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Nearly a year has passed since Social Studies, Lauren Greenfield’s sweeping documentary series on modern teenage life in Los Angeles, aired on FX and hit Hulu for streaming. At a moment when most filmmakers might be mapping out a follow-up, Greenfield finds herself even more deeply embedded in the project than she was during production. The Emmy-nominated five-part series, filmed at a high school in the Pacific Palisades, has taken on a second life — one that blurs the lines between film, activism, gallery art and cultural intervention.

Greenfield’s funny, poignant and piercingly honest portrait of L.A. teens navigating high school’s social terrain in the post-pandemic era — shot before the brutal January 2025 wildfires scorched the landscape — captures the awkwardness and beauty of adolescence with rare precision. One of the series’ great strengths is its refusal to sentimentalize. Greenfield lets her subjects speak plainly, drawing out raw truths...

Lauren Greenfield wasn’t expecting an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series for her five-part FX documentary series “Social Studies,” which documents in disturbing detail over one year the intimate relationship between high school kids and their cell phones. Greenfield is happy to grab more attention for the series, because she’s on a mission. Known for her film portraits of upscale society in “The Queen of Versailles,” “Generation Wealth” and “The Kingmaker,” this time Greenfield casts her eye on a wide swath of Los Angeles teenagers.

“At a time when people are paying more attention to celebrity,” she told me on Zoom, “it’s quite difficult to get a serious show like this out into the world to find its audience.” The concern with social media’s impact on teenagers is universal, Greenfield learned on her global promo tour. “This topic has touched a nerve worldwide, because...

While we often give you the seven best films on streamers, TheWrap is giving you an all-new list that’s dedicated to informative and educational films.

While viewers often walk away from cinematic experiences with messages to take home and thought-provoking themes that spark endless conversations, documentarians’ mission to research, analyze and present facts and interesting perspectives about real-life events, is its own lane of storytelling entirely.

From BAFTA-nominated films that spotlight the impacts of killer whale captivation to Morgan Spurlock’s wild McDonald’s social experiment, here are the seven documentaries that are the best of the bunch on Prime Video for June 2025.

“The Secrets of the Mega Resort” “The Secrets of the Mega Resort” (Prime Video)

Whether your pro or anti-capitalism, delving into everyday life of the luxury can be very intriguing. In “The Secrets of the Mega Resort,” viewers are taken into the lobby, extravagant events and...

Award-winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is pulling something like quadruple duty at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece.

Not only is she serving on the International Competition jury – alongside Greek filmmaker Dimitris Athiridis and four-time Oscar-nominated producer Signe Byrge Sørensen – but she’s being honored by the festival with a retrospective of her work. On Thursday, she gave a master class at TiDF, “Social Studies: The Artist’s Journey” — the title referencing her most recent documentary, the widely praised docuseries Social Studies about the impact of social media on American kids.

Greenfield says of the career tribute, “It’s really exciting. It’s a huge honor… I’m really thrilled to get to be here.”

Greek high school students gather in a circle on stage before a screening of Lauren Greenfield’s ‘Social Studies’ at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival

We sat down for coffee at one of the festival...

Updated with details on Lauren Greenfield tribute and filmmaker’s master class. The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival has announced its competition lineups for the March event, a slate of world, international and European premieres hailing from Greece, Paraguay, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Kenya, the U.S. and other parts of the globe.

The 10 films chosen for International Competition will compete for the Golden Alexander and the Silver Alexander – the festival’s top prizes. The winner of the Golden Alexander will receive a €12,000 award and automatically qualify for Oscar consideration in the Best Documentary Feature category. The Silver Alexander comes with a €5,000 prize.

Scroll for the full list of films selected for International Competition, Newcomers Competition (composed of feature documentaries by young filmmakers), and >>Film Forward Competition (“hosting movies that challenge conventions and utter a bold and daring cinematic language”).

International Competition boasts the world premieres of three Greek documentaries: Bull’s Heart,...

French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert will be awarded the honorary Golden Alexander for his contribution to cinema at the 27th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival, which runs March 6-16. The festival will also host a tribute to the work of the American filmmaker Lauren Greenfield.

Philibert, who “dares to permeate the innermost depths of the human psyche,” will deliver a masterclass, moderated by documentarist, producer and screenwriter Marco Gastine.

Philibert won Berlin’s Golden Bear for best film in 2023 for “On the Adamant” and “Être et Avoir” won the European Film Award for European documentary in 2002.

The festival will screen a trilogy of Philibert’s films on alternative psychiatric approaches, along with an illuminating portrait of people working as nurse practitioners: “Each and Every Moment” (2018), “On the Adamant” (2023), “At Averroès & Rosa Parks” (2024) and “The Typewriter and Other Headaches”(2024).

