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Exclusive: Documentaries like Blackfish, The Hunting Ground, Rbg, Three Identical Strangers and Oscar-winner Navalny put CNN Films on the map.

It was a map that Amy Entelis, EVP, Talent, CNN Originals and Creative Development had started in 2012 with the launch of the division.

However, a pandemic, corporate changes imposed by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and a changing documentary market led to “somewhat of a hiatus” over the last few years, according to Entelis, who has been with the business for 13 years.

But the unit is hoping to roar back to life with two projects – a Chevy Chase documentary from Marina Zenovich and a cancer documentary from Janet Tobias – signaling a “new phase”.

Its return follows the appointment of former BBC Director General Mark Thompson as CEO and Chairman of CNN in August 2023 and three high-profile acquisitions including Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story involving some of its corporate siblings.

Last February,...

Here at Film Independent, we like our creative visions bold. We like our thinking outside-the-box. We like our filmmakers loud. That’s why we made six of them Amplifiers.

Film Independent is proud to announce and welcome the 2025 Amplifier Fellows. This cohort six of Black or African American filmmakers working as writers, directors and/or producers will each be given an unrestricted grant of $30,000, with the support of Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity.

On top of the grants, the Amplifier Fellowship will include a twelve-month program where Fellows will receive personalized support to propel their selected projects and careers both creatively and strategically as well as customized mentorship pairings with Industry Advisors as well as a Film Independent board member.

Each Fellow will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, and financial and business advisement in partnership with The Jill James.

Past Amplifier Fellows include Contessa Gayles,...

The fourth annual Amplifier Fellowship from Film Independent has unveiled six Fellows receiving $180,000 in cash grants for independent film and TV series.

IndieWire exclusively announces all six, and among them is “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” writer/director Raven Jackson for the fiction series “Scar Tissue.” Jackson made her narrative directorial debut with the 2023 Sundance feature “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”; the film went on to be nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award (for Best First Feature) and a Gotham Award (for Breakthrough Director) with distribution from A24.

“Reservation Dogs” writer/actor Chad Charlie; “Victim/Suspect” and “The Fire That Took Her” producer Tracy Jarrett; and J.M. Harper, who edited the Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries “Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy,” are additionally among the Amplifier Fellowship grant recipients. Berlinale filmmaker Skinner Myers (“Before You Fade Away Into Nothing”) and Doc NYC “40 Under 40” participant producer Jameka Autry received grants as well.

Remembering Gene Wilder is a must-watch documentary capturing the life and career of the legendary actor and comedian. Love, Gilda is a companion piece worth checking out, offering a deeper look into the life of Gilda Radner, Wilder's late wife. Fans of Gene Wilder should definitely watch Love, Gilda for a closer look at the impact Radner had on Wilder's life and career.

Remembering Gene Wilder is a popular new Netflix documentary, and it is a reminder to watch this 6-year-old movie that has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and is now streaming for free. Gene Wilder was one of the most beloved actors of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, with him appearing in classic films like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. Remembering Gene Wilder is causing many fans to look back on the actor's life and career, but this other film pulls this trick off as well.

May has only just arrived, and it’s already heating up at Hulu! Dozens of new titles have moved in for the new month, with some of streamer’s biggest hits landing on the platform during its first weekend, including Season 3 of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s “Welcome to Wrexham” and Season 5 of “The Kardashians,” but Hulu will be adding major titles all month long, from the premiere of the coming-of-age comedy film “Prom Dates” to the streaming debut of last year’s psychological thriller “Eileen.”

Ready to watch? Check out The Streamable’s top picks for this month at Hulu and find out everything coming to the streamer in May!

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Hulu in May 2024? “The Contestant” Premiere | Thursday, May 2

The new documentary turns the lens on “our culture of oversharing” and tells the true...

As one door opens, another one closes, and although Hulu will be adding plenty of titles to keep you busy through October, once the month wraps up, the streamer will be eliminating over 100 series and movies from the platform.

If you’re planning on doing your Halloween binge-watching via Huluween, don’t expect to extend your holiday: many of the horror titles Hulu will be adding for October will be removed from the platform on October 31. All the more reason to celebrate Halloween all month long.

