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Celebrating its 30th anniversary next month, the Slamdance Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its 2024 edition, unspooling in Park City and Salt Lake Utah from January 19 – 25. The selection consists of 32 features, of which 17 are World Premieres, 75 shorts, and five episodic series. Oscar-winning filmmaker Carol Dysinger’s One Bullet is the opening night film, and the closing is Vanessa Hope’s Invisible Nation. “Our 2024 Slamdance lineup is a testament to filmmakers who dare to push their stories to the very edge of filmmaking, making it deeply personal yet globally resonant,” said Festival Director […]

The post Slamdance 2024 Announces Its Full Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary next month, the Slamdance Film Festival has announced the full lineup for its 2024 edition, unspooling in Park City and Salt Lake Utah from January 19 – 25. The selection consists of 32 features, of which 17 are World Premieres, 75 shorts, and five episodic series. Oscar-winning filmmaker Carol Dysinger’s One Bullet is the opening night film, and the closing is Vanessa Hope’s Invisible Nation. “Our 2024 Slamdance lineup is a testament to filmmakers who dare to push their stories to the very edge of filmmaking, making it deeply personal yet globally resonant,” said Festival Director […]

The post Slamdance 2024 Announces Its Full Lineup first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Returning for its 30th anniversary edition next year, Slamdance Film Festival has now unveiled its full film lineup for 2024. Kicking off with Oscar-winning filmmaker Carol Dysinger’s One Bullet, this year’s festival will showcase 32 features both in Park City and Salt Lake City from January 19-25 and online screenings will be available on the Slamdance Channel from January 22-28.

“Our 2024 Slamdance lineup is a testament to filmmakers who dare to push their stories to the very edge of filmmaking, making it deeply personal yet globally resonant,” said Festival Director Taylor Miller. “Their raw passion and risk-taking echo our commitment to exploring uncharted territories of cinematic expression. This year, we proudly host the most inclusive and accessible festival we’ve ever had, staying true to the core objectives I aimed to cultivate with our programmers when I took this job.”

The 2024 programming was selected from more than 9,000 submissions, 1,729 of which were features.

The 30th Slamdance Film Festival has announced its complete 2024 lineup, including 32 features, 75 shorts and five episodic titles. Slamdance will take place in-person at Yarrow Hotel in Park City and in Salt Lake City, Utah from Jan. 19-25, and online screenings will be offered on the Slamdance Channel from Jan. 22-28.

Oscar-winner Carol Dysinger’s documentary “One Bullet” will open the festival and Vanessa Hope’s “Invisible Nation” (pictured), which explores the political landscape of Taiwan, will close the festival on Jan. 25.

“Our 2024 Slamdance lineup is a testament to filmmakers who dare to push their stories to the very edge of filmmaking, making it deeply personal yet globally resonant,” said festival director Taylor Miller. “Their raw passion and risk-taking echo our commitment to exploring uncharted territories of cinematic expression. This year, we proudly host the most inclusive and accessible festival we’ve ever had, staying true to the core objectives I...

Festival runs January 19-25 in person, January 22-28 online.

Slamdance Film Festival has announced the roster for its upcoming 30th anniversary edition, which is bookended by Carol Dysinger’s previously announced post-Afghanistan War documentary One Bullet and Vanessa Hope’s IDFA closing night documentary Invisible Nation, a profile of Taiwanese first female president Tsai Ing-wen.

Running January 19-25 in person and January 22-28 online, this year’s event returns to Yarrow Hotel in Park City where the festival launched and will showcase 32 features, of which 17 are world premieres, as well as 75 shorts, and five episodics.

Festival organisers said this year...

The 35th Galway Film Fleadh ended Sunday evening with the Competition jury handing the festival’s top prizes of Best Irish Film to Apocalypse Clown, directed by George Kane, and the Generation Jury Award to Scrapper by Charlotte Regan.

Written by Demian Fox, George Kane, Shane O’Brien, and James Walmsley and produced by Morgan Bushe and James Dean, Apocalypse Clown follows a troupe of failed clowns as they embark on a chaotic road trip of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy. Scrapper, which stars Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), follows Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.

Also among the winners on the night was Lie of The Land, directed by John Carlin. Written by Tara Hegarty and produced by Chris Patterson and Margaret McGoldrick,...

