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Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore has joined the production team of From Ground Zero as an executive producer.

From Ground Zero is a powerful collection of short films by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in present-day Gaza. Through a unique blend of animation, documentary, and fiction, these stories capture the steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation.

Garnering international acclaim since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2024, Variety praised the project, stating: “The filmmaking ingenuity on display is undoubtedly impressive.” while FilmThreat said, “From Ground Zero is a profound cinematic event, proving that movies can be made even on the edge of destruction.” Slant Magazine said, “The film is a stirring testament to art as a tool of survival, to the power of community art-making to affirm life in the face of omnipresent death, and to...

Michael Moore has boarded Palestine’s Oscar entry From Ground Zero as an executive producer ahead of a theatrical release on Jan. 3 by Watermelon Pictures.

The project, shortlisted for the upcoming Academy Awards in the best international feature film category, is a collection of 22 films by Palestinian filmmakers completed while impacted by the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

“These Palestinian filmmakers have accomplished a cinematic miracle. They have made a brilliant film in the midst of what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have now declared a genocide,” Moore said in a statement on Monday.

The anthology of documentary, fiction and animated films was spearheaded by Gaza-born Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi and his Masharawi Fund for local films and filmmakers.

“The only weapons that Rashid and these 22 courageous Palestinian directors in Gaza have are their cameras and their creativity. No filmmaker, writer or artist should ever have to tell the story of their own extermination.

Michael Moore has joined the production team of “From Ground Zero” — the recently shortlisted Palestinian entry for the 97th Academy Awards’ best international film category — as executive producer.

A collection of shorts made by 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war in present day Gaza, “From Ground Zero” blends animation, documentary and fiction to “capture the steadfastness of the human spirit and enduring creativity that thrives even in the face of relentless devastation,” according to the producers. Watermelon Pictures will release the film — which was coordinated and funded by director Rashid Masharawi — across the U.S. on Jan. 3.

“These Palestinian filmmakers have accomplished a cinematic miracle. They have made a brilliant film in the midst of what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have now declared a genocide,” said Moore, who won the Oscar in 2003 for his groundbreaking documentary “Bowling for Columbine” and the Palme d’Or in 2004 for “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

“The...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has set a March 21 release for Magazine Dreams, the Elijah Bynum-scripted and directed drama that after 2023 Sundance was expected to put its star Jonathan Majors in the Best Actor race and a major star trajectory.

That was before Majors’ indiscretions with a former girlfriend cast a creepy light on the emotionally troubled aspiring bodybuilder character he plays in the film, prompting Searchlight to drop the picture as Majors’ wound through the legal system. He was eventually found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari.

Beyond the high price paid by Majors — who transformed his body eating 6100 calories daily and training six days a week, and wound up exiting the Avengers films and had just come off a terrific performance opposite Michael B. Jordan in Creed III – a lot of people worked hard on Magazine Dreams, and it seemed all for naught.

Veteran cinematographer and director Kirsten Johnson has some thoughts on the power of image.

“There’s never one meaning,” she told filmmakers gathered to meet with her at the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival.

Having lensed more that 50 films from the early 1990s on, including “Derrida,” “Fahrenheit 911” “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” and “Citizenfour,” the ebullient and down-to-earth Johnson stepped into directing in 2016 with “Cameraperson.”

That film, a remarkable look back over her career, which spanned current affairs and doc shoots in war zones worldwide – and covered five genocides – helped Johnson deal with much of the trauma she’s covered in her career. “I needed to make that film to help me process,” she says.

It also led to insights in taking agency over what fills the screen, most recently 2020’s “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” which screened before deeply engaged Ji.hlava audiences.

The Netflix-produced project follows Johnson’s father,...

After much pre-release turbulence, The Apprentice today opens on 1,740 screens across the country. Inspiring coming-of-age tales are a Hollywood staple, but most are warm and cozy compared to The Apprentice. In this ‘70s-set Manhattan tale, an ambitious real estate developer looking to crack the big time finds a mentor and role model in a take-no-prisoners lawyer who during the Red Scare was Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s henchman, and who sent the Rosenbergs to the electric chair.

Donald Trump had no political or even reality TV ambitions; he mostly wanted to prove himself to an impossible-to-please father, who had Donald going door to door to collect rent from hostile low-income tenants. Cohn helped fuel Trump’s rise, even showing him the dark arts that included an office where he surreptitiously taped intimate conversations of his enemies. Cohn used these like brass knuckles, in one scene threatening to expose same-sex trysts of...

