News

Who doesn't love a good book-to-movie adaptation? We do, and it looks like Netflix does as well. The streamer just recently announced a new film adaptation of the wholesome mystery novel Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, and we've got all the juicy deets!

2x Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field is reportedly in talks to star in the Netflix feature adapted from the popular octopus book. She's a well-known actress whose most recent project was the sports comedy film 80 for Brady, which also starred fellow seasoned actresses Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Rita Moreno.

American film director and screenwriter Olivia Newman is signed on to direct the adaptation from a screenplay she's co-writing with John Whittington. Newman is best known for writing the script for and directing the Netflix drama film First Match as well as helming the mystery drama movie Where the Crawdads Sing. Whittington, on the other hand,...

Warning: Contains Spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse!Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse recast Miles Morales for the sequel, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, as it secretly had someone other than Shameik Moore voice the character. The voice cast of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel is largely filled with familiar voices, as many of the original actors reprised their roles. This includes Shameik Moore returning to voice Miles Morales as he explores the multiverse. The movie puts him in the middle of an emotional story, which allowed Moore to deliver a great performance and further cement himself as the voice of this version of Spider-Man.

A surprise comes in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse's ending when Miles discovered that he accidentally traveled to the wrong universe while escaping the Spider-Society. This meant sending him to Earth-42 instead of Earth-1610, leaving the hero in a world where there is no Spider-Man and Miles' father is dead.

It's been five years since Boots Riley made a tremendous first impression on the filmmaking scene with "Sorry To Bother You," but the writer, director, producer, musician, and activist is finally back with "I'm A Virgo." A trailer for the new Prime Video series just dropped, and as expected, it looks both wild as hell and like an absurdly good time.

Press materials for the highly-anticipated series call it a "mythical coming-of-age comedy," while the trailer tagline claims it's the "biggest coming-of-age story of all time." The latter is definitely true on one level, as the story revolves around a 13-foot-tall young Black man who discovers the world after hiding away throughout his formative years. In the trailer, we see Jerome's character, Cootie, encounter some typical adolescent problems -- like figuring out how to flirt with a girl -- and some not-so-typical ones, like being observed by a cult-y...

Four TV directors will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023 Emmy Awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, May 31, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Christopher Rosen and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Emmy contenders:

Bad Sisters (Apple TV+)

Synopsis: The Garvey sisters are bound together by their parents’ deaths and a promise to always protect one another.

Bio: Dearbhla Walsh is an Emmy winner for “Little Dorrit.” Other projects have included “The Tudors,” “Penny Dreadful,...

In an encouraging sign for specialized product, Sony/3000 Pictures/Hello Sunshine’s Where the Crawdads Sing has crossed the 100M benchmark globally. Getting there on Tuesday, the feature adaptation of the Delia Owens novel sits at 78.8M domestic and 21.5M from the international box office.

Crawdads initially released domestically in mid-July with 17M; a good win for a 24M production before P&a, and ahead of other female-skewing novels on screen pre-pandemic. It also charmed audiences at 96 on Rotten Tomatoes, despite a critical score of 34.

The Daisy Edgar-Jones led movie is directed by Olivia Newman (First Match) from a screenplay by Lucy Alibar (Beasts Of The Southern Wild).

It’s on a staggered offshore release, still with Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Korea and Japan to come.

To date, the top overseas markets are the UK (8.6M), Australia (6.7M), Germany (1.3M), New Zealand (1M) and France (821K).

Where The Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya,...

Six top TV cinematographers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022 Emmy Awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, May 18, at 4:00 p.m. Pt; 7:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Christopher Rosen and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing Emmy contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2022 contenders:

Halo (Paramount+)

Synopsis: Aliens threaten human existence in an epic 26th-century showdown. TV series based on the video game ‘Halo.’

Bio: Karl-Walter Lindenlaub was an Emmy nominee for “Houdini.” Other projects have included “Independence Day,” “The Princess Diaries,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,...

