News

Leading US independent A24 is closing its documentary department, producer of recent features including The Last Of The Sea Women and Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, Screen Daily has confirmed.

The closure will result in five lay-offs at the company, though division head Nicole Stott and head of documentary production Emily Osborne will stay in their roles while they finish work on current projects.

The company will continue to handle recently completed documentary films including Architecton and Andre Is An Idiot and to work on in-production projects such as Danny and Michael Philippou’s film on the world of deathmatch wrestling.

Donald Trump recently announced that he will hold an “awards gala” celebrating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — just the latest example of the ongoing revisionist history and whitewashing of the extreme violence that took place that day. The A24 film “The Sixth,” however, documents via horrific footage what actually happened, and how it was ultimately Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department that saved the government from being toppled by a massive, deadly mob when the National Guard, stationed just miles away, didn’t show up.

Filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine had a camera crew at Trump’s D.C. rally on Jan. 6 (which was timed to the certification by Congress of Joe Biden as president), and some of what they captured appears in “The Sixth.” But much of the doc was stitched together from cameras and other videographers who were in and around the Capitol.

Lost amidst the chaotic scenes replayed endlessly in the days and months after January 6th were the real human stories of those who witnessed democracy under siege from within the halls of Congress. The Sixth, directed by Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine, set out to contextualize the events of that day through the lens of those directly in the line of fire rather than the sensationalized snippets that have come to define public understanding. Through largely untapped archived footage from the front lines and deeply personal interviews with eyewitnesses, the filmmakers offer a more holistic accounting of the trauma inflicted on both the targets and defenders of the insurrection alike.

On that winter day in 2021, a mob incited by the lies of a stolen election breached the US Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results through violence. While the images broadcast to a horrified nation...

Exclusive: Film-focused tech firm Gathr is rolling out a pay-it-forward distribution model with what the company says is greater transparency than schemes like the one used by Angel Studios on 2023 blockbuster Sound of Freedom.

A handful of films are set to deploy the model in the coming months: Brown, directed by Raj Amit Kumar; Christspiracy (Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters); The Sixth (Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine); and Call Me Dancer (Leslie Shampaine). Gathr will host a workshop to walk filmmakers through the new offering at the DC/Dox festival in Washington, D.C., which opens tonight.

Founded in 2011, Gathr is known for its event management platform, which integrates filmmakers, talent, audiences and venues and integrating ticketing, merchandising and other revenue lines. The company’s signature project was Girl Rising, which took in $1.85 million at the box office in 2013, the fourth-best tally of any documentary feature that year. The...

“Democracy needs a ground to stand on and that ground is the truth.”

These are the words of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, featured in a trailer for the A24 documentary film “The Sixth,” a portrait of public service that features interviews with Raskin, a photographer, a Hill aide, and three police officers, all of whom, had their lives changed by the violent Capitol assault on January 6, 2021. The documentary hails from husband and wife team Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, who have received two Emmy Awards for their work with National Geographic, the Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar in 2013 for “Innocente,” and in 2021, through HBO, released “Lfg,” a documentary that tracks women’s soccer’s fight with the US Soccer Federation over pay discrimination. This all to say, Fine and Nix are highly regarded in their field and yet their most recent and vital work, a film that tracks the insurrection...

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have launched movie fans into excitement with the latest trailer for their new movie, “Barbie.” Gerwig directs the project and she also co-wrote the script with her partner Baumbach. Previously, both scored Oscar nominations in the same year for their work on “Little Women” (Adapted Screenplay for Gerwig) and “Marriage Story” (Original Screenplay for Baumbach). With “Barbie,” the pair of filmmakers could become the first couple to win an Oscar for the same feature film since 2018.

Gerwig and Baumbach would be up for Best Original Screenplay together, while Gerwig could also be up for Best Director, and both could be up for Best Picture (as producers). If they were to win together, they’d become the 19th couple to take home a pair of Oscars for the same movie.

They’d join these 18 joint champs:

Muriel Box and Sydney Box for Best Original Screenplay (1947) — “The Seventh Veil...

