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Exclusive: Oscar, BAFTA, WGA and Emmy nominee Ramin Bahrani has signed with Grandview.

Bahrani is the writer, director and producer of such films as Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo, 99 Homes and The White Tiger. His films have all premiered at the Venice or Cannes film festivals and additionally screened at Telluride and Toronto. His debut feature documentary, 2nd Chance, premiered at Sundance and was released by Showtime.

Additionally, Bahrani has directed TV pilots for Universal Studios and Apple, and he won the PGA Award in 2019 for his work on the HBO movie Fahrenheit 451.

Bahrani’s films also include Alex Camilleri’s Sundance- and Spirit Award-winning feature Luzzu (2020) and his forthcoming Zejtune; and Alexandre Moratto’s Spirit Award-winning Brazilian debut feature Socrates (2018, and his Venice-winning 7 Prisoners (2021), Saim Sadiq’s Cannes-winning Pakistani debut Joyland (2022), Angus MacLachlan’s Sundance premiere A Little Prayer (2023) and Joshua Oppenheimer’s forthcoming debut feature The End.

While the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is often awarded to an ingenue, like the 2022 winner Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), it can also be a way to reward a more seasoned performer. In 2023, Jamie Lee Curtis reaped her first Oscar bid at age 64 and won for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” In 2021 Youn Yuh-jung, who is renowned in her native South Korea, won at age 73 for her first English film, “Minari.” And in 2020, the academy honored past nominee Laura Dern who finally took home an Oscar for her scene-stealing performance in “Marriage Story.” (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Supporting Actress.)

While Dern was clearly a featured player in her picture, two of her rival nominees, Florence Pugh and Margot Robbie, could easily have submitted themselves in lead for their roles in “Little Women” and “Bombshell” respectively. But the studios decided to campaign only their co-stars,...

The motion picture academy has handed out Oscars for leading performances since the first ceremony in 1929. While the Best Actor prize is typically taken by a veteran, the Best Actress Oscar has tended to go to an ingenue. However, those age biases could be changing.

While a whopping 32 of the 96 Best Actress champs were in their 20s when they picked up their Oscars, the last five women to win were: 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”); 45-year old Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”); double champ Frances McDormand, 45-year-old Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) and 50-year-old Renee Zellweger (“Judy”). Yeoh’s closest rival last year was Cate Blanchett, 53, for “Tar.” (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Actress.)

Besides Zellweger, the only other Best Actress champs in their 50s were both 54 when they won: Julianne Moore, who finally prevailed after four losses for “Still Alice...

Almost all of the Best Actor winners at this century’s 22 Academy Awards ceremonies have ticked at least one of these two boxes: they were over 40 or portraying a real-life fellow. The only exceptions: Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”) and Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) who were 36 and 39 respectively when they won for playing fictional characters.

In 2023, Brendan Fraser, 54, won for his heartbreaking performance in “The Whale.” The year before saw Will Smith, 53, prevail for portraying tennis coach Richard Williams in “King Richard.” In 2021, Anthony Hopkins became the oldest Best Actor champ ever at age 83 when he won for “The Father.” At the 2020 Oscars, Joaquin Phoenix was 45 when he picked up the Best Actor Oscar for “Joker.” And in 2019, 37-year-old Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) triumphed for his riveting portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2024 Oscar predictions for Best Actor.)

Of the 10 most recent Best Actor winners at the Oscars,...

Talk about ending with a flourish.

Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” a critically acclaimed look at the dramatic life and career of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, will close the 2023 edition of the Hamptons International Festival. “Maestro,” which co-stars Carey Mulligan, will screen on Oct. 12. It is set to be released by Netflix on Dec. 20.

“’Maestro’ is a beautifully crafted, raw and heartfelt film. We look forward to sharing this glimpse into the love story between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein,” said HamptonsFilm Executive Director Anne Chaisson.

The annual celebration of movies also announced its full lineup of programming, which includes additional signature programming including “A Conversation with…” Series with Paul Simon, who will be on hand to talk up a new, sprawling look at his six decades of making cultural-defining hits. Simon, a rock icon who has written everything from “The Sound of Silence” to “Graceland,” is attending...

Exclusive: The Rebel Wilson feature Bride Hard, directed by Simon West, has rounded out its cast that includes Anna Camp, Justin Hartley, Anna Chlumsky, Stephen Dorff, Gigi Zumbado and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

In addition, the pic also features Sam Huntington, Sherry Cola and Michael O’Neill.