Greenfield, who is also welcomed as a member of the International Competition jury, “castigates the toxic side of hyperconsumerism,...

Exclusive: Award-winning filmmakers Lauren Greenfield and Alison Klayman are approaching the starting line on a documentary about women’s distance runners and the “deep-rooted inequities” faced by women athletes.

Greenfield’s Institute Pictures is producing the untitled short film which is expected to premiere in 2025.

“Set against the backdrop of a pivotal moment for women’s sports and the political climate of 2024,” a release notes, “this documentary shines a light on the dual pressures women face in advancing their roles in society while defending their basic human rights.”

A key shoot for the project is coming up – the Every Woman’s Marathon in Savannah, Georgia on November 16, “the only U.S. marathon currently designed for, and by, women,” which has a mission “to empower women athletes of all abilities and body types, the race fosters a supportive and inclusive community. The documentary will aim to capture the captivating stories behind the...

Hailing from the country that gave us such grim social critics as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl, Vantablack Austrian satire “Veni Vidi Vici” opens with a senseless homicide. It’s a startling scene, no less upsetting than the Scorpio killing that kick-starts “Dirty Harry” — except that in this case, the incident is calibrated as the darkest sort of comedy. Rather than picking off an unsuspecting rooftop swimmer, the serial killer does his hunting out in the open, without shame or any pretense of covering his tracks.

The movie makes no mystery of the sniper’s identity, revealing it right from the jump, the way a “Columbo” episode might. And yet the authorities show zero interest in arresting the guilty party, even going so far as to toss an eyewitness out of the police station (that man winds up offing himself in exasperation). That’s because the person responsible, Amon Maynard (Laurence Rupp), is a millionaire,...

The Gotham Film & Media Institute on Monday has selected the films and series for its Project Market, a slate which IndieWire can exclusively reveal. Taking place during September’s Gotham Week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the annual sales and development forum connects creators to distributors, financiers, and other industry decision-makers. It offers a look ahead at what could become the next buzzy films; “Moonlight” and “American Factory” are recent Oscar winners that were launched at past Project Market events.

This year’s lineup includes 65 fiction features and series, 60 nonfiction features and series, and 17 audio projects in various stages of development or production, including new projects from the producers of “Dopesick,” “Pose,” and “Sorry to Bother You.” For the first time since the pandemic, the annual event will include both in-person and virtual participation. In-person meetings run September 17-23, while virtual meetings will be held September 22-23.

“Being able...

Showtime has set its latest documentary slate with projects from the likes of Jesus Camp directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, A Private War director Matthew Heineman, Homeland’s Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, Generation Wealth director Lauren Greenfield and Dirty War director Rick Rowley.

The 2020 slate was revealed by Gary Levine, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks at the Winter TCA press tour.

Grady and Ewing are making their first foray into episodic television with Love Fraud, which will launch at the Sundance Film Festival, the first time a TV series will run on day one of the festival. The project follows the search for one man, Richard Scott Smith, who over the past 20 years used the internet and his dubious charms to prey upon unsuspecting women in search of love – conning them out of their money and dignity. It will launch on May 8 and is directed and exec produced...

Other titles set for release include ‘Black Christmas’, ‘The Kingmaker’ and ‘Pink Wall’.

Action sequel Jumanji: The Next Level and Blumhouse horror Black Christmas lead this weekend’s releases at the UK box office, which may see Frozen II fall from the top slot.

Released through Sony, Jumanji: The Next Level reunites stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black with director Jake Kasdan.

Together, they scored a box office hit with Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle in December 2017, which opened with £8.15m (including £4.11m in previews) and went on to gross £38.5m.

The sequel sees four young...

Lauren Greenfield earned critical acclaim and guild nominations for her documentaries “The Queen of Versailles” and “Generation Wealth,” both of which examine the excesses of Western society. But the director of the new Showtime film “The Kingmaker” readily admits, she was not prepared for all that she would find when she went looking for her next subject in Philippines.

Originally, Greenfield was focused on telling the improbable story of an African safari park that had been built on an island in the Philippines in the mid 1970s under the order of then President Ferdinand Marcos. She interviewed his widow, Imelda Marcos, who was eager to talk about being First Lady for 21 years until forced into exile in 1986. She returned five years later and has spent the past quarter century trying to rehabilitate her image as a spendthrift and secure her son’s future as the country’s next president.

SEEAlmost...