Face to Face with German Films actor, producer, co-writer of Eline Gehring’s Nico, Sara Fazilat stated “I love the films of Andrea Arnold, Ken Loach, Susanne Bier and Asghar Farhadi.”

The seven filmmakers selected for the 7th annual Face to Face with German Films campaign are Jerry Hoffmann; Sarah Noa Bozenhardt (writer-director; Among Us Women); Matthias Luthardt (writer-director; Pingpong); Zamarin Wahdat [cinematographer and director; visual designer on Carol Dysinger’s Oscar-winning Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl)]; Sara Fazilat; Julia Kovalenko (film editor; Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher), and Anne Zander (actor; Barbara Ott’s For Jojo).

I asked them, as I did with Unifrance’s 10 Talents To Watch in 2022, which film or films they saw in 2021 they particularly enjoyed and why. Joachim Trier’s multiple Oscar-nominated The Worst Person In The World and the Oscar-nominated The Hand Of God, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, and last year’s Oscar winner...

German Films, an agency that promotes German cinema worldwide, has announced the talent who will feature in its 7th annual Face to Face With German Films campaign. The high-profile platform sets out to bring international visibility to the wealth of ground-breaking talent working in film and TV in Germany, and shaping the future of the industry.

This year’s selected talent are documentary writer-director Sarah Noa Bozenhardt (“Among Us Women”), actor-producer-writer Sara Fazilat (“Nico”), actor-director Jerry Hoffmann (“Shahada”), film editor Julia Kovalenko (“System Crasher”), writer-director Matthias Luthardt (“Pingpong”), cinematographer and director Zamarin Wahdat (“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”) and actor Anne Zander (“For Jojo”).

After spotlighting well-known actors, writers and directors such as Saskia Rosendahl (“Lore”), Alexander Fehling, Burhan Qurbani (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”) and Jonas Nay in its first five years, last year’s Face to Face With German Films – The Filmmakers campaign broadened its...

It’s a curious fact that some of the most notable documentaries of recent years have revolved, in one or another, around skateboarding.

Minding the Gap, the 2018 documentary by Bing Liu, earned an Academy Award nomination for its story of Liu and two friends who gravitate towards skateboarding as an escape from difficult upbringings. Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), director Carol Dysinger’s 2020 film on a skateboarding school in Afghanistan that caters to girls, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject.

Skateboarding plays a central role in Joe Buffalo, a short documentary directed by Amar Chebib that’s a contender for Oscar consideration this year. The film centers on the eponymous Joe Buffalo, who was born to a family of Samson Cree heritage on the plains of Alberta, Canada. As a kid he saw a cousin pull off tricks on a board and became hooked himself.

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

With such a wide array of potential awards contenders in film and television, awards groups like the Cinema Eye Honors help to cull the field. This year, HBO Documentary Films leads the broadcast categories with 10 nominations, including three each for Liz Garbus’ serial killer series “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and David France’s Oscar contender “Welcome to Chechnya.” Cinema Eye also unveiled 10 short documentary semifinalists for the short filmmaking honors.

The Outstanding Broadcast Film nominees also include “Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn,” directed by Ivy Meeropol, 2020 Oscar winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” directed by Carol Dysinger, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” and “Sea of Shadows,” directed by Richard Ladkani.

Outstanding Series Nominees include “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,” directed by Joshua Bennett, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, and Sam Pollard, “Hillary,...

David France’s “Welcome to Chechnya,” a documentary about LGBTQ activists trying to help during the Chechnya government’s brutal crackdown on gays and lesbians, leads all films in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors’ broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday during a virtual edition of its annual fall lunch.

Cinema Eye, a New York-based organization founded in 2007 to recognize all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking, also announced its new Stay Focused initiative. The program spotlights 12 films by up-and-coming filmmakers who lost the chance for theatrical exhibition and film-festival exposure because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cinema Eye has pledged to find “in-person opportunities” for the filmmakers once the pandemic subsides, starting with theatrical screenings at the new Vidiots Theatre in Los Angeles in late 2021.

The 12 films include Cecilia Aldorondo’s “Landfall,” which recently won a jury award at Doc NYC; David Osit’s “Mayor,” about the Christian mayor of a...

The documentaries “Landfall” and “Five Years North” have won the top jury prizes at the 2020 Doc NYC film festival, the largest festival in the United States devoted to nonfiction filmmaking.