Ali Abbasi’s Cannes sensation and Donald Trump origins story The Apprentice opens in North America on Friday (October 11) in 1,740 theatres in what will be one of the more closely watched independent box office launches of recent times.

‘The Apprentice’: Cannes Review

The production is already wrapped in its own mythology. The story of young Trump played by Sebastian Stan coming under the tutelage of notorious McCarthyite and attack dog attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) in 1970s and 1980s New York features a rape scene and was threatened with a lawsuit by Trump’s campaign team around the time...

While Europe has always lured Hollywood filmmakers, there are more opportunities today for transatlantic collaborations due to a number of factors, according to leading European industry reps taking part in the Zurich Summit on Saturday.

Outlining the many advantages and unique opportunities Europe offers at the Zurich Film Festival’s industry forum were Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval, Mediawan Pictures CEO Elisabeth d’Arvieu, Constantin exec Martin Bachmann, Fremantle’s Christian Vesper and Karl Spoerri of Zurich Avenue.

While collaborations have always existed between the European industry and American filmmakers who wanted to do different kinds of films, the current situation has created more opportunities, Maraval said.

U.S. studios are becoming “more and more conservative,” he pointed out, adding that for creators today who feel frustrated or are looking for more freedom and more creativity, it’s easier to travel and work elsewhere.

It’s also becoming increasingly expensive to shoot Stateside,...

In a move that builds on Tom Ortenberg’s credentials as a provocative champion of contentious material, Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired US rights to Magazine Dreams – a film many thought might never see the light of day after star Jonathan Majors was convicted of charges related to domestic violence.

Briarcliff plans a theatrical release for Elijah Bynum’s acclaimed drama about a troubled, aspiring bodybuilder in the first quarter of 2025. CEO Ortenberg declared on Wednesday, “Jonathan Majors’ transcendent performance as Killian Maddox will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most compelling and transformative roles in recent cinema history.”

Searchlight Pictures...

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros.) had an unexpectedly strong second weekend. With just under $52 million, it fell 54 percent (quite decent from a $111 million start), and a domestic total of $188 million in just 10 days.

Its take made up just over half of the U.S./Canada estimated gross of $95 million. That’s up 50 percent from last year, with year to date totals now 12 percent below last year.

The “Beetlejuice” 36 years-later sequel now looks certain to top the original film’s grosses, adjusted to current ticket prices. “Twisters” (Universal), released earlier this summer, was a similar legacy project, though with a different cast. As big as it was ($266 million domestic so far), that’s about half of the adjusted total for the 1996 original.

“Beetlejuice,” however, is faring similarly to “Twisters” overseas. With the film open around most of the world, its foreign take so far is only $76 million, a smaller gross compared to domestic.

The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s Cannes premiere which explores Donald Trump’s formative relationship with mentor Roy Cohn, is understood to have secured a US release through Briarcliff Entertainment on October 11, more than three weeks before the presidential election.

‘The Apprentice’: Cannes Review

Briarcliff, which was first linked to the film in June, is planning an awards push. CEO Tom Ortenberg is in Colorado for a sneak screening of the controversial drama on Saturday night (August 31) at Telluride Film Festival, which runs through September 2.

The Apprentice is scheduled to open in France through Metropolitan on October 9 and in the...

The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s Cannes premiere that explores Donald Trump’s formative relationship with fixer Roy Cohn, will open in the US on October 11 through Briarcliff Entertainment prior to the November presidential election, it is understood.

‘The Apprentice’: Cannes Review

Reports that Briarcliff, which was first linked to the film in June, is moving ahead with the release and planning an awards push came amid speculation on Friday that the controversial film might be a surprise screening at Telluride Film Festival, which kicks off today and runs through September 2.

Briarcliff and Telluride had not replied to inquiries at time of writing.

The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s Cannes premiere that explores Donald Trump’s formative relationship with fixer Roy Cohn, will open in the US on October 11 through Briarcliff Entertainment prior to the November presidential election, it is understood.

‘The Apprentice’: Cannes Review

Reports that Briarcliff, which was first linked to the film in June, is moving ahead with the release and planning an awards push came amid speculation on Friday that the controversial film might be a surprise screening at Telluride Film Festival, which kicks off today and runs through September 2.

Briarcliff and Telluride had not replied to inquiries at time of writing.