Check out The Streamable’s can’t-miss list of what’s leaving and cross them off your watchlist by the end of the month!

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Hulu in October 2023? “Evil Dead” | Tuesday, Oct. 31

What’s lost in camp is made up for in horror and gore in 2013’s entry into the “Evil Dead” franchise.

For the third year in a row—and fourth in the last five—White Horse Pictures finds itself in the middle of the Emmy horse race.

In 2020, the White Horse production The Apollo, about the legendary performing arts venue in Harlem, earned Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Last year, White Horse’s The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart was nominated for six Emmys, winning one. This year it’s back in contention with Lucy and Desi, Amy Poehler’s documentary about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, which is nominated for half a dozen Emmys—more than any other documentary.

“I’m ecstatic,” says White Horse Pictures partner Jeanne Elfant Festa of the Emmy recognition. She’s a producer of the film, along with Poehler, Mark Monroe and White Horse co-founder and principal Nigel Sinclair. “It’s an honor, it’s a thrill. We have the best...

In today’s film news roundup, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions will close, “Kajillionaire” gets delayed, Ifp Week goes digital, BAFTA Breakthrough is unveiled and the documentary “InstaBand” finds a home.

Closure Announced

Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions has announced that it will be closing at the start of 2021, 23 years after Allen launched the company with his sister Jody Allen.

“This difficult decision was made as part of the ongoing transition after Paul G. Allen’s passing in 2018, and in light of the unprecedented crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Ruth Johnston, general manager, on Wednesday.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, launched Vulcan under the name Clear Blue Sky Productions and produced “Titus,” “Far From Heaven” (which received four Oscar nominations), “Where God Left His Shoes” and “Hard Candy.” With its name change in 2011, Vulcan shifted to social impact entertainment and issues including wildlife and conservation,...

Cutting Edge Group, a leading music financier and services provider for film, TV and advertising, has acquired Lakeshore Records, a top independent soundtrack label.

Their partnership will provide Cutting Edge with an in-house label, while Lakeshore will continue to operate as an independent, doing albums for such high-profile projects as “Marriage Story,” “Moonlight,” “Stranger Things” and “Narcos.”

Cutting Edge COO Tara Finegan cites Lakeshore’s “intensity and passion and desire to get things absolutely right for the fans of soundtrack music, and for the composers and filmmakers who are on the other side, creating this art.”

Says Lakeshore Records President Brian McNelis: “The combining of Cutting Edge and Lakeshore is an extension of the business that we had already been in. We had a working relationship and they were looking to complement their other services.” Lakeshore had been licensing albums from Cutting Edge as far back as 2005, and in...

Adding to an acclaim-filled 2019, “Leaving Neverland” took home the top award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at Saturday night’s Creative Arts Emmys.

The two-part series chronicles the accounts of James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who each allege that as children they were victims of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson. Each of them recount their experiences, explaining the pattern of action and manipulation they say culminated in criminal and predatory action on Jackson’s part.

Accepting the award at Saturday evening’s ceremony was director Dan Reed, who was also nominated in the Documentary/Nonfiction Directing category as well. The film was nominated for three additional awards: Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Other nominees in the category include Chris Smith’s Netflix project “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” HBO’s “Jane Fonda in Five Acts”; “Love, Gilda,” the CNN film on original “Saturday Night Live” cast...

The Primetime Emmy telecast will take place on Sunday night, September 22, but die-hard Emmy connoisseurs know most of the awards are handed out the weekend before. On Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15, the television academy held its Creative Arts Awards, honoring the best behind-the-scenes artists as well as achievements in animation, documentaries, reality TV, variety, short form programming and more. Scroll down for the complete list of nominees and winners on Saturday night.

Don’t look for a “Game of Thrones” stampede to start here. Saturday’s awards focused on achievements like Best Animated Program, Best Documentary Series and Special, and Best Structured and Unstructured Reality Program, to name a few. These races are where RuPaul Charles (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”) might have taken home a fourth Best Reality Host award to tie “Survivor” emcee Jeff Probst for the most ever.

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Courtney Sexton, a seasoned producer and development executive, has been promoted to senior vice president of CNN Films, the network announced on Thursday.

