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A new political thriller starring Robert De Niro called Zero Day comes from the showrunner of the Netflix series Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, True Story. Eric Newman teams with Noah Oppenheim and Michael Schmidt for a six-episode mini-series that dives into the political landscape and will surely cause similarities to our current climate. The star-studded ensemble and thrilling writing put audiences in the front seat of a wild and crazy ride where you are guessing what’s next.

Zero Day Review

Zero Day asks the question, “How do we find truth in a world in crisis” when outside forces are trying to tear us apart? Current and former presidents attempt to team up to combat conspiracy theories and outside noise to calm the nation down. De Niro stars alongside Jesse Plemons, Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, and Connie Britton.

Last year, I remember watching Alex Garland’s Civil War and understanding the...

"Sir, is there something going on here that you're not telling me about?" Netflix has debuted a full official trailer for an upcoming thriller series called Zero Day, debuting to watch on Netflix streaming starting in late February. Ready to learn more? This highly anticipated Netflix conspiracy series is about discovering the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack (known as "Zero Day") that has caused chaos in the US. In the midst of crisis: how can we find the truth when it seems that the world is being destroyed by uncontrollable forces? Also, to what extent are conspiracy theories our own inventions or products of our imagination? For those curious to learn more, you can watch Alex Gibney's doc film also titled Zero Days about the realities of a cyber attack like this. The series features Robert De Niro as a former President, Angela Bassett as the current President,...

Robert De Niro is known as one of the most legendary movie actors to ever grace the big screen, but he continues to make his presence known on television. The Irishman star returns to Netflix next year in a brand-new limited series that will see De Niro portray a former President of the United States amidst a devastating cyberattack that shakes the core of the nation. The upcoming limited series tackles the aftermath of a plausible event in a world that feels strikingly close to ours, with a conspiracy that reshapes the very fabric of national security.

The official trailer for Zero Day positions De Niro as the man in charge of overseeing a widespread, invasive search for the perpetrators of the fictional attack. Thousands of people died as a result of the event, from crashed planes to other technology-based disasters. Meanwhile, the series will cover what discovering the truth...

"People will believe what they need to believe. The truth is the truth, but it's not always the most important thing." Netflix has revealed a first look teaser trailer for an intense new upcoming thriller series called Zero Day, debuting to watch on Netflix streaming starting in late February (this teaser will also air during NFL games). This highly anticipated Netflix conspiracy series is about finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack (known as "Zero Day") that has caused chaos around the country. In the midst of crisis: how can we discover the truth when it seems that the world is being destroyed by uncontrollable forces? Also, to what extent are conspiracy theories our own inventions or products of our imagination? For those curious to learn more, you can watch Alex Gibney's doc film also titled Zero Days about the realities of a cyber attack like this. Starring...

Documentary fans have a lot to be excited about this month on HBO and Max. April begins with the premiere of The Synanon Fix, a docuseries that follows the rise and fall of the cult-like drug rehabilitation program Synanon. The documentary Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion takes a deep-dive into the controversial “one size fits most” clothing brand Brandy Mellville and the impact of fast fashion on the planet.

An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th looks at the surge of political violence and anti-government sentiment that led to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, and the effects still felt nearly 30 years later. HBO is also returning with a second part to their popular docuseries The Jinx, with filmmakers continuing their investigation of Robert Durst.

But if documentaries aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty of popular films hitting Max in April, like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,...

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki continues his investigation of convicted murderer Robert Durst in The Jinx – Part Two, a six-episode documentary series premiering on Max on April 21, 2024. The streaming service’s April lineup also includes the seven-episode limited series The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and starring Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr in multiple roles.

Comedian Alex Edelman hosts a brand new comedy special, and Conan O’Brien visits favorite fans from his podcast series in the four-episode unscripted series Conan O’Brien Must Go. The documentary series The Synanon Fix exploring the drug rehabilitation program joins Max’s lineup on April 1st. And the streaming service has set April premiere dates for the documentaries Brandy Hellville & The Cult Of Fast Fashion and An American Bombing: The Road To April 19th.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In April 2024

April 1

American Renegades (2018)

Basquiat (1996)

Black Swan (2010)

Body of Lies (2008)

Bridget Jones’s Diary...

Exclusive: Prolific TV and film writer-creator Kevin Williamson has set up shop at Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Under an overall deal for Williamson and his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment, which was finalized in December, he already has four high-profile projects in development at the TV studio that run the gamut from thriller to murder mystery to a family crime drama.