While many retrospective looks at cinematic years past find plenty dividing the current state of movies from all that came before, 2004, in many ways, still feels representative of our idea of the modern film industry. Superheroes, sequels, and superhero sequels dominated the box office, while the award shows favored an...

At their best, political documentaries make sense of complex issues. But getting them seen has become more challenging than ever given Hollywood’s preference for celebrity or true-crime nonfiction offerings over anything grappling with thorny, complicated issues or figures.

This hasn’t stopped top documentary filmmakers from tackling such topics. Errol Morris’ “Separated,” a look at Trump administration immigration policies on the U.S. border, will debut at the Venice film festival. Docs about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gun control and antisemitism are also in the works and could end up at fall festivals. There is also chatter about a doc focusing on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

It’s not at all clear who might distribute these films, which follow in the footsteps of political documentaries like Michael Moore’s record-breaking “Fahrenheit 9/11” and Amazon Prime Video’s 2020 offering “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés,...

Exclusive: The back and forth over the prospect of a hot-button film on the formative years of Donald Trump is near done, and The Dish hears that backer Kinematics will soon be bought out of Daniel Snyder’s $5 million investment with a premium. Tom Ortenberg, who runs Briarcliff Entertainment and has overseen the distribution of films that included Fahrenheit 9/11, Best Picture winner Spotlight, Nightcrawler and many others, is getting close to acquiring the film for fall release.

Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Gabriel Sherman, the film stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as his mentor lawyer Roy Cohn in a film that traces the formative years of the former president who’ll take another run at the White House this fall. Maria Bakalova plays his ex-wife Ivana Trump.

The film was one of the hottest tickets at the Cannes Film Festival, even as it became...

The ethics of documentary filmmaking is not a new topic of debate, but after last month’s Washington Post article about an Afghan man allegedly murdered by the Taliban as a consequence of his participation in Matthew Heineman’s Oscar shortlisted 2022 documentary “Retrograde,” the discussion around the moral responsibility of nonfiction filmmakers has once again heated up.

Unlike with journalists, there are no widely-accepted standards that documentary filmmakers are expected to abide by. Regulations for personal nonfiction storytelling can be counterintuitive. Intrusive. Unless a director is working on a documentary for PBS’ “Frontline” series, known for adherence to journalism standards, situational ethics determined on a case-by-case are more often than not the norm.

“Retrograde” tells the story of the United States’ final months of its 20-year war in Afghanistan. In the film Heineman, whose “Cartel Land” was nominated for an Oscar in 2016, embedded with the U.S. Army Green Berets and Lt.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival concluded on Saturday, May 25 following two weeks packed with screenings, stars, press and parties. With the prizes having been handed out for the festival’s 77th anniversary, we can now start looking at what contenders might be in the best spot to get into the upcoming Oscar race. Let’s examine the winners from this year’s festival and see the history that each category has when it comes to the Oscars.

In recent years, we’ve seen the festival serve as a huge springboard for major players in the Oscar derby. Three of the last four winners of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, have nabbed Best Picture nominations: “Parasite” (2019), “Triangle of Sadness” (2022) and “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023). Other big winners at recent festivals that became big Oscar players include “Drive My Car,” “The Zone of Interest” and “BlacKkKlansman.” This year’s...

Recalling the first time one of his films screened at the Cannes Film Festival, a young filmmaker remembered how the duration of the standing ovation the audience gave seemed to grow with every retelling in the media. In the room, he clocked about “a six-and-a-half-minute standing ovation, [but] by the time I had got back to L.A., it had grown to 20 minutes,” he said. “I said: ‘Wait a minute, I’m happy with six. I never even had a two-minute ovation.’ ”

That director was Steven Spielberg. The film was E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, which closed the 35th Cannes festival in 1982. Even back then, they were timing standing ovations — and arguing about just how long a festival audience stayed on its feet clapping. There’s a long a tradition of using that figure, preferably inflated, as a marketing hook in your movie’s rollout.

“The film that received a 15-minute...

There’s a certain formula that often defines the recipients of the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or. These films, especially in the last two decades, tend to have a sense of importance about them, frequently due to their sociopolitical awareness of the world (Laurent Cantet’s The Class), or of specific societal ills.

From time to time, the Palme d’Or goes to a bold, experimental, and divisive vision from a well-liked auteur, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Terrence Malick’s The Three of Life. But more often it’s awarded to a film in the lineup that the majority of the members on the Cannes jury can agree is good. That felt like the case for Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake, as well as Julia Ducournau’s Titane,...