Voting has only just begun for select nominees at the 2022 WGA Awards. Drama series, comedy series and new series votes will be taken until Jan. 5, while voting doesn’t even open for original and adapted screenplays until Jan. 12 (with a deadline of Jan. 26). Nominations for the television categories, as well as new media, news, radio/audio and promotional writing awards will be announced on Jan. 13, with screenplay nominations announced Jan. 27. Final voting for all takes place between Feb. 2 and Feb. 16, with the winners being announced at the 74th annual ceremony on March 20.

Although it is still very early days for some of these categories, Variety breaks down where select series, scripts and categories stand so far.

Original Screenplay

The contenders in the original screenplay field are dominated by repeat WGA and Academy Award nominees with a few breakthrough tyro scribes in the mix. “King Richard,” penned by Zach Baylin (who...

The U.S. Soccer Federation, the governing body for the sport in this country, offers a bold vision on its website, declaring it believes “in the power of soccer to unify our nation… We are stronger together, and together, we are One Nation. One Team.”

The statement may be laudable, but appears ironic given the lack of unity between the organization and members of the women’s national team, a squad that in recent years has included Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle, and Captain Becky Sauerbrunn, among other outstanding talents. The Oscar-contending documentary Lfg explores the ongoing legal dispute between the women players and the federation over equal pay and equal working conditions for the women’s and men’s teams.

“For us, this film is about what it means to get inside a journey where people are fighting for equality,” says Andrea Nix Fine, who directed the film with Sean Fine.

The HBO Max documentary Lfg chronicles the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s fight for equal pay with the men’s team. But Team USA captain Becky Sauerbrunn and directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine appeared on a panel for the film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event and said equal pay is about more than just money.

“Ultimately how you’re paid is how you’re valued,” Nix Fine said. “It’s about respect and control in a way of how you perform your best in a workplace, on the soccer field, as an individual, across the table in any kind of discussion.”

Sauerbrunn said the team feels they are fighting for future generations of the women’s national team. They do not expect change to come while they are still playing.

“We’re not going to benefit from it and that’s Ok,” Sauerbrunn said.

Seven top documentarians recently joined Gold Derby’s “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Oscar and guild contenders: Rachel Fleit (“Introducing Selma Blair”), Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine (“Lfg”), Robert Greene (“Procession”), Jimmy Chin (“The Rescue”) and Ting Poo and Leo Scott (“Val”). This group of eclectic filmmakers revealed tricks of the trade, including why they got into this profession and how they know when to end a project, particularly if the story is ongoing.

You can watch the documentary group roundtable panel above with these seven creative helmers. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to their individual interview.

See Gold Derby interviews with 2022 Oscar contenders

As for why Fleit loves working in the nonfiction field, she reveals, “I think for me it’s the way that you are able to see a person, to see yourself in that person. I’m totally a...

The HBO Max documentary “Lfg” chronicles the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team as they take legal action against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay. The lawsuit was filed in 2019, but what made Oscar-winning filmmakers Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine get involved in the project? “As we started looking into it, there’s decades behind this lawsuit, there’s a lot of history,” they tell Gold Derby in our Meet the Experts: Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). “It’s pretty compelling when you find out what they’re doing. And really what we unveiled was this was a huge David and Goliath story.”

Sean continues, “While it plays out in the press, the underlying aspects of it aren’t really understood. The emotional toll it takes on the players, really the reason they’re doing it, and also the facts themselves are quite disputed...

Award voters are overwhelmed this year by a vast bounty of critically acclaimed documentaries, making this one of the most competitive derbies in recent years. There are so many top contenders that Gold Derby decided to launch our celebrated “Meet the Experts” video series by chatting with the talent behind five major docs.

Watch our senior editor Marcus James Dixon conduct intriguing one-on-one chats with the creators of each doc, then gathers them together for a group discussion about what inspired them to make their films and what were the greatest challenges they faced.

The five documentaries:

“Introducing, Selma Blair” (Rachel Fleit) – A deeply intimate and raw portrait of Selma Blair after she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and tries to slow the progression of her disease.

“Lfg” ( – Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine) – It is a no-holds-barred, inside account of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s...

Seven top documentarians will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Oscar and guild contenders. Each person from the documentaries will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Monday, November 8, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Marcus James Dixon and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series of 17 panels in November and December. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 awards contenders:

“Introducing Selma Blair”: Rachel Fleit

Synopsis: A deeply intimate and raw portrait of Selma Blair after she is diagnosed with...

Netflix announced the final season of “Dear White People” will launch Sept. 22 and be a musical season.

