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It’s shaping up as an award-winning summer for actress-producer Lucy Liu.

On Saturday night Liu received the Rising to the Challenge Award at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, an honor that “recognizes artists who champion storytelling that breaks barriers and broadens representation.”

It wasn’t her only award of the night. Her new drama Rosemead, directed by Eric Lin, won Best Narrative at the 11th edition of the festival chaired by Geena Davis. Liu produced the film and stars as “Irene,” a Chinese immigrant who simultaneously faces a personal health crisis and the alarming descent of her son into schizophrenia.

“Rosemead captures the terrifying realities of motherhood in our contemporary era,” wrote the jury, comprised of filmmaker Marie Jamora (guest artistic director of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women) and filmmaker Bomani J. Story (The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster). “When culture, society, and healthcare break down,...

The Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas has announced additional programming for the 11th annual edition of the event that runs June 16-22.

Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, the most decorated track and field athlete of all time, will participate in the festival’s Shaping the Narrative conversation in partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Ingeborg Initiatives. She Runs the World, a documentary about Felix directed by Perri Peltz and Matthew O’Neill, will screen at Bff on Wednesday, June 18.

The festival describes the film as “an impassioned look at the advocacy of Allyson Felix… At the peak of her career, she faced a life-threatening pregnancy—and a 70% pay cut from her sponsor, exposing a sports industry without maternal protections. But Allyson turned adversity into action, redefining what it means to be a champion and sparking a movement far beyond the track. Felix’s rejection of the status quo...

The Bentonville Film Festival (Bff) has announced their Shaping the Narrative, Geena & Friends participants, Juneteenth and Spotlight programming, jurors and additional panels and events taking place at the 2025 festival, set for June 16-22. The 2025 Bentonville film Festival marks 11 years of amplifying the voices of female, non-binary, Lgbtqia+, Bipoc and people with disabilities in entertainment.

Among the returning programming for 2025 is “Geena & Friends,” featuring Geena Davis and participants including Shohreh Aghdashloo (“The Penguin), Toks Olagundoye (“Frasier”), Alysia Reiner (“The Diplomat”) and Brenda Song (“Running Point”). This year’s event will take place Friday June 20 at the Thaden Theater.

Additionally, in partnership with Variety, Song will be presented with the Variety Virtuoso Award, also on June 20. Bentonville’s “Shaping the Narrative” conversation series will return this year with Olympic track and field champion Allyson Felix participating in a talk presented by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Ingeborg Initiatives.

“We’re...

Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) don’t have it easy in zombie-filled New York City.

One of AMC’s major spinoffs from its flagship undead series, “The Walking Dead: Dead City” finally returns and finds the unlikely allies continuing to fight in a war for control of NYC. The second season of the show looks to be bloodier and more brutal than ever.

Here’s everything you need to know about where and when to tune in for the second season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead: Dead City.”

When does “The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 2 come out?

“The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 2 begins on Sunday, May 4.

How can I watch “The Walking Dead: Dead City” Season 2?

The second season of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” will air on AMC on Sunday nights and will be available to stream on AMC+.

Are episodes released weekly or all at once?...

The Walking Dead: Dead City revitalizes the long-running Walking Dead television empire by bringing the story to the Empire State. Lauren Cohen's Maggie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan have been pushed together once again, this time to save the son of Maggie and Glenn (Rip). The Walking Dead: Dead City makes the most of its character-driven conflict and unique setting and, although the first season is just a short six episodes in length, stands apart as one of the best The Walking Dead stories in years.

Although much of The Walking Dead: Dead City takes place in Manhattan, early episodes introduce what is essentially Maggie's new Hilltop community. One new face in the community, and to The Walking Dead in general, is Nina, played by Pallavi Sastry. Sastry is an actor and producer who, despite admittedly not having a taste for horror, has jumped into The Walking Dead universe with abandon.

AMC’s long-running zombie-verse lurches on with The Walking Dead: Dead City. The spinoff series focuses in on the storied and tense relationship between Maggie and Negan as the pair are forced to work together yet again, years after the events of The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead: Dead City brings the world of The Walking Dead to one of its most fascinating locations yet, as the series explores the world of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan.