“Landfall,” director Cecilia Aldarondo’s portrait of a Puerto Rican community in the wake of Hurricane Maria, won the Grand Jury Prize in the Viewfinders Competition, with a special jury prize going to “Through the Night.” In the Metropolis Competition, made up of films about New York City, the top winner was “Five Years North,” Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple’s film about a Cuban-American Ice agent and a teenage Guatemalan immigrant. “Wojnarowicz” received a special award for its use of archival material.

Jury prizes in the Short List: Features section, which was made up of 15 films deemed by Doc NYC programmers to be likely awards contenders, were awarded to “Time” for directing, “Welcome to Chechnya” for producing, “Boys State...

The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Key Largo (1948)

I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)

Camila (1984)

I, the Worst of All (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

Le Corbeau (1943)

Diabolique (1955)

Red Beard (1965)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Ikiru (1952)

General Della Rovere (1959)

The Gold of Naples (1959)

Bitter Rice (1949)

Pickup On South Street (1953)

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Viva Zapata! (1952)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Yellow Sky (1948)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

Wall Street (1987)

Women’s Prison (1955)

True Love (1989)

Mean Streets (1973)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The Abyss (1989)

The China Syndrome (1979)

Big (1988)

Splash (1984)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Long Strange Trip (2017)

Little Women (2019)

Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)

The Guns of Navarone...

While Bong Joon Ho and the historic Parasite victories deservedly dominated Academy Awards-related headlines this past week, one of our favorite moments of the ceremony is when they put the spotlight on short film work. All 15 of the nominated films enjoyed a theatrical release and digital release in the past weeks, but now it’s easier than ever to watch the victors.

The trio of impressive winners in Animation (Matthew A. Cherry’s Hair Love), Documentary (Carol Dysinger’s Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)), and Live Action (Marshall Curry’s The Neighbors’ Window) are now available for free, offering a preview of the talented directors who we imagine will return to awards season with expanded projects in the years to come.

Check out the short films embedded below, with one on Hulu, and see Jared Mobarak’s reviews with more here.

Hair Love (Matthew A.

Every time I’ve wandered into a department store in the past decade or so, I inevitably run into a display of sassy, glittering shirts emblazoned with aggressively empowering phrases — “Feminist,” “Girl Boss,” “The Future Is Female” — aimed at teenagers and millennial women like me. Corporate feminism like this tends to smooth the edges off the movement’s radicalism by frantically waving pink pompoms in our faces, turning the idea of “girl power” into an aesthetic. It’s not overall a terrible thing to promote encouraging messages in the name of equality, or something like it. But one side effect of being so blatantly pandered to, with the endgame of getting us to buy what they’re selling, is a bone-deep, irritated exhaustion.

This is how I felt watching the Oscars this year. It was nice, in theory, for Steve Martin and Chris Rock to acknowledge the fact that women...

The 92nd Academy Awards is in the history books and there were some great additions to the ceremony’s long line of best acceptance speeches. Some were extremely gracious and humble, like several of the instances in which “Parasite” writer/director Bong Joon Ho went up on stage. Others made bold statements about representation in the industry such as “Joker” composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Then there were some that became a rallying point like “American Factory” director Julia Reichert. Looking back, here are the six best speeches from the 2020 Oscars that really stood out. Do you agree with my picks? Let us know in the comments below.

SEEGlory to the holy WiFi! 7 ways ‘Parasite’ made history with its Oscar wins

Best Director and International Feature: Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”

It was a relief to see that Bong had different things to say for each of his wins. During his win for International Feature,...

The 92nd Oscars featured a mix of the expected and the unexpected Sunday, with Neon’s South Korean film Parasite capping the evening by winning Best Picture, making history as the first foreign-language film ever to take the marquee prize.

Parasite director and co-writer Bong Joon Ho made four trips to the Dolby Theater stage, with the film also winning for Directing, Original Screenplay and International Feature.

Other honorees who spent this compressed Oscar season honing their acceptance speeches for tonight were the four Acting winners — all of whom won as expected. That meant statuettes for Joaquin Phoenix (Leading Actor for Joker), Renee Zellweger (Leading Actress for Judy), Brad Pitt (Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Laura Dern (Supporting Actress for Marriage Story).

