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Last month’s Lifetime film, I am Your Biggest Fan, focused exclusively on an abduction. This month’s pick, The Boy Who Vanished, explores the same kind of crime, albeit with a focus on the aftermath.

Writer Ken Miyamoto tosses the audience in the deep end right from the start. The film opens at night as a teen boy walks up to a payphone and calls the police, identifying himself as kidnapping victim Jack Reese.

It’s not until we’ve gone through the morning routine of Haley (Tegan Moss) and Richard (Matthew Kevin Anderson) that the couple’s connection to Jack becomes evident. They seem mildly overprotective of their young, pre-teen son Tyler (Kingston Goodjohn) and for good reason: when Haley and Richard meet with Detective Doyle (Vincent Ross) at the police station, it is revealed that Jack is their son…and he’s been missing for twelve years.

NewportFilm Outdoors, which hosts screenings of documentaries on the grounds of some of Newport’s most historic estates and outdoor venues, is unveiling its new summer season. The lineup includes films on a wide array of subjects, ranging from the country’s top teenage speech competitors to mountaineer Emily Harrington to music legend Kenny Loggins.

Screenings will be held at Gilded Age mansions such as Rosecliff (the setting for the Robert Redford and Mia Farrow film version of “The Great Gatsby”), as well as Doris Duke’s Rough Point and Fort Adams, home to the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals.

The series kicks off on June 26 at Great Friends Meeting House with Cody Sheehy’s “The Last Dive,” which recently premiered in competition at Tribeca Festival. Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s “Middletown” will close the festival on Aug. 28 at Marble House. “Middletown” is the latest film from the “Boys State...

Mariska Hargitay‘s Jayne Mansfield HBO documentary, My Mom Jayne, will be screened as part of HamptonsFilm’s SummerDocs series.

This year’s installment will kick off with My Mom Jayne on Thursday July 17. The film, Hargitay’s feature directorial debut, had its world premiere at Cannes and is set to screen at New York’s Tribeca Festival in June before its HBO premiere in June.

SummerDocs will also feature a screening of the coming-of-age documentary, Middletown, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss about a group of students and their renegade English teacher who made an investigative documentary that rocked their upstate New York community, on Aug. 29. Both screenings will take place at East Hampton’s Guild Hall and be followed by conversations with HamptonsFilm co-chair Alec Baldwin and artistic director David Nugent.

“Now in its 17th year, our SummerDocs Series continues to spotlight some of the most talked-about...

Exclusive:New York-based producer-financier Closer Media, in Cannes with Oliver Hermanus’s Palme d’Or contender The History Of Sound and Raoul Peck’s Premiere selection Orwell: 2+2=5, is meeting potential partners on the Croisette to assemble a slate fuelled by global auteurs.

Targeting an annual output of three to five films, founder and Chinese real estate billionaire Zhang Xin and president Jonathan King aim to go into production later this year on projects from Tom McCarthy, with whom King made Spotlight while at Participant, and Joseph Cedar, the Israeli filmmaker behind Beaufort and Footnote.

“We want to make more films,...

American Cinematheque’s This Is Not A Fiction Festival is returning for its second season.

The festival launched last year with screenings of Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story, featuring a Jon Bon Jovi Q&a and Morgan Neville’s Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces.

It is now returning with a slew of new premieres, screenings and appearances from the likes of Conan O’Brien, Survivor’s Jeff Probst, Errol Morris and Documentary Now!’s Bill Hader and Fred Armisen.

The second season premiere of Max’s Conan O’Brien Must Go will kick off the event on April 9 with a Q&a with the Oscars host.

The event, which runs through April 17, will also feature a 10th anniversary screening of IFC’s Documentary Now! and Probst is hosting Tribute to Survivor: An Evening with Jeff Probst.

Morris will be honored with a retrospective that includes Gates of Heaven,...

Exclusive: Toronto’s Boat Rocker has hired BBC Studios (Bbcs) exec Brad Horvath to lead its sales biz in the U.S. and Latin America.

Horvath will be Vice President of Content Sales for Boat Rocker Studios, selling scripted and feature docs out of the Canadian company’s L.A. office, while feeding into the company’s wider sales strategy.

Effective immediately, he will report into Jon Rutherford, Boat Rocker Studios’ President of Global Rights, Franchise and Content Strategy.

“As a well-respected executive, with deep industry relationships and strong knowledge of the current marketplace, Brad will be an invaluable resource as we continue growing our global distribution business,” said Rutherford.

