Actualités

Exclusive: Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, the filmmakers behind the Academy Award-winning 2021 live-action short Two Distant Strangers, have found their next awards play in Will I See You Again?, a live-action short co-written and directed by Michael Perez-Lindsey, which they’ve boarded as executive producers.

Others newly aboard the project as EPs include Mickey Meyer, the duo’s partner in entertainment company Unreasnble, and actress DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It).

Co-written and executive produced by Rhett Lindsey, the short centers on two former college teammates who find themselves summoned to their late friend’s estate hearing after 20 years of estrangement. To claim their inheritance, they must first confront their past relationship while undergoing a polygraph test.

Pic marks one of the first directorial efforts for Perez-Lindsay, who has worked alongside top cinematographers as a digital imaging technician on productions like Roadside’s Hello, My Name Is Doris and...

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and Jackass star Steve-o have boarded Sk8 or Die: The Lee Ralph Story, a new scripted series on the life of the New Zealand skateboarder who reached the peak of the sport in the 1980s before abruptly vanishing from the scene. The show, which is currently in active development, is conceived as a biographical anthology series akin to Ryan Murphy’s Monster, which each new season exploring the life of another skating legend.

Auckland-based outfit Tavake will produce Sk8 or Die with Hawk and Steve-o as executive producers. Vinnie Bennett, who played Young Dom in F9, will star as Lee Ralph, with Oscar-nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider, FBI: Most Wanted) as Lee’s sister and life-long partner in crime, Kim Ralph.

The series will follow Lee’s childhood in New Zealand, growing up the son of a heroin-dealing father and his rise to becoming a skating pro in the late 1980s,...

Oscar-winning duo Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe are to direct and executive produce “Sk8 or Die: The Lee Ralph Story.” The upcoming series is an anthology exploring the wild and highly unique life of Lee Ralph, a former pro skateboarder turned folk hero and recluse.

Vinnie Bennett and Oscar-nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes are set to lead the cast, with Bennet portraying Ralph and Castle-Hughes playing his sister and partner in crime Kim Ralph.

The six-part show was hatched by New Zealand-based production company Tavake (“Madam”). Skateboarding ace Tony Hawk and “Jackass” touring comedian and skate culture legend, Steve-o are on board to executive produce. Free and Roe executive produce under their The Unreasnble banner.

Tavake principals Tom Hern and Halaifonua (Nua) Finau (“The Panthers,” “Red White and Brass”) co-wrote the series and will serve as showrunners. Hern will also direct some episodes. Julian Arahanga will act as a producer for Tavake.

Matt Roe has been named head of unscripted for production company Dirty Robber, The Unreasnble, led by Travon Free, Martin Desmond Roe, and Mickey Meyer.

Roe is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, and writer with more than ten years of development and production experience making unscripted premium content.

Starting his career as a story producer, Roe helped shape such projects Kobe Bryant’s Muse for Showtime, The Last Walk Off with David Ortiz for ESPN, and Tom vs. Tom for Facebook.

As a director, he has made content for companies like Religion of Sports and Uninterrupted. As a showrunner, he has helmed the Audience Network’s anthology series Religion of Sports and ESPN Why We Fight.

In addition to his creative credits, Roe has spent the last few years leading development at Dirty Robber during a time when it landed projects such as Heist and We Are The Champions for Netflix,...

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara so badly want you to see the new documentary film “The Smell of Money,” they will pay back your rental fee out of their own pockets.

Phoenix and Mara, a couple and noted activists for animal rights and environmental causes, will personally reimburse the rental cost for the first 500 people who pre-order the film on iTunes or Google Play ahead of its December 12 digital release date, IndieWire can reveal exclusively. To qualify, you must live in the U.S. and possess a Venmo account; all the fine print can be found here.

The two actors are not just supporting the film with their wallets — Phoenix and Mara have already hosted a screening of “The Smell of Money” in Los Angeles, and have met personally with some of its subjects.

“We hope once audiences watch this film they are as moved by its important message as we are,...

For the 10th year in a row, the Scad Savannah Film Festival, the 26th edition of which ran from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28, was the place to be for documentary filmmakers and documentary lovers — specifically on Oct. 25, when The Hollywood Reporter presented and your humble correspondent hosted the fest’s Docs to Watch panel that brings together the directors of up to 10 of the year’s finest documentary features.