Documentary filmmaking has never been a profession one enters into to get rich — though for a brief period it seemed possible.

Cable expanded documentary’s reach to wider audiences in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and films like “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “March of the Penguins,” and “An Inconvenient Truth” became legitimate box-office breakthroughs, but nonfiction features on the whole remained something of a stepchild within the larger Hollywood ecosystem until 2017, when Netflix acquired Brian Fogel’s “Icarus” for $5 million.

At the time, the deal was one of the biggest ever for a non-fiction film. And it was followed by even bigger deals: In 2019 Netflix shelled out $10 million for Rachel Lears’ “Knock Down the House.” The following year Apple TV+ and A24 partnered to buy Jesse Moss’ “Boys State” for $10 million, and in 2021 Searchlight and Hulu bought Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul” for $12 million.

On the surface it seemed like people,...

For the lucky few who caught Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy during its original, limited U.S. theatrical release in 2005, the film landed with the full force of the Korean cultural wave that was yet to come. Here, seemingly out of nowhere, was a viscerally disturbing cinematic vision — live octopus-eating, hand-to-hand combat via claw-tooth hammer and a climax involving double incest and the severing of a human tongue — but one delivered in a style as baroquely accomplished as anything Hollywood or American indie cinema had ever produced. The experience was that rarest of aesthetic shocks to the system (perhaps now extinct in our late, smartphone-everywhere era), like landing in a country and culture totally foreign to you for the first time, or stumbling onto a landmark work from a true master artist — who, somehow, you hadn’t even known existed.

To celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary, Neon is rereleasing Oldboy in U.

Paramount reports that “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning — Part One” has a U.S./Canada gross of $23.8 million through Thursday. That so far qualifies it as a good, but not great number. Still, the figures include one positive sign going into the film’s crucial first full weekend.

The Thursday haul was $8.3 million. That was down only slightly from Wednesday with $8.5 million as part of the initial report of $15.5 million, which also included earlier in the week previews. That suggests favorable reactions, which could feed into boosting the weekend ahead.

A Wednesday non-holiday summer opening like this has few precedents, making models for projecting the weekend trickier. But the nearly-same daily take from the full opening day is encouraging.

Before this report, projections for the initial weekend ranged from $70 million to $90 million. The strong Thursday should elevate this above the lower end, but the reality is trickier to predict, and...

Eugene Hütz, founder and frontman with U.S. gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, would likely to have ended up a painter wearing “dirty pants and long hair” had his parents not left the Soviet Union when he was 16.

“I would probably have become a painter, as there was more of a path paved in that in my family,” he says. “I was drawing most of my childhood and my uncle – Mikhail Mykolayev – is a pretty well-known painter who still lives in Kyiv.”

Fresh from playing a brief, impromptu solo guitar gig at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, following the international premiere of a new documentary about the band, “Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story,” Hütz fits the bill, although his khaki cargo pants are not paint spattered.

The singer was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, but the Hütz family left years of Communist oppression behind and moved to Western...

Exclusive: Charles Dance-narrated doc feature Savage Waters will be available to watch in the UK following a deal struck with distribution and exhibition outfit Tull Stories.

Tull Stories will release Savage Waters theatrically as part of its Adventure Club strand before releasing on VoD after completing a deal with the movie’s distributor Abacus Media Rights, which boarded two years ago.

Narrated by The Crown star Dance, Savage Waters follows renowned skipper Matt Knight, sailing to unpredictable and uncharted regions to adventure into the most dangerous waters of the Atlantic and find a spectacular big wave with surfer Andrew Cotton. Their journey is inspired by a passage in a 19th century treasure hunter’s journal.

Savage Waters comes from Mikey Corker (Lord of War), is produced by Ghislaine Couvillat (Girls Can’t Surf) and executive produced by Kathleen Glynn (Fahrenheit 9/11), Peggy Cafferty (Ladder 49), Lorcan Kavanagh (The Midnight Man) and Maia Norman.

Documentary fans might be forgiven for nurturing a dream – that Cannes would follow the recent example of Venice and Berlin and award its top prize to a nonfiction film. Complete the documentary Triple Crown – the Golden Lion, the Golden Bear and the Palme d’or.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. On Saturday night, Cannes gave the gilded frond to a narrative-fiction film, as it generally does, Anatomy of a Fall. But perhaps the important thing is, the jury could have made the trifecta happen. Two documentaries appeared in main competition – Wang Bing’s Jeunesse (Youth) and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) – ending a nearly 20-year span in which no nonfiction film had been accorded the prestige of a competition slot. As they say about the lottery,...