“The only way to move forward is to throw it back,” a teaser for the season previews. From there a cover of Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” kicks into gear.

The teaser also shows the students getting ready to dance, with snapping of hands and getting into formation to perform Jordan’s 1995 hit. There is an Afro-futuristic and 1990s-inspired dance floor, as the students of the fictional Winchester University look back on their time on campus amid their final year.

“Dear White People,” an extension of the film of the same name by Justin Simien, deals with issues of race, class and sexuality on that college campus. Logan Browning’s Sam White hosts a radio show within the series that is also titled “Dear White People” and is where...

Like working women everywhere, the players of the U.S. women’s national soccer team are tired — tired of fighting against structural discrimination.

“It’s like Whac-a-Mole — it’s like whack-a-sexist, basically,” team captain and activist Megan Rapinoe says in the new documentary Lfg, which started streaming yesterday on HBO Max. “Every time you get one, something else pops up…. You have to prove that they did it, and then call them out on it, and then continue to police them, and that’s the exhausting part I think. The...

A handful of players from the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team riff on what the letters Lfg — their rallying cry — stand for exactly. The flow of close-ups in the winning and timely doc “Lfg,” from Jennifer McDonald to Samantha Mewis to Kelley O’Hara to Megan Rapinoe to Becky Sauerbrunn, has the feel of a pre-match kick around. Only, for all their ease, there’s also a focus that epitomizes the four-time World Cup victors.

Now streaming on HBO Max after its Tribeca Festival premiere, directors Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine’s factually compelling, unapologetically smitten film follows the team after they file a lawsuit against their employer, the U.S. Soccer Federation, for equal pay. Along the way (and it’s a long way to pay equity for professional female athletes), the team kicks some balls and some butt on the field, then weathers the coronavirus pandemic,...

Tribeca may have been the first big in-person film event of 2021, but it wasn’t clear what it told us about the year ahead. From anticipated premieres to lower-profile films, ambiguity loomed large.

The 20th edition launched June 9 with the world premiere in all five boroughs of Jon M. Chu’s movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights,” from relaxed lawn chairs on the Oval in Battery Park to the mask-free 91-year-old United Palace in Washington Heights. Mostly, outdoor venues at The Battery and a reopened Pier 76 at the Hudson River Park were the main attractions during the festival, which offered 56 world premieres out of 66 feature titles. Many of them were also available online, along with shorts, VR offerings, podcasts, and conversations with the likes of Gina Prince-Bythewood and Bradley Cooper and his “Nightmare Alley” director Guillermo del Toro.

Needless to say, movies were only part of the equation,...

Tribeca may have been the first big in-person film event of 2021, but it wasn’t clear what it told us about the year ahead. From anticipated premieres to lower-profile films, ambiguity loomed large.

The 20th edition launched June 9 with the world premiere in all five boroughs of Jon M. Chu’s movie of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In the Heights,” from relaxed lawn chairs on the Oval in Battery Park to the mask-free 91-year-old United Palace in Washington Heights. Mostly, outdoor venues at The Battery and a reopened Pier 76 at the Hudson River Park were the main attractions during the festival, which offered 56 world premieres out of 66 feature titles. Many of them were also available online, along with shorts, VR offerings, podcasts, and conversations with the likes of Gina Prince-Bythewood and Bradley Cooper and his “Nightmare Alley” director Guillermo del Toro.

Needless to say, movies were only part of the equation,...

HBO Max has released the official trailer for Lfg, an upcoming documentary about the U.S. women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay. The film is set to premiere on the streaming service on June 24th.

With a whopping four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals won over the past 30 years, the Uswnt is one of the most decorated teams in sports, but as the trailer shows, they’ve consistently been underpaid compared to their counterparts on the U.S. men’s team (who have zero World...

HBO Max is celebrating International Women’s Day by announcing the upcoming documentary Lfg (aka Let’s F*cking Go). The docu from Oscar winners Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine gives a no-holds-barred, inside account of the U.S. women’s national team’s ongoing fight for equal pay as told by Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Sam Mewis among others.

Three months before the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the players filed a class-action, gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, which sets the stage for Lfg. The film interweaves transcendent athletic performances, including a record-breaking World Cup victory in 2019, with the players’ ongoing pursuit for equal pay. Lfg grants viewers unprecedented access to these game-changers as they meet the physical demands and pressures of being some of the world’s top athletes, while showcasing their courage, unflinching spirit and resiliency in an...