Bride Hard stars Wilson as a badass secret agent who is a force to be reckoned with as a mercenary group takes hostage her best friend’s lavish wedding. The indie feature was cleared for a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.

The pic was written by Shaina Steinberg from a story by Steinberg and CeCe Pleasants.

Bride Hard just wrapped production in Savannah, Ga.

Joel David Moore and Max Osswald are producing for Balcony 9 along with Cassian Elwes (Mudbound), Colleen Camp (Father Stu) and Jason Ross Jallet (Die in a Gunfight). WME Independent is handling worldwide sales; production financing is provided by East West Bank.

Exclusive: Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect triology) has joined the cast of Peacock’s coming-of-age thriller Hysteria ! as a series regular.

As Deadline previously confirmed exclusively, the series will additionally be led by Julie Bowen, Emjay Anthony, Chiara Aurelia, Kezii Curtis and Nikki Hahn.

Written and executive produced by Matthew Scott Kane, Hysteria! explores America’s dark history of mass hysteria through the shocking story of the teenage Satanic Panic. The series follows a group of 1980s high school misfits as they exploit the growing hysteria around teen occult activity.

Per the logline, When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity” triggers...

Anna Camp is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in True Blood, The Help and Pitch Perfect.

Anna Camp Biography: Early Life, Family, Education

Anna Camp was born on September 27, 1982 (Anna Camp: Age 40) in Aiken, South Carolina to Dee and Thomas Camp. She went to Meadowfield Elementary School where she had her first acting experience in the second grade.

In 2004 Camp graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Anna Camp Biography: Career

Camp started her acting career on the stage with roles in The Scene and Equus.

In 2009 Camp starred in True Blood, a supernatural drama television series, as Sarah Newlin. In the show Sarah Newlin is the creator of a vampire concentration camp to ensure the extinction of the vampire race.

Some of Camp’s guest appearances in television include The Office, Glee,...

The curtain has dropped on another South by Southwest, but this was no ordinary year for the Austin-based tech and media event. Two days after the festival started, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” claimed seven Oscars and gave it the bonafide of having premiered a Best Picture winner (2022’s slate also produced a Best Actress contender in “To Leslie’s” Andrea Riseborough). Now considered an “Oscar launchpad,” SXSW unsurprisingly attracted more than its usual share of attention.

“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” filled this year’s Opening Night slot. The movie got a warm reception and looks to spearhead a new franchise for Paramount. Laura Bradley (The Daily Beast) thinks it does an admirable job balancing accessibility and fan service, writing, “Those who have played Dungeons & Dragons will find plenty of details to love in ‘Honor Among Thieves’ (including an excellently deployed owlbear), but the film also avoids...

At the 2023 Sundance Film Festival premiere of the film A Little Prayer, Celia Weston shared her favorite moments from working on the TV classic Alice. In 1980. Weston joined the show to play truck driver turned waitress Jolene Hunnicut at Mel’s Dinner.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview founder Erik Meers, Weston reflected on her favorite episodes of the show.

“My favorite episodes, selfishly, are a couple of episodes that featured Jolene, my character,” she began. “One was when I was trying to train, to moonlight, as an airline stewardess and Alice and Mel and Vera all came on my first flight and, of course, it was disastrous.”

“Then the one that I loved was – we just loved Vic Tayback, he was our big daddy – and we had a scene one time where he gets locked in the freezer in the diner and he comes out and of course, it’s overplayed completely,...

Jane Levy is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in Shameless, Suburgatory, Don’t Breathe and A Little Prayer.

Jane Levy Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Jane Levy was born on December 29, 1989 (Jane Levy: age 33) in Los Angeles, California to Mary Tilbury and Lester Levy. She was raised in San Anselmo, California where she graduated from the Sir Francis Drake High School.

Levy went on to graduate from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City.

Jane Levy Biography: Career

Levy began her acting career for the show Shameless in 2011 but left after the first season. She then got her first lead role in the show Suburgatory as Tessa Altman, the teenage daughter of George Altman (Jeremy Sisto) who hates that they had to move to the suburbs.

Levy then took to the big screen in 2012 with her roles in Nobody Walks and Fun Size.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the film The Miracle Club starring Oscar nom Laura Linney, Oscar winners Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates, and Agnes O’Casey. Specifics as to the release plan haven’t been disclosed. But SPC nabbed rights in the U.S., Latin America, and assorted territories in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.