Every year, the Cannes Film Festival program yields its riches. And every year, documentaries are kept to the selection sidebars, with the exception of just three over the years, two of which won the Palme d’Or: “The Silent World,” co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle in 1956, and Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004.

This year, out of 16 documentaries in the Official Selection, two are in the Competition, the first time nonfiction titles have joined that storied roster since Moore’s inclusion.

This is progress, but a quick glance at the latest Palme d’Or predictions reveals that Wang Bing’s “Youth” (marking the first 3.5-hours of an eventual 10-hour triptych) and “Olfa’s Daughters” from Kaouther Ben Hania are not high on the list of likely winners. Both are recognized by critics as boundary-pushing examples of the form but seem unlikely to become consensus award picks from Ruben Östlund’s eclectic Competition jury.

The Cannes Film Festival is designed to showcase the best of the best upcoming movies, meaning it's not surprising that many films shown there are met with praise and celebration. But in the decades since the festival kicked off in 1946, an unusual phenomenon has developed: movies at Cannes tend to receive very, very long standing ovations.

For example, on May 20, Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" received nine minutes of applause. Meanwhile, a five-minute or less standing ovation can sometimes be seen as a sign that the film didn't quite live up to expectations, with Variety reporting that "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" received a "lukewarm" five-minute ovation.

Ahead, learn more about standing ovations at Cannes.

What Movies Received the Longest Standing Ovations at Cannes?

The longest recorded standing ovation at Cannes was for "Pan's Labyrinth," which received a 22-minute-long block of applause in 2006, per Quartz.

New hire was STX president of distribution.

Kevin Grayson has been named president of domestic distribution at Lionsgate Motion Picture Group as the company’s longtime distribution head David Spitz departs.

Spitz has played a leadership role for nearly 20 years at the company and oversaw distribution strategies on the John Wick, Hunger Games, Twilight Saga, Saw, Tyler Perry and Expendables franchises along with La La Land, Knives Out, Wonder, Crash, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Precious, among others.

“David has been an incredibly valued leader of Lionsgate’s distribution business for nearly 20 years,” said Adam Fogelson, vice chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

Exclusive: Longtime Lionsgate Film Distribution Head David Spitz is exiting, Deadline has learned, with former STX distribution vet Kevin Grayson getting named President of Domestic Distribution of the studio’s motion picture group.

‘The Hunger Games’

Spitz came to Lionsgate via its absorption of Blair Witch Project studio Artisan. Before that, Spitz was at Reservoir Dogs distributor, Live Entertainment which was acquired by Artisan. Spitz, son of legendary late distribution boss Jimmy Spitz, has had a leadership role at Lionsgate since 2003. Spitz handled several franchise hits including John Wick (the latest Chapter 4 of which became the highest grossing in the franchise with $180M+ this weekend), Hunger Games, Twilight Saga, Saw, the Tyler Perry canon and Expendables. He was also behind such notable counterprogramming and awards hits as La La Land, Knives Out, Wonder, Crash, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Precious, among many others.

“David has been an incredibly valued leader of Lionsgate...

The 76th Cannes Film Festival announced this morning that its closing night film in, oh, just about five weeks will be Pixar’s latest innovative animated film, “Elemental.” The movie is directed by Peter Sohn, whose only other feature credit as director is 2015’s “The Good Dinosaur.” Sohn has been a part of Pixar, working in some capacity as an animator or story developer on most of their titles, going back to 2003. Job security at that shop!

“Elemental”’s premise is a forbidden love between anthropomorphic representations of Fire and Water in Element City. How this will make any kind of logical sense is beyond me, but have you seen how much money the “Cars” franchise has earned? I think it’s best not to worry too much about realism and, following water’s lead, go with the flow.

The voice cast is led by Leah Lewis of “The Half of It...

Exclusive: Lionsgate Home Entertainment EVP Jed Grossman is set to retire this month after a nearly 30-year run at the studio.

Grossman is highly regarded in his field, having served on a leadership team that has grown Lionsgate’s home entertainment operations into a billion-dollar annual revenue business. He helped shape the growth and evolution of Lionsgate’s home entertainment business from packaged media to today’s multifaceted physical and digital environment.