Horvath’s move won’t mean relocation as he was based at the BBC’s L.A. office, selling content and overseeing partnerships with networks and streaming platforms. His departure from Bbcs comes after the hire of former Banijay Rights exec Robin Pollok,...

Exclusive: Veteran producer and film executive Jonathan King is joining Zhang Xin at Closer Media in the newly created role of president. With 25 years of experience developing and producing award-winning films, King brings a background shepherding narrative and documentary storytelling to the company’s portfolio.

Launched in 2021 by billionaire entrepreneur Zhang Xin and most recently run by William Horberg, the production and finance company has been growing quickly in the independent space and is leaning more into its narrative side. King’s resume included a slate of more than 50 films over his years at Concordia Studio, Participant, Focus Features and Miramax Films.

Coming in 2025 for Closer Media are Justin Lin’s Last Days, and Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s documentary Middletown, both of which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. New titles this year include Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Conner, recently...

Anora kept up its impressive run to the Oscars on Saturday, adding the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay to its considerable haul. The win for the the Sean Baker film came a week after Anora swept the Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America top prizes, cementing itself as the frontrunner heading into the Academy Awards on March 2.

RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes‘ script forNickel Boys, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, scored for Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGA Awards, which honor the best writing in movies, television, news, and radio.

The key WGA categories of Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay are seen as a bellwether for the impending Academy Awards, though the nominees rarely match up. Scripts produced outside the guild’s collective bargaining agreement or written by a non-union member are deemed ineligible. This year, six...

With last year’s ceremony taking place in the shadow of the 2023 strikes and this year’s function in the aftermath of the Southern California wildfires, the 2025 WGA Awards have a lot of work to do when it comes to lifting the spirits of the entertainment industry. Thankfully, good writing always has.

As is tradition, events for the east and west coast branches of the Writer’s Guild are held concurrently today at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles and the Edison Ballroom in New York City. LA’s affair is hosted by actor/comedian Joel Kim Booster and kicks off at 4:30pm Pt. For those who want to tune in at home, you can watch the west coast soiree via livestream at that time.

While under normal circumstances, tonight’s results wouldn’t necessarily carry much water when it comes to the Oscars, this year’s awards race...

In 1991, Middletown High School teacher Fred Isseks started an elective class that every student wanted to take. “Electronic English” introduced teenagers to new media and emerging art forms, providing them access to camcorders, editing machines, and digital photography. Each day, students filmed music videos, shot horror movies, and hosted talk shows, developing their broadcast and rap skills in an environment that encouraged creativity and the kind of collaboration and critical thinking that other classes couldn’t.

But Isseks wasn’t just overseeing good times and teaching technical skills. Not long after learning about toxic waste spilling into a local landfill, Isseks convinced his students to embark on an environmental video project that would investigate the town’s unreported ecosystem of corruption and neglect. Over the next six years his classes produced four documentaries about the subject, the last one called Garbage, Gangsters, and Greed, a culmination of all their journalistic...

The 22nd edition of the True/False Film Fest, kicking off Feb. 27, will feature a lineup of 30 feature documentaries and 24 short docs. The Columbia, Missouri-based four-day doc film festival will showcase eight Sundance 2025 films, including U.S. documentary prize winner “Seeds,” “Predators,” and “The Dating Game.”

The fest’s lineup includes seven world premieres, one international premiere, and three North American premieres. Fourteen of the True/False feature docus were made by first-time feature directors.

“This year’s films run the gamut when it comes to form, tone, and perspective, but the thing that unites them is their unwavering commitments to their artistic visions,” said True/False artistic director Chloé Trayner. “The lineup is a kaleidoscope of reflections on our modern world, embracing past, present, and future in beautiful, devastating, and hopeful ways. We can’t wait to share these films with our audience soon.”

Since launching in 2004, True/False...

The upstate New York high schoolers at the heart of “Middletown” hint at what the Breakfast Club crew might have been had they shared a purpose beyond sulky rebellion.

In 1991, teacher Fred Isseks created a way for his students to channel both their curiosity and their rightly contrarian impulses in an elective called Electronic English. For the next several years, the students who opted for that class made videos, shot horror shorts and, most significantly, embarked on a project about the local landfill that would become a sharp and heralded piece of investigative journalism. Altogether, classes from 1991 to ’97 made four films. The final was the hour-long “Garbage, Gangsters and Greed.” Political malfeasance, press acquiescence, the Ford Motor Co. and the Genovese crime family among others play their roles in the student exposé of toxic waste dumped into the area landfills.

Filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss know their way into...

At its heart, Sundance is about discovery. Some of our brightest, biggest filmmaking stars — we’re talking Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Ava DuVernay, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lulu Wang, Ryan Coogler, Aubrey Plaza, Catherine Hardwicke, Todd Haynes, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Eggers, the Duplass brothers, Michael B. Jordan, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Olsen, Brie Larson, Lakeith Stanfield, Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and many, many more — first rose to acclaim by bringing their work to Sundance.

In 2025, a year that was long-heralded as one all about new discoveries, that tradition only continued. While this year’s lineup included a number of returning names, like Ira Sachs, Amy Berg, Andrew Ahn, Justin Lin, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Cooper Raiff, Kahlil Joseph, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, David France, Jesse Short Bull, Ryan White, Sophie Hyde, Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Meera Menon, and Clint Bentley, there were also a hefty number of newbies joining those filmmaking ranks.

In 2018, 26-year-old American evangelical missionary John Allen Chau went on the most dangerous mission of his life. He secretly journeyed to North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in an attempt to convert its small population to Christianity, despite their strident insistence on staying disconnected from the rest of the world. As he tried to make contact with the people of the island, he was killed by arrows. His body was never recovered.

Now, Justin Lin’s Last Days seeks out to provide a coherent characterization of the young evangelical. Chau (Sky Yang) is presented in this misaligned attempt at character-based drama as an over-eager obsessive who never knew how to exercise caution or stop proclaiming his passion for Jesus to the world. A passionate evangelical from a comfortable California suburb, he doesn’t appear to have ever had or wanted any other profession than carrying the gospel to...

An engaging documentary about the merit and mechanics of its own form, “Middletown” is set deep in the slacker era of 1991, when, in a small town in upstate New York, a vanguarding high school teacher oversees a student project that uncovers a local government conspiracy. Built mostly of camcorder archival footage from a Middletown high school audiovisual class, this often winning, occasionally rudderless film follows the students as they work together to investigate toxic waste being dumped in a nearby landfill. Worse still, the landfill was situated atop a major regional aquifer, suggesting that much of the district’s drinking water was harmfully contaminated.

The documentary was directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, the filmmaking duo behind the popular documentary mini-franchise “Boys State” (2020) and “Girls State” (2024). But the observational mode of those films is complemented here by a mountain of pristinely archived camcorder footage originally captured by the former Middletown students.

by Abe Friedtanzer

Married filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine are no strangers to the Sundance Film Festival, premiering both Boys State and Girls State in Park City. They also made the documentary The Mission, about missionary John Allen Chau, who is the subject of a narrative film, Last Days, screening this year at Sundance. Moss and McBaine return to a field they know well - education - with a look back at a group of trailblazing student journalists and environmental advocates prepared to take on government systems and the mafia before they even graduated high school...

Girls State was my favorite documentary of Sundance 2024, and I firmly believe that its predecessor, Boys State, is one of the best films Apple TV+ has to offer. Through them, it was clear to see that directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine had a talent for identifying fascinating, inspiring subjects — particularly young ones — and presenting them in compelling and compassionate ways. Needless to say, I had high hopes going into Middletown and am thrilled to report that they have managed a three-peat. There’s no better team in the coming-of-age documentary game right now — and very few on their level in the documentary space in general.

The two opposing poles of the Sundance Film Festival are always the overly familiar and the cloyingly offbeat. Too many films fall at the extremes of either side, yet those in the middle are easily written off as “Sundance films” that cram buzzwords together into their own uniquely twee packaging.

Justin Lin is best known as the filmmaker behind the revitalization of the Fast & Furious franchise, starting with Tokyo Drift and including the fan-favorite Fast Five. However, after departing the franchise, he decided to return to his independent roots with Last Days, a film based on a powerful story. Unfortunately for Lin, this is not a particularly auspicious return to less spectacle-driven fare.

Last Days Review

Last Days is a dramatization of the final days in the life of John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old Christian mercenary who traveled to North Sentinel Island in the hopes of reaching the North Sentinelese — one of the most isolated native tribes in the world. It’s a fascinating story that has tons of articles and books about it, but Last Days seeks to give Chau’s tale the big-screen treatment.

Related Rabbit Trap Sundance Review — Even Dev Patel Can’t Save This Dull Folk Horror

Ultimately,...

