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Kvea and Kcet each won eight trophies at the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards to lead the field just like they did at the nomination stage. Telemundo’s Kvea swept all three regularly scheduled newscast categories, morning, daytime and evening. CBS/KCAL9 followed with 4 wins, with ABC7 and Spectrum SportsNet LA tied at 3 and Kmex, Spectrum News 1 and Spectrum SportsNet at 2. The honored telecasts included two tributes to local icon Vin Scully who died last summer.

The ceremony was held Saturday night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel whose workers have been on strike for a new contract. Videos of attendees crossing the picket line to enter the hotel were tweeted by Unite Here Local 11, which called out the TV Academy for holding the event at the struck location. In its criticism of the Academy over the choice of location, the hotel workers union was joined by striking Hollywood...

Kvea is clearly doing something right. The Telemundo-owned Los Angeles station, part of a duopoly with sister NBC outlet Knbc, swept this year’s key newscast categories at the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. The Spanish language station dominated the evening, winning the Emmys for evening (7 p.m. to 12 a.m.), daytime (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and morning (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.) newscasts.

Kvea had won the daytime newscast Emmy last year as well.

Overall, Kvea earned eight L.A. Area Emmy awards this year, tied with local public broadcaster Kcet. (That was also up from Kcet’s haul of six last year.) Given the tie with Kvea, that still preserves Kcet’s streak of this being the seventh year in a row that Kcet won the most.

The Kcbs/Kcal duopoly was next in line, with four wins, while ABC-owned Kabc and cabler Spectrum SportsNet LA were next with three.

Pubcaster Kcet landed 24 nominations to lead the field vying for the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, the Television Academy revealed today, with Spanish-language station Kvea next at 20.

Spectrum News 1 is the only other outlet with double-digit noms, scoring 14. KTLA5 and ABC7 were next with nine and seven, respectively. See the full list of nominees below.

The L.A. Area Emmys honor locally produced programs in 34 categories spanning Crime and Social Issues, Culture and History, the Arts, Human Interest, Sports, the Environment, and Live and Breaking News Coverage. The hardware will be handed out Saturday, July 28, at the Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. Journalist Michaela Pereira will host the ceremony.

Here are the nominees for the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards:

L.A. Local Color

Giant Robot (Artbound) • Kcet

Angela Boisvert, Executive Producer

Juan Devis, Executive Producer

Nic Cha Kim, Producer

Dylan Robertson, Director, Producer

Dennis Nishi,...

Before the onslaught of Emmy campaigning and balloting, which ends on June 26, the Television Academy has announced the nominees for the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. There are a total of 114 nominations over 34 categories, including Entertainment, Sports Series, Culture/History and Human Interest nods.

Kcet led the pack with a total of 24, including nominations for their acclaimed specials “Off the Beaten Path,” “Artbound,” and “The Migrant Kitchen.” Kvea was close behind with a total of 20 nods.

Also Read:

Will Category Hogging Be a Thing of the Past at This Year’s Emmys?

There will be a ceremony on Saturday, July 22 at the Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Wilshire, and will be hosted by Emmy-winning journalist Michaela Pereira (CNN’s “New Day”).

Below is a full list of nominees for the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmys:

L.A. Local Color

Giant Robot (Artbound) • Kcet

Angela Boisvert, Executive Producer

Juan Devis, Executive Producer

Nic Cha Kim,...

Public broadcaster Kcet — part of a PBS duopoly with Koce “PBS SoCal” — is back on top at the Los Angeles Area Emmys. Thanks to locally produced series like “Artbound” and “Broken Bread,” Kcet dominated the L.A. area Emmy nominations, announced Tuesday, with 24.

That’s a return to the top spot among nominees, and up from 15 last year. Cable news outlet Spectrum News 1, which dominated last year’s Emmy nominations, was down to 14 this year (vs. 23 in 2022) — still good enough for third place.

Meanwhile, Telemundo outlet Kvea (part of a duopoly with NBC-owned Knbc) saw a huge surge as well, with 20 nominations — up from just 8 last year. That meant Kvea was not only tops with Spanish outlets, but it was also tops with all commercial broadcasters. That includes its sibling NBC4, just posted just two nominations.

As usual, all stations that enter are immediately nominated in the daily morning newscast (4 a.

The Santa Barbara Film Festival on Thursday revealed the lineup for its 37th edition, which is set to run March 2-12 in-person in its customary spot in the heat of Oscar season.

The festival will kick off with The Phantom of the Open, the Sony Pictures Classics comedy directed by Craig Roberts and starring Mark Rylance in the true story of Maurice Fitcroft, who entered the 1976 British Open despite never having played a round of golf before. Sally Hawkins and Rhys Ifans also star in the BBC Films pic.

