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Revered as one of New York City’s longest-running cultural events, this year’s concert took place on Monday night (February 26th) with performances from the likes of Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers, Maya Hawke, Gogol Bordello, and many more.

As part of the enduring mission of Tibet House US to “protect, preserve, and empower the unique Tibetan culture,” the 2024 edition of the Tibet House Benefit Concert opened as per usual with entrancing chants from Tibetan Monks. Tibet House President Bob Thurman (and Hawke’s grandfather) gave opening remarks before one of the evening’s co-artistic directors, Laurie Anderson, took the stage. Accompanied by Martha Mooke, Shazad Ismaily, Tenzin Choegyal, and Gina Gershon on the jaw harp (!!), Anderson performed her Big Science B-side “Walk the Dog.”

Choegyal stayed on...

Maya Hawke has announced her new album, Chaos Angel, due on May 31st. Today, she shared the record’s lead single, “Missing Out.”

Arriving via Mom+Pop, Chaos Angel is Hawke’s third album, following her 2022 release, Moss. Featuring production helmed by longtime collaborator Christian Lee Hutson — with contributions from Benjamin Lazar Davis and Will Graefe — the album is “about falling in love, fucking it up, and getting back up again,” according to its press release.

Speaking about the themes on Chaos Angel, Hawke explained that she imagined a figure dubbed the “chaos angel,” who’s been told that she is “a god of love,” but comes to find that she’s only been creating chaos and destruction. As Hawke puts it: “On the journey home, she goes back through all the places she thought she destroyed, and in the rubble, wonder and beauty and magic grew.”

The first single from the album,...

Aka Mr. Chow

(HBO Documentary Films)

This portrait directed by Nick Hooker follows the life and career of painter turned restaurateur Michael Chow, the owner of the Mr Chow restaurant chain, as he returns to the art world with his first solo show in nearly 60 years.

American Symphony

(Netflix)

Matthew Heineman switches gears from following the front lines of the Mexican drug war (the Oscar-nominated Cartel Land) and the early days of the Covid crisis in New York City (The First Wave), this time helming an intimate profile of Late Night With Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste as he balances an incredible year of professional success while aiding his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, through her battle with a rare form of cancer.

Anonymous Sister

(Long Shot Factory/Gravitas Ventures)

Emmy Award-winning director Jamie Boyle chronicles her family’s collision with the opioid epidemic. The film, currently holding a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes,...

Exclusive: XYZ Films has taken global distribution rights, excluding Canada, on the eco-thriller The Well, the first narrative feature by Academy Award-nominated documentary director Hubert Davis.

Recently filmed in Hamilton, Canada, The Well features a Canadian cast, including veterans such as Sheila McCarthy (Women Talking) and Arnold Pinnock (The Porter), who also executive produce. Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (Book of Negros) and Idrissa Sanogo (Robin Hood) also star. The ensemble, working outside of SAG jurisdiction, is rounded out by Joanne Boland (Handmaid’s Tale), Noah Lamanna (Dream Scenario), Natasha Mumba (The Last of Us), and Steven McCarthy (Mary Kills People).

Film’s synopsis reads: In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight for the precious resources needed to survive, a young woman’s (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man. When he discovers her family has a secret supply of fresh water it puts...

Clockwise from left: The League (Magnolia Pictures), The Last Rider (Roadside Attractions), Black Ice (Lionsgate)Image: The A.V. Club

It’s Thanksgiving time, so give thanks to Hulu if you’re a fan of sports documentaries because the streaming service is stuffing its library with them. Black Ice is about institutional racism in professional hockey,...

Hulu has released it’s full list of what will be added to it’s library throughout the month of November 2023!

The streaming service revealed all of the TV shows and movies that are coming to it’s platform, including quite a few fan favorite movies and some holiday features as the holiday season kicks off.

Get more info inside…

Among the movies being added include The Holiday, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Pacific Rim, Shallow Hal, Twister, Men in Black, Armageddon and many more.

On the television side, Hulu will be adding the new original series Black Cake and Drive with Swizz Beatz, season two of Arthdal Chronicles, LA Law, Wahlburgers season five, and Spellbound season 1B.

There will also be many Christmas movies from Hallmark and A&e being added!

Keep reading below to see the complete list of what’s being added to Hulu in November 2023…

November 1

Arthdal Chronicles...

Right on time, this week brings a companion documentary to one of summer’s biggest movies, directed by an acclaimed filmmaker whose pedigree makes him an immediate Oscar candidate — especially in a year that isn’t overflowing with breakout docs.