Director Justin Lin was last at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 with his breakout indie teen crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow. Twenty-three years later, he is back with yet another indie project, Last Days, and clearly hoping to rekindle the fire that got him attention in the first place. Since 2006’s Tokyo Drift, Lin has been the go-to guy for the Fast & Furious franchise with five of them, most recently Fast 9 in 2019, as well as the most recent big-screen film in another hugely popular franchise, 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.

Now this veteran director, after a few stops and starts and financing woes, has managed to do a film on his own terms again. And the appeal of making it is obvious, not only because it focuses on a young Asian–American young man and his Chinese immigrant father, but because it definitely affords him the opportunity to tell a...

There are times when I come across a great documentary and all I want to do is rave and rave about it and convince everyone else to watch the film. But I must confess – it's always a challenge. How can I convince anyone to watch this time capsule film about high school kids in the 1990s trying out journalism? It's not an easy sell no matter what I say about it. Nonetheless this film needs to be seen and admired and discussed – there's so much to appreciate. Middletown is the latest documentary film creation from the two acclaimed filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss – they're both regulars at Sundance with their doc films Boys States, Girls State, and The Mission previously. They're back again already at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival with another excellent doc. This one really shook me up and has been stuck on my mind ever since. So...

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The one day that stands out, and will forever, from the production of our film Middletown, is the summer day when we travelled upstate to meet our subject Fred Isseks, for the first time, at his home in Middletown, New York. Fred is a former high school teacher. Our documentary is about a ground-breaking […]

The post “We Broke a Cardinal Rule of Documentary Filmmaking” | Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, Middletown first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why? The one day that stands out, and will forever, from the production of our film Middletown, is the summer day when we travelled upstate to meet our subject Fred Isseks, for the first time, at his home in Middletown, New York. Fred is a former high school teacher. Our documentary is about a ground-breaking […]

The post “We Broke a Cardinal Rule of Documentary Filmmaking” | Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, Middletown first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East have chimed in with their selection of the best writing among television and film offerings of 2024. The 2025 WGA Awards nomination announcement was delayed a week due to the devastating fires that hit Los Angeles and scorched more than 40,000 acres. The guild currently plans to stick with its Saturday, February 15th date for the awards ceremony.

Ceremonies will take place in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton and in New York City as the Edison Ballroom.

WGA Awards 2025 Nominees

Original Screenplay

A Real Pain, Written by Jesse Eisenberg; Searchlight Pictures

Anora, Written by Sean Baker; Neon

Challengers, Written by Justin Kuritzkes; Amazon MGM Studios

Civil War, Written by Alex Garland; A24

My Old Ass, Written by Megan Park; Amazon MGM Studios

Adapted Screenplay

A Complete Unknown, Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks, Based on the Book Dylan Goes Electric!

While Hollywood continues to reel from the devastating L.A. wildfires, the WGA is honoring some of the film industry’s best and brightest by announcing the 77th annual Writers Guild Awards nominees. The yearly celebration of excellence in film, TV, new media, news, radio, and promotional writing is always a highlight of the year, as the event brings attention to many hard-working individuals across a broad spectrum of entertainment.

Anora, A Real Pain, Challengers, Civil War, and My Old Ass are among the films nominated for the Original Screenplay category, while shows like The Boys, The Diplomat, Fallout, Mr. & Mr.s Smith, and Shōgun compete for Drama Series excellence.

The WGA plans to announce the winners on February 15 in New York at the Edison Ballroom and in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton.

Here are the nominees for the 77th annual Writers Guild Awards:

Screenplay

Original Screenplay

A Real Pain,...

Hit Man and My Old Ass join awards heavyweights Anora, A Real Pain and Dune: Part Two in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominations announced on Wednesday after being delayed due to the ongoing LA wildfires.

Scroll down for nominations

Challengers and Civil War are included in the original screenplay category, while Wicked, Nickel Boys and A Complete Unknown are in contention for adapted screenplay.

Vying for documentary honours are Jim Henson: Idea Man, Kiss The Future, Martha, and War Game.

Eligibility rules excluded The Brutalist, Conclave,Emilia Perez,All We Imagine As Light,Hard Truths, andThe Outrun.

The...

Anora, A Complete Unknown, Challengers, Hit Man, and Wicked are among the 2025 Writers Guild of America Awards nominees.

In Best Original Screenplay, Anora and Challengers are up against A Real Pain, Civil War, and My Old Ass. The Best Adapted Screenplay lineup features A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, Hit Man, Nickel Boys, and Wicked.