HBO Max and CNN Films are teaming on a feature doc about the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s ongoing fight for equal pay.

Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine are behind Lfg, which chronicles the class-action, gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation filed three months before the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was won by the U.S. team. Lfg will feature interviews with players Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara and Sam Mewis, among others.

“This fight is so much bigger than ourselves and the Women’s National Team,” said Rapinoe. “We’re doing ...

HBO Max and CNN Films are teaming on a feature doc about the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s ongoing fight for equal pay.

Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine are behind Lfg, which chronicles the class-action, gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation filed three months before the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was won by the U.S. team. Lfg will feature interviews with players Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara and Sam Mewis, among others.

“This fight is so much bigger than ourselves and the Women’s National Team,” said Rapinoe. “We’re doing ...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...

This morning was like Christmas for TV and Emmy fanatics, and among the nominees this year, as usual, were a slew of former Oscar winners. In the acting categories this year, it was no surprise to see Matthew McConaughey chalked up for his work in HBO's "True Detective" just four months after completing a near run of the movie awards season table that culminated in a Best Actor Oscar win for "Dallas Buyers Club." Will HBO's decision to put the show in the drama series category rather than miniseries hold him back from an Emmy, given the potential bounty of goodwill for Bryan Cranston and the final season of "Breaking Bad?" We'll soon find out. Joining McConaughey in the category was "Usual Suspects" and "American Beauty" star Kevin Spacey, nominated a second-straight year for Netflix's "House of Cards. In the supporting actor ranks, Jon Voight, Oscar winner for 1978's "Coming Home,...

The 25th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards were handed out last night, with Gravity and 12 Years a Slave tying for the guild's top honor, the The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for 'Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures'. Some guilds do not allow for ties to happen, and this is the first time in the PGA's history that it has happened for their biggest award.

Take a look at the rest of the big winners below, which were announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

- Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures) - Producers: Alfonso Cuar&#243n, David Heyman

- 12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures) - Producers: Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt & Dede GardnerAmerican Hustle (Columbia Pictures) - Producers: Megan Ellison, Jon Gordon, Charles Roven, Richard SuckleBlue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics) - Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen...

12 Years A Slave and Gravity have tied at this year’s PGA. With American Hustle taking the SAG ensemble on Saturday night, we have a bonafide Best Picture race on our hands folks! This is the first tie for the top film in Producers Guild Award history.

The PGA split keeps the Oscar race wide open in one of the tightest three-way battles in years, with “American Hustle” still in the game following a week of big showings at the Golden Globes, Oscar nominations and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Tonight the Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced this year’s winning motion picture and television productions at the 25th Annual Producers Guild Awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

David Heyman, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Alfonso Cuaron, Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for Producers Guild/AP Images)

In addition to the competitive awards,...

Sam Berns, the 17-year-old Massachusetts high school student whose life with the rare illness progeria was the subject of the documentary "Life According to Sam," died on Friday, The New York Times reports.Progeria is an extremely rare genetic disorder which results in rapid premature aging. On average, patients typically live until the age of 13. The film depicted Berns' experience with the disease and his parents efforts to find a cure.Directed by Academy Award winners Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, "Life According to Sam" played at festivals, including Sundance, and was broadcast on HBO in October. It is one of the 15 feature documentaries which have been shortlisted for an Academy Award."No matter what I choose to become, I believe that I can change the world," he said in his TEDx talk last year. "And as I’m striving to change the world, I will be happy."...

At the 2013 Sundance Film Festval, the documentary Life According to Sam (shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary) highlighted Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome as it afflicted teenage boy Sam Berns and his medical doctor parents as they attempted to take all the right steps to research, test and implement a cure. For those who don't know, progeria is an extremely rare genetic condition (one in 8 million children get it) that accelerates the aging process in children from birth until their premature death around 13 years old. Sadly, THR reports the charming Sam passed away this past Friday at the age of 17. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix painted an educational and engaging portrait about Sam and progeria with their aforementioned documentary (available on Hbogo). A disease so rare needs champions like this so a cure can be found. As I type this, WordPress doesn't even regard progeria as a real word, so...