Over the past nine years, 45 films were nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, 19 of which were first highlighted as Docs to Watch. And in seven of those nine years, one of the Docs to Watch went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar: 2015’s Amy, 2016’s O.J.: Made in America, 2017’s Icarus, 2018’s Free Solo, 2019’s American Factory, 2021’s Summer of Soul and 2022’s Navalny. (The other two eventual winners — 2014’s Citizenfour and 2020’s My Octopus Teacher — were not screened...

Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe have found their next act.

The Oscar-winning duo behind police brutality short Two Distant Strangers and, more recently, HBO’s Bs High, have teamed with Group Nine Studios’ former president Mickey Meyer to launch a new entertainment company titled The Unreasnble. The goal of the full-service media company is to develop, produce, finance and incubate stories that have had historically limited access to mainstream media.

“The work stoppages and battles we recently experienced and are still experiencing across our industry for fair and equitable pay and ownership of our work is a clear sign we can no longer adapt to the ways of this business,” explains Free, “but instead we have to adapt it to us, the creators, and that’s what we intend to do.”

As part of the launch, the team will also acquire Roe’s award-winning production company Dirty Robber, which...

A host of Oscar hopefuls — among them Origin writer/director Ava DuVernay, May December director Todd Haynes, Saltburn writer/director Emerald Fennell and American Fiction writer/director Cord Jefferson — will head south later this month for the Scad Savannah Film Festival, a regional fest that has become a high-profile stop on the road to the Academy Awards, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The fest, which will run Oct. 21-28, will honor Jefferson with its Breakthrough Director Award (Oct. 22), Haynes with its Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award (Oct. 23), Fennell with its Spotlight Director Award (Oct. 24) and DuVernay with its Virtuoso Director Award (Oct. 28).

Other awards hopefuls set for honors: Barbie production designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, who will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Production Design Award (Oct. 23); Maestro makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who will receive the Career Achivement Award (Oct. 24); The Bikeriders writer/director Jeff Nichols, who will receive the Auteur Award (Oct.

The Scad Savannah Film Festival, which takes place each year at the Savannah College of Art and Design shortly before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences votes to determine its Oscar shortlists, and which has become a premier showcase for documentary programming, has revealed the names of the 10 documentary features that it will highlight on this year’s edition of its popular Docs to Watch panel.

The Docs to Watch gathering, which features discussion about the challenges and rewards of documentary filmmaking, will take place at the Lucas Theatre on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 25, midway through the 26th edition of the fest, which will run from Oct. 21 through Oct. 28. For the 10th year in a row, it will be presented by The Hollywood Reporter and moderated by yours truly.

The films represented on this year’s Docs to Watch panel — all of which will also screen during the fest,...

“It’s so good to see you, someone I can relate to!” Those words, said to me in jest at a fancy Hollywood Hills dinner party in January 2022, came from filmmaker Emerald Fennell. This gathering was filled with famous people whose names I won’t mention but rhyme with Heff Scoldblum, Mud Applecow and Carey Mulligan. (I also realize just how unrelatable that entire sentence is, and I beg your forgiveness. It’s only going to get worse from here.)

Now, you might be asking yourself, “How on earth could a Black man from Compton and a white woman from Hammersmith, London, possibly relate to each other?” Well, we were both very recent recipients of Academy Awards — she won best original screenplay for Promising Young Woman and I won best live-action short film for Two Distant Strangers on an evening in April 2021 that many refer to as “the Covid Oscars.

Maybe you remember reading about the Bishop Sycamore scandal. Originally known as the Christians of Faith Academy, the Ohio-based institution was trying to build a reputation around itself as the next big thing in high school football. Its target demo was, according to someone involved with the recruitment program, “[student] athletes who were good at football — or thought they were good at football — but weren’t going to play at the next level.” Many of these kids were at-risk youth, living in environments that tested their ability to thrive and survive on a daily level.

The much-anticipated HBO original documentary film, “Bs High,” is set to premiere on Wednesday, August 23 at 9:00-10:40 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO and will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, and executive produced by Adam McKay, the documentary delves into the perplexing world of high school football and an astonishing scandal that captured national attention.