The documentary Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over is the closing-night film, with Warwick set to be in attendance.

Overall, the festival in the beach city just north of Los Angeles will present 48 world premieres and 95 U.S. premieres from 54 countries, with a lineup that features films from directors Neil Labute, Ramin Bahrani, François Ozon, Eva Husson and more.

Also...

"Don't you ever think that all of this might come back around...?" Freestyle Digital Media has debuted an official trailer for an indie Los Angeles crime thriller titled Chameleon, the latest feature written / directed by filmmaker Marcus Mizelle. This is dropping on VOD in May without any festival stops before. Chameleon is about two ex-cons who decide to scam L.A. trophy wives and their rich older husbands. But their latest victim, Rebecca, is not who she seems. Rebecca threatens to ruin everything just when Patrick has had a change of heart and is ready to call it quits. Mizelle's Chameleon stars Joel Hogan, Donald Prabatah, Alicia Leigh Willis, Fernanda Hay, Samuel Whitehill, Silvia Kal, and Frederick Keeve. This is a very mysterious trailer that doesn't reveal much, but it does setup stakes and the con at the core of the story. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Marcus Mizelle's Chameleon,...

In today’s film news roundup, Maisie Williams’ “The Owners” and crime thriller “Chameleon” get acquired and Adam Alleca’s sci-fi project “Singular” is in the works at Netflix.

Acquisitions

Rlje Films has acquired the North American rights to the thriller “The Owners,” starring Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”), Jake Curran, Ian Kenny, Andrew Ellis, Sylvester McCoy and Rita Tushingham.

The film is expected to be released in theaters and on VOD and Digital HD in the fall of 2020. Julius Berg made his feature directorial debut with “The Owners” from a script he co-wrote with Matthieu Gompel with the participation of Geoff Cox.

“Coming off the unprecedented success of ‘Game of Thrones,’ we’re excited to work with Maisie Williams and the other talented filmmakers and cast members,” said Mark Ward, Chief Acquisitions Officer at Rlje Films.

The story centers on a group of friends thinking they found an easy...

Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, has acquired North American rights to the crime thriller feature Chameleon. Chameleon will be available to rent and own on DVD and North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms through Freestyle Digital Media on May 19, 2020. Check Out the Trailer:

Chameleon tells the story of two ex-cons who scam L.A. trophy wives and their rich older husbands. Recently released ex-con Patrick is unable to find a legitimate opportunity to get ahead and stumbles back into a life of crime when unpredictable Dolph, whom he owes for protection while in prison, pays him a visit. Patrick and Dolph begin a series of scams that involve seducing and kidnapping Los Angeles trophy wives in order to extort money from their wealthy husbands. But their latest victim, Rebecca, is not who she seems. Rebecca threatens to ruin...

Sales slate includes UK gangster film Mad Frank, graffiti artist drama Burners.

Us-based Apl Film president of global sales Brian Sweet heads to the Efm with worldwide rights on the crime thriller Chameleon and will shop to buyers in Berlin next week.

Vice and If Beale Street Could Talk executive producer Jillian Longnecker is on board the completed project and Marcus Mizelle directed from his screenplay about a struggling ex-con and his unpredictable accomplice who scam superficial trophy wives and their husbands in Los Angeles.

Australia’s Joel Hogan (Open Water 3: Cage Dive), Emmy-nominated Alicia Leigh Willis (General Hospital), Donald Prabatah,...

If you've ever wanted to experience the thrill of swimming with the sharks without the risk of dismemberment, then you might want to take the plunge with Open Water 3: Cage Dive, which is in theaters and available On-Demand and on Digital HD beginning August 11th from Lionsgate. For our latest Q&A feature, we recently caught up with director Gerald Rascionato and star Joel Hogan to discuss the making of their new water-centric movie.

Gerald, the found footage approach to this story makes the viewer feel like they’re swimming with the sharks. How did you go about filming the first-person Pov shots?

Gerald Rascionato: I wanted the film to look authentic, but I made sure to get a Sony hand-cam that had a very good self-stabilizing lens. Even though the film is shot Pov, I didn’t want the footage to look too shaky like in some other found footage movies.

Read More: Gravitas Ventures Acquires Marcus Mizelle's 'Actor For Hire'Ron is someone who lives in Los Angeles and just wants to grow something healthy in his own garden. In this exclusive clip from "Can You Dig This," Ron explains why it is so important to be able to grow healthy food. Directed by Delia Vallot and with John Legend as an executive producer, this film follows the citizens of South La as they create a movement of putting down the guns and picking up the shovels to transform their neighborhoods into urban gardens. The official synopsis reads: "'Can You Dig This' follows the inspirational journeys of four unlikely gardeners, discovering what happens when they put their hands in the soil. This is not a story of science and economics. This is a story of the human spirit, inspiring people everywhere to pick up their shovels and 'plant some shit.