They include Rear Window, a series reimagining of the Hitchcock classic, which has been set up at Peacock. The It Girl, based on Ruth Ware’s book, with Sarah L. Thompson co-writing alongside Williamson, and The Waterfront, based on an original concept, have been taken out to the marketplace, I hear. The fourth project, The Game, based on the David Fincher film with the movie’s original writers John Brancato & Michael Ferris executive producing, is in internal development.

“Kevin is a prolific and brilliant creator with...

New year, new Hulu! As the streamer welcomes in dozens of new and classic titles this January, including its new whodunit series “Death and Other Details,” it will first have to say goodbye to the old.

A few titles have already been removed from the library so far this month, including the hit samurai thriller “13 Assassins,” but over the next few weeks of January, dozens more titles will be leaving the platform, including the beloved baseball coming-of-age comedy “The Sandlot,” several Christmas classics, and the 1996 box office buster “Twister.”

Don’t miss your last chance to watch— fill up your watch list with The Streamable’s top picks (and everything else) for what’s leaving Hulu this month!

30-Day Free Trial $7.99+ / month hulu.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Leaving Hulu in January 2024? “Apollo 11” | Wednesday, Jan. 31

“Dinosaur 13” director Todd Douglas Miller picks another number with “Apollo 11,...

Exclusive: Bestselling author Ruth Ware’s latest novel, Zero Days, has been optioned by Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group. According to sources, Uis landed the book in a bidding, with 10 parties — both U.S. and UK — pursuing the title, which will be published June 20 by Gallery/Scout Press and July 6 by Simon & Schuster UK.

In Zero Days, hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their main suspect—her.

Ware has authored seven previous psychological crime novels, which have sold more than six million copies and have been translated into 40 languages. Three of the books are under screen option: The Woman in Cabin 10, In a Dark,...

Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for directing “The Hurt Locker,” based on Mark Boal’s screenplay. Boal, a journalist, was embedded in Iraq with a bomb squad for two weeks in 2004. The film, streaming on Plex June 1, is a portrait of men in combat, the Iraq War, and the adrenaline that drives some soldiers to succeed at war, but fail at peace. “The Hurt Locker,” shot in a pseudo-documentary style, won additional Oscars for writing, editing, sound editing, and sound. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pearce star.

Watch the trailer for “The Hurt Locker”:

Also coming to the streamer in June is “Drowning Mona,” starring Bette Midler as a hateful woman despised by her entire town. When her car ends up in the river, the police chief (Danny DeVito) immediately suspects foul play. The only problem? Everyone is a suspect as Jamie Lee Curtis,...

The month of April for Hulu is jam-packed with TV and film goodies, from Adam Sandler’s 1999 comedy “Big Daddy” to Fox’s hit sitcom “New Girl.”

On top of Hulu’s rollout of a new interface, it’s also adding some major film and TV titles to its platform. Some of the highlights that set off the first day of April include “American Psycho,” “Shrek” and its sequel “Shrek 2,” plus the Tim Story-directed “Think Like a Man.”

Anime series will be all the rage on Hulu with the dubbed version of the new popular series “Chainsaw Man” arriving, along with “Spy x Family” and “Black Clover.” If you’re looking for something a little bit more kid-friendly, the family can al enjoy “Despicable Me” and “Despicable 2,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” and “Nanny McPhee.” For the lovers and heartless romantics, “Dear John” and “Date Night...

Even if you’ve signed up for every streaming service out there, it can feel monumental when a title moves from one to another. In April, Netflix mainstay “New Girl” moves to Hulu; still streaming, but not where fans are used to finding it — like rearranging the furniture in your apartment and waking up surprised every day that the couch is over there now.

But what’s important is that “New Girl” lives on, now joining Hulu’s own TV and movie library and originals from Freeform, FX, National Geographic, and more. Later in the month, Leila Gerstein’s “Saint X” — based on the novel by Alexis Schaitkin — premieres with three episodes, recounting the story of a young girl found dead during a family vacation and the sister piecing it together years later. Alycia Debnam-Carey, Josh Bonzie, West Duchovny, Jayden Elijah, Bre Francis, Kenlee Anaya Townsend, Betsy Brandt, and Michael Park star.

The life and remarkable career of WNBA star Sue Bird will be the subject of a new documentary from Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Jay Ellis’s Black Bar Mitzvah.