In The Queen of Versailles and Generation Wealth, writer and director Lauren Greenfield opened up an elitist world largely off-limits to the public. The Kingmaker, her latest documentary, looks into the life and complex legacy of Imelda Marcos, widow of the former leader of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos. It is currently in theaters prior to its exhibition on Showtime. Five years in the making, The Kingmaker evolved from what was originally a piece about exotic animals transported by the Marcoses to Calauit Island into a full-fledged investigation of Philippine politics. Greenfield and her team wound up covering the election of […]...

In The Queen of Versailles and Generation Wealth, writer and director Lauren Greenfield opened up an elitist world largely off-limits to the public. The Kingmaker, her latest documentary, looks into the life and complex legacy of Imelda Marcos, widow of the former leader of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos. It is currently in theaters prior to its exhibition on Showtime. Five years in the making, The Kingmaker evolved from what was originally a piece about exotic animals transported by the Marcoses to Calauit Island into a full-fledged investigation of Philippine politics. Greenfield and her team wound up covering the election of […]...

Photographer-turned-filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has directed several critically acclaimed docs, including HBO’s “Thin,” “The Queen of Versailles” and “Generation Wealth.” On the heels of that last film, which looks at consumerism, beauty and gender through the lens of a warped American dream, she raises the stakes in her career-long examination of greed-driven corruption with “The Kingmaker,” in theaters Nov. 8, which showcases Imelda Marcos’ crimes as former first lady of the Philippines and her attempts to rebuild her empire. Here, Greenfield chats about the morality of Marcos, why she gravitates to intimate, dynamic portraits and the one-minute ad campaign that made her a star.

“The Kingmaker” uses images in a visceral way. Can you explain how you sharpened your eye?

I worked as a photographer for 18 years before I made my first film. Using composition and color to communicate information has always been an important part of my process. For example,...

If you didn’t quite meet your Halloween quota, Lauren Greenfield has just released one of the scariest movies of the year. There are no creepy clowns or shambling zombies in “The Kingmaker,” her mesmerizing documentary about the modern political history of the Philippines. But who needs fantasies when reality is so ominous?

Greenfield’s villain appears, in classic form, as an apparent savior. Beautifully dressed and beatifically calm, an octogenarian Imelda Marcos travels the streets of Manila looking for people she can help. She rolls down the windows of her limo to give begging children money. She tours a crumbling pediatric hospital and shakes her head dolefully. When her husband was in charge, she reminds the camera, people never suffered as they do now.

Just when we’re wondering if this sympathetic and benevolent figure might have been a victim of fake news, Greenfield revisits her history to find the facts behind the legend.

When “The Kingmaker” director Lauren Greenfield began making what would become her latest film, she intended to investigate what had become of the island in the Philippines, Calauit, that had become a reserve for endangered African animals in the mid-1970s.

She thought that the country’s former first lady, Imelda Marcos, would be just one interview of many in her investigation of the island. But Greenfield, the filmmaker behind “Generation Wealth” and “The Queen of Versailles,” found an eager and compelling subject ready to share her life story — or at least her version of it.

“I guess the surprise for me is I thought there might be a redemption element in it, because I filmed her between 85 and 90 and thought maybe she would change her story. But she stuck to her story,” Greenfield told the crowd in a Q&a following an International Documentary Association screening of the film.

"They found no skeletons [in the closet], only beautiful shoes." Showtime has debuted the official trailer for The Kingmaker, the latest acclaimed documentary made by filmmaker Lauren Greenfield. This just premiered at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals a month ago, and it's also playing at the Toronto, Bergen, London, and Chicago Film Festivals before it opens in a few select Us theaters in November. Focused on the indomitable character of Imelda Marcos, The Kingmaker examines, with intimate access, the Marcos family's improbable return to power in the Philippines. Marcos is the extremely wealthy former first lady of the Philippines whose tricky behind-the-scenes influence of her husband Ferdinand's presidency rocketed her to the global political stage. It's a look at how her corruption and ruthlessness are still prevalent, and it's a riveting, eye-opening, frightful doc about the times we live in. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Lauren Greenfield's doc The Kingmaker,...

’I liked her. That’s why I wanted to make a film about her,” said the director.

Us director Lauren Greenfield is in Venice for the world premiere of her feature documentary, The Kingmaker, about the corruption and nepotism of the Marcos dynasty of the Philippines. The film was picked up by Dogwoof for international sales earlier this month. Showtime Networks will release it theatrically in the Us in October.

Greenfield admits her “astonishment” her 90-year-old subject, former first lady Imelda Marcos, was able to re-enter mainstream Philippine politics following countless corruption scandals and in spite of having had to...