Although the limited series owes its existence to the long-running Maggie vs. Negan story, The Walking Dead: Dead City also introduces a cadre of new friends and foes. One such character is Nina, a member of Maggie’s new community played by Pallavi Sastry. During a recent interview about the series, Sastry not only reflected on her experience on The Walking Dead: Dead City, but also shared exciting thoughts about a potential season 2:

Pallavi...

“The Walking Dead” is ready for The Big Apple, although the apple has gone a little rotten. The latest AMC spinoff series “The Walking Dead: Dead City” will premiere this Sunday, June 18, and the series, which marks the first sequel series in multiple “Walking Dead” franchise spinoff series, will see the return of Maggie (played by Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they navigate a post-apocalyptic New York City on a kidnapping rescue mission. “The Walking Dead: Dead City” viewers can watch the series premiere on AMC on Sunday at 10 p.m. Et, or on AMC+ simultaneously. You can watch AMC with a 7-Day Free Trial of Philo. You can also watch with Sling TV, Directv Stream, or YouTube TV.

How to Watch ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ Series Premiere When: Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 10:00 Pm Edt TV: AMC Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Philo.

A Punjabi-American truck driver, struggling with the birth of his first child, finds an undocumented Mexican girl hiding in the trailer. Land of Gold addresses difficult themes with an emotional and artistic approach. The winner of the Tribeca Film Festival's 2021 Untold Stories grand prize takes an unvarnished view of the immigrant experience in America. Racism and the threat of persecution is a constant fear for those desperate to make a living for their families. But that concern doesn't outweigh the boundless opportunities. Land of Gold is a touching film that haunts in the wake of a melancholic finale.

Kiran (Nardeep Khurmi), a first-generation California Sikh, sits annoyed at his wife's baby shower. A heavily pregnant Preeti (Pallavi Sastry) is also perturbed. Her mother-in-law, Raveena (Riti Sachdeva), has invited too many people to the party. Kiran can't handle the pressure of becoming a father and his mother's intrusiveness. He goes outside...

By now we all know that nothing can stop a zombie apocalypse, not even the series finale of "The Walking Dead." The main show may be over after a whopping 11-season run, but the spin-offs are flying fast and furious and the next one up just got a brand new, full-length trailer.

I myself fell off of "The Walking Dead" wagon shortly after Negan was introduced and haven't kept up with it since somewhere around the middle of season 7, but it's unquestionable that "The Walking Dead" is a franchise that fosters a huge fandom. The cast and crew still pack huge halls at conventions and the memes just won't stop making their way onto my For You pages.

"The Walking Dead: Dead City" follows the unlikely duo of Maggie and Negan as they make their way to Manhattan in search of Maggie's kidnapped son, Hershel. Lauren Cohan is once again...

that was made with the support of AT&T and the Tribeca Festival, Nardeep Khurmi’s “Land of Gold” effectively distills the post-apocalyptic horrors of “The Last of Us” into a road movie about two brown Americans trying to survive the long drive across today’s United States.

Instead of traveling West from Boston to Salt Lake City, our reluctant Punjabi hero and his precocious Latina stowaway make their way East from California to Maine; instead of zombified fungus monsters who hunger for human flesh, the film’s surrogate father-daughter duo are forced to navigate 3,000 equally dangerous miles of overeager Ice agents and suspicious white convenience store clerks.

If contrived plotting and clumsy dialogue leave Khurmi’s quasi-neorealist debut feeling almost as fanciful as HBO’s mushroom holocaust, the bond that it forges between a truck driver and his human cargo is held together by a rich tapestry of well-worn truths.