“Sue Bird: In the Clutch” is underway, capturing the final chapter of her 19-year career in basketball. Promising full access, the film will document her record-setting fifth Olympic gold medal, the 2022 WNBA season, life with fiancé Megan Rapinoe, advocating for social justice and her post-retirement plans.

“We’re excited to give this once-in-a-generation athlete the send-off she deserves,” said Gibney. “It’s an amazing opportunity to explore the impact of Sue and the wider WNBA — not just on the game of basketball, but on social justice, activism and women in sports.”

The project will incorporate never-before-seen footage from her 2021 season and the Tokyo Olympics. Interview subjects will include Rapinoe, Diana Taurasi, Bird’s teammates on the Seattle Storm,...

LeBron James might be out of the NBA playoffs, but he’s still angling to be a big part of the summer entertainment season. That’s because HBO Max’s list of new releases for July 2021 is highlighted by a very special sequel.

Space Jam: A New Legacy premieres on July 16. will find LeBron teaming up with the Looney Tunes in a Warner Bros. IP-extravaganza. Can ‘Bron and the Looney Tunes beat the Goon Squad before Warner Bros.’ server steals LeBron “Bronny” Jr.’s soul (or something)? Let’s hope so. The two other major WB releases this month, No Sudden Move and Tom and Jerry in New York, both come to HBO Max on July 1.

HBO Max is also bringing some fun TV shows to its stream this month. The long-awaited Gossip Girl revival premieres on July 8. That will be followed by Mike White’s satirical limited series The White Lotus...

The paranoia and cynicism of Carol Reed’s The Third Man fired Le Carré’s imagination, while Tomas Alfredson updated Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the Iraq war era

A life in picturesTinker, tailor, writer, spy: the many lives of John le Carré, in his own wordsInterview: ‘My ties to England have loosened’

I met John le Carré once, in 2016; appropriately enough, it was in Berlin where the TV adaptation of The Night Manager was getting a showcase premiere at the film festival — and the city where, as an MI6 agent in 1961 he had witnessed the construction of the Wall, which inspired his breakthrough novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He was instantly charming, eloquent and inexhaustibly curious and knowledgeable about the movies showing in Berlin that year, especially Alex Gibney’s Zero Days, a documentary about cyberwarfare. While always very relaxed, he had that alpha-donnish skill...

“I was running a fever of rage over how badly the [Covid-19] response was being handled by the federal government,” says the Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney on The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast as we discuss what inspired his latest documentary, Totally Under Control, which he directed with his Jigsaw Productions colleagues Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger.

The trio began work on the film last spring with the goal of determining if the deadly mistakes of President Donald Trump and his administration had been avoidable, and then sharing their findings with the world before the Nov. 3 presidential election. Says Gibney, “It felt like if that was true, and we’re in an election year, then this is important information for voters to have.”

* * *

You can listen to the episode here. The article continues below.

Past guests include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, Meryl Streep,...

Alex Gibney is driving from his home in New Jersey to Philadelphia Stadium for Neon’s drive-in premiere of “Totally Under Control,” his hard-hitting exposé about how President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to Covid-19 cost the lives of over 210,000 Americans. Eight months ago, this movie wasn’t even a notion; now it’s one of three non-fiction projects from the Oscar-winning documentarian (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) on multiple platforms this fall. “Totally Under Control” is available On Demand October 13 and hits Hulu October 20.

The pandemic has done little to slow down Gibney and his prolific Jigsaw Prods. His HBO documentary “Crazy, Not Insane” was supposed to debut at SXSW; instead, his intimate profile of forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis who diagnosed high-profile killers with multiple personality disorders debuted at Venice and will finally reach HBO in November.

Gibney also completed “Agents of Chaos,” his two-part, four-hour...

Alex Gibney is driving from his home in New Jersey to Philadelphia Stadium for Neon’s drive-in premiere of “Totally Under Control,” his hard-hitting exposé about how President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to Covid-19 cost the lives of over 210,000 Americans. Eight months ago, this movie wasn’t even a notion; now it’s one of three non-fiction projects from the Oscar-winning documentarian (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) on multiple platforms this fall. “Totally Under Control” is available On Demand October 13 and hits Hulu October 20.

The pandemic has done little to slow down Gibney and his prolific Jigsaw Prods. His HBO documentary “Crazy, Not Insane” was supposed to debut at SXSW; instead, his intimate profile of forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis who diagnosed high-profile killers with multiple personality disorders debuted at Venice and will finally reach HBO in November.