“Perception is real, and the truth is not,” announces Imelda Marcos in “The Kingmaker,” a jaw-dropping documentary in which director Lauren Greenfield exposes just how effective the wounded peacock has been in reshaping her status. Once world-famous for her shoe collection, Imelda benefited enormously from husband Ferdinand’s two-decade dictatorship over the of the Philippines, until being forced to flee to Hawaii in 1986. Now, back from exile, the disgraced former first lady is fully invested in reclaiming her family’s position atop a country whose coffers they once pillaged, attempting to bend democracy and boost her son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., to power.

Marcos’ print-the-legend philosophy has particular resonance in a post-truth world, although such sinister undertones sneak up on audiences in a movie that begins, innocently enough, as the latest of Greenfield’s astonishing portraits of wealth run amok. Even as far away as the Philippines, the photographer can...

Dogwoof has boarded Lauren Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker,” about Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. The hotly anticipated feature doc delves into the disturbing legacy of the Marcos regime and Imelda’s attempts to aid her son’s political career. It will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and then screen at Toronto.

London-based Dogwoof will sell “The Kingmaker” internationally. In the U.S. it is with premium cabler Showtme, which plans a theatrical release this fall.

The film is an intimate study of Imelda Marcos. As the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for more than 20 years, some of it under martial law, the first lady was noted for her ostentatious displays of wealth, including her vast collection of expensive designer shoes. The Marcos regime was roundly criticized for abuse of power, crony capitalism, and corruption.

Greenfield follows Imelda Marcos as...

Exclusive: Lauren Greenfield, the photographer/filmmaker who produced and directed the buzzy Sundance documentaries The Queen of Versailles and this year’s Generation Wealth, has signed to make her feature narrative helming debut with Man Under, an indie pic being produced by Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert.

The deal comes as Greenfield, also a prominent commercials director, has inked with Wme, which will rep in all areas including for her newly launched Girl Culture Films, a commercial production company founded by Greenfield and producing partner/husband Frank Evers. Girl Culture reps A-list directors for commercial projects and branded content opportunities with the aim to amplify female and diverse voices. Helmers under the banner already include Destroyer‘s Karyn Kusama, Miss Bala‘s Catherine Hardwicke and The Case Against Adnan Syed‘s Amy Berg.

Man Under, from a script by Ann Cherkis (Better Call Saul), centers on a serendipitous picture taken...

“A Quiet Place,” won the top prize, Sound Editing (Effects and Foley), at the Golden Reel Awards bestowed by the Motion Picture Sound Editors (Mpse) on Sunday. One of its Oscar rivals for Best Sound Editing, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” picked up up a pair of awards while another, “Roma,” won one (foreign language). “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” claimed both the animated and music awards.

The Oscar frontrunner in this below-the-line race, “First Man,” was shut out at these awards as was the fifth nominee, “Black Panther.” But fans of “First Man” should not be too disheartened. This guild’s track record at predicting the eventual winner at the Academy Awards is spotty.

Last year, all five of the Oscar nominees for Best Sound Editing numbered among the Mpse contenders. Eventual Oscar winner “Dunkirk” lost the category equivalent to “Blade Runner 2049.” The WWII epic did win for music over the sci-fi film.

The 71st annual Writers Guild Awards are underway at dual ceremonies at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. and at the Edison Ballroom in New York City. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won the comedy series award for Kate Fodor, Noah Gardenswartz, Jen Kirkman, Sheila Lawrence, Daniel Palladino and Amy Sherman Palladino. The series won the Emmy for best comedy series last year.

Bill Hader and Alec Berg won the episodic comedy award for the opening segment of HBO’s “Barry,” “Chapter One: Make Your Mark” (“Barry”).

Stephanie Gillis won the animated award for the “Bart’s Not Dead” episode and Alex Gansa took the episodic drama award for the “Paean To The People” segment of “Homeland.”

Chelsea Peretti hosted the West Coast ceremonies while Roy Wood Jr. was the emcee in New York

Original screenplay nominees are Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma”; Adam McKay’s “Vice”; Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade”; Bryan Woods,...

Eric Roth, who won an Academy Award a quarter century ago for “Forrest Gump,” went even further back when he was working with Lady Gaga on “A Star Is Born.”

Roth, speaking at the Beyond Words panel at the Writers Guild Theater, recalled that he advised Gaga to emulate Cher’s Loretta Castorini from the 1987 Oscar winner “Moonstruck.”

“I came aboard about the same time Lady Gaga did,” Roth said. “She asked me what she might look at because she’s not an actress by trade. She said, ‘What can I learn from?’ I said, ‘Look at Cher in ‘Moonstruck.’ She’s strong, so sure of herself, kind of tough minded.'”