Related Story 2023 Independent Spirits’ Best Feature Contender ‘Our Father, The Devil’ Acquired By Cinedigm Related Story Sony Pictures Classics Sets Yogi Berra Doc 'It Ain't Over' For Theatrical Release Related Story Sony Pictures Classics Lands World On 'A Little Prayer' After Rousing Premiere

In the film helmed by Emmy nom Thaddeus O’Sullivan, there’s just one tantalizing dream for the women of Ballygar, a village in outer Dublin, to taste freedom and escape the gauntlet of domestic life: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes, that place of miracles that...

The film A Little Prayer follows the story of a father named Bill (David Strathairn) who learns his son David (Will Pullen) is having an affair. Bill wants to save his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) from the heartache but doesn’t know how or if he should intervene.

>Watch: Jane Levy’s uINTERVIEW Now!

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Pullen revealed what it was like working with Strathairn.

“Honestly, it’s one of those things where it’s like people say don’t meet your heroes, well that’s wrong with David Strathairn,” Pullen laughed. “I mean, I’ve been such a huge fan of his for so long and, you know, when I became a professional actor would I respect most of his choices as an actor, like I think he’s always choosing super interesting projects and he’s really an artist, so when I met him...

The film A Little Prayer follows the story of a father named Bill (David Strathairn) who learns his son David (Will Pullen) is having an affair. Bill wants to save his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) from heartache but doesn’t know how or if he should intervene. Alice star Celia Weston plays the wife and mother, Venida.

>Watch Jane Levy’s uINTERVIEW Now!

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Weston discussed what it was like working with Levy and Strathairn.

“They’re both wonderful actors,” Weston said. “With David it was the first time for [working with him] but it’s my third film with [director] Angus [MacLachlan] so there was definitely common ground and great communication. And I’m a congenial person, I get along with everybody, and I’d say that about David Strathairn and so we brought that to the table. We were the two senior citizens on the film so we...

In the film A Little Prayer, viewers follow Bill (David Strathairn) as he balances wanting to protect his daughter-in-law (Jane Levy) from his son’s (Will Pullen) suspected unfaithfulness. As writer and director Angus Maclachlan said, “It’s a story of a family and secrets in the family and fidelity and choices.”

In an exclusive interview with uInterview at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Maclachlan revealed what the casting process was like.

“Oh, it’s incredibly important,” he said. “I’m an actor myself so I really love actors and really respect them and really honor what they do and the people that I ended up getting were like a dream cast. I mean they were just a dream cast, both in their performances but also in their esprit de corps because it’s never easy. I mean we had, you know, David Strathairn who is a...

In the film A Little Prayer, views follow Tammy (Jane Levy) and David (Will Pullen), and David’s parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston). The two couples live together in North Carolina as a close-knit family unit, until Bill starts to suspect that David is not faithful to his wife. Stuck between wanting to protect his daughter-in-law and not wanting to pry too deeply into his son’s personal life, Bill must face his own personal behavioral patterns.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Levy discussed what it was like working with Strathairn.

“I’m a huge fan,” she said. “It’s a real privilege to work with someone like David Strathairn. What’s so exciting about Sundance is we’re here honoring independent films. This is a really small production, we didn’t have many days to prep or shoot and so David and I just had...

Sony Pictures Classics has made many wise investments at the Sundance Film Festival over the years. Its 2022 acquisition, “Living,” just nabbed Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Bill Nighy, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Other recent Sundance titles propelled to the Oscars by the studio include “The Father” (2020), “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), “Whiplash” (2014) and “An Education” (2009). Amy Adams’ very first career bid came for “Junebug,” which the distributor picked up from Park City in 2005. That film’s writer, Angus MacLachlan, is the director of “A Little Prayer,” one of Sony Pictures Classics’ 2023 festival purchases (the other being Audience Award winner “The Persian Version”).

Starring David Strathairn as Bill Brass, the movie is about a soft-spoken North Carolina family man who, per official synopsis, “tests the limits of patriarchal interference” after discovering that his son, David (Will Pullen), has been having an extramarital affair. In breach of Southern hospitality, which prescribes minding one’s own affairs,...

Exclusive: Apple has rounded out the cast for its crime drama series Sinking Spring with the addition of Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible franchise), Dustin Nguyen (The Accidental Getaway Driver), Nesta Cooper (See), Idris Debrand (Dear Edward), Liz Caribel (Pussy Island) and Will Pullen (A Little Prayer).

The actors join an ensemble led by 2023 Academy Award nom Brian Tyree Henry (of the Apple drama Causeway) which also includes Michael Mando, Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew and Amir Arison, as previously announced.