The contender to watch this week: “A Compassionate Spy”

On the heels of “Oppenheimer” comes a documentary about Ted Hall, an American physicist who gave the Soviet Union classified intelligence about the construction of the atomic bomb. “A Compassionate Spy” has deep pedigree in two-time Oscar-nominated director Steve James, who made “Hoop Dreams,” “Life Itself,” and “City So Real.” If the campaign gods are smart, they’ll put James and Christopher Nolan in a room together at some point, even though Hall isn’t depicted in “Oppenheimer.” “Spy” is now in theaters and on VOD.

Other contenders:

“Black Ice”: Hockey is Canada’s most popular sport, which of course...

On July 21, 2023, Apple TV+ premiered “Stephen Curry: Underrated,” a coming-of-age story of Stephen Curry, from an undersized basketball player at a small college, to becoming a larger-than-life NBA superstar. The documentary directed by Peter Nicks currently holds a perfect 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Read our full review round-up below.

See ‘The Morning Show’ Season 3 reveals Apple TV+ premiere date, first photo of Jon Hamm

Bill Edelstein of Variety says, “If the measure of a good documentary about a superstar athlete is in synthesizing what makes its subject tick, ‘Stephen Curry: Underrated’ gets passing grades. And that’s no small compliment, considering the movie spends most of its time at school, a familiar place for director Peter Nicks, whose previous doc, ‘Homeroom,’ served up a very different look at education. With enough fresh stories to keep basketball fanatics engaged and a coda that every soccer mom will appreciate, this is...

On July 14, 2023, IFC Films released “Lakota Nation vs. United States” from directors Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli. The documentary has received rave reviews from critics, resulting in a perfect score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Featuring interviews with Indigenous citizens, the film chronicles how the Lakota Indians fight to reclaim control of the Black Hills, and investigates how the sacred land was stolen in violation of treaty agreements. Read our full review round-up below.

See Uninterrupted Film Festival: ‘Black Ice’ executive producer Maverick Carter on empowering athletes to tell their stories [Complete Interview Transcript]

David Ehrlich of IndieWire writes, “A furious yet resiliently hopeful documentary about white America’s long and ongoing history of colonizing the Očeti Šakówin (along with the rest of this land’s indigenous people), Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s vital ‘Lakota Nation vs. United States’ doesn’t waste any of its 121 minutes, but it also boasts a...

On July 13, 2023, the Emmy award-winning studio founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, The Springhill Company, co-hosted its first-ever Uninterrupted Film Festival powered by Tribeca Film Festival at NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles. The one-day experience included featured film premieres of “Black Ice” and “Goliath,” lively Q&a sessions, “State of the Game” chats, and a live podcast recording of “The Draymond Green Show” with host Draymond Green. This first-of-its-kind film festival placed the spotlight on athletes, creators, filmmakers, triumphs and stories.

Gold Derby associate editor Latasha Ford was on the scene to catch up with Carter, who co-executive produces “Black Ice,” a documentary that peels back the layers of racism athletes of color experienced as professional hockey players. The film premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival, where it was the People’s Choice documentary winner. Read the our full interview transcript with Carter below.

See ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ trailer: Casey Affleck...

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Summer has traditionally been a time for television to take a little break while everyone enjoys a little outdoor time (and maybe heads to the movies), but that’s hardly the case this year. This July is short on splashy debuts but long on old favorites on everything from Prime Video to Hulu and beyond.

You’ll find a few of the more unexpected releases (both theatrical and on your TV screen) below,...

"This is our sport." Roadside Attractions has revealed the official US trailer for a documentary film titled Black Ice, about Black hockey players. Of course this first premiered in Canada last year, playing at both the 2022 Toronto Film Festival (winning the People's Choice Award) & Vancouver Film Festival, opening in February up in Canadian cinemas. It's now set for a July release in AMC Theaters. The doc film exposes a history of racism in hockey through the untold stories of Black hockey players, both past and present, in a predominantly white sport. Hubert Davis' doc Black Ice masterfully navigates the challenges, triumphs, and unique experiences faced by these athletes through poignant firsthand accounts from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (Bipoc) hockey players past, including Willie O'Ree, the very first Black player in the NHL, and former professional hockey player Akim Aliu, with the stories of present stars, including P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds.

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the French comedy Two Tickets to Greece (aka Les Cyclades), starring César Award winner Laure Calamy (Call My Agent!), Olivia Côte and Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient). It’ll be released in theaters on July 14.