“Jed has been a driving force in our home entertainment business for 30 years,” said Ron Schwartz, President of Global Licensing & Distribution, Motion Picture Group. “His strong relationships, deep understanding of the marketplace and focus on the consumer has been instrumental in our growth in both the packaged media and digital worlds. We thank him for his many contributions to Lionsgate. He is a valued partner, a respected executive and a good friend who reflects our business at its best,...

Documentarian Michael Moore is joining the nationwide boycott of pharmacy chain Walgreens following its refusal to sell abortion pills in 21 states.

Moore announced his support for access to Fda-approved pill mifepristone amid Walgreens adhering to Republican state attorney generals’ threats of legal action if the pharmacy chain made the pill accessible in their respective states, even if by mail, under the Comstack Act of 1873 banning the transportation of “obscene items” in the postal service.

Moore wrote on his website that Walgreens “caved in to threats from the extremist anti-abortion/Forced Birth movement” amid the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

“This decision by Walgreens to further cement women’s status as second-class citizens must be met forcefully by each and every one of us,” Moore said. “Every day of our silence since last Thursday is another day of you and I enabling this bigotry and misogyny.”

Moore continued, “Please join...

The first of author Gregory McDonald's "Fletch" novels was published in 1974. The title character of the McDonald's nine books was Irwin Maurice Fletcher, an ex-Marine investigative journalist with a penchant for disguises. Fletch is a bit of a slovenly cad, and he is constantly outrunning attorneys who seek alimony payments from various ex-wives. The first novel involves Fletch investigating drug traffic on the Los Angeles beaches as well as the mysterious, well-paid request from a dying millionaire that Fletch euthanize him.

"Fletch" was very loosely adapted to film in 1985 with Chevy Chase in the title role and with Michael Ritchie directing. The film was less a rundown detective story than a light comedy, and a lot of "Fletch" focuses on Chase's disguises and the comedian's ability to improvise. The story -- the investigation of a millionaire asking to be euthanized -- was kept intact. The film was a...

Opening her masterclass at doc film festival Visions du Réel in Switzerland, cinematographer and filmmaker Kirsten Johnson – an Emmy and Sundance award winner for “Dick Johnson Is Dead” – started by naming each and every member of the technical crew on set.

“What I often find upsetting with cinema is that we forget to acknowledge all the people it takes to make these moments together. I learnt that through being a cameraperson, and I’m interested in understanding why we want to reduce it to just one person, because there’s something beautiful about the fact that all of these humans, collectively, help us be here today,” she said, employing her favorite word to describe her work, “Cameraperson,” which is also the title of second feature film.

Over three decades, Johnson has worked on some 60 films as a cinematographer, for the likes of Michael Moore and Laura Poitras, made a couple...

With another awards season (thankfully) over, the time has come to look ahead to the year in cinema. Anyone concerned that the release slate for 2022 will deliver the goods shouldn’t worry: The Cannes Film Festival is on it. The year’s most glamorous movie gathering is also the most reliable place for major international cinema to take flight, and with the lineup scheduled to be announced April 14, we couldn’t be more excited. Each year, we do some digging, a little guesswork, and some wishful thinking for good measure to come up with a list of films that seem poised to make the cut.

As wish lists go, this one isn’t pure fantasy: For the most part, we only include films that seem to have a good shot at making the cut. That means we aren’t pretending that Ari Aster’s “Disappointment Blvd” will be ready any earlier than the fall,...

“Fahrenheit 11/9” producers and Academy Award nominees Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) are developing a documentary that explores the world of climate profiteering and how the planet’s wealthiest are planning to weather the uncertain century ahead.

The duo will be pitching their project during Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which runs March 21-April 3.

“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis.

“We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change. And there are a lot of movies that offer solutions,” Deal tells Variety. “We think it’s time to tell a new kind of climate story, to take an audience on a rollicking journey...

Feature debutant Colm Bairéad’s Berlin-winning “An Cailín Ciúin” (“The Quiet Girl”) was the big film winner at the 2022 Irish Film and Television Academy awards on Saturday with eight wins.

“An Cailín Ciúin” won best film, director and lead actress for Catherine Clinch in addition to a raft of craft awards. Bairéad also won the rising star award.

Creators Ciaran Donnelly and Peter McKenna’s “Kin” led the television awards with six wins including best drama, script for McKenna, lead actress drama for Clare Dunne, lead actor drama for Sam Keeley and supporting actress drama for Maria Doyle Kennedy.