The nominations were announced Wednesday, a week after the guild postponed its scheduled Jan. 9 announcement due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

As previously reported, dozens of scripts — including several top Oscar hopefuls — were ineligible for consideration this year. A screenplay is ineligible if it’s produced outside of the WGA’s collective bargaining agreement or written by a non-union member.

The ineligible adapted scripts were Golden Globe champ Conclave (by Peter Straughan), Emilia Pérez (by Jacques Audiard), I’m Still Here (by Walter Salles), Inside Out 2 (by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein with a...

Despite having to postpone its announcement due to the turmoil currently being faced in Los Angeles as a result of the Southern California wildfires, the Writers Guild of America has now released its nominations for the 2025 WGA Awards.

The Writers Guild of America West (Wgaw) and Writers Guild of America East (Wgae) have revealed nominations for outstanding achievement in screenwriting, television, new media, news, radio/audio, and promotional writing for work released in 2024.

Screenplays for “A Real Pain,” “Anora,” “Challengers,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Wicked,” and “Nickel Boys” were all featured among the nominees. Surprise nods include Glen Powell and Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man,” Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” and Megan Park’s “My Old Ass,” boosting their chances as Oscar voting wraps up.

For those confused as to why some films aren’t represented amongst the nominations, “All We Imagine As Light,” “The Brutalist,” “A Different Man,” “Dídi,” “Hard Truths,...

Anora, Challengers, A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys and Wicked are among the feature film screenplay nominees for the 77th annual Writers Guild Awards, which revealed its nominees Wednesday to honor the year’s best in film, TV, new media, news, radio and promotional writing.

Winners will be announced February 15 during concurrent ceremonies in New York at the Edison Ballroom and Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton.

Today’s nomination comes after the WGA delayed its announcements from last week due to the impact of the devastating wildfires across Los Angeles last week. Several groups delayed their noms announcements in order to extend voting deadlines including the Oscars.

Last year’s WGA Awards saw The Holdovers and American Fiction win the top film awards at the strike-delayed ceremony, which came after the Oscars were handed out and Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction won the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay.

Here’s...

“Anora,” “A Real Pain,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Wicked” and “Nickel Boys” are among the films that have been nominated by the Writers Guild of America in the feature film category, the WGA West and WGA East announced on Wednesday.

In the Original Screenplay category, “Anora” and “A Real Pain” were nominated alongside “Challengers,” “Civil War” and “My Old Ass.” In Adapted Screenplay, “A Complete Unknown,” “Nickel Boys” and “Wicked” will be up against “Dune: Part Two” and “Hit Man.”

Eligibility for the Writers Guild Awards is restricted to screenplays that were written under the guild’s Minimum Basic Agreement or under related agreements from affiliated international guilds. That rule made many of the year’s likeliest Oscar nominees ineligible for Writers Guild nominations, including the original scripts “The Brutalist,” “The Substance,” “Hard Truths,” “September 5” and “All We Imagine as Light,” as well as the adaptations “Conclave,” “Sing Sing,”“Emilia Pérez” and “I’m Still Here.

The 2025 Writers Guild Awards nominations have finally been revealed.

The original screenplay nominees are A Real Pain, Anora, Challengers, Civil War and My Old Ass. The adapted screenplay nominees are A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, Hit Man, Nickel Boys and Wicked.

Top awards contenders The Brutalist, Conclave, Emilia Pérez, Sing Sing and The Substance were not eligible for the WGA Awards’ adapted or original screenplay nominations.

On the TV side, Fallout, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Shogun and The Simpsons all lead with three nominations each, followed by two nominations apiece for The Bear, Bob’s Burgers, English Teacher and Hacks.

The guild was originally set to announce this year’s nominees on Thursday, Jan. 9, but the announcement was delayed twice amid the wildfires that have burned large areas of Los Angeles. The WGA originally set Monday as its new announcement date before again delaying the news “until further notice.” The...

A lot of great movies, actors, and screenplays fall through the cracks during awards season as the Oscars race typically narrows to a handful of expected nominees. That's why it's fun to see what earns attention with some of the other more niche awards bodies. The Writers Guild of America...

Updated with details on documentaries from Elegance Bratton, Amy Berg, Jesse Moss, and Amanda McBaine, and Sally key art. Some of the biggest talents in documentary film will be unveiling new work at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, including Oscar winners Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Davis Guggenheim, and Mstyslav Chernov.

The marquee names in the nonfiction slate extend to the subjects of films – musical great Sly Stone examined in Questlove’s Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius); the late Selena Quintanilla’s story told in a film by Isabel Castro; Actress Marlee Matlin’s trailblazing career explored in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, from director Shoshannah Stern; astronaut Sally Ride’s gravity-defying journey and personal life revealed in Sally, directed by Cristina Costantini.