“Bs High” centers around the shocking events that unfolded during a nationally televised high school football game on August 29, 2021. The game pitted the well-known Img Academy against the lesser-known Bishop Sycamore High School. The match concluded in a staggering 58-0 victory for Img Academy, but the real drama was just beginning. The ensuing media frenzy questioned the legitimacy of Bishop Sycamore High School and its enigmatic head coach, Roy Johnson.

The documentary unravels the captivating narrative behind one of...

‘Barbie’ Is Coming to Streaming This Fall

Even if summer has to end, “Barbie” Summer doesn’t! While an official streaming release date still has yet to be announced for the box office blockbuster, there is at least now a planned and announced timetable.

In Warner Bros. Discovery’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO David Zaslav announced plans to bring Greta Gerwig’s summer hit to Max as early as September with a guarantee it will arrive to the streamer in the fall.

Watch the ‘Barbie’ trailer below:

Since its July 21 theatrical release, “Barbie” has made over $800 million worldwide and holds an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Margot Robbie leads the live-action film as the iconic fashion doll opposite Ryan Gosling as Ken. Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. The ensemble cast features America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, Michael Cera,...

From Executive Producers Adam McKay And Michael Strahan

Academy Award®-Winning Directors Travon Free And Martin Desmond Roe Chronicle Infamous Bishop Sycamore High School Football Team

HBO Original documentary film Bs High, directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe (“Two Distant Strangers”), and executive produced by Adam McKay (HBO’s “Succession” and “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”) and Todd Schulman for Hyperobject Industries, Smac Entertainment’s Michael Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini, and Matador Content’s Jay Peterson and Todd Lubin debuts Wednesday, August 23 (9:00-10:40 p.m. Et/Pt) on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

Synopsis: On August 29, 2021, a nationally televised high school football game between top-ranked Img Academy and unknown Bishop Sycamore High School ended with multiple injuries on the field and a 58-0 blowout win for Img Academy.

Exclusive: Fast-rising filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Roe have signed with CAA for representation, at the same time announcing the Paramount Pictures film Razorblade Tears, based on the New York Times bestselling novel by S.A. Cosby, as their next project.

The pic marking their narrative feature directorial debut will be produced by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Jerry Bruckheimer. The story follows Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, who band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, the pair of hardened men will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Flatiron Books published Razorblade Tears in July 2021. In addition to directing, Free and Roe...

Editor’s note: On Friday, December 9, IndieWire is co-hosting a special screening of 2023 Oscar-qualified short films as part of LA3C in partnership with National Geographic Documentary Films and ShortsTV. Apply to the attend the event in Los Angeles at this link.

Almost 40 years ago, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences issued a rule change that would send a ripple effect throughout the film community. Years before the expansion of Best Picture to 10 categories or the introduction of a Best Animated Feature category, the Academy made a small adjustment to its bylaws that would inject a powerful new variable to the film festival circuit in the years to come.

In 1983, the Academy ruled that in order for a short film to be eligible for one of its three categories — Live Action, Documentary, and Animated — it would either have to receive a theatrical release or participate in a “recognized” film festival.

Exactly one year ago today, the Bishop Sycamore high school football team took the field in a nationally televised game on ESPN, and proceeded to suffer a horrible 58-0 pounding by elite Img Academy. That was just the beginning of the program’s problems. Investigations and dismissals followed, amid allegations Bishop Sycamore wasn’t even a legitimate high school and, indeed, operated more like a scam.

HBO announced today it is in production on Bs High, a documentary about the scandal-plagued school in Columbus, Ohio, with a premiere expected next year on the cable network and streamer HBO Max. Filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, who earned Academy Awards last year for their live action short Two Distant Strangers, are directing.

Hyperobject Industries’ Adam McKay and NFL Hall of Famer-turned GMA host Michael Strahan are among the project’s executive producers.

After the Centurions’ lopsided loss to Img Academy,...

HBO is jumping into production on the upcoming “Bs High” documentary. Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe (“Two Distant Strangers”) have been named to direct the film, which will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max in 2023.

According to the documentary’s synopsis, the story follows the investigation that ensued after August 29, 2021, when the Bishop Sycamore Centurions, a presumed high school football team from Columbus, Ohio, took on perennial prep powerhouse Img Academy.

The nationally televised game ended in the Centurions 58-0 loss, causing fans and audiences to question the legitimacy of the Bishop Sycamore program and the activities of now-fired head coach Roy Johnson. However, the final score and a fired head coach turned out to be just the beginning of the story.