Gibney also completed “Agents of Chaos,” his two-part, four-hour...

Alex Gibney, the Emmy and Oscar winning documentary filmmaker who has previously investigated everything from Scientology to Theranos, will pull back the curtain on Russian collusion in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Dubbed “Agents of Chaos,” the two-part film will debut on HBO on Sept. 23 in advance of the 2020 presidential contest. The second installment will air on Sept. 24. Gibney previously collaborated with HBO on the likes of “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and “The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley.”

“The was a Herculean effort that was reminiscent of the cleaning of the Augean stables in terms of difficulty,” Gibney told Variety. “While a lot has been written about certain aspects of this story, much of it was done in such a superficial way that it was hard for people to penetrate. We felt there was value in presenting this as one all-encompassing narrative.”

The resulting film...

A new documentary with the working title of House of Saud, helmed by filmmaker Alex Gibney and author Lawrence Wright will examine the United States’ tenuous relationship with Saudi Arabia. Showtime announced Monday that the film was in development but did not announce a projected premiere date.

The film will attempt to make sense of how the White House works with the Saudi royal family, beginning with the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the way the Trump administration seemed to walked on eggshells when it came to implicating Saudis.

The Magnolia Pictures-Participant Media documentary Rbg already has lured crowds with targeted buyout screenings and looks ready for a strong debut as it begins its regular run in theaters this weekend. Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s Sundance premiere about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is opening Friday in nearly three dozen locations, ready to peel off some audiences looking for an alternative to the second weekend of Avengers: Infinity War and other big holdovers. New limited releases this weekend also include foreign-language fare. Music Box Films is opening The Guardians, a drama starring Nathalie Baye from French filmmaker Xavier Beauvois that begins its stateside run with an exclusive showing in New York this weekend before heading to select markets. And KimStim is opening Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White at New York’s Metrograph before heading to other cities. The film was the only feature...

Composer Will Bates knew from the get-go that scoring “The Looming Tower” would be a daunting task. “It seemed kind of clear that of all the things that I’ve worked on, this was going to be the largest in terms of the scope of work and the level of detail that it really needed,” he reveals. Based on Lawrence Wright‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book, this Hulu limited series starring Jeff Daniels, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg and Bill Camp recounts the events leading up to the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Bates knew he had his work cut out for him because 9/11 is “something that, to some extent, all of us have lived through.”

See Jeff Daniels (‘The Looming Tower’) wonders, did we learn anything from 9/11, ‘or are we more divided than ever?’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Upon reading the book, Bates was struck by “how huge this subject is.” The story takes us around the globe,...

Hey, do you need another incredibly infuriating thing to add to your life? Great! Because Netflix's new documentary series Dirty Money just released its first incredibly frustrating trailer (unless you belong to the 1%, of course). Alex Gibney, the Oscar-winning director behind such explosive documentaries as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Zero Days, and Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief, to name just a few, is the mind behind this exploration of corporate greed, corruption, and the legal loopholes that keep the immoral and the amoral out of jail and in the black. This …...

Though a veil of secrecy still hangs over the subject of Alex Gibney’s timely Showtime documentary, Zero Days, it is now generally acknowledged that in the mid-to-late 2000s, the United States and Israel jointly developed Stuxnet, one of the most elegant, ingenious and terrifying pieces of malware ever created, which was used to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Stuxnet was designed as an invisible tool for covert operations, which would aid in sabotaging Iran’s nuclear…...

Though a veil of secrecy still hangs over the subject of Alex Gibney’s timely Showtime documentary, Zero Days, it is now generally acknowledged that in the mid-to-late 2000s, the United States and Israel jointly developed Stuxnet, one of the most elegant, ingenious and terrifying pieces of malware ever created, which was used to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Stuxnet was designed as an invisible tool for covert operations, which would aid in sabotaging Iran’s nuclear…...

04.27.17: This list is now final. While I may in the future see additional films that were released in the awards year of 2016, no more films will be added to this list. (I may add links to reviews of films listed here.)