The film is set to open against Searchlight Pictures’ Sundance comedy Theater Camp, IFC Films’ Lakota Nation vs. United States, Roadside Attractions’ sports doc Black Ice, Kino Lorber’s horror comedy Final Cut from filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, Vertical’s rom-com The Modelizer, Crunchyroll’s Psycho-Pass Providence and MM2 Entertainment’s thriller Shadows.

Written and directed by Marc Fitoussi, who worked with Calamy on Call My Agent!, Two Tickets to Greece tells the story of Blandine (Côte), who is recently divorced and helplessly watching her only son leave home when her former best friend Magalie...

When approaching Stan Brakhage’s vast filmography, an attentive viewer will, unwillingly and perhaps unknowingly, become familiar with him as a person. But he’s also a figure who is irreducible to one, or even just a few, of his best-known films: there’s Window Water Baby Moving (1959), in which his first wife gives birth on camera. There’s also Mothlight (1963), a four-minute short where Brakhage taped insects and grass trimmings onto a roll of film, a technique that he would revisit two decades later for The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981), an equally rustic and tactile effort. There’s the myriad of works where Brakhage would hand-paint directly onto the celluloid, turning a film strip into an oil canvas, like The Dante Quartet (1987) and Panels for the Walls of Heaven (2002), two of his finest achievements in that regard. While most of these share technical particulars—shot on 16mm, projected at 24 frames per second,...

TIFF 2022Independent Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja’s ‘To Kill a Tiger’ and Indian filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s ‘While We Watched’ (or ‘Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar’) both won Amplify Voice Awards at TIFF.Suresh NellikodeA scene from To Kill a Tiger | Image courtesy: TIFFAs the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) came to a close on Sunday, September 18, two India-based movies bagged top honours for their directors for bravely taking up challenging subjects. Independent Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger and Indian filmmaker Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched (or Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar) both won Amplify Voice Awards. To Kill a Tiger is a documentary, made with the help of the National Film Board of Canada, that took 8 years to shoot. The film tells the story of a 13-year-old girl from a poor family in a village in Jharkhand who is brutally gang-raped. The...

Iconic director Steven Spielberg has given cinema a wide variety of stories ranging from his famous fantastical sci-fi adventures to intimate character dramas and historical period pieces. The maestro’s latest outing is the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans. After having a world premiere at TIFF (read our review), the movie just picked up the prestigious People’s Choice Audience Award, widely considered the fest’s top honor.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is Spielberg’s first film to debut at the festival, and it was a special film in which to do so, as the filmmaker explains.

Spielberg had this to say following his win,

This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family.”

Two films would tie for first runner-up for the award.

Steven Spielberg is enjoying another triumph, with his quasi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” earning this year’s People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Earning raves after its TIFF premiere, the film follows the journey of a movie-obsessed youngster — based on Spielberg’s own childhood — and his supportive, encouraging parents, played by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams.

“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!'” Spielberg said in a statement after winning the prestigious award, voted upon by members of the TIFF audience and considered a predictor of which film is expected to win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars.

Read More: First Look At Steven Spielberg’s Deeply Personal New Film ‘The Fabelmans’

“This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first...

Canada’s Riceboy Sleeps wins Platform Prize.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans has bolstered its awards season prospects by winning the TIFF People’s Choice Award on Sunday (September 18).

The award is a highly reliable bellwether of Academy voter attention. In the last ten years every TIFF audience award winner has earned a best picture Oscar nomination and three have gone on to win awards season’s top prize: Nomadland in 2021, Green Book in 2019, and 12 Years A Slave in 2014.

The Fabelmans earned a rapturous reception at its world premiere on September 10 and immediately announced itself in the awards race,...

Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age story ‘The Fabelmans’ took home the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This is seen as a major boost to the film’s awards season chances, reports ‘Variety’.

TIFF’s People’s Choice Award is among the most reliable predictors of eventual Oscar success. In past years, winners such as ‘Green Book’ and ‘Nomadland’ went on to not only get nominated, but also capture the best picture prize at the Academy Awards, notes ‘Variety’.

Other recipients, including ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, ‘La La Land’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’, were major forces during awards season.

At this year’s festival, the first runner-up for the top audience award was Sarah Polley’s drama ‘Women Talking’, while the second runner-up was Rian Johnson’s whodunit starring Daniel Craig, ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’.

All films in TIFF’s official selection, notes...