Roe, who shares an Academy Award with Free for their 2020 short film, has a list of documentary credits which includes “Heist,” “We Are the Champions,...

Exclusive: Saladin Ahmed (Miles Morales: Spider-Man) has partnered with filmmakers Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah) and Travon Free (Two Distant Strangers) to create Drac: Son of Dante—a new, 15-part webcomic series for Tapas Media and Endeavor Content, which is now free to read exclusively via the former company’s website and mobile app. The series’ first two episodes have already launched, with more to come weekly on Fridays.

Drac is said to introduce a new and contemporary mythology around the origins of the iconic goth villain Dracula that will resonate with multicultural and youth audiences alike. The narrative follows Dante, an eerie, flute-playing immortal who finds himself drawn to the human condition against the natural order and better judgment of his species. Dante follows this obsession no matter how much trouble it gets him into — but a conflict for the ages erupts when his monstrous son Drac chooses a human bride.

Embracer Group, a Swedish video game holding company, unveiled plans to buy Dark Horse Media, the comic book and entertainment group founded and led by Mike Richardson.

Dark Horse, with operations in LA and Milwaukie, Oregon owns or controls more than 300 intellectual properties and has 181 employees across business units, Dark Horse Comics, which owns The Mask, Time Cop, Father’s Day, and Ghost and licenses other titles including Star Wars, Avatar the Last Airbender, Stranger Things and Witcher, Japanese manga Berserk, Lone Wolf & Cub, and creator-owned material Big Guy and Rusty and Grendel. Dark Horse is also a leader in game art collections with books like the best seller The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia.

Deadline reported earlier today on Black Solstice, a new graphic novel written by Oscar winners Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, that Dark Horse will publish next December.

Production company Dark Horse Entertainment’s 40+ films...

Exclusive: Dark Horse Comics today unveiled Black Solstice, a new graphic novel written by Oscar winners Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, which it will publish next December.

The comic illustrated by Aremo Massa picks up following a winter solstice which saw the world transform when every Black person in America gained superpowers—powers that gave an unthinkable amount of hope, but then disappeared the following morning. Now, with only three days before the next winter solstice, the entire nation is holding its breath, waiting to see if the powers will return.

But not everyone’s been just waiting. Kesa, Quentin, and Deja—the Wallace siblings—have been planning the biggest heist in history, something that would change everything for Black people. And they are ready. All they need are those powers to kick in for 24 more hours.

“This journey began on December 21, 2020, when practically every Black person on Twitter started declaring,...

HollyShorts Film Festival Announces Dates and Lineup

Short films starring Taika Waititi, Jessica Chastain, Tiffany Haddish and those produced by Octavia Spencer and Leonardo DiCaprio are among highlights of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, running Sept. 23-Oct. 1 at the Tcl Chinese Theatres and online.

Selections include Spencer Susser’s “Save Ralph,” starring Zac Efron, Waititi and George Lopez; Aneil Karia’s “The Long Goodbye” starring Riz Ahmed; Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Into Dust” produced by DiCaprio; Aidan Tanner’s “The Sands Between” starring Chastain; Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum’s “Koreatown Ghost Story,” starring Margaret Cho; Zeberiah Newman’s “Right to Try,” produced by Spencer.

Other films on the slate are: Geoff Dunbar’s “When Winter Comes”; Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen’s “Desmond’s Not Here Anymore;” Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman’s “Life Unexpected,” Julien Joslin’s “No Longer Suitable for Use,” Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s Oscar-Winning “Two Distant Strangers,...

You can watch, but you may not want to try these at home. Heist, Netflix’s new crime-docuseries, makes it look very tempting to go for the big money grab. Whether it comes in paper or bottles, bushels or barrels, cash is king, and it is fun to be a kingpin. Living large on illicit funds is a blast. Pursuit is inevitable. Capture is probable. Jail is doable. Especially if there is some money stashed away.

The interesting thing is, of all of the cases investigated in the show, the only criminal who might not have something saved for retirement is the one who got away with the crime and turned herself in. Told by the people who pulled them off, Heist is a cautionary tale that throws caution to the wind. The docuseries was produced by Dirty Robber, it chronicles the events of three famous modern heists. Each case gets two episodes,...