Check out all the winners’ speeches below.

Best Picture

Parasite

Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers

Actress in a Leading Role...

Parasite – Bong Joon Ho

Neon’s film Parasite made Oscar history by becoming the first foreign language film to win Best Picture during the 92nd Academy Awards. Nominated for six Oscars, the film walked away on Sunday night with four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay.

Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Parasite previously won the Palme d’Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival as well as top honors at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.

Only 11 international feature films have ever been nominated in the Best Picture category. Bong Joon Ho became the first South Korean to ever win the best director Oscar.

During his acceptance speech he said, “When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is “the most personal is the most creative.

Women had another record-breaking night at this year’s Oscars, accounting for one-third of the awards handed out on Sunday night.

Across the 24 categories, 13 women and 26 men took home statuettes this year, an uptick from the previous record set last year when women accounted for 27.8% of the 54 winners. Though there were two fewer female winners compared to last year’s 15, the overall amount of winners was Lao down 28% from 2019.

In addition to Renee Zellweger, who took home Best Actress for her role in the Judy Garland biopic “Judy,” and Best Supporting Actress winner Laura Dern, for “Marriage Story,” the following women earned Oscars on Sunday:

Karen Rupert Toliver, “Hair Love” (Best Animated Short Film) Barbara Ling & Nancy Haigh, “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (Best Production Design) Jacqueline Durran, “Little Women” (Best Costume Design) Julia Reichert, “American Factory” (Best Documentary Feature) Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva, “Learning to Skateboard in...

Here are the winners at the 92nd annual Academy Awards that handed out Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Click above to see a photo gallery.

Best Picture

Parasite

(Neon)

A Barunson E&a Production

Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers

Actress in a Leading Role

Renée Zellweger

Judy (Ld Entertainment and Roadside Attractions)

Actor in a Leading Role

Joaquin Phoenix

Joker (Warner Bros.)

Directing

Parasite (Neon)

Bong Joon Ho

Original Song

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (Paramount)

Music by Elton John

Lyric by Bernie Taupin

Original Score

Joker (Warner Bros.)

Hildur Guðnadóttir

International Feature

Parasite

A Barunson E&A Production

South Korea

Makeup and Hairstyling

Bombshell (Lionsgate)

Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker

Visual Effects

1917 (Universal/Amblin Partners)

Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy

Film Editing

Ford v Ferrari (Walt Disney)

Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland

Cinematography

1917 (Universal/Amblin Partners...

The hottest topic of this year’s Oscars was already in place long before the red carpet was rolled out on Hollywood Boulevard: the continuing lack of diversity in the annual awards’ nominations pool, particularly as it applies to women and people of color. While female directors were shut out of the Best Director race, other categories showed signs of actual diversity and inclusion, particularly the Best Documentary Feature race, which included a majority of nominated films directed by women. On Oscar night, one of those women even walked away with the statuette: “American Factory” co-director Julia Reichert.

The four-time nominee celebrated her first win alongside her partner, co-director Steven Bognar, and their producer Jeff Reichert, and was eager to answer a slew of questions backstage. Top of mind for many: what sort of message would Reichert, one of the year’s few honored female filmmakers, want to send out...

Awards season officially comes to a close on Oscar Sunday.

The 92nd Academy Awards will be held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Feb. 9 and air live on ABC at 5 p.m. Pt/8 p.m. Et. Red carpet coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. Pt/6:30 p.m. Et. Viewers will be able to live-stream the awards show on abc.com or on the ABC app via DirecTV Now, Hulu, PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV.

The ceremony, which is going hostless again, will include appearances from this year’s nominees, as well as presenters Salma Hayek, Brie Larson, James Corden, Regina King, Lin-Manuel Miranda and more. Additionally, the show will feature performances from Cynthia Erivo, Idina Menzel, Elton John, Chrissy Metz, Randy Newman and five-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish.

A special tribute for Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna is scheduled to take place during the ceremony. The pair,...

If you look at our official racetrack odds, you’d see that the short film, “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” is thought to be far out front for this year’s prize for Best Documentary Short. The odds that are displayed there are taken from 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 at home.

But could another one of this year’s nominees sneak in and pull off an upset? Are there any other shorts that is more of a traditional fit for the Oscars? Below, let’s take a closer look at all five of this year’s nominated short documentaries, in order by their current Gold Derby odds.