Related Story ‘Presumed Innocent’: Chase Infiniti, Lily Rabe, Nana Mensah, Matthew Alan & Kingston Rumi Southwick Cast In Apple TV+ Series Related Story 'The Blacklist' Star Amir Arison Joins Ridley Scott's Apple Series 'Sinking Spring' Related Story Marin Ireland Joins Apple's 'Sinking Spring' TV Series

The eight-episode series created by Top Gun: Maverick scribe Peter Craig, entering production this week in Philadelphia,...

Bill (David Strathairn) must confront his son David’s (Will Pullen) faltering faithfulness to his wife Tammy (Jane Levy) in A Little Prayer, the latest from writer-director Angus MacLachlan. However, before Bill can help David, he must reflect on his own bad habits when it comes to his relationship with wife and David’s mother Venida (Celia Weston). Editor Tricia Holmes talks about navigating the film’s cut and accentuating each character’s complex relationship to each other. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were […]

The post “The Complexity of Parenting Adults”: Editor Tricia Holmes on A Little Prayer first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Bill (David Strathairn) must confront his son David’s (Will Pullen) faltering faithfulness to his wife Tammy (Jane Levy) in A Little Prayer, the latest from writer-director Angus MacLachlan. However, before Bill can help David, he must reflect on his own bad habits when it comes to his relationship with wife and David’s mother Venida (Celia Weston). Editor Tricia Holmes talks about navigating the film’s cut and accentuating each character’s complex relationship to each other. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were […]

The post “The Complexity of Parenting Adults”: Editor Tricia Holmes on A Little Prayer first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, a father-son relationship becomes strained when family patriarch Bill (David Strathairn) discovers that his son David (Will Pullen) is cheating on his wife Tammy (Jane Levy). While attempting to guide David back onto the path of monogamy, he realizes that his own bad habits might have unintentionally been passed down to his son. Dp Scott Miller tells Filmmaker about the shoot, including his affinity for the Alexa Mini on this project. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of […]

The post “The Alexa Has a Wonderful Creaminess to Its Capture”: Dp Scott Miller on A Little Prayer first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, a father-son relationship becomes strained when family patriarch Bill (David Strathairn) discovers that his son David (Will Pullen) is cheating on his wife Tammy (Jane Levy). While attempting to guide David back onto the path of monogamy, he realizes that his own bad habits might have unintentionally been passed down to his son. Dp Scott Miller tells Filmmaker about the shoot, including his affinity for the Alexa Mini on this project. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of […]

The post “The Alexa Has a Wonderful Creaminess to Its Capture”: Dp Scott Miller on A Little Prayer first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Filled with the brutal wonder of nature – both topographical and psychological – Hlynur Pálmason’s impressive period drama “Godland” drops us into the harshly beautiful terrain of Iceland for an austerely mesmerizing tale of mad conceit and errant conquest in the late nineteenth century. A sumptuous travelogue it is not; a visually stunning, soul-clenching examination of the curious push/pull between humans and the environment it most certainly is.

With its landscape of volcanos, lowlands, and ice, and hubristic treks marked by doomed clashes and solemn grace, “Godland” – its majestic Academy-ratio cinematography ideally maximized if seen in a theater – is the kind of bold work about which one could imagine Werner Herzog, upon viewing, feeling very seen. And yet with his third feature, Pálmason’s stylized mix of viscerality and mystery is decidedly his own, heralding a talent fully aware of how to achieve ambitious storytelling with memorable execution.

Our protagonist...

Bleecker Street has acquired Laurel Parmet’s feature directorial debut “The Starling Girl,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Last November, Parmet was named one of Variety‘s 10 Directors to Watch for 2023.

Bleecker Street will release the film theatrically later this year. The deal is for North American rights.

The drama follows 17-year-old Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen), who struggles to find her place in the fundamentalist Christian community that raised her. According to the film’s official synopsis, “even her greatest joy — the church dance group — is tempered by worry that her love of dance is actually sinful, and she’s caught between a burgeoning awareness of her own sexuality and an instinctive resistance to her mom’s insistence that the time has come to begin courting. She finds respite from her confusion in the encouragement of her youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman), who is likewise drawn...

Sundance has been over for a week, but the market for many of the films that premiered at the festival is still chugging along.

On Friday, Sony Pictures Classics announced that it landed North American rights to the Sundance award-winning film “The Persian Version.” The film was written, directed and produced by Maryam Keshavarz and went on to win the Audience Award and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award after debuting in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition category.