Today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Sony Pictures showed footage from the upcoming film "Where the Crawdads Sing," based on the bestselling 2018 novel by Delia Owens. Produced by Reese Witherspoon, it's the story of a young woman named Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who was abandoned as a child in North Carolina. She's rescued, but never accepted into the community other than as an oddity called "Marsh Girl." When one of the young men she's interested in is murdered, Kya becomes a suspect. 

Olivia Newman ("First Match") directed the film which also stars Taylor John Smith ("Sharp Objects") Harris Dickinson ("The King's Man"), Michael...

The post Where the Crawdads Sing Footage Reaction: Nicholas Sparks Meets Big Little Lies [CinemaCon 2022] appeared first on /Film.

“Every creature does what it must to survive.”

So says Kya Clark in the first trailer for “Where the Crawdads Sing,” based on the best-selling novel by Delia Owens.

The adaptation stars “Normal People” and “Fresh” breakout Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kya, an abandoned girl who raised herself to adulthood in the dangerous marshlands of North Carolina. For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, isolating the sharp and resilient Kya from her community. Drawn to two young men from town, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world; but when one of them is found dead, she is immediately cast by the community as the main suspect. As the case unfolds, the verdict as to what actually happened becomes increasingly unclear, threatening to reveal the many secrets that lay within the marsh.

The trailer not only gives a first look at the film, but also features a...

Emmy-winning actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has officially added producer to his resume, with the launch of his production company House Eleven10.

Abdul-Mateen and House Eleven10 have also inked a creative partnership with Netflix, with the actor starring in and producing films for the streamer under the new production banner. Named as an homage to his childhood home in Oakland, Calif., House Eleven10 aims to “be a place where the legacy of the stories from Abdul-Mateen II’s youth will live on in creative form; a home for different narrative universes, illustrating both the magic and humanity within them including extraordinary stories about ordinary people.”

“I am so proud of the vision of House Eleven10 and couldn’t be more excited about Netflix’s shared passion for the ideas we’d like to put into the world,” Abdul-Mateen II said in a statement.

“I want our films and shows to be...

Jayson Warner Smith, who played Gavin on “The Walking Dead,” has joined the film adaptation of Delia Owens’ bestselling novel “Where the Crawdads Sing,” TheWrap has learned exclusively.

Smith joins a cast that already includes Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harris Dickinson and Taylor John Smith. He’ll play Deputy Joe Purdue in the film, who suspects Edgar-Jones’ character of murder and leads an investigation into her boyfriend’s death.

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures are producing “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which is set at Sony.

Set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century South, “Where the Crawdads Sing” centers on a young woman named Kya who, abandoned by her family, raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight, instantly branded by the local townspeople and law enforcement...

Exclusive: HBO is bolstering the supporting cast for Mare of Easttown, its upcoming limited series starring Kate Winslet. Mackenzie Lansing (The Deuce), Kate Arrington (Billions), Ruby Cruz (Castle Rock), Eisa Davis (Betty), Enid Graham (The Glorias), Justin Hurtt-Dunkley (High Flying Bird), Izzy King, Jack Mulhern (The Society), Anthony Norman (Broadway’s The Prom), Drew Scheid (Halloween) and Madeleine Weinstein (Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) join the series, which is a co-production of HBO and Paul Lee’s wiip. It will premiere April 18 on HBO.

Written by Brad Inglesby, and directed by Craig Zobel, Mare of Easttown stars Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a small-town Pennsylvania detective whose life crumbles around her as she investigates a local murder. The limited series is an exploration into the dark side of a close community and an authentic examination of how family and past tragedies can define our present.

Arrington plays Faye,...

If you made your way through Popsugar's 2020 Reading Challenge, you'll probably recognize Delia Owens's 2018 novel

Where the Crawdads Sing

. Now, Sony is bringing the story to life with a film adaptation starring Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones as the lead, according to Deadline. "I can't actually believe this?!" Edgar-Jones captioned a post about the news on her Instagram Stories.