See Oscars Upsets: 24 Potential Surprise Winners To Watch For

“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You...

“Pictures are for entertainment — messages should be delivered by Western Union.” The line has been variously attributed to half a dozen old-school Hollywood producers, from Samuel Goldwyn to Frank Capra, but no matter who said it, the sentiment captures how classic studio types endeavored to separate political statements from popular cinema. In recent years, however, pundits have been pressuring the Academy to do just the opposite — to become more activist through its awards — and rather than actually changing, the organization seems to have realized that the documentary shorts category is the easiest way to take a stand, typically awarding important messages over exceptional moviemaking. Sometimes the two coincide. , although it’s unlikely that anyone would mistake them for entertainment.

Certainly, the folks at Netflix don’t have any such illusions about John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson’s wrenching kids-in-peril short “Life Overtakes Me,” whereas the film’s “Oscar-worthiness” was almost...

This year’s nominated films range from a Tunisian sheep farm to the scene of an appalling ferry disaster while movingly depicting the agony of dementia

The short films nominated for this year’s Oscars in the live action, animated and documentary categories feel very different from the Bafta shorts – there is a bit less offbeat wit and singularity on show. The Academy Awards contenders are generally sleeker, glitzier, more sentimental and more deferential to the Hollywood mainstream, although there is one nominee for both: Carol Dysinger’s Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), which won the Bafta.

Among the live-action shorts, my vote goes to Delphine Girard’s Une Soeur (A Sister), in which a terrified woman who is in the passenger seat of a car driven by a rapist has been given permission by him to call her sister from her mobile, but...

Updated with full winners list: The BAFTA Film Awards have named Sam Mendes’ 1917 Best Film at its annual ceremony Sunday in London, exactly one week before this compressed film awards season concludes with the 92nd Oscars.

Mendes’ World War I epic from Universal and Amblin/DreamWorks picked up a leading seven awards, including Mendes for Best Director. The film repeated its Best Picture wins at the DGA and PGA as well as the Golden Globes. Mendes, a UK native, previously won Director honors at the Globes and Critics’ Choice.

Tonight, 1917 also won for Best British Film, Roger Deakins’ Cinematography, Production Design, VFX and Sound. It has been ramping up its momentum after being one of the last of the season’s awards contenders to hit theaters. It had nine BAFTA noms coming in, behind Warner Bros’ Joker which had 11. Also like the Oscars, Netflix’s The Irishman and Sony’s...

When the 2020 Oscar nominations were announced, critics immediately seized upon the glaring lack of women recognized in the Best Director competition. But on the nonfiction side, it’s a completely different story.

In the Best Documentary Feature category, four of the five nominated films are directed or co-directed by women. In Best Documentary Short, it’s the same story—four of five nominees are directed or co-directed by women.

It’s also a year when Greta Gerwig was overlooked for Best Director in the fiction realm. “Narrative is so badly handling women,” comments Carol Dysinger, who earned an Oscar nomination for her short doc Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). “But in my community, documentary, we do Ok.”

Among the women documentary filmmakers recognized with an Oscar nomination this year is Syrian-born Waad Al-Kateab, who directed For Sama with Edward Watts.

“Two days before the nominations,...

As has been the case for the last few years, the 2020 Oscar nominees in the Best Documentary Short category are a remarkable bunch, and TheWrap gathered the filmmakers behind them to speak on Tuesday about the work that went into exploring such tough subjects.

Possibly the most sensitive topic touched on in this year’s field was that of Resignation Syndrome, a fairly new psychological case that has seen hundreds of traumatized refugee children become so mentally unwell that they fall into a comatose state for months or even years. In “Life Overtakes Me,” director-producers Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas managed to earn the trust of three refugee families with children in such a state and explored how they handle such a difficult situation while fighting to retain their asylum status in Sweden.

Also Read: How 'Joker' Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Used 'Macho Chords' to Get Inside the Character's Head

Samuelson...

Non-fiction storytelling is well-represented in this year’s Oscar race. Five movies are vying for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, but many of the contenders for Best Documentary (Short Subject) are almost feature-length experiences as well. The Academy’s rules allow shorts to run up to 40 minutes; two of this year’s nominees run exactly that length, while the others are close to half an hour. By contrast, the longest animated short nominee is just under 15 minutes, while the longest live action short is 25 minutes. That’s understandable: The documentary form often demands more time to establish context, and this year’s nominees illustrate that challenge.