No Sundance premiere documentary may attract more attention than Pee-wee as Himself, “A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman.

Sundance, as ever, is coming, and fast. Today, the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the 87 feature films and six episodic projects selected for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, with more announcements expected in the coming weeks. While the festival may be moving in 2027, for 2025, it will be out in full force in its traditional home of Park City, Utah.

This year’s lineup includes a number of returning names, including Ira Sachs, Amy Berg, Andrew Ahn, Justin Lin, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Cooper Raiff, Kahlil Joseph, Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, David France, Jesse Short Bull, Ryan White, Sophie Hyde, Jesse Moss & Amanda McBaine, Meera Menon, and Clint Bentley. But there are also a hefty number of newbies joining these ranks, as the 2025 program is composed of 36 of 87 (41 percent) feature film directors who are first-time feature filmmakers. Mostly, new work will be on offer, as the film and episodic slate includes 89 (or 96 percent) world premieres.

Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for its Contenders Film: Documentary, spotlighting eight nonfiction films in the awards-season spotlight. The virtual showcase took place Sunday.

This year’s feature documentaries included a healthy cross-section of titles taking on topics ranging from politics and social justice to war, family, art and music, with creatives and their subjects joining for panel conversations about their projects.

Click here to launch the streaming site.

Movies in this year’s lineup include Abramorama’s America’s Burning, with executive producer Michael Douglas joining the conversation; Amazon MGM Studios’ I Am: Celine Dion and Frida; Boat Rocker and Anonymous Content’s War Game; DailyWire+’s Am I Racist?, the year’s highest-grossing doc; National Geographic Documentary Films’ Sugarcane, Nexico’s The Last Journey, also Sweden’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature; and Together Films’ Mediha.

In addition to the Oscar-winning Douglas, among the...

The documentary War Game films a simulation of a military coup after a disputed presidential election. The 2024 election ended decisively in favor of Donald Trump, who will take office in January. Directors Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber filmed the scenario designed by Vet Voice Foundation CEO Janessa Goldbeck in which a fictional president, not then-candidate Joe Biden, deals with the contested election.

Goldbeck said at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary event that even though the 2024 election was not contested like the 2020 election, experts in both political parties remain concerned about future violence.

“Veterans are particularly targeted for recruitment into extermist groups because of our cross-partisan appeal on both sides of the aisle,” Goldbeck said. “The No. 1 threat to safety and security of Americans for the last several years identified by the Department of Homeland Security has been domestic extremists, with an emphasis on right wing Christian nationalism. I think it’s very important that,...

Jour2Fête has acquired French distribution rights to Max Keegan’s “The Shepherd and the Bear” out of IDFA and is planning to release the film theatrically in 2025.

“The Shepherd and the Bear” will have its world premiere as the closing night film of the 2024 Camden International Film Festival in Maine. The documentary feature had its international premiere at IDFA, where it was nominated for best first feature.

The deal was negotiated by Elizabeth Woodward for Willa and Etienne Ollagnier and Sarah Chazelle for Jour2Fête. Willa is handling international sales on the film. Submarine Entertainment is handling domestic sales.

Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, “The Shepherd and The Bear” explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community. The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage...

Yves Raspaud may be the grumpiest man in Europe.

The shepherd, who tends flocks in a very remote section of the French Pyrénees, mostly communicates in guttural utterances which do not seem to express a favorable view of things. Of late, Raspaud has had a lot to rasp about – namely, a mandate from centers of power far from the Pyrénees who have ordered the re-wilding of bears in the region where the shepherd lives. Not surprisingly, the bears, relocated from Eastern Europe, have demonstrated a robust appetite for his delectable sheep.

The story of Raspaud, and the larger questions raised by the rewilding project, is told in the documentary The Shepherd and the Bear, directed by Max Keegan and produced by Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, and co-produced by Eleonore Voisard. The film is holding its international premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), following a...

The distribution agency Indox has recently secured international rights to two new documentary films. The films are “The Shepherd and the Bear” by director Max Keegan and “There Was, There Was Not” by Emily Mkrtichian. Indox will handle festival distribution rights for both films globally. In addition, the agency will distribute “There Was, There Was Not” in the United Kingdom and Ireland markets.