After two weeks and dozens of movies, the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close. At Sunday’s Awards Breakfast, all eyes were on the People’s Choice Award, which is frequently a bellwether for the Oscar race. For the past decade, every winner of the coveted award has gone onto receive a nomination for Best Picture. Competition for the People’s Choice Award was stiff, with critical darlings such as “Women Talking” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” vying for the top prize. But ultimately, Steven Spielberg’s crowd pleasing, semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” was named the winner.

“Above all, I am glad I brought this film to Toronto,” Spielberg said in a statement. “This is the most personal film I have made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF intimate and personal for me and my entire ‘Fabelmans’ family.”

“2022 brought...

Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age story “The Fabelmans” took home the Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award, providing a major boost to its awards season chances.

TIFF’s people’s choice award is one of the most reliable predictors of eventual Oscar success. In past years, winners such as “Green Book” and “Nomadland” went on to capture the best picture prize at the Academy Awards. Other recent recipients, including “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “La La Land” and “Jojo Rabbit,” were best picture nominees and major forces during awards season.

Since the people’s choice category was created in 1978, seven recipients went on to win best picture at the Oscars — five of which were in the past 20 years.

“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made,...

Click here to read the full article.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans picked up the top People’s Choice honor Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, which wrapped up its 47th edition.

Spielberg’s latest film grabbed TIFF’s top audience award, which is often a barometer of future Academy Award nominations. “This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family,” the director said in a statement following the announcement of his win.

The Fabelmans, co-written with Tony Kushner, marks the first time the Oscar winner debuted a movie at the Toronto Film Festival. The childhood memoir will be released Nov. 11 via Universal. Another autobiographical family film about a director’s childhood, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, was named the top audience prize winner in...

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” has won the 2022 TIFF People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards breakfast on Sunday in Toronto.

Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” took the first runner-up slot, while Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was the second runner-up.

The People’s Choice Documentary award went to Hubert Davis’ hockey doc “Black Ice,” while the Midnight Madness award was won by Eric Appel’s entirely fake rock biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

Also Read:

‘The Fabelmans’ Film Review: Steven Spielberg’s Sweet Memory Piece Picks Up Steam as It Goes

In a year with an abundance of high-profile, crowd-pleasing movies in the TIFF lineup, other films in competition for the award included Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,...

Updated, 9:45 Am with Steven Spielberg statement:

Here is Steven Spielberg’s full statement upon winning the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice award for The Fabelmans.

“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!.’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family. Thank you to Cameron Bailey and the incredible staff at TIFF; thank you to Universal Pictures; and a very special thank you to all the movie fans in Toronto who have made this past weekend one I’ll never forget.”

Previously: The People’s Choice Award from the just-wrapped 2022 Toronto Film Festival has gone to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. First Runner Up is Canada’s own Sarah Polley’s Women Talking.

Drake revealed his own feud with music critic Anthony Fantano on Instagram Friday (16 September).

The rapper posted the angry DMs he sent Fantano on his Instagram Story after the critic, who is a popular YouTuber, pretended he had received a vegan cookie recipe from him.

“Your existence is a light 1. And the 1 is cause you are alive,” the messages Drake sent read, mimicking Fantano’s style of reviewing out of 10.

“And cause you somehow wifed a Black girl. I’m feeling a light to decent 1 on your existence.”

Fantano had previously scored Drake’s latest album Honestly, Nevermind a “Not Good” out of 10 back in June. It is unclear why the Canadian musician chose to message Fantano his rebuke now.

On Thursday (15 September), Fantano – who describes himself as the “internet’s busiest music nerd” – released a video entitled, “Drake Slid Into My DMs”.

However, Fantano took the opportunity to parody the messages he received,...

Stoked by raves and strong receptions to their world-premiering Toronto festival films, “Brother” producers Damon D’Oliveira and Clement Virgo, “Black Ice” producer Vinay Virmani, and “Alice, Darling” producer Noah Segal are warming up a new basketball-themed crime series, “The Count,” for this fall’s marketplace, Variety has learned.

A modern spin on French author Alexandre Dumas’ classic 19th-century novel of wrongful imprisonment “The Count of Monte Cristo,” the TV drama will bounce between Toronto’s basketball milieu and Haiti’s cultural mélange as it follows the transformation of a Haitian basketball player facing a life sentence for murder into to justice-seeking saboteur.

D’Oliveira and Virgo under their Conquering Lion Pictures company, The Good Karma Company’s chief content officer Virmani, and Elevation Pictures co-president Segal have signed on as executive producers on the series.