It’s the second deal out of the festival for Sony Pictures Classics, which also bought the family drama “A Little Prayer.”

“The Persian Version” was produced by Keshavarz for Marakesh Films, Anne Carey for Archer Gray Productions, Ben Howe and Luca Borghese for Agx, and Peter Block and Cory Neal for A Bigger Boat. It stars Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafieisabet, Bijan Daneshmand, Bella Warda, Chiara Stella, Tom Byrne and Shervin Alenabi.

It may have been in the single digits in snowy Park City for this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but deals defrosted at the first in-person festival since 2020. Movies came in with distribution in place, others saw heated late-night auctions with tens of millions of dollars mobilized, and more sales are yet to come.

The film that won the Sundance dramatic Grand Jury Prize, A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One, arrived at the festival under the comforting wing of Focus Features. For others that chose to wait, it really paid off. Fair Play inked a mega-deal with Netflix and Flora and Son with Apple – for around 20 million and 25 million, respectively – as a cluster of sales reflected appetite from streamers and traditional distributors.

Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich appear in Fair Play What worked best?

The moves raised a perennial question with new urgency: Given current challenges for indie film,...

Writer/director Angus MacLachlan works through some absorbing questions surrounding the true meaning of family in A Little Prayer, which made its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film is a low-profile melodrama that quietly dips into its atmosphere, showing both the strength and the downfall of family.

‘A Little Prayer’ depicts a family diving into crisis L-r: Anna Camp as Patti, David Strathairn as Bill, Billie Roy as Hadley, Celia Weston as Venida, and Jane Levy as Tammy | Courtesy of Sundance Institute

David’s (Will Pullen) parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston), allow him and his wife, Tammy (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s Jane Levy), to move into their quiet home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. David and Bill have always been rather close, but they become even more involved in each other’s lives after they start working together. Bill gets a sneaking suspicion that his...

In the quiet, peaceful mornings that ease your way into writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer, a woman belts out gospel songs that echo down the block. They’re a bleary-eyed nuisance to many waking in this small, North Carolina neighborhood, but Bill Brass (David Straitharn) and his daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy) have a mutual fascination with them, rising early with curiosity and wonder. Why does she sing them? Where do they come from exactly? The pair eventually attempt to investigate their leafy streets to find the source, yet as the spirituals dissipate and leave them alone in bird-chirping silence, they seem to revel in their beautiful, unsolved mystery.

Their unusual bond carries the movie’s spirit like a warm breeze, a comforting and centering presence as Bill, a Vietnam veteran, navigates his family’s dysfunction and reckons with his parenting past. Like Junebug, MacLachlan’s feature writing debut...

Exclusive: Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect) and Justin Bartha (National Treasure) are among the stars set for the upcoming comedy Nuked, which Deena Kashper wrote and is directing, in her feature debut.

The film watches as several couples gather at a luxurious estate for a cannabis-infused birthday dinner party — only to get sudden phone alerts about a nuclear missile headed straight for them. Their stress and panic unfolds into a wake-up call for everyone involved.

Others set for the pic, produced by Tandem Pictures and Hardball Entertainment, include Lucy Punch (Motherland), George Young (Falling for Christmas), Tawny Newsome (Star Trek: Lower Decks), Ignacio Serricchio (Lost in Space), Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock), Stephen Guarino (Eastsiders) and Natasha Leggero (Broke). The film being made with sustainable production practices is currently being shot in Arkansas.

Julie Christeas (Black Bear) is producing for Tandem, with Daryl Freimark (House of Darkness) of Hardball. Bartha is exec...

The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”

See 2023 Sundance Film Festival concludes: Highlights and studio acquisitions include ‘Past Lives,’ ‘A Little Prayer,’ ‘Flora and Son’

Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s honorees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and...

The Sundance Film Festival has often been called one of the world’s most important documentary marketplaces, with 39 of the past 65 Best Documentary Feature contenders (60) either beginning or continuing their road to the Oscars in Park City, Utah. Examples include “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “Writing With Fire,” “Honeyland,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “American Factory,” “Time,” “The Mole Agent,” “Crip Camp,” “Rbg,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Minding the Gap,” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”

Two of those–Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Netflix’s joint venture with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, “American Factory”–won the award. Four of this season’s nominees —“All That Breathes,” “Fire of Love,” “Navalny,” and “A House Made of Splinters”—played the festival in 2022. Climate change, human rights violations, competitive mariachi, and manned flight to Mars are only a few of the subjects addressed by this year’s eclectic non-fiction slate.