This ranking includes only new theatrical releases viewed for the awards year of 2016 (for eligibility for the Academy Awards and the Ofcs and Awfj awards); some films released in the UK without Us releases (and so ineligible for those awards this year) may also be included, for my own bookkeeping purposes. Links go to my review. Numbers after each entry are Date First Viewed/NYC Release Date/London Release Date; year is 2016 unless otherwise noted.

worth paying multiplex prices for

[5 stars]

Arrival (10.10/11.11/11.10)

La La Land (10.07/12.09/01.13.17)

A Monster Calls (10.06/12.23/01.01.17)

The Lobster (07.16.15/05.13/10.16.15)

Zootropolis (aka Zootopia) (02.22/03.04/03.25)

A Bigger Splash (10.08.15/05.04/02.12)

Miss Sloane (11.20/11.25/05.12.17)

London Road (06.03.15/09.09/06.12.15)

The Girl with All the Gifts (07.26/02.24.17/09.23)

I, Daniel Blake...

It’s a good day for pretty much everybody in the documentary business, as the winners of this year’s batch of documentary Peabody Awards come from a wide array of studios and filmmakers. This comes from Deadline, which reports that the biggest names in the list are Ava DuVernay’s American criminal-justice system deconstruction 13th, Espn’s Oscar-winning O.J. Simpson film O.J.: Made In America, and Alex Gibney’s cyber warfare-based political thriller Zero Days. There are also two Frontline specials from PBS, two non-Frontline specials from PBS, HBO’s Mavis Staples doc Mavis!, and Audrie & Daisy and Hip-Hop Evolution from Netflix.

The winners of the other entertainment Peabody Awards will be announced later this week, and you can see the full list of documentary winners below.

2017 Peabody Award Documentary Winners

Audrie & Daisy

4.1 Miles

Frontline: “Confronting Isis”

Frontline: “Exodus”

Hip-Hop Evolution ...

Oscar winner O.J.: Made In America, Ava DuVernay’s criminal justice docu 13th and Alex Gibney’s cyber warfare pic Zero Days are among the 12 winners of Peabody Awards for documentaries. PBS scored four of the 12 spots, with Frontline pieces on Isis and the refugee crisis, Independent Lens: Trapped and Pov: Hooligan Sparrow. Netflix, which has ramped up its documentary slate considerably in the past year, has three titles on the list: Audrie & Daisy, DuVernay’s…...

Oscar winner O.J.: Made In America, Ava DuVernay’s criminal justice docu 13th and Alex Gibney’s cyber warfare pic Zero Days are among the 12 winners of Peabody Awards for documentaries. PBS scored four of the 12 spots, with Frontline pieces on Isis and the refugee crisis, Independent Lens: Trapped and Pov: Hooligan Sparrow. Netflix, which has ramped up its documentary slate considerably in the past year, has three titles on the list: Audrie & Daisy, DuVernay’s…...

Netflix has released the trailer for its upcoming original documentary “Get Me Roger Stone.” The film explores the life and career of the longtime Donald Trump advisor, who helped launch his political run.

Read More: Sarah Paulson Nominates Herself to Play Donald Trump in New Season of ‘American Horror Story’

“Get Me Roger Stone” features interviews with the infamous political strategist and self-proclaimed “agent provacateur,” as well as with people who have followed and studied his career. The documentary explores the career of the man who sports a tattoo of President Nixon in his back as a badge of honor.

“Those who say I have no soul, those who say I have no principles are losers,” Stone says in the trailer, sounding a lot like Trump. “Those are bitter losers.”

Read More: Writers Guild Negotiations: If Talk Shows Go Dark, Donald Trump Could Be The Biggest Winner in a Strike...

Yesterday evening, the Writers Guild of America handed out their awards, marking one of the season’s final precursor stops and last guild ceremony. As with many of the guilds this year, a slight curveball was tossed our way, namely in that one potential frontrunner is nominated in a different category at Oscar. You’ll see what I mean shortly, along with a few other precursors that went down over the weekend. Ballots for the Academy Awards are due by tomorrow, so voters are making their final decisions literally as you read this. It’s very much the moment of truth, with the results of it all less than a week away now… Below you will see not just the WGA winners, but also the Cinema Audio Society, which basically predict Best Sound Mixing at the Oscars, as well as the victors from the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists guild.

Live from New York! And also Los Angeles! It’s the 2017 Writers Guild Awards, honoring the best in writing for television, film and new media. This year’s big winners included some of the season’s most lauded productions — including “Moonlight,” “Arrival,” “Atlanta” and “The Americans.”

While “Moonlight” and “Arrival” will compete against each other in the Adapted Screenplay category at the Oscars, they were entered in the WGA Awards in different categories, allowing both to make off with an award. “The Americans” pulled out a win for Drama Series, while “Atlanta” snapped up both Comedy Series and New Series. Other winners included “Command and Control,” “Saturday Night Live,” “BoJack Horseman” and “This Is Us.”