He also said he and Bradley Cooper made the decision to write a script that would seem improvisational to moviegoers — a major change for Roth, who also received Oscar noms for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Munich,...

You may remember the name Lauren Greenfield from her amazingly successful #LikeAGirl ad campaign for the brand Always that made its’ debut during the Super Bowl, or perhaps you have seen some of her amazing photography and documentary work captured in “Thin”, wherever you know her from, Greenfield is once again paving the way for women and other diverse voices with the launch of her new production company Girl Culture Films.

The idea behind Girl Culture Films is to showcase the lack of diversity and women behind the camera in all areas of film and television, especially throughout the advertising industry. Women make up the largest market of consumers worldwide, however, the advertising world is made up of roughly 80% men, so essentially it is men telling the women of the world what we should buy! Kind of silly if you really think about it!

Girl Culture’s roster features filmmakers across genres,...

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (taking place January 30 – February 9) has flourished by riding the awards season wave via starry onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. Every year, screenwriters, directors and producers promote their causes on panels, and the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Yalitza Aparicio, Glenn Close, Sam Elliott, and Richard E. Grant will submit to in-depth tributes from the likes of Leonard Maltin and Pete Hammond, among others.

On the festival’s first weekend, I will have the pleasure of a wide-ranging conversation with Best Actress Oscar-nominee Melissa McCarthy, star of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

And I will also moderate the annual “It Starts with the Script” panel on Saturday, including Will Fetters (“A Star Is Born”), Lauren Greenfield (“Generation Wealth”), Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman”), Paul Schrader (“First Reformed”), Brian Currie (“Green Book”), Barry Jenkins (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Tony McNamara...

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (taking place January 30 – February 9) has flourished by riding the awards season wave via starry onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. Every year, screenwriters, directors and producers promote their causes on panels, and the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Yalitza Aparicio, Glenn Close, Sam Elliott, and Richard E. Grant will submit to in-depth tributes from the likes of Leonard Maltin and Pete Hammond, among others.

On the festival’s first weekend, I will have the pleasure of a wide-ranging conversation with Best Actress Oscar-nominee Melissa McCarthy, star of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

And I will also moderate the annual “It Starts with the Script” panel on Saturday, including Will Fetters (“A Star Is Born”), Lauren Greenfield (“Generation Wealth”), Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman”), Paul Schrader (“First Reformed”), Brian Currie (“Green Book”), Barry Jenkins (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Tony McNamara...

Here it is: the trailer for what looks to be the most frightening movie of 2019. Generation Wealth finds acclaimed photographer and documentarian Lauren Greenfield returning to one of her favorite subjects: wealthy people and the strange bubbles they live within. However, this is no fluffy puff piece. As the footage below showcases, Greenfield’s film suggests some […]

The post ‘Generation Wealth’ Trailer: A Horrifying and Fascinating Examination of a Society Too Rich For Its Own Good appeared first on /Film.

Documentarian and director Lauren Greenfield has launched a production company, Girl Culture Films, to address the lack of diversity behind the camera in the advertising industry.

Greenfield, who directed the documentary “The Queen of Versailles” and Always’ #LikeAGirl Campaign, created the company with her partners Frank Evers to represent directors for commercial projects and branded content opportunities to amplify female and diverse voices in the advertising world.

Girl Culture’s roster features filmmakers across genres, such as Catherine Hardwicke (“Miss Bala”), Karyn Kusama (“Destroyer”), and Amy Berg (“West of Memphis”).

“After the experience of the #LikeAGirl campaign, I started Girl Culture Films to ensure that women have a bigger voice in the cultural conversation — in which advertising is a driving force,” Greenfield said in a statement. “I knew it was crucial to appeal to audiences through storytelling, so our roster is comprised of incredible directors with varied styles that can...

“A Quiet Place, “Black Panther,” “First Man,” and “Roma” each scored three sound editing nominations for the the 66th annual Mpse Golden Reel Awards (to be held February 17th and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel).

They will compete for dialogue/Adr, effects/foley, and music underscore. Honored in the musical category were “A Star Is Born,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Read More: ‘A Quiet Place,’ ‘Black Panther, ‘First Man’ Lead Cas Sound Mixing Nominations

Other dialog/Adr nominees included “A Star Is Born,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Green Book,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” and “The Favourite.” Also competing for effects/foley are “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Deadpool 2, ” “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” and “”Ready Player One.” The other music underscore nominees included “Aquaman,” “Isle of Dogs,” “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” and “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.”