Sam Berns, the charming and precocious 17-year-old subject of Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's Oscar-shortlisted documentary feature Life According to Sam -- which could score a best documentary feature Oscar nomination on Thursday morning -- died Friday at his home in Foxborough, Mass., it was announced over the weekend. The cause of his death was complications from Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, or progeria, an extremely rare genetic condition that accelerates the aging process in children starting at birth and generally leads to death around the age of 13. Sam's life with the disease and his parents' heroic race against

read more...

Plenty of groups give out awards for excellence in film and television at the end of every year, but no set of nominations is watched more carefully by Oscar predictors than the picks from the Producers Guild. That’s because year after year their choices end up being a fairly good indicator of which films will also be granted Best Picture nominations when the Academy makes their selections.

The Guild has announced their 2014 nominations today and there aren’t really any major surprises here. All the expected films are present, including 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Her and The Wolf Of Wall Street. Animated films that nabbed nominations are The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Epic, Frozen and Monsters University. Included in the documentary nominations are A Place at the Table, Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story, Life According to Sam, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks...

The Producers Guild of America has announced the nominees for the 25th annual PGA Awards. In the movie category, the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" and the awards hopefuls from the Weinstein Company were ignored -- no "August: Osage County," "Fruitvale Station" (darn!), "Philomena" (another darn), "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," and "Lee Daniels' The Butler." Sorry Harvey and Bob Weinstein!

We'll find out the winners on Jan. 19. Here's the complete list of nominees of the 25th Annual PGA Awards (including TV categories):

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

American Hustle (Columbia Pictures)

Producers: Megan Ellison, Jon Gordon, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle

Blue Jasmine (Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum

Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures)

Producers: Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin

Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features)

Producers: Robbie Brenner, Rachel Winter

Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Producers: Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman

Her (Warner Bros.

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the motion picture and long-form television nominations for the 25th Annual Producers Guild Awards. The categories include: The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures; The Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures; and The David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television. The documentary film category and other television category nominations were already announced by the Guild in late 2013.

All 2014 Producers Guild Award winners will be announced on January 19th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. This year, the Producers Guild will also present special honors to Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures), Robert Iger (Milestone Award), Peter Jackson & Joe Letteri (Vanguard Award), Chuck Lorre (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television), Chris Meledandri (Visionary Award) and Fruitvale Station (Stanley Kramer Award).

The Producers Guild Awards Co-Chairs are Lori McCreary (Invictus,...

The Producers Guild of America has accurately forecast the last six Best Picture Oscar winners, so it was good news for 10 films that were nominated today for the PGA’s Darryl F. Zanuck Award. While Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, and American Hustle were among the films that made the cut, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Butler, and Fruitvale Station did not. Last year, eight of the 10 movies that received nods from the PGA went on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture.

Fruitvale will go home with a special award when the hardware is handed out on Jan. 19. The movie from...

Alex Gibney’s “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks” and Sean Fine’s and Andrea Nix Fine’s “Life According to Sam” are among the nominees for the Producers Guild of America’s 2014 award for documentaries, the PGA announced on Tuesday. The other nominees are “A Place at the Table,” “Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story” and “Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Times of Tim Hetherington.” None of the nominated films were nominated for the top award by the International Documentary Association or the Cinema Eye Honors, the two most prestigious groups that honor.

Which is better, “The United States of Autism” or “The United States of Football?” Which musicians were the subject of the best documentary — background singers, a white rhythm section from Alabama, a Russian punk band, a legendary songwriter from Brooklyn or a Filipino Journey fan who became the band’s lead singer? And which Oscar winners deserve another trip to the podium — Alex Gibney, Jonathan Demme, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine or Roger Ross Williams? Those are some of the questions raised by the formidable list of 151 documentaries that qualified for the Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category.

The Academy has announced this year's field of contending documentary short subject films for the 86th annual Academy Awards. The crop has been trimmed down to eight, from which five nominees will be chosen. Voters from the Academy's documentary branch viewed the 40 eligible entries and submitted their ballots for tabulation. Last year's winner in the category was Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's "Inocente." Previous winners have included "Saving Face" in 2011, "Strangers No More" in 2010 and "Music by Prudence" in 2009. (I always over-think it and get the category wrong. Sigh.) The eight remaining 2013 titles are listed below...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.