One year after Sundance megahit “Coda” took home the Oscar for Best Picture, the indie festival is being represented at the 95th Academy Awards again–this time, by four nominees for Best Documentary Feature and “Living,” which is contending in Best Actor (Bill Nighy) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Other recent films to have wound up at the Oscars after debuting in Park City include “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “The Father,” “Get Out,” “The Big Sick,” “Manchester by the Sea,” and “Whiplash.” The event wrapped up over the weekend, with major prizes going to “The Persian Version” (the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and U.S. Dramatic: Audience), “A Thousand And One” (U.S. Dramatic: Grand Jury), “Shayda” (World Cinema: Audience), and “Scrapper” (World Cinema: Grand Jury).

See 2023 Sundance Film Festival: Early highlights include ‘Fairyland,’ ‘Magazine Dreams,’ ‘Past Lives’ …

The 2023 slate has drawn some strong reactions, but no film has been as...

Anna Camp, David Strathairn, Billie Roy, Celia Weston and Jane Levy in ‘A Little Prayer’ (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute / Photo by Diana Greene)

How does it feel to be seen when you’ve spent your entire life feeling invisible? That question is posed and answered in the moving family drama A Little Prayer.

The very definition of a slow burn, writer/director Angus MacLachlan takes his time and slowly introduces the dysfunctional family at the center of the story. David Strathairn and Celia Weston play the family patriarch and matriarch, a couple who’ve been married for decades and who’ve come to accept what can’t be changed in their relationship. Bill and Venida should be at the empty-nester stage heading into pre-retirement, yet their brood has failed to fly.

David (Will Pullen) works for his dad’s company and lives behind his childhood home with his wife,...

Most Oscar documentary nominees launch at Sundance. There are exceptions, like winners “Citizenfour,” “Free Solo,” and “My Octopus Teacher,” but it remains the festival of choice for non-fiction films.

A Sundance award doesn’t hurt, either: The 2022 documentary Oscar winner, Questlove’s “Summer of Soul,” began its journey as a 2021 Sundance double winner with an Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. This year, the Oscar nominees include “Navalny” (U.S. Documentary audience and Festival Favorite award), “Fire of Love” (editing award), “All that Breathes,” (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary), and “House Made of Splinters” (World Cinema Documentary Directing Award).

This year’s Sundance crop, sampled by those in Park City theaters as well as online, is just as impressive. Jury prizes didn’t always go to the buzziest titles, but Sundance award-winners get a lift toward getting seen and often acquired.

Sheila Nevins’ MTV Documentary Films grabbed Chilean...

Between 20 million for “Fair Play,” eight figures for “Flora and Son,” and a hefty theatrical deal for “Theater Camp,” any handwringing over the Sundance market seems a little silly.

Both major streamers and traditional theatrical buyers got in on the Utah action, and while there may have been fewer fevered late-night deals, films like “A Little Prayer” to Sony Pictures Classics or “Flora and Son” to Apple closed within roughly 24 hours of their premieres. “Fair Play” had as many as seven potential buyers before Netflix reunited with its “Bridgerton” star Phoebe Dynevor. A24 had half a dozen movies already in the festival, but came away with the Midnight entry “Talk to Me,” beating out a few other bidders in the process.

Independent films, in trouble? Dealmaking for many films at Sundance seemed as swift and aggressive as ever —even pre-pandemic aggressive. A source who spoke with IndieWire on the condition...

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Poet-turned-filmmaker Raven Jackson uses elegantly composed vignettes, minimal dialogue and an immersive style to explore the life of a Black woman in the rural South in her eloquent feature, produced by Barry Jenkins. The story follows Mack (Charleen McClure) across several decades, the fragments of her life coming together in a risky, beautifully realized film. — Caryn James

Cassandro

Gael García Bernal nails his best role in years as groundbreaking lucha libre wrestler Saúl Armendáriz, his performance steeped in cheeky humor, resilience and radical self-belief — not to mention some amazingly nimble moves. Roger Ross Williams’ assured narrative is an exhilarating exploration of fearless queer identity in a macho environment. — David Rooney

The Deepest Breath

Filled with eye-popping visuals, thrilling competitions and a deftly presented love story, Laura McGann’s documentary feature tells of a record-breaking free diver and a heroic safety diver whose lives intersect.

On Jan. 22, the sales agents of WME Independent braced themselves for an all-night negotiation at the Sundance Film Festival. Once a staple of major film festivals, where million-dollar price tags soar as high as the altitude in the Utah mountains, these kind of marathon bidding wars had gone digital during the pandemic, or disappeared nearly entirely.