The beloved book tells the story of a young girl named Kya who is abandoned by her family and forced to raise herself in the marshes of a small Southern town. When Kya's ex-boyfriend is found dead, she immediately becomes the prime suspect. The film will be directed by Olivia Newman, who wrote and directed 2018's wrestling drama First Match, and based on a screenplay written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lucy Alibar. Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter, the head of Reese's media company Hello Sunshine, will produce the film. No release date...

Olivia Newman will direct 3000 Pictures and Hello Sunshine’s film adaptation of Delia Owens’ New York Times crime thriller bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing which is setup at Sony, we can confirm. As Deadline previously first told you, Oscar nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild scribe Lucy Alibar is adapting.

Newman’s feature directorial debut, First Match, premiered at the 2018 SXSW, where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature Film in Competition and the Luna Gamechanger Award for Best Female Director of a first feature. She also directed episodes of Dare Me, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D and FBI and is an alum of the Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs and the Sundance FilmTwo Intensive.

Where the Crawdads Sing is set in the mid-20th century South and follows Kya, a young woman, who is abandoned by her family and raisers herself all alone in the marshes outside her small town.

The movie adaptation of “Where the Crawdads Sing” in development at Sony has found a director, “First Match” filmmaker Olivia Newman, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Newman will direct the film at Sony based on Delia Owens’ New York Times bestselling novel from 2018 and a screenplay from Oscar nominee Lucy Alibar.

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures are producing the film. Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter are producing for Hello Sunshine, and Gabler, Erin Siminoff and Aislinn Dunster are overseeing the project for 3000 Pictures.

Also Read: Reese Witherspoon to Star in Pair of Netflix Rom-Coms

Set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century South, “Where the Crawdads Sing” centers on a young woman named Kya who, abandoned by her family, raises herself all alone in the marshes outside of her small town. However, when her former boyfriend is found dead, Kya is thrust into the spotlight,...

The movie adaptation of best-selling murder mystery novel Where the Crawdads Sing has found its director.

Olivia Newman, who wrote and directed Netflix feature First Match, will helm Sony Pictures' feature adaptation of the Delia Owens' debut novel that has dominated the New York Times best-sellers list since it was published 2019. It was also the most-sold fiction book on Amazon for all of 2019.

Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter are producing via their banner Hello Sunshine for 3000 Pictures, Sony's lit-minded feature label.

The story follows Kya, a young woman who is abandoned by her family and is left alone to raise ...

The movie adaptation of best-selling murder mystery novel Where the Crawdads Sing has found its director.

Olivia Newman, who wrote and directed Netflix feature First Match, will helm Sony Pictures' feature adaptation of the Delia Owens' debut novel that has dominated the New York Times best-sellers list since it was published 2019. It was also the most-sold fiction book on Amazon for all of 2019.

Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter are producing via their banner Hello Sunshine for 3000 Pictures, Sony's lit-minded feature label.

The story follows Kya, a young woman who is abandoned by her family and is left alone to raise ...

Exclusive: Fear the Walking Dead standout Colman Domingo has signed a first-look deal with AMC Studios, the studio behind the AMC zombie drama series, a spinoff from The Walking Dead.

Domingo made his debut as Victor Strand in a two-episode guest arc during Fear the Walking Dead’s first season and was made a series regular at the start of Season 2. He made his directorial debut on the show and has directed two episodes to date.

“From the moment AMC viewers first saw Colman Domingo as the mysterious and dynamic Victor Strand in season one of Fear The Walking Dead, they haven’t been able to look away, and neither have we,” said Sarah Barnett, President of AMC Networks Entertainment Group & AMC Studios. “He has become a core character of the series and, as anyone who knows him knows, his talents go far beyond that one character in that one show.