Read More: The IndieWire 2016-17 Awards Season Winners Guide

Check out our full list of winners — noted in bold — all updated live as the awards were announced at concurrent ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles this evening.

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: This past Friday saw the release of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary that speaks to our present moment through the writings and actions of the late James Baldwin. What other documentaries — recent or not — might help people better understand and / or respond to the state of the world today?

Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker

“The state of the world today” is too big a matter for any one documentary, because there’s no one state of things, there’s an overwhelming diversity of experiences — and the history of movies is as much the history of the ones that it doesn’t show.

The Sundance Film Festival has long included documentaries that tackle hot button issues, but this year some of those films included virtual reality companion pieces in the New Frontier section. In addition to longstanding issues regarding technical, ethical and narrative complexities of telling stories with new technologies, these Vr additions raised serious questions about the capacity for the medium as an agent of change.

Environmental issues were at the forefront of this year’s festival, and two of the most prominent climate documentaries, “An Inconvenient Sequel” and “Chasing Coral,” presented Vr shorts as well. “An Inconvenient Sequel” shows how grave the climate change crisis has become since Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” debuted a decade ago. In the companion piece, “Melting Ice,” Gore and the film’s creator Danfung Dennis take us on a 360-degree tour of how rising temperatures have wreaked havoc on the climate of Greenland.

The...

Even when you live in Los Angeles, as I do, if you’re not in the network of critics groups and press screening and screener DVDs it can be a challenge to keep up with everything you tell yourself you have to see before attempting an informed roundup of the year currently in the rearview mirror. And I also try to not let more than a couple of weeks of the new year go by before checking in, regardless of how many of the year’s big presents I have left to unwrap, though in past years I have not lived well by this dictum—let’s just say that if I’m still posting stuff on the year’s best after even Oscar has thoroughly chewed over the goods, as has happened in the past, well, I’ve overstayed my welcome.

2016 was, in most ways, a disaster of a year,...

Ever want to poke around an Iranian nuclear facility but didn't have the proper clearance?

A virtual reality project at Sundance is giving viewers just that opportunity. Scatter's Zero Days Vr takes the Oculus headset-clad participant deep inside the facility that was brought down by the Stuxnet virus. As centrifuges explode, viewers listen to a National Security Agency whistleblower explain how the cyber weapon worked.

Director Yasmin Elayat's 12-minute project, which is based on Alex Gibney's feature-length documentary from Participant Media/Showtime also titled Zero Days, is certain to spark controversy given that it spills intelligence secrets and attributes the attack...

This year’s Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature was a fiercely competitive one. With the strength of the 15-wide finalists list, quite frankly, it would have been hard to give us a truly bad line-up. We particularly weep for the omissions of Cameraperson, Tower, Zero Days and Weiner, but personal grouching aside about a couple of the nominees, this year’s batch is quite something. We have three films about race (one with queer undertones), a foreign language title, and the longest film ever nominated for an Academy Award.

The nominees are:

• Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, Donatella Palermo)

• I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety, Hébert Peck)

• O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow)

• Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams, Julie Goldman)

• 13th (Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick, Howard Barish)

We will be looking at the documentary short nominees later (I have one title left to watch,...

It sounds inconceivable that the first high quality footage to come out of the Chernobyl nuclear accident site was shot by a crew of Spaniards. But that’s exactly how “Graffiti,” Participant Media’s Oscar entry for live-action short, got made.

The notorious nuclear disaster occurred in the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, Ukraine, which was the perfect setting for the post-apocalyptic drama about a man who fills his days tagging walls with graffiti and discovers he might not be as alone as he thought. Empty pools, dilapidated ferris wheels, and hollowed out Brutalist buildings provide a stunning backdrop for the messages he exchanges with a companion he never sees.

Read More: ‘Zero Days’: How the World Caught Up with Alex Gibney’s Oscar-Shortlisted Cyberwarfare Documentary

In a behind-the-scenes feature, Spanish director Lluis Quilez (“Out of the Dark”) explains how the intrepid crew surmounted understandable reservations to document the bleak and snowy town.

Tori Amos has been composing since the age of five, but she’s never written a song like this. “Flicker” runs over the credits of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s “Audrie & Daisy,” the Netflix documentary that documents three teenage girls’ experience with rape and the cyberbullying that followed.