Dirty Robber has tapped Jasper Thomlinson as the company’s new head of branded content. Reporting to Dirty Robber CEO Chris Uettwiller, Thomlinson will lead the strategic expansion of the division, which had success with the groundbreaking Nike documentary “Breaking2.” It also comes on the heels of the company’s recent Oscar win for its live-action short film “Two Distant Strangers,” a film that was co-directed by Dirty Robber’s Founding Partner and Creative Director Martin Desmond Roe.

Thomlinson was recently a partner at Caviar Content where he helped open new offices in Paris, London and Madrid. His campaign work included Burger King’s Google Home (Grand Prix winner at Cannes), Gillette’s “Perfect Isn’t Pretty” (Cannes Gold) and Adidas’ “Impossible is Nothing” (Cannes Gold). Thomlinson also won other awards with Toyota, Nike and AT&T, and created Super Bowl ads for Mountain Dew and T-Mobile. While at Caviar, Thomlinson...

Free’s short film won the Oscar on Sunday night

Travon Free, the director of this year’s Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short “Two Distant Strangers,” has signed a first look producing deal with Endeavor Content.

Free directed “Two Distant Strangers” along with Martin Desmond Roe, and the film that was acquired by Netflix tells the story of a Black man trying to get home to his dog who is stopped by police and killed, only to find himself caught in a “Groundhog Day”-style infinite time loop in which he relives the morning and gets killed by the same police officer over and over again no matter what he does differently. The film starred Joey Bada$$, Zaria and Andrew Howard.

On Sunday night during their acceptance speech, Free and his co-director spoke powerfully about police brutality, explaining that on average police kill three people every day. Their colorful,...

Exclusive: Hot off of winning the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar for Two Distant Strangers, Travon Free has inked a first look producing deal with Endeavor Content.

Free wrote Two Distant Strangers and co-directed with Martin Desmond Roe. The Netflix short which stars Joey Bada$$, Andrew Howard and Zaria follows a man who is trying to get home to his dog, but gets stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive a deadly run-in with a cop.

Said Free, “Over the last year I’ve developed some great creative relationships with some wonderful people at Endeavor Content, who I’ve found to be as committed as I am to making art that is not only entertaining but challenges our society, our culture and the world we live in. I’m really excited about the road ahead and the chance to create with their impressive team.”

Added Joe Hipps,...

Writer-director Travon Free has signed a first-look producing deal with Endeavor Content after, along with co-director Martin Desmond Roe, winning the Oscar for best live-action short for Two Distant Strangers.

“Over the last year, I’ve developed some great creative relationships with some wonderful people at Endeavor Content, who I’ve found to be as committed as I am to making art that is not only entertaining, but challenges our society, our culture and the world we live in. I’m really excited about the road ahead and the chance to create with their impressive team,” Free said in a statement.

Two Distant ...

Writer-director Travon Free has signed a first-look producing deal with Endeavor Content after, along with co-director Martin Desmond Roe, winning the Oscar for best live-action short for Two Distant Strangers.

“Over the last year, I’ve developed some great creative relationships with some wonderful people at Endeavor Content, who I’ve found to be as committed as I am to making art that is not only entertaining, but challenges our society, our culture and the world we live in. I’m really excited about the road ahead and the chance to create with their impressive team,” Free said in a statement.

Two Distant ...

HFPA and South African journalist Margaret Gardiner has responded on Twitter for mistakenly asking Judas and the Black Messiah Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya what it was like working with director Regina King. The Warner Bros. movie, which won two Oscars Sunday night, was directed by Shaka King. One Night in Miami, another Oscar contender last night, was directed by Regina King.

Gardiner, who reportedly was covering the Oscarcast for The Sunday Times of South Africa, asked Kaluuya remotely, “I’ve been following you since the beginning of your career, and I was wondering what it meant for you to be directed by Regina, what this means for you at this time with the world and the state that it’s in?”

The actor responded, “Say, that question again, please?”

Gardiner then asked, “I was wondering what it meant for you to win with the world and the...

There were high hopes for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)’ 93rd Academy Awards ceremony. For the first time in history, nearly half of the nominees in acting categories were people of color, and 70 women were nominated across all 23 categories. These were unprecedented numbers for an awards show that has existed for nearly a century. While some of this change resulted from AMPAS’ Academy Aperture 2020 Diversity Initiative (A2020) and the Tarana Burke-founded #MeToo Movement, the events of 2020 also shook Hollywood to its core.