For the first time since 2020, the agents stocked their chalet with pizza bites, cookies and sugary soda to fuel these talks. Their mission was to find the right studio home for “Theater Camp,” a backstage send-up that scored a raucous reception at Sundance, where co-directors Nick Leiberman and Molly Gordon were joined by cast-members Ben Platt and Noah Galvin. The film entertained offers and fielded interest from several bidders, including some streamers. Deborah McIntosh, co-head of WME Independent Film, said the team was exhilarated to be back in the room together with potential buyers...

Concerns over theatrical viability and a public promise from streamers to avoid spending sprees left this year’s Sundance Film Festival light on big purchases and — for now — high on orphans.

While there were a few major acquisitions such as “Fair Play” and “Theater Camp,” there was a notable absence of lower-profile sales or smaller pickups, while several seemingly surefire titles were left waiting for a buyer. Titles like the Anne Hathaway/Thomasin McKenzie 1960s women’s prison melodrama “Eileen” and the Chiwetel Ejiofor/Emilia Clarke sci-fi drama “The Pod Generation” left the festival empty-handed.

Sources say that even Randall Parks’ well-reviewed directorial debut “Shortcomings” had trouble drumming up interest, partially because the film’s major screening reportedly conflicted with other big premieres. Jonathan Majors’ grim bodybuilder drama “Magazine Dreams” had its premiere undercut by controversy when jurors walked out over Marlee Matlin’s failed captioning device.

“One big question,...

Drift Image: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival As the 2023 iteration of the Sundance Film Festival winds down, with the remaining industry contingents heading for the exits, encore presentations of the last buzzworthy films have confirmed that this year’s event was a special one: recently Oscar-nominated documentary Navalny, international category shortlister Klondike,...

MTV Documentary Films has landed rights to “The Eternal Memory” out of its debut at Sundance.

Maite Alberdi’s sequel to “The Mole Agent,” nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2020 Academy Awards, chronicles an esteemed Chilean cultural commentator’s attempt to document his life as his memory recedes with Alzheimer’s disease.

Augusto and Paulina have been together for 25 loving years; eight years ago, she also became his caretaker after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Augusto, a television presenter and commentator, has devoted much of his career to building an archive of collective consciousness following the Pinochet dictatorship. With “The Eternal Memory,” he applies that work to his own life, preserving his identity with the help of his loved ones.

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Sony Lands Worldwide Rights to Sundance 2023 Favorite ‘A Little Prayer’

MTV Documentary Films plans to release the film in theaters and, according to a release, launch...

Drama reunites distributor with Junebug screenwriter.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights in Sundance to Angus MacLachlan’s Premieres selection A Little Prayer.

David Strathairn, Jane Levy, Dascha Polanco, Will Pullen, Anna Camp, and Celia Weston star in the drama about a man who tries to protect his daughter-in-law when he discovers his son is having an affair.

The film touches on themes such as the changing South, a woman’s agency over her own body, Ptsd, and the limits of patriarchal control. MacLachlan produced with Lauren Vilchik and Max A. Butler.

A Little Prayer reunites Sony Classics with MacLachlan,...

Pitch Perfect’s Anna Camp took on a serious role in the new family drama A Little Prayer, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s latest film has already been bought by Sony Pictures Classics after the performances were highly acclaimed.

The story follows a family in Winston Salem, North Carolina who deal with the mundane crises of normal life. The patriarch of the family, Bill (David Strathairn) grows concerned about his two grown children – David (Will Pullen), who Bill worries is unfaithful to his wife, and Patti (Camp), who arrives unannounced after leaving her addict husband. Viewers see interesting relationships unfold between Bill and his children, as well as his wife Venida (Celia Weston) and their daughter-in-law Tammy (Jane Levy).

Camp talked to uInterview founder Erik Meers about her role as Patti at the Sundance premiere.

“It’s a story about...

If you love “Junebug,” the 2005 indie that launched Amy Adams’ career, then you probably felt at the time as film critic Jan Stuart did. He’s quoted on the poster as saying, “It is only a matter of time before [director] Phil Morrison achieves the status of Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, and Woody Allen.” Well, that prediction never really came to pass. Morrison made one more feature, then turned his attention to commercials. Meanwhile, the film’s screenwriter, Angus MacLachlan, has slowly but surely emerged as an auteur of authentic stories representing the American South.