As usual for the category, all of the contenders deal with timely (and often troubling) subject matter through personal dramas from around the world. It’s a particularly strong collection of non-fiction filmmaking as well. Each nominee works around the traditional talking-head approach with vivid,...

The Oscar-nominated documentary shorts are not now, nor have they ever been, a laughing matter. But the joke that gets told most often, which has a nugget of truth in it, is that they frequently represent the grimmest category of any given year at the Academy Awards.

Recent nominees have vividly, heartbreakingly illustrated end-of-life care, the opioid crisis, the plight of refugees, systemic racism in the criminal justice system, and the Holocaust. These are not, generally speaking, films that you can idly eat popcorn to.

This year’s nominees, which occupy their own theatrical program this week via ShortsTV, also tackle heavy subjects and will also make any halfway-present audience member ponder important issues of the day. And yet, somehow, they’re a little less brain-meltingly sad than usual.

Also Read: Oscar Short Nominees Discuss Creating Fiction From Bits of Reality

Which says a little more about the nominations from...

These five Oscar-nominated documentary short films have made it to the summit of the nonfiction craft. Topics are international in scope: immigration, refugees, the personal cost of political activism, government malfeasance and girls in war-torn

Kabul skateboarding for kicks.

In the Absence

More than 300 people died when the Mv Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014; most tragically, 250 were high school students who remained in their cabins per instructions, rather than attempting to escape. The accident (some of which was televised live) traumatized South Korea, says “In the Absence” producer Gary Byung-Seok Kam. It is the fourth project for Kam and director Yi Seung-Jun. The documentary combines real-time footage of the accident recorded by rescuers, the students’ own cellphone videos, news footage and later-day interviews with parents and civilian divers. “We invite [the] audience to feel something behind the footage: the absence of the country on that day to protect us,...

“I’ve been filming in Afghanistan since 2005. I always wanted to make a movie about Afghan girls but I couldn’t figure out how to get them on film.” This is how Carol Dysinger describes her launching point for her short documentary, “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” in our recent webchat (watch the video above). It was only after she heard about the institution of Skateistan, the subject of another short in 2010, that the picture of how to achieve this became much clearer. When A&e approached her about making a piece about Skateistan from a young woman’s perspective, Dysinger knew that it was not something she could turn down. “I had been going there for so long, I knew there was a way with skateboarding that I could really get you to see these girls for who they really are.”

Dysinger received...

Not much positive news tends to come out of Afghanistan, but a pocket of it shines through in one of this year’s Oscar-nominated documentary shorts.

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), directed by Carol Dysinger, reveals a school in Kabul called Skateistan that offers kids the chance to study the three R’s and pick up skateboarding. For Afghan girls who are often deprived of an education—physical or academic—it’s an unheard of opportunity.

“It means the world to them. I’m a teacher, I’m a professor, and I have never in my life seen kids that were so hungry to learn and just so happy to learn, because they know it’s not a given and they like being engaged with their minds,” Dysinger tells Deadline. If not for Skateistan, she notes, the girls “would be very much in the...

Filmmaker Todd Phillips' "Joker", an origin story about superhero Batman's biggest enemy Joker, led the Oscar nominations with 11 nods, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

Sam Mendes' World War drama "1917", Quentin Tarantino's ode to Los Angeles "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood", and Martin Scorsese's mob epic "The Irishman" followed close behind with 10 nods each.

Also Read:?Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker' leads BAFTA 2020 nominations

Those films, along with "Ford v Ferrari", "Jojo Rabbit", "Little Women", "Marriage Story" and "Parasite" will compete for Best Picture, reports variety.com.

Female filmmakers were entirely shut out of the Best Director race. Along with Phillips, the nominees in the category include Scorsese for "The Irishman," Mendes for "1917", Tarantino for "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" and Bong Joon Ho for "Parasite".

Here is the complete list of Oscar nominations 2020:

Best Film:

* "Ford v Ferrari"

* "The Irishman...

UK talent present in all acting categories as well as throughout the nominations.

UK talent is well represented across the 2020 Oscar nominations with war epic 1917 among the leading contenders.