Sexton joined CNN in 2013 and executive produced recent films like “Apollo 11” and “Halston,” which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the Primetime Emmy-nominated documentaries “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” and “Love, Gilda.” Other films she’s been involved with through CNN Films include “Blackfish,” “Steve Jobs: The Man and the Machine,” and “American Jail.”

Sexton was previously an executive at Participant Media for eight years and oversaw films like “An Inconvenient Truth,” which nabbed the best documentary Oscar in 2007, and “Page One: Inside the New York Times” and “Food, Inc.”

Based in Los Angeles, Sexton will report to Amy Entelis, CNN Worldwide’s executive vice president for talent and content distribution.

Read original story Courtney Sexton Promoted to Senior Vice President for CNN...

Last year, two CNN original documentaries, “Rbg” and “Three Identical Strangers,” garnered $14 million and $12 million, respectively, at the box office. The abnormally lofty B.O. numbers made the film arm of the cable news channel an unlikely belle of the nonfiction community. Behind both docs was executive producer and CNN Films vice president, Courtney Sexton.

Much has been made about the theatrical success of “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers” and most recently “Apollo 11,” which grossed just over $9 million. Former HBO docs topper Sheila Nevins used to say that the happiest home for a good doc is on the small screen. How do you feel about the theatrical success of CNN docs?

We are not going to make a film that we don’t think will work on CNN, but when we look at a film we absolutely consider how will it work on other platforms. I don’t think that films...

Thanks to the advocacy of composer Miriam Cutler, the TV Academy finally added a separate category for original documentary scores (series and specials) this season, and she promptly was nominated for both “Rbg” and “Love, Gilda.” It’s a very competitive field with Oscar winner “Free Solo” (Marco Beltrami and Brandon Roberts); “Game of Thrones: The Last Watch” (Hannah Peel); “Hostile Planet” and “Our Planet”, and Cutler couldn’t be more thrilled. “The enthusiasm for the category has been huge with all the submissions and some really good nominees,” she said. “It just opens it up.”

Cutler’s been working as an award-winning doc composer for 25 years, but up until now has never gotten close to winning a Primetime Emmy. “Look what happened: the very first time, two nominations,” she added. “I think it acknowledges how interest in docs has really [grown].”

It took many years of lobbying the TV Academy...

Enquiring minds will want to know that Magnolia Pictures has acquired the North American rights to “Scandalous,” a documentary about tabloid the National Enquirer and its founder Generoso Pope, Jr, the distributor announced Thursday.

Mark Landsman (“Thunder Soul”) directed the documentary that highlights the Enquirer’s impact on journalism, business, culture and politics throughout the years, dating back to how its founder transformed a racing and sporting magazine into a household name for scandal and gossip.

This Is Just a Test Media produced the film, and CNN Films and Agc Studios executive produced. CNN Films will retain North American broadcast rights, while Agc International, the international sales and distribution arm of Agc Studios, will oversee international distribution rights. Magnolia is planning a Nov. 15 theatrical release.

Also Read: Hudson News CEO James Cohen to Buy National Enquirer for $100 Million (Report)

After purchasing the New York Enquirer in the 1950s with funds...

“If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen,” declares acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney about his latest in a long line of films about controversial subjects, the Emmy-nominated HBO film “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.” “I guess I am becoming a little bit more comfortable in the kitchen, but it comes with the territory,” he says. Watch our exclusive video interview with Gibney above.

“The Inventor” explores the scandal surrounding the rise and fall of the blood-testing start-up Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. A self-proclaimed visionary and “disruptor,” Holmes claimed to have found a way to revolutionize the healthcare industry by avoiding the time consuming and expensive process of taking blood and instead taking and testing a pin-prick of blood out of a patient’s finger using her technology. She became an overnight billionaire, following in the footsteps of idols like Steve Jobs,...

Beyoncé and Sara Bareilles could add Emmy trophies to their awards shelves this year, having been nominated in key music categories Tuesday by the Television Academy.

Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” special on Netflix was nominated in six categories, and four of those include a nod for the pop superstar herself. Only one of those is in a music category; she’s nominated for music direction of a variety special alongside co-music director Derek Dixie (a first-time nominee). Her other nods are as a producer, co-director and writer of the special.