Virgo, who wrote and directed the Lamar Johnson-starring “Brother,” and Hubert Davis, director of...

As Toronto director Clement Virgo and the cast of “Brother” took the stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre on the night of Sept. 9 to soak in the hometown standing ovation after film’s world premiere, a delegation of Black producers from across Canada was settling in for a week of networking ops curated by the Black Screen Office (Bso).

This year has seen Black-led CBC and BET+ historical drama series “The Porter” (recently renewed for Season two) connect with audiences and critical kudos beyond Canada; Black talent empowerment and training organizations extend their reach; and the Bso forge platforms and alliances to strengthen and amplify its advocacy, research and funding development work.

This is not simply a moment, say the Toronto filmmakers, it’s accelerated momentum.

“When I first started out, making a film about the Black experience in Canada was fairly new, but over the last 25 years that has changed,...

Click here to read the full article.

Canadians have long defined themselves through the game of ice hockey, some more than others. Despite the NHL success of such Black Canadian players as Grant Fuhr, Tony McKegney, Devante Smith-Pelly, Wayne Simmonds, Darnell Nurse, Evander Kane and P.K. Subban, the nation’s winter pastime has remained a bastion of whiteness.

With the documentary Black Ice, screening at TIFF, executive producers Drake, LeBron James and Maverick Carter attempt to shine a light on the racial disparities that have plagued the sport for decades. The 97-minute film travels back and forth in time to chronicle the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, which was based in Nova Scotia and, from 1895 to 1925, essentially barred Black players from playing alongside whites.

“Black Ice is one of the greatest sport stories never told. We’re attempting to talk about racism through the Canadian lens and context, and...

The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.

And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.

Venezia 79 Competition

Il Signore Delle Formiche

Director Gianni Amelio

Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’

The Whale

Director Darren Aronofsky

Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’

White Noise

Director Noah Baumbach

Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’

L’IMMENSITÀ

Director Emanuele Crialese

Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’

Saint Omer

Director Alice Diop

Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’

Blonde

Director Andrew Dominik

Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’

TÁR

Director Todd Field

Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’

Love Life

Director Kôji Fukada

Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’

Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’

Athena

Director Romain Gavras

Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’

Bones And All

Director Luca Guadagnino

Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’

The Eternal Daughter

Director Joanna Hogg

Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’

Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)

Director Vahid Jalilvand

Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Director Martin McDonagh

Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’

Argentina, 1985

Director Santiago Mitre

Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’

Chiara

Director Susanna Nicchiarelli

Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’

Monica

Director Andrea Pallaoro

Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’

Khers Nist (No Bears)

Director Jafar Panahi

Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’

All The Beauty And The Bloodshed

Director Laura Poitras

USA / 117’

Un Couple

Director Frederick Wiseman

Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’

The Son

Director Florian Zeller

Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’

Les Miens

Director Roschdy Zem

Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’

Les Enfants Des Autres

Director Rebecca Zlotowski

Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’

Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.

TIFF Gala Presentations:

The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.

TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”

Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy

Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.

Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.

Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude

The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)

Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...

Young Guru has shared proof that Jay-Z rapped his nearly four-minute “God Did” verse in one take.

Following the release of DJ Khaled’s latest album God-did on 26 August, Jay-Z’s longtime audio technician broke down the rapper’s lengthy verse on the title track with musical artist Rob Markman on his YouTube channel.

“He walked in,” Young Guru explained of the “Empire State of Mind” rapper. “He’s spitting the verse to me. One take.”

“I didn’t know he had almost four minutes and how many bars or whatever ready, so I’m just in amazement of watching him do this again at 52 years old. It’s like, I never stop being amazed,” he praised.

Now, in an Instagram post on Monday (6 September), Young Guru posted evidence of Jay-Z’s audio recording, with the caption: “This is the first and last time I’m gonna do this. I...

Drake and LeBron James are being sued for 10m (£8.6m) over the “intellectual property rights” for Hockey documentary Black Ice.

It has been reported that former NBA executive director Billy Hunter has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan state Supreme Court against Drake, James, and their business partners.

“While the defendants LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter [LeBron’s business partner] are internationally known and renowned in their respective fields of basketball and music, it does not afford them the right to steal another’s intellectual property,” the lawsuit states.

The documentary, which is set to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September, is based on George and Darril Fosty’s book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 to 1925.

According to the legal documents, Hunter holds “the exclusive legal rights to produce any film about the Coloured Hockey League that existed from 1895 to the 1930s.”

The...