Sam Mendes’ 1917 has secured 10 nominations, including best picture, and ties it with Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and The Irishman, while Joker leads the pack with 11 nods.

London-based Neal Street Productions is behind the First World War feature, told in what appears to be one continuous shot.

As well as its UK director, other UK talent recognised by the Academy in the nominations for their work on the film include...

British talent present in all acting categories as well as throughout the nominations.

British talent is well represented across the 2020 Oscar nominations with war epic 1917 among the leading contenders.

Sam Mendes’ 1917 has secured 10 nominations, including best picture, and ties it with Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and The Irishman, while Joker leads the pack with 11 nods.

London-based Neal Street Productions is behind the First World War feature, told in what appears to be one continuous shot.

As well as its English director, other British talent recognised by the Academy in the nominations include Roger Deakins for cinematography; Olivier Tarnet...

Chicago – In a sense of deja vu from the recent Golden Globe Awards, the nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards has been named on January 13th, 2020. This breaks a precedent of the last ten years, with the Oscar ceremony moved up to February 9th from it’s usual position in late February to early March.

Nine films were named in the Best Picture category, with “Little Women” and “Ford vs. Ferrari” joining the seven other films recognized by the Golden Globes (including Best Foreign Language Film Globe winner “Parasite”). “Joker” led the numbers game with 11 nominations, with 10 nods for “1917,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “The Irishman.” The Best Actress category was exactly the same as the Globes (Drama), and Leonardo Di Caprio is the only difference in the Best Actor column. As at the Golden Globes, the directing category is the same five men, again snubbing Greta Gerwig for “Little Women.

Oscar nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards were announced Monday morning from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Martin Scorsese’s mob epic “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s ode to Los Angeles “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and Noah Baumbach’s drama “Marriage Story” are expected to sweep nominations. Renee Zellweger is favored to land her fourth Oscar nod, this time for her turn as Judy Garland in the biopic “Judy.” Meanwhile, Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) and Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) are the odds-on favorites among lead actors.

Other films that are anticipating recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include Sam Mendes’ WWI film “1917,” Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of “Little Women” and Bong Joon Ho’s social thriller “Parasite.

The Academy Awards will air live Feb. 6 on ABC.

Here is the full list of 2020 Oscar nominations (updating life):

Best Picture:

“Ford v...

When it comes to winning your office pool on Best Documentary Short Subject, think tearjerker and you’ll be close to mark. This year, the documentary branch of the Academy has selected 10 shorts out of 96 submissions to vie for the five final slots for the Oscars.

Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by Isis; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas...

When it comes to winning your office pool on Best Documentary Short Subject, think tearjerker and you’ll be close to mark. This year, the documentary branch of the Academy has selected 10 shorts out of 96 submissions to vie for the five final slots for the Oscars.

Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by Isis; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas...

For Sama, Waad al-Kateab’s striking documentary about the start of the protests against the Assad regime in Syria, won the Best Feature prize at the International Documentary Association’s Ida Awards.

Al-Kateab shot hundreds of hours of footage over a course of the five-year siege that offered an unflinching view of life in war; the twentysomething economics student married one of the last doctors in her hometown of Aleppo, and they had a daughter, Sama, as the city crumbled around her.

Other winners Saturday at a ceremony on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles included HBO’s Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, which won for Best Multipart Documentary, and Homecoming, Beyoncé’s Coachella concert film for Netflix.

Netflix won a leading three awards, including Best Director for American Factory co-directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert and Abstract: The Art of Design as Best Episodic Series.

Here’s the full...

Filmmakers Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama” (PBS) took top honors at the 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre Saturday night. The harrowing and intimate portrait of a young couple who continued to live in Aleppo with their new baby while under intense fire from government troops took home Best Feature. “It’s a dark time in the world,” said British filmmaker Watts, who helped Al-Kateab shape her extraordinary footage into a film. “When I think about documentaries right now I feel hope that things are going to get better.”

A show of enthusiastic Ida support came early in the evening with a rousing standing ovation when Al-Kateab accepted the coveted Courage Under Fire award, given to someone who demonstrates extraordinary courage in pursuit of the truth. The Channel 4 film has already notched documentary wins from the European Film Awards, the British Independent Film Awards,...

Syrian Civil War diary “For Sama” has won the best feature award from the International Documentary Association for Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts.