Exclusive: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to star opposite Dakota Fanning in the Zeresenay Berhane Mehari-directed Sweetness In The Belly based on the bestselling novel by Camilla Gibb.

Adapted for the screen by Laura Phillips, the film is a powerful love story that explores an immigrant’s life from a unique perspective. In a story that is relevant to today’s cultural landscape, Fanning stars Lilly Abdal (a role which Saoirse Ronan was originally attached), who was orphaned in Africa as a child and escaped to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war. Lost in this cold new world, Lilly embraces the immigrant community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families. However, Lilly’s mission isn’t purely selfless: A passionate lost love affair is revealed between Lilly and Aziz (Abdul-Mateen II), an idealistic doctor. But can Lilly let go of the past?...

Exclusive: Rodrigo Santoro (Westworld), Amy Landecker (Transparent), Colson Baker, aka Machine Gun Kelly (Nerve), Allen Maldonado (The Last O.G.), Andrene Ward-Hammond (The Hate U Give), and Kyanna Simpson (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) have signed on as the supporting cast of the Netflix’s yet-to-be-titled sci-fi thriller. Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback are set as leads in the film which will be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.

Mattson Tomlin penned the screenplay. Filmmakers are staying mum on plot details. Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless’ Screen Arcade are producing the project as part of their first look deal with Netflix.

Santoro, who most recently cast in the Hulu pilot Reprisal, is repped by ICM. Landecker, last seen on the big screen in the Sundance film, A Kid Like Jake, is repped by ICM and Gotham Group. Baker, repped by Paradigm, Ashleigh VeVerka, Byron Kirkland, and James McMillan,...

Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are boarding Netflix’s untitled sci-fi movie which long-time collaborators Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are directing off Mattson Tomlin’s screenplay.

The pic’s storyline is being kept under wraps.

Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless’ Screen Arcade will produce as part of their first look deal with Netflix. Newman, who has been behind such productions as the Oscar-nominated Children of Men, and Zack Snyder’s reboot of Dawn of The Dead, has a strong, ongoing relationship with Netflix that goes back to the streaming service’s second original series Hemlock Grove. He also conceived and packaged Narcos for Netflix on which he serves as writer, show-runner and Ep.

Unkeless recently produced the three-time Oscar-nominated film I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie and Allison Janney; the latter winning an Academy Award for best supporting actress. Unkeless’ film First Match, which he produced for Netflix, won the...

Image Source: Getty / J. Merritt

Black Manta looks so good in the forthcoming Aquaman that we might be crushing on the actor harder than we're crushing on Jason Momoa - and that's saying something. The actor behind Black Manta's mask is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who has been in a number of high profile projects already. Can't figure out why he looks so familiar? Here's a brief refresher.

First of all, it's time to rewatch The Greatest Showman, the circus-set musical extravaganza starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. In the film, Adbul-Mateen flies through the air with the greatest of ease, playing acrobat W.D. Wheeler, brother of the character played by Zendaya. He joined the cast in the showstopping number "This is Me."

The Greatest Showman wasn't his only movie alongside Efron; they appeared together in the 2017 reboot of Baywatch, also starring Dwayne Johnson and Priyanka Chopra. Adbul-Mateen played Sgt.

Felicity Huffman (American Crime), Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) and Jovan Adepo (Fences) have joined the cast of Central Park Five, Netflix’s limited series from A Wrinkle in Time and 13th director Ava DuVernay.

Based on a true story that gripped the nation, Central Park Five will chronicle the notorious case of five teenagers of color who were convicted of a rape they did not commit. The four episode limited series will focus on the five teenagers from Harlem — Antron McCray (Adepo), Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise (Jerome). The series will span from the spring of 1989, when each were first questioned about the incident, to 2014 when they were exonerated and a settlement was reached with the city of New York. The series will premiere on Netflix in 2019.

Huffman will play Linda Fairstein, the prosecutor who headed the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes office during the case.