It’s a searing original composition, one that addresses a topic that deeply resonates with the longtime Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network spokesperson, and is now considered a favorite for an Oscar nomination. How do you write a piece like this? As she said, “You have to be a fucking hunter and hunt that frequency down.” Here’s what it’s like to be on that hunt.

Anne Thompson: How did you come to write the song for Netflix documentary “Audrie & Daisy”?

Tori Amos: Netflix got in touch with me. And they wanted to know if I would watch a...

“Forget it, Jake. It’s Water & Power” is probably never said aloud in the Sundance-bound documentary “Water & Power: A California Heist,” but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss Marina Zenovich’s film outright. Zenovich, who previously directed “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” tells the Hollywood Reporter that Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir is one of her favorite movies in part because she loves “that world of greed and the lengths people will go to get what they want.” Watch the trailer for “Water & Power” below.

Read More: ‘Night Shift’ Trailer: Viola Davis-Produced Short Starring Tunde Adebimpe Goes Inside Strange World of Night Club Attendants

“The hunger for water is never-ending,” she tells THR of the research that went into her film. “There are too many people wanting a precious resource that people are trying to privatize. So this film is like a wake-up call for that. I didn’t know what I would find,...

Anyone invested in Oscar season spends a lot of time anticipating which films and performances might get nominated. The only thing that can stop the speculation is the nominations themselves — and they’re right around the corner. Oscar ballots for nominations were due this Friday, and the nominees will be announced on January 24.

So which films have the most momentum at this crucial turning point? That’s the focus of this week’s episode of Screen Talk, as Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson talk through the contenders and look ahead to next week’s start of the Sundance Film Festival.

Listen to the full episode above.

Screen Talk is available on iTunes. You can subscribe here or via RSS. Share your feedback with Thompson and Kohn on Twitter or sound off in the comments. Browse previous installments here, review the show on and be sure to let us know if...

Gibney now has two films that explore the myriad ways that the internet can wreak havoc, with 2013’s “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks” and the Oscar-shortlisted “Zero Days,” which stemmed from the U.S. and Israeli Stuxnet operation that destroyed 1000 nuclear centrifuges. Initially, producer Marc Shmuger, who brought him both projects, “knew more about it than I did,” said Gibney. “He had access to people telling him interesting things about the Stuxnet operation. It seemed like an event that deserved a deeper dive.”

Gibney dug deeper and found out how scary the world of cyberwarfare could be. And as the election took its twisty turns, revealing the Russia hacks, more of us caught up with a new reality that had only been imagined in science-fiction. The Matrix is here.

Read More: ‘Zero Days’ Exclusive Promo: See Alex Gibney’s New Cyberwar Documentary Thriller

“What is jaw-dropping,” Gibney said,...

Gibney now has two films that explore the myriad ways that the internet can wreak havoc, with 2013’s “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks” and the Oscar-shortlisted “Zero Days,” which stemmed from the U.S. and Israeli Stuxnet operation that destroyed 1000 nuclear centrifuges. Initially, producer Marc Shmuger, who brought him both projects, “knew more about it than I did,” said Gibney. “He had access to people telling him interesting things about the Stuxnet operation. It seemed like an event that deserved a deeper dive.”

Gibney dug deeper and found out how scary the world of cyberwarfare could be. And as the election took its twisty turns, revealing the Russia hacks, more of us caught up with a new reality that had only been imagined in science-fiction. The Matrix is here.

Read More: ‘Zero Days’ Exclusive Promo: See Alex Gibney’s New Cyberwar Documentary Thriller

“What is jaw-dropping,” Gibney said,...

One of the great joys of Barry Jenkins’ masterful “Moonlight” is the dreamlike quality of James Laxton’s cinematography, which has earned him a well-deserved Asc nomination and will surely propel him to an Oscar nomination as well. However, creating the aesthetic was a tricky balance.

“There is a base layer of the film that is real and tangible, because it’s shot on location in Liberty City, Miami, but it doesn’t intend to depict those places as real,” Laxton told IndieWire. “We did tests to see what reminds us of Miami and evokes that feeling of temperature. Miami still has sodium vapor light (from street lamps), which has that warm, red-green quality, so that combination with our moonlight scenes on the beach reminds the audience of a different world beyond our beach moments.”

For the viewer, that translates to a palpable sense of the hot, tropical environment, accentuated by pastels,...