“The Shepherd and the Bear” examines the relationship between local shepherds and wildlife officials in the French Pyrenees. The region introduced brown bears that had been extinct in the area. This caused tensions as the bears threatened the shepherds’ livestock. The film was produced by Elizabeth Woodward and directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss. It screened at major festivals including Camden International Film Festival and IDFA.

Director Max Keegan said of the partnership, “We are excited to work with Luke to screen ‘The Shepherd and The Bear’ at festivals worldwide.

Exclusive: Former Dogwoof exec Luke Brawley’s specialist non-fiction agency Indox has added two new titles, both from debut directors, to its current slate.

Indox will handle the international festival rights to Max Keegan’s feature The Shepherd and the Bear and rep UK & Ireland on There Was, There Was Not by filmmaker Emily Mkrtichian.

Produced by Elizabeth Woodward (Another Body) alongside directorial duo Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Girls State), The Shepherd and the Bear closed this year’s Camden International Film Festival and will screen next at IDFA. Set in the majestic French Pyrenees, the film addresses the battle between heritage and modernity as the reintroduction of brown bears collides head first with a traditional shepherding community.

“We are delighted to be working with Luke to bring The Shepherd and The Bear to festival audiences across the world,” Keegan said in a statement this morning. “The production of...

Apple TV+’s Girls State and HBO’s Ren Faire scored three nominations apiece to lead all broadcast nominees announced Thursday for the 18th Cinema Eye Honors. The group, which recognizes the year’s outstanding nonfiction and documentary films and TV series, also revealed the 16-film longlist for its annual Audience Choice Prize, won last year by National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, which went on to get nominated for the Documentary Feature Oscar.

The past six winners of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar — this year’s winner 20 Days in Mariupol, Navalny, Summer of Soul, My Octopus Teacher, American Factory and Free Solo — were all Audience Choice Prize nominees. Fans voting will whittle the list to 10 beginning next week, with winners in that and all categories to be announced at an awards ceremony January 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem.

The full list...

Cinema Eye Honors today shared a string of announcements, including the 16 films on its Audience Choice Prize Longlist, the unveiling of this year’s Unforgettables Honorees, nominees in its five Broadcast categories, and its annual Shorts List — spotlighting 11 of the year’s top documentary short films — at its 7th annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Downtown Los Angeles on October 24, 2024.

Spotlighted on the film side are several major Best Documentary Feature contenders including “Will & Harper,” “Black Box Diaries,” and “No Other Land,” which all also factored into the organization’s list of Unforgettables — standout on-camera collaborators from eight feature documentaries. This next ceremony will be the first time those honorees, like Harper Steele, Shiori Ito, and Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham for those respective films, receive a special medallion honoring their contribution to their Cinema Eye-winning films.

Highlights among the Broadcast nominees include filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, nominated for both...

The Apple TV+ documentary “Girls State” and the HBO doc series “Ren Faire” led all projects in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday in Los Angeles.

“Girls State” was nominated in the Broadcast Film category and also for its editing and cinematography. “Ren Faire” was also nominated in those last two categories, as well as for Nonfiction Series.

Other broadcast films and series with multiple nominations included Netflix’s “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Apple’s “The Enfield Poltergeist,” HBO’s “Telemarketers” and National Geographic’s “Photographer.”

At its annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles, the New York-based organization also announced the Audience Choice Award Long List, 16 films that will compete for the audience-voted award; 11 semi-finalists in the short doc category; and “The Unforgettables,” its annual list of the year’s most interesting documentary subjects.

The Audience...

Sony/Eleventh Hour Signs Deal With Hill 5.14

Sony Pictures Television (Spt) and its UK subsidiary, Eleventh Hour Films, have struck a first-look deal with Hill 5.14, a Black female-led scripted TV label led by Tobi Olujinmi. Eleventh Hour will get a first-look option to co-develop and co-produce TV projects from the Hill 5.14 slate, with Spt acting as distributor. Olujinmi launched Hill 5.14 in late 2022, having previously worked as Eleventh Hour, and has gone on to work with writers such as Phoebe Okeowo (The Power), Bella Heesom (Sex Education), Victoria Asare-Archer (Missing You) and Thara Poopla (Sex Education) and on-screen talent such as Weruche Opia (I May Destroy You), Adelayo Adebayo (The Responder) and Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton). “I am beyond thrilled to be working with Sony Pictures and Ehf for the next phase of Hill 5.14’s journey,” said Olujinmi. “It’s the dream team. Their joint expertise, experience and track record of delivering...