Among the foreign film entries were “2.0,” “Capernaum,” “Cold War,” “The Guilty,” “Never Look Away,...

The Writers Guild has announced its 2019 Writers Guild Awards nominations, and the top contenders all made the cut: “BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Eighth Grade,” “Green Book,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Roma,” “A Star Is Born” and “Vice.” Additionally, “”A Quiet Place” is showing strength with the Guilds, winding up with PGA, SAG and WGA nominations.

WGA omissions include “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which won two Golden Globes Sunday, and Paul Schrader’s acclaimed “First Reformed,” which was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Critics’ Choice and Indie Spirit awards.

Titles not eligible because they don’t conform to the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement include Fox Searchlight’s “The Favourite,” Bleecker’s “Leave No Trace,” Annapurna’s “Sorry to Bother You,” BAFTA nominee “The Death of Stalin” and CBS Films’ “At Eternity’s Gate,” as well as foreign films “Capernaum,” “Cold War” and “Shoplifters.” Animated features are not eligible,...

The Writers Guild has announced its 2019 Writers Guild Awards nominations, and the top contenders all made the cut: “BlacKkKlansman,” “Black Panther,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Eighth Grade,” “Green Book,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Roma,” “A Star Is Born” and “Vice.” Additionally, “”A Quiet Place” is showing strength with the Guilds, winding up with PGA, SAG and WGA nominations.

WGA omissions include “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which won two Golden Globes Sunday, and Paul Schrader’s acclaimed “First Reformed,” which was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Critics’ Choice and Indie Spirit awards.

Titles not eligible because they don’t conform to the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement include Fox Searchlight’s “The Favourite,” Bleecker’s “Leave No Trace,” Annapurna’s “Sorry to Bother You,” BAFTA nominee “The Death of Stalin” and CBS Films’ “At Eternity’s Gate,” as well as foreign films “Capernaum,” “Cold War” and “Shoplifters.” Animated features are not eligible,...

Adapted screenplay nominees include BlacKkKlansman, A Star Is Born.

The Writers Guild Of America West and East on Monday (7) announced their theatrical screenplay nominees with Golden Globe winner Green Book among the original screenplay contenders.

The original screenplay category includes Eighth Grade, A Quiet Place, Roma, and Vice. Adapted screenplay nominees are BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, If Beale Street Could Talk, and A Star Is Born.

The documentary screenplay contenders are Bathtubs Over Broadway, Fahrenheit 11/9, Generation Wealth, and In Search Of Greatness.

Winners will be honoured at the 2019 Writers Guild Awards on February 17 at concurrent...

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” has landed a Writers Guild of America nomination for original screenplay, along with Adam McKay’s “Vice,” Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, and John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place,” and Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, and Brian Currie’s “Green Book.”

Adapted screenplay noms went to Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole’s “Black Panther,” Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicole Holofcener and Josh Whitty’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Bradley Cooper, Eric Roth, and Will Fetters’ “A Star Is Born,” and Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.”

The winners will be announced on Feb. 17 in joint ceremonies at the Edison Ballroom in New York and the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

WGA members voted on 63 eligible original screenplays and 60 adapted scripts. The scripts for “The Favourite,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Isle of Dogs,...

The original screenplays for “Green Book,” “A Quiet Place,” “Roma,” “Vice” and “Eighth Grade” have been nominated by the Writers Guild of America, which announced its nominations on Monday morning.

In the adapted-screenplay category, the nominees were “BlacKkKlansman,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “A Star Is Born,” “Black Panther” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Among the most notable eligible screenplays not to be nominated are Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” and Josh Singer’s “First Man.”

The nominations were made by members of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East, separate but affiliated guilds that will stage simultaneous awards ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York on Feb. 17.

Also Read: Stars Were Born at the Golden Globes - But They Sure Weren't the Ones We Expected

In the documentary category, WGA voters went with docs that so far have not been receiving substantial...

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced on December 17.

Us box office hits Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Rbg, Three Identical Strangers and Free Solo have made it on to the 166-strong longlist of documentary feature Oscar hopefuls.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 17. Thursday’s (8) longlist includes Fahrenheit 11/9, Crime + Punishment, Generation Wealth, Maria By Calas, The Price Of Everything, Pope Francis – A Man of His Word, Ruben Blades Is Not My Name, Shirkers, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Trust Machine, and Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. are also in contention.

A...

Members of the Academy’s documentary branch received a generous gift from AMPAS on Friday: 77 new films that had qualified in this year’s Best Documentary Feature category.

And it turned what had been a modest year for docs — with a total of 83 films included in June, July, August and September groups — into one in which the number of eligible films that voters would need to watch nearly doubled.