As the world shuttered in early 2020 amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we found new ways to connect through cinema. Stories like Sophia Nahli Allison’s “A Love Song for Latasha” and Garrett Bradley’s “Time” became easily accessible to audiences worldwide. There was also a racial reckoning in the final months of a tumultuous presidential administration, giving rise to a second Civil Rights Movement.

What was marketed as “what if the Oscars were a movie?” — the end result was more like, “What if the Oscars were a glossy version of the Golden Globes but with more Black people in attendance?”

In an unconventional year, the Oscars delivered an unconventional ceremony, making history, and even rearranging the show so that the biggest prize of best picture wasn’t handed out last. This small tweak undid an aesthetically rich ceremony and made it into a jaw-dropping and ill-advised decision to end the evening on best actress and actor, which saw Frances McDormand win her third acting (and fourth overall after winning best picture) for “Nomadland,” and Anthony Hopkins winning his second Oscar for “The Father” over presumed frontrunner Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

I sounded the alarms early on that Hopkins and “The Father” were surging in the middle of final Oscars voting. To...

Chloé Zhao accepts the Oscar® for Directing during the live ABC Telecast of The 93rd Oscars® at Union Station in Los Angeles, CA on Sunday, April 25, 2021.

The 93rd Oscars took place on Sunday evening at Union Station Los Angeles and the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood.

“Nomadland” received three Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Actress in a Leading Role, and Directing. With “Nomadland,” Searchlight Pictures now has 43 Academy Awards including five Best Motion Picture winners since 2009: “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman,” “The Shape of Water,” and “Nomadland.”

“Nomadland” director Chloé Zhao is now the first Chinese woman and second woman ever to win Best Director. This is the third Oscar for lead actress Frances McDormand.

Zhao is also directing the upcoming Marvel superhero film, Eternals.

McDormand, who took home the Best Actress Oscar, became the third woman (after Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey...

At the outset of this year’s very unusual Oscarcast, Regina King noted the Derek Chauvin verdict this past week, telling viewers, “If things had gone differently this week in Minneapolis, I may have had to trade in my heels for marching boots.”

Then, she added, “I know that a lot of you at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you, but as a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with and no amount of fame or fortune changes that.”

Her remark was an acknowledgement that a share of the audience does tune out if they believe Hollywood is trying to send a message, but her status doesn’t shield her from worries shared by other Black parents.

It also was a signal that the Oscars were not going to ignore what’s been happening on the streets,...

When Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Rivera won the Oscar on Sunday for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their work on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Neal and Wilson became the first Black women to win the honor. When Neal took the stage at Union Station to accept the award, she used the opportunity to give shine to other Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, queer, trans and everyone in the margins, saying of her monumental win: “One day it won’t be unusual or groundbreaking, it’ll just be normal.”

That describes the energy when it comes to diversity in film and TV as of late. As Hollywood and the Oscars attempt to move into a space of inclusivity and authentic representation, we celebrate “firsts,” but as people in the margins have said and will continue to say: “We still have a long way to go.” The real question is:...

Netflix had a big night at the Oscars, bringing home a total of seven total trophies — leading all studios — although the streamer failed to grab the prize in the best picture category and came up empty in the acting categories.

Netflix had come into Sunday night with 36 nominations, far more than any other studio.

The company’s wins at the 93rd Academy Awards included two Oscars for David Fincher’s “Mank,” the most-nominated film this year with 10 nods, for cinematography (for Erik Messerschmidt) and production design (for Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale).

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” adapted from the play by August Wilson, also picked up two Oscars: for makeup and hairstyling (with Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson the first Black women to win in the category alongside Sergio Lopez-Rivera) and costume design (Ann Roth). Chadwick Boseman was widely considered the favorite to win a posthumous best actor Oscar...

Two Distant Strangers directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe won their first Oscar for Best Live-Action Short tonight at the 93rd Academy Awards.

In his acceptance speech, Free exclaimed that “God is good,” before launching into a statement on policing in America. “Today, the police will kill three people, and tomorrow, the police will kill three people—and the day after that, police will kill three people,” he said, “because on average, the police in America everyday kill three people, which amounts to about 1,000 people per year.”

Noting that “those people happen to disproportionately be Black people,” he then went on to reference iconic writer James Baldwin, who once said, “The most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other peoples’ pain.”