“Saturday Night Live” ended Night 1 of the 76th Creative Arts Emmys with the most awards (six), including Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, which went to Liz Patrick, who directed the episode hosted by Ryan Gosling. That episode, which featured the now famous Beavis and Butt-Head sketch, also won hairstyling and makeup. NBC’s sketch-comedy institution — the winningest show in Emmy history with 93 victories — also triumphed in production design, lighting design and technical direction.

“Jim Henson Idea Man” was another big winner Saturday night, picking up four awards. The Disney + documentary directed by Ron Howard about the creator of the Muppets took home Outstanding Documentary or Non-Fiction Special, in addition to trophies for music composition, sound editing and picture editing.

NBC’s 2024 Oscars telecast tied “Jim Henson Idea Man,” as did Netflix’s rapturously reviewed “Blue Eye Samurai” (including previously announced juried awards), which came up tops for animated program,...

Exclusive: The prestigious Camden International Film Festival has announced a surprise addition to its 2024 lineup: The Shepherd and The Bear, a documentary described as a “modern folk tale.”

The film directed by Max Keegan and produced by Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, and Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, will serve as the closing night film for Ciff’s 20th edition. The festival, a program of the Points North Institute, unfolds in the picturesque Central Maine coast towns of Camden and Rockland. [Scroll for the full list of Ciff documentaries].

“Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, The Shepherd and The Bear explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community,” according to a release from Ciff. “The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with tracking the bears. Through its breathtaking cinematography and immersive storytelling,...

Germany’s newest scripted confab, Seriesly Berlin, takes place later this month and the schedule is coming together.

Four-part Prime Video series German Cocaine Cowboy from Beetz Brothers Film Production will be teased, while the streamer’s Country Director for Germany, Christoph Schneider, will appear in a fireside chat that I’ll be moderating to offer insights into content strategy. German Cocaine Cowboy tells the story of a German who became involved in the Cali Cartel in the 1990s.

Also scheduled to appear at Seriesly is Mel Eslyn, the President of Duplass Brothers Productions, which is known for Netflix’s Wild Wild Country and HBO’s Somebody Somewhere. She’ll discuss indie filmmaking in the context of serial production, and will present the European premiere of Penelope, the indie young adult series that premiered at Sundance. Netflix later snagged U.S. rights to the show, which Eslyn co-created with Mark Duplass,...

Directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBain sat down to deep-dive into the political meaning of their new documentary Girls State in their new uInterview.

A follow-up to Moss and McBain’s Boys State, a documentary about an experiment in which 1,100 teenage boys from Texas came together to build a representative government, Girls State features 500 teenage girls as they work to build a democracy together. The film follows a diverse team of young female leaders from a vast variety of backgrounds as they construct a government from the ground up.

Moss explained what drove them to produce a sequel to their 2020 film. “[We] call Girls State a sibling to Boys State, not a sequel, which was a little bit of a way to give ourselves permission to make the film,” he told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “Boys State worked out so well, but we felt like there was unfinished business. We’re...

Sabrina Carpenter's "Taste" music video is filled with iconic movie references to films like Psycho and Ginger Snaps. The video pays homage to cult classics like Death Becomes Her and Jennifer's Body, recreating memorable scenes in a darkly humorous way. Featuring actors like Rohan Campbell and Jenna Ortega, "Taste" weaves together a dark story with Easter eggs from Sabrina Carpenter's past music videos.

Although it's short and sweet, Sabrina Carpenter's "Taste" music video is packed with iconic movie references. This summer, the former Disney Channel actor and Girl Meets World star became a household name thanks to her chart-topping "Espresso" an undeniable and immensely catchy song of the summer. The whimsical earworm is now certified platinum and, despite being released just a few months ago, Carpenter's signature tune. While "Espresso" was accompanied by its own music video, there's no denying that the visuals for "Taste" take things to the next level,...

The indie/arthouse market is showing some breadth as Kneecap has a great debut, CatVidoFest as well, and holdovers like Didi and Sing Sing are kind of raking it in considering how few screens they’re on. As more wide releases and tentpoles show up and take flight a rising tide may be raising indie boats – maybe not as much or as many as distributors hope, but some.

Theater chain CEOs on quarterly earnings calls last week insisted they need all kinds of movies and that’s what they’re getting, including Indian specialty fare that continues to pop at the box office. Daru Na Peenda Hove, a Punjabi film from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, is no. 9 this weekend, Comscore says, grossing $616k on 118 screens.

Kneecap from Sony Pictures Classics led new indie openings with $492.4k on 703 screens. The music biopic is playing arthouses and multiplexes, reaching younger demos, and music...