The Academy also promised voters in the branch to expect a final batch of films in early November — which, if it hits double digits, will set a new record in the category.

Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations

The previous high, set last year, was 170 films. With 160 already on the Oscar eligibility list and one additional (though likely small) batch yet to come, this year’s crop will give voters a lot of work to do before...

The mind-blowing documentary, Generation Wealth comes to DVD on October 16 from Lionsgate. Emmy-nominee director and photographer, Lauren Greenfield, gives you a look into the lives of America’s most wealthy. Beware, as not everyone who makes it to the top are as innocent as they appear to be!

Acclaimed Emmy-nominated documentary photographer and director Lauren Greenfield gives us an inside look at the “precise, eye-opening, and absolutely chilling” (Kate Erbland, Indiewire) heights of narcissism and greed within the global boom-bust economy whenGeneration Wealth arrives on DVD and Digital October 16 from Lionsgate. The insightful and thought-provoking film is “a blistering takedown of greedy Kardashian culture” (The Daily Beast) reflected through the lenses of Greenfield’s life’s work. The opening film of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, the Generation Wealth DVD includes a gallery of Greenfield’s photos, and will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.98.

Lauren Greenfield’s postcard...

Review by Peter BelsitoFor the past 25 years acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has travelled the world, documenting with ethnographic precision and an artist’s sensitivity a vast range of cultural movements and moments.

Yet, after so much seeking and searching, she realized that much of her work pointed at one uniting phenomenon: wealth culture. With her new film, Generation Wealth, she puts the pieces of her life’s work together for in an incendiary investigation into the pathologies that have created the richest society the world has ever seen.

Spanning consumerism, beauty, gender, body commodification, aging and more, Greenfield has created a comprehensive cautionary tale about a culture heading straight for the cliff’s edge. Generation Wealth, simultaneously a deeply personal journey, rigorous historical essay, and raucously entertaining expose, bears witness to the global boom-bust economy, the corrupted American Dream and the human costs of capitalism, narcissism and greed.

2018 brings a strange summer full of unexpected surprises, revealing an evolving specialized world that shows resilience beyond the mixed results earlier this year. The box office surge continues with documentaries and narratives with wide appeal not so much to the usual older crowd but more diverse, younger audiences.

Sundance breakout “Blindspotting” (Lionsgate) lead the way this weekend, coming quickly after another Sundance hit from Oakland, “Sorry to Bother You” (Annapurna). And multiple new documentaries, led by fashion biodioc “McQueen” (Bleecker Street), showed strong early interest.

Meantime, “Eighth Grade” (A24) enjoyed an excellent second weekend expansion, while widening “Three Identical Strangers” (Neon) is following the season’s other documentary smashes to higher than expected levels.

Opening

Blindspotting (Lionsgate) – Metacritic: 73; Festivals include: Sundance, South by Southwest 2018

$332,500 in 14 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $23,750

With “Sorry to Bother You” already a success, another filmmaker out of the Oakland film community that produced Ryan Coogler...

Skyscraper tumbles 54.4% in second weekend as lacklustre run continues.

July 23 Update: Columbia Pictures’ The Equalizer 2 starring Denzel Washington scored a surprise $36m number one debut over Universal’s pre-weekend favourite Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Despite landing in second place on a confirmed $34.9m, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again helped push the studio past the $1bn North American mark for the year-to-date, marking the eighth consecutive year Universal has accomplished the feat.

Denzel Washington stars as the vigilante Robert McCall in The Equalizer 2 and reunites with Antoine Fuqua from the original for the first sequel role of the star’s career.

Skyscraper tumbles 56% in second weekend as lacklustre run continues.

Columbia Pictures’ The Equalizer 2 starring Denzel Washington scored a surprise $35.8m number one debut over Universal’s pre-weekend favourite Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Despite landing in second place on an estimated $34.4m, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again helped push the studio past the $1bn North American mark for the year-to-date, marking the eighth consecutive year Universal has accomplished the feat.

Denzel Washington stars as the vigilante Robert McCall in The Equalizer 2 and reunites with Antoine Fuqua from the original for the first sequel role of the star’s career.

Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate is opening Blindspotting with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal in limited locations this weekend ahead of a wider roll out. Starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, who co-wrote the comedy/drama, the feature came together after a decade of planning. Blindspotting is the highest-profile narrative opening in select locations this weekend. Friday will also see the arrival of several documentaries. Bleecker Street is opening McQueen by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui; the Alexander McQueen bio is the company’s first doc release. And Sundance Selects will roll out Far From the Tree, based on the book by Andrew Solomon, while Amazon Studios is launching Generation Wealth by Lauren Greenfield.