The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.

Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.

"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.

The 18th annual Nantucket Film Festival, which focuses on excellence in screenwriting, announced the festival winners today, in addition to the winners of its competitions for best screenplay for film and television. The prestigious Showtime Tony Cox award for best emerging screenwriter went to Destin Daniel Cretton for "Short Term 12." The audience award went to "Life According to Sam," from directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. The Vimeo award for Best Writer/Director went to Ryan Coogler for "Fruitvale Station." The full winners list follows: Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Screenwriting in a Feature Film -- Destin Daniel Cretton ("Short Term 12") Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Screenwriting in a Short Film -- Goran Dukic ("What Do We Have in Our Pockets?") Audience Award for Best Feature -- "Life According to Sam" (directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine) Audience Award for Best Short Film --...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...

The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.

That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.

AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.

Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors

Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”

Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”

Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”

Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”

Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”

Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”

Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”

Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”

Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

Smush Media’s ultramarathon documentary to receive its world premiere at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Desert Runners, produced in association with Salty Features and Spoken Media, follows a diverse cast of non-professional runners as they attempt to complete the four toughest ultramarathon races on Earth.

Directed, produced and edited by Jennifer Steinman, it has been produced by Oscar-winning producer Yael Melamede and Diana Iles Parker.

“Desert Runners is about running, but it is also about so much more,” said Steinman.

“It’s an exploration into the perceived limitations that people place upon themselves, and the mind-set necessary for some people to complete ‘impossible’ challenges.”

Desert Runners follows Steinman’s previous Motherland; which won an Emerging Visions Audience Award at SXSW.

Salty Features co-founder and producer Yael Melamede said: “This is a film that gives viewers a front row seat to see what it really takes – heart and soul – to attempt the extraordinary.”

Melamede’s producer...

Oscar 2014: (Flexible) maximum of two winners in Best Animated Feature Film category (photo: 2013 Best Animated Feature winner Brave) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced another rule change for the 2014 Academy Awards. This latest change affects the Animated Feature Film category. According to the Academy’s press release, from now on there will be "a maximum of two award recipients" for Best Animated Feature Film, one of whom must have a producer credit. And that’s where things get a bit confusing. Despite the "maximum of two" Oscar recipients, "the director and/or key creative individual shall continue to be a recipient, and in the circumstance of a two-person team with shared and equal director credit, a third statuette may be awarded." In other words, it’s a flexible two-person maximum. Last year, at most two individuals were listed per nominated film in the Best Animated...

China Eyes Merger Of TV, Film & Press Watchdogs In a move that could help to streamline China’s clearance or censorship of entertainment content, the government plans to merge the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) and the General Administration of Press and Publication (Gapp). Currently, movie and TV distributors who want to do business in China have to navigate a sea of red tape through Sarft and the merger could help cut that down, but is unlikely to result in wholesale deregulation. Sarft would continue to oversee sensitive content in the media and add the National Copyright Administration under its umbrella. The proposed combination comes as the public is increasingly discontent with a bloated central administration, whose bureaucracy and inefficiency are at odds with a market-oriented economy, The South China Morning Post reported. The proposal, which still needs to be approved, was submitted over the weekend at the National People’s Congress.

The Academy Awards are rarely a platform for independent films, let alone Latino films but this year was different for a young Latina artist named Inocente Izucar. The circumstances of her life, chronicled in the short documentary film Inocente, are heartbreaking. She has suffered physical abuse, chronic homelessness, and the constant fear of deportation since she and her family are undocumented. But, through intimate interviews with Inocente, her calm voice narrating the details of her experiences, it becomes apparent that her optimism is unbreakable. She turns to art, to painting, to soothe her pain.

When it was announced that the film Inocente won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short the directors, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, went up on stage to accept their award and took Inocente with them. In his acceptance speech Sean Fine thanked Inocente, “Most of all, we want to thank this young lady who was homeless just a year ago and now she’s standing in front of all of you.” The win has thrust her into the spotlight. Her website has been flooded with orders for her artwork. She has received countless requests for interviews, offers for college scholarships, and invitations to showcase her work. The next day, she reflected on how to use her newfound celebrity and told her local news station in San Diego that, “I feel honored to be a voice for those who have no voice. I want to be an advocate and inspire kids.”