In today’s film news roundup, “Hush, Hush” is heading for the big screen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Anna Diop are cast in Jordan Peele’s “Us,” and Paris Jackson gets a part as a singer.

Director Hired

Television veteran Kellie Cyrus has been tapped to direct a movie adaption of Becca Fitzpatrick’s bestselling supernatural romance saga “Hush, Hush,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Cyrus will direct from an adaptation by Peter Hutchings. Producers are Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, and Brian Keady of Bcdf Pictures, along with Irfaan Fredericks of Kalahari Film & Media. Fitzpatrick, Hutchings, Simon Swart, and Kalahari’s Michael S. Murphey are the executive producers.

“Hush, Hush,” published in 2009 as the first of a four-title series, was a New York Times Bestseller for more than 50 weeks. It has sold over five million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 35 languages. All four books — “Hush,...

Exclusive: Jordan Peele’s Us continues to beef up its cast, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Anna Diop the latest to join the thriller starring The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Elisabeth Moss, Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, and Tim Heidecker.

Peele is writing and directing the pic, the follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Get Out. The new pic is described as a social thriller and is based on Peele’s original idea. It’ll open in theaters March 15, 2019 via Universal.

Us is being produced via Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, the first film under its first-look deal with Universal. Peele is producer alongside Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum, as well as Monkeypaw’s Ian Cooper.

Abdul-Mateen II’s credits include The Greatest Showman, First Match and Netflix’s The Get Down. He’s next up in Warner Bros’ upcoming DC tentpole Aquaman. He is repped by Gersh, Anonymous Content and Bloom Hergott.

Following its Audience Award–winning debut at this year’s SXSW Festival, the coming of age sports drama “First Match” is now available to stream on Netflix. Directed by Olivia Newman, and starring Elvire Emanuelle as a teenage girl in foster care who joins an all-boys wrestling team to connect with her father, First Match is another in a long and impressive list of breakout independent features that were initially developed as short films.

Newman first tackled this story while a film student at Columbia in 2010 (you can watch that version here) before eventually expanding it into her acclaimed directorial debut, which you can watch here on Netflix. Newman translated the naturalistic and intimate feel of the short with help from Dp Ashley Connor’s lyrically expressive handheld camerawork and backed by a largely female crew. In fact, 60% of the crew was female, and 75% of the department heads were female.

Against the field of all narrative films at this year’s recently concluded SXSW, Netflix’s small but worthwhile First Match emerged as the winner of the Audience Award competition. That seems appropriate since this engaging film about a largely abandoned young African American girl who joins the boys wrestling team at her Brooklyn high school is about someone who triumphs against all odds. But as I say in my video review above, it doesn’t follow the typical pattern of most underdog Hollywood sports movies, and we are the better for it.

At its heart it really is a father-daughter story, but also not typical in that family genre. Based on writer-director Olivia Newman’s 2011 short film, the first-time feature helmer has expanded it and gone much deeper into the world of her lead character Monique (Elvire Emanuelle). When we first meet her she is being tossed out once...

April is here, which means it’s time for spring cleaning. And by spring cleaning, we mean an excuse to stick around the house all day watching Netflix. Duh. This April, Jay-z will be David Letterman’s next guest who needs no introduction. You can watch that on April 6. You can also watch the new Netflix original series “Lost in Space,” which is a revival of the 1960s series that sees the Robinson family flee Earth to “start a new chapter in human history.” Watch that on Friday the 13th. Also Read: 'First Match' Film Review: Netflix's Female-Wrestler Drama Needs Breathing Room “Chef’s Table”...

Newman Delivers a Nuanced Portrayal of a Troubled Wrestling Prodigy

The physicality of wrestling lends itself to cinema, each movement part of a ballet. Matches feel more like negotiations than fights. In her feature-length directorial debut, Olivia Newman juxtaposes the intimacy of wrestling against a world of brutal underground street fighting. A young black girl out of foster care must choose between these two worlds; one nourishing and healing, the other fraught with despair. At once absorbing and life-affirming, First Match is a gripping drama about the relationship between a girl wrestler, her ex convict father and her all boys… Read the rest

Continue reading...