Bareilles, nominated last year for her performance as Mary Magdalene in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” was cited this year as co-songwriter of a new song on CBS’s Tony Awards, “This One’s for You.” Her co-host on that show, Josh Groban, shares the nomination and is up for his first Emmy.

They were the most high-profile performers cited by Emmy voters in the seven music categories.

For years, music in documentary and nonfiction programming competed alongside the music for fictional narratives, but this year, music composition for a documentary series or special is getting its own category — the Emmys’ seventh music category overall. It is a change that couldn’t have come soon enough for many veterans in the space.

“So many documentaries are being made,” says composer Miriam Cutler, who lobbied for the change that was approved late last year. “There are so many outlets for them, cable and streaming, and so much more interest.”

Although docu scores won the Emmy three out of the past 12 years they competed against scores for fictional fare, now the projects are on equal footing in their own category and seeing a surge in submissions: 48 scores are competing in nomination-round voting. One of the reasons this new category was approved, Cutler believes, was the Academy’s “growing focus on increasing diversity in our membership.

In today’s TV roundup, Netflix has ordered a docu-series on serial killer Ted Bundy and “Love, Gilda” sets a premiere date on CNN

First Looks

Variety has obtained an exclusive clip of “Into the Okavango,” the upcoming National Geographic film. Premiering Dec. 14 on Nat Geo, the film, six years in the making, follows a group of explorers who encounter the adventure of a lifetime while trying to save the Okavango delta in Botswana.

Greenlights

Netflix has ordered a docu-series on notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” will provide exclusive, never-before-heard interviews from the “Jack the Ripper of the United States,” himself. True crime director and producer Joe Berlinger will direct and executive produce. Justin Wilkes, Jon Doran and Jon Kamen will also executive produce, with Sara Enright producing. RadicalMedia will produce in association with Third Eye Motion Picture Company. The series will launch Jan.

Documentaries have a reputation for being, as Jerry Seinfeld put it at the 2007 Oscars, “incredibly depressing.” But not this year.

While 2018 has seen its share of high-profile political docus, including Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9” and Errol Morris’ “American Dharma,” audiences seem to be in serious need of inspirational non-fiction films that don’t deal directly with politics. The evidence is the abnormally lofty documentary box office numbers over the summer.

At the height of popcorn season, when franchises were taking over multiplexes, Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” about Fred Rogers — the minister and famed children’s TV host — drew in more than $22 million domestically in 14 weeks. That’s the highest amount a documentary has made theatrically since 2013.

“What Mr. Rogers did with his show was to help kids navigate the fear they felt and didn’t understand,” says Neville. “And that’s exactly what he does for adults too.

A total of 166 films have been submitted for consideration in the documentary feature category for the 91st Academy Awards.

Notable titles up for the gold include “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Free Solo” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — which have performed strongly at the box office. Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” has grossed $22.6 million domestically.

Nine of the 10 titles named as finalists for the International Documentary Association’s top feature are on the list, including “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “The Silence of Others,” “United Skates” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that several of the 166 films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying runs. A shortlist of 15 movies will be announced on Dec. 17.

Nominations...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...

A whopping 166 documentary features have been submitted to the academy for consideration at the 2019 Oscars. That is down by four from last year’s record 170 submissions. Among these contenders are all of the highest grossing documentaries of the year including “Free Solo,” “Rbg” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

To winnow the entries down to the 15 semi-finalists that will be announced on December 17, the academy is sending monthly packages of the newly eligible documentary feature screeners to all 400 or so members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. In late November, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

See 2019 Oscars: Foreign-language film entries from A (Afghanistan) to Y (Yemen)

All of these ballots will be collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members will then be...

Women In Entertainment (Wie) announced today Fireside Chats with icons to its fourth annual summit in Los Angeles, on October 11, 2018, at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Over the course of the day, Wie gathers some of the most creative game-changing minds in television, film, and sports for a series of powerful keynotes, thought-provoking panel discussions, and inspirational fireside chats. Founded by two innovative leaders in the entertainment and marketing worlds, Gretchen McCourt and Renee Rossi (Relativity Ventures), Wie is designed to address a range of pivotal and timely issues that affect women. Topics to include: the rise of women’s leadership, addressing our evolving world in the wake of the Me Too movement, how storytelling can impact social change, and empowering the next generation of extraordinary women creatives.