MaryAnn’s quick take… Fascinating and horrifying. A gripping detective story and an impassioned call for public debate over terrifying weapons that have already been loosed. I’m “biast” (pro): love Alex Gibney films

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Cyber warfare is here. And I’m not referring to the Russian hacking of DNC servers during the recent Us presidential election. The cyber equivalent of Hiroshima happened several years ago, and it wasn’t the Russians who dropped the bomb. It was the Us and Israel, and it’s what outgoing president Barack Obama was referring to when he said, in his farewell speech the other day, that he had “shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot.” He was talking about Stuxnet, the malware that sneakily threw Iran’s delicate nuclear-fuel-refining centrifuges out of whack...

Awards season keeps ticking right along, but tonight’s Cinema Eye Honors promised at least a tiny respite from narrative-based filmmaking, as the New York City-set ceremony is all about honoring the best in the year’s documentary filmmaking.

Big winners included Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson,” which picked up Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, along with editing and cinematography wins. Right behind it was Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America,” which earned Edelman a directing win, along with a production win for Edelman and Caroline Waterlow. Best TV offering went to “Making a Murderer.”

Nominations were lead by Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and “O.J.: Made in America,” which each pulled in five nominations apiece, though Johnson’s “Cameraperson” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea” aren’t far behind, with four nominations each. Both Peck and Rosi’s features ultimately walked away without an award.

Author: Stefan Pape

To call documentarian Alex Gibney prolific would be something of an understatement, as a director who works on several projects at any given time. The latest to secure distribution is Zero Days, an unnerving, investigative piece into cyber weapons, and in particular, the malicious computer worm Stuxnet.

We spoke to Gibney at the Berlin film festival – where this film was screened in competition – about the level of secrecy attached to Stuxnet, and his run-ins with the Nsa. He also explains how he had to change direction during the making of the film, following on somewhat from the last time we spoke to him, for The Armstrong Lie.

You often make politically inclined documentaries, but do you think you’ve ever made one quite as investigative as Zero Days?

I’ve done a number of films that have been investigative, but I’ve never done one about something...

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Leave it to the Merc With a Mouth to muscle his way into Hollywood’s annual awards season, surprising just about everyone in one fell swoop. As the nominations begin to pour in, Tim Miller’s irreverent Deadpool has received nods from the Golden Globes, all the while being shortlisted in both the Best VFX and Makeup and Hairstyling departments ahead of the 89th Academy Awards.

That’s quite the feat for any feature film, let alone an R-rated superhero movie based on one of the lesser-known characters from the Marvel vault. No wonder Ryan Reynolds is so optimistic about the mercenary’s cinematic future.

Now, we can add another nomination to Deadpool’s collection – and it’s a doozy, for Tim Miller’s no-holds-barred actioner has scooped up a nomination for a Writer’s Guild Award, joining Arrival, Fences,...

With a cluster of frontrunners and a wide-open field of potential Oscar entrants, the 2017 Writers Guild nominations provide more intelligence about where the Oscars could be heading.

The trio at the head of the pack continue to be “La La Land,” “Manchester by the Sea,” and “Moonlight.” Getting a much-needed late-inning boost are modern western “Hell or High Water” and biracial romance “Loving.” Both are critics’ faves that opened earlier in the year.

However, the WGA and the Academy differ on their categories this year. The WGA says “Moonlight” and “Loving” are original screenplays; for the Oscars, they would compete as adapted. That means that Noah Oppenheim’s “Jackie,” and scripts by writer-director Mike Mills (“20th Century Women”) and two non-signatory films that aren’t WGA-eligible, “The Lobster” and “Toni Erdmann,” might have a shot at landing an Oscar nod.

Conversely, that means some of the WGA’s Adapted Screenplay...

With a cluster of frontrunners and a wide-open field of potential Oscar entrants, the 2017 Writers Guild nominations provide more intelligence about where the Oscars could be heading.

The trio at the head of the pack continue to be “La La Land,” “Manchester by the Sea,” and “Moonlight.” Getting a much-needed late-inning boost are modern western “Hell or High Water” and biracial romance “Loving.” Both are critics’ faves that opened earlier in the year.

However, the WGA and the Academy differ on their categories this year. The WGA says “Moonlight” and “Loving” are original screenplays; for the Oscars, they would compete as adapted. That means that Noah Oppenheim’s “Jackie,” and scripts by writer-director Mike Mills (“20th Century Women”) and two non-signatory films that aren’t WGA-eligible, “The Lobster” and “Toni Erdmann,” might have a shot at landing an Oscar nod.

Conversely, that means some of the WGA’s Adapted Screenplay...