Blindspotting

Director: Carlos López Estrada

Writers: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs

Cast: Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Chephas Jones, Ethan Embry, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Wayne Knight

Distributor: Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate

Dramedy Blindspotting has been in the works for over a decade.

Lauren Greenfield’s frustrating documentary about the super-wealthy makes grotesques of her interviewees and offers no real analysis

Photographer and film-maker Lauren Greenfield created an instant classic in 2012 with her documentary The Queen of Versailles, in which she found the kind of interviewees that every director dreams about. They were the Siegels, the horrendously nouveaux super-rich American family who tried to build the biggest private house in the Us, bizarrely modelled on Versailles, before the 2008 crash left the over-leveraged Siegels in the lurch, marooned in their half-built monstrosity. The film brilliantly pointed up so much that was wrong in our society: money worship, debt addiction, celeb narcissism.

By contrast, her follow-up film Generation Wealth, is a disappointment. There is no real analysis, and everything here was said more succinctly and eloquently in Versailles. This is frustratingly diffuse, without a clear focus, and is dependent on a range of interview subjects...

In true popcorn-season form, it’ll be a battle of the sequels at the domestic box office this weekend.

Universal’s “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is taking a chance at the top spot against fellow newcomers “The Equalizer 2” and “Unfriended: Dark Web.”

The follow-up to 2008’s jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” is tracking for a three-day tally between $30 million and $36 million when it opens in over 3,200 locations. A $30 million-plus debut would be a jump on its predecessor’s $27 million start. Much like the hit Broadway musical it was based on, “Mamma Mia” became a box office smash, earning $615 million worldwide on a $52 million budget. Though it pocketed an impressive $144 million in North America, “Mamma Mia” found even greater success overseas, where Swedish pop group Abba has a huge following. At the time, it was the highest-grossing film directed by a woman (Phyllida Lloyd), until it was surpassed by...

The first surprise of photographer Lauren Greenfield‘s Sundance doc, which played at the Transilvania International Film Festival prior to its theatrical release in the U.S. in July, is that the family portrayed most compellingly in it is not particularly wealthy at all — it is Greenfield’s own, who come across as well-educated, well-adjusted (despite Greenfield’s frequent work-related absences from their lives) and firmly middle-class. As much as it documents the past few decades of rampant consumerism, “Generation Wealth” is an investigation into her own motives for a career spent examining the more extreme symptoms of American affluence — such as her last doc, about the building of the world’s biggest private residence, “The Queen of Versailles.”

This is really “The Story of the ‘Generation Wealth’ Project”: The film is one part of a multi-platform package that also comprises a traveling exhibition and a massive door-stop book...

Sundance has long delivered a few Oscar documentary contenders each year, most recently with “Last Men in Aleppo,” “Icarus” and Strong Island.” This year, the festival introduced a plethora of leading hopefuls, led by Morgan Neville’s heart-tugging portrait of the late PBS children’s host Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Metascore: 83), which Focus Features scooped up last summer; it goes into release June 8. The Sundance audience was in tears, slayed by a portrait of a beloved cultural figure who tried to do good. At Sundance, Oscar-winner Neville (“Twenty Feet From Stardom”) told me that he hopes this movie about a well-meaning conservative Republican Presbyterian minister will reach a wider swath than the usual liberal moviegoer. Count on it. This zeitgeist-hitter will be hard to beat.

Two other well-reviewed Sundance biodocs could emerge from the HBO broadcast realm: Susan Lacy biography “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” and...

Two further Dutch films are Barbara Bredero’s ‘Speech’ and Cecilia Verheyden’s ‘Behind The Clouds’.

Incredible Film has added three new Dutch films to its Cannes 2018 slate.

Frans Weisz’s Life Is Wonderful is a film about love and longing set during one spring day in Amsterdam. Speech by Barbara Bredero is a romantic comedy about the effect of our evolving language on a woman who is passionate about words.

Behind The Clouds is the debut feature for Cecilia Verheyden, based on a stage play by Michael De Cock and starring Chris Lomme.

Here in Cannes, the company has...

Mike Leigh’s Peterloo to get autumn festival launch.

Thursday afternoon’s (April 26) Amazon Studios CinemaCon session featured disturbing footage from Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake.

The studio’s head of marketing and distribution Bob Berney presided over a slate presentation that includes Beautiful Boy, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cannes selection Cold War, and Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, which Berney said was in post and is being targeted for an autumn festival berth.

Teeing up exclusive footage from Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 ‘giallo’ horror Suspiria, Berney warned attendees what they were about to see was “not for the squeamish.