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SeriesFest, the event held in Denver, Colorado, has unveiled its latest pilot competition lineup.

The event, which runs April 29 to May 4, has revealed its Independent Pilot Competition, which features projects across drama, comedy, unscripted digital shorts and late-night.

This year’s crop features titles that star the likes of Mary Steenburgen, Harvey Guillén, Omar Epps, Ann-Margret, Roy Wood Jr., Shari Belafonte, Michael Kosta and Eric Roberts.

Other stars include Tauheed “2 Chainz” Epps, Barry Bostwick, Rutina Wesley, Joanna Leeds, Kate Burton, Jackie Hoffman, Emil Wakim, Vella Lovell, Alysia Reiner, Milana Vayntrub and Martin Kove.

SeriesFest has been the launch pad for over a dozen independent projects that have secured mainstream distribution including Cooper’s Bar, which landed at AMC, Generation Por Que, which was acquired by HBO and Everyone Is Doing Great, picked up by Hulu.

As Deadline covered last year, independent pilots are having a moment.

“We believe this year’s...

Exclusive: During their inaugural Gotham TV Awards ceremony in New York City, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, the group behind the annual film-centric Gotham Awards, named 10 Series Creators to Watch, as a means of recognizing rising series writers and creators with innovative vision and bold, risk-taking new series in development.

Those highlighted included Stephanie Adams-Santos, Abbesi Akhamie, Mithra B. Alavi, Aisha Amin, Elaine Hsieh Chou, Aizzah Fatima, Bat-Sheva Guez, Dallas Rico, Thea Rodgers and Craig T. Williams.

As honorees of The Gotham, the creators will have the opportunity to attend The Gotham Week Project Market, taking place September 30 through October 4 in New York City, where they will have access to the film and media industry as well as opportunities for representation. Selections were made possible thanks to The Gotham’s Expanding Communities partners, including Black Film Space, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Film Shop, Islamic Scholarship Fund, mamafilm, Nalip, Sundance Institute,...

It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.

Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...

Eddie Redmayne, Viola Davis, Lee Jung-jae to participate in on-stage conversations.

TIFF has announced the In Conversation With… series and the talent development programmes and participants.

On-stage conversation participants include Eddie Redmayne, Viola Davis and Lee Jung-jae, while Sarah Gadon is announced as the TIFF Micki Moore Residency.

The festival has also unveiled the 10 Industry Selects roster of acquisition titles. TIFF runs from September 8-1.

In Conversation With…

The In Conversation With… series features Damien Chazelle, the director of La La Land and Whiplash whose December release Babylon is expected to be an awards contender; Viola Davis and Gina Prince-Bythewood,...

List features screenplays by US-Egyptian filmmaker Dina Amer, Nigerian screenwriter Onyinye Egenti and Chinese-us director Eris Qian.

Paris-based talent platform Wscripted has unveiled its second Cannes Screenplay List showcasing a selection of scripts by female and non-binary writers.

This year’s list, which has been created in partnership with streaming service Mubi, features 25-English-language and six French-language feature scripts available for option or financing, by women screenwriters from France, Nigeria North America and the UK.

The selected talents include US-Egyptian filmmaker Dina Amer, Nigerian screenwriter Onyinye Egenti and Chinese-us director Eris Qian.

Amer broke out internationally in 2021 her first feature...

Director Tanya Modini’s Seeing Scout has won a $25,000 grant thanks to advocacy organisation For Film’s Sake and Sydney Film Festival.

It was one of six Australian projects selected for For Film Sake’s Attagirl, the development lab for feature films by female and non-binary creative teams.

Co-written with producer, writer and editor Stephanie Dower, Seeing Scout is billed as ‘a coming-of-age drama on wheels’, and follows a young woman with physical disability who embarks on a sexual relationship with local footy hero.

Along with Canadian director Sam Coyle’s White River, it wins the production prize for the most ‘market ready’ project from the Attagirl initiative.

The prizes are designed to incentivise further investment from public, private and equity financiers with a hope that films and teams will reach production and release faster than they otherwise would.

“We began the lab with an outline of an idea and...

Film lab includes projects from the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Thirteen international projects have been selected for the inaugural development lab Attagirl, designed to support female and non-binary filmmakers.

It is an initiative of Australia’s For FIlm’s Sake and is supported by Screen Australia’s Enterprise Business and Ideas programme, advocacy organisation For Film’s Sake, and the Toronto and Sydney International Film Festivals.

The first of three workshops in a 10-month programme will take place this week. It will include projects spanning the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Sweden and New Zealand and will include creatives from Mexico and Trinidad.

In today’s Global Bulletin, U.K. film bodies respond to AMPAS’ new diversity requirements, ITV details its upcoming virtual TV festival, For Film’s Sake announces the 13 projects selected for its inaugural Attagirl lab, Mexico’s Pixelatl and Cartoon Network Latin America announce their third annual Girl Power winner, Switzerland’s Zurich Film Festival reveals its 2020 Hashtag sidebar, and full casting for Canadian comedy series “Lady Dicks” is confirmed.

Representation

The U.K.’s leading film bodies have weighed in on the Oscars’ recently announced diversity requirements. On Tuesday, following several years of a membership drive designed to increase diverse representation, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced new eligibility standards requiring enhanced diversity in both above and below the line talent.

“We welcome AMPAS’s announcement of representation and inclusion standards inspired by our own BFI Diversity Standards,” said British Film Institute chief executive Ben Roberts.

Directors Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) and Patricia Rozema (“I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”) and producer Cassian Elwes will serve as mentors at the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2019 Tiff Filmmaker Lab, Tiff organizers announced on Wednesday.

The festival also unveiled its lineup of Canadian films, which will include new work directed by Atom Egoyan, Louise Archambault, Ellen Page and Amy Jo Johnson, and starring Felicity Huffman, Imogen Poots and David Cronenberg, among others. And it announced participants in industry programs and the Canadian honorees in its annual Tiff Rising Stars showcase.

The films were spread across eight different sections of the Toronto Film Festival, some of which have yet to announce their non-Canadian programming.

Also Read: Mister Rogers, the Joker and Judy Garland Are All Headed to Toronto Film Festival

The Canadian galas, all previously announced, are the opening-night documentary “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band,” Semi...

ThelmaA selection of films from the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Sebastián Lelio, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Darren Aronofsky, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo Del Toro, Joachim Trier, Wim Wenders, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Ladybird (Greta Gerwig)Closing Night: Sheikh Jackson (Amr Salama)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton)Bpm (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)The Brawler (Anurag Kashyap)The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)Catch the Wind (Gaël Morel)The Children Act (Richard Eyre)The Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie)The Guardians (Xavier Beauvois)Hostiles (Scott Cooper)The Hungry (Bornila Chatterjee)I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Omerta (Hansal Mehta)Plonger (Mélanie Laurent)The Price of Success (Teddy Lussi-Modeste)Professor Marston & the Wonder Women...