Read More: Gravitas Ventures Acquires Marcus Mizelle's 'Actor For Hire' Wolfe Releasing has just announced its acquisition of "Those People," the debut feature from Joey Kuhn about an Upper East Side gay love triangle. The film will to screen at the NewFest New York Lgbt Film Festival this weekend after having its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival. The movie also earned the audience award for Best First U.S. feature at Outfest. "Those People" chronicles a erotic love triangle through the eyes of a young painter torn between his long-standing infamous best friend and his budding romance with an older pianist from across the globe. The film stars Jonathan Gordon, Jason Ralph, Britt Lower and more. "Writer-director Joey Kuhn is a true original, and 'Those People' is the kind of widely lovable film that audiences just cannot resist," said Wolfe Releasing President Jim Stephens.

Read More: Gravitas Ventures Acquires 'Back to the Future' Documentary 'Back in Time' Gravitas Ventures has acquired "Actor For Hire," a Hollywood satire written and directed by Marcus Mizelle. The official synopsis for the film reads: "'Actor for Hire' tells the tale of Jesse, an aspiring out-of-work actor desperate to be seen, who thinks he's not landing parts because he's bald. After several failed auditions, he decides to pawn his 'craptop' for a cheap wig, and immediately books a small role on a TV pilot. As new opportunities are suddenly presented, keeping up his new wigged persona becomes a hairy business." "A laugh out loud comedy, a big part of 'Actor For Hire' is about the various absurdities and clichés of La and celebrity culture, which I find endlessly interesting," says Mizelle. "I have a fascination with Hollywood culture – status, hierarchy, and contrasts of all sorts...

Plus… Moon River lines-up James Brown doc; Adaptive hires ex-Paramount exec; Chez Upshaw filmmakers to self-distribute; and more.

Submarine has boarded The Immortal Diana Kennedy documentary currently in production. Elizabeth Carroll directs and Submarine will serve as co-producer and has pre-sold all foreign rights (excluding North America) to Dogwoof Films and Canadian rights to Films We Like.

Submarine represents Us rights to the feature about the 92-year-old British cookbook author and world authority on Mexican cuisine.

Shout! Factory is taking its first step into film production and has acquired all rights to the horror-thriller script Fender Bender by Mark Pavia. The project will go through the company’s genre label Scream Factory, Shout! Factory founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos said on Tuesday. Carl W Lucas and Joshua Bunting of EchoWolf Productions will produce and the shoot is scheduled for later this year in New Mexico.

Moon River Studios is lining up a documentary about soul...

In other news, Shout! Factory dips its toes into feature production, Moon River Studios lines up a James Brown doc, Gravitas Ventures picks up Actor For Hire and Adaptive Studios hires Grady Gamble.

Submarine has boarded The Immortal Diana Kennedy documentary currently in production. Elizabeth Carroll directs and Submarine will serve as co-producer and has pre-sold UK rights to Dogwoof Films and Canadian rights to Films We Like.

Submarine represents Us rights to the feature about the 92-year-old British cookbook author and world authority on Mexican cuisine.

Shout! acquires ‘Fender Bender’

Shout! Factory is taking its first step into film production and has acquired all rights to the horror-thriller script Fender Bender by Mark Pavia.

The project will go through the company’s genre label Scream Factory, Shout! Factory founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos said on Tuesday.

Carl W Lucas and Joshua Bunting of EchoWolf Productions will produce and the shoot is scheduled for later...

In other news, Shout! Factory dips its toes into feature production, Moon River Studios lines up a James Brown doc, Gravitas Ventures picks up Actor For Hire and Adaptive Studios hires Grady Gamble.

Submarine has boarded The Immortal Diana Kennedy documentary currently in production. Elizabeth Carroll directs and Submarine will serve as co-producer and has pre-sold UK rights to Dogwoof Films and Canadian rights to Films We Like. Submarine represents Us rights to the feature about the 92-year-old British cookbook author and world authority on Mexican cuisine.

Shout! Factory is taking its first step into film production and has acquired all rights to the horror-thriller script Fender Bender by Mark Pavia. The project will go through the company’s genre label Scream Factory, Shout! Factory founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos said on Tuesday. Carl W Lucas and Joshua Bunting of EchoWolf Productions will produce and the shoot is scheduled for later this year in...