Ciaran Hinds won both the film and drama supporting actor awards on the night for “Belfast” and “Kin” respectively. Overall, despite a slew of nominations, it was a disappointing outing at the awards for Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” which, besides Hinds’ win, won script for Branagh and nothing else.

Lead actor...

In honor of President’s Day, we thought we might take a look at the ten highest-grossing movies ever made on the topic of American presidents. This list was constructed using domestic box office totals that have also been adjusted for inflation (according to data procured from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers). So, without further adieu, here are the ten highest-grossing films about American presidents.

10. Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Original Domestic Gross: $98,927,592

Adjusted Domestic Gross: $111,460,849

Another one of those “Die Hard in …” movies that happened to be set in the White House. This one starred Gerard Butler as Mike Banning, a secret service agent who finds himself trapped along with the president (Aaron Eckhart) during a terrorist attack on the White House. As hinted earlier, it amounts to little more than an attempt to replicate Die Hard in the White House. But, despite failing miserably in living up to its inspiration,...

Stephane Celerier, a veteran French film executive whose former banner Mars Films co-produced “La Famille Belier,” is joining forces with Pgs Entertainment to create a new production company.

Celerier is launching Gemma Pictures with Philippe and Guillaume Souter, the founders of Pgs Entertainment, a thriving family-owned business specialized in financing and licensing worldwide youth entertainment.

The new Paris-based company will look to produce French and English-language films, TV series and TV movies and is already developing a slate of 10 projects with well-known French and international talent. A resourceful and deep-pocketed company, Pgs Entertainment will fully finance the development of Gemma Pictures’ roster over the next three years and will handle the back office, while giving Celerier the full reins of the company.

One of France’s most respected and passionate industry figures, Celerier acquired and distributed locally a flurry of critically-acclaimed U.K. and U.S. movies, including “Billy Elliot,...

Documentaries are often among the best movies of the year, but in 93 years of Oscar ceremonies, no documentary has ever been nominated for Best Picture. Many documentaries campaign heavily for Best Original Song, and six documentaries have been nominated in the category over the past decade. “Honeyland” and “Collective” received nominations for Best International Feature Film, but campaigns for “Hoop Dreams” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” came up short.

The oversight raises major questions about the way the Academy Awards tend to prioritize conventional narratives over non-fiction, and whether that distinction has any merit in the first place. “What the fuck is a picture in a Best Picture race? I don’t know even know what that means,” said veteran documentary executive Sheila Nevins, a no-nonsense advocate for the form who produced over 1,000 documentaries at HBO prior to joining MTV Studios. “A best picture of what? There is no rule that says anything about reality versus reenactment.

Documentary features and docuseries have become some of the most popular and profitable content around — especially for streamers — but what makes a project rise above the sheer volume of nonfiction fare now flooding the marketplace? That’s the question on the minds of top doc producers, directors, dealmakers and distributors who, on the eve of the American Film Market, are all searching for the secret ingredients that will distinguish the next breakout nonfiction projects.

In the early 2000s, “March of the Penguins” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” proved that low-budget docs could approach or surpass $100 million at the box office, and pop stars like Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson and One Direction brought their audiences to movie theaters in big numbers. Then, just as doc revenue came back to Earth, streamers changed the game, paying big bucks for nonfiction content to gain subscribers. The price tags of “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry...

Wild Bunch handles international sales. Altitude, Film4 distribute in UK and Ireland.

Neon’s Titane directed by Julia Ducournau has scored the biggest US opening weekend by a Palme d’Or winner since Fahrenheit 9/11 back in 2004.

‘Titane’: Cannes Review

The body horror starring Agathe Rouselle and Vincent Lindon grossed an estimated $515,747 from 562 screens over the Friday-Sunday period. It produced the fourth highest debut by a Palme d’Or winner behind Michael Moore’s documentary ($23.9m from 868 cinemas in June 2004), Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart ($2.9m from 532 cinemas in August 1990).

Titane also...

Wild Bunch handles international sales. Altitude, Film4 distribute in UK and Ireland.

Neon’s Titane directed by Julia Ducournau has scored the biggest US opening weekend by a Palme d’Or winner since Fahrenheit 9/11 back in 2004.

‘Titane’: Cannes Review

The body horror starring Agathe Rouselle and Vincent Lindon grossed an estimated $515,747 from 562 screens over the Friday-Sunday period. It produced the fourth highest debut by a Palme d’Or winner behind Michael Moore’s documentary ($23.9m from 868 cinemas in June 2004), Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart ($2.9m from 532 cinemas in August 1990).