MacLachlan’s third film as director (and the first to be selected for Sundance featuring him in that role), “A Little Prayer” shares much of the sensibility — and sensitivity — that made “Junebug” so special. Once again, he’s written a modestly scaled but deep-reaching relationship drama about a white middle-class North Carolina family that believes in God,...

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s common for films to explore parent-child relationships, but not as often are they about the dynamic between a parent and his child’s spouse, particularly if said child is still alive and around. In that way, A Little Prayer is an odd specimen, since its primary characters are Bill (David Stathairn), a veteran who runs a business with his son David (Will Pullen), and his daughter-in-law, David’s wife Tammy (Jane Levy), who may just be the most selfless, accommodating person in the world…...

My Animal Image: Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival With most of the big premieres behind it, the 2023 Sundance Film Festival shifts into a lower gear ahead of its final day on January 29. Those who still have snow boots on the ground are packing multiple screenings into each day, joined by...

Following a glowing reception in its premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Sony has acquired worldwide rights to the drama “A Little Prayer,” an individual with knowledge of the matter told TheWrap. While specifics of the deal haven’t been disclosed, it’s said to be in the 7 figure range.

Playwright and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan directed and scripted the film. MacLachlan is most known for writing the screenplays for the 2005 film “Junebug,” and the cult short film “Tater Tomater.”

Also Read:

‘A Little Prayer’ Review: David Strathairn Shines as Conflicted Patriarch in Thoughtful Family Drama

“A Little Prayer,” stars David Straithairn (Bill) Celia Weston, (Venida), and Will Pullen, (David “Dickson). The film centers on three generations of a North Carolina family, their sheet metal business, a father and son who are both military veterans, and the women in their lives.

Lauren Vilchik, Max Butler, and Angus produced. Ramin Bahrani is an executive producer,...

Sony Pictures Classics has nabbed worldwide rights to “A Little Prayer” following its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The exact sales price isn’t clear, but sources state the film fetched a figure in the low seven-figure range.

The deal reunites Sony Pictures Classics with Angus MacLachlan, who wrote the screenplay for “Junebug,” which the indie label released. MacLachlan directs this film, in addition to writing the script. WME Independent brokered the sale.

“A Little Prayer” follows Tammy (Jane Levy) and David (Will Pullen), a married couple in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who share home with David’s parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston). Things grow complicated after Bill starts to think that David is cheating on Tammy.

Critics seemed to like the film, giving particular praise to the performances. The Hollywood Reporter’s Sheri Linden wrote, “Most of the characters in this open-ended and cautiously...

Exclusive: The Sundance Film Festival deals keep dropping. Sony Pictures Classics has landed worldwide rights to A Little Prayer, which premiered at the Ray yesterday in the US Dramatic Competition category. The film is directed and scripted by Angus MacLachlan, who scripted Junebug.

Tammy (Jane Levy) and husband David (Will Pullen) lead a quiet life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, sharing a home with David’s parents, Bill (David Strathairn) and Venida (Celia Weston). David and Bill work together and have always been closely involved in each other’s lives. When Bill begins to suspect that David is straying in his marriage, he is drawn into a relationship minefield, caught between wanting to protect his amicable daughter-in-law and trying to understand his impulsive son. As Bill confronts the limits of patriarchal influence, he is also forced to reckon with disheartening behavioral patterns that may be transcending generations.

The film is produced...

Roger Ebert once wrote, “just because something is not done anymore doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing,” when describing Norman Jewison’s irrepressible romantic comedy “Only You.” This same sentiment can be applied to Angus MacLachlan’s latest family dramedy, “A Little Prayer,” a welcome throwback to adult-oriented movie fare of yore like “On Golden Pond,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” or “Passion Fish.

Continue reading ‘A Little Prayer’ Review: David Strathairn and Jane Levy Shine In Angus MacLachlan’s Throwback Family Dramedy at The Playlist.

As A Little Prayer begins, the voice of an unseen singer floats into the still morning air of a strikingly leafy neighborhood. The spirituals she belts, heard a few times during this quiet drama, take on the role of a disembodied character, sparking responses from the other characters that help to define who they are. Some hear only noise, an intrusion, something to complain about. But for Bill and his daughter-in-law, Tammy, searching souls beautifully played by David Strathairn and Jane Levy, the songs are enchanting, a mystery to savor.

Bill and Tammy are, as she puts it, kindred spirits, but that’s not to say they’re fully in sync. Their bond is the heart of writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s understated film, yet so too is the gap between what Bill wants to believe and the way things are. At the helm of his third feature, after Goodbye to All That...