The process of making the film itself can also serve as an inspiration to indie filmmakers. It is the first time a crowdfunded film has won an Oscar. Last summer, the team behind the film (including John Leguizamo, Executive Producer) set up a Kickstarter page hoping to raise $50,000 for post-production costs and to set up a website. Within a month, and with the help of close to 300 backers they reached their funding goal.

Inocente has been saved by her love of painting. She has been homeless, along with her mother and three brothers, for most of her young life. Drifting from one shelter to the next, sometimes sleeping in a park or living a few months in a tiny apartment before being evicted has left her wondering, “What would it be like to have my own room?” After years of struggling she found Arts, or A Reason to Survive, a San Diego based community arts program for at-risk youth. In the film, we follow her as she prepares for a fundraiser for Arts, an art show for which she has to create 30 paintings over the course of three months.

Her voice carries the film as she narrates the challenges she has faced and as the camera trails the swirls of her paintbrush. Her profound sadness and pain find their way down her face in tears but are wiped away by her boundless ability to bounce back from adversity. She fantasizes about walking on clouds, riding shooting stars, and trees that can talk and then paints her daydreams onto a canvas. She says, “I have a lot of impossible dreams but I still dream them.” It’s her ability to imagine fantastical things and dream about the future that push her forward and drive her desire to paint bright, colorful images. And its her dogged ambition that continues to motivate her. She says, “If you want your dreams to come true you have to make them comes true.” Inocente has done just that having landed on the world’s largest stage, the Academy Awards, after being homeless and undocumented.

Inocente is available for download on iTunes and for free on MTV.com. For more info visit inocentedoc.com. Follow @InocenteDoc on Twitter and Facebook. You can buy Inocente’s artwork on her website.

Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.

Affleck and Hathaway, Lawrence and Day-Lewis may have been the most notable winners on Sunday night, the artists who cemented their Hollywood legacies at the 2013 Academy Awards. But no one’s life has changed more this year from starring in an Oscar-winning movie than Inocente Izucar. The name might not ring a bell, but you’ll remember the acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short, when Inocente’s co-director Sean Fine introduced her to the world. “We want to thank this young lady who was homeless just a year ago and now she’s standing in front of all of you,...

Here's a nice story that totally blind-sided me today. Did you know that Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Fine ("Inocente") is a huge Redskins fan? It goes deeper than that, actually, and this blog post from Stephen Czarda lays out the story, which led to Fine sporting some nifty burgundy and gold socks on the red carpet last night. "[Fine's] journey to Oscar winning journalist…started at the bouncing bleachers of Rfk Stadium," he writes. "His grandfather, Nate Fine, was the team’s official photographer for over half a century. He spent countless hours perfecting each and every photo for Redskins nation. Remember, a majority...

Just in case you missed the show, don't have a facebook account, twitter, a TV, radio, get the paper delivered, or have a smart phone or computer (which is weird since your on this site), here are the winners from the 85th Academy Awards: Best Picture Amour Argo (Winner) Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Lincoln Les Miserables Life of Pi Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty Best Director Ang Lee, Life of Pi (Winner) Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook Michael Haneke, Amour Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Winner) Denzel Washington, Flight Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Best Actress Naomi Watts, The Impossible Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (Winner) Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained (Winner) Philip Seymour Hoffman,...

2013 Oscar Award Winners list released last night. Last night, February 24th, the prestigious 2013,85th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood,California,and most of Hollywood's elite stars and more,showed up to drool all over each other,and give out awards,which is what this post is about,so we won't bore you with who showed up and who wore what. Let's just get straight down to business and tell you who and what ,won what. "Argo" won for Best Motion Picture of the Year. Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained” won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables” won for...

In retrospect it may have felt like a night of obvious winners and very few surprises but only the Brits were spot on with their predictions.

The Oscars are one of the most talked about events of the year - and only British social media users were talking about the right winners of last night's 85th Academy Awards. A full list of winners is included below, along with an infographic.

Over one million social media mentions were analysed over seven days by leading global film communications company Way To Blue which revealed that people in the UK were the only nation to correctly predict all four winners of the big four Awards (Best Director, Film, Actor and Actress).

A huge 81 per cent of British social media users either correctly predicted or wanted Daniel Day Lewis to win his third Oscar for Best Actor, whilst 57 per cent were backing Jennifer Lawrence...