The award was presented by Frances Fisher on Saturday night at the 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

The first-time award for Best Director went to Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for “American

Factory,” which explores a Chinese company taking over a shuttered General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio. The film was acquired by Netflix in association with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions following its premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

“Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé,” directed by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Ed Burke, won the Best Music Documentary. The film centers on Beyoncé’s performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Beyoncé also wrote and executive produced the film, which premiered on Netflix on April 17.

HBO’s “Leaving Neverland,...

“For Sama,” Waad al-Kateab’s wrenching story of raising a young daughter in war-torn Syria, has been named the best nonfiction film of 2019 at the International Documentary Association’s 35th annual Ida Documentary Awards, which were handed out on Saturday night on the Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles.

Al-Kateab, who directed “For Sama” with Edward Watts, also received the Ida Awards Courage Under Fire Award at the ceremony. Last week, the film also won the top award at the British Independent Film Awards, a rarity for a documentary.

Steven Bognar and Julie Reichert received the Best Director Award, the first time the Ida has handed out that particular prize, for their look at the culture clash when a Chinese company took over an American auto glass factory in Ohio in “American Factory.”

Also Read: 'For Sama' Film Review: Syrian Documentary Finds Wrenching Personal Take on Conflict

Two...

The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.

First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom of...

The International Documentary Association revealed nominations for the 2019 Ida Awards, with Neon landing three films in the Best Feature competition, including “Apollo 11” and “Honeyland,” which led the field with three nominations, as well as”The Biggest Little Farm.” “Honeyland” will also collect the Pare Lorentz Award, while Neon’s “Amazing Grace” landed a Best Music Documentary nomination. (The film qualified for the Oscar last year.)

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for Best Director and, notably, all of the nominated films in that category are directed by women. “We felt the need to more clearly acknowledge the creativity and bold directorial vision that is behind many of the films we are privileged to consider,” said Ida’s Executive Director Simon Kilmurry.

First awarded in 2001, the Ida gives the Courage Under Fire Award to documentarians who display conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth, putting freedom...

“American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama” and “The Edge of Democracy” have scored multiple nominations for the International Documentary Awards.

“Advocate,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family,” “One Child Nation,” “Sea of Shadows,” and “The Biggest Little Farm” also received nods. The 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards will be held on Dec. 7 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

For the first time, the Ida will present an award for best director and all of the nominated films have female directors.

“The Ida Documentary Awards recognizes excellence in nonfiction storytelling across a range of forms, and all of this year’s nominees and winners illustrate that documentary storytelling is one of the most vital art forms today,” said Simon Kilmurry, executive director of the Ida.

The Ida also announced that its Courage Under Fire Award will be presented to Waad Al-Kateab for the film “For Sama,” recounting her life in Aleppo, Syria. It won...

The nominees for the 2019 International Documentary Association (Ida) Awards have been unveiled, with several of this year’s most high-profile docs in the frame. Scroll down for full list of nominees.

For the first time, this year’s ceremony will feature an award for best director, with the five films nominated all directed or co-directed by women: The Edge Of Democracy (Petra Costa); Advocate (Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche); American Factory (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert); Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov); and For Sama (Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts).

Neon is the most represented distributor in the best feature field with three nominations. Netflix has two of the films in the category (American Factory and The Edge Of Democracy), while Amazon has one (One Child Nation).

This year’s Courage Under Fire Award, which recognizes documentarians who display “conspicuous bravery...

Gravitas Ventures has landed worldwide rights to A.J. Edwards’s crime drama Age Out (formerly known as Friday’s Child), which premiered at 2018 SXSW Film Festival. The pic, which will be released in limited theaters and on demand November 22, stars Tye Sheridan, Imogen Poots (Green Room), Jeffrey Wright, Brett Butler (The Walking Dead), and Caleb Landry Jones. The plot follows Richie (Sheridan), a fresh out of foster care 18-year-old who is forced to navigate a stark life on his own since his emancipation. Richie must survive despite a glaring environment of poverty, addiction and run-ins with the law. Tony Piantedosi, Vice President of Acquisitions at Gravitas, negotiated the deal with Alan Elias at OnBuzz.

Film Independent has revealed that Bull, the drama directed by Annie Silverstein, will serve as the opening night feature for The New Wave,...