“So, I just ask that you please not be indifferent,” Free pleaded, in closing. “Please don’t be indifferent to our pain.”

Roe followed this...

Two Netflix shorts that address gun violence were honored Sunday at the Oscars.

If Anything Happens I Love You – which follows two parents grieving the loss of their child in a school shooting — won the Oscar for best animated short, while Two Distant Strangers collected the Academy Award for a live-action short.

Writer/director Travon Free and director Martin Desmond Roe accepted the award for Two Distant Strangers, which addresses the topic with the story of a Black man who is in a time loop in which he keeps dying at the hands of a police officer.

‘Today the police will ...

Two Netflix shorts — one on the topic of police brutality and one on gun violence — were honored Sunday at the Oscars.

If Anything Happens I Love You – which follows two parents grieving the loss of their child in a school shooting — won the Oscar for best animated short, while Two Distant Strangers collected the Academy Award for a live-action short.

Writer-director Travon Free, who became the first Black winner in this category, and director Martin Desmond Roe accepted the award for Two Distant Strangers, which addresses the topic with the story of a Black man who is in a time ...

At around 1 p.m. L.A. time Saturday, Travon Free still didn’t have the shoes he and his co-director, Martin Desmond Roe, had planned to wear Sunday night as live-action short nominees for Two Distant Strangers at the Academy Awards. (The pair won a statuette for the film at the awards show.)

But FedEx promised they were solving the problem. A self-avowed “major sneakerhead,” Free — who has just become the first Black filmmaker to win an Oscar in the category — wanted to wear a pair of Jordans customized by Dan Gamache, whose Connecticut-based Mache Custom Kicks studio ...

At around 1 p.m. L.A. time Saturday, Travon Free still didn’t have the shoes he and his co-director, Martin Desmond Roe, had planned to wear Sunday night as live-action short nominees for Two Distant Strangers at the Academy Awards. (The pair won a statuette for the film at the awards show.)

But FedEx promised they were solving the problem. A self-avowed “major sneakerhead,” Free — who has just become the first Black filmmaker to win an Oscar in the category — wanted to wear a pair of Jordans customized by Dan Gamache, whose Connecticut-based Mache Custom Kicks studio ...

Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe’s film about police violence has been criticised as ‘trauma porn’, but the directors say its tough imagery is essential

On Tuesday, a few hours after Derek Chauvin was convicted of George Floyd’s murder, another chapter closed in the history of Travon Free’s film that was inspired by the case. Voting ended for this year’s Oscars, at which Two Distant Strangers is frontrunner for live-action short.

It was an odd day. The film was nominated as the trial began and its fate was sealed the day it ended. Speaking from Los Angeles, Free says it feels as if “there’s this weird synced-up relationship”.

The current odds in our predictions center indicate that “The Letter Room” is out front to win this year’s Oscar for Best Live Action Short. These odds are calculated based on the forecasts made by our Expert film journalists, Gold Derby Editors, Top 24 Users and the thousands of regular Gold Derby readers making their predictions.

But is there a chance that one of the other nominees could upset this frontrunner? Let’s examine all five of this year’s nominees, in order by their current Gold Derby odds.

“The Letter Room” (odds of winning: 71/20)

Richard (Oscar Isaac) is a correctional officer who is transferred to a new position in the prison’s mail room. As he scans letters for prohibited content, he finds himself becoming drawn to the letters a death row prisoner receives from his girlfriend that are never replied to.

This marks the first Oscar nomination for Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan.

“You were just watching a person kill someone for eight minutes as they begged for their life, and that was just different, man,” the writer/director Travon Free says as he thinks back to the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a white cop, in Minneapolis, Minn., which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. “As I internalized it over those first couple of weeks after it happened, the idea for the movie came.”

The movie in question is Two Distant Strangers, a 29-minute drama written by Free and directed by him and Martin Desmond Roe, which ...

“You were just watching a person kill someone for eight minutes as they begged for their life, and that was just different, man,” the writer/director Travon Free says as he thinks back to the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a white cop, in Minneapolis, Minn., which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. “As I internalized it over those first couple of weeks after it happened, the idea for the movie came.”

The movie in question is Two Distant Strangers, a 29-minute drama written by Free and directed by him and Martin Desmond Roe, which ...