The premise of “First Match,” lamentably, is an all-too-believable one. Fifteen-year-old Monique (Elvire Emanuelle), a foster kid in ungentrified Brooklyn, makes impulsive mistake after impulsive mistake until she ends up getting beaten up and bloody for money. When we meet her, she’s in the process of being kicked out of her latest home for sleeping with her foster dad. Craving the approval of her own father, the just-paroled Darrel (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, “The Get Down”), Monique joins the wrestling team in a bid for his affection. Seeing his own athletic potential flickering in his daughter, Darrel decides to cash...

Exclusive: The Hunger Games actress Isabelle Fuhrman has been tapped as the lead in Full Moon Films’ indie drama Tape, along with Thom Bishops (The Tale, Time Out of Mind) and tyro Annarosa Mudd. Deborah Kampmeier is directing the film from her own script, and will also produce the project with Veronica Nickel (First Match) from Full Moon.

Based on a true story, the pic follows a young, ambitious actress (Fuhrman), who meets a producer (Bishops) at an open call audition. Taken with her, he invites her to his hotel to discuss another role. What he doesn’t know is that another actress (Mudd), is waiting to exact her revenge against him.

Fuhrman, who co-starred on Showtime’s Masters Of Sex, is reuniting with Kampmeier, who wrote and directed the 2007 film Hounddog, which marked Fuhrman’s feature debut.

Ken and Marie Romanski will serve as exec producers. Additional casting is...

Festival concluded in Austin, Texas, at weekend.

March 19 Update: Wes Anderson’s Isle Of Dogs was named Headliners audience award winner on Monday, after Olivia Newman’s First Match earned the Narrative Feature Competition award on Saturday night (March 17).

Gabriel Silverman and Fiona Dawson prevailed in the Documentary Feature Competition on Saturday with TransMilitary, while John Hyams’ All Square took audience award honours in the Narrative Spotlight Section, and The Dawn Wall by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer triumphed in Documentary Spotlight.

Timur Bekmambetov’s Profile won in Visions, Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade was declared winner in Midnighters, and Alonso Ruizpalacios...

Audience Awards to be handed out on March 17.

March 17 Update: Olivia Newman’s First Match was named audience award winner of the 2018 SXSW Narrative Feature Competition on Saturday night (March 17).

Gabriel Silverman and Fiona Dawson prevailed in the Documentary Feature Competition with TransMilitary, while John Hyams’ All Square took audience award honours in the Narrative Spotlight Section, and The Dawn Wall by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer triumphed in Documentary Spotlight.

Timur Bekmambetov’s Profile won in Visions, Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade was declared winner in Midnighters, and Alonso Ruizpalacios and So Yong Kim won in Episodic for Vida.

Earlier...

As it wraps up its 25th anniversary edition in Austin, the SXSW Film Festival announced its Audience Award winners, with the list headed by narrative First Match and documentary TransMilitary.

First Match is a Netflix drama written and directed by Olivia Newman about a Brooklyn girl who finds her way by competing against boys in high school wrestling. TransMilitary chronicles the lives of four American transgender troops defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own, and the larger efforts to help rescind the military ban on transgender service members serving openly. As Deadline was the first to report, it is the first feature documentary to get financial backing from GLAAD.

Other notable winners included Upgrade in the Midnighters section and Vida, the forthcoming Starz series created by Tanya Saracho and directed by So Yong Kim, in Episodic. (Alonso Ruizpalacios directed the Vida pilot.) The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2018 Jury Awards,...