This year’s Wie Summit will be led by a keynote from Geena Davis. Fireside Chats will feature intimate sit-downs with a number...

Women In Entertainment (Wie) announced today that it will host its fourth annual summit in Los Angeles, on October 11, 2018, at the iconic Skirball Cultural Center.

Over the course of the day, Wie will once again gather some of the most creative game-changing minds in television, film, and sports for a series of powerful keynotes, thought-provoking panel discussions, and inspirational fireside chats. Founded by two innovative leaders in the entertainment and marketing worlds Gretchen McCourt and Renee Rossi (Relativity Ventures), Wie is designed to address a range of pivotal and timely issues that affect women. Topics to include: the rise of women’s leadership, addressing our evolving world in the wake of the Me Too movement, how storytelling can impact social change, and empowering the next generation of extraordinary women creatives.

This year DreamWorks Animation Television will present the “She-Ra: Evolution of a Warrior Princess” panel at Wie ahead of it...

Chicago – It’s always something, as the great Gilda Radner often said (through her character Roseanne Roseannadanna), and the documentary “Love, Gilda” is about all her somethings… her childhood, the early comedy days, the rise through “Saturday Night Live” and her succumbing to the dread disease of cancer. She had it all, did it all, but as always “it” could not save her, and eventually us.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

The title refers to her extraordinary archive of letters and journal entries, which chronicle her life and times, but which also coincided with the second wave of feminism and the female comedy force that followed, and Gilda was a force all of her own with the original 1975 cast of “Saturday Night Live.” Often these types of celebrities emerge from their most famous performances, but Gilda had just as fascinating a non-celebrity life before the fame, with a circuitous route to her notoriety. Yep,...

The specialized fall season, rife with awards contenders, launched in earnest this weekend. Two limited openings — “Colette” (Bleecker Street) with Keira Knightley as the legendary writer and western “The Sisters Brothers” (Annapurna), the first English-language film from director Jacques Audiard — notched bigger grosses than any platform debuts since early July.

This weekend also saw three recent high-profile festival titles — Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9,” Dan Fogelman’s “Life Itself,” and Sundance’s “Assassination Nation” — go wide nationally. All three found little interest, but provided more competition for specialized viewers who might otherwise have patronized more limited films.

Continuing the box office uptick for documentaries, three biodocs about creative figures found some initial response, with star-driven “Tea With the Dames” (IFC) showing particular strength in its New York exclusive. “Love, Gilda” (Magnolia) made a national big- city showing, while “Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable” (Greenwich) also saw significant opening interest in New York.

Jack Black’s “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” is ticking to a U.S. opening of $20 million-plus, early estimates showed on Friday.

Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment’s fantasy film is expected to debut at the higher end of estimates, which were projected to be between $18 million and $20 million at 3,500 North American locations. According to some estimates, the film could earn as much as $25 million in its debut.

The adaptation of John Bellairs’ children’s book is set to earn about $7 million on Friday, including the $840,000 it reeled in from Thursday night previews. The preview gross was comparable to another one of Black’s book-to-movie adaptations, “Goosebumps,” which earned $600,000 in late-night shows in October 2015 on its way to a $23.6 million launch.

“House With a Clock in Its Walls” follows 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who goes to live with his goofy uncle (played by Black) in an old...

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival will open with an appropriately New York City-centric film: Lisa D’Apolito’s fully authorized Gilda Radner documentary “Love, Gilda,” billed as an “intimate portrait” of the beloved comedy legend and original “Saturday Night Live” star. The film’s world premiere will open the festival on Wednesday, April 18 with an opening night event at the Beacon Theatre. This year’s festival runs April 18 – 29.

The film is directed and produced by D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate, and the festival touts it as “a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own words and in her own voice.” Radner passed away from cancer in 1989.

The new documentary includes audiotapes, rare home movies, and diary entries from Radner herself, along with interviews with her friends and those inspired by her, including Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong, Chevy Chase,...