Photo: ‘Two Distant Strangers’/Netflix Four months after the year that brought so much pain for so many reasons ended, vaccines are being distributed at greater rates and the Biden administration holds a promise for a more equal America. Despite these sentiments of hope though, last year’s problems are still this year’s mess to clean up. With the exception of the pandemic, many problems from last year were deep-rooted centuries-long issues that were simply given the international stage due to immense tragedy, the greatest example of which was the Black Lives Matter movement. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain, and many many others before them who were murdered by the police were precursors to the movement last June. Related article: The Complete List of 2021 Oscar Nominations – Celebrations, Surprises & Snubs | The Show Must Go On Related article: What Is an Oscar Bait Film? How to...

Short films rarely get the attention they deserve throughout the year, but the 15 that get nominated for Oscars across three categories are the exception to the rule. Representing an entire art form is a lot to ask any one film, but luckily this year’s batch of nominees is well positioned to do the short form justice. This year’s five Best Live-Action Short Film contenders all follow traditional narrative structures, making each humanitarian tale easily accessible to those less familiar with short form.

The shorts category often highlights certain sociopolitical issues, and this year is no different. From racist police brutality to disability to the everyday struggles of a Palestinian family, the five nominees hold a mirror up to the world’s most egregious injustices. While each filmmaker takes a different tact, whether uncomfortable satire to understated drama, all five films address their respective issues with finesse. Here’s...

“Our movie takes a traumatic experience and tells a story of hope and resilience,” says Travon Free about his film “Two Distant Strangers” in an exclusive interview with Gold Derby (watch the video above). He explains, “Movies and TV shows that are about trauma are not the same as something that’s centered in trauma and our movie is not centered in trauma.” Free and his co-director Martin Desmond Roe are nominated at the Oscars in the Best Live Action Short category for their half-hour film that uses a time loop to dramatize Black Lives Matter. Netflix acquired the short after its nomination and it will be available to stream beginning April 9.

Free explains, “This is a message that’s so important to me and near and dear to my heart because as a Black man from Compton, I’ve experienced and seen a tremendous amount of death and gun violence.

Law and order, and the lack thereof, were impossible to ignore amid last year’s “defund the police” protests, and the same tensions are reflected in the Oscar-nominated live-action shorts lineup. Some of the entries predate the George Floyd killing, while another was shot in direct reaction to that tragedy last summer; two more were made abroad, on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, touching on themes that transcend borders. It’s not unusual for finalists in this category to come pushing a political agenda, and yet, this crop doesn’t feel like agitprop, but sincere, activist storytelling, well worth seeking out in theaters or on demand, as ShortsTV has once again made possible.

In “The Present,” which won top honors at the SXSW Film Festival, Palestinian Yusef (Saleh Bakri) and his daughter Yasmine (Mariam Kanj) must cross an armed checkpoint in order to fetch a refrigerator for his wife’s anniversary.

The Oscar-nominated live action shorts come from filmmakers based in the U.S., U.K, and the Mideast. They all center on the human desire to be seen as people.

Feeling Through

Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski

Roland’s entry into the deaf-blind community came through a chance meeting about 10 years ago with a man holding up a sign asking for help to cross the street late one night in New York City. He was so struck by the encounter that he wrote the script for “Feeling Through” and completed it in 2019 with the help of the Helen Keller National Center and its now CEO, Ruzenski, who is nominated with him. Authenticity matters to Roland, so he cast Robert Tarango, whom he discovered working in the cafeteria at the Hknc. “I’m really happy that there is some strong disability representation this year,” he says, referencing his fellow nominees like “Sound of Metal.

With an impressive leading haul this year of 35 Oscar nominations (a streamer record), Netflix apparently wanted more and just pushed that number to 36, saying Thursday that it has acquired the Live Action Short nominee Two Distant Strangers.

The film, written by Emmy winner Travon Free and directed by Free and Martin Desmond Roe, revolves around the repeated attempts by cartoonist Carter James (played by rapper Joey Bada$$) to get home to his dog as he is thwarted by a recurring deadly encounter that forces him — in a twist on movies from Groundhog Day to Palm Springs — to relive the same awful day over and over again (check out the trailer above).

Having seen the film earlier this year it could not be more timely, especially in the light of events surrounding the death of George Floyd and numerous others in the Black community. With the deal, Two Distant Strangers begins streaming April 9 on Netflix.