If coming-of-age stories feel so familiar, it’s largely because we all have one of our own. That’s not to absolve the genre of its many clichés (most of which are considerably older than the characters who tend to embody them), but rather to emphasize their inevitability. Everyone grows up, everyone discovers themselves, and everyone feels like they’re pioneering uncharted territory when they do it. By nature, these are movies that prioritize the journey over the destination — it doesn’t matter if you can tell where they’re going so long as you can believe how they get there.

You believe everything about Monique (a brilliant Elvire Emanuelle). Where she’s going, where she’s been, how she plans to navigate between the two. And while it can be somewhat frustrating that such a vibrant and singularly well-realized heroine should have to grapple with some of the tired...

In Netflix’s forthcoming drama First Match, rising star Elvire Emanuelle plays Monique, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood who builds a tough skin through all her years of foster care. After reaching out with her estranged father (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) she decides that wrestling is the only way to connect with him — but she isn’t wrestling other girls. She’s wrestling boys…and she’s really good at it. The Emanuelle and Abdul-Mateen joined us in the…...

"This is her fight." Netflix has debuted the official trailer for an indie drama titled First Match, which is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this month. This is the feature directorial debut of Olivia Newman, adapting her own 2010 short film after going through the Sundance Director's Lab. First Match stars Elvire Emanuelle as a determined teenage girl from Brooklyn who decides to join an all boys' wrestling team at her high school, causing more trouble than she may be prepared to handle. Also starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Jharrel Jerome, & Jared Kemp. This looks great! Really, really great. The footage looks emotional yet raw and real, powerful yet still heartwarming, I'm looking forward to this. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Olivia Newman's First Match, direct from YouTube: Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl named Monique (Elvire Emanuelle) from Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood decides...

Netflix won its second-ever Oscar Sunday for the doping documentary “Icarus,” and the site wasted no time readying its next exposé on performance-enhancing drugs. “Take Your Pills” will be a Day One premiere at SXSW this Friday. The 87-minute feature unpacks the $13 billion industry that exists for cognitive enhancements like Adderal and Ritalin.

Director Alison Klayman spoke with many individuals who’ve used (and and abused) pharamceuticals to boost their productivity, including college students, a Silicon Valley software engineer, and former Chicago Bear player Eben Britton. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 54 million Americans have ingested opioids, depressants, or stimulants for non-medical reasons. Our country’s opioid epidemic was the subject of another 2018 Academy Award nominee from Netflix, the documentary short “Heroin(e).”

Klayman won the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance for her 2012 debut, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,...

On opening night of Sundance 2018, writer-director Tamara Jenkins premiered her new film “Private Life” to rave reviews. The New York drama was headed for derailment when she submitted it to Netflix Indie Content directors of content Ian Bricke and his lieutenant Matt Levin; they loved her script about an infertile middle-aged couple (Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn) desperately trying to have a child by any means necessary. The drama turned out so well that Netflix is holding it for the fall festival circuit.

Among those in Eccles Theater seeing “Private Life” for the first time was Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. That’s because if a film is budgeted under $10 million, he delegates full greenlight authority to Bricke, who pushed the $9 million “Private Life” into production and approved the last-minute casting of unknown actress Kayli Carter.

Netflix’s Indie Content film team is also bringing (if not to a...

On opening night of Sundance 2018, writer-director Tamara Jenkins premiered her new film “Private Life” to rave reviews. The New York drama was headed for derailment when she submitted it to Netflix Indie Content directors of content Ian Bricke and his lieutenant Matt Levin; they loved her script about an infertile middle-aged couple (Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn) desperately trying to have a child by any means necessary. The drama turned out so well that Netflix is holding it for the fall festival circuit.

Read More:a Decade After ‘The Savages,’ Tamara Jenkins Returns to Sundance With a Personal Netflix Film

Among those in Eccles Theater seeing “Private Life” for the first time was Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. That’s because if a film is budgeted under $10 million, he delegates full greenlight authority to Bricke, who pushed the $9 million “Private Life” into production and approved the last-minute casting of unknown actress Kayli Carter.