"You don't know what's out there! You don't see what I see." HBO Max has revealed an official trailer for an indie drama titled Land of Gold, made by a filmmaker named Nardeep Khurmi. This first premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival last year, and played at numerous other fests including Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Denver. The very personal story is about a 1st generation Punjabi-American who is working as a trucker, completing one last job before returning to his pregnant wife. When truck driver Kiran hears pounding from inside his shipping container and finds Elena, a young Mexican-American girl, his already tumultuous life takes a drastic turn as he seeks to reunite her with her own family. The film stars writer / director Nardeep Khurmi as Kiran, Caroline Valencia as Elena, Pallavi Sastry, Iqbal Theba, and Riti Sachdev. This actually looks really good! A wholesome & heartfelt story of connection -...

Nardeep Khurmi’s “Land of Gold,” which won AT&T’s Untold Stories award at the Tribeca Film Festival, will have a limited theatrical release on May 5 before premiering May 15 on HBO Max.

The film follows a first-generation Punjabi truck driver and terrified father-to-be who discovers a young Mexican-American girl inside his trailer after taking a last-minute job before his baby is due.

Khurmi wrote, directed and stars in the film opposite Caroline Valencia (“Only Murders in the Building”), Pallavi Sastry (“The Walking Dead: Dead City”), Iqbal Theba (“Glee”), and Riti Sachdeva (“High Maintenance”). Keertana Sastry produced the film alongside Pallavi Sastry and Simon Taufique. It marks Khurmi’s feature directorial debut after helming a variety of shorts (“Unknown Caller”) and episodic TV series (“The Achiever”).

“My goal is to tell underrepresented stories, creating an empathetic space for audiences to connect with people, cultures, and experiences they may know little about,...

Exclusive: SAG Award winner Iqbal Theba has signed on to star in Land of Gold, a drama from writer-director Nardeep Khurmi, which is currently in production in Oklahoma.

Pic centers on Kiren, a first-generation Punjabi trucker and anxious father-to-be, who stumbles across a 10-year-old undocumented Mexican-American named Elena during a cross-country trip. As Kiren helps her to find her way home, the pair connect over a shared history and evolving expectations of what family truly is.

Theba will play Kiren’s father, Gurinder, who is older than his years, losing his memory and dreaming of better days.

Land of Gold was the winner of the $1 million dollar Grand Prize at the 2021 Tribeca/AT&T Untold Stories pitch competition, and will premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, subsequently being distributed by Warner Bros. and HBO Max.

Keertana Sastry is producing the film with Pallavi Sastry and Simon Taufique.

Theba...

Kind Los Angeles, an exclusive cocktail reception benefitting Kids In Need Of Defense (Kind), was hosted by Wilmer Valderrama at the new Bolon Los Angeles showroom and historic Helms Design Center in Culver City on Saturday, August 4.

Elle McLemore , Wilmer Valderrama and Zuri Adele

Credit/Copyright: Nina Prommer/Kind

Kind Los Angeles introduced the La entertainment, design and philanthropic communities to Kind. The event highlighted Kind’s work protecting and defending immigrant children suffering in detention centers during the current border crisis. Kind provides high quality pro bono legal representation to immigrant children separated from their parents and helps to reunite children with their parents and families.

Presented by Bolon and Boom Events, the cocktail party was hosted by actor and activist Wilmer Valderrama who participated in a special presentation with Kind President Wendy Young; Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sonia Nazario; and Alejandra Valdez, a teenage former Kind client originally from El Salvador.

Recently, CBS dropped the new,official synopsis/spoilers for their upcoming "Blue Bloods" episode 15 of season 6. The episode is entitled, "Fresh Start," and it turns out that we're going to see some pretty interesting and dramatic stuff take place as a cop that's gone Awol, becomes the main focus for Baez and Danny. Then we'll also see Erin suffering from a major case of guilt after she lets a guy go that is accused of killing a cop, and more! In the new, 15th episode press release: Erin Is Overwhelmed With Guilt When A Man She Recently Set Free Is Accused Of Killing A Cop, On "Blue Bloods," Friday, Feb. 19. Press release number 2: Erin will end up getting overwhelmed with guilt after a man she set free is accused of killing a cop. Also, Frank and Mayor Poole are going to continue their game of political chicken over Frank's reappointment as commissioner,...