Titane also...

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday that could lead to the declassification of documents related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with victims’ families having long sought to make public such information.

“Today, I signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to oversee a declassification review of documents related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s September 11th investigations,” Biden said in a statement. “The executive order requires the Attorney General to release the declassified documents publicly over the next six months.”

A central question has been the role of the Saudi government, which has denied any involvement in the attacks. Last month, more than 1,800 Americans impacted by the 9/11 attacks signed a letter opposing Biden’s participation in 20th anniversary events unless he fulfilled a commitment to release the documents.

The release of documents has been an issue for years, and it will...

Once upon a time, asking audiences to watch a documentary was like asking them to do their homework or eat their broccoli — sure, it’d be good for ’em, but they probably wouldn’t have a ton of fun doing it.

Early docs were often weighed down by heavy topics (a lot of war content) and dry, straightforward presentations (think newsreels). Eventually, filmmakers began introducing cinematic touches and more dynamism to documentary storytelling, though progress was slow. In 1922, “Nanook of the North,” the first feature doc, incorporated staged and fictionalized elements. The Sixties brought direct cinema and cinema verité, the fly-on-the-wall style of the Maysles brothers, Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, and so many others. In the Eighties and Nineties, cable expanded documentary’s reach to wider audiences, and in the early 2000s films like “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “March of the Penguins,” and “An Inconvenient Truth” became legitimate box-office breakthroughs. Still, the...

When Michael Moore was in parochial school he started a newspaper dedicated to covering the comings-and-goings of his teachers and classmates. Initially, the nuns thought it was cute. Their attitude changed, however, after he share his iconoclastic take on a sacred topic.

“I wrote a critical article about the eighth grade football team and that was the end of it,” remembers Moore. “They shut it down.”

So began a long oppositional history, one that saw Moore clashing with the powers that be over his movies, books and journalism. In 2001, for instance, HarperCollins initially refused to release Moore’s book “Stupid White Men” because the News Corp.-owned publisher believed its blistering criticism of President George W. Bush would be seen as tone deaf in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In 2003, Moore’s documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” was caught up in a struggle between Miramax and its parent company Disney over whether...

Exclusive: Former eOne Asia Pacific boss Troy Lum is officially launching new Australia-New Zealand distributor Kismet, with a slate of projects including Cannes hits and pre-sale titles.

Kismet is headed by Lum, founder of local indie Hopscotch, and Jason Hernandez, former Head of Theatrical Distribution at eOne Australia and New Zealand.

As previously noted out of Cannes, the company have acquired Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winning horror-thriller Titane (pictured), Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda’s eye-catching fairytale Belle, and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s debut feature, the French romance Anaïs In Love. Titane will be the company’s first release in November.

In addition to its festival acquisitions, Kismet’s lineup also includes Zach Braff’s A Good Person, starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman; Nick Cassavettes’ Cus And Mike, which tells the story of Mike Tyson’s legendary trainer and manager Cus D’Amato; Kate Dennis’ All That I Am, based...

For movies, the best thing to happen last week was documentarian Morgan Neville’s flip response to The New Yorker’s query about his having covertly used artificial intelligence to voice some of Anthony Bourdain’s lines in the film Roadrunner.

“If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned, you probably don’t know what the other lines are that were spoken by the A. I., and you’re not going to know,” said Neville. “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.”

That answer—especially the sassy second sentence—provoked outrage among peers with a stricter view of authenticity in nonfiction movies.

But it certainly cleared the air about a point that can’t be repeated too often, for the good of viewers and filmmakers alike. Documentaries are not real. They are a mere reflection of reality, subject to all the tricks, techniques and sleight-of-hand...

The final full day of screenings at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ended with a statistic, which was delivered by Cannes General Delegate Thierry Fremaux on the stage of the Salle Debussy just before midnight on Friday:

Over the first 11 days of the festival and the thousands of Covid-19 tests administered on the premises each day, 70 people tested positive for the virus. For Fremaux and the festival, the stat – slightly more than the three-positive-tests-per-day estimate made earlier – was still one to celebrate, suggesting that the scaled-down Cannes managed to navigate a difficult time without turning into a superspreader event.

Of course, Fremaux’s announcement preceded the screening of Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” a movie about aging, illness and death, which perhaps made it a tricky moment to be celebrating all the negative tests.